Page 1 of Twilight Longings

Chapter One

Morgan Creek, Wyoming

Rylan Saintcrow stood at his wife’s bedside, one of her icy cold hands clasped in both of his. Like all the vampires in Wyoming who were less than a hundred years old, Kadie had been stricken by a mysterious plague. One day, she was strong and healthy, with decades, perhaps centuries, of life ahead of her. The next, she had collapsed. He had given her as much of his blood as he could spare—ancient blood that had saved lives in the past—but it had had no effect on her. For the last three months, she had lain there, unresponsive, not dead, not alive, but trapped in some mysterious netherworld like a modern-day Sleeping Beauty.

Whatever the malady was, many of the young vampires in the state had died. Others had been affected like Kadie. As far as he knew, ancient vampires like himself appeared to be immune to the disease. He had no idea why only vampires who resided in the state of Wyoming had been stricken. Would it eventually spread to other states? Other countries? Who the hell knew?

Unable to endure watching Kadie lying there another moment, Saintcrow transported himself from his lair to the nearest city. Like a tiger on the hunt, he prowled the moonlit streets searching for prey, but it was Kadie who lingered in his thoughts. Would she be forever trapped in that deathlikesleep? Would she gradually waste away? Was she aware of her surroundings but unable to respond? Or was she trapped in a preternatural coma from which she would never awaken?

The thought of existing without her, of never holding her in his arms again, never hearing her voice or seeing her smile, never making love to her again, was unimaginable. In more than nine hundred years, he had never let anyone get close to him. Until Kadie. Now, he couldn’t imagine his life without her.

Years ago, her tantalizing scent had roused him from where he rested deep in the earth. Back then, any human who wandered into Morgan Creek became prey for the coven of vampires who had resided there under his protection as long as they abided by his law. The humans had been given food and housing and their physical wants and needs had been taken care of. But then Kadie had stumbled across the bridge and everything had changed. She had made him realize the cruelty of keeping mortals imprisoned. To please her, he had freed the humans and sent the vampires away. For no reason that he could fathom, Kadie had fallen in love with him, and had chosen to be what he was so they could be together forever. And now she lay in his lair, unmoving, unaware.

Saintcrow raked his fingers through his hair. He had survived for centuries, visited every country in the world at one time or another, and had never seen anything like this.Dammit! Where the hell had this confounded plague or curse or whatever the hell it was come from? And why now? Was it some freakish virus? Had capricious Nature suddenly decided to wipe vampires from the face of the earth? Impossible as it seemed, that was the only explanation that made sense. And yet, it seemed unlikely, since the curse seemed to be limited to Wyoming. And when it ran its course, what then? Would Kadie recover? Or be lost to him forever?

He preyed on a young woman, wiped the memory from her mind, and moved on.

He was about to return to Morgan Creek when his long-time friend, Jason Kincaid, appeared beside him. Jake wore jeans, boots, and a gray tee shirt that depicted a cowgirl on a bucking bronco. The caption, barely visible beneath a black leather jacket, readSave a Horse, Ride a Cowboy.Once a cowboy, always a cowboy, Saintcrow mused with a grin.

“How’s Kadie?” Jake asked, falling into step beside Saintcrow.

“Still the same,” Saintcrow replied.

“Rosa keeps asking me when she can come home.”

“Beats the hell out of me.” At Rosa’s request, Kincaid had turned her on their first wedding anniversary.

Jake shook his head. “Damn! I wish now that I’d waited before bringing her across, but who knew something like this would come along?”

Saintcrow nodded. Kincaid and Rosa lived full-time in Morgan Creek. Rosa’s older sister, Sofia, her husband, Ethan, and their adopted daughter, Jenny, had resided in Morgan Creek until Sofia insisted on moving back to Arizona so Jenny could go to public school and get better acquainted with her grandparents, who also lived there. But they spent their summers here. It had been Ethan’s idea to renovate the town, and a damned good one, as it turned out.

Micah Ravenwood and his wife, Holly, divided their time between Morgan Creek and Arizona so Micah could spend time with his family. The Ravenwood clan—Luciano and Lena—and their children, Angela, Delia, Rosa, Sofia, Sergio, Enzo, Mario, Paolo, and Micah—were a tight-knit family. Luciano and Lena had accepted the fact that three of their children were vampires remarkably well.

The weekend before the curse hit, the Ravenwood clan had met in Arizona for their annual family reunion. Saintcrow wished to hell Kadie had gone with them this time. “Dammit, I wish I knew what the devil was going on.”

“Funny that only Wyoming vampires are affected,” Kincaid remarked.

“Yeah.”

“Do you think some local hunter is behind this?”

Saintcrow shrugged. “It’s crossed my mind a time or two.”

Kincaid scrubbed his hand across his jaw. “I wish there was something we could do.”

“Yeah, me, too. Dammit! I don’t know how much longer Kadie can survive in her current state.”

“Don’t give up. She’s strong. If any of them can survive this thing, she can.”

“I hope to hell you’re right.”

“I’m always right. Hell, she’s got your blood running through her veins. You can’t do better than that,” Kincaid said, slapping Saintcrow on the back. “I’ll be in touch.”

Saintcrow nodded. Kadie had to survive. She had changed his whole world, made life worth living. His jaw clenched as he thought of her now, lying helpless in his basement lair.

His feelings of despair grew as he stalked the dark streets, growing ever stronger until he was overcome with rage and the sudden need to strike out. He hadn’t taken a life in years but now the urge to kill something rose within him, and with it the desire to hurt someone as he was hurting, to destroy a life, to glut himself on the blood of some innocent victim.

It took only moments to find her, a middle-aged woman stepping out of a hotel. He yanked her into his arms, let her see the hellfire in his eyes as he bared his fangs. She opened her mouth to scream but fear trapped the cry in her throat.

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