She leaned against the balcony. “Do they know, your fellow hunters, what you are?”
“Yes.” He shrugged. “In this modern age, it’s harder to live among hunters and not have them find out. Even if some don’t quite believe. Then there’s also the element of trust. Ray’s grandfather was the first I’d confided in in a long time, and Tom had just joined the hunt and came damn close to figuring it out. He outright asked me one day, if I was human.”
He seemed to smile at the memory, and she echoed the emotion back by smiling at him.
“It was obvious I could do things humans can’t. I never even thought about lying to him. Afterward, it got easier to let the next crop of hunters know. So now, they all do. It’s also why I lead one of the largest groups in the United States, not that we’re many. Most of the other hunter groups go along with what I say. In the last few years, however, it seems more hotheads are popping up, doing as they damn well please.”
“Sounds like a revolt.”
“One I’ve put up with for far too long.” He shifted to look toward her darkened living room. “I’m going to have to bring my own people in line first before I tackle anyone else.”
“Have there been mistakes made?” she wondered aloud.
“Not in my group.”
She smiled at his confidence, but expected nothing less. “What would you do if there was one?”
“I’m not sure. In the good ole days, we banished the one responsible and let them fend for themselves in dealing with soulless. If the hunter killed an innocent on purpose, if he knew it, we executed those out right ourselves. If mistakes were made today, I’d probably do the same thing. So far, none have, but there have been rumors in some of the other groups. Nothing I can prove,” he paused then continued, “The separate groups tend to be close knit and keep a code of silence among themselves. If they claim a just kill, I take their word for it. No one else is around to contradict the report.”
“Of course.” She shook her head. “There would be no evidence.”
“Exactly, either the body turns to ashes and gets blown away on the wind come to claim it. Or if a human is killed, they’re getting rid of the bodies some other way. The last thing any hunters would want is the police getting involved. But still, I’ve established guidelines and will take care of our own. There’s got to be proof of the wrongdoing. We’re well trained and know what to look for. We must be one hundred percent certain before we move to make a kill.” He turned to stare at her again. “Your people don’t really blend well. You’re unusually beautiful, but the giveaway is always the eyes.” He blinked and stared at her. “Your eyes. They’re different. They reflect light. Is that because you don’t kill?”
She shrugged and smiled. “I don’t know. And what about the information you’ve learned today from Wilhelmina. How do you think the hunters will react?”
“With complete and utter disbelief.”
“Yes.” She nodded. “I can see that. It would go against everything they’ve been taught about my kind.”
“And everything they’ve witnessed themselves.”
She nodded again. “It all feeds into the vampire or succubus legends and shouts monster.”
He shifted, straightening to his full height and placing his glass beside hers. “Not everything,” he whispered.
Thalya hadn’t even realized he moved, but she straightened to meet him. He wrapped both hands around her neck in a gentle hold. If she wanted to, she could have easily stepped away. Instead, she came closer, leaving it up to him. He wanted her but knowing how she fed, did not entirely trust her. All this she understood, even as his green-eyed gaze seared into her searching for some sign.
He must have found it. “No. Not monsters,” Samuel whispered. “Not all.” Then his lips covered hers.
Why she expected his touch to be soft, maybe a little unsure, she had no idea. It was anything but. Hard, relentless, demanding. Mere words but close enough, like the male himself.
Thalya should have known. No soft man could have captured her attention. She growled and showed him she could be relentless and demanding too, and soft. He tasted so good, the flavor of a sweet spice. Like nothing she’d ever feasted upon, nor should she be able to savor now, yet she did and wanted more. When he pulled her tighter, she wrapped her arms around him until she could feel the entire length of his lean hard body flush against every part of her. They fit together like two pieces aligned in a puzzle and his warmth surrounded her.
How long they stood there locked in an embrace, shutting everyone and everything else out while the rest of the world went about its business, she had no clue. Nor did she care. After all, she had eternity.
Yet, how could this be?
When he finally released her mouth and stepped away, he took the heat with him.
For the first time in her existence, she shivered when cold air brushed against her flushed skin.
Chapter Six
Samuel took two steps back and lowered his arms, forcing his heart to slow the flow of his blood, so it would cool. Either that or pick her up, haul her lovely ass inside and bury himself inside her depths until no one could tell where he ended and she started. What the hell was wrong with him? Obliviously, he needed to get laid because he couldn’t remember the last time he’d slept with a woman. He shook his head in an attempt to clear the cobwebs from it. Did no good. Cobwebs or not, he still wanted her. “I’ve got to go,” he said, meaning to turn around and do just that, but his body refused his command.
“Will I see you again?” She asked the question softly, hesitation in her husky voice.
He didn’t think this creature ever hesitated about anything.
Yes, damnit! Samuel clapped his lips tightly shut, so he couldn’t utter the words. He couldn’t promise her—his enemy—anything. Shit, he might have a revolt on his hands already because he not only let her go once, but only seconds ago, he held her in his arms. Yet, every instinct told him she was no enemy. Didn’t mean he knew what the hell she was.
Mine.
The word traveled up from depths he discovered from being around her and blazed across his consciousness. Not a welcome revelation. “Yes,” he managed to say in answer to her question and not the one rattling around in his mind. Is she his? “We have to keep an eye on Wilhelmina.”
“Will you come back tonight?”
He had to glance away, focus on her dark living room. “I don’t think that would be such a good idea.”
“For you?”
He swung his gaze back to her. “For either one of us.”
Rubbing her arms, she sighed.
He wondered if she felt the cold. He did, right down to his bones.
“You’re right,” Thalya finally agreed.
Yes, but he didn’t have to like it. He didn’t meet her probing gaze, just picked up his empty glass and moved to the door. Once back inside, the coldness of the room surprised him because not once had he noticed the frigidness of the night while he held her. The bite of the winter winds hadn’t cut under his skin until she no longer rested in his arms.
She followed him but headed for the front door while he put his glass in the sink.
Thalya had her fingers on the doorknob when he came up behind her. His hand reached out before he could stop it and covered hers. Immediately, she twisted to look at him and his lips found hers again. This time their lips came together for a soft kiss, with a simmer of heat just below the surface. A prelude. To what, not even he knew.
“Do you want me to come with you?” she asked. “I am willing to have your people meet me, so I can help explain we’re not all the same.”
He raised an eyebrow at her offer. “I don’t think so. At least not yet. It would be too risky. But thank you for the offer. Let me lay the groundwork tonight. Your presence right now, might just make things worse.”
“All right. Will I hear from you tomorrow? To let me know how things went?”
“If you want.” He forced himself to open the doo
r and step into the hallway. She stood behind him in the doorway, but he willed himself not to look back. He had to focus on the hunters, what lay ahead. They all needed him to have his wits about him.
On his Harley, weaving in and out of traffic, it didn’t take him long to make it across town. He owned a warehouse in Chelsea, not far from the architecturally acclaimed IAC building. The hunters trained and hung out at the warehouse. The first floor had a martial arts gym, mostly where hunters taught classes in three studios, and a weight room. The second floor had additional rooms for more advanced training and the third floor housed a large meeting area. As he got off his bike and locked it, he briefly wondered what Thalya would think of his Harley. He smiled, knowing she’d love it. Maybe tomorrow night he’d take her for a ride.
“Shit.” What the hell was he thinking! They couldn’t date. No woman could survive a life style such as his. He’d learned that lesson the hard way. But then Thalya was no ordinary woman.
She might not be the enemy, but neither could they be friends. She served a purpose, to help him understand the soulless better, a part of what shaped his life. To help him to figure out what Wilhelmina and her sisters were really up to. If they posed a danger to the hunters.
The hunters. That’s right, they were his priority and his only focus right now. He and Thalya could have nothing more than a working relationship, kind of like a cop and informant. Okay, so she had no soul, yet he no longer thought of her as just another soulless and she’d been on his mind since last night. What a mess.
The freight elevator stopped on the third floor. A wide-open space with concrete floors, large enough if need be to accommodate all the hunters present in the city and then some. The fact Ray called the meeting here and not at his townhouse sent a message. He meant to discuss serious hunter business, and he’d called in everyone in the city. The nerve of the little shit. Ray had balls, he’d give him that. Then again, Ray had been well trained by both himself and his grandfather and Samuel truly liked and thought of Ray as a little brother. At one time, Ray shared the feeling, but recently they’d grown apart.
Samuel took a deep breath. He just needed Ray to focus on the job and not some of the more radical ideas he’d been embracing, coming from others within and outside their group.
Samuel opened his senses. The multiple emotions bouncing around the packed room beat at his psyche, almost a full house, but interestingly enough no women were present. He’d kept them waiting for him long enough. He pulled the elevator doors open and stepped into the room.
Silence descended with his entrance. His gaze scanned the almost full room. Most were already seated in the folding chairs haphazardly placed in the room. Those few standing in small groups quickly found seats. Samuel spotted Ray’s blond hair toward the front of the room. Already seated, along with two other men, at the half circle shaped wooden table on a raised platform.
They were all tall, broad shouldered men and took up all the room around the table. It didn’t elude him Ray sat in the center chair, the chair he normally occupied at these meetings.
Flanking Ray’s sides sat a leader from other hunter groups, one from up in Canada and the other from the West Coast. The younger dark-haired man, Devlin, Samuel met briefly once and knew more by reputation. From what he’d heard, a good man to have at your back. But the gray-haired man with the buzz cut on Ray’s right, Samuel knew only too well. Chris Kinston sat on the opposite side of the fence with Samuel on how the soulless should be hunted. Chris hated Samuel and for reason, justified and not.
Samuel couldn’t let his sadness from the past cloud his judgment here. He needed his wits about him and needed to focus on the problem sitting across from him. A path had been left for him to walk down but he stopped at the center of the room and turned in a full circle. He met the gaze of most of the men in the room.
Many looked puzzled, like they didn’t have any real idea of why they had been called in. Others seemed angry or turned away looking guilty when he glanced their way. All of those emotions were genuine.
Finally, he turned back to the trio seated at the table and moved closer until he stood a few feet from them. “Well.” He’d pitched his voice low, but still it carried throughout the room. He didn’t voice it as a question but a demand, and everyone in the room knew it.
Devlin glanced over at Ray, who shifted uneasily in his seat, but not Chris. Nor did Samuel expect him to act uneasy. Instead, Chris leaned forward and placed his beefy folded arms on the table. “It’s come to our attention you’ve broken the rules.”
Samuel locked eyes with Chris. “And this is your business…how?”
They’d both loved the same woman once, but Chris blamed Samuel for Tammy’s death because Chris couldn’t blame himself for the role he played in what happened. She’d been dead for over thirty years, but she’d been married to Chris. And she died in Samuel’s arms, running away from her husband. Chris would never forget or forgive either one of them for it. If he could destroy Samuel, he would.
“It is all of our business,” Chris thundered. Taking a deep breath, he spoke again in a more reasonable tone. “You are a hunter. As such you have but one loyalty, one purpose.”
“And that would be…?” Samuel didn’t blink, Chris did.
His response seemed to give Chris pause, but Samuel had no intention of carrying this farce on for another second. He led these hunters. Chris trespassed on his domain. “You have no voice in this group, Chris.” He glanced toward the other man seated at the table. “Neither do you, Devlin.” Samuel could hear the murmurs of some of the men around him agreeing with him.
“But I do.” Ray sighed.
The murmurs became silent and everyone waited for his response. They all knew he and Ray had been at odds for the last couple of months.
“Ah, yes. So, it would seem.” He understood Ray’s anger, but the younger man disappointed Samuel because he hadn’t come to him first. Instead, Ray had instigated a power play he would lose. But then he saw the gleam in Chris’ eyes, felt his satisfaction, which he made no effort to block. Samuel didn’t need his other senses to tell him who really stood behind all of this and used Ray to further his own agenda.
“Why didn’t you destroy the soulless one at the park last night while you had the chance?” Ray asked.
“How do you know she was a soulless one?”
“Why she—she…”
“Yes,” he pressed. “What exactly is it that she did?” Samuel turned to where he’d seen Eric sitting near the front. Last night Eric had been his backup, but hadn’t directly witnessed what happened. Eric had been too far away, but had seen Karl afterward. Samuel noticed Karl’s absence, nor did he really expect him to be there. After all, Karl wasn’t a hunter anymore; he just helped out for one night. The last thing Chris would want is evidence of an alive and unharmed Karl. “Eric,” he said. “Tell us what you saw.”
“There’s no—” Chris sputtered.
Samuel turned to look at him, his sharp glare cutting off whatever Chris thought of saying.
“Go ahead, Eric,” Ray encouraged.
Eric frowned, his expression thoughtful. Then he stood, so he could address the group at the table. “I couldn’t really see Karl and the woman with him in the park. I saw her walk over to him and I know she sat on the bench near him, maybe for no more than a couple of minutes. Then the next thing I knew she got up and walked quickly away.” He shifted so he could also address the men seated behind him.
“Samuel rushed over to Karl and I was right behind him. Karl had his head down like he was asleep or something and Samuel told me to take care of him and he ran after the woman. That’s the last I saw of her.” Eric stuck his hands in his jean pockets. “I sat beside Karl and checked his neck myself. There were no marks there. He seemed like he was asleep. I shook his shoulder and he opened his eyes, looking a little groggy, but said he was fine. When I asked him what happened he said it seemed like she’d just taken the last of the depression right out of
him. I took him back to his car, he wished me good night and went home. I went to see him earlier this morning, just to make sure he was all right.” He shrugged and finished his report. “He seemed fine. He remembered her kissing him last night and that’s about it.”
“So, you found Karl in good health and left him alive?” Samuel asked, after Eric sat down.
“Yeah,” Eric confirmed.
He turned back to the men at the table. “Now I ask again, how do you know she’s soulless?”
“What else could she be?” Ray asked confused, glancing at Chris for confirmation. “She was obviously drawn to Karl’s depression.”
“She probably just didn’t have enough time to feed properly,” Chris stated, his mouth curled into a sneer. “It’s a fact her kind always kill.”
“Or she could have been a hooker who saw an easy mark and got spooked,” Eric offered.
There were a few snickers from the audience.
Chris never took his eyes off Samuel. “You followed her. I assume you found her.”
“Yes.”
“So, is she or is she not a soulless one?” Chris persisted.
“Why don’t you ask the lady yourself?” a female voice asked.
Chapter Seven
All heads turned to the back of the room where the sultry voice had come from.
“What the hell?” Samuel thought his heart had stopped beating and he’d entered a sort of nebula zone. He blinked.
Thalya stood tall and proudly at the back of the room, like some dark angel. Her hair, a riot of curls, framed her face and her hands rested loosely at her sides. She’d changed from her cocktail dress. Now she wore all black. Slim faded black jeans, thigh high boots and a short jacket, showcasing a body suitable for the perfect study in curves. No question in his mind, she appeared to be the most stunning woman he’d ever seen in his extremely long life.
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