The Dark-Hunters (25 page)

Grace struggled to breathe. “I see,” she said, even though inside she was dying. “You’ll just use my body, then leave.” Her throat constricted. “At least I won’t need Selena to drive me home afterward.”

Julian flinched as if she’d slapped him. “What do you want from me, Grace? Why would you want me to stay here?”

She didn’t know the answer to that. All she knew was that she didn’t want him to leave. She wanted him to stay.

But not if he didn’t want to.

“You know what,” she said, growing angry at the thought of his leaving her. “I don’t want you to stay here. In fact, why don’t you go home with Selena for a few days?” She looked at Selena. “Would you mind?”

Selena’s mouth opened and closed like a fish gulping for air.

Julian reached for her. “Grace—”

“Don’t touch me,” she said, wringing her arm away from him. “It makes my skin crawl.”

“Grace!” Selena snapped. “I can’t believe you—”

“It’s all right,” Julian said, his voice empty and cold. “At least she didn’t spit in my face with her dying breath.”

She’d hurt him. Grace could see it in his eyes, but then he had hurt her, too. Terribly.

“I’ll see you later,” she said to Selena, then left Julian standing there.

*   *   *

Selena let out a long, slow breath as she looked up at Julian while he watched Grace walk away from them. His entire body was rigidly still, and she saw the fierce tic in his jaw.

“They shoot, they score. A direct hit straight through the heart and into the raw nerves.”

Julian pinned her with a hostile glare. “Tell me, Oracle. What should I have said?”

Selena shuffled her cards. “I don’t know,” she said wistfully. “I guess you can never go wrong with honesty.”

Julian rubbed his eyes as he sat down in the chair before Selena’s table. He hadn’t meant to hurt Grace.

And he would never forget the look on her face as she spat those words at him.
“Don’t touch me. It makes my skin crawl.”

He struggled to breathe through the agony in his chest. The Fates were still mocking him.

It must be a boring day for them up on Olympus.

“You want me to do a reading for you?” Selena asked, dragging his thoughts away from the past.

“Sure,” he said. “Why not?” She couldn’t tell him anything he didn’t already know.

“What’s your question?”

“Will I ever…” Julian paused before he asked her the same question he’d once asked the Oracle at Delphi.

“Will I ever break the curse?” he asked quietly.

Selena shuffled her cards, then laid three of them out. Her eyes widened.

He didn’t need her to read them. He could see for himself, a card with a tower being struck by lightning, a card of three swords piercing a heart, and a demon holding the chains of two people.

“It’s all right,” he said to Selena. “I never really thought it would come to pass.”

“That’s not what they say,” she whispered. “But you have one hell of a battle to come.”

He laughed bitterly. “Battles I can handle.” It was the ache in his heart that was going to kill him.

*   *   *

Grace wiped the tears from her face as she pulled into the driveway. She clenched her teeth as she got out and slammed the door shut.

To hell with Julian. He could just stay trapped in that book for eternity. She wasn’t some piece of meat to serve his needs.

How could he—

She fumbled with the key to her door.

“How could he not?” she whispered as she found the right key and opened the door.

Her anger drained out of her. She was being unreasonable, and she knew it. It wasn’t Julian’s fault Paul had been a selfish pig. And it wasn’t his fault that she had a fear of being used.

She was blaming Julian for something he had no part in, and yet …

She just wanted someone who loved her. Someone who wanted to stay with her.

She’d hoped that by helping Julian, he would stay around and …

Closing the door, she shook her head. No matter how much she wanted it to be different, it wasn’t meant to be. She’d heard what Ben had said about Julian’s life. The story Julian, himself, had told the children about his battle.

She remembered the way he had darted across the street and saved that child’s life.

Julian had been born and bred to lead armies. He didn’t belong in her world.

He belonged in his own.

It was selfish of her to try and keep him like some pet she’d rescued.

Grace trudged up the stairs, her heart heavy. She would just have to guard herself from him. That was all she could do. Because deep inside she knew the more she learned about him, the more she cared for him. And if Julian had no intention of staying, then she would end up getting hurt.

She was halfway up the stairs when someone knocked on her front door. For an instant, her spirits lifted as she thought it might be Julian—Until she got to the front door and saw the outline of a small man on her porch.

She cracked open the door, then gaped.

It was Rodney Carmichael.

He wore a dark brown suit with a yellow shirt and red tie. His short, black hair was slicked back and he offered her a beaming smile. “Hi, Grace.”

“Mr. Carmichael,” she said coldly, even though her heart was pounding. There was something indefinably creepy about this little, wiry man. “What are you doing here?”

“I just wanted to stop by and say hi. I thought we could—”

“You need to leave.”

He frowned at her. “Why? I just want to talk to you.”

“Because I don’t see patients in my home.”

“Yeah, but I’m not—”

“Mr. Carmichael,” she said sternly. “I really need you to leave. If you don’t, I’m calling the police.”

Unaffected by the anger in her voice, he nodded with saintly patience. “Oh, so you must be busy. I can relate. I have a lot of stuff to do, too. How ’bout I come by later? We could have dinner tonight.”

Dumbfounded, she stared at him. “No.”

He smiled at that. “C’mon, Grace. Don’t be that way. You know we’re meant for each other. If you’d just let me—”

“Leave!”

“Okay, but I’ll be back. We have a lot of things to talk about.” He turned around and headed across her porch.

Her heart hammering, Grace shut and locked the door.

“I’m going to kill you, Luanne,” she said as she made her way to the kitchen. As she passed through the living room, a shape in her window caught her attention.

It was Rodney.

Aghast, Grace picked up the phone and called the police.

It was almost an hour later before they came. Rodney stayed outside the entire time, moving from window to window to watch her through the closed slits of her blinds, and it wasn’t until he saw the police car pulling into the driveway that he ran across her backyard and vanished.

Grace took a deep breath to calm her raw nerves, then went to let the officers in.

They stayed only long enough to tell her there was nothing they could do to keep Rodney permanently away from her. The best she could do would be to swear out a restraining order, but since she was required to treat Rodney until Luanne returned, that was useless.

“I’m sorry,” the officer said in the doorway as she showed them out. “But he didn’t break any laws that would allow us to really get him out of your hair. You could swear out a warrant for trespassing, but unless he has priors, there’s not a whole lot they’re going to do to him.”

The young officer gave her a sympathetic look. “I know it’s not much comfort. We can try to patrol the area a little more, but the summer is a really busy time of year for us. Personally, I’d advise you to stay with a friend for a while.”

“All right, thanks.” As soon as they were gone, she rushed through the house making sure all the doors and windows were locked tight.

Apprehensive, Grace looked around the house, half expecting Rodney to enter through a crack in the wall like a cockroach.

If only she knew whether or not Rodney was dangerous. His report from the state hospital mentioned his routine deviant behavior of butting into women’s lives, but he’d never harmed anyone physically. He’d just terrified his victims with his blind persistence, which was why he’d been sent to the hospital for evaluation to begin with.

The psychologist in Grace said there was nothing particularly dangerous about Rodney, but the woman in her was scared anyway.

The last thing she wanted was to become a statistic.

No, she couldn’t stay here waiting for him to come back and find her alone.

Rushing upstairs, she went to pack.

C
HAPTER
11

Selena watched as Julian paced back and forth in front of her stand while she gave a reading to a tourist. Ooo boy, she could watch that man walk all day long. He had such an eye-popping gait that it made her yearn to rush home to Bill and do some wicked things to him.

Over and over, women approached Julian, and he kept sending them away. It was actually funny to watch women strut around him while he remained oblivious to their machinations. She’d never known such a man existed.

But then, even she could get sick of chocolate if she ate too much of it.

Judging by the way women responded to Julian, she was sure he had quite a bellyache from overindulgence. Worse, he looked terribly troubled.

And she felt awful for what she had done to both of them. Her idea had seemed flawless at first. If only she’d thought it through a little more.

How was she to know who Julian had been? If only his name had rung a bell. But her specialty was Bronze Age Greece which had been ancient history even in Julian’s time.

Even worse, she hadn’t really thought about the man in the book as being a real person. She’d thought he was some kind of genie-like creature without a past or feelings.

Boy, when she screwed up, she always managed to do it in a big way.

Shaking her head, Selena watched while he turned down yet another offer from an attractive redhead. The man was a serious estrogen magnet.

She finished the reading.

Julian waited a few minutes before heading back to her table. “Take me to Grace.”

It wasn’t a request. He said it in a tone of voice she was sure he’d once used to order his troops into battle formation. “She said—”

“I don’t care what she said. I need to see her.”

Selena wrapped her cards in her black silk scarf. What the hell? She didn’t need a best friend anyway. “It’s your funeral.”

“I wish,” he said in a tone so low she wasn’t sure she heard it correctly.

He helped her close up her stand and wheel her cart to the small shed she rented to house it.

In no time, they were headed to Grace’s.

*   *   *

They pulled into the drive at the same time Grace was packing her car.

“Hey, Gracie,” Selena called. “Where you going?”

Grace glared at Julian. “Away for a few days.”

“Where?” Selena asked.

She didn’t answer.

Julian left the car and headed straight for Grace. He was going to set this right, no matter what it took.

She tossed a bag in the trunk of the car and started away from him.

Julian grabbed her arm. “You didn’t answer her question.”

Grace shrugged his hand off. “What are you going to do, manhandle me if I don’t answer?” Her eyes narrowed on him.

He winced at her rancor. “And you wonder why I want to leave?”

Then he saw it, the tears she was trying so hard to hide. Her eyes were bright and shiny.

Pain cut him deeply. “I’m sorry, Grace,” he whispered, cupping her cheek in his hand. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

Grace watched the regret and longing war on his face. His touch was so warm and gentle. For a moment, she could almost believe he did care for her.

“I’m sorry, too,” she whispered. “I know it’s not your fault.”

He gave a bitter half-laugh. “Actually, everything about this is my fault.”

“Hey? Are you two kosher?” Selena asked.

Julian’s gaze burned into Grace’s, making her tremble from its intensity.

“Do you want me to leave?” he asked.

No, she didn’t. That was the whole problem. She never wanted him to leave her again. Ever.

She took his hands into hers, then lowered them from her face. “It’s okay, Selena.”

“In that case, I’ll be heading home. Later.”

Grace barely heard her drive away. Julian commanded all her attention.

“Now, where were you going?” he asked.

For the first time since the police had left, she actually felt as if she could breathe again. With Julian’s presence, all her fear had evaporated like mist under sunlight.

She truly felt safe. “Remember I told you about Rodney Carmichael?”

He nodded.

“He came by a little while ago. He … he worries me.”

The hard, cold rage on his face stunned her. “Where is he now?”

“I don’t know. The police came and he vanished. That’s why I was leaving. I was going to stay in a hotel.”

“Do you still want to leave?”

She shook her head. With him here, she felt completely protected.

“I’ll get your bag,” he said.

He pulled it out of her car, then closed the trunk.

Grace led the way back into the house.

*   *   *

They spent the rest of the day in quiet solitude. That evening, they were lying on the floor in front of the couch, supported by cushions.

Grace lay with her head on Julian’s hard stomach as she read him the rest of
Peter Pan,
and did her best not to notice just how wonderful he smelled. And how wonderful he felt.

It took all her willpower not to roll over and explore his taut, muscled chest with her mouth.

He brushed his hand slowly through her hair as he watched her. Oh, how his touch burned her. How it made her wish she could strip those clothes off his body and taste every single inch of him.

“The end,” she said, closing the book.

The heated look on his face took her breath.

Grace stretched, arching her back ever so slightly against him. “Want me to read something else?”

“Please. Your voice soothes me.”

She stared at him for a long minute, then smiled. She couldn’t remember the last compliment that touched her as profoundly as that one.