Page 96 of Twilight Destiny

“Luca came near to breaking him. Hell, maybe he did. You don’t understand what it’s like for a man like Kincaid to find himself locked up and helpless. And it’s not the first time.”

She nodded slowly. “The vampire who turned him kept him locked up and fed off of him.”

“He told you about that?”

She nodded again.

“I’m surprised. It’s not a story he usually shares. I suspect he relived that while Luca had him caged. No doubt he remembered what it was like when Drakos fed off of him all those years ago. But as bad as that was, he wasn’t locked up all the time, or drained to the point when he couldn’t move or speak. Drakos showed him the world, taught him to read and write. He was a harsh master, but he wasn’t needlessly cruel.”

Rosa sighed.

“My only advice is to give him time to heal. To regain some sense of … of balance, I guess. I told you any sacrifices made would have to be made by you. I guess the question is, are you up to it?”

“I honestly don’t know.” She had come to Morgan Creek wanting to meet a vampire, thinking she wanted to be a vampire. Now, she wondered if she wouldn’t have been better off going to Italy with her family.

“It’s not too late to go home,” he said quietly.

It would be admitting defeat, Rosa thought, admitting she might have made the biggest mistake of her life. Maybe love wasn’t enough, would never be enough, for two people who were so different. Suddenly, home sounded like heaven.

“Anything I can do for you while I’m here?”

She started to ask him to take her back to Arizona, then bit down on her lip. She couldn’t give up on Jake. Not yet. Not when he needed her.

With a faint smile, she said, “Do you think you could put the bed together for me?”

Kincaid muttered a string of curses in a dozen languages as he stalked the Montana night. He wanted Rosa Ravenwood as he had never wanted anything in his life—not sex, not his lost humanity. He wanted the woman—body and soul. He wanted to make love to her and know her love in return. He wanted to spend the rest of his existence making her smile, hearing her laugh, fulfilling her every wish, her every desire. He wanted to be her sire, so that she would be his forever.

And it was wrong. All of it. So damn wrong on so many levels. She was a beautiful young woman with her whole life ahead of her.

He might have killed her the other night.

She had seen him at his worst, a pathetic creature locked in a cage, unable to move or speak. Helpless. Weak.

He bit off a pithy epithet as Saintcrow appeared beside him. “What the hell do you want now? Don’t you have better things to do than follow me around?”

“Rosa’s worried about you.”

“She tell you that?”

“In a way.”

“You read her thoughts?”

“I didn’t have to. They were loud and clear. She thinks you’re afraid of her.”

“So, what if I am?”

Saintcrow shrugged. “I don’t give a damn one way or the other.”

“Then what are you doing here?”

Saintcrow snorted. “I hate to see you making the biggest mistake of your life.”

“Yeah? Well, it’s my mistake to make. So leave me the hell alone.”

“Don’t do something you’re gonna regret.”

“Why not?” Kincaid asked bitterly. “I’ve been doing it my whole life.”