Page 2 of Kentucky Nights (Dead Man’s Ranch #1)

I drop my arms and turn around, her eyes still the brightest shade of crimson.

“Of course I am. You think because I love you that I’m magically going to be okay with you being a”—I lower my voice—“a vampire? People are huntin’ you.

You’ve been there with me at the town meetings.

Remember William? He’s leadin’ the damn charge, Audrey.

He has half the town convinced, and I didn’t believe him.

I didn’t…” I laugh at myself. “I didn’t believe him because I thought it was insanity.

It was too hard to believe. You’re stories told at bedtime.

You ain’t supposed to be real. You’ve killed people.

” I take a few staggering steps away at the realization that I’m standing in front of a woman who has killed and who could easily make me her next target.

“No. Listen. Listen to me,” she continues to cry those beautiful, shimmering tears. Audrey is nothing but a blur as she eats the space between us.

I hardly recognize her like this.

“My kind, we have something called fated mates. You humans would probably know it by the term ‘soulmate.’ Where do you think the saying ‘It was love at first sight’ came from? All supernatural creatures know at first sight. It has to do with smell.”

“You just said I wasn’t your fated mate. Why are you tellin’ me this? I don’t want that life,” I roar, slamming my hand so hard against my chest, I cough. “I don’t want this.”

“You aren’t my fated mate, but vampires, we can choose to mate with someone.

It prolongs our two-hundred-year life to a thousand.

Vampires who find their mates live forever, but a thousand years?

It will feel like eternity, Kentucky. Imagine all you could do.

You could be anything you wanted. Take anything you dreamed of. Everything will be easier.”

I scoff, looking at her up and down in so much disappointment. My heart breaks realizing that the woman I’ve loved is a stranger to me.

“I don’t want any of that. I’m an honest man. I am who I want be. I am livin’ my dream. I don’t need forever to promise me what I already have. That’s the difference between us.”

“You didn’t seem to find any differences last night when my fangs went in your dick and your come heated my hand.” Her eyes burn brighter, and her tongue licks over her fangs.

I step forward, tilting my head at the creature I’ve allowed inside my home and bed.

“You mystified me? That’s why you didn’t answer that question when I asked earlier.

You took advantage of me. You claim you love me, and yet you admit to alterin’ my mind.

You don’t do that to someone you claim to love, Audrey. Love isn’t selfish.”

“That’s the human in you, Kentucky. I can change all of that. I promise, I didn’t do anything more than feed from you when you were…under my influence. I only wanted your blood, and I knew telling you the truth would lead to this conversation. You started talking about forever, and I thought…”

“Forever in human terms, Audrey. I can’t be what you are. I can’t do what you do and be okay with it. I refuse. I would never take without askin’.”

Silence becomes louder than the crickets chirping in the field.

Fog begins to roll in across the surface of the earth.

Seeing Audrey standing there in her satin ivory dress, the mist whirling by her feet, the moon full and big above her, while her eyes burn like torches, reminds me of what Death could look like.

“Nothing I say can change your mind?” she asks, taking a step forward into the ray of light coming from the moon. Her cheeks glisten from her tears, and the red pools of her irises seem brighter.

A slight breeze sways the long grass, the blades rubbing together to create a soft static cradled by the night.

“No. It’s best we go our separate ways, Audrey.

I love you, and there will always be a piece of me that will, but I can never be what you want.

Even if we continued this, would you be with me until I’m old and grey?

When I can’t stand or provide for you the way a man like me should, would you want to drink from me then?

Would you love me the way you love me now? ”

Another fresh tear rolls down her cheeks while mine do their best to break. A part of me is still too angry and afraid to let them fall.

“You still fear me.” Her eyes lift slowly from the ground to look at me. “You’ve never smelled this way before.”

“Well, Ms. Reese, I reckon I haven’t been so close to death before.” I bend down, pick my black cowboy hat up off the ground, and dust it off. “Here. I want you to have it. Something to remember me by in a thousand years.”

I hold it out to her, hoping she accepts the olive branch.

I almost can’t seem to wrap my mind around what just happened.

I had the love of my life in my arms not fifteen minutes ago, planning out my future, imagining us growing old together, dying together, and maybe or maybe not have one or two little ones running around.

Yes, it’s a simple human dream, but it’s mine, and I want nothing more than to live it.

“Don’t be silly, Kentucky. You’ll be needing it.” She smiles at me, throwing my hat like a child skipping a rock across the lake.

Fear doesn’t have time to reach its peak before Audrey is on me.

Her strength has to be more than ten men.

I can’t fight her off. Her teeth sink into my neck as her legs wrap around my waist in an all too familiar position we were in not three days ago.

Her hand falls across my mouth to silence my scream.

Audrey’s force against me is so strong, the momentum flings us backwards onto the wooden fence. The rails break my fall, and at the same time, agony rips through my side before we hit the unforgiving ground. She moans into my neck, her throat moving with every ferocious gulp.

I stare up at the night sky differently. The stars don’t seem so far away now that I’m drifting into a place where I’m numb. Audrey releases me at last, giggling as if she’s drunk.

Audrey sways above me, my blood staining her chin and teeth. She looks wild and in her element. Her crazed eyes fixate on me, laughter bubbling free from her red-drenched lips.

“Mmm, you are the most delicious man I have ever tasted, Mr. Jones.” She bends down, her tongue flattening across the wound on my neck. “Hmm, I could live off the taste of you forever.” Sitting up again, she swipes her fingers across my throat and sucks them one by one into her mouth.

A rush of warmth flows from my neck with every pulse of my heart. I slap my hand over the wound, doing my best to stay alive even though I know this night sky will be my last.

My free hand curls around the piece of wood sticking through my side. I wheeze, struggling to inhale even the slightest amount of air.

“Oh, Kentucky. You’ve gotten yourself in a small situation, haven’t you?

” She twirls the top of her finger atop the rail piercing me.

“I can make it all better for you, baby. I can feed you my blood, and you won’t change, I promise.

You’ll have to die with my blood inside you for you to turn.

” Audrey grips the stake, ripping it from my body.

A painful shout escapes me, but it sounds like more of a low moan belonging to a dying man.

“You don’t have much time until you bleed out, and make no mistake, I will lick you dry so none of you goes to waste.”

“I’d rather die,” I whisper, the cold beginning to creep in.

With her enhanced speed, she bites into her wrist and shoves it to my mouth. The iron is bitter against my tongue, slithering down my throat like a root growing in the ground. After a few moments, the taste changes to something sweet, and I moan into her wrist, wanting more.

I ache when the muscles, tendons, and flesh begin to stitch together. My lung inflates again, allowing me to gasp in a much-needed breath of air.

“That’s too damn bad, baby. You aren’t allowed to die. Not when you’re meant to be with me.” She bends down, lapping up the blood surrounding my wound.

I was minutes away from death, and now I am invigorated. I feel my muscles becoming stronger. I’m aware of every part of me. The crickets are louder. The scents overwhelm me. I can hear someone laughing in the distance, but no one else is here.

“See?” She rubs her hands up my body, cupping the bulge between my legs. “Doesn’t it feel good? Wouldn’t you want to feel this way for more than a night?”

“I know it may come as a surprise that some might not want this, but I don’t.” I spit her blood out of my mouth, wiping my lips on the back of my hand.

“I said the same one hundred years ago, but it ended up being the one thing I never knew I needed.”

“Why can’t you leave me alone? Just go. Find another.”

She’s hovering over me again, her knees sinking into the dirt while she runs her fingers through my hair.

“Don’t you understand, Kentucky? There is no other.

I love you, and I know you love me. I feel it even more now that you have my blood in your veins.

You hate that you love me. I can sense that too, but in time, you’ll wonder how you ever hated me. ”

“I doubt that, sweetheart.”

She smirks, picking up one of the broken rails.

“It will only hurt for a second. Death will come fast. Then, you’ll be free of the silly little rules of humanity.

” She rolls her eyes. “Humans righteousness about life is always so aggravating. For example, you think we have only been together a few months, Kentucky, but we have been together for a year. I let you remember what I want you to. It’s as simple as that. ”

I’ve never felt so violated before. “A year? Why? Why would you alter my mind to believe we have only been together a few months? What happened in that year that you don’t want to tell me about?” Fury, unlike anything I’ve ever felt, possesses every bone in my body.

It’s as if it is amplified.

She smirks, her tongue flicking out to lick the last bit of blood from the corner of her lips.

“Someone is mad,” Audrey pouts before tossing her head back, and sardonic laughter falls from her lying lips.

“But I have the privilege to play with time. I had…business to take care of. I couldn’t have you running off to be with someone else.

You were all too eager to wait for me, baby.

” She strokes her finger down my cheek. “Your transformation will be quick. You’ll understand, Kentucky.

Once you are one of us, you’ll see how you even questioned wanting a human life at all. ”

I’ve never been afraid of death. I’ll happily die under a night full of stars at forty years old, but I know one fucking thing—I’m not dying alone.

I sit up, ghosting my mouth over hers. The shape of her lips has always invited me in. She is beautiful. The most ethereal woman I have ever laid eyes on. A sunset painting the sky different shades of yellows and reds doesn’t even compare to her.

I’ll never forget seeing her for the first time.

I was in town about to walk into the local feed store, when out of the corner of my eye, I caught Audrey walking across the street.

Her light blue high heels kicked up dust clouds from the dirt road, and her scarf drifted from her neck, the wind carrying it right to me.

I believed the universe brought her to me, and maybe in a way it did, or maybe meeting me was all part of her plan.

“I knew you’d come around, baby.”

I ram the stake into her heart, her eyes rounding in shock, and her hand falls to the piece of wood sticking out of her chest. The same broken rail that impaled me.

“You should’ve listened,” I sneer, never taking my gaze from her.

I need to see her die.

Her skin begins to drift away into ash, her beauty finally reflecting her evil intent.

In one last blur, she plunges the stake through my chest. “The same could be said about you, Mr. Jones.” My name is the last word that leaves her lips. Her ashes fade into the fog, leaving me alone to die.

At least I have peace as a last luxury.

I was a foolish man to think love could come to me without consequence.

I won’t be making that mistake again.