21 Shades of Night, page 229
Alena touched her cut hand. “You’ve already said so. But it doesn’t explain what you’re doing here.”
She assumed he thought she was his next conquest, then victim—redheaded victim. Had he already disposed of his dinner companion? Her stomach clenched with the thought.
When he didn’t offer an explanation, she walked back into the living room and turned to study the remnants of the dead vampire. Normally, when one became a deadly serial killer, he or she targeted soft prey—humans. Why pursue her when he wasn’t even on her terminal list? Hell, currently, only Sutton was on it.
Why the ruse to get Misty out of the apartment first? Why not kill them both?
“Might I know your name?” Sutton asked.
Before she could respond, someone clomped up the stairs to her apartment, and Alena raised her sword in a defensive mode when a woman called out, “Sutton, where are you?”
The faux redhead from the restaurant. Alena was relieved the woman still lived, but a curl of unreasonable resentment twisted inside her. “Get your woman and leave!”
With the speed that was so typical of vampires, Sutton moved so quickly, Alena barely saw the movement before her mind had registered that he was standing before her. She quickly elevated the point of her weapon at his chest to protect herself. He was dangerous, all right. Dangerous to her self-preservation—to keeping the huntress status quo, to something much deeper than she could fathom. Yet the true meaning wavered at the edge of her awareness, haunting her, something she couldn’t explain, and feared.
“Elizabeth chased after me. But I see this time around you want me to do the pursuing.” His eyes sparkled with mirth. He pushed the sword aside and stepped closer. “All I need to know is—”
“Sutton!” the faux redhead called out when she entered the apartment.
Amused at the woman’s fearless actions, Alena’s brows rose. The vampire wasn’t so in control of his companion as Alena had assumed.
His eyes darkened to midnight, and Sutton whipped around and stalked toward his date. He didn’t say a word, just glared into her eyes for a moment. She stared blankly at him, nodded, then walked out.
Alena shook her head at Sutton. “She suits you.” Thoroughly disgusted with the way humans could be so easily controlled, Alena crossed the floor to her kitchen.
Sutton appeared next to her, way too close for comfort. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Alena nearly dropped her sword at his sudden appearance this time. Attempting to hide her unsettled reaction, she grabbed a soft cloth from a drawer. With a careful stroke, she cleaned the blade. “It means you do well with mindless women.”
His gaze focused on the way she wiped her sword with a tender, loving caress, then the corners of his mouth inched up. He reached out to touch her cheek.
She quickly stepped back and pointed the sword at his chest once more. “Don’t try that again.”
He folded his arms. “Your eyes say you desire my touch, as much as I want to give it to you.”
Hating he saw right through her, she shook her head. “Vampires are so conceited. They control a human’s mind and think they can dominate a huntress’s, too. But you’re dead wrong.”
“Your mind may say so, but your heart does not. I can hear it beating a million miles a minute. Your eyes drink me in as if you can’t get enough of me.” He stepped into her razor sharp blade, the sword’s sharp tip poking at his white shirt, pressing it against his skin. “Tell me truly, do you so much wish to kill me, lass?”
Chapter 3
SUTTON TRIED TO take another step toward Alena into the point of her blade to prove to her she could no more harm him than he could her, but a man’s dark voice shouted from the entryway, charging the air with electricity. “Alena!”
Alena’s eyes widened and her luscious mouth gaped.
Instantly, Sutton wanted to sequester the huntress away from the hunter, no matter what his intentions. She was Sutton’s. No one else would claim her.
“David,” she said under her breath. A small amount of relief shown in her expression. Lowering her sword, she hurried past Sutton.
Sutton expected the hunter newcomer would be ready to slice his heart in two, but David pointed his sword at the floor, non-threateningly, which made Sutton highly suspicious. No hunter would willingly invite a vampire into his home so what did David make of Alena doing so? So far, nothing.
David stared from Sutton to Alena. “Are you all right, Alena?”
Feeling damned possessive, Sutton responded, “Certainly she’s all right, although if I hadn’t protected her, she would be dead.”
David didn’t act possessively or overly familiar with her like a lover might, although every muscle in Sutton’s body tightened, preparing him for a battle. Already jealous over her being in the same room with a hunter, Sutton had to fight the urge to expel him from her apartment with bodily force.
Then he took a calming breath. David had the same red hair and blue eyes as Alena. They must be related. A brother perhaps?
“Is this true, Alena?” David’s voice showed incredulity. “He saved you?”
“Yes.”
David’s brow furrowed. “I was nearby when Misty called me and said you let him in.”
“I had to let Sutton in. I was losing the battle with the assassin vampire.” Alena pointed to the vampire remains on the floor. “Why would he have come after me?”
“Your father’s been apprised of the situation. The League’s looking into it.”
Now this was a new development. If her father ordered the League to investigate the matter, he must serve in the governing body, Sutton thought. Then he smiled, realizing he finally knew her first name... Alena. But Alena what?
Intending to find out, Sutton cleared his throat. “We haven’t been properly introduced.”
David narrowed his eyes at Alena. Definitely some kind of communication going on between the hunter and huntress, but the devil if Sutton knew what.
She swallowed hard.
David frowned. “I thought...” He shook his head and turned to Sutton. “I’m David MacLeod. This is my sixth cousin, Alena MacLeod.”
She was connected to Elizabeth MacLeod. His enthusiasm at knowing it was so, instantly dimmed when he remembered the curse. Would her cousin, David, be the one who would attempt to kill her should Sutton rekindle the flame in Elizabeth’s heart? For Alena was Elizabeth, he felt reasonably assured.
He offered his hand to David in greeting, but he would not let this hunter, her distant cousin, harm her. “Sutton Bastrop.”
After shaking Sutton’s hand with a titan grip, for which Sutton returned the same kind of handshake to show he was equal to the task, David motioned to the dead vampire. “The removal team is coming to get him. The investigators will take care of it after that. Where do you intend to go for the night now, Alena?”
“I’ll find a place. Can you watch Sutton while I pack a bag?” Alena turned and stormed down the hall before David could respond.
Bewitchingly seductive, she could pretend all she wanted that Sutton didn’t intrigue her, but the way she had reacted to Mona’s entrance, revealed she was envious of the relationship he had with his housekeeper.
“You must wonder why I’m here,” Sutton said to David, thinking it odd her cousin never questioned him about what he was doing here in the first place.
David’s jaw tightened, and he sheathed his sword, avoiding Sutton’s gaze. “I assumed you were nearby and heard Alena’s struggles.”
“Aye.” Sutton didn’t believe David’s explanation one bit.
David considered the body of the dead vampire. “Did you know him?”
“Never saw him before.” An undefined bit of worry formed in Sutton’s mind. He couldn’t help feeling the same situation was occurring all over again. That Alena would suffer the same fate as his dearly beloved Elizabeth. “Do you believe others wish her dead?”
David shook his head at Sutton. The way David’s gaze shifted back to the bedroom, made Sutton suspicious that he wasn’t telling the whole story.
“Was the rogue somebody she had on her terminal list?” Sutton asked, assuming it had to be so.
“No. She didn’t know him.”
The news deepened the mystery and Sutton’s concern. But then he wondered, if some of the rogue vampires had indeed formed the Brotherhood as he’d heard rumored, the talk was they’d go after specific hunters. He didn’t think the vampires would ever do such a thing... just talk, since the notions of rebelling against the status quo had gone on for decades. But if renegade vampires had gathered some momentum for a coup, and they targeted Alena, what reason would they have? Why would she be so important to them?
Alena rolled a bag out of her room, and Sutton smiled at the sight of her. She’d changed out of the wet, skin-clinging dress, which had definitely had its appeal. But now, an aqua sweater blouse hugged her breasts in a sensual caress, while black denims showed off her shapely legs. High-heeled ebony boots finished off her outfit. He couldn’t help but shift his attention back to the perfectly rounded mounds captivated by the soft sweater.
The memory of cupping Elizabeth’s bountiful breasts in his hands, naked, firm, her skin silky to the touch, flooded back to him all at once. Immediately, his groin tightened. The leggy huntress was hotter than a summer night in south Texas, and she served as the living reincarnation of Elizabeth. He’d bet his life on it.
She folded her arms. His attention shifted to her face, a tinge of pink coloring her cheeks. Her mouth formed an angry full line, which turned him on all the more quickly.
So used to women pursuing him, Sutton couldn’t fathom the notion that this one, who he craved more than anyone else in the world, wasn’t the least bit interested in him. Well, worse than that... seemed to despise him.
Sutton reached out to take her bag, but she only scowled in response.
“Leave the bag,” she snapped at Sutton.
David gave her a pointed look. “I’ll wait here for the clean-up crew, Alena. You’ll have to tell me where you end up settling for the night.” He turned to Sutton. “I need to speak to my cousin alone. Do you mind?”
Sutton tried to read the hunter’s unspoken words. David wasn’t brusque, like Sutton figured he’d be. Almost as if David were treating him like a fellow Hunter. Something wasn’t right. And he wondered about the human host’s comments on his cell phone to the vampire that Alena’s cousin and his brother had been at the restaurant also, but had left before she did. Was this the cousin he was referring to? Or some other?
What was going on?
Not liking that he was being dismissed nor that he would have to leave his love for even a second now that he’d found her again, Sutton nonetheless bowed his consent, intending to have another go at Alena as soon as was possible. Somehow he’d melt that icy huntress heart of hers and soon have her begging for his touch. He smiled at her, while she glared at him, then he bowed slightly to David once more. “A pleasure meeting you.” With a hurried step, he exited the apartment and shut the door, intent on taking Mona back to the house and returning for Alena.
David said in a hushed tone, “The League wants you to go with him tonight. Stay with him.”
“What?” Fisting her hands on her hips, Alena had never heard anything so absurd. This was really going too far.
“Keep your voice down. He could hear you if he’s waiting beyond the door,” David whispered, then his voice turned harsh. “You were supposed to have introduced yourself at the restaurant. He would’ve taken you home with him then, if you’d done what you were supposed to do. What the hell happened?”
She raised her palm up, showing him the small bloody cuts criss-crossing her hand. “I had an accident at the restaurant. His teeth were getting ready to extend. I didn’t think it prudent to stay around for introductions. Not if he were a renegade.”
Her cousin’s eyes shifted from her injured hand to her eyes. A flicker of concern flitted in them. “Yet he followed you back here.”
“Apparently.” She shrugged, trying to make light of it. “Maybe he still craved my blood.”
David glanced at the dead vampire. “He saved your life. We hadn’t expected that.”
Suspicious of the whole situation all over again, she folded her arms. “What exactly aren’t you telling me?”
David rubbed his chin, then inclined his head. “I hadn’t wanted to alarm you, but you should know what happened. Last night my older brother and I corralled a rogue vampire, and he asked if I were related to you as we looked so much alike. Wondering how he would have known you, I said you were my cousin. In a conceited way, he said a newly formed Brotherhood had targeted you for termination.”
“A new Brotherhood? How come no one has told me of this before?”
“The League members didn’t believe it.”
“Why not? How many vampires have you known who’d lie about something like that?”
Her cousin didn’t answer, but looked back at the dead vampire. He knew more than he was letting on. The League must have been looking into it. Would more of these vampires attack her? And if she was only one of the hunters targeted, who else did they intend to kill?
David broke into her thoughts. “Since Sutton saved your life, it could be the best of plans. Stay with him and find out what project he’s working on. He can keep you safe in the meantime.”
“Oh, right, I just say, ‘Sutton, take care of me, let me know your secrets, and I’ll wait and terminate you in the morning. But in the meantime, I’d love to share your bed with you, big, strong, and handsome.’” The thought of sharing a bed with him naked, their bodies slick with perspiration while he urged her legs apart...
She shuddered.
“You think he’s handsome?” David asked, his voice cold and dark, his brows furrowed.
“Get real, David.”
“Yeah, well, just remember who you are, what you are, and what he is.”
She snorted. “I know just who I am and what I am. But it seems the League doesn’t remember what our policies are concerning rogue vampires. Isn’t that against the League’s rulings? A huntress staying with a vampire?”
“This is different. Your father approved it.”
In utter disbelief, Alena stared at her cousin. How could her father plan to control her life to such an extent? She tamped down the anger that threatened to spill like water in a teakettle boiling to the top. “I haven’t approved it.” She stalked toward her hall closet and yanked the door open.
“This is serious business, Alena.”
She stopped with her hand on her raincoat. “I understand that. I just don’t understand why.” She paused. “How many are in this Brotherhood?”
“The bloodsucker wouldn’t say.”
She grasped at the idea it could have been a hideous hoax. “Are you certain he couldn’t have been lying?”
David motioned to the corpse. “I might have thought so before, but the fact he knew you and now this happens, I don’t believe so.”
No, and the League would not think so either. But could they protect her? And what made them think a renegade, who they’d set a contract out to kill, would keep her safe? Nothing made any sense and the more she tried to work it out in her mind, the more convoluted it became. “I’ll let you know where I’ll be when I get there.”
David ran his hand over the back of his neck. “I wish I had more room and you didn’t have to—”
“Staying with you wouldn’t work out.” Not when her father was pulling the strings. She slipped her raincoat on and headed for the door with her suitcase in hand.
“Keep yourself safe.” David pulled his cell phone from his belt to call for a clean-up crew and punched in some numbers.
“And you,” she said belatedly, surprised he would say something like that since he never wished anyone well. They each did their job and it was expected of them. That was all. Which again made her think something was more than wrong.
She slammed the apartment door and ran down the stairs, her boots tapping all the way down, echoing, announcing to the world she was once again headed into the dark of night, although a few lamps broke up the blackness, shedding a ghostly illumination over the wet parking lot.
Pulling the hood over her head to protect herself from the light drizzle, she walked toward her car, pulling her suitcase behind her. Until she heard the faint sound of wings flapping. Her skin instantly crawled. Heart racing, she released her suitcase and unsheathed her sword with a swift, singular motion. A breeze whipped at her hood as she stood still, listening, watching, her sword poised and ready. All at once, she felt vulnerable, unable to see peripherally.
She yanked back her hood for better visibility when a gangly, male vampire appeared before her with eyes as gray as the weather. His narrowed gaze remained focused on hers, challenging her, watching the slightest hint of any movement on her part, assessing her strength and determination. Dressed all in black, he looked like an old-time undertaker minus the Abraham Lincoln top hat. Rogue or not she perceived his actions as a threat.
Baring his teeth, he erased any doubt as to what he had in mind.
She thrust her sword quickly. He stepped out of the way with the graceful skill of a matador, whipping his cape aside with the twist of his wrist, as the bull in the form of a huntress rushed by, her sharp steel missing him.
Hissing, his glistening white canines extended in a deadly display meant to frighten his prey into inaction. He was too tall to decapitate. But if she could wound him enough, then penetrate his heart...
When he took a step toward her, she slashed the sword across his chest. He leapt in the air, out of reach, and reappeared behind her. Gritting her teeth, she whipped around.
If she’d been a hunter, the vampire would have attempted to finish her off more quickly. Stronger than huntresses, hunters were much more of a threat to an ancient vampire. Although even hunters often hunted in pairs when tackling an ancient.
He tried to wear her down, distract her, relish the kill. The signature of a renegade.
Focusing her eyes on his, she waited for the right strike. She’d already calculated the location she needed to strike to reach his heart, if he’d just stand still long enough. His thin lips smiled. He must have been perfectly pleased with himself. Her jaw tightened in frustration. He stood silent, resolute.
