Twilight Desires

by Amanda Ashley

  “What about the cars?”

  “No one will find them either.”

  Ethan shook his head. “It doesn’t seem right.”

  “Would you rather try to explain that bloodbath to the cops?”

  “Hell no.”

  “Okay, then. Look on the bright side. With Browning gone, we shouldn’t have any more problems. Sofie’s family seems okay with having another vampire—make that two others—in the family. The town seems to be prospering. What more do you want?”

  Ethan scrubbed a hand across his jaw. What Saintcrow proposed didn’t seem right, and yet trying to explain the carnage in the hotel would lead to questions better left unasked. “I can’t figure Browning out,” he remarked after a while. “He must have been hanging around for days, just waiting for one of us to forget to set the wards on the bridge. I could understand it if he came after me, or you, but why kill a bunch of strangers? What did he hope to gain?”

  “How the hell should I know?”

  “I thought you knew everything.”

  Saintcrow snorted and then grinned. “If I had to venture a guess, I’d say Browning was looking for someone to end his existence. He was an old vampire. He didn’t have the guts to walk out into the sun, so he came here, stirring up trouble, knowing one of us would destroy him.”

  Ethan thought that over for a few minutes, then nodded. “He didn’t really put up much of a fight,” he mused. “But, hell, if he wanted to end it, why not just ask you to take him out?”

  Saintcrow shrugged. “Pride, I suppose.”

  “What about his so-called plan to take over the town?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe that’s all it was, just talk. Maybe he’d convinced himself that was what he wanted, until it turned out to be a lot harder than he thought.”

  “Would you have destroyed him if he’d asked you to?”

  “Sure. Nothing worse than an unhappy vampire. I saved his life once.”

  “Yeah?”

  “A hunter was about to stake him. I staked the hunter instead. Browning was the first vampire I brought here. He’d been here around fifty years when I threw all the vampires out. I’m guessing he was never comfortable out in the real world.” Saintcrow stared into the distance, then slapped Ethan on the shoulder. “It’s over and done. I’ll check into the little girl’s family tomorrow.”

  And then he was gone, as quickly as he’d come.

  * * *

  Sofia woke with a start. Was she dreaming, or was there a baby in the house? And then she remembered. Jenny! Grabbing her robe, she flew up the lair’s stairs and hurried into the living room, her eyes widening when she saw Ethan holding the little girl on his lap, feeding her a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

  Ethan sent her a sheepish grin when he saw her.

  Jenny blinked at Sofia, smiled through the jelly smeared on her mouth, then held out her arms.

  Sofia’s insides melted as she took the child from Ethan, then sat beside him on the couch. “Is this her dinner?”

  “I didn’t know what else to give her. Everything else in the fridge is spoiled.”

  “I guess we’ll have to go to the store. She needs milk. And a change of clothes. And . . .” She frowned. “Wait a minute. Last night you couldn’t stand to be in the same room with her. What happened? I thought you wanted her gone.”

  He lifted one shoulder in a what-can-I-say shrug. “She was crying. I picked her up and she put her arms around my neck and . . .” He shrugged again. “Suddenly, my instinct to protect her was stronger than my hunger.”

  “I love you, Ethan.”

  “I love you, too,” he said, and then huffed a sigh. “Just don’t get your hopes up.”

  “What? Oh.” That quickly, reality came crashing back. Jenny might have kin who had a legal claim on her. Did it really matter? No one would ever know where she was. For the next few minutes, Sofia struggled with her conscience. In the end, her conscience won. If Jenny had kin, she would send the little girl home.

  Being the youngest in the family, Sofia had never had any siblings to care for. Looking after a three-year-old was something she had never done, and more fun than she had ever imagined. From time to time, Jenny asked for her mother, but other than that, she seemed happy to play with Sofia.

  Around nine that night, Jenny fell asleep on the sofa between Ethan and Sofia.

  “Do you think we’d be good parents?” Sofia asked.

  “I don’t know. I’m an only child. Never been around kids.” He stretched his arm along the back of the couch and trailed his fingertips over Sofia’s shoulder. “But I’d sure like a chance to see what it’s like.”

  He glanced up, his senses telling him that Saintcrow was nearby moments before he appeared in the living room.

  “Well, isn’t this is a cozy scene?” the master vampire remarked. “Sort of like the vampire version of The Addams Family.”

  “Very funny,” Ethan muttered.

  “What did you find out?” Sofia asked anxiously.

  “The kid was born in San Antonio on April 10. She turned three this year. Her last name is O’Neal. Her father was an orphan who ran away from his foster family when he was sixteen. Her mother was an only child. Her maternal grandfather was killed in a car wreck last year. Her maternal grandmother’s in a home for Alzheimer’s patients.”

  Sofia stared at Saintcrow. “So . . . ?”

  “So she’s yours if you want her.”

  Sofia jumped off the couch and threw her arms around Saintcrow. “Thank you!”

  “My pleasure.” He wrapped his arms around her and held her close, just to piss Ethan off.

  It had the desired effect. Ethan growled at him.

  Laughing, Saintcrow released Sofia. “You two are a lot of trouble, you know that?”

  “Would you like to be Jenny’s godfather?” Sofia asked.

  “Me? Are you kidding?”

  “I can’t think of anyone who would be better or deserves it more.”

  Saintcrow glanced at Ethan, who shrugged and said, “Fine with me.”

  “Then I’d be honored. Now that that’s settled, I’m going back to my wife. She’s beginning to think I’m seeing someone else on the side,” he muttered with a wry grin. “I trust I won’t have to come back here again for a good long time.”

  Unable to stop smiling, Sofia said, “We’ll expect you back here next year on Jenny’s birthday.”

  “It’s a date,” Saintcrow said. “I’ll even bring a present.” A wave of his hand, and he was gone.

  “I guess we’d better start looking for a nanny,” Ethan remarked, taking Sofia in his arms.

  Sofia nodded. She had never been happier, she thought, than she was at this moment. She had an eternity to spend with the man she loved more than life itself. And, thanks to a twist of fate, she had a child to love as well.

  Who could ask for more?

  Epilogue

  Sofia tucked Jenny into bed, then bent down to kiss her daughter’s cheek. She could still remember the way her heart had melted the first time Jenny called her Mama. The child had had a few rough nights in the beginning, but she seemed happily adjusted now. After thinking it over, Sofia had asked Saintcrow to do a blood exchange with her the way he had with Ethan and Kadie. It had been partially successful, allowing her to be awake a few hours each day. They had found a wonderful nanny to look after Jenny when Sofia and Ethan couldn’t be with her.

  It was hard to believe two years had passed since Jenny had come into their lives. So much had happened. Micah and Holly had decided to move back to Morgan Creek. They had built a luxurious home on the hill near Saintcrow’s lair. Micah was now in charge of security.

  Saintcrow and Kadie were also in residence. Sofia thought it was because Kadie had tired of traveling, but Kadie said it was because she missed the ghosts. Sofia would have kidded her about believing in spirits, but how could she doubt it when a ghost had sent Ethan to save her life? It was comforting somehow, knowing there were good spirits watc
hing over the town.

  Ghosts or no ghosts, there was no denying Morgan Creek was prospering. They now had facilities for RVs and tents, as well as a large picnic area and a stable with horses to rent.

  Ethan had repaid the loan to Saintcrow and the two had decided to be full-fledged partners.

  Sofia loved having her favorite brother living so close by. She and Holly and Kadie had all become good friends.

  Next summer, Sofia’s family was coming to stay for a week.

  She glanced up as Ethan stepped into the room. “Our little girl is already asleep.”

  He slipped his arm around Sofia’s shoulders. “Sorry I’m late. I had to handle a little dustup at the hotel. One of the patrons thought he’d been overcharged, so we gave him a free night to keep him happy.”

  “World’s best vampire innkeeper,” she murmured, smiling. “Who’d’ve thought?”

  “Certainly not me.” His gaze caressed her. “I love you.”

  “I love you more.”

  “No regrets?”

  “Just one.”

  He frowned at her. “What is it?”

  “We’re still standing here, talking, instead of curled up in bed.”

  “Handling complaints is what I do best,” he said, a husky growl in his voice as he swung her up into his arms. “Just tell me what you want, my love, and I’ll see you get it.”

  And she did.

  Read on for an excerpt from Amanda Ashley’s next vampire romance, coming next year!

  HOLD BACK THE DAWN

  Newberry Township

  1867

  The Mothers of Mercy Hospital was located in what had once been a fashionable part of town. Age had whittled it down, leaving the place looking as old and worn out as the dilapidated manor houses that surrounded it. Most of the well-to-do folk had fled the area during an epidemic, though a handful of the wealthy landowners—too stubborn to move on—remained on their estates, closer to what was left of the place.

  Roan Cabrera paused on the weed-choked dirt road that led to the entrance. The air was fetid with the stench of horse droppings, rot, and despair. He didn’t know which was worse, the stink outside or the smell of disease and death that permeated the very walls of the hospital.

  Materializing on the third floor, he ghosted past the nurse on duty, unseen, then continued down the hallway until he came to the room at the end of the corridor. A woman lay unmoving on the narrow bed. Maura Singleterry, age twenty-eight, was the victim of a carriage accident that had killed the driver and two other passengers. She was a pretty woman—or she had been. Now, her cheeks were sunken, her eyes shadowed, her hair limp and lackluster. Trapped in a coma for the last three weeks, she had a bleak prognosis at best.

  Entering the room, Roan closed the door, then glided silently to the side of the bed. He stood gazing down at her a moment; then, taking her limp hand in his, he sat on the edge of the narrow mattress, his mind delving through the darkness that kept her trapped in unconsciousness.

  Opening a mental link between them, he murmured, Hello, Maura.

  Roan?

  Who else? Where would you like to go today?

  My wedding day, but first . . . I want to know about you.

  What would you like to know?

  How is it we can talk when I can’t communicate with anyone else? Are you real? Or just a fever dream?

  I’m real enough. ’Tis a gift I have, being able to speak with those who are lost in the dark.

  I can’t find my way out. She whimpered softly. I try and try, but I can’t get through the darkness.

  Roan stroked her brow. I know. That’s why I’m here. Put your questions away for now, Maura, and I’ll take you back to the day you wed.

  He closed his eyes, his mind searching hers until he found the memory she wished to experience again. He gave it back to her, not as a dream, not as a faint memory, but as if she were living it again.... She mingled with everyone who had been there, recalled each word spoken that day, each thought that crossed her mind, the love she felt for her new husband, the taste and smell and texture of the food she ate, her nervousness as she and her husband left her parents’ home, the carriage ride to the inn where they had spent their first night as husband and wife.

  It was a rare gift he had, being able to grant those who were dying a chance to relive their most cherished memories. It cost him nothing, and he took but little in return for the pleasure he gave.

  An hour later, Roan kissed Maura’s cheek in farewell and left the hospital. He felt a brief twinge of regret in knowing she had only a few hours to live. It seemed unfair that such a sweet-natured woman should be taken before her time. Unfair, he thought again, that one who had everything to live for should be brought down in her prime while he, a man who had no reason to go on and no one to mourn him when he was gone, had existed for centuries.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Amanda Ashley is one of those rare birds—a California native. She’s lived in Southern California her whole life and, except for the earthquakes, she loves it. She shares a home with her husband, as well as an adorable Pomeranian named Lady and a tortoise who remains nameless. Amanda and her alter ego, Madeline, have written over 80 books and novellas. Not bad for someone who started writing just for the fun of it. Her books have made the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists. You can get a sneak peek at her next book on her website www.AmandaAshley.com.