Page 92 of Twilight Longings

He shrugged.

“Well, what did she say?”

“She found an enchantment she thinks will work. She told me not to feed for a week. That was four days ago.”

Kadie stared at him, her brow furrowed.

He knew she was counting the days since he’d carried her down to his lair. It didn’t take her long to put two and two together.

“Is that why you were acting so weird the other night?”

It wasn’t, but he nodded, anyway. He couldn’t tell her the truth, that he’d almost turned her against her will.

She smiled at him, thinking it was his need for a last drink that had made him act the way he had. “Only a few more days,” she said.

“Yeah.”

She wrapped her arms around his neck, went up on her tiptoes, and kissed him. “I love you.”

“I know. I love you, too, sweetheart.” With a sigh, he drew her slim body up against his, thinking she would never know just how much.

Izabela called him the night before the hoped-for transformation was to take place. “Have you been abstaining from blood?” she asked.

“Yeah.” It hadn’t been easy. Even though he could go weeks without feeding, if necessary, he rarely went more than a day or two. He liked being a vampire, liked the power it gave him, loved the taste of hot, fresh blood on his tongue.

“Then I’ll see you tomorrow night at midnight.”

“The witching house,” he said, with a wry grin. “Of course.”

She laughed softly and ended the call.

Kincaid came to see him that night after Kadie had gone to bed. Sitting in Saintcrow’s living room, sharing a bottle ofwine in front of the fireplace, they reminisced about old times. Battles they’d fought, women they had loved.

“I miss the 1800s,” Kincaid remarked, gazing into at the flames. “I miss the cowboys, the freedom. My horse. I had a beauty, you know? Big paint stallion, half-wild. He was a pistol to ride. We’d be ridin’ along when all of a sudden he’d take to buckin’ like some wild bronc. Dropped me on my ass a few times, but I wouldn’t have traded him for anything.”

Saintcrow chuckled. “I had a horse like that in the Crusades. But he was a hell of a warhorse.” He slid a sideways glance at Jake. “He never threw me, though.”

They were silent for a moment, walking down ancient paths.

“Are you really gonna let Izabela change you?”

“Looks like it.”

“I can’t believe you’ll really go through with it.” Jake shook his head. “Do you really think you’ll be happy as a mortal?”

“I doubt it.”

“You love Kadie that much?”

“So it seems.”

“Have you told her how you really feel?”

“No. I promised I’d back her up, no matter what she wanted to do. She deserves it, Jake.”

“Yeah, yeah. She was a vampire for you for what? A measly thirty years or so.”

“Thirty years or two hundred, she still gave up her humanity to stay with me.”