As Twilight Falls

"You're serious?" Saintcrow asked. "You want to go for a walk? Now?"

Kadie nodded. "I'm nervous about the whole 'sleep like death' thing. I need to go outside and . . . I don't know. I just feel like I need to get out of here."

"All right. Get dressed and we'll go."

Fifteen minutes later, they were running side by side through the town.

"This is incredible!" Kadie exclaimed as they raced up one dark street and down another. The houses were a blur as they sped past. She felt invincible, as if nothing could stop her or even slow her down. And she wasn't even breathing hard!

Saintcrow kept pace with her, grinning the whole time. She was, he thought, going to make a wonderful vampire.

He came to an abrupt halt when they reached the park.

Kadie stopped beside him. "What's wrong?"

"I smell blood."

Lifting her head, Kadie took a deep breath. And it was there, a faint coppery scent that made her mouth water.

"Ravenwood's in the park," Saintcrow said. "With Shirley. Come on."

Kadie hurried after him. "You don't think he'd . . . ?" They were there before she finished her question. And, indeed, Shirley and Ravenwood were together, but Shirley wasn't in any danger, at least not the fatal kind.

Micah threw his jacket over Shirley, shielding her nakedness, then stood, his eyes blazing with anger. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Checking up on my people," Saintcrow replied mildly. He glanced at Shirley, huddled beneath Micah's jacket. She refused to look at him or Kadie. Dropping down on one knee, Saintcrow took hold of her chin and turned her head to the side. The blood on her neck looked black in the moonlight. "He bit you."

Shirley stared at Saintcrow, mute.

"Are you all right with that?" he asked.

Shirley nodded. Then, finding her voice, she said, "He asked me if it was okay, and I said yes."

"He didn't take you against your will?"

"No."

With a nod, Saintcrow stood. "Sorry for the interruption."

Ravenwood snorted. "Why don't you take your fledgling home and mind your own business?"

Eyes wide with disbelief, Shirley stared at Kadie.

"This is still my town," Saintcrow reminded him. "Whatever you do here is my business."

Kadie was quiet on the walk back home. Shirley hadn't said anything, but Kadie had seen the horror reflected in her friend's eyes. Which seemed odd, in a way, since Shirley seemed to be pretty enamored of a vampire herself.

"Hey, you okay?" Saintcrow asked.

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"I saw the way Shirley looked at you, as if you'd suddenly grown horns and a tail."

"Or fangs," Kadie muttered bitterly. "It's okay for her to roll around in the grass with a vampire, let him bite her, but my becoming a vampire is horrible?"

"Don't let it bother you, sweetheart."

"I can't help it. She was my friend. At least I thought she was."

"You're being a little hard on her, don't you think?"

"Am I?"

"What if the situation were reversed? Would you be happy for her?"

"No, I guess not," she admitted, then shook her head.

"But I never thought I'd see any of the women in Morgan Creek willingly spend time with a vampire."

"Never say never." And so saying, he swung her into his arms and willed them back to the sofa in his house.

It was going to be dawn soon, and he wanted to spend what was left of the night making love to his woman, if she had no objection.

Kadie snuggled against him, her head resting on his shoulder.

"Are you feeling any better about being a vampire?" Saintcrow asked. It probably wasn't the best question to ask, all things considered.

Kadie thought about it a moment, then said, "I think so. It's not as bad as I thought it would be." In fact, it wasn't nearly as bad as she'd thought it would be. She didn't remember ever feeling so strong. True, she had lost the daylight, but lately she had spent most of her days waiting for darkness so she could be with Rylan. "Will you teach me how to zap myself from one place to another?"

"It's not really something you have to be taught." He ran his hand up and down her thigh. "You just have to concentrate on where you'd like to be, and you're there."

"What if I want someone to go with me?"

"You just need to be touching them."

"Like when you brought us to Morro Bay?"

"Exactly."

"So, I don't need any magic words? I don't have to practice. All I have to do is want to be somewhere . . . ?"

Saintcrow laughed out loud as he suddenly found himself in his bed beside her.

"And I'm there," she finished, grinning broadly.

"See? Nothing to it. Here's another good trick," he said, and in a move that would have been too quick for any but vampire eyes to follow, he had relieved her of all her clothing.

Kadie made a face at him; then, proving what a good student she was, she undressed him; looking smug, she flipped him onto his back and straddled his hips.

"I should have turned you months ago," Saintcrow remarked. "You're a natural."

"A natural?" she asked skeptically. "Is there any such thing as a 'natural' vampire?"

"Some take to it better than others. You never know how anyone will react, once it's done. Even people who've asked to be turned sometimes can't handle it. I've known a few who destroyed themselves soon after they were brought across."

"Ravenwood seems okay with it."

"Yeah. He'll be a master vampire one of these days."

"What does that mean, exactly?"

"It's usually a vampire who's survived longer than most. Someone who's staked out a territory and managed to defend it against all comers."

"Someone like you." She ran her finger along the silvery scar that ran from his shoulder to his navel, marveling that he had survived such a wound.

He nodded.

"Have you made very many vampires?"

"Just one, a long time ago. It didn't turn out well."

"What do you mean?"

"Like I said, some people can't handle it. Gregor couldn't. The lust for blood drove him crazy. And I mean insane. He wiped out a whole village."

"That's terrible!"

"Yeah."

"What happened to him, I'm afraid to ask."

"Just what you're thinking. I hunted him down and destroyed him."

Kadie stared at him for several moments, debating whether she wanted to know how one vampire destroyed another. After thinking about it, she decided she'd rather not hear the details. Instead, she asked another question. "Are all vampires created equal?"

"No. It depends a good deal on who sired you. Ravenwood was turned by Lilith, which puts him in the upper ten percent. Most of the vampires who resided here weren't very powerful, which is why they came here in the first place. You, on the other hand, were turned by the oldest vampire in the country, which makes you very powerful indeed."

He sucked in a breath as her hand moved lower. "And thus endeth the lesson on Vampires 101."

Wrapping his arms around her, he rolled over, and after settling her beneath him, he demonstrated the remarkable staying power of a nine-hundred-year-old master vampire.