“She went to Arizona to go to a late movie with her sister. I’m going to meet her there later.”
Saintcrow blew out a sigh. “This thing is driving me crazy. One day I want to kill everything in sight and drink until I can’t hold any more, and the next I feel fine.”
“What are you gonna do about all those vampires hanging around?”
“I don’t know.”
“Sooner or later one or more of them is gonna start killing your guests when they leave. You know that, don’t you? Why hunt for prey when you can pick it off when it crosses the bridge.”
“Yeah, I thought about that. At the moment, there’s only seven of them. All young ones.”
“They’re the worst,” Kincaid said. “No restraint. No fear. What I don’t understand is how they know where to find you.”
“The kid I killed, he said he just had this sudden urge to come to Wyoming and find me.”
“That’s bizarre.”
Saintcrow snorted. “Tell me about it. If all the others have had the same urge, what, or who, could possibly influence them like that?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never heard of anything like that happening before.”
Saintcrow blew out a sigh. “Life was a lot simpler back when no one knew Morgan Creek existed except for a few vampires and the two of us. Prey was always available. Nothing to worry about except an occasional hunter.” He shook his head. “Hell, I’m getting maudlin in my old age. Why am I standing out here talking to you when Kadie’s at home waiting for me?”
“Always the same thing on your mind, Casanova,” Jake said, with a grin. “Catch ya later.”
“Later,” Saintcrow agreed.
But Kincaid was already gone.
~ * ~
By the end of the second week, over fifty fledgling vampires had come to Morgan Creek looking for Saintcrow. One and all, they wanted the same thing – a taste of his blood. He might have shared a little with one or two, but fifty? No way.
Sitting in his office late Friday night, he could sense their presence. They were all young in the life. The oldest had been avampire less than ten years, but their combined power hit him like a dull vibration in the air. They were waiting in Cheyenne and Custer, Casper and Laramie, Rock Springs and Cody. Hiding out by day, hunting by night. Police departments across the state reported a sudden increase in the number of missing people, mostly tourists and transients. He had to put an end to this before things got out of hand, he mused. Before hunters started showing up in Wyoming and gradually made their way to Morgan Creek.
It was late when he returned home.
“You have to do something,” Kadie said, tossing the evening paper aside when he entered the living room.
“Nice to see you, too,” he said, dryly.
She lifted her face for his kiss. “Rylan, people are dying.”
“You think I don’t know that?” Huffing a sigh, he dropped down beside her and captured one of her hands in his. “There’s only one thing to do. Call them all together and compel them to go home.” Or he could kill them all. It would easy. So easy. He could sate his thirst with their young blood, experience their terror when he destroyed them, dip his hands in their blood. It would be like the old days, when he hunted and killed until he was drunk with power.
Damn!Where had that thought come from?
“Rylan!” Kadie’s voice put an end to his thoughts.
Dammit.She’d read his mind. He would have to block the blood bond between them...
“Rylan!” She slapped him as hard as she could. “Stop thinking like that!”
He stared at her, his cheek stinging from the force of her blow. She was no weak, mortal female but a vampire who carried his blood. “What the hell?”
“I thought you were getting better,” she murmured. He hadn’t been as uneasy or restless the last few days. She had hoped and prayed that whatever was driving him was weakening.
Saintcrow clenched his hands, a muscle twitching in his jaw as he glared at her.