onto a trail that wound through the forest, hit the brake when she saw a deer bounding away. Easing her foot off the brake, she continued down the trail, her troubles momentarily forgotten when she saw a pair of deer grazing on the sparse grass. Braking, she spent several minutes admiring the animals. They were such beautiful, graceful creatures with their large eyes, big ears, and delicate legs. She watched them until, for no apparent reason, they turned and bounded out of sight.
Kadie drove on, her gaze darting left and right. Could this be a way out of town that no one else had found?
After a number of twists and turns, the trail ended at the foot of a mountain that appeared to be made of solid rock and went up and up, seemingly with no end in sight. Backing up, she turned left onto another trail. She’d gone about a mile when she saw the cemetery. Curious, she grabbed one of her cameras. Maybe she could get some good shots as long as she was out here.
She opened the rickety wooden gate and walked toward the nearest grave. It was marked by a wooden cross and nothing more. Glancing around, she saw row after row of weathered wooden crosses. No headstones. No flowers. No names or dates to identify the dead. Just crosses of various sizes. Maybe it wasn’t a real graveyard. Whoever heard of burying people without identifying the deceased?
She shook her head. It was just one more piece of the increasingly strange puzzle that made up Morgan Creek.
Ignoring a growing sense of unease, she took several photographs. “Good thing I don’t believe in ghosts,” she mused. But it sure felt like she was being watched.
As she approached one of the graves, she was struck by a sudden coldness, as if she had stepped into a freezer. A TV show she’d watched claimed that cold spots indicated a ghostly presence.
Deciding she had enough pictures, she left the graveyard. She wasn’t a Ghostbuster and if spirits of the dead lingered here, she didn’t want to meet one. She had enough supernatural creatures to deal with, thank you very much.
She thought about the peculiar graveyard as she fastened her seat belt, then put the SUV in gear.
A short time later, she reached a fork in the road. Wondering if she would ever find her way back to town, she turned right. She hadn’t gone more than a mile or so when she came to a large, square house made of gray stone. There were turrets at the corners of the building, which gave the place the look of an old English castle. Thick iron bars covered the front door and the windows.
Thinking maybe whoever looked after the graveyard lived here, Kadie opened the door of the SUV, hoping to find someone who could tell her how to get out of this accursed town. She gasped when an unseen force slammed into her.
Pulling the door closed, she put the Durango in reverse and got the hell out of there as fast as she could. An hour later, she was hopelessly lost and almost out of gas. Again.
Chapter 6
Whistling softly, his hands shoved into his pockets, Darrick left Blair House and strolled toward Main Street. Now that Saintcrow had returned, maybe he’d ask the head vampire for permission to leave, and to take the new woman with him. She was his now, to do with as he wished.
He was opening the door to the tavern when Kadie’s image popped into his mind and with it a frightened plea for help.
Letting the door to the saloon slam shut, he lifted his head and sniffed the air. Though faint, her scent was borne to him on the breeze.
With preternatural speed, he left town, heading for the forest that grew along the foot of the western mountains.
He found her shivering under a blanket in the front seat of her car, which was parked in the middle of a stand of timber.
She shrieked when he rapped on the window.
“Kadie, it’s me.”
She stared at him, wide-eyed, then opened the door and practically fell into his arms.
“Easy, girl,” he said. “You’re safe now.”
“I got lost,” she said, hating the tremor in her voice. “And I ran out of gas.”
“Come on, let’s get you back to town before you freeze to death.”
“My car . . .”
“I’ll have someone come out and gas it up tomorrow.”
“But . . .”
“We can argue about it later,” he said, and wrapped her in