As Twilight Falls(23)
Author: Amanda Ashley

“How did you become a vampire? I mean, who did it? Where did it happen?”

“It was during the Crusades. It was a messy business, that war. A lot of men died on the way to the Holy Land. Ships were lost at sea. They were the lucky ones. The rest of us marched across the desert in full armor. Some perished from lack of food, others from lack of water, some from heat exhaustion. But we kept going, marching to the battle cry of Deus vult. God wills it. That was our motto. Thousands of men, women, and children joined us.”

He shook his head with the memory. “Getting to the Holy Land was only half the battle. Once we were there, we laid siege to the cities, sometimes for years. It was exciting at first, riding off to a holy war, but the excitement quickly died, replaced by the stink of fear and death. I was wounded in battle. I knew I was going to die, but I managed to drag myself away from the field where no one could find me. I guess I was delirious, but I was determined to die alone. A woman found me there. She gave me a drink of water, sang me a song.”

His eyes took on a faraway look, and Kadie knew he was living it all again. He was quiet for several minutes before he continued.

“She talked to me for a long time. I don’t remember much of what she said. I was fading fast. I remember she pinched me hard enough to get my attention, then she asked me if I wanted to die. I thought that, under the circumstances, it was a foolish question. I was weak. I could barely speak, my vision was gone. She shook me, then asked me the same question again, but I was past answering.

“What happened next remains a blur. I know she bit me. I remember feeling her teeth at my throat, but it didn’t hurt. I felt myself drifting away and I knew I was dying, but I didn’t care. I was floating in a sea of crimson when she slapped me. It jerked me back to reality. ‘Drink this,’ she said, and I opened my mouth. That’s the last thing I recall until I woke the next night.

“At first, I had no idea what had happened to me. My memories of the night before were fragmented. All I knew was that I was filthy, my armor was gone, my garments were stained with blood, and I was ravenous, hungry for something, although I didn’t know what it was at the time.

“I heard voices in the distance and I started walking toward them.” He took a deep breath, held it for a long time before releasing it. “I found three men gathered around a fire. Deserters from the look of them. I called out and they invited me to join them.” He dragged a hand over his jaw. “I guess my appearance was pretty awful. When they saw me up close in the fire’s light, they drew their weapons.”

His gaze met hers, dark and direct. “It was the last thing they ever did.”

She bit down on her lower lip. He had killed them, she thought. All of them. “What happened to the vampire who made you?”

“I don’t know. I never saw her again. I learned how to be a vampire the hard way, by trial and error. It didn’t take long to learn that the sun was my enemy, or that I could no longer consume mortal food, or that everyone I met from that night on was my enemy.

“It took me quite a while to adjust to my new existence, to accept that I was no longer human, that I would never have a family of my own.” He glanced at the fireplace. A moment later, flames sprang to life in the hearth. “For a time, I hated everyone, myself most of all.” His gaze met hers again. “I became the monster of myth and legend, and I reveled in it.”

“I’m sorry.” It was a completely inane thing to say, but she couldn’t think of anything else. It was so easy to visualize the story he had told her. She could feel his anger and his despair, and even though she couldn’t condone what he had done, she could understand it.

He lifted one brow in what was quickly becoming a familiar gesture. “You think you understand?” He snorted his disgust. “You have no idea of the bodies or the carnage I left in my wake.”

She wanted to go to him, to erase the torment from his eyes, ease the harsh lines that bracketed his mouth, but an innate sense of self-preservation warned her not to say or do anything that would ignite the anger simmering in his eyes. His preternatural power filled the room.

He was a big man, strong. Solid. He would have been a man to be reckoned with even as a human. Now, that strength, combined with his supernatural power, made him far more dangerous.

He glared at her for several tense moments, then vanished from her sight.

The flames in the hearth licked hungrily at the logs, their hissing the only sound in the room.

Weak with relief, Kadie sagged back against the sofa pillows, thinking she was lucky to still be alive.

Chapter 13

Saintcrow went to her as soon as the sun set the following night. He’d had many women over the course of his existence. Old, young, black, white, yellow, and red, but none had taken root in his heart so quickly, or so deeply, as Kadie Andrews. There was something about her that called to him, that made him want to keep her close, to tell her everything she wanted to know.

Had he said too much last night? He hadn’t intended to reveal so much of his past, or confess to the lives he had so thoughtlessly taken. He didn’t want her to be afraid of him and yet, for her own safety, she would be wise to remember what he was. It was rare these days that he succumbed to the kind of violent behavior that had consumed him in the beginning. He had learned to control his anger and his hunger. Most of the time.

Vaughan and the others thought he had been away from Morgan Creek these past thirty years when, in truth, he had gone to ground in the cemetery. Even after his body had healed, he’d had no desire to rise, until Kadie Andrews came to town. Her scent, the beat of her heart, had penetrated the thick layers of earth and darkness that had surrounded him, drawing him out of oblivion. One look at her face, one scent of her blood, and he had known he would not rest until he’d had a chance to meet her, touch her. Taste her.

And now she was his.

And he wanted her. All of her. He wanted to know her every thought, lose himself in her sweetness, take her in his arms and satisfy his every desire.

He smiled inwardly. He had no doubt that, sooner or later, she would fulfill his every desire, grant his every wish. She might deny it. She might not fully realize it. But she wanted him as desperately as he wanted her.

Looking up from the book she was reading, Kadie glanced around the room. She could feel Saintcrow’s presence, detect the scent that was uniquely his, yet she was alone in the house. How was that possible?

She laid the book aside, frowning as her sense of his presence grew stronger. It was, she realized, the same presence she had felt on awakening in the library.