Not Quite Dead (A NightHunter Novel)

by Stephanie Rowe

  Eric held out his hand to her in silent invitation. She brushed her fingers over Skye's forehead, and then stood up. Her legs were trembling, but she managed to get to Eric without falling. The moment his hand wrapped around hers, she felt the depths of his struggle to contain the spirits swirling through him. His sheer strength filled her, and at the same time, she felt how dangerously close to the edge he was.

  I need to touch you. His voice was warm and intimate in her mind. Not flirty. Not seductive. Just a statement of fact.

  Of course. She sank down next to him, as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders, tucking him against her. His chest was warm and hard, a solid foundation that felt safe and good.

  He pressed a kiss to her temple, but his lips were cold. She glanced at him, concern pulsing through her. Are you okay?

  I'm not going to disintegrate anyone right now, if that's what you mean. If I were, I wouldn't have let you come close to me. He closed his eyes as he rested his head against the wall, but she could feel the trembling of his body. His hand rested on her hip, over his knife, which was tucked in her belt loop.

  Jordyn sagged against him, too exhausted to battle with him. Eric pulled her tightly against him, but it wasn't simply intimacy. There was a tautness to his muscles, a warrior ready to react.

  "David." He spoke aloud, but didn't bother to open his eyes. She could feel his energy pulsing through the room, however, and she sensed that he was aware of every nuance of David's actions, even though he didn't appear to be watching. "I think it's time that we all sat down and had a conversation. You know more than you've let on. You were out fighting vampires last night, and it's really quite rude not to invite your guests to join you when you do fun stuff like that."

  David raised his head to look at Eric, and then he looked at her. His eyes were bloodshot, and his face was pale. "Is he a vampire?" he asked Jordyn, ignoring Eric.

  There was an edge to his voice that made the hair on her arms prickle. Without flinching, she met David's gaze. She'd never lied to David in her life, but suddenly, the truth wouldn't come. "No, he isn't." Was he? She didn't know, but if she had to guess, it was more likely a yes than a no, though he clearly wasn't like Tristan. No red eyes to be seen.

  Eric's arm tightened around her. "Do not ignore me, David." Eric opened his eyes to look at David. His eyes had become almost black. "I asked you a question."

  David met his gaze, and there was a sudden tension in the basement. "You broke my lab. No one can get out of that room."

  "I can."

  "Which means you're not human." David's hand went to his throat, to the necklace with the miniature stake.

  Jordyn studied it, recalling how it had reminded her of the runes engraved on her grandmother's stake. Was it the same one? Had he somehow copied the markings?

  "No. Not human," Eric agreed conversationally. "And your lab wouldn't be broken if you hadn't locked me up where I couldn't fight the vampire that broke in. Jordyn almost died because I couldn't get to her, and I find it unconscionable that you would leave her here without protection of any kind." His voice was laced with a deadly threat.

  David stiffened. "I had to go. She can handle herself."

  "Yes, she can, but everyone has limits." Eric's voice was smooth and lethal, and his message was clear. "What the fuck is going on, David? You know more than you've been telling, and it's time to talk."

  David tensed, and he grabbed the upended shelving to pull himself to his feet. The moment he did so, Eric stood as well, moving with speed far beyond what he should be capable of, given the level of exhaustion he was facing. As he rose, he grabbed Jordyn's arm and set her just behind him, enough that he could protect her. The moment he put himself in front of her, she saw David tense, possessiveness flashing across his face, even though he was so weak that he was actually swaying.

  Something was stirring between the two men, and she realized she had to step in. They had no time for a battle.

  "Okay, okay." She held up her hands. "Richard's dead, Skye almost died, and I want to know what's going on." She looked at David. "I don't know what's up with you," she said softly, "but we're on the same side. We always have been." She could feel the tension radiating from Eric, and she knew he was ready to launch himself at David, but to his credit, he didn't try to stop her from stepping between the two men. His fingers wrapped loosely around her wrist, but she didn't lie to herself that it was all lovey-dovey. He was prepared to pull her out of the way if things escalated.

  It was sweet, really, that Eric wanted to protect her, even though it was clearly not so endearing to David. "What happened to Skye, David? And why didn't you tell me she was back in town?"

  "What happened to my lab while I was gone? I want details," he asked instead.

  She sighed. "A vampire is hunting me," she said, declining to mention it was Tristan. "He found me. Eric saved me."

  David's face paled. "Cicatrice? He's hunting you again?"

  "Again? Again?" Eric's fingers tightened around her wrist. "Cicatrice is hunting Jordyn? Since when?"

  She sighed. "Since I was a baby."

  "What?" Eric looked like he was going to explode. "He's been dead for four hundred years. How old are you?"

  "Twenty-six, but he's been hunting me from the grave." She ran her hand through her hair, too exhausted to think. She needed to get out of the basement, and focus. "Eric, you look less like you're going to pass out, so you carry Skylar upstairs to David's room. David, you can figure out what to do with Richard. I'm going to go make coffee." She pointed at the men as she began to pick her away across the wreckage of the lab. "I expect the two of you to join me, but you have to leave the posturing behind. I don't have the energy for men being men right now. I just don't. A battle is coming for us tonight, and we need to be prepared."

  Neither man moved, as if each was waiting for the other to stand down, but as she reached the stairs, Eric walked over to Skylar and picked her up. He tucked her against his chest, cradling her head against his shoulder. His energy was still tainted, and shadows were still shifting beneath his skin. He turned toward David. "We need your help," he said simply.

  He didn't waste any more words on the man who had been her friend since childhood. He just turned and followed her up the stairs. Jordyn.

  She glanced over her shoulder as she reached the top of the steps. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw the shadows circulating beneath his skin. You're not okay, are you?

  I'm stable, he said. I like that you're worried about me. You like me, don't you?

  The weariness in his voice kept her from being annoyed. Instead, she shrugged. You're growing on me.

  He grinned, shifting Skye to free his left hand. It's because I'm such a great lover. I knew I could win you over if I could only get you naked. He caught Jordyn's wrist and pulled her against him. She was too tired to resist, and let him fold her against him in a long embrace. Skylar's hair tickled her shoulder as she melted into him. She wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her face in his neck. His body was strong and warm, and it felt good, so good, to be wrapped up against him.

  You feel good. His voice was rough and intimate as he brushed over her mind.

  So do you. She lifted her face to his, and he was ready, capturing her mouth in a kiss that seemed to go right to her heart. His mouth tasted as wonderful as it always did, but this time, there was something more in his kiss. A tenderness. A softness. A realness that was so much more than a kiss by a flirtatious playboy who wanted to bed her. It was the kiss of a man who was already deeply connected to her, on so many levels.

  Skye shifted in her sleep, and Jordyn broke the kiss. Eric was studying her, his eyes unfathomable. "How do you take your coffee?" she asked.

  "Straight up," he said.

  She grinned. "I figured." She pushed back from him. "I'll have it ready—"

  His fingers tightened around her wrist, halting her retreat. I don't trust David, honey. I want you to be careful around him.

&nbs
p; Her smile faded. He's been my friend forever. He'd never betray me.

  Promise me you'll be careful.

  He didn't say anything more, but she heard the whisper of a name in his mind, one that he didn't intend to share with her, but that he was thinking about. Walter. She'd trusted blindly before, and lost. She bit her lip, her heart suddenly heavy. Would David betray her as well? Denial pulsed through her, but at the same time, she knew that David was hiding things from her. He wasn't the boy she'd left ten years ago, and she wasn't sure exactly who he had become. I'll be careful, she said, unable to keep the sadness out of her voice.

  I'm sorry, honey. I don't want to be right. He pressed a kiss to the back of her hand, his eyes shadowed with secrets that she'd just begun to decipher. "I'm going to put Skye in David's room. You okay for a moment?"

  Involuntarily, she glanced toward the broken picture window in the living room. The sun was streaming through it now, a bright golden blessing upon the day. Even the trees at the edge of the swamp were lighter, but night still held the deeper woods in its grip. "Yes, I'll be fine. Take care of her."

  Eric nodded, and she felt him push energy toward her. It seemed to wrap around her like a protective cocoon, prickly but secure. It's not much protection, but it will give you a couple extra seconds to react if he comes after you.

  Her throat tightened as he turned away. His movement was slow and labored, as if it was taking all his strength simply to maintain a straight line as he walked down the hall with Skye, and yet he'd still given her what little protection he could summon, just in case he was right about David.

  She took a deep breath as she headed into the kitchen. Eric could say all he wanted about how he was the bad guy, but he was her rock on so many levels. She'd always liked him, despite his arrogance, but now, it was more. She ran her hand down her arm, and felt the prickle of magic that he'd enshrouded her with, offering her the last of his resources.

  As she turned to get the coffee out of the freezer, the dagger on her hip caught on a drawer handle. She looked down at the glittery green blade, glowing as if Eric had fueled it with his own magic. Was it really possible she might have to use it on him?

  No.

  She wouldn't do that again. She wouldn't. Biting her lower lip, she grabbed the coffee, even as the grim reality hovered in front of her, refusing to be denied. If she had to kill Eric, it would be even worse than when she'd killed Walter. She'd been with Walter because the sheva bond had tied them together. She was falling for Eric all on her own. What she and Eric had was a thousand times more powerful than anything she'd felt with Walter because it was fueled solely by her heart and his...which meant that the crash would be so much more devastating.

  With a sigh, she walked over to the sink to fill the coffee pot. As it filled, she surveyed the woods. Something moved, and she jerked her gaze to the right, trying to see what she'd missed. For a split second, she thought she saw glowing red eyes, and chills ran down her spine. She went still, the water pounding onto the metal sink, as she watched the woods.

  She'd seen eyes like that in her sleep before.

  Red eyes.

  Looking for her.

  Hunting her.

  Eyes that weren't real. Eyes that were alive only in her dreams...eyes that her grandmother had said were almost as powerful in her mind as they were in real life.

  Slowly, her hand unsteady, she shut off the water. The steady drip, drip, drip pinged on the stainless steel sink, like the droplets of blood she used to dream about. She quieted her mind, using the same tools that her grandmother had so painstakingly taught her.

  Jordyn. Cicatrice's razor-edged voice was a whisper through her mind, the cold brush of menace.

  "No!" She slammed up her mental shields, and stepped back from the window, pressing her hands to her temples. Her hands were shaking, as she stared at the woods. Had that been Cicatrice? Or her imagination haunting her, as it had so many times?

  If it wasn't her imagination, if he really had found her...

  "Jordyn? You okay?"

  She whirled around to see Eric running down the stairs, his shoulders so broad they almost took up the entire stairwell. Relief flooded her at the sight of him, despite his shadowy skin and sunken cheeks. "We have nine hours until sunset," she said, trying to keep her voice steady.

  Eric looked past her as he walked up, studying the woods. She felt a push of energy as he sent something out past her. For a moment, he said nothing, then he nodded. "There's nothing out there right now." He looked down at her. "You're safe."

  Relief rushed through her so that she had to lean against the counter to keep her balance. "For now."

  "For now." He raised his brows at her. "I heard him in your mind," he said quietly. "I felt his presence. You didn't imagine it. He's alive, and he's found you."

  Chapter 21

  "We need stakes." David appeared in the doorway of the basement stairs. He was still covered in blood, but the gash on his arm was healed, and his eyes were brighter and less sunken. He was grasping a bloodied towel that he was using to wipe off the last of the dirt, ash, and blood from his hands. "A lot of them."

  Jordyn and Eric broke apart, turning to face him. She couldn't help but glance over her shoulder again at the woods, and Eric moved closer to her.

  "Stakes don't work," she said. "It only slows them down."

  "Ordinary stakes, yes, but not the special ones." He walked across the kitchen, pulled a stake from the folds of the towel, and put it down on the counter. "This works. If we duplicate the runes onto other stakes, they'll work almost as well."

  It was her grandmother's stake. Jordyn's heart jumped and she grabbed it, turning it over in her hands. She remembered every detail of it, and this was definitely it. She looked at David. "Where did you get this?"

  "I've had it for a while," he said, reaching for it.

  She pulled back, not letting him take it. As if reading her mind, Eric slipped it out of her hand, ostensibly to look at it as he walked away from David, taking the stake out of his reach. She thought she smelled something burning, and she glanced quickly at Eric. His face was composed, but there was a faint tendril of smoke rising from his fingers. A vampire stake?

  David sniffed the air, and she spoke quickly to distract him. "You stole that from my grandmother," she said. "It's hers, but it was gone when I went to find it."

  David's gaze jumped to hers. "I didn't steal it. It's my job."

  "Your job? Really?" She folded her arms over her chest. "What job is that? I'm guessing that's not part of your bartender duties."

  "I'm a NightHunter."

  She blinked. The word sounded vaguely familiar, but she couldn't place it. "What are you talking about?"

  "NightHunters. The ancient guild your grandmother was a part of. She was the last active one left that we know of. When she died, there was a void. You left town, so I took over. I'm resurrecting it." He rolled up his sleeve, and she saw a symbol carved on his bicep that she recognized.

  It was the shape of the pendant that her grandmother used to wear around her neck. A double crescent moon bisected by a triangle. "The moon, and the three promises: life, love, and peace," she said softly.

  "It's the symbol of protection from the creatures of the night," he explained. "We're the secret guardians of the innocent. We're the last line of defense."

  Eric was leaning against the counter, twirling the stake in his fingers. The smoking of his skin seemed to have stopped, and she could see a faint layer of fluorescent green on his fingertips, as if he'd created a shield to protect himself. "And what exactly do you all do?"

  David walked across the room to the cabinet above the stove and pulled it open. "We hunt them, and kill them." There were no plates on the shelves, just dozens and dozens of wooden stakes, all of them carved with the same markings as her grandmother's stake. He picked one up. "These work pretty well," he said, wiping the towel over it almost reverently, as if to wipe imaginary taint off a priceless item. "You hit the
vampire anywhere with them, and it slows them down long enough to get one in the heart." he tossed one at Jordyn, but didn't take his attention off the one in Eric's hands. "With these ancient symbols, there's usually no need for beheading. It works on its own most of the time, but if you need to behead one, these engraved stakes make the vampire so incapacitated that it's easy to finish them off. I always decapitate just to be sure, though. Can't risk being wrong, you know."

  Jordyn gripped the stake in her hand. The wood was smoothly polished, and the tip was razor sharp. It looked like a lethal weapon designed to destroy, and she hated holding it in her hands. "I don't think my grandmother was a killer," she said. "She wasn't like that."

  Her grandmother had taught her to honor life and cherish spirits. Oba was the one who had taught her to commune with the spirits and to allow them to bring positive energy into her. She'd believed in the benevolence of the female spirit, and that women could make a difference in the world. She wasn't an advocate of killing.

  "Your grandmother was a NightHunter," he said. "Read her book. You'll see."

  She stared at him as a feeling of violation crawled over her. "You read her book? That was private."

  "I needed to know if there was any information in it." He shrugged. "There's nothing of value, so I left it there." He looked over at Eric. "Tonight we hunt Cicatrice. You in?"

  Eric balanced the stake on his palm, watching it steadily. His gaze slid to David, silently assessing.

  David stared at him for a long moment, then looked away, unable to hold his gaze. "Cicatrice will come for her tonight," he said. "He knows where she is."

  There was something in his tone that put Jordyn on alert. "How do you know that?"

  Eric had stopped twirling the stake, and was watching David carefully as well.