by Terry Spear
“Where is he?” Adonis asked.
“He was in that room,” Alex said, motioning to the last room down the hall. “Sound asleep. I couldn’t kill him, or I would have. I swear it.”
They heard the garage door opening.
“Ah, hell,” Adonis said and vanished.
Alex vanished at the same time.
Zachary and the others ran outside to get into their vehicles.
An armored car roared down the street. It had to be driven by a host and Rutherford must have been in back of the vehicle that was perfectly windowless.
“You’re with us,” Zachary told Alex. To the other men who had ridden with them, he said, “Go with Adonis.”
Pasha knew Zachary wanted to know just what had gone on with Alex before one of the hunters terminated him.
As soon as they were in the car, they tore after the armored car. It had made a right-hand turn, but when they reached the intersecting street, they didn’t see where it had gone. The truck wasn’t barreling down the street straight ahead. They didn’t see it on the street to their left or right.
They went left. Adonis was behind them now and went right. Zachary must have told him they’d lost the armored truck.
“What happened that you were here against my orders?” Zachary asked Alex.
“I realized no one would know if Rutherford was truly in the house, or if it was some other ancient. At least the hosts didn’t set us up. They must want out of the bind they’re in,” Alex said.
“Except for the one who must be driving the armored car,” Pasha said.
“Right. I saw him when I first entered the house. He was surprised to see me because I shouldn’t be able to travel during the day into another place. From room to room, sure. I had told the host to leave the house. I heard him close the door, thinking it was the front door. It must have been the door to the garage instead. I didn’t mention him to all of you because I thought he was gone.
“I confirmed there were two newly turned vampires in each of two rooms, and in the master bedroom, appropriately, Rutherford was asleep. He didn’t stir. I quickly left the room, heard your cars out front, and went to the front door to tell you who all was here.”
“So Rutherford could have slipped away to the garage by vanishing from the master bedroom and reappearing in the truck,” Zachary said.
“Right. At any time. When you were killing the other vampires, when you were searching the rooms before that. He must have been waiting until you were preoccupied.”
“And you had nothing to do with waking and warning him?” Pasha asked.
“No. I know what you think. That he still controls me.” Alex folded his arms across his chest. “Telepathically, he asked me what I was doing there. He didn’t see me, just sensed me, I guess. I was scared. I couldn’t tell him I had just popped in because I shouldn’t be able to. I had to say I arrived just before dawn and was sleeping on the couch. He usually goes to sleep about an hour before that so I hoped I could convince him I had arrived after he fell asleep. The other vampires were sleeping, and he channeled his conversation directly to me.”
“Which is why I didn’t hear him,” Zachary said.
“Or Adonis either,” Alex said. “He asked me again why I was here. And I realized my mistake.”
Pasha nodded. “You weren’t supposed to know where he was.”
“Exactly. So I was in trouble. Should I tell him a host told me? Or should I tell him I just heard rumors he was here, and I wanted to see how he was doing?”
“But he didn’t trust you enough to have you stay at the home he was hiding out at,” Zachary said, stopping at the next stop sign and everyone looked for any sign of the armored truck, but there wasn’t one.
“Right. So I told him a host had told me.”
“So you did wake Rutherford up,” Pasha said.
“Uh, yeah, I guess so. But not on purpose. He told me to go to sleep and then I figured he went back to sleep.”
“But he was looking for an escape, figuring the host might have told others where to find him,” Zachary said. “Shit. We’ve really lost him.”
“Uh, yeah, I guess so. I’m sorry.”
“Sorry isn’t enough,” Pasha said. “As a hunter, we have rules.”
“Yeah, I know, like the one that got my mother and father killed.”
“Like the order you ignored that allowed for the ancient to get away,” Pasha said, irritated. She could scream, she was so mad. They could have had the bastard. “Why do you think Zachary told you to stay away?”
“He didn’t trust that I wasn’t working for Rutherford. I wanted you to know that I can be trusted.”
Pasha shook her head.
“Okay, listen,” Zachary said, “from now on, you do exactly as any of the hunters in charge say. Period. No deviation. You may have had good intentions: proving that Rutherford was at the house, and warning us how many others were there, but in the end, we lost him because you spooked him.”
“So you’re going to kill me. I deserve it.”
“No, you don’t. You’re newly turned. You thought you were helping. You screwed up. We’ll get him. Just don’t do it again,” Zachary said. “I might give you the benefit of the doubt, but I don’t believe Adonis would.”
“I know he wouldn’t. There’s too much at stake here and he wouldn’t trust you again.” Even though Pasha wasn’t positive her brother would kill Alex if the vampire got away again because of anything Alex did to help him, whether by design or accident, she wanted to impress upon Alex that this was a serious matter.
“I will do anything I can to help make up for it. I can be bait.”
“If he thinks you had anything to do with the hunters being at his house, it won’t work,” Pasha said.
“The armored truck must have pulled into someone’s garage. They must have had a getaway plan in case we learned where he was staying, and then he could just have the host drive him to a house not far away where other vampires were staying, or at least where they had the garage door controller and could let themselves in,” Zachary said.
“I should have killed the host,” Alex said, morosely.
“That would have ended Rutherford’s ability to escape us, true,” Pasha said.
“But we don’t kill hosts who don’t attack us. He didn’t attack you and he left, like you thought he had done, only instead of leaving the house, he just went into the garage. If you had known, you could have moved the vehicle into the sun. Rutherford couldn’t have escaped then. But that’s all water under the bridge,” Zachary said.
“If I stay with the others, they’ll want to kill me.”
“You can stay with us,” Pasha said, hoping Zachary was all right with it.
“Yeah, you can. And Pasha and I’ve talked about it. We’d like to go with you to your hometown and eliminate the vampires who killed your parents.” Zachary headed back to the house where they’d been staying.
Alex didn’t say anything for a moment.
“If you want us to.”
“I don’t want you getting killed over it,” Alex said.
“We’re hunters. That’s what we do. We help other hunters who need our help to right a wrong,” Zachary said.
Alex was quiet again. “All right. But somehow, I have to make this up to you.”
Chapter 25
Since Daemon was staying in Pasha’s family’s home, Alex remained in the room he’d been sleeping in. None of the hunters were happy with what Alex had done, but Adonis had ironically been the most understanding. That had made Alex feel a little better. And for now, Zachary and Pasha had his back.
Boniface and Victor had nighttime hunter duty and were out searching the area where they’d lost the armored truck. Three of the Van Helsing men went with them. Robert’s brother Thomas stayed to watch the house while Zachary, Pasha, and Alex got some much-needed sleep.
Or at least Zachary and Pasha intended to get some sleep. That was the way it was with falling in love. Sex wa
s first on the agenda, sleeping second.
His hands on her shoulders, he began to kiss her lips. She rested her hands on his hips and held on tight. She tasted so good, sweet and spicy. He combed his fingers through her long, dark hair and kissed her senseless. God, how he loved her.
Thank you for being mine, he wanted to say.
She leaned into the kiss, unfastening his belt and unzipping his zipper, then slipping her hands beneath his belt in the back and cupping his ass. “Hmm, you were meant to be mine.”
“I know you were meant to be mine.” He kissed her cheek, sweeping his mouth over her jaw and down to her neck and licked. It was just an instinctive vampire reaction, he figured.
This time she didn’t tense. Was she getting used to his need to close in on her neck with the strong urge to bite? Was she ready to be bitten? He still didn’t intend to do so if he could control his fangs. He really wanted to just swap blood without the biting. So why was the urge to sink his teeth into her vein so great?
Her blood was pounding hard as he nuzzled her neck with his mouth, so hot, so sweet, so intriguing. Calling to his vampiric persona, her blood an aphrodisiac.
She allowed him the neck caresses, then moved her head to capture his mouth, as if trying to remind him they were just making love and not doing a blood transfusion. He began kissing her eager mouth, his right hand sliding up her shirt to cup a lace-covered breast. He gently squeezed, loving the soft, fullness of her breasts. Already her nipple was poking at his hand and he could see the pink bud peeking through the lace. He leaned down and licked it through the lace.
She moaned and pressed his body harder against her. His cock jumped against her body with unbridled craving. She began grinding against his body, feeling him up as he slid her black shirt over her head. She was so hot.
He’d only seen her wear black—a badass, ready to kill vampires, or for mourning?
Black socks and jeans or leather pants, black shirts and jackets. Black lace bras and panties. She was sexy in black, but he’d love to see her in red too. Or white. Anything, or nothing at all.
The nothing at all was what he was working on now. He sat her on the bed and untied one boot and then the other, then slipped them off. His hands on her sock, he peeled it off. And then he removed the other. She grabbed his hand and made him sit down then, and she did the same for him. One boot, second boot, one sock and then the other.
He rose from the bed and kissed her throat and then held her breasts in his hand, his mouth on hers again. He peeled the cups of her bra down and ran his thumbs over her naked nipples standing erect.
“Hmm.” She kissed his mouth hard and then licked his lips.
Already his canines were fully extended. He hated for her to see him always react to her this way when they were in the throes of passion. She insisted he open his mouth to her probing. He reluctantly obliged.
She gingerly touched his extended canines with her tongue, kissing him openmouthed. “Hmm.”
Relieved she wasn’t upset to feel his teeth unsheathed again, he gave into the zeal of the kissing. His hands cupped her face, keeping them connected, his body pressing against hers. She felt soft and hot against him and she was rubbing her sweet body against his rigid cock. He sucked on her tongue and she smiled at him, but she immediately seized his shirt and began lifting it over his head. She dumped it on the floor.
He reached behind her and unfastened her bra. Then he slipped the straps down her shoulders and kissed each shoulder as he did. She shivered and he pulled her bra off the rest of the way and tossed it aside.
He moved his mouth to a breast and licked her nipple and she arched a little, pressing her waist against his groin again. He groaned and began removing her pants in a hurry. Her eyes were darkened with lust, her heart beating wildly, just as wildly as his was.
She quickly unfastened his belt, unbuttoned and unzipped his pants, and pulled his pants down his hips. As soon as he kicked them off the rest of the way, she ran her hand over his cock straining in his boxer briefs. Her touch stoked the fire building inside him higher. He slowly pulled her panties off, and then jerked his boxer briefs off.
He lifted her up and she wrapped her legs around his body. They ended up on the bed and he moved off her so he could stroke her to oblivion. He loved watching her shuttered eyes, her concentration, the way she barely breathed, the manner in which she still touched him while she was caught up in the erotic moment. She applied more pressure to his hand to stroke her clit harder.
Whatever the huntress wanted, he was all hers.
As Zachary stroked her feminine bud, Pasha felt the end coming and shattered with an orgasm that made her feel high, falling, and filled with pleasure all at once. She loved Zachary for everything that he was: compassionate, passionate, understanding, loyal, protective, trustworthy and trusting, and so loving. She couldn’t have found a more suitable mate, even if he was a vampire now too.
She kissed him long, and deep, and hard, figuring she’d eventually get used to his canines unsheathing, though once she had them too, that would be a whole different story. Then he’d better watch out when her teeth unsheathed!
She loved how he was so concerned how she’d view his canines. It still bothered her to an extent. How could it not when the only vampires she knew who exposed them to her were intent on killing her? It was a natural reaction. See teeth, extend wrist blade.
He moved her legs apart, and pushed inside of her, deeper, until he began to thrust. And then he was nipping her neck, licking, tasting, grazing his long, pointy canines along her skin. The feeling tingled and made her throb between her legs with renewed interest. She was so close to letting him bite her, but she didn’t want to be turned and then have to deal with the changes in her and the fight ahead. Maybe it would help being turned, but she didn’t want to risk what she didn’t know against what she did.
For now, she relished his thrusts, hooked her heels around his buttocks, and gave into the heady feeling she was already swamped with. He kept up the thrusts, angling a bit, deepening the effect. She groaned out loud. He smiled and kissed her again, and then he came in one huge, momentous burst, continuing to thrust until the end.
“I. Love. You.” He sank back against the mattress and pulled her against his chest.
“Ohmigod, I can’t believe we are in the middle of a vampire battle and doing this.”
“As mated hunters.”
She sighed and licked his nipple. “Yeah, I’m glad we didn’t wait. I love you so much. But no more of this tonight. We need to sleep.”
“Of course.”
She didn’t believe he meant it in the least. She smiled. She didn’t either.
In the middle of the night, Adonis alerted Zachary, “Rutherford has sent some of his blood bonds to fight the hunters and vampires in my family’s home.”
Zachary hoped Rutherford wouldn’t realize that two ancient vampires were working for them, and even that one of his newly turned vampires was part hunter and ready to fight Rutherford in any way he could. As were the Crichton vampires. And that a hunter group from Dallas was there too.
“Hold your places. We’re all staying where we are. So far, they said they have had ten vampires, all newly turned, and they are already dead,” Adonis said, Zachary relaying the message to Pasha and Thomas. They hadn’t woken Alex.
Alex suddenly appeared in the living room where Zachary and Pasha had moved to, and Thomas nearly skewered him with his sword.
Alex threw his hands up in a sign he came in peace, not to make war, that he was not reaching for a weapon. “He’s trying to find me, Rutherford. I think he believes I led the hunters to his safe house. I can’t kill the ones who were turned by him.”
“Friends of yours?” Zachary was surprised because he thought they were from all different locations and no one was a friend of another.
“Yeah, in a manner of speaking. I want them to stop trying to kill the hunters, but they can’t fight Rutherford’s commands. He’s perplexed
about me.”
Suddenly, six vampires appeared inside the living room and so did an ancient.
“Whitefoot,” Alex told Zachary, “not Rutherford.” And Alex turned on the vampire with a vengeance. So he could kill the ancient. Good.
Alex wasn’t going to be useful as a hunter if he couldn’t hunt. Thomas was concentrating on a vampire and Pasha was fighting another.
Zachary half flew to strike the ancient vampire down, startling him so that Whitefoot’s eyes grew huge. “Vampires siding with the hunters? I should have guessed.”
Zachary stabbed the ancient in the heart, ending the conversation as he collapsed to the floor and they concentrated on the other vampires. Pasha was still fighting another, sword to sword. Thomas finished off his and Zachary turned to help Pasha. Alex suddenly flew into the path of another who tried to attack Pasha from the back and stabbed him with a hunter’s dagger in the heart.
Zachary and Pasha took out the last of them.
Pasha looked at Alex, appearing surprised that he would go after one of Rutherford’s vampires.
Alex shrugged. “He was giving me hell for being a lover of the Crichton vampires for not killing them outright. None of them knew I wasn’t killing hunters either.”
“What about the ancient?” she asked.
“His name was Whitefoot, a friend of Rutherford,” Alex said.
Adonis said to Zachary, “The vampires are at the hotel. You need to meet me there as a vampire. Danai is coming with me.”
“I’ll bring Alex.” Zachary said to Pasha, “Alex, Adonis, Danai, and I are going to the hotel. Vampires are there.”
“What about the rest of us?” Thomas asked.
“Hold tight. We’ll let you know if we need more help. We have to get there quickly. But I suspect we’ll call on the other hunters to help.” Zachary kissed Pasha and she frowned at him. “I’ll let you know the situation. Don’t leave here by yourself.”
Then he and Alex vanished and appeared in the hotel lobby.
At once, he saw five vampires loitering around the lobby while two ancients, it appeared, were trying to learn from the hotel clerks where the hunters were staying. Adonis and Zachary immediately attacked the two ancients.
