Chapter Fourteen
Kadie sat at her computer idly taping the fingers of her right hand on the desktop, her mind trying to unravel the questions running rampant in her mind.
Who was Elowynne, really? What was she after?
Rylan was sexy as hell, but Kadie thought it was highly unlikely that Elowynne had lusted after him for almost a thousand years.
There had to be more to it than that. But what?
With a shake of her head, she left the house and walked down the hill toward the town.
It was eerie, walking the empty streets which, not so long ago, had bustled with crowds of happy people.
Sometimes she missed their company. Not that she had spent a lot of time with any of the tourists but she had, on occasion, spoken to some of them from time to time, asking if she could take their pictures to be used in her magazine ads.
She loved spending time with Rosa, Sofia, and Holly.
When they were in residence in Morgan Creek, they went to the movies together, went shopping, played cards, swam in the pool, worked out in the gym.
But sometimes she just missed being with mortals, something Rylan never understood.
She especially loved seeing the children.
Not having a child of her own was her only regret.
She knew Saintcrow would let her adopt a dozen babies if it would make her happy, but she also knew it wasn’t something he had ever wanted.
When she reached Main Street, she turned toward the bridge, remembering the rainy night she had crossed it for the first time, a decision that had changed her life forever. And how glad she was now that she had done so.
She wandered from one end of the town to the other, wondering if they would ever open Morgan Creek to the public again.
Wondering what they would do if they couldn’t find a solution to the poison in Rylan’s blood.
Since drinking from Oriana, he had been reasonably calm, at least outwardly.
But he couldn’t depend on Oriana forever. They needed a cure, not a band-aid.
She turned around to head back home when Rylan materialized beside her.
“What are you doing down here?” he asked, falling into step beside her.
“Nothing, really. Just taking a stroll. Reminiscing about the night I came here. I remember I’d taken a wrong turn somewhere along the way and that I was nearly out of gas.
I pulled my SUV over and looked at the bridge, thinking that it didn’t look sturdy enough to support my car.
I had just decided to walk across and see if I could find some gas when it started to rain buckets.
So I drove across the bridge looking for shelter and the rest, as they say, is history. ”
“Still no regrets?” he asked.
“Still asking that same question after all these years?”
“Maybe just the big one,” he said.
She flinched at the flash of anger in his eyes, the accusation in his voice. Sometimes she hated it when he read her mind.
A muscle flexed in his jaw. “Well?”
“All right! Sometimes I wish I had a child! Is that what you want to hear?”
“Dammit! I said you could adopt as many brats as you wanted. Why the hell didn’t you ever do it?”
“Because I knew you didn’t want any! Because I thought it would be unfair to bring a baby into our house. It would never have had a normal life, not with two vampires for parents.”
“Ethan and Holly adopted Jenny,” he reminded her, his voice flat.
“But Ethan wasn’t dead-set against it,” Kadie retorted, hot tears stinging her eyes.
“I don’t want to argue about this. I made my decision and I’m not sorry.
I love our life together. I love Morgan Creek.
I love you, Rylan Saintcrow. And you darn well know it!
” Dashing the tears from her eyes, she transported herself home.
Saintcrow stared after her, his inability to give her a child fueling his anger.
She had given up the idea of adopting a baby because of him.
He loved her for it. And sometimes he hated her for it.
He had never wanted a kid, didn’t want the responsibility, didn’t fully trust himself to be around an innocent child and not be tempted to take a taste.
Some vampires were addicted to the taste of the blood of children, claiming it was sweet and pure, unlike anything else.
He had never indulged in such a thing, knew he would never forgive himself if he did so.
And he sure as hell didn’t want the temptation under his roof twenty-four hours a day.
Dammit!
Overcome with anger and rage because he couldn’t give Kadie what she wanted most, he transported himself to New York City. With his hunger out of control and a sudden urge to kill, he stalked the busy streets in search of prey.
He grabbed the first lone woman he saw, mesmerized her with a glance, and pulled her into the shadows behind a delicatessen.
She was middle-aged, plump, and homely but he didn’t care.
He sank his fangs into her throat, closed his eyes, and drank, intending to take it all.
And as he drank, he caught a glimpse of her life.
She was a single mother with five kids ages two to eleven.
Muttering a vile oath, he lifted his head, sealed the wounds in her neck, released her from his thrall, and sent her away.
He thought briefly of following her home and snatching her youngest kid.
But only briefly. Kadie would never stand for it.
Kadie, Kadie. She had been human for a time after the plague that had affected all the young vampires in Wyoming.
She had begged him to see if Izabela could make him human again.
Reluctantly, he had agreed, but at the last moment, Kadie had stopped Izabela, for which he was eternally grateful.
The last thing he wanted was to be human again.
But he would have done it for Kadie. Perhaps they were even.
He had been willing to be human again for her.
And she had given up hope of a child for him.
And at times, both of them dearly regretted their decisions.
Standing on a street corner, surrounded by dozens of mortals, he had a mad impulse to destroy them all.
It would be easy. So easy. He could go through them like a lion through a flock of sheep.
For a moment, he indulged the thought, gradually realizing it was the poison in his blood urging him to do so.
And realizing, at the same time, that he needed to contact Oriana again.
Moving into the shadows, he closed his eyes and took several deep breaths until he had the urge to kill under control.
A thought took him home though he was loathe to see the pitying look in Kadie’s eyes.
~ * ~
The house was dark when he got there. A quick glance at the living room showed that at some point Kadie had swept up the shattered window glass and disposed of the broken lamps and other debris. She was waiting for him on the sofa, hugging a throw pillow to her chest, her eyes red, her cheeks damp.
Standing in front of her, he said, “I’m sorry, darlin’. Sometimes I can be an ass.”
She sniffled, refusing to meet his eyes.
“Kadie.” Dropping to his knees in front of her, he took both of her hands in his. “I’d like to blame whatever’s in my blood for my angry words, but I guess I’ve been holding them back for a long time. When you were human, it made me feel less of a man because I couldn’t give you kids.”
“I know.”
“I guess, deep down, I still feel that way.”
“It doesn’t seem to bother Elowynne.”
Saintcrow sat back on his heels and then he laughed. “Kadie, Kadie,” he murmured as he pulled her off the sofa and into his arms. “What would I do without you?”
“I don’t intend to let you find out,” she retorted, still not meeting his eyes.
“I love you, Kadie, darlin’.” Putting his finger beneath her chin, he forced her to look at him. “Tell me you love me.”
“You almost killed that woman.”
“Thinking about you saved her life. Tell me you love me.”
“I love you, Rylan,” she whispered as she slipped her arms around his neck. “I love you with every fiber of my being. There’s no room in my heart for anyone or anything else. Only you.”
He kissed her then, a long, slow kiss that sealed the love between them and erased all the old hurts. He was exploring the body he knew so well when something exploded inside of him.
With a roar, he sprang to his feet. Hands curled into claws, his gaze darted wildly around the room. “Show yourself!” he roared, and his voice echoed off the walls like rolling thunder.
Kadie sprang to her feet, her gaze searching the room. “Rylan, what’s wrong?”
Eyes as red as flame, fangs bared, he looked at her as if he had never seen her before.
Kadie stared back at him. It was like looking at the face of a stranger. Power rolled off of him in waves. When he took a step toward her, she transported herself to Kincaid’s house and hammered her fists on the door. “Jake! Jake! Oh, Lord, Jake! Let me in!”
Kincaid didn’t ask any questions, just opened the door, pulled her inside, and locked the door behind her. A muttered word warded the house against vampires and witches.
“What is it?” Rosa asked anxiously. “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know!” Kadie gasped. “It’s...it’s Rylan! I think he’s lost his mind!”
~ * ~
Deep in her lair, Elowynne smiled as a few enchanted words increased the potency of the poisoned ashes in Saintcrow’s blood. She had mesmerized every man who had ever caught her attention and infused their blood with her own brand of dark magic, enabling her to torment or destroy them at her whim.
Gazing into her cauldron, she watched Saintcrow destroy the furniture in his living room, ripping the heavy sofa and chairs to shreds as if they were made of paper. He had a ferocious temper, she mused. It would be fun driving him slowly out of his mind before she exacted her final revenge.
She had originally intended to activate the poison in his blood because he had badly wounded her pride by refusing her attentions, but shortly after his rejection a handsome knight had begun to woo her and for a time, she had forgotten all about Rylan the Bold.
When she tired of the knight, a wealthy landowner had offered her everything he possessed if she would stay with him for the rest of his life – a life that had ended soon after he had rewritten his will, leaving everything to her.
Soon after that, she had been attacked by a handful of hunters who had come very close to destroying her.
Weak from loss of blood, her body badly mangled and burned, she had gone to ground and when she rose, centuries had passed.
It had taken decades to restore her strength and by then Rylan the Bold was only a dim memory – until she learned that he had been turned and her sister had been destroyed.
He was a vampire now, powerful beyond belief. But she had no doubt that her innate witchcraft, combined with her vampire strength and an ages old spell, would see him defeated in the end.
She smiled when he fell to the floor. “Soon, my sister. Soon we will both have our revenge.”