The Dark-Hunters (240 page)

It’d been a couple of months since he’d last been in town. In truth, she’d missed him a lot more than she should have.

Against her will and common sense, she’d let Acheron Parthenopaeus worm his way into her guarded heart. But then, Ash was a hard man not to adore.

His long, sensuous gait was impossible to ignore and every female in the Square, except for the distraught Selena, was held transfixed by his presence. They all paused to watch him walk by as if compelled by some unseen force. He was sexy in a way very few men were.

He held an aura that was dangerous and wild; and by his slow, languorous moves, it was obvious that he would be incredible in bed. It was something you just knew intrinsically when you saw him and it rippled through your body like hot, seductive chocolate.

At six feet eight, Ash always stood out in a crowd. Like her, he was dressed all in black.

His Godsmack T-shirt was untucked and a bit large, but even so it didn’t detract from that fact that Ash was seriously ripped. And his custom-made leather pants cupped a butt so prime, it begged for a groping.

Not that she ever would. An undefinable air about him warned people to keep their hands to themselves if they wanted to keep breathing.

She smiled as she noted his boots. Ash had a thing for German Goth clothing. Tonight he had on a pair of black biker boots that had nine vampire-bat buckles going up the length of them.

He wore his long black hair loose and flowing around his shoulders. It was a perfect drape for a face that was eerily pretty and yet wholly masculine. Flawless. There was something about Ash that made every hormone in her body stand up and pant for more.

Yet for all his sexual attractiveness, there was also an aura so dark and deadly that it kept her from ever thinking of him as anything more than a friend.

And he’d been a friend ever since she had met him at her twin sister Amanda’s wedding three years ago. Since then, they had crossed paths repeatedly as he visited New Orleans and helped her keep watch against the city’s predators.

Now he was a regular part of her family, especially since he often stayed at her twin’s house and was, in fact, the godfather for Amanda’s daughter.

He stopped beside her and cocked his head. With his dark sunglasses on, Tabitha couldn’t tell if he was looking at her or Selena. But it was obvious he was bemused by the two of them.

“Hey, gorgeous babe,” Tabitha said. She smiled as she realized his T-shirt paid tribute to the Godsmack song “Vampires.” How strangely apropos since Ash was an immortal who came equipped with his own set of fangs. “Nice shirt.”

Ignoring her compliment, he pulled the black backpack off his shoulder and flipped his sunglasses up to show eerie, swirling silver eyes that seemed to flash in the darkness. “How long has Selena been handcuffed to the fence?”

“About half an hour. I figured I’d hang out with her and keep her from becoming a Daimon-kabob.”

“I wish,” Selena muttered. She raised her voice and slung her arms wide. “Here I am, vampires, come and end my misery!”

Tabitha and Ash exchanged a half-amused, half-irritated look at her dramatics.

Ash moved to sit down beside Selena. “Hi, Lanie,” he said quietly as he kept the backpack at his feet.

“Go away, Ash. I’m not leaving here until they repeal their law. I belong in this Square. I was raised here.”

Ash nodded in understanding. “Where’s Bill?”

“He’s a traitor!” Selena snarled.

Tabitha answered the question. “He’s probably at the courthouse holding ice to a private area after Selena racked him and accused him of being ‘the man who is holding her down.’”

Ash’s face softened as if the thought amused him.

“He deserved it,” Selena said defensively. “He told me that the law is the law and that I had to obey it. Screw that. I’m not going anywhere until they change it.”

“Guess I’ll be here for awhile,” Tabitha said wistfully.

“You can make them repeal the law,” Selena said, turning toward Ash. “Can’t you?”

Ash leaned back against the fence without commenting.

“Don’t get too close to her, Ash,” Tabitha warned. “She’s been known to bite.”

“That makes two of us,” he said with a hint of humor in his voice as his fangs flashed. “But I somehow think my bite might hurt a little more.”

“You’re not funny,” Selena said sullenly.

Ash draped an arm over Selena’s shoulder. “C’mon, Lane. You know it’s not going to change anything for you to stay here. Sooner or later a cop will come by—”

“And I’ll assault him.”

Ash tightened his hold on her. “You can’t assault them for doing their job.”

“Yes, I can!”

Still he managed to remain calm while dealing with the Queen of Hysteria. “Is that really what you want to do?”

“No. I want my stand back,” Selena said, her voice breaking from her grief and pain.

Tabitha’s own chest was tight in sympathetic agony for her.

“I wasn’t hurting anyone by having a table here. This is my space. I’ve had my stand right here in this spot since 1986! It’s so not fair for them to make me leave because those stupid artists are jealous. Who wants one of their crappy paintings of the Quarter, anyway? They’re stupid. What’s New Orleans without her psychics? Just another boring, run-down tourist town, that’s what!”

Ash held her sympathetically. “Times change, Selena. Believe me, I know, and sometimes there’s nothing you can do about it except to let it go. No matter how much you want to stop time, it has to go forward and move on to something else.”

Tabitha heard the sadness in his voice as he spoke comfortingly to her sister. Ash had been alive for more than eleven thousand years. He remembered New Orleans back in the days when it had barely qualified as a town. For that matter, he probably remembered New Orleans before any kind of civilization had claimed it.

If anyone knew about change, it was Acheron Parthenopaeus.

Ash wiped the tears from Selena’s face and angled her chin so that she was staring at the building across the street from them. “You know, that building is up for sale. ‘Madame Selene’s Tarot Reading and Mystical Boutique.’ Can you imagine it?”

Selena snorted at that. “Yeah, right. Like I can afford it. Have you any idea what the real estate here goes for?”

Ash shrugged. “Money’s not a problem for me. Say the word and it’s yours.”

Selena blinked at him as if she couldn’t believe what he was offering her. “Really?”

He nodded. “You could put a sign up right here that points people to your brand-new store where you can read cards to your heart’s content.”

Finally seeing a solution to her sister’s temporary dementia and grateful to Ash for it, Tabitha sat forward so that she could look at Selena. “You’ve always said you’d like to be someplace where it can’t rain you out.”

Selena cleared her throat as she considered it. “It would be nice to look out from a building instead of into it.”

“Yeah,” Tabitha said. “You’d no longer freeze in the winter or blister in the summer. Climate control all year long. No more wheeling your cart up here and setting up the table and chairs. You could even have a La-Z-Boy in the back room and carry all sorts of tarot card decks. Tia would be jealous as all get-out since she’s been wanting a shop closer to the Square. Think about it.”

“You want it?” Ash asked.

Selena nodded enthusiastically.

Ash pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number. “Hey, Bob,” he said after a brief pause. “This is Ash Parthenopaeus. There’s a building for sale on St. Anne’s in Jackson Square … yeah, that one. I want it.” He offered a close-lipped smile to Selena. “No, I don’t need to see it. Just have the keys out here in the morning.” He pulled the phone aside. “What time can you meet him here, Selena?”

“Ten?”

He repeated it into the phone. “Yeah, and make the deed out to Selena Laurens. I’ll swing by tomorrow afternoon and handle the payment. All right. Have a good one.” Ash hung up the phone and returned it to his pocket.

Selena smiled up at him. “Thank you.”

“No problem.” The instant he stood up, the handcuff fell free of the gate and Selena’s arm.

Jeez, that man had some fearsome powers. Tabitha just wasn’t sure which was more impressive. The one that broke the handcuff off Selena without a scratch or the one that allowed him to drop a couple of million dollars without blinking.

He held his hand out to Selena and helped her to her feet. “Just make sure you carry a lot of bright, shiny things for Simi to buy whenever we’re here.”

Tabitha laughed at the mention of Ash’s demon … something … Tabitha still didn’t know if Simi was Ash’s girlfriend or what. The two of them had a very odd relationship.

Simi demanded and Ash gave without hesitation.

Unless it involved Simi killing and eating someone. Those were the only times she’d ever seen Ash put his foot down with the demon he kept secret from most of his Dark-Hunters. The only reason Tabitha even knew about Simi was that the demon often joined them for movies.

For some reason, Ash really loved the cinema and Tabitha had been going to see movies with him for the last two years. His favorites were horror and action flicks. Meanwhile the Simi was a most unusual and discriminating being who made him sit through “girl” movies that often left Ash groaning.

“Where is the Simster tonight?” Tabitha asked.

Ash brushed his hand over the dragon tattoo on his forearm. “She’s hanging around. But it’s too early for her. She doesn’t like to be out and about until at least nine.” He slung the backpack over his shoulder.

Selena stood on her tiptoes and pulled Ash down so that she could hug him. “I’ll carry an entire line of Kirk’s Folly just for Simi.”

Smiling, he patted her on the back. “No more handcuffs, right?”

Selena pulled away. “Well, Bill did say that I could protest with him later in the bedroom and I do owe him for that kick I gave him, so…”

Ash laughed as Selena scooped up the cuffs from the street.

“And you wonder why I’m nuts,” Tabitha said as Selena tucked them into her back pocket.

Ash pulled his glasses back down to cover his eerie, swirling silver eyes. “At least she’s entertaining.”

“And you’re way too charitable.” But that was what Tabitha loved most about Ash. He always saw the good in everyone. “So what are you up to tonight?” she asked Ash while Selena folded up her handmade sign.

Before he could answer, a large black Harley came roaring down St. Anne. When it reached the turn that would have taken the rider down Royal Street, the bike stopped and was shut off.

Tabitha watched as the tall, lithe rider, who was decked out all in black biker leathers, held the bike upright between his thighs with ease and pulled the helmet off.

To her surprise, it was an African-American woman, and not a man, who set the helmet down before her on the bike’s gas tank and unzipped her jacket. Extremely gorgeous, she was slender but muscular, with medium brown skin and a flawless complexion. She wore her jet-black hair in braids that were pulled back into a ponytail.

“Acheron,” she said in a singsong Caribbean accent. “Where should I park me ride?”

Ash indicated Decatur Street behind him. “There’s a public lot on the other side of the Brewery. I’ll wait here until you get back.”

The woman’s gaze went to Tabitha, then Selena.

“They’re friends,” Ash said. “Tabitha Devereaux and Selena Laurens.”

“Sisters-in-law to Kyrian?”

Ash nodded.

“I am Janice Smith,” she said to them. “Nice to meet friends of the Hunters.”

Tabitha was sure that was a play on words that stemmed not so much from Kyrian’s last name as from his former occupation of being a Dark-Hunter—one of the immortal warriors like Janice and Ash who guarded the night against vampires, demons, and rogue gods.

Janice started her motorcycle and roared off.

“New Dark-Hunter?” Selena asked before Tabitha had a chance.

He nodded. “Artemis transferred her here from the Florida Keys to help Valerius and Jean-Luc. Tonight’s her first night so I thought I’d give her a tour of the city.”

“Need any help?” Tabitha asked.

“Nah. I got it. Just try not to stake Jean-Luc again if you meet up with him.”

Tabitha laughed at his reference to the night she had inadvertently met the pirate Dark-Hunter. It had been dark and Jean-Luc had grabbed her from behind in an alley while she was stalking after a group of Daimons. All she had seen were fangs and tallness, so she had struck.

Jean-Luc had yet to forgive her.

“I can’t help it. All you fanged people look alike in the dark.”

Ash grinned. “Yeah. I know what you mean. All you soul-full people look alike to us, too.”

Tabitha shook her head at him as she continued laughing. She wrapped her arm around Selena and started toward Decatur, where Selena had left her Jeep across the street.

It didn’t take long to get her sister home and situated with a very hesitant Bill, who wasn’t sure if Selena would rack him again or not. Once Tabitha was satisfied that Selena would be okay … and Bill, too … she headed back to the Quarter to patrol for Daimons.

It was a relatively quiet night out. She followed her usual habit of stopping in at the Café Pontalba and getting four plates of red beans and rice with Cokes to go, then taking the meals down to an alley off of Royal Street where many of the homeless were known to congregate. Since the city had decided to crack down on vagrants and the homeless, they weren’t nearly as prevalent as before. Now they, like the vampires she sought, kept to the shadows where they were forgotten.

But Tabitha knew they were there and she never let herself forget about them.

Tabitha left the food on an old rusted barrel and turned to leave.

As soon as she reached the edge of the sidewalk, she heard people scurrying for the food.

“Hey, if you want a job—”

But they were gone before she could get anything more than that out.

Sighing, Tabitha headed down Royal. She couldn’t save the world, she knew that. But at least she could see to it that some of the hungry were fed.

With no real destination in mind, she wandered down the lonely streets and browsed in the jewelry shop windows.