know or care what the humans did during the daylight hours. The only people seen on the streets after dark were those who had been fed upon recently. Not that holing up inside their houses did the residents a lot of good. Out of sight, out of mind didn’t work on his kind. But he had little interest in the mortals who lived and died here.
After a quick shower, he donned a pair of jeans and a shirt. The hunger clawed at his vitals, yet he hesitated to leave the security of his lair. Though thirty years had passed since he had gone to ground, he remembered all too vividly his last foray outside Morgan Creek . . .
It had been a beautiful summer night and the city had been alive with people. Walking among them, their combined scents had aroused his thirst. A Fourth of July celebration was in full swing at the park. After the fireworks, there had been music and dancing.
Spying a beautiful young thing in shorts and a halter top heading away from the crowd, he had followed her. He had been closing in when he felt a sharp pain in his back. Too late, he realized he had walked into a trap. A dozen hunters swarmed over him, driving him to the ground. He fought back, breaking a neck here, a leg there, sinking his fangs into another, but they never let up. Fear had been like ice in his belly when they splashed him with gasoline. He fought with renewed energy when he caught the scent of sulphur, roared with pain as his clothes and his hair caught fire.
The flames had driven the hunters back. It had taken every ounce of preternatural power remaining to will himself back to Morgan Creek and bury himself deep in the earth so the healing could begin.
The pain had been constant, relentless. Even trapped in the dark sleep of his kind, there had been no escape from the agony of blistered preternatural flesh. It was definitely an experience he didn’t want to repeat. Even now, it was hard to believe he had been so careless. It was a mistake he would not make again.
Shaking off his morbid thoughts, he willed himself to the nearest city. He needed blood to complete the healing before he approached the woman whose mere presence had called him from the arms of the earth.
Chapter 3
Kadie woke with the sun shining in her face. A glance out the window showed a beautiful clear day.
Fighting down a surge of guilt for spending the night in a house that wasn’t hers, she went into the bathroom to take a shower.
With the water sluicing over her head and shoulders, her thoughts turned to the strange man she had met last night. Who was he, really? He had seemed ordinary enough, and yet there had been something strange about him. She recalled the odd red glow in his eyes, then shook her head. It had to have been a trick of the light. Nobody’s eyes turned red.
After drying off, she pulled on a pair of skinny jeans, a long-sleeved T-shirt, and her favorite high-heeled, black boots. Glancing around to make sure she had everything, she shoved her dirty clothes inside her suitcase, grabbed it and her handbag, and left the house.
The houses she passed were all older homes, circa the thirties and forties, but they were all in good repair, the yards well tended. Now and then she saw people staring out their windows at her.
Mostly women. Mostly young and pretty.
They all seemed surprised to see her.
She passed a handsome young man mowing his yard.
An older woman rocking on her front porch.
A pretty young woman pulling weeds along the edge of the driveway.
They all watched her, their eyes filled with curiosity. No one smiled. No one spoke to her, not even when she offered a tentative hello.
Not a very friendly town, Kadie thought, wondering at their reticence.
When she reached the edge of town, she glanced left and right. The streets were deserted. No sign of people hurrying to work, no children walking to school. No cars on the road. Of course not, she thought glumly. There was no gas to be had. How was that even possible in this day and age?
Her SUV was where she had left it. Unlocking the car, she stowed her suitcase and her purse inside, locked the door, and shoved her keys into the pocket of her jeans.