The Dark-Hunters (127 page)
Authors: Sherrilyn Kenyon
Tags: #Literature & Fiction, #Romance, #Paranormal, #Vampires, #Science Fiction & Fantasy, #Fantasy, #Paranormal & Urban
He had believed in her and had given her the one thing he had never given anyone else—his trust.
She had been his world. His sanctuary. At a time when no one would acknowledge him, she had welcomed him into her life and had shown him what it was like to be wanted.
Together, they had laughed and they had loved. He had shared things with her that he had never shared with anyone before or since.
Then, when he had needed her most, she had coldly turned her back on him and left him to die painfully. Alone.
She had spurned his love that day and had proven to him that in the end, she was just as ashamed of him as his family had been.
He meant nothing to her.
He never would.
The truth of it had hurt, but after all this time he had come to terms with it. He would never be anything more to her than a curiosity. A defiant pet she kept around for her own amusement.
Again in a gesture she knew he hated, Artemis knelt at his back, her knees brushing gently against his hips. She ran her hand over his shoulder, and then down the intricate bird tattoo on his arm.
“Mmm,” she purred as she nuzzled his hair with her face. “What is it about you that makes me want you so?”
“I don’t know, but if you ever figure it out, let me know and I’ll be sure to stop it.”
She sank her fingernails deep into his tattoo. “My Acheron, ever defiant. Ever vexing.”
She ripped open his T-shirt and removed it from his body.
Ash held his breath as she pulled his back to her front and hungrily skimmed her hands over his bare chest. As always, his body betrayed him and reacted to her touch. Chills ran over his skin and his gut drew tight as his groin hardened.
Her hot breath fell against his neck as she ran her tongue along his collarbone. He leaned his head to the right to give her more access to him while she unlaced his tight leather pants.
His breathing ragged, Ash clutched his hands against his thighs and waited for what was to come.
She freed his swollen shaft and sheathed it with her hands.
Her tongue teasing his neck, she ran her right hand upward to the tip of his manhood where she stroked him until he was so hard for her that he hurt. He moaned as she dipped her other hand down and cupped and stroked him from underneath while her right hand continued to tease him.
“You’re so large and thick, Acheron,” she whispered hoarsely as she used her fingers to coat him in his own wetness so that she could stroke him even faster. Harder. “I love the way you feel in my hands.”
She took a deep breath in his hair. “The way you smell.” She nuzzled his shoulder with her face. “The sound of your voice when you say my name.” She ran her tongue across his shoulder blade back to his neck. “The way your cheeks mottle whenever you exert yourself.”
She nibbled his ear. “The look on your face when you release yourself inside of me.”
She brushed her breasts against his spine so that she could whisper her next words in his ear. “But most of all, I love the way you
taste.”
Ash tensed as she sank her long canine teeth into his neck. The momentary pain turned quickly to physical pleasure.
Reaching over his shoulder, he cradled her head to his neck and rocked himself against her hands as she stroked him even faster than before. He felt her and her powers flowing through him, uniting them even closer than the intimacy of sex.
His head swam until he could see nothing. All he could feel was Artemis. Her demanding hands on him, her hot, living breath against his throat, her heart pounding in time to his.
They were synchronized. Her pleasure was his and, for this moment in time, they were one creature with one heartbeat, bonded on a level that transcended human understanding.
He felt her desire for him. Her need to possess every part of his mind, body, and heart. He felt as if he were drowning. As if she were pulling him far away from himself, into a cold, dark cell where he would never again find his way back.
He heard her whispering to him in his mind.
“Come for me, Acheron. Give me your power. Your strength. Give me all that you are.”
He fought against her intrusion, and as always, he lost the battle.
In the end, he had no choice except to give her what she wanted.
Ash threw his head back and roared as his entire body shook in complete orgasmic ecstasy. Still she drank from him, taking his essence and powers into her own body.
He was hers. Regardless of what he might think, want, or feel, he would always belong to her.
Panting and weak from her possession, Ash leaned back against her and watched as a thin trail of blood ran down his chest …
Epilogue
THREE MONTHS LATER
Sunshine smiled as she carried her small box of oil paints into the living room. She’d been intending to take them to her new studio that overlooked Talon’s swamp, but as soon as she had caught sight of her husband hanging her paintings of his old cabin up on the wall, she’d stopped.
He didn’t seem to know she was there. He had the hammer hanging out of his back pocket as he lifted the framed landscape and placed it on the wall.
As soon as the two of them had emerged from her loft after Mardi Gras, Talon had decided to build them their own house.
Together, they had designed every detail. An extremely large computer room and a garage to accommodate his toys, and an open, airy studio for her art. They even had a game room with shelves that displayed his massive collection of Pez dispensers. Snoopy took a prime location in the center of the middle shelf.
But her favorite room was the small one that adjoined their master bedroom suite. The one that would hopefully be a nursery someday.
“Did I get it centered?” he asked, surprising her that he knew she was standing behind him.
“Looks good to me.”
He glanced at her over his shoulder and caught her gazing at his nicely shaped rear.
“I was talking about the painting.”
“And I was talking about your butt, but the painting looks all right too.”
He laughed as he neared her and took the box out of her hands.
He brushed his hand though her hair and gave her a light kiss. Sunshine reached around his hips and gave a tight squeeze to his heinie.
“You keep doing that,” Talon said throatily, “and we won’t get any more unpacking done today.”
She gave him a devilish grin. “That’s okay. It’s not like we don’t have the rest of eternity to move in.”
“Well, in that case…” He set the box down and scooped her up in his arms.
Sunshine laughed as he headed toward the indoor pool. “Where are you taking me?”
His look was purely sexual. “To the only room we haven’t broken in yet.”
“You are insatiable.”
“I know. Evil to the core.”
As they passed the dining room, she made him put her down long enough to grab a small, wrapped package.
Talon frowned, then he tossed her over his shoulder and sprinted with her to the back of the house.
Sunshine was still laughing when he laid her down gently next to the pool.
“What’s this?” he asked after she handed him her gift.
“It’s a housewarming present for you.”
He opened it to find an Eddie Munster Pez dispenser.
A wide smile spread across his face. “I can’t believe you found one.”
Sunshine lifted his scarred right hand and kissed it. Then, she turned it over in her hands and studied the swirling design of the burn.
The first thing Talon had done when he had taken her to her loft had been to remove the scar from her hand that she had received from holding the medallion.
Now that scar resided on his hand instead of hers.
“I love you, Talon,” she whispered. “More than you will ever know.”
He fingered her cheek with his left hand as his amber eyes scorched her with their sincere intensity. “I love you, too, Sunshine. Thank you for your strength and for giving up soy products.”
She laughed at that, then kissed him passionately.
Talon stepped away from her as he caught sight of the box she’d brought in a few minutes ago. It held a collection of things they had packed up from his desk, including the box that held Nynia’s torc.
“I’ve been meaning to do something.” He removed the torc from around his neck and placed it with Nynia’s.
Sunshine frowned as she watched him slide open the door to the back porch that looked out over the swamp.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m putting the past to rest. As much as I loved Nynia, I love you more and I never want you to doubt whose eyes I’m looking into when I make love to you.”
He drew back to toss the torcs.
Sunshine grabbed his hand. She knew exactly what those torcs meant to him and what he was doing for her.
Kissing his lips, she took them from him. She pulled back with a smile. “I will never doubt you, Talon.”
She took his torc and returned it to his neck.
He smiled tenderly, then placed the other one around hers.
Her skin tingled from the feel of his hands on her collarbone.
Staring into his eyes, she remembered the night she’d met him. The sight of the float running him over.
Even though she should hate Dionysus for all he had put them through, she couldn’t.
After all, had the incompetent god backed up, her story would have had an entirely different ending.
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
NIGHT EMBRACE
Copyright © 2003 by Sherrilyn Kenyon.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
ISBN: 0-312-98482-0
EAN: 80312-98482-3
St. Martin’s Paperbacks edition / July 2003
St. Martin’s Paperbacks are published by St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
eISBN 9781429976190
First eBook edition: February 2014
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DANCE WITH THE DEVIL
SHERRILYN KENYON
Contents
For all my readers–thank you so much for all the e-mails and wonderful support you have shown me and the series, especially the ladies of RBL, Sanctuary and HunterLegends. To Lo, Nick, Tasha and Brynna who keep me sane and who help run the loops and DH bbs. To Janet for the tremendous support you give and work you do. For my husband and boys who are always the highlight of my day and who remind me that happy-ever-afters really can happen. And especially for Kim and Nancy who not only allow me to explore the outer limits of the DH world, but who have also allowed me to share my universe with all of you. God bless and protect you all. Hugs!!
PROLOGUE
New Orleans
The Day After Mardi Gras
Zarek leaned back in his seat as the helicopter took off. He was going home to Alaska.
No doubt he would die there.
If Artemis didn’t kill him, he was sure Dionysus would. The god of wine and excess had been most explicit in his displeasure over Zarek’s betrayal and in what he intended to do to Zarek as punishment.
For Sunshine Runningwolf’s happiness, Zarek had crossed a god who was sure to make him suffer even worse horrors than those in his human past.
Not that he cared. There wasn’t much in life or death that Zarek had ever cared about.
He still didn’t know why he’d put his ass on the line for Talon and Sunshine, other than the fact that pissing people off was the only thing that truly gave him pleasure.
His gaze fell to his backpack that rested by his feet.
Before he realized what he was doing, he took out the handmade bowl that Sunshine had given him and held it in his hands.
It was the only time in his life anyone had given him anything he didn’t have to pay for.
He ran his hands over the intricate designs that Sunshine had carved. She had probably spent hours on this bowl.
Caressed it with loving hands …
“They waste their time over a rag doll and it becomes very important to them; and if anybody takes it away from them, they cry…”
The passage from
The Little Prince
ran through his mind. Sunshine had wasted much of her time on this and given him her hard work for no apparent reason. She probably had no idea just how much her simple gift had touched him.
“You really are pathetic,” he breathed, clutching the bowl in his hands as he curled his lip in repugnance. “It meant nothing to her, and for a worthless piece of clay you just consigned yourself to eternal death.”
Closing his eyes, he swallowed.
It was true.
One more time, he was going to die for nothing.
“So what?”
Let him die. What did it matter?
If they didn’t kill him on the trip in, he’d go out with a good fight, and good fights were all too few and too far between in Alaska.
He looked forward to the challenge.
Angry at himself and the world at large, Zarek splintered the bowl with his thoughts, then brushed the dust off his pants.