by Susan Hayes
“You’ll survive this, luv. You have my word. He won’t get near you again. And I know what I said about dating. It’s always been more of a guideline than an actual rule.” His lips sought out hers, and he kissed her. This time his kiss was tender, sweet, and gentle, and it promised something more than just passion. The warmth in her chest kindled hotter, and something new bloomed in the heat. Too new to put a name to, she set the feeling aside and lost herself in the moment. She wrapped her arms around his lean frame and answered his kiss with one of her own, careful to keep the knife from doing either of them any harm.
He growled, a rumbling sound that rose up from his chest as his kiss grew more possessive, his lips slanting over hers. When he lifted his head, he had a rueful smile on his lips, and he let go of her with obvious reluctance. “Any more of that and I’ll be carrying you off to bed, vampires be damned.”
“Don’t tempt me,” she grumbled and ran a hand through her still-damp hair, raking it back from her face as she fought to tamp down her raging libido.
“Why don’t we get comfy?” He settled himself into one corner of her couch and patted his lap in invitation. “I suspect we have some time before he gets here.”
She joined him on the couch, laying her head on his thigh and drawing her knees up so she was curled up at his side. “How exactly will you know if he does?” She was curious to know more about his abilities. After all, his innate talents were what everyone was relying on to keep her and the others safe.
“That’s the tricky bit. Just being in the same city as a vampire his age gives me a bit of a mental itch all the time. It gets stronger the closer he gets, but since it’s a constant sensation, I tend to filter it out after a while. I need to be paying attention so I can tell when he’s coming our way.”
“This works both ways, doesn’t it? You can sense him, but he can sense you, too?”
“Not quite. He’s about the least psychic vampire we’ve got on record. Almost no ability to link telepathically with his victims, limited ability to charm, and he seems to be completely incapable of sensing a dhampir in the area until we’re almost within spitting distance.” Aedan’s fingers stroked through her hair, a soothing caress that helped her settle the nerves that had risen as the sun had gone down.
“So he’ll know you’re here, but only when he gets close?”
“Very close. And believe me, sweetheart. He isn’t going to be happy to find out I’m here.”
“Do you know him?”
“Only by reputation, but he’s not a fool. The minute he senses my presence, he’ll know that the Brethren are involved, and he hates us even more than he hates Paladin. After all, you only destroyed a few of his fledglings. We’ve been hunting him and his so called children for over two hundred years.”
“How old are you, Aedan? How long have you been hunting vampires?”
“I’m thirty-two. I age just like any other human being. And I’ve been hunting vampires since the Brethren completed my training, about fourteen years ago.”
“That’s all you’ve been doing for fourteen years? Don’t you get tired of it?”
He sighed, and she sensed she’d touched on a sensitive subject. “Sometimes it’s the best job in the world and I couldn’t imagine doing anything else. Other times, I wonder if there’s something else I could be doing. But who am I kidding? I’m a freak of nature, a weapon designed for one purpose. I hunt vampires, and if I live long enough, I’ll retire from active hunting and spend my time teaching new hunters how it’s done.”
“I used to think that fighting was the only thing I knew how to do.” Val slid a hand onto his thigh, her fingertips moving in small, concentric circles as she talked. “Paladin gave me another choice. Now I can be someone else’s white knight, riding in to the rescue.”
“You can ride to my rescue anytime, only instead of armor, can I request you be wearing nothing but a chainmail bikini?”
“In your dreams,” she retorted.
“Nope. In my dreams you’re not wearing anything at all.” His fingers dipped down to stroke her cheek, and she turned her head to capture the tip of his finger in her mouth, nipping it lightly before releasing it again.
“I thought your dreams had me naked in a candy factory, playing twister.”
“A man’s allowed to have more than one fantasy, isn’t he? Believe me, Val. You’ve inspired quite a few.”
“Really?” She let her hand drift higher up his thigh. “When your vacation time starts, maybe we can work on making one or two of them into a reality.”
He grinned and then muttered, “I swear to god, if that vampire shows his face tonight, I might just kill him so we can get on with my vacation.”
“Not tonight. We’re going to need a plan first. Tonight is just about staying safe. All of us.”
She tucked her hand under her cheek and closed her eyes. “Tell me something about yourself, Aedan.”
“What would you like to know?” His tone was guarded, and she picked her next words carefully.
“Tell me about your favorite place in the world. Out of everywhere you’ve traveled, where would you like to return to the most?”
“The Costa del Sol,” he answered without hesitation. “I’d go back there in a heartbeat.”
“Where’s that?”
“It’s in Southern Spain, on the Mediterranean coast. The water’s so blue it looks like it’s been faked somehow, and the whole place is full of kind people and sunshine. If I could go anywhere in the world, it would be there.”
“It sounds beautiful.”
“It’s the only place I’ve ever been that I felt truly at peace. I can’t explain it, but that’s the one place I’d love to go back to.”
“When was the last time you were there?”
“I almost got there a few weeks ago. But then Christoph showed his face in France, and I was sent after him. Before that? I think it was nine, maybe ten years ago.”
“Ten years ago? When was the last time you took a vacation?”
He chuckled before answering. “I wasn’t there on vacation. I was hunting. A fledgling was making a mess of the tourist trade and leaving a trail of bodies in his wake. I got to stay on a few days after the hunt was done, and I fell in love with the place. As for your second question, I haven’t taken a proper vacation in a very long time. Sometimes I go to one of our safe houses for a while to heal or to rest up when the jet lag gets to be too bad. But I’m one of the few dhampir in existence, and they need me to do my job. The vampires don’t stop hunting humans just because I need a break.”
“You’re still a human being,” she muttered without opening her eyes. “Everyone deserves a rest every once in awhile.”
“Which is why after this, I’m staying here.”
“Good. I’ll take some time off, too, and we’ll have fun. I should really take my own advice. I don’t take my vacation time either.”
“We’re a lot alike, Val.”
“Mhmm. We’re both stubborn, both like whisky…and cherries.” She had more she meant to say, but she was too tired to talk anymore. She drifted off to sleep, Aedan’s fingers still stroking her hair.
Chapter 8
Years of combat experience had trained Val to be a very light sleeper, and so she was surprised when she woke up and discovered she was alone on the sofa. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she caught a flash of movement near the window. “Aedan, what’s wrong?” she whispered.
“He’s here.” His voice was barely audible even though he was only a few feet away.
Adrenalin surged, and Val was up off the couch in a heartbeat, the knife he’d given her earlier grasped firmly in one hand.
“How long?” she asked, keeping her voice low.
“Only a few minutes.” Aedan moved again, and she picked out his silhouette among the shadows. He held a wicked-looking katana in his right hand, the metal highlighted by the orange light of the sodium street lamp outside. He gestured for her to join him by the window. His
movements were minimal, and she could sense he was on edge.
As she joined him, resentment seethed inside her, and she snarled, “Were you planning on letting me sleep through his visit?”
“Of course not, but I wasn’t sure he’d actually come here once he sensed me. There was no point in waking you up if he was going to be a no-show. He landed somewhere over there.” Aedan pointed with his free hand to a darkened yard where the light of the streetlamps couldn’t reach.
“So he knows you’re here?”
“He knows.” She detected a note of dry humor in his tone.
“And?”
“And he’s right pissed, just as I expected.”
“How’d you know that? I thought you could just sense his presence?”
There was a long silence, and Val’s annoyance ticked up a few more levels. “Aedan fucking Doyle, what the hell aren’t you telling me?”
“I may have neglected to mention that while the vampire out there is a pathetic excuse for a psychic, I’m not.”
“You neglected to…” She growled a curse in the back of her throat. “So you’ve been reading me all this time?” Anger and hurt boiled up inside her, and she had to fight to stay calm. Now was not the time for this, not when Christoph was so close. She squashed down her feelings and took a slow, deep breath.
“For what it’s worth, I never read you. I couldn’t. You’re all too well shielded,” Aedan said with a slight shrug.
“But you tried.” She managed to keep her voice level as she made herself ease back on the death grip she had on the hilt of the knife in her hand. Aedan sighed, but before he said another word, she spotted something moving out there in the dark.
“So that’s what he looks like,” she muttered as a slender, pale figure moved into view. His hair was blond, straight, and long enough to brush his shoulders. He moved with an unnatural grace, and Val felt her skin crawl as her instincts recognized him for what he was, a dangerous predator. Though she knew he couldn’t possibly be able to see her, it felt as though his eyes were boring into hers.
“Easy.” Aedan reached out, his hand coming to rest between her shoulder blades in a gesture of support. Despite still being mad at him, she was grateful for the contact.
She felt an unpleasant pressure at the back of her skull, and then the voice from the previous night uttered a single phrase within her mind.
“Hello, Valentina.” She slammed her mental shields down hard, and the presence vanished.
“Son of a bitch!” she cursed, and Aedan turned his head to look at her in concern.
“What happened?”
“He got into my head! Just for a second, but he actually got in. I thought you said he couldn’t link with his victims!”
“I said he had almost no ability.”
“I hate this! I hate that he got through. I hate that he’s playing games with me!” Val took a step toward the window, walking out of the protection of the shadows before Aedan could stop her. Christoph grinned at her from his vantage point across the street, and even with the distance between them, she could see the flash of his fangs as he smiled.
“He must have gotten enough of your blood to form a link, but it will only work when he’s very close. I didn’t think he’d have been able to do it at all, or I would have warned you.”
“It seems there are all sorts of things you forgot to tell me.” Val knew she was lashing out, but she didn’t care. This whole situation sucked.
“If you tossed him out of your head, then you can keep him out.” Aedan’s voice was cool and businesslike, and she knew her words had struck home. “I suggest you keep your shields up. If he gets in, you won’t enjoy it.”
“No kidding,” she snarled back at him. Christoph crossed the road, heading toward her house, and she shifted the grip on her knife. “Now what’s he doing?”
“Not a clue, but he’s a nasty, arrogant bastard, and whatever it is, I doubt you’re going to like it. So take a deep breath and remember that no matter what, your ass stays inside this house.”
She didn’t bother answering Aedan. Instead, she watched as Christoph walked up her driveway and stopped at the driver’s side door of her Dodge Journey, an evil smile twisting his expression into something out of her nightmares. “If he touches my car…”
“Then Paladin can buy you a new one.”
“I like that one.” She watched in frustration as Christoph snapped off the side view mirror and then used it to shatter the driver’s side window. “I’m going to kill him for this.”
Aedan ignored the knife in her hand and dragged her into his arms, using his inhuman strength to force her to look away. “Don’t give him the satisfaction.”
“But—”
Aedan cut her off with a kiss that made it impossible for her to think, never mind argue. His fingers were tangled in her hair, holding her head still as his mouth plundered hers. Outside she could hear the scream of metal and the nerve-wrenching sound of glass shattering, but despite the noise Aedan wouldn’t stop kissing her. She tried to twist herself free, but his hand held her in place and she heard him utter a muffled denial. “Nuh-uh.”
“Uh-huh!” she grunted in response and tried to step backward, only to feel the flat of his sword blocking her escape. She could feel the chill of the blade through her T-shirt as it pressed gently against her ribs. He moved even closer, and the edge of his half-erect cock rubbed along her lower stomach. Her thighs clenched together as her pussy throbbed in response, and she had to swallow down a low moan as desire flooded her body, pushing her anger and frustration aside.
She twined her arms around his neck and kissed him back, careful to keep the dagger angled away from him. His fingers tightened in her hair, and she felt him tense even as he deepened their kiss. She opened her eyes and saw he was staring past her to the window. She wanted to know what he was staring at, and so she tried to twist out of his grasp and take a look.
“No!” he snapped, his supernatural strength making sure she obeyed him whether she wanted to or not.
“Let me go!” She fought his hold, frustration building as every tug and pull accomplished nothing against his greater strength.
“Stop it, Val.” He shook her lightly, as though she were a wayward puppy. “He wants to see your reaction. You don’t want to give him the pleasure. Trust me.”
“Reaction to what, the car? I’m pissed, sure. But it’s just a thing. You were right. Paladin will buy me a new one.”
“Not the car, luv.”
There was a discordant note in his voice now, and a sick feeling washed over her as she asked, “What the hell is going on out there?”
He kissed her again, his gaze never wavering from the window. He drifted a line of kisses from her mouth to her ear and whispered to her. “When I let you go, you can turn around. But you are not to give him any reaction. Show him the best game face you’ve got.”
Icy tendrils of dread were clutching at her heart and squeezing hard enough it hurt. “All right.”
She took a deep breath and let all the animation drain away from her face. She saw the look of approval in Aedan’s eyes as he eased up his hold on her and then finally let her go. She withdrew from his embrace and turned, the dagger held firmly in her hand.
It was a good thing he’d warned her because even with all her years as a soldier, it wasn’t easy to stay unresponsive to the horrific tableau that was laid out across her front yard.
Words had been painted in blood across her front window, and through the blood-smeared glass she could make out a figure propped up against the windshield of her destroyed car. Her heart slammed in her throat as she read the gruesome message Christoph had left her on the window.
You can’t protect them all.
Aedan rested his hand on her shoulder, and that was the only part of her body that felt warm. The rest of her was ice cold as she stood there in silence. Before she let herself look more closely at the body, she took a moment to double-check her mental shields and
rein in the emotions that roiled just under the surface. When she was ready, she just walked up to the window and peered through one of the still-clean sections of glass. She could see Christoph as he lounged on the twisted remains of her car. He had a broad smile on his pale face and his blond hair gleamed almost white in the harsh lights of the street lamps. He raised a hand to wave at her in greeting, his body casually stretched out beside the figure of a woman, and she swore under her breath as recognition struck her. Her grip on the knife shifted instinctively as she briefly considered going outside and tearing his head off with her bare hands.
“Whatever you’re thinking, you can forget it, Val. He’s too strong for you, and she’s already gone. There’s nothing you can do to help her.” Aedan’s words were more heavily accented than normal, and part of her mind noted that his accent was stronger when he was angry.
“How do you know that she’s gone?” She let her gaze move from Christoph to the body sprawled in a disturbingly casual pose on the hood of the vehicle. It was like a grotesque parody of a pin-up picture, the model draped over the hood of some expensive car.
“I can’t get any kind of reading from her. I never sensed her presence at all. Whoever she is, he killed her before he brought her here.”
“Her name was Ingrid.”
“So she’s from Paladin then?”
“She was in payroll, nothing to do with Division S at all really.” Val scrubbed a hand over her eyes, the weight of yet another death resting firmly on her shoulders. “She has—had a raging crush on Jake, our resident computer wizard.” She reached up and pressed a hand to the chill surface of the glass and then had to stifle a scream as Christoph appeared in front of her, his body language mirroring her own, his hand mated to hers on the other side of the glass. He’d traveled so fast she hadn’t seen him move at all.
“She wasn’t as sweet to taste as you were,” he crooned through the glass. “Won’t you let me have another taste?”
