The Dark-Hunters (118 page)

“You haven’t seen her since?”

He shook his head. “We’re not allowed to have contact with the gods. They see us as an abomination.”

“But what about Eros?”

He took a deep breath and felt a twinge of humor at the thought of the fun-loving, irreverent god of love. “He’s a little different. For some reason, he likes hanging out with us.”

Sunshine considered his words as they finished dinner. Poor Talon. He had been through so much pain. So much grief.

To some extent it bothered her that he was still confusing her with Nynia. They might share a soul, but ultimately, they were two entirely different people.

Not that it really mattered. So long as he was bound to Artemis and cursed by Camulus, he could never be free. He could never have a future.

While she’d talked to Psyche, the goddess had told her how to summon Artemis.

Sunshine really wanted to have a nice chitchat with that goddess and see if maybe Talon could earn his freedom again. If she accomplished that, then maybe they could do something to stop Camulus as well.

After they paid for dinner, they left the restaurant and headed for her father’s club.

Sunshine didn’t know why Talon wanted to take her home, but she snuck them in unnoticed so that they could have a little more time alone.

Talon led her to the dance floor.

Sunshine had never realized before just how hot a man could be when he danced. Personally, she’d always thought most men looked rather goofy.

But not Talon. He was the sexiest thing she’d ever seen in her life.

When the song ended, Talon urged her to introduce him to her father and brother. They were sitting nearby, going over paperwork and accounting stats for the club while Wayne helped them.

“Hi, Daddy, Storm, and Wayne.”

They looked up and smiled until they saw Talon behind her.

“Sunshine, are you all right?” her father asked.

“I’m fine. I just wanted you to meet Talon. Talon, my father, Daniel Runningwolf.”

Talon offered his hand, but her father declined.

“I’m a shaman and can’t touch you.”

Talon nodded at him with a look that said he understood. “Sorry, I wasn’t thinking.”

Wayne excused himself.

After he left, her father’s dark brown eyes glittered harshly as he swept his gaze to Sunshine. “Starla didn’t tell me your boyfriend was soulless, kitten.”

“She probably thought you’d flip out. Are you?”

“Yes.”

Sunshine quickly sought to change the subject. “How’s Mom, by the way?”

“She’s fine. What about you?”

“I’m fine, Daddy. Don’t worry.”

“I’m your father, Sunshine. Worrying about you is my full-time occupation.”

She smiled at him. “And you do it very well.”

Still, he looked less than appeased.

Talon stepped forward. “Daniel, could I have a word with you?”

Sunshine frowned at the ominous note in Talon’s voice. Her father’s eyes narrowed even more before he nodded subtly. “Sunshine, stay with Storm.”

She watched as the two of them drifted off and a wave of terror crashed over her. Something was definitely wrong.

*   *   *

Talon led her father to another corner of the bar. He glanced over to Sunshine and his heart wrenched.

“What is it you want with me?” Daniel asked.

“Look, I know you don’t like me.”

“Don’t like you? You’re a soulless killer. Granted, you do it protectively, but it doesn’t change the basic fact that you are no longer human.”

“I know that. It’s why we’re here. I’m going to release Sunshine into your protection tonight. There are some people who are out to harm her and I would really appreciate it if you watched out for her. I’ll be staying nearby, out of sight, until after tomorrow night just in case the thing after her tries to take her again.”

“From what my wife tells me, Sunshine won’t let you leave her voluntarily.”

“In another four minutes, she won’t ever want to lay eyes on me again. I promise you.”

He frowned. “What do you mean?”

Talon cleared his throat as he glanced to the large Budweiser clock on the wall over the bar.

Their time was almost up.

Damn you, Fates.

“Nothing,” he said quietly. “Just take my word for it, your daughter is yours.”

Daniel nodded.

As Talon walked back to Sunshine, his entire being ached. He couldn’t stand the thought of what Eros was about to do. It cut him on a level so deep it was unfathomable.

But it had to be done.

They couldn’t be together. It was foolish to think otherwise.

He had to do this to save her life.

From the corner of his eye, he saw Eros appearing in god-form. Invisible to humans, the god of love was easily discernible to Talon’s Dark-Hunter senses.

“You sure?” Eros’s voice echoed in his head.

Talon leaned over, kissed Sunshine gently on the lips, and then nodded.

He held her face in his hands, and stared at her brown eyes, waiting for the moment when they would turn dark with hatred. Waiting for her to stiffen and curse him.

Eros raised his bow up and shot it straight into Sunshine.

Talon swallowed as painful expectation tore through him.

Goodbye, my love.

She grimaced at him. “Ow! Talon, did you hit me?”

He shook his head and waited for the hatred to come into her eyes.

It didn’t.

Seconds ticked by slowly as her frown deepened.

“I don’t feel right.” She rubbed her heart where Eros had shot her.

Then, amazingly, she looked up and focused her gaze on Eros. “Cupid?”

Eros looked around nervously. “You can see me?”

“Well, yeah,” she said.

Eros shifted and looked a bit green.

Talon frowned as a bad feeling went through him. “What happened, Eros? Why doesn’t she hate me?”

Eros looked even more uncomfortable. “You two wouldn’t happen to be soulmates, would you?”

“Yes,” Sunshine answered. “Psyche said we were.”

Eros gave a sheepish grin. “Oops. I think I need to have a talk with my wife. Damn, she should have told me.”

“Oops?” Talon repeated. “Eros,
oops
better not be in your vocabulary.”

Eros cleared his throat. “No one told me you two were soulmates. See, this”—he held up his bow—“only works on lust and infatuation. Soulmates are a whole ’nother ball game. That kind of love, I can’t kill. Nothing can.”

Sunshine gaped as she understood what was going on. In that moment, she wanted to strangle Talon. “You tried to get him to make me hate you?”

Now Talon looked as sheepish as Eros. “Honey, I can explain.”

She glared at him as rage rocked every particle of her body. “Oh, you’re going to explain all right. How dare you try to monkey with my mind and heart? I don’t appreciate your doing something so underhanded.”

“Sunshine,” her father said. “He’s right. You can’t have a future with him. He’s not human.”

“I don’t care what he is. He and I have something together and I can’t believe he’d do something like this.”

“I forbid you to see him anymore.” Her father’s tone was stern.

She turned her anger toward her father. “And I’m not thirteen. I don’t care what you forbid or not, Daddy. This is between me and him.”

“I will not watch you die again,” Talon said slowly, stressing each word.

“And I will not be manipulated. Nor will I just give you up.”

Talon turned and stormed out of the club, his emotions churning. He couldn’t do this. He couldn’t.

He had to let her go.

It was for both their sakes.

Without looking back, he went to his motorcycle. He got on it, but before he could kick-start it, Sunshine grabbed his arm.

“You’re not going to get rid of me like this.”

He bared his fangs at her. “Do you not understand what I am?”

Sunshine swallowed. Suddenly everything Psyche had said made sense to her. He wasn’t Speirr, the leader of his people. The frightened little boy who had turned his heart to stone in order to live. The man who had stolen Nynia’s heart and then claimed her when no other would have.

This was Talon, the Dark-Hunter who spent eternity protecting strangers from the dark evil of the night.

She loved him even more.

He made her heart sing. Without him, she couldn’t even imagine her future.

She didn’t know how to conquer everything that stood between them, but he was worth fighting for.

“I know what you are, Talon. You are the man I was born to love. The
only
man I was born to love.”

“I am not a man. Not anymore.”

“You are mine and I will not let you go without a fight.”

Talon didn’t know what to do. The tone of her voice tore through him.

He wanted to crush her to him and hold on to her forever.

He wanted to push her away and curse. To make her hate him.

She stepped into his arms and kissed him deeply.

Talon groaned at the taste of her. Although he knew he shouldn’t, he pulled her across his bike and started it, then headed off into traffic.

His love and anger roiling, he drove them out of the city, all the way to the edge of his swamp. The entire time the scent and feel of her permeated him, making his emotions even more volatile. Her body was pressed so close to him that it was all he could focus on.

Her warmth, her love.

He had to have her.

Unable to stand it, he pulled up into the woods and turned the engine off.

Sunshine was partially afraid of the feral look of him as he stared at her.

His eyes were blazing with fire and passion as he seized her and kissed her roughly.

His hunger tore through her, incited her. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders as he leaned her back over his gas tank.

She’d never seen him like this. It was as if all his emotions were out of control, as if he were living only to touch her. He kissed her neck and face as his hands loosened her blouse so that he could cup her breast in his hands.

He was wild and untamed and it seemed to her that he had more than two hands. It was as if he were touching her all over at once.

She wanted him desperately. Wanted him with the same need he had for her.

She kissed his lips, rubbing herself against his swollen groin as she pulled his T-shirt off, over his head. She ran her hands over the wide expanse of his chest, feeling his muscles bunch and flex.

He shoved her full skirt up over her hips.

“I need you, Talon,” she whispered.

Talon wanted to possess her. Every part of him screamed out for it. He’d never in his entire life felt like this. He had to get inside her. Had to touch her. Had to feel her hands on his skin, her breath against his neck.

It was a need so powerful that it shook him.

She fumbled with his fly before she unzipped his pants, freeing his erection. He trembled as she sheathed him with her hands.

He choked at how wonderful her hands felt on him. “That’s it, Sunshine,” he breathed against her hair. “Bring me home.”

She arched her back and gently guided him into the wet heat of her body. Talon growled ferociously at the feel of her.

Like an animal, he made love to her furiously.

Panting and weak from desire, Sunshine clutched him to her as he thrust himself against her until she was dizzy with pleasure. For the first time since they had met, he didn’t hide his fangs from her. He let her see him as he really was.

Let her know the untamed beast that inhabited this man’s body.

Their gazes locked, she watched the ecstasy on his face as he rocked himself between her thighs.

She cupped his face in her hands, mesmerized by the man and the predator he was.

All her life she’d heard tales of immortal beings, of vampires taking possession of their victims.

Tonight, she wanted to be his.

Talon was out of control with her. He knew it. His emotions surging, he couldn’t think. He could only feel. She was his focal point. His everything.

Her scent permeated his head, covered his body, heightening his senses.

He heard the blood rushing through her veins, felt her heart pounding against his chest. The heat of her soft, feminine skin sliding against his.

Take her!

It was a feral command.

Primal.

Demanding.

Had he been in his right mind, he would have controlled himself. As it was, he couldn’t.

Now, he was the beast that stalked the night. His only thought having her, he slid himself deep inside her and then he sank his fangs deep into her neck.

He felt her surprise for only an instant until complete sexual ecstasy tore through them both.

Their bodies and minds were united. Joined.

He felt every thought in her head. Every emotion. Every fear. Every joy.

He saw inside her heart down to her fear that he didn’t love her as much as he loved Nynia. That he would never love her as much. He felt her hopelessness and her determination.

Most of all, he felt her love.

Growling fiercely, he let her essence wash over him. Let her seep into every corner of his being. There were no more secrets between them. No more places to hide.

She was as bare to him as he was to her.

And her love for him was the most incredible feeling he’d ever experienced.

Talon thrust himself in deep as his head and body exploded. Their orgasms were so fierce that he couldn’t keep the motorcycle upright. Before he knew what had happened, they were lying on the ground, still entangled as his sense returned to him.

Sunshine stared up at him in the moonlight, her clothes disheveled and her face adoring.

In her mind, she could still hear his thoughts. His fear of losing her, his need to protect her.

She saw his guilt that he had allowed his sister to die. His need to right the wrong that had been done to Nynia.

The sadness and grief that lived inside him as constant companions.

Most of all, she saw his need to hold her. His need to not fail her.

She felt his power and strength, which were unlike anything she had imagined. He was a predator.

And he was the man she loved. One who loved her and one who was willing to do anything for her.