The Dark-Hunters (41 page)

“C’mon, Tabby, how many times do I have to tell you to lay off it?” Eric said irritably. “The vamps are just playing with us. ‘Dark-Hunter’ is just a bogeyman term that means nothing.”

Selena and Tabitha ignored him.

“Sure,” Selena said, “but Gary would probably be your best bet.”

Eric let out a disgusted breath. “He said he’d never heard of it, either”—Eric looked at Tabitha heatedly—“which means it’s nothing.”

Tabitha shrugged his hand off her shoulder, and continued to ignore him. “Since it’s written in Greek, I’m betting one of your college professor friends might be more up on it.”

Selena nodded. “I’ll ask Julian tonight when I go over to Grace’s.”

“Thanks.” Tabitha looked back at Amanda. “Don’t worry about Cliff. I know just the guy for you. We met him a couple of weeks ago.”

“Oh Lord,” Amanda gasped. “No more blind dates from you. I still haven’t recovered from the last one and that was four years ago.”

Selena laughed. “Was that the alligator wrestler?”

“Yes,” Amanda said. “Crocodile Mitch, who tried to feed me to his pet, Big Marthe.”

Tabitha snorted. “He did not. He was just trying to show you what he did for a living.”

“Tell you what, the day you let Eric hold your head inside a live alligator, then you can make a comment. Until then, being the expert on alligator halitosis, I’ll stick with my opinion that Mitch was just looking for a cheap Scooby snack.”

Tabitha stuck her tongue out at her before grabbing Eric’s hand and dashing down the street with him in tow.

Amanda rubbed her head as she watched the two of them make goo-goo eyes at each other, thus proving that there was someone out there for everyone. No matter how bizarre the person.

Too bad she couldn’t find someone for herself.

“I’m going home to sulk.”

“Listen,” Selena said before she could leave. “Why don’t I cancel with Grace tonight and the two of us can go do something? Have a symbolic itty-bitty weenie roast for Cliff?”

Amanda smiled in appreciation of the thought. No wonder she loved her family. In spite of the chaos, they were dear hearts who cared for her. “No, thanks. I can roast the Vienna sausages on my own. Besides, Tabitha will stroke out and die if you don’t ask Julian about her Dark-Hunter.”

“Okay, but if you change your mind, let me know. Oh, and while you’re home, why not call Tiyana and have her do a penis-shrinking spell on Cliff?”

Amanda laughed. Okay, there were times when having a voodoo high priestess as an older sister came in handy. “Trust me, he can’t afford it.” She winked at Selena. “Later.”

*   *   *

That evening, Amanda jumped as the phone rang, startling her out of her daydreams. Laying her book aside, she picked the phone up.

It was Tabitha.

“Hey, sis, can you go by my house and let Terminator out?”

Amanda ground her teeth at the familiar request that came at least twice a week. “Oh, come on, Tabby. Why didn’t you do it?”

“I didn’t know we’d be gone so long. Please. He’ll wet on my bed in protest if you don’t.”

“You know, Tabby, I do have a life.”

“Yeah, right, like you’re not sitting alone on the sofa, reading Kinley MacGregor’s latest romance, and scarfing down chocolate truffles like there’s no tomorrow.”

Amanda arched her brow as she looked at the multitude of truffle wrappers scattered on the coffee table in front of her, and her copy of
Claiming the Highlander
on the end table.

Damn, she hated it when her sisters did that.

“C’mon,” Tabitha begged. “I promise I’ll be nice to your next boyfriend.”

Sighing, Amanda knew she couldn’t really say no to her sisters. It was her biggest weakness. “It’s a good thing you only live down the street or I’d have to kill you over this.”

“I know. I love you, too.”

Growling low in her throat, Amanda hung up. She cast a wistful look at her book. Doggone it, she was just starting to get into it.

She sighed. Oh well, at least Terminator would be company for a few minutes. He was one seriously ugly pit bull, but he was currently the only male she could stand.

She grabbed her tan ski jacket off her armchair and exited out the front door. Tabitha lived two blocks over, and though the night was extremely dark and cold, Amanda didn’t feel like driving.

Pulling her gloves on, she headed down the sidewalk, wishing Cliff were here to do this chore. She couldn’t count the times she had suckered him into letting Terminator out of Tabitha’s house on his way home.

Amanda stumbled over a broken piece of the sidewalk as Cliff crossed her mind for the first time in hours. What really made her feel bad about their breakup was the fact she didn’t miss him. Not really, anyway.

She missed having someone to talk to at night. She missed having a TV-watching buddy, but she couldn’t honestly say she missed
him.

And that was what depressed her most of all.

If not for her whacked-out family, she might have actually married him, and then found out too late that she didn’t truly love him.

The thought chilled her more than the cold November winds.

Pushing Cliff out of her thoughts, she focused on her surroundings. At eight-thirty, the neighborhood was amazingly quiet, even for a Sunday night. Cars were parked along the street, and most of the houses were lit up as she walked down the old jagged sidewalk.

Everything was normal, but still it was eerie out. The partial moon hung high above, casting twisted shadows around her. Every now and again, she’d catch the faint sound of laughter or voices on the wind.

This was a perfect night for evil to—

“Get out of my head,” she said out loud.

Now Tabitha had
her
doing it! Jeez!

What next? Would she find herself walking the bayou with her sisters looking for weird voodoo plants and alligators?

Shivering at the thought, she finally reached the creepy old house Tabitha and her roommate rented on the corner. A garish purple color, it was one of the smallest houses on the street. Amanda was amazed no one in the neighborhood complained about the unsightly hue. Of course, Tabby loved it since it made giving directions easy.

“Just look for the little purple Victorian with the black iron fence. You can’t miss it.”

Not unless you were blind.

After opening the low, wrought-iron gate, Amanda headed up the walkway to the porch where a huge, sinister stone gargoyle stood watch.

“Hi, Ted,” she said to the gargoyle Tabitha swore could read minds. “I’m just letting the pooch out, okay?”

Amanda pulled the keys out of her coat pocket and opened the front door. Entering the foyer, she wrinkled her nose as she caught a whiff of a nasty-smelling something. One of Tabby’s potions must have gone bad.

Either that, or her sister had tried to cook dinner again.

She heard Terminator barking in the bedroom.

“I’m coming,” she said to the dog as she closed the door, turned on the lights, and headed across the living room.

Amanda was one step away from the hallway when she heard the voice in her head telling her to run.

Before she could blink, the lights went out and someone grabbed her from behind.

“Well, well,” a silken voice said in her ear. “At last I have you, little witch.” His hold tightened. “Now it’s time to make you suffer.”

Something hit her head a second before the floor rose up to meet her.

CHAPTER 2

Amanda came awake to an awful throbbing in her head. She felt terrible.

What had hap—

She tensed as she remembered the unseen man.

His words.

Terrified, she pushed herself up, and quickly learned she was on a cold concrete floor, in a very small, dust-covered room …

And
handcuffed
to an unknown blond man.

A scream wedged itself in her throat, but she held it back.

Don’t panic. Not until you have all the facts.

For all you know, Tabitha is making good her threat for a blind date—just like the time she “accidentally” locked you in the supply closet with Randy Davis for three hours.

Or “kidnapped” you in the trunk of her car with that weird musician.

Tabitha was always trying unorthodox ways to set her up with guys. Although, to be fair to her sister, Tabitha didn’t usually knock the guy unconscious before she forced them together.

Still, with Tabitha there was a first time for just about anything. And extreme blind-dating was very vintage T.

Forcing herself to remain calm until she had more information, Amanda took in her surroundings. The two of them were in a small room with no windows and one rusty iron door. A door she couldn’t reach without dragging her “friend” across the floor.

There was no furniture or anything else. The only light came from a small bulb in the center of the ceiling.

Okay, so she wasn’t in immediate danger.

Still far from comforted, she looked at the body beside her. He lay with his back to her, and he was either dead or unconscious.

Preferring the latter, she inched toward him. He appeared rather tall, and he was positioned as if he had been dumped roughly onto the floor.

Her legs shaking, Amanda rose slowly to her knees and moved over him to keep his arm from being twisted any more.

He didn’t move.

She trailed her gaze over his body. A long black leather coat, black jeans, and a black crew-neck shirt combined to give him an extremely dangerous appearance even while lying on the floor. His feet were covered by a pair of black biker boots with strange silver inlays in the heels.

His wavy blond hair fell over his face and met the collar of his coat, obscuring his features from her view.

“Excuse me?” she whispered, reaching out to touch his arm. “Are you alive?”

As soon as her hand touched the hard, lean muscle of his biceps, her breath faltered. His prone body was like coiled steel. There wasn’t a bit of a fleshy feel to him. He was all lithe, strong power.

Oh my, my.

Before she could stop herself, Amanda ran her hand down his arm. The feel of it!

She let out a slow, appreciative breath.

“Guy? Mister?” she tried again, shaking his hard, muscular shoulder. “Mr. Goth man, would you please wake up so I can leave? I really don’t want to hang out in a closet with a dead man any longer than I have to, okay? C’mon, please, don’t make this a
Weekend at Bernie’s
thing. There’s only one of me and you’re a really big,
big
guy.”

He didn’t budge.

Okay, I’ll have to try something else.

Biting her lip, Amanda rolled him onto his back. His hair fell away from his face at the same moment his collar did.

Her breath caught in her throat. Okay, now she was majorly impressed.

He was gorgeous. His jaw was strong and defined, his cheekbones high. His face was aristocratically boned, and he had just the tiniest hint of a cleft in his chin.

Oh baby, this man possessed that rare masculine beauty that only a few,
very
lucky women ever saw in the flesh.

Better still, he had the best looking lips she’d ever seen. Full and expressive, that mouth had been made for long, hot kisses.

In fact, the only flaw on his face was a hairline scar that ran across the lower edge of his jaw, from his ear to his chin.

He could easily rival Grace’s husband for handsomeness. And Julian the Demigod was a hard man to compete with.

But then, Amanda had never been all that impressed with the way men looked. She preferred their minds over their bodies. Especially since most of the men she knew who looked even half this good generally had IQs that were smaller than her combined shoe size.

Unlike Tabitha, it took more than a cute butt and wide shoulders to turn her head.

Although …

Amanda ran her gaze over his lean, muscular body. In the case of this man, she might be willing to make an exception.

Provided he wasn’t dead, anyway.

Hesitantly, she reached out and placed her hand against his tawny neck to check his pulse. A strong, heavy heartbeat thumped against her fingertips.

Relieved he was alive, she tried to shake him again. “Hey, yummy leather guy? Can you hear me?”

He moaned low in his throat, then slowly blinked his eyes open. Amanda started at the sight of those eyes. They were so dark they appeared black, and when they focused on her, they dilated menacingly.

With a curse, he grabbed her by the shoulders.

Before she could move, he rolled over with her, pinning her against the floor beneath his body as he held her wrists above her head.

Those dark, captivating eyes searched hers suspiciously.

Amanda couldn’t breathe. Every inch of him was pressed intimately against her and she became instantly aware of the fact that his arms weren’t the only part of his body that was rock-hard and solid. The man was a wall of sleek, strong muscle.

His hips rested dead center between her legs while his hard, taut stomach leaned against her in a way that brought a flush to her cheeks. Made her feel hot and tingly. Breathless.

For the first time in her life, she wanted to lift her head and kiss a man whom she knew absolutely
nothing
about.

Who was he?

To her complete shock, he lowered his head down to the side of her face and took a deep breath in her hair.

Amanda went rigid. “Are you
sniffing
me?”

A deep, melodious laugh rumbled through his body, sending an odd tingly surge through her.

“Only admiring your perfume,
ma fleur,
” he whispered softly in her ear with a strange, provocative accent that melted her. His voice was so deep it reminded her of thunder and it rumbled through her with a devastating effect.

Okay, so the man was incredibly hot, and his breath on her neck sent thousands of needlelike chills over her body.

“You are not Tabitha Devereaux.” He whispered the words so softly that even with his mouth brushing her ear she had to strain to hear him.