Page 35 of Twilight Destiny

Looking visibly pale, Rhinehart swallowed hard. And then he nodded. “I’ve been thinking about changing my line of work anyway.”

Rosa glanced from the vampire to the hunter, all interest in her lunch forgotten as tension filled the air around them. Strange, no one else in the place seemed to notice, but maybe that was Saintcrow’s doing.

Rhinehart dropped enough cash on the table to cover Rosa’s check and his own, then stood. “It was nice seeing you again, Miss Ravenwood,” he said, politely.

Rosa nodded, wondering if Saintcrow would let the hunter simply walk away. She could see from Rhinehart’s expression as he turned toward the door that he was wondering the same thing.

She breathed a sigh of relief when the hunter left the restaurant. “What was he talking about?”

“From what I gather, Luca can’t locate Kincaid. And Rhinehart thinks Kincaid has some kind of magical talisman to protect him.”

“Is that possible?” As soon as she asked the question, Rosa remembered the gold band Jake wore. He’d told her it protected him from a necromancer.

“Oh, yeah. Black witches can conjure all manner of enchanted trinkets for all manner of things.”

Too much information, Rosa thought, with a shiver. Black witches sounded even scarier than vampires. “Do you know any?”

“Not anymore.”

“But you did?”

“A few. There aren’t so many of them now as there used to be. Of course, there aren’t as many vampires, either.”

Well, that was good to know, Rosa thought, and felt a rush of guilt when she saw the knowing look in Saintcrow’s eyes. As always, he knew exactly what she was thinking.

“Why do you let Rhinehart stay in town when you know what he is?”

“He’s no threat to me.”

“What about Jake?”

“Kincaid can take care of himself. If the hunter becomes a problem, I’ll handle it.”

She was trying not to picture how he would do that when her cell phone rang.

Rising, Saintcrow said, “Tell Kincaid I want to see him.”

She waited until he left the table before answering the call.

“You busy tonight?” Jake asked.

“What do you think?”

“Can I hope you’ve been sitting at home, just waiting for my call?”

“No.”

“Alas, another hope crushed,” he said, a grin in his voice. “What time should I pick you up?”

“Whenever you want,” she said, wondering if she should play hard to get. And then she grinned. It was really too late for that. And she only had a few more days of vacation left.

“I’ll be there at six.”

“I’ll be ready. Oh, wait! Saintcrow wants to see you.”

“Yeah?”

“That’s what he said.”