for a mutiny.”
Chapter 16
A mutiny was exactly what was on Lilith’s mind that night when she found a young couple who’d wandered across the bridge. They reeked of drugs and liquor, but she didn’t care.
With the speed of a striking snake, Lilith broke the woman’s neck, then carried the man up into the mountains.
He stared at her, his face white with shock. “You killed her.” He shook his head, obviously trying to clear his mind. “Why?”
“She was in the way.”
He blinked at her. “In the way?” He staggered back a step, tripped over a rock, and landed on his backside.
He let out a startled cry when Lilith flew across the distance between them and pinned him to the ground.
He shook his head again, fear penetrating the drug-induced haze that clouded his thoughts. “What are you?”
She grinned at him, displaying her fangs. “Just what you think I am.”
“No. No, it’s not possible.”
She grabbed a handful of his hair and jerked his head to the side. “Oh, it’s very possible,” she hissed, and buried her fangs in his throat.
He struggled, but he was no match for her supernatural strength. She drank until there was nothing left but a dry, shriveled husk. Wiping her mouth on his shirt, she retrieved the woman’s body, then returned to the mountain. It took only moments to dig a grave big enough for the two of them.
Throwing back her head, she gazed up at the sky. It had been years since she’d felt this good, this strong. This invincible.
And she liked it.
Chapter 17
Kadie thought about what Vaughan had said as she left the tavern. A mutiny? Was he serious? What a bloodbath that would be, vampire killing vampire. Would any of them, human or vampire, survive?
After getting into Saintcrow’s car, she sat there a minute, her fingers drumming on the steering wheel. She didn’t want to go back to Saintcrow’s empty house and listen to the silence. It was too early for bed.
Putting the car in gear, she drove down Main Street, then turned right on Oak and drove through the residential area. Now that she was acquainted with where everyone lived, she knew that even though most of the houses were vacant, the people trapped here kept them in good repair. She hadn’t gotten to know the few men in town very well, but she had seen Jeremy and Carl mowing the yards and trimming the bushes of the empty homes. It gave them something to do, like working in the market kept Marti occupied. She wondered briefly where Saintcrow had taken Carl Freeman, and what Carl was doing now.
When she reached the end of the residential area, Kadie turned right and drove until the paved road ended. She switched off the ignition, then sat there, staring at the mountain. She had lost track of how long she’d been in Morgan Creek. Three weeks? A month? With no contact with the outside world, no newspapers, no calendars, how did anyone even know what year it was, let alone the date? She supposed you could count the years by the number of summers passing. Maybe even make your own calendar to keep track of the days and years. But what was the point?
Where was Saintcrow? Had he left Morgan Creek? What if some hunter had found him and destroyed him? Would the vampire mojo that kept them all trapped in the town be broken if he died?
Would she care if he was dead?
The answer was a resounding yes. For some insane reason, she had grown fond of him. More than fond. Maybe she just had a case of Stockholm syndrome. She had read newspaper accounts of hostages who had developed empathy for their captors, seen it in movies, and thought it highly unrealistic in spite of evidence to the contrary. Maybe it wasn’t as improbable as she had always imagined.
With a sigh, Kadie opened the door and stepped out of the car. Hands shoved into the pockets of her jeans, she walked toward the mountain. The night had turned cold. She gazed up at the sky, thinking about the vampires.
Vaughan had been here over forty years, but he still looked like a man in his prime. Saintcrow was over nine hundred years old and didn’t look a day over thirty. What was it like for Donna and Rosemary to have been here for so long, to watch themselves age while the supernatural creatures remained forever the same?
She couldn’t help wondering if the other men and women who