The Dark-Hunters (279 page)

“What are you doing here?” she asked, forcing herself not to betray anything other than nonchalance. Although the earlier dagger throw had most likely tipped him off that she wasn’t exactly ambivalent to his presence.

Yeah, that had been a really smart move. It was all she could do not to roll her eyes at her swiftness in betraying her knowledge of him. She only hoped she didn’t live or die to regret it.

His smile was wicked and disturbing. “You invited me.”

Was that a play on Ash’s being a Daimon? No Daimon could enter someone’s home without an invitation.

Or was he just making an idle comment?

Either way, she wasn’t ready to welcome him … not yet. “I invited
Ash
here. Not you. I don’t even know who you are.”

He didn’t hesitate to answer. “Alexion.” His voice was deep and well cultured. There was only the faintest trace of some foreign accent, but she didn’t know what nationality it came from.

“Alexion…?” she prompted, wondering what his surname was.

He wasn’t forthcoming with it. “Just Alexion.”

Keller rose from his chair and joined them. “Ash sent him here for a couple of weeks to check into what you were saying about a Rogue Dark-Hunter.”

She arched a brow at Keller. “Is that what Alexion told you?”

He tensed as if he realized he might have done something wrong. “Well, yeah, but then I called Ash myself and he corroborated it.”

Good boy that he hadn’t taken the man’s word. “Did Ash say anything else?”

“Just to trust Alexion.”

Yeah, right. Like she’d trust an agitated cobra at her bare feet.

Danger sheathed her dagger before she addressed Alexion again. “Well, it appears I spoke too soon. I was checking into the Rogue thing myself tonight and everything’s fine so you can feel free to return to Ash now.”

Alexion’s dark eyes narrowed on her. “Why are you lying to me?”

“I’m not lying.”

He dipped his head so that he could speak in a low tone just for her hearing. His nearness was disturbing and intense. It actually raised chills over her body as his breath fell against her skin. “For the record, Dangereuse, I can smell a lie from nine miles off.”

She looked up to see the deep curiosity in those … She frowned. No longer black, his eyes had turned to a peculiar hazel green that practically glowed.

Just what the hell was he?

Alexion pinned her with a fierce stare he no doubt hoped would intimidate her. It wasn’t working. Danger refused to be intimidated by anyone or anything. She lived her immortality just as she had lived her human life and it would take more than this … person to make her shiver in fear. The worst thing he could do was kill her, and since she was already dead …

Well, there were worse things, she supposed.

When he spoke again, his voice was scarcely more than a primal growl. “My only real question is, why would you protect your Rogue?”

She moved away without answering. “Keller? Can I have a word with you in private?”

Alexion gave a short laugh at that. “I will leave the two of you alone so that you can tell him just how unhappy you are that he let me in.” He headed for the hallway that led to the guest rooms.

Danger ground her teeth.
Don’t tell me Keller already set him up in my house!

He should know better than that. How could he do such a thing without consulting her?
That’s it, he’s toast, and I mean it this time.

She waited until she was sure Alexion had left them alone and lowered her voice so that he couldn’t overhear them. “What the hell happened tonight? You look like someone beat you.”

“They did. I ran into a group of Daimons, and when I told them to back off, they said they were untouchable now. They said that they were working with the Dark-Hunters and that if they wanted to eat a Squire, that was fine.”

Anger whipped through her that they would dare to beat her Squire. “They attacked you?”

He gave her a snide look. “No, I beat my own self up. What do you think?”

She ignored his sarcasm as she realized why the plasma TV hadn’t been blaring when she came in. It was shattered.

“What happened to the TV?”

Keller looked at it and shrugged. “I don’t know. Alexion doesn’t say much, so I was flipping channels after we got back so that there’d be some noise in the house. Everything was fine until I paused on QVC to see this cool camcorder they were advertising, and the next thing I knew, it blew up. I’m not sure if it was the TV or if Alexion has a thing against QVC.”

Thank the Lord and his saints that her Squire hadn’t blown up as well.

“And where did Alexion just head off to?” she asked.

“I put him in the guest suite that you said Ash uses whenever he visits.”

She clenched her fist to keep from choking him. “I see.”

He gave her a worried frown. “I didn’t do anything wrong, did I? I thought I was doing what you’d want me to do. You weren’t here so I could ask you. Are you mad at me?”

Yes, but she didn’t want to get into it with him. If he stayed ignorant of all this, maybe Alexion would spare him.

Either way, she refused to put Keller in any danger. Unlike her, he was mortal with a family who loved him dearly.

“You’re fine, sweetie. Why don’t you head on home before it gets any later?”

Luckily her Squire didn’t argue and he was too dense to recognize the slight tremor of fear for him in her voice. In case Alexion intended to fight, she wanted Keller out of here and tucked safely away at home.

“Okay, Danger. I’ll see you tomorrow night.”

“Ahh…” Danger hedged at that. “Why don’t you take a few days off? Go see your sister in Montana.”

His frown deepened. “Why?”

She offered him a smile she didn’t feel. “I have Acheron’s Squire here. I’m sure he can—”

“I don’t know,” he said, wrinkling his nose. “He seems all right, but I think I’ll hang close to home, just in case. You never know what can happen.”

“Keller…”

“Don’t mess with me, Danger. My number one mandate is to protect you. I may be human, but I’m your Squire and that includes all the inherent risks that come with the position. Okay? I was raised in this world and I know all the freaky shit it sometimes entails. I’m not going to leave you when we don’t know what’s going on other than someone is working with the Daimons. I’ve heard too much weirdness lately to just hightail it for no real reason.”

She couldn’t argue with any part of that. His loyalty warmed her greatly, and that was why when all this was over, she would request a new Squire to replace him. The last thing she wanted was to become emotionally attached to anyone, especially someone who would die of old age and wreck her.

She’d lost way too many people she cared about in her life to lose any more. The Squire’s Council knew it, and since the day she’d joined the Dark-Hunter ranks, she’d never had a Squire for more than five years.

And never one with a child. There were some wounds that just didn’t need to be probed.

“All right,” she said quietly to him. “Go home and I’ll keep in touch.”

Keller nodded, then gathered up his lightweight jacket and left.

Grateful he’d listened for once, Danger took a deep breath as she headed for Alexion’s room. She really didn’t want him here, but what else could she do?

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

So long as he was in her house, she could monitor his activity and see what he was doing. Not to mention, she still wasn’t thoroughly convinced by Kyros and his agenda. She’d heard a lot of weird things lately, including the rumor that some of the local Dark-Hunters were drinking human blood. For all she knew, Kyros was one of them and was currently setting her up for reasons only he knew.

Until she had more information about all of this, she would play it cooly and see for herself what was going on. But even as she thought that, a chill went over her. Alexion had some incredible powers that she wasn’t sure she could fight.

How could a woman kill a man who didn’t bleed?

Chapter 5

At the end of the hallway on her upper floor, Danger pushed open the door to the guest room to find Alexion studying one of the Fabergé eggs that she collected. She’d started the collection about forty years ago because they reminded her of the Malowanki eggs her father always brought back for her from his annual trips to Prussia to visit his grandmother. Until the year she died, Babcia would always make sure that she’d created the Malowanki eggs for all of them to remind them of their Prussian heritage and the beauty of Easter.

None of those precious, colored eggs that Danger had guarded so carefully as a human had survived. Calling them the frivolous waste of the aristocracy, her husband had taken great pleasure in destroying them after she’d died.

How she hated that man. But most of all, she hated herself for putting her trust in someone and allowing him to deceive her so completely.

She would never be so stupid again.

Narrowing her eyes on Alexion, she opened the door wider to watch him. His modern clothes looked rather out of place in a room she had fashioned into an exact copy of the one she’d grown up in. The hand-carved Baroque bed had been imported from Paris and was decked out in bloodred and gold pillows and comforter. Gold draperies fell from the padded half-tester. She’d spent a lot of time choosing the antiques for this room.

It was the last of her world and in many ways a time capsule. In here she sometimes thought that she could glimpse sight of her father … hear the faint laughter of her siblings.

Mon Dieu,
how she missed them all.

Grief swelled inside her, but she held it back. There was no need in crying. She’d shed enough tears over the centuries to fill the Atlantic.

The past was the past and this was the present. Tears would not bring her family back and they would not alter her life in any way. All she could do was move onward and upward, and make sure that no one ever deceived her again.

For now, Alexion was the present and he was her enemy.

He stood before the small Neoclassical-style dressing table, holding the egg carefully in his large hand as if he understood how much she loved her collectibles. In spite of herself, she was struck by the gentleness of his touch as he closed it and returned it to its stand.

He was incredibly handsome standing there and her body reacted to him with an intensity that surprised her. It wasn’t like her to be attracted to someone she had just met. Hot Hollywood actors in movies and magazines notwithstanding, she normally had to be around a guy a long time before she felt such a strong, potent desire for his body.
If
she ever felt desire for him. Most of the time, she could take or leave any man.

But she actually wanted to reach out and touch him. And
that
never happened.

Alexion felt her presence like a sizzling caress. It was as if she made contact with his soul every time she drew near him. Something that was completely impossible since he hadn’t owned a soul in more than nine thousand years.

He didn’t know what it was about her, but his body reacted wildly to her presence. Turning, he found her in the doorway, watching him with a wary, almost angry expression.

She was afraid of him and pissed at herself for that fear, he could feel it deep inside himself. But she was trying hard to disguise it.

He could respect her for that.

In the end, she was wise to fear him. He could kill her as easily as he blinked. Yet he didn’t want to hurt her.

For some strange reason, he didn’t even want her to fear him, and that was something he’d never experienced before. Usually when he was in human form, he used that fear to his advantage to intimidate the Dark-Hunters and bring them back in line. He had the powers of a full god within him. The ability to take any life he chose …

He could hear and see things that were far beyond the comprehension of man, Apollite, or Dark-Hunter.

And yet as he stood there, only one thing echoed in his head—the sound of her laughter. He’d heard her laughing earlier this very evening as she fought with the Daimons. It was a lush, musical sound that rolled out from her. Hearty.

He wanted to hear it again.

“I mean you no harm, Dangereuse.”

She stiffened defiantly. “The name’s Danger,” she corrected. “I haven’t gone by Dangereuse in a long time.”

He inclined his head to her. He knew from his research into her background that she’d been named for the grandmother of Eleanor of Aquitaine whom her mother had adored. A great duchess who’d lived life solely on her own terms and who had flouted societal rules. It was a name that suited the petite woman in front of him. “Forgive me.”

His apology did nothing to soothe her. “And just so you know, I’m not afraid of you.”

He smiled at her brave words. She was a tough, no-nonsense woman and he wondered if she had been like that as a human. But he somehow doubted it. The world she had been born into wouldn’t have tolerated such a whirlwind personality from the fairer sex.

No doubt they would have quashed her rebelliousness, not embraced it.

She took a step into the room. Her dark eyes were piercing as they searched him for some weakness.

Good luck,
ma petite.
I haven’t any.

“So, what’s your story?” she asked. “You say you’re Ash’s Squire. Are you a Blue Blood, Blood Rites, or what?”

Alexion bit back a smile at her question. Blue Bloods were Squires who came from long generations of Squires. Blood Rites were the Squires who were charged with assuring that the rules of their world were followed. They protected the Dark-Hunters and were a police force for other Squires. Of course, he had been serving Acheron since before the Squires’ Council had existed. He wasn’t a true Squire. He was Acheron’s Alexion, an Atlantean term that had no real translation into English.

Basically, he would do whatever was necessary to protect Acheron and Simi. And he truly meant “whatever.”

He had no conscience. No morals. In his world, the only right was Acheron’s will. It governed everything about him. Yes, he could and did argue with Acheron at times, but at the end of it all, he was Acheron’s protector. He would always do what was in Acheron’s best interest no matter the personal or physical cost to himself.