In the darkness of his lair, Saintcrow stirred, then came fully awake as the scent of freshly spilled blood stung his nostrils.
Vampire blood.
Lilith's blood.
There were strangers in town. Strangers who smelled of blood and death.
Hunters.
Saintcrow opened his preternatural senses, honing in on his blood link to Kadie. It was midafternoon and she was in the restaurant with the other women.
A thought took him to Blair House. The scent of freshly spilled blood was strong inside. He found Lilith in her bedroom. A thick wooden stake made of hawthorn had been driven into her heart while she was at rest. The skin of her face was gray and shriveled, her white nightgown dyed red with her blood.
Saintcrow ran his fingertips over the stake. The hunters were Old School, he mused. In times past, people had believed stakes had to be made from ash or hawthorn or black thorn in order to be effective when, in truth, one kind of wood served as well as another.
Taking hold of the stake, he eased it from her chest and tossed it aside, then wrapped her body in one of the blankets. He would come back later tonight and bury her.
There was no sign of the young man she had preyed on. Either the hunters had taken him away, or he had left on his own early this morning, after the sun had sent Lilith to her rest.
The young man's fate was immaterial. Saintcrow's only concern was for Kadie. After ascertaining that she wasn't in any danger, he was about to return to his lair when his senses warned him that the hunters were now prowling through his house. Saintcrow cursed himself for his carelessness. After the vampires and most of the humans had left town he had lowered the wards on the front door to make it easier for Kadie to come and go. Reinstating the wards had slipped his mind, or maybe he had been unconsciously hoping some hunter would find him and put him out of his misery when he returned without her.
He had two choices, he thought. He could go home and kill the hunters. Or he could stay here. One thing was certain-he had to decide soon. He could feel the dark sleep stealing over him again, dragging him down toward oblivion.
Swearing vociferously, he slid under Lilith's bed. There was no hurry to go after the hunters. Now that he had their scent, finding them would be easy.
With that thought in mind, he closed his eyes and surrendered to the darkness once more.
It was near dusk when Kadie left the restaurant. She had spent the afternoon with Shirley and the other two women. Donna had brought out a deck of cards and they had spent the day playing canasta and nibbling on potato chips and M&Ms. They had enjoyed an early dinner together and then Kadie had taken her leave, eager to see Saintcrow and tell him about the strangers she'd seen.
After parking the car, she hurried up the stairs, only to come to an abrupt halt when she saw that the front door had been forced open and was now hanging by one hinge.
Nudging it open a little farther, she leaned inside. "Rylan?"
An eerie silence greeted her.
She called his name a little louder and when there was still no answer, she crossed the threshold, cautiously glancing to the left and the right.
Someone had been here, but who?
The answer came swiftly to mind. The hunters, of course. Where were they now? Were they still inside? Had they found Saintcrow's lair?
The thought spurred her forward. Grabbing the poker from the fireplace, she ran up the stairs to the turret room. The tapestry lay in a heap on the floor.
She stood there, the poker clenched in her hand, debating whether to open the door leading to Saintcrow's lair, when she heard faint cries coming from the other side. The hunters! Had they forced open the door to Saintcrow's lair and destroyed him? Whether they had gotten past the second door and made it into Saintcrow's lair or not, they were now trapped inside the tunnel.
She started to open the door, then hesitated. If they had killed Saintcrow, the hunters could stay there and rot for all she cared. But what if they hadn't? What if Saintcrow was still safe? He would surely kill them if he found them.
She bit down on the inside corner of her lip. Did she want to be responsible for that?
She was about to open the door when she felt a hand on her shoulder. With a shriek, she whirled around, the poker raised to strike, only to come face-to-face with Saintcrow, his eyes blazing with fury.
Taking the poker from her hand, he said, "Don't even think about opening that door."
Kadie pressed a hand to her heart. "What are you doing out here?"
"The men in the tunnel have had a busy day. They destroyed Lilith while she slept, and then they came here, looking for me. Only I wasn't at home."
"Where were you?"
"I spent the day at Blair House. I went over there to find out what had happened to Lilith, and I finished my rest there."
Kadie glanced at the door. "What are you going to do with them?"
"I'm not sure."
"Would they have been able to break down the door to your lair?"
"Perhaps."
"You're not going to . . . ?" She stared up at him. Sometimes she forgot he was a vampire, a creature with supernatural abilities she could scarcely comprehend, but it was blatantly evident now. Three men had come to destroy him. What right did she have to plead for their lives? And yet, how could she not? "You won't . . . ?"
"Kill them?" A muscle clenched in his jaw. "Are you asking me to spare them?"
She nodded.
His gaze held hers for several moments, and then the red faded from his eyes and he was Rylan again.
"Get away from the door, Kadie."
She quickly backed away, her foot catching in the fallen tapestry so that she stumbled.
He caught her arm, steadying her. "Careful."
With a nod, she scooped up the tapestry, then scooted into the hallway, still within sight of the door. Whatever happened next, she was going to be there to see it.
When Saintcrow was certain Kadie was safely out of the way, he opened the door.
The three men inside blinked at him, the color draining from their faces when they realized they were staring into the face of the man they had come to destroy. The hunter at the top of the stairs loosed a cry undoubtedly meant to boost his courage as he charged forward, a stout wooden stake clutched in his right hand.
Saintcrow grabbed the man by the collar of his coat and tossed him against the wall. The hunter crumpled to the floor, a thin trickle of blood leaking from his forehead.
The other two came through the door together, only to meet the same fate as the first man, although one of them managed to drive a stake into Saintcrow's left shoulder before his head hit the wall.
Grimacing, Saintcrow jerked the wood from his shoulder and threw it down the stairs.
Kadie glanced at the three fallen hunters. "What now?"
"I'm going to wipe this place and everything that happened here from their minds. And then I'm going to make the mere idea of hunting vampires so repellent to them that the very thought of it will make them violently ill."
"You can do that?"
He nodded. "Why don't you go downstairs and wait for me? I'll join you as soon as I can."
"But . . ."
"Get out of here, Kadie."
With a huff of exasperation, she tossed the tapestry at him, then flounced down the staircase.
Saintcrow grinned as he listened to her angry footsteps.
After rehanging the tapestry, he knelt beside the first hunter. The sooner he sent these idiots on their way, the sooner he could spend time with his woman.
Kadie was playing solitaire at the kitchen table when Saintcrow strolled into the room. He looked extremely satisfied with himself.
"Are they gone?" she asked coolly.
"Yeah. They won't be staking any more vampires."
Kadie nodded. "That's good." She placed a red nine on a black ten, then dropped the rest of the cards on the table as she put a disquieting thought into words. "I think my father figured out where I was and sent those men here."
"It doesn't matter."
"You're not upset?"
"No, why should I be?"
"They killed Lilith. If I hadn't come back here, they wouldn't have found you. You could have been killed, too."
He lifted one brow.
"Well, excuse me for worrying!"
Laughing, Saintcrow dragged her chair away from the table, then drew her into his arms. "Kadie, my love, stop worrying about me. I can take care of myself, and you, too. As for Lilith . . ." He shrugged. The world was better off without her.
He was about to suggest they take a walk when his nostrils flared. A moment later, there was a knock at the front door.
Kadie looked up at Saintcrow. "Are you expecting someone?"
"No, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised he's here."
"Who's here?"
"Lilith's fledgling. Micah Ravenwood."
Saintcrow gave Kadie's hand a squeeze, then went to greet his guest.
Kadie trailed at Saintcrow's heels. She hung back a little when he opened the door. He didn't invite the other vampire into the house.
Lilith's fledgling stood almost as tall as Saintcrow. He was a good-looking man with dark brown hair, brown eyes, and dusky skin. Kadie guessed he was probably in his mid-twenties.
"What the devil are you doing here?" Saintcrow demanded.
"I'm not sure. I felt something strange when I woke tonight." Ravenwood shook his head. "I don't know what it was, or how to describe it . . ."
"Lilith was destroyed this afternoon," Saintcrow said. "What you felt on waking was the breaking of the blood bond between you."
"What does that mean, exactly?"
"It means your sire is dead and you're on your own. Ideally, she should have stayed with you the first few months until you were comfortable with your new lifestyle."
"So, what do I do now?"
Saintcrow shrugged. "Anything you want. Just don't do it here."
"Where is she? I mean, did you bury her or do old vampires just go up in smoke?"
"I buried her. The town cemetery is just a few miles down the road."
"Would you mind if I"-he cleared his throat-"if I stopped by there on my way out of town?"
"Suit yourself."
"Well, so long, then."
"The women in town are off-limits," Saintcrow said. "Remember that."
With a wave of his hand, Ravenwood ambled down the stairs and drove off in a black Chevy truck.
With a shake of his head, Saintcrow shut the door. He couldn't imagine why Ravenwood wanted to visit Lilith's grave, unless it was to make sure she was dead.
Kadie had returned to the living room. Saintcrow found her curled up in a corner of the sofa. She held a throw pillow to her breast. She looked up when he entered the room.
"You told Ravenwood he knew Lilith was dead because of the blood bond they shared," Kadie said, her brow furrowed in thought. "How does that work?"
"I'm not sure how it works, only that it does."
"So, when a vampire turns someone, it forms a bond?"
He nodded. "It's similar to the bond between us."
"What do you mean?"
"I've tasted your blood, Kadie. I'll always be able to find you."
"Does it work both ways?"
"Uh-huh. It's how you knew I was here."
He could see the wheels turning in her mind as she considered that.
"So, it wasn't just a lucky guess, or intuition."
"No."
"And it works, no matter how far apart we are?"
"Pretty much." He sat beside her, his arm curling around her shoulders. "So, here we are, alone at last."
She smiled up at him. "So we are."
His fingertips skated up and down her arm, an innocent caress, in and of itself, and yet her body responded to his touch like a flower opening to the sun.
"Our hotel suite is still waiting for us in England," he said, "if you'd still like to go."
"Oh, I would." The sooner, the better, she thought, all things considered. And then she frowned. "Are there hunters all over the world?"
"Yeah, pretty much, although the good ole USA seems to have more than its share."
"Why is that?"
"Until recently, there weren't a lot of vampires here. Most of the vampires tended to live in Romania and the surrounding countries. Many of my kind hate change. Moving means locating a new lair, learning a new language. But in the last hundred years, as it grew more and more dangerous in Transylvania and Bulgaria, vampires started leaving in droves. A good many of them came here."
"How long have you been here?"
"I came to California just days after Marshall struck it rich at Sutter's Mill."
"Really? Wow. What was it like?"
"Those were wild times. In the beginning, you could pick nuggets up off the ground. I made a good part of my fortune then. I scoured the streams and riverbeds at night while the miners were asleep. I still have the first gold nugget I found."
"That's amazing." It explained a lot, she mused. Like how he could drive such an expensive car, and how he could afford to maintain a whole town and feed everyone in it.
"It was a great time to be a vampire. During the seven years of the strike, over three hundred thousand people flocked to California. As news of the strike spread, people came from all over the world-Hawaii, Australia, Latin America, Europe, China. There was quite a mix," he said, grinning with the memory. "Probably the best hunting ground I've ever known."
"Thanks for sharing that."
"Sorry." She didn't know the half of it, he thought. All those nationalities in one place, each with its own unique scent and taste. A real smorgasbord. No one in the States had really believed in vampires back then. Oh, there had been stories and myths carried from the Old Country, but few people truly believed.
Unfortunately for his kind, that had changed over the years. He feared it was only a matter of time before some idiot snapped a picture of one of his kind draining some unfortunate mortal and posted it on YouTube. The crap would surely hit the fan. Before digital cameras, it had been impossible to photograph vampires, but thanks to new technology, that was no longer the case. If the day ever came when the government got involved and started posting bounties on their heads, there'd be no place to hide.
Feeling the weight of Kadie's gaze, he shook off his morbid thoughts. "How soon can you be ready to leave?" It had been a long time since he'd been back to England and he had a sudden longing to see the Hodder Valley in Lancashire, to show Kadie the view from Hadrian's Wall in Northumberland, to stroll the streets of Liverpool and London, to visit the castle in Durham, a fortress so impregnable that the city was one of the few places that had never been captured by the Scots.
"Give me a day to pack and I'll be ready to go. Are the plane tickets still good?"
"What tickets?"
"We're going by boat?"
Saintcrow laughed softly. "Boats and planes are too slow, Kadie, my love."
She stared at him a moment, and then grinned. "Ah. Air Saintcrow."
He grinned back at her, then kissed the tip of her nose. "Kadie, what did I ever do without you?"
"I don't know." She slipped her hand under his shirt, her fingers running lightly over his stomach. "But I don't intend to ever let you be without me again."
Saintcrow's gaze met hers and she knew he was thinking the same thing she was.... It was a promise made by a mortal to a vampire.
A promise she could never keep.
