The Dark-Hunters, page 79
Talon just smiled.
Why was he so fascinated by her? He listened to her voice as she lectured him, and instead of being irritated, he actually enjoyed it.
It was nice to have someone concerned enough about him that they would bother telling him what to eat.
“How about I just snack on you for a bit?” he asked.
Sunshine paused mid-sentence. Before she could think to respond, he pulled her across him and claimed her lips.
She moaned at how good he felt. How wonderful he tasted. She could feel his erection under her hip.
Her body melted against his.
The next thing she knew, he had her flat on her back on the futon and was leaning down over her, unbuttoning her sweater as her breasts tightened in expectation of his touch.
“You’re very talented at distracting me,” she said.
“Am I?” he asked, kissing the valley between her breasts.
“Um-hmmm,” she breathed.
Chills shot the length of her body as he nibbled the skin just below her jaw. His hot breath scorched her while he cupped her breast with his hand and kneaded her gently with his fingers.
She ran her hands through his tousled hair, holding him close to her while his braids brushed against her skin, tickling and teasing her. Her body throbbed and burned, craving his blistering touch.
Talon closed his eyes and inhaled the sweet scent of her skin. She was so warm and soft. So womanly. He ran his hand over the bounty of her tanned skin while he teased her neck with his tongue and teeth.
Her hands slid over him.
Oh, he liked how this woman tasted. Loved how she felt under him.
He ran his hand over the black lace of her bra, cupping her gently. She hissed in pleasure, her legs sliding against his. He’d never cared for the sensation of denim on his body before, but when Sunshine was wearing it, he didn’t mind at all.
He opened the catch on the front of her bra and released her breasts to his questing hand. He ran his palm over the hard nubs, back and forth, delighting in the way they felt.
He kissed his way down to them.
Sunshine held his head to her and she arched her back. He teased one breast with his tongue, flicking and sucking it until she wanted to scream from pleasure. It was as if he knew some secret way of wringing every bit of sensual ecstasy from the lightest touch.
And as he held her, something strange happened. She flashed back to a time long ago …
She saw Talon holding her just as he was doing now.
Only it was late spring and they were lying out in the woods, beside a quiet lake. She was fearful of being caught and, at the same time, she ached with longing for him.
His eyes were a deep amber and dark with passion as he braced himself above her on one arm and unlaced the top of her gown with his free hand.
“I’ve wanted you forever, Nyn.” His whispered words tore through her as he dipped his head and sampled her freed breasts. She moaned in pleasure at the foreign sensation of a man kissing her there. She’d never allowed a man to touch her before. Never had allowed one to see her body.
Somewhat embarrassed, she still couldn’t deny him this. Not when it gave him so much pleasure.
Her mother had told her long ago about the needs and wants of men. About the way they planted themselves inside a woman and took possession of her.
From that moment, she’d known she would never want any man but Speirr to take her that way. For him, she would do anything.
He lifted the hem of her dress up to her hips, baring her lower body to his warm, hungry gaze. She shivered as he nudged her legs apart so that he could look at the most private place of her body.
Her instinct was to lock her ankles together, but she forced herself to comply. She opened herself for him and held her breath as he stared at her with so much longing that it made her ache.
He traced his hand down her stomach, and outer thigh. Then ever so slowly, he ran his hand up her inner thigh, making her burn and shiver at the same time. She closed her eyes and moaned as his questing fingers touched the throbbing virgin flesh between her legs.
Her head swam at the strange feeling of him stroking and teasing her. He spread her legs wider, then slid his fingers inside her where he delved deep, making her body quiver.
She moaned as he moved his hand and placed his body between her legs. She felt his rigid shaft throb against her inner thigh.
“Look at me, Nynia.”
She opened her eyes and looked up at him.
The love in his eyes scorched her. “It’s not too late yet. Tell me you don’t want me and I will go away without any damage being done.”
“I want you, Speirr,” she whispered. “I only want you.”
He leaned down and kissed her tenderly, then slid himself inside her.
She tensed at the pain he caused as he tore through her maidenhead and filled her to capacity. She bit her lip and held him close as he slowly rocked himself against her.
“You feel so good beneath me,” he breathed, his voice a deep half-groan. “Even better than I thought you would.”
“How many women have you had beneath you, Speirr?” She was horrified by her words, but wanted to know and was too young to realize just how foolish her question was.
He stopped moving inside her and pulled back to stare down into her eyes. “Only you, Nyn. I’m as virgin as you are. I’ve had other women offer themselves to me, but you’re the only one I dream of holding.”
Her heart soared. Smiling, she wrapped her legs around his lean, naked hips. She cupped his face in her hands and pulled him down to her until their noses touched.
“Oh, Speirr,” Sunshine whispered, holding him close.
Talon went rigid in her arms.
In the last thousand years, no one other than Ceara had ever used his real name. And only one woman had ever said his name the way Sunshine did just now.
It wasn’t just what she said, it was the cadence of her voice when she’d said it. The shiver it had sent down his spine.
“What did you call me?”
Sunshine bit her lip as she realized her slip. Oh jeez, he probably thought she was calling him by another man’s name. He would have no memory of his former life. Nor should she. She didn’t know where these flashbacks were coming from.
All she knew was that they were freaking her out.
Her grandmother was really into past-life regression and had raised her with a devout respect for reincarnation. One thing Grandma Morgan had tutored her well on was that when you’re reborn, you always forget your former life.
Why, then, did she remember him?
“I was clearing my throat,” she said, hoping he would buy it. “What did you think I called you?”
Talon relaxed. Maybe he was hearing things. Maybe it was what this woman made him feel that was dredging up his long-forgotten memories. Or maybe it was the guilt he felt for wanting her the way he did.
Only Nynia had ever made him really burn like this.
Sunshine was so different. She made him feel even when he didn’t want to. Even when he fought against it.
She buried her hands in his hair and pulled him down so that she could nibble his jaw. The feel of her hands on him, the warmth of her body under his …
He lowered himself over her, and buried his lips against her shoulder where he could taste the salt of her skin.
Talon sighed deeply. Contentedly.
Then, to his deepest aggravation, his phone rang.
Cursing, Talon answered it and found Acheron on the other end.
“I need you to guard the woman tonight. Keep her at your place.”
Talon frowned. He wondered briefly how Ash knew Sunshine was with him, but the man’s powers were nothing if not scary. “I thought you told me to stay away from her.”
“Things have changed.”
Talon bit back a moan as Sunshine nuzzled his nipple with her teeth. Keeping her here was far from a hardship. “Are you sure I’m not needed tonight?”
“Yes.” Acheron hung up.
Talon tossed the phone aside and looked at Sunshine with a devilish grin. This night just got a whole lot better.
Chapter 8
It was near midnight when Ash left Club Runningwolf’s.
Where the hell was Talon? He should be out on the streets, patrolling.
Ash had been trying to reach him for hours.
He called Nick again only to find out that Nick had neither seen nor heard from Talon either.
This was so unlike the Celt. He could sense that Talon was all right and not hurt, and if he wanted to, he could track Talon down. But Ash had never been that intrusive with his powers. Having been hunted and stalked, he couldn’t bear to do that to anyone else. Not unless it was a dire emergency.
Free will was not something he would tamper with lightly.
As Ash returned the phone to his jacket, the hair on the back of his neck stood up.
“Look how helpless she is…”
“Yes, but she’s strong enough to feed us all.”
The voices whispered through his mind much like Spider-Man’s spidey-sense …
And the wall-crawler thought he had super powers.
Pah-lease.
Ash closed his eyes and located the source of the voices. Four male and two female Daimons were in an alley off Royal Street. He started for his motorcycle, then stopped himself. There was no way he’d reach them in time by conventional means.
Glancing around, he made sure no one could see him, then he gathered the ions in the air around him. He let his body disintegrate into nothingness and used his powers to bend the physics of time and matter.
Unseen, he whispered through the city, straight to the alley where they had a woman cornered. She stood cringing, surrounded by the Daimons, her arms wrapped about her.
“Please don’t hurt me,” she begged. “Just take my purse and leave me alone.”
The tallest Daimon raked his hand through her hair and smiled evilly. “Oh, this won’t hurt. Not for long anyway.”
Acheron solidified. He summoned a shield for the woman, to protect and confuse her. In her mind, she would see and remember an unknown figure scaring her attackers away.
In reality, he whistled.
The Daimons turned toward him in unison.
“Hi,” he said nonchalantly as he walked toward them. “You Daimons wouldn’t happen to be planning on sucking the soul of an innocent human, now would you?”
They looked at each other, then started to run.
“Oh, I don’t think so,” Ash said, throwing another shield up behind them to keep them from fleeing the alley. “No Daimon gets out of here alive.”
They hit the invisible wall and rebounded off it.
“Man,” Ash said, feigning a cringe. “It really makes you feel for the bug on a windshield, doesn’t it?”
They scrambled to their feet.
The tallest of them, who was almost even in height to Ash, narrowed his eyes. “We’re not afraid of you, Dark-Hunter.”
“Good. It makes the fight more fair that way.” Ash spread his hands out, creating a staff with his thoughts.
The male Daimons rushed him at once while the women backed away.
Acheron flipped the first Daimon to reach him over with his staff, then rammed the tip of it into the second. He embedded one end of the staff into the concrete and used it to balance as he jumped up and kicked at a third. He released the blade from the toe of his boot and sent it straight into the Daimon’s chest. The Daimon disintegrated.
Ash landed gracefully on the street while the first two pushed themselves up and the other two backed off.
“Oh, come on, girls,” he taunted them. “Don’t be bashful. At least I give you a fighting chance, which is more than you give your victims.”
“Look,” the leader said, his voice shaking. “Let us go and we’ll give you some important information.”
Ash scoffed. “What information could you possibly have that would be worth me letting you go so that you could kill more humans?”
“It’s worth it,” another one said. “It’s about—” His words broke off into a strangled cry.
Before Ash could move, all the Daimons disintegrated.
For the first time in centuries, he was too stunned to move.
What the hell just happened?
The human woman came flying up from her crouch and launched herself into his arms. “You saved me!”
Ash frowned. He couldn’t figure out how she could see him until she kissed him passionately.
“Dammit, Artemis,” he snarled, pushing her away. “Get off me.”
She made an irritated noise low in her throat. Releasing him, she flashed from her blond human disguise into her fiery goddessness. Her auburn hair curled around her shoulders as she stood, hands on hips, and pouted at him. “How did you know it was me?”
“After eleven thousand years, don’t you think I know what you taste like?”
Sulkily, she folded her arms over her chest. “If I’d been a real human, I bet you would have slept with me tonight.”
He sighed disgustedly and allowed his staff to fade into vapor. “I don’t have time for your petty jealousy. You know, I do have other things to take care of.”
She licked her lips and stepped to his side, then trailed her hand over his shoulders. She leaned to whisper in his ear. “I’m one of those things you need to take care of, love. Come home with me, Acheron. I’ll make it well worth your while.” She ran her tongue around his ear, raising chills over his body.
Ash shrugged her away. “I have a headache.”
“You’ve had a headache for two hundred years!”
He looked at her dryly. “And you’ve had PMS for eleven thousand.”
She laughed at that. “One day, my love, one day…”
Ash put a little more room between them. Enough so that she couldn’t casually run her hands over his body. “Why are you here?”
She shrugged. “I wanted to see you fight. I just love the way you get all serious and lethal. The way your muscles ripple when you move. It really turns me up.”
For once he didn’t bother to correct her misuse of American slang. Instead, his vision turned dark that she would manipulate him like this. He hated the games she played, especially when they involved the lives of other people. “So you created Daimons out of nothing and then killed them?”
She closed the distance between them. “Oh no, they were real. And I’m not the one who zapped them. Believe me, I love the way your body moves when you attack. I would never give them in while you fought.”
“You mean ‘take them out’?”
“Mmm … in … out…” Artemis nipped at his shoulder while she ran her hands down his chest. “You keep talking like that and I will take you home with me.”
His head was starting to pound. He removed her hand from his crotch where she cupped him. “Artie, could you stay focused for a minute? If you didn’t zap them, who did?”
“I don’t know.”
He moved away from her. Again.
She stamped her foot like a child who just had her favorite toy taken away and glared at him. “I hate it when you mess up your hair, and what is this thing you have in your nose?”
Ash felt the stud vanish and the hole close. He clenched his teeth. No doubt his hair was blond again too. “Dammit, Artemis, you don’t own me.”
Her eyes flashed dangerously. “You belong to me, Acheron Parthenopaeus,” she said, her voice full of rage and possession. “All of you. Mind, body, and soul. Don’t you ever forget it.”
He narrowed his eyes. “You have no real hold over me, Artie. We both know that. When all is said and done, my powers make a mockery of yours.”
“Oh no, love. So long as your Dark-Hunter army and the humans they protect mean more to you than you do, I will always have power over you.” She smiled coldly at him, then flashed out of the human realm.
Ash cursed and felt a childish impulse to send a lightning bolt slashing through the alley. No doubt she was trying to lure him back to her temple.
Like an idiot, he was going to go. He had to. He still didn’t know who had zapped the Daimons, and if it wasn’t Artemis, then there was someone else toying with him.
And woe to any other fool who dared to cross him. He tolerated Artemis because he had to.
He didn’t have to put up with anyone else. And by Archon’s thorny hammer, he’d tear the head off the next person who annoyed him.
* * *
“So,” Sunshine said to Talon as she sat on his bed wearing nothing but a borrowed T-shirt, her legs tucked up under her. “Are you planning on keeping me here forever, or what?”
Lying on his side, he picked through the platter she had made for them until he found the M&M’s he had insisted she include. “Depends. Do you plan to keep making me eat this healthy crap or can I have the leftover steak out of the fridge?”
She wrinkled her nose at him as she munched another strawberry. It still amazed her that she had found his small, secret stash of fresh fruit in the bottom drawer of his refrigerator. The man seemed to have an aversion to eating anything nontoxic.
“I don’t see how you stay healthy eating the garbage you have in your cabinets. Did you know I counted five different kinds of potato chips?”
“Really? There should be six. Did I eat all the barbecue?”
“You are not funny.” But she laughed anyway.
“Relax,” he said, reaching for the banana chips she’d made. “Have a banana.”
She gave him an arch look, then trailed her gaze impishly down his gorgeous naked body. “I already had your banana.”
He smiled at her. “I think it would be more correct to say my banana had you.”
Sunshine laughed again as she leaned over to feed him a strawberry. He held her hand to his lips while he ran his tongue over her fingers and gently nipped her skin before he let her withdraw.
He was unlike anyone she’d ever met before.
But unfortunately, it couldn’t last.
Her heart sank as the reality of it hit her. She needed to get out of here before leaving him became even more difficult than it already was. She didn’t want to hurt him or herself.
