Page 63 of Twilight Longings

“The choice is yours,” he said, lightly stroking her hair, her cheek. “You don’t have to decide now. There’s plenty of time.”

Time, she thought. If she chose to remain human, it was her enemy. She could get deathly ill, struck by a car, take a bad fall. Humans were fragile creatures. A single tear slid down her cheek. She felt a rush of love for Rylan as he gently wiped it away.

“Don’t be sad, Kadie,” he murmured, wrapping her in his warm embrace. “I won’t let anything happen to you. And I will love you all your life, no matter what you decide.”

His tenderness, his understanding, only made the tears come faster.

He rained feather-light kisses on her cheeks, her brow, the tip of her nose, before claiming her lips. His words, thewelcome touch of his hands gliding over her, drove everything else from her mind. There was only Rylan, holding her close, taking her to realms of ecstasy that felt new and yet were oh, so welcome and familiar. She held him close, cried his name as his body melded with hers and the rest of the world faded away.

Chapter Thirty-Six

Luca Sasan, still inhabiting the body of Roger Bingham, smiled as a thick gray mist rose from the fat black candle on the table in his basement. At last! It had taken longer than he had expected to reassemble the ingredients for the spell he had thoughtlessly destroyed in a fit of rage, but this bit of sorcery would do nicely.

He had no connection to the vampire, Saintcrow, other than extreme hatred, but Jason Kincaid was tied to him by the blood he’d shed. Katya’s blood. Luca had tried for years to find a spell that would negate the magic of the talisman the witch had crafted and lead him to the vampire, Kincaid, and now, at last, he’d found it.

And once he had located Kincaid, finding Saintcrow and the witch should be no problem at all.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Kadie sat at the kitchen table nibbling on a blueberry muffin and sipping a cup of hot chocolate. She remembered buying the dishes, the pots and pans, and the silverware. When she had been Rylan’s prisoner, he had told her to buy whatever she wanted. For spite, she had made a long, long list of the most expensive items she could find, including the Jonathan Alder sofa. She traced the flower pattern on the Spode china cup, recalling how excited she’d been when it arrived.

She recalled the day when she had first met Rylan. She had thought him a monster then and with good reason. Morgan Creek had been a safe haven for vampires at the time, a place where there was no need for them to hunt because they had a ready source of food provided by the unfortunate souls who, like her, had wandered across the bridge and were not permitted to leave. The captives had been provided with food and shelter, a library, a movie theater, a swimming pool, a restaurant. Everything but their freedom.

To her horror, Saintcrow had taken a liking to her and brought her here, to his lair. She had hated and feared him in the beginning but, gradually, he had won her trust and her heart. To please her, he had freed the prisoners, although a few of the women who had no family and nowhere else to go had chosen to stay in town. Years later, Ethan had come alongand convinced Saintcrow to modernize the town and the rest, as they say, was history.

Needing some fresh air, Kadie undressed in the living room. She had taken a change of clothes out of the closet in the bedroom lair and carried them upstairs. She quickly pulled on the jeans and the blue sweater, stepped into a pair of sneakers, and left the house.

The cemetery was just as she remembered it. She had often felt ghostly spirits here. Many of the names of the deceased were familiar—Rosemary Holmes, Shirley Hague, Donna Stout. Brittany Thomas, who had committed suicide. Leslie Miller, who had been killed by the vampire known as Quinn, although killing the humans had been strictly forbidden by Saintcrow. The women and a handful of men had become friends, comforting one another, sharing laughter and tears, reminiscing about loved ones they would never see again.

Kadie sighed. As Rylan had said, the past was past, but what was she going to do about the future? She knew Rylan would love her no matter what she decided, just as she knew he was hoping she would choose to live as he did.

But did she want to be a vampire again? That was the million-dollar question. She glanced at the bright blue sky. Did she want to give up the warmth of the sun on her face again? Give up the taste of hot coffee on a cold winter morning? Give up all the foods she so enjoyed eating again? Survive on nothing but someone else’s blood? Did she want to give up the chance to be a mother before it was too late? As a vampire, she had accepted that motherhood was out of the question. But now … now it was again a possibility. She imagined herself rocking an infant, holding it to her breast, tucking it into bed at night, seeing its first smile, hearing itsfirst word, taking it to school. She had given up all hope of such things when Saintcrow turned her. Did she want to give them up a second time?

How was she ever going to decide? One thing for sure, vampire or human, she loved Rylan Saintcrow with all of her heart and soul. That, at least, would never change.

Kadie was about to turn and head for home when there was a silvery shimmer in the air and a woman materialized beside her. A beautiful woman, with long, blonde hair and light brown eyes.

A woman who was a vampire.

Startled, Kadie took a wary step back. How had a vampire made it across the bridge and into town? She knew Rylan had warded the town and his lair against vampires and hunters and, hopefully, against the necromancer, Luca.

“Kadie,” the woman said. “How nice to see you upright.”

“Who are you?” Kadie asked, hating the tremor in her voice. It was never a good idea to show fear or weakness to the Undead. At the moment, she would have been happy to be a vampire again.

The woman laughed softly, obviously amused. “Being one of us wouldn’t do you any good,” she said. “You could never defeat me.”

“What do you want?”

“I want your husband. And I intend to have him.”

Kadie stared at her. “Whoareyou?” she asked again.

“I’m Saintcrow’s sire.”

Not good, Kadie thought. Not good at all. She was trying to think of something to say when Rylan appeared at her side.

“Eleni, get the hell out of here.”

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