The Dark-Hunters (229 page)

“Four hundred and sixty to be exact.”

She breathed in slow and easy at that. Dear Lord, what would it be like to live so long? How much could a person see in all that time?

It was mind-boggling.

But more than that came a frightening realization. One that made her heart clench as a horrible panicked grief swept through her. “I would seriously outlive everyone I know,” she breathed. “Tabitha, my brother and sister, my cousins. Everyone would be long gone before I even grew old?”

He took a deep breath and nodded. “It’s not easy, but you would have me and my family and friends.” His expression lightened as if a thought had occurred to him. “Sunshine Runningwolf. You know her, she’s immortal.”

Bride was shocked by that. She’d known Sunshine for years. “Sunshine’s immortal?”

“Yes.”

“Get out! Since when?”

“Always. Both she and her husband are.”

Wow! Who knew the woman who sold her the art Bride had hanging in her store and her little apartment was immortal?

She paused at that thought. Now wait a second … that wasn’t fair!

“Why can’t we be immortal?”

Vane shrugged nonchalantly. “Because my people aren’t. We have long lives, but they are finite.” His grip tightened on her hands. “There are some drawbacks, though. If you decide to bond with me, I will have to take your blood and you will have to take mine. A blood exchange is the only way to do it. Secondly, if one of us dies, we both do.”

She went pale. That was a scary thought.

Well, then again, compared to other things in Vane’s world, that was probably one of the more minor concerns.

“But you don’t have to, Bride,” he hastened to assure her. “Both decisions are yours alone to make.”

She took a deep breath as she considered all of it. This was one helluva commitment Vane was asking from her. It took “until death we do part” to a whole new level.

But as she looked at him still kneeling on the floor, she couldn’t help but wonder how bad life with this man could be. He was considerate and giving. A rarity in her world.

It was worth a two-week shot, at any rate.

“Okay,” she said slowly. “Now for my part of this. If we do mate, I want a human wedding. My parents won’t understand anything less than that and I’m not sure if I want to tell them about all this.”

“That’s fine.”

“That means you’re going to have to meet my parents, Vane.”

“Okay. They can’t be as scary as mine.”

“Well, they’re not homicidal as a rule, but they are protective of me.”

“I love them already.”

Bride gave a nervous laugh at his small, playful grin. “You know, I always thought I would meet some guy and date him for a year or two and then have him go down on his knee somewhere romantic to ask me to marry him. I never dreamed this would be my engagement.” She toyed with a lock of his hair. “I guess life is never what we want it to be, is it?”

Vane cringed inwardly at her words. He’d never meant to alter her life so horrendously. He’d only wanted to touch her for a moment.

To have her touch him.

Maybe this was cruel, and yet his heart didn’t want him to leave. It only wanted her.

Both the animal and the man in him craved nothing more than to be touched by this woman.

“I’ll do anything to make you happy, Bride.”

Bride tightened her grip in his hair. In that moment, she felt as though she might actually love this man. At least she knew that she could.

But she had been burned and she didn’t know Vane very well. She only had two weeks to learn about him. What she knew so far was terrifying … and wonderful.

She only hoped he wouldn’t lie or deceive her. If he showed her the real Vane and that man-wolf was honest, then she could accept him.

Her worst fear was that at the end of the two weeks, she would mate with him and he would become the psychotic, harsh animal his mother spoke of.

What would she do then?

Taylor had been wonderful in the beginning of their relationship. He’d even bought her chocolates for their first Valentine’s Day.

Over time, he’d become a total ass. Would Vane do the same?

And four hundred years … that was a really long time to spend with someone.

Not if you love them.

Maybe that was true.

The least she could do was try. And hope.

“So where do we go from here?” she asked him.

“I have to find someplace to keep you so that if I have to leave you, you’ll be safe.”

“And my store?”

“I’ll get someone to run it for you.”

That sounded just a little too easy. “How?”

“I’ll ask Acheron for another favor. They have humans who help the Dark-Hunters. They run a lot of the local businesses here in New Orleans and I’m sure they can send one of them over there to keep the shop open for you. The greatest benefit is if one of my people comes calling, they’ll know how to handle them.”

“All right, then. Let’s begin our hand-fasting and see how this will all work.”

Vane stood up and held his hand out to her.

Bride hesitated. She had never feared the future before, but she did now.

Taking a deep breath for courage, she placed her hand in his and let him pull her to her feet.

She expected him to lead her to the kitchen. Instead, he flashed her into the nursery.

“You know,” she said, feeling light-headed from their “trip.” “Feet work well.”

Vane laughed. “You said you wanted me to be myself. I prefer the flash-mode of transportation. It’s a lot quicker.”

Ash sat in an old-fashioned white wooden chair, rocking the baby who was snoozing in his lap while he watched them curiously. He held a half-empty bottle of milk between his legs while the baby, dressed in a pink jumper, sucked on her tiny fist in the shelter of his arms. There was something so incongruous about that image that Bride couldn’t help but stare.

A man decked out in black leather and chains with long red and black hair and a dagger earring in his left ear definitely didn’t look like someone who should relish caring for an infant. And yet there he sat in the frilly pink room peacefully cradling the baby. Ash ought to look completely out of place and yet he seemed at home here.

“I’ve already called Jessica Adams to take over the boutique,” Ash whispered to them. “She just needs to know where the paperwork is, where the keys to the store are kept, and what bank to make the deposits in.”

“Damn, you’re good,” Vane said.

Ash gave a cocky grin. “The absolute best.”

Vane shifted his weight. “Then you know—”

“Here’s the address.” Ash held his hand up and a business card magically appeared between his first two fingers. He handed the card over to Vane, who stepped forward to take it. “You’ll be safe there. Trust me, he’s more paranoid than an Apollite commune. Nothing is going to get into his place.”

Vane looked down at the name on the card and froze. “Will he be all right with us there?”

Ash shrugged. “His house is big enough. Just try to stay out of his way.” He looked past Vane and offered Bride a smile. “He’s a bit hard on the nerves, Bride, but Valerius is a good man so long as you don’t mention Kyrian’s name to him. He’ll make sure nothing happens to you.”

“Valerius?” she asked.

Vane let out a slow breath, then turned to face her. “He’s a vampire with serious attitude.”

Chapter 10

When Bride told Vane to do his worst and to let her see the real man … er, wolf … she’d had no idea just what she was letting herself in for.

He seldom did anything normal and she was beginning to appreciate how much effort he’d used to stay in the “normal” world for her when he’d pretended to be her wolf.

After leaving Ash, they’d gone downstairs to gather up Fury. One minute she’d been telling Amanda that she’d call her and the next, they were inside another house.

“I really wish you’d give me some warning before you do that,” she said to Vane as she looked around to get her bearings.

They were in a huge living room that was twice as large as the one in Kyrian’s home. The whole house was completely dark and tomblike. Sterile. Cold. The room had expensive, hand-carved mahogany paneling and was filled with more antiques than Bride had ever seen in one place before. Not to mention the marble floor with its intricate Roman-style pattern. It was like touring a European castle. Or a mansion. Everything she could see bled good aristocratic breeding and taste.

Unlike Kyrian’s house, there was nothing modern or comfortable here. No stuffed sofas, no television, no obvious phones or computers. Nothing. Even the books lining the exquisite bookshelves appeared to be leather-bound antiques. The sofa was obviously from the Georgian era and had very little padding underneath the burgundy fabric.

But the strangest thing of all was the statuary. Statues of two women who appeared to be nude Roman nymphs flanked the winding staircase. The fact that they were antiques wasn’t what was odd, it was the bright red pasties that covered their stone-white nipples.

“What in the world?” she asked.

Fury burst out laughing as he saw them.

“Jeez, Vane, call before you drop in. You’re lucky I didn’t shoot your ass.”

Bride turned to see a tall, darkly handsome man enter the room. He had shoulder-length black hair, sharp dark brown eyes, and about three days’ worth of beard.

Dressed in a loud orange Hawaiian shirt and ripped jeans, he carried himself like a man who knew he could kill anyone who came near him.

“Is he the vampire?” Bride asked in a low tone.

“No,” Vane said as he looked at the man in disbelief. “He’s Mafia. Otto, what the hell are you doing here? Dressed like that? What the hell happened to your clothes? You look like you’re morphing into Nick Gautier.”

“Suffering in eternal damnation,” Otto said, scratching at his beard as he neared them. “They transferred my ass over here, against my wishes I might add, to serve Dickhead Rex because he has to have someone who speaks Latin
and
Italian. God forbid the man have a normal plebeian Squire who just speaks English. Oh no, we must have one with
breeding.
” Otto sounded much like Alfred Hitchcock with that last word.

“So why are you dressed like Nick?” Vane asked.

“Just to piss him off. It’s truly the only thing that keeps me sane around here.”

Vane burst out laughing. “Let me guess, you the red pasties man?”

“Oh, hell yeah. I can’t wait till he gets up and freaks over that one.” Otto deepened his already low baritone voice and added in an accent that was almost Italian but not quite, “Do not touch nor even breathe upon the statuary, Squire. Unlike you, it’s priceless.” His voice went back to normal. “Nah, priceless will be his face when he sees it tonight.”

This time it was Fury who laughed. “I don’t know you,” he said, walking toward Otto with his hand extended, “but I can already tell we’re going to be friends. Fury Kattalakis.”

“Otto Carvalletti.” He shook Fury’s hand, then looked back and forth between the two wolves. “You two related?”

“Brothers,” Vane said.

“Cool,” Otto said, turning toward Bride with a charming smile. “You must be Bride.” He took her hand as well and she noted he had a black spiderweb tattoo over the back of his knuckles. “Welcome to the madness that is our world, my lady, though personally, I think you’re insane for wanting to be here.”

Otto kissed her hand and bowed low before her. The action elicited a deep growl from Vane which Otto chose to ignore. “By the way, Bride, you can relax. I am technically human, though my multitude of siblings would deny it. And barring the pasties, I’m really not some sicko. When you meet my boss, you’ll fully understand why I have to rattle his cage.”

Otto headed for the stairs. “If one of you good wolves would howl, I could do the whole ‘the children of the night, what music they make’ speech.” He looked back at them when neither Vane nor Fury howled. “Or not. Okay, mental note to self that the wolves have no sense of humor or have never read
Dracula
or seen one of the movies. No problem. Follow me and I’ll show you to your rooms. One quick rundown of the rules. We try to be as quiet as possible in the daylight so as not to wake Count Penicula.”

“Penicula?” Bride asked.

“My pet insult for Valerius. Much like the good Roman general who owns this house, it’s a combination of penis and Dracula.”

Bride would have laughed, but had a feeling it would only encourage Otto to be bad.

They followed Otto up the stairs.

“When did you get so chatty, Carvalletti?” Vane asked. “I always thought you were a man of few words.”

“I normally am, but I’ve been locked in this mansion for so long now that I’m going stir-crazy. I’m thinking I should have stayed up in Alaska. Hell, I’ve even been talking to Nick just to break the monotony.”

Otto paused on the stairs to look at them. “Valerius isn’t a Dark-Hunter, he’s a life-sucking Daimon out to bleed me dry. No wonder his last Squire quit. I keep putting in for a transfer and my father keeps telling me to be a man and take my assignment with dignity. I swear, that man better not get feeble or I’m locking him up in the worst retirement home I can find.”

“Dog, and I thought I had issues with my parents,” Fury said from behind Bride. “Mine just want to kill me and put me out of my misery, not add to it.”

“Yeah,” Otto said from the top of the stairs. “You’re lucky. I wish mine
would
kill me.”

Otto led them down a hallway while Vane leaned over and spoke in her ear. “Don’t let Otto’s current bizarreness fool you. He was valedictorian at Princeton.”

She gaped.

“And I had a brain until this place killed it. You try dealing with Valerius and Nick and you too will find yourself regressing into infancy in a matter of days. But whatever you do, don’t tell Master Valerius that I ever stepped foot onto Princeton soil. He thinks I dropped out of the Barbizon School of Modeling.”

Bride laughed, then looked at Vane. “So this is the world you’re bringing me into? No offense, but these people are really nuts. We have a Princeton graduate who dresses like Don Ho putting pasties on statues, a brother-in-law who’s a dog—”