The Dark-Hunters (66 page)

“And occasionally dreams,” Nick supplied.

Amanda laughed nervously. “You know, I was a whole lot happier when I didn’t know about any of this.”

“Which is why we do our best to keep this silent,” Talon said. “Believe me, humans would never be able to sleep at night if they knew what was out there waiting for them.”

Amanda nodded, wondering if she’d ever be able to sleep again.

Terrified, she finished dialing her sister’s number. Now that she knew more about what they were dealing with, she needed to get her sister to watch out for Lord King Badass, and the Dark-Hunter who was their only hope.

*   *   *

Kyrian spent the entire night hunting the streets of New Orleans to no avail. Desiderius was still in his bolt-hole and there was no sign of him or any other Daimon anywhere. It may have been that his powers still weren’t up to their full capacity or that the Daimon had some way of shielding his location. Whatever it was, Kyrian couldn’t find a trace of him. Not even his electronic tracker helped.

He cursed his luck.

Never in his Dark-Hunter existence had he been so uncertain.

He didn’t like the feeling one bit. Especially not when Amanda’s life balanced on whether or not he could find the fiend and stop him.

Disgusted and weary, he made his way into his house. Everything was dark and silent. Amanda was upstairs in the house. He could feel her presence like a touch and it soothed him in a way he didn’t want to contemplate.

Just knowing she was here …

Happiness surged through him.

But he didn’t seek her out. He had too many things on his mind. Things he needed to sort out. Think through.

He entered the billiard room and grabbed his glove and baseball, then went to pitch it. Focusing on the ball, he let his mind wander. Wander through his painful past, and to the doubts that still lingered.

Why couldn’t his wife have loved him?

Since the day Theone had betrayed him, he had been suspicious of anyone who came near him. He had given his wife everything he had, and still it hadn’t been enough. If he couldn’t win her love, then he could win no one else’s. He knew it.

Over the centuries, Kyrian had convinced himself that it didn’t matter. That he needed no one at all.

Until Amanda. She had breached his defenses and now he felt naked before her.

She, alone, had opened his heart and touched him deep inside it. He wanted her. Mind. Body. Soul. There was no part of her he didn’t want to claim.

A movement to his left caught his attention.

Turning his head, he saw Amanda coming through the doorway, dressed in sweats. He couldn’t believe how sexy he found them on her. She had her hair in two braids down the side of her face. There was something innocent and almost childlike in the way she was dressed, but there was nothing girlish about the woman approaching him.

She shook the man in him all the way to his foundations.

“How long have you been home?” she asked.

Kyrian would have answered, but she chose that moment to walk up to him and kiss his cheek. A strange sensation ran through him. Her actions were those of true affection.

“What are you doing up?” he asked. “It’s after four.”

“I couldn’t sleep.”

She left his side to walk to the other end of the atrium room. When she turned to face him, he saw Nick’s baseball glove on her hand. Like a pro, she held the glove up to catch the ball.

He smiled and tossed the ball gently to her.

She caught it, then fired back a fast ball that hit his glove with a resounding smack and burned his palm beneath the leather. “Ow!” he teased at the sting on his hand. She threw better than Nick did. “I’m impressed.”

She winked at him. “I was the closest thing to a son my poor father had. He taught me to play.”

Kyrian tossed the ball back to her. “He taught you well.”

Her smile widened. They tossed the ball for several minutes in silence. Gods, he had never thought to find a woman willing to do this with him at such an unholy hour. Even Nick complained, but Amanda seemed content just to be with him.

“How did it go?” she asked. “Did you find him?”

“No.” He sighed. “I just can’t figure it out.”

“You will.”

He hesitated as he heard the utter confidence in her voice. “You have no doubts?”

“None. I know you won’t let him hurt us.”

“I couldn’t help Rosa.”

“I’m sorry,” she said as she caught the ball and returned it. “It must be hard for you to accept that fact, but it wasn’t your fault. You did your best to protect her.”

Kyrian clenched his teeth. “It hurts. More than I thought possible. I can’t believe he got to her.”

Her eyes were sympathetic and warm as she smiled sadly at him. “I guess it explains how he got into our houses to start the fires.”

He nodded. “He probably used Allison. I found her passed out in her room, much like Rosa. I think the human mind can’t handle the stress of it.”

“If it helps, Tabitha said Allison is fine and back home now, so Rosa should heal and be back to normal without any lasting damage.”

“That’s good to know.” Kyrian watched her as she played ball with him. And with every toss of the baseball, he felt himself slipping more and more.

He knew he was falling for her and he was powerless against it.

In fact, the longer they played, the more he wanted her. He watched her shirt pull tight when she drew back to toss the ball. And he loved the way tendrils of her hair swept onto her face and she had to brush them back. Her lips were parted and her breathing heavy.

He found himself purposely throwing the ball over her head to watch her reach up to catch it. Every time she did, the sweatshirt rode up, baring a portion of her stomach to his hungry gaze. Then she would run after the ball, her breasts bobbing, her hips swaying. But the best part was seeing her well-proportioned backside when she bent over to retrieve the ball. Gods, but that woman had the best derriere …

Unable to stand it anymore, he tossed the glove to the ground.

Amanda froze as Kyrian took long, determined strides toward her. Before she could figure out his intent, he picked her up in his arms and kissed her fiercely.

Those wonderful, hard muscles flexed around her while he held her feet off the ground. Due to her size, no man had ever been able to pick her up, and yet Kyrian did it with such ease that it made her heart pound. She loved the way he made her feel. So feminine. So petite.

She wrapped her legs around his waist as his tongue ravished her mouth. Oh, the heaven of those hard, developed abs flexing between her thighs … The man was perfection.

Growling, he nipped her lips with his fangs while his hand cupped her bottom.

He left her lips and nuzzled her neck, nibbling his way under her chin. Her entire body melted at the feel of his hot breath on her skin. Oh yes, this was what she had wanted all day. Just to feel his arms holding her. To have him in her arms where she could give him all the love she felt for him.

She throbbed, needing him to fill her again.

Kyrian shook from the force of his want. Over and over, he remembered the way she had felt as he slid himself into her. The look on her face as she came in his arms.

He burned for her, and yet he dared not take her.

Not now. Not when he needed his strength to fight Desiderius.

Still, his body didn’t listen. He had to touch her. Had to feel her skin.

Before he could stop himself, he sank to his knees and laid her down against the cold tile floor.

Amanda swallowed at the raw hunger on his face. He removed her clothes so fast that she barely felt his hands on her at all. But once he had her naked, it was another story entirely.

Only then did he slow down.

Fully clothed, he stared at her naked body in the moonlight as he ran his hands over her breasts, tracing them, teasing her hard nipples with his palms. “You are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen,” he said, his voice low.

Amanda knew better than that. She’d seen the beauty of his wife, but the knowledge that he felt that way about her sent a shiver through her. He was definitely the best-looking man she had
ever
seen. Period.

As he leaned down to kiss her passionately, she reached to unbutton his shirt.

Kyrian caught her hands in his and shook his head no. If he let those graceful, soft hands touch his skin, he knew he would be lost.

Instead, he kissed each palm in turn, then returned to her throat, her breasts. He sampled her body with his lips, his tongue, his fangs.

As Kyrian tasted her, he felt his honed powers surging. Desperate and hot, he trailed his mouth from her breasts down to her satiny stomach, then to her thighs. He heard her gasps of pleasure as she opened her legs to him.

Right then, he wanted to possess her with a ferocity that overwhelmed him. It was primitive and all-consuming. And all he could think of was Amanda.

Her
blood pounded in his ears.

Shaking from the force of it, he closed his eyes and took her into his mouth to taste the sweetness of her body that he craved most.

Amanda moaned at the feel of his tongue inside her. Burying her hands in his hair, she lifted her hips to him. He was so wild as he tasted her. So ferocious and thorough that she hissed at the incredible feel of him making love to her with his mouth.

He was absolutely relentless with his hot caresses, and when she came, it tore through her, making her scream and writhe with the most blissful orgasm she’d ever experienced.

Still he tasted her. Again and again. His tongue and mouth swirled and teased, stroking her, coaxing her until she was lost in the throes of another orgasm even more intense than the first one. Her head spun from it and every single nerve ending in her body tingled.

Kyrian pulled away from her then, and crawled up her body like a hot, panting predator. His eyes were even blacker than they’d been before as he parted his lips and stared at her neck with a hunger so intense it startled her.

“Kyrian?” she asked.

Kyrian could barely hear her through the haze in his mind. All he could smell was her scent. Her body pressed against his as he throbbed and ached for more.

Take her. Taste her. Claim her.

Make her yours
 …

He ground his teeth as he watched the vein in her neck pulse.
Just one taste
 …

One taste
 …

But it would be against her will.

“Is something wrong?” she asked.

He struggled against his hunger that demanded he take her regardless. His groin was on fire for her. His needs out of control.

Her scent was all over him. She was all he could focus on. All he could think of.

And it made him dangerous. Lethal.

Growling, he summoned up the last of his willpower and forced himself away from her. “Run, Amanda,” he snarled.

Amanda didn’t hesitate. Something was wrong with him. Grabbing her clothes, she ran to her room.

Kyrian heard her footsteps recede as he lay on the cold floor. He buried his hand against his burning erection as he writhed in pain.

This was unlike anything he’d ever experienced. Dear Zeus, another minute and he would have sunk his fangs into her.

Closing his eyes, he shook as he fought down the beast inside him. The beast that demanded he take her over and over, no matter the consequences.

*   *   *

Amanda didn’t stop shaking until she reached her bedroom. She would never forget the feral look on Kyrian’s face when he had told her to run.

She’d never feared him before, but right then she had seen the Dark-Hunter in him that she was sure made the Daimons wet themselves in terror.

Breathing deeply, she tried to calm herself. All she’d ever wanted was a normal relationship.

But then normality with a vampire was asking a lot.

Her heart pounding, she paused as she saw herself in the mirror. Her lips were swollen from his kisses, her neck red from where his whiskers had rubbed against her.

“Amanda?”

She paused at the sound of Kyrian’s voice through the door. “Yes?” she asked hesitantly.

He nudged the door open, but didn’t come inside. “Did I scare you?”

“Honestly?”

He nodded.

“Yes.”

His heated gaze bored into her. “I’m sorry.”

She knew he meant it. Could see the guilt in his eyes.

“Why haven’t you asked to go home?” Kyrian asked, his low tone cutting across the quiet stillness of the room.

She tensed at his question. “You want me to leave?”

He was silent so long she didn’t think he would answer. Finally he whispered, “No, I don’t.”

There was so much heartfelt emotion in those three words that she couldn’t have been more stunned had he declared his love.

She started for him and he took a step back. She realized he still wasn’t in full control of himself. Even so, she wanted him.

“Then I won’t leave until I wear out my welcome.”

Kyrian froze at her words. In the back of his mind was the thought that the earth would surely cease to exist before Amanda wore out her welcome in his house. And it was quickly followed by the knowledge that when the earth ceased to exist, he would still be alive and Amanda …

He winced at the truth of immortality and the knowledge that for the two of them there could never be a happily-ever-after.

CHAPTER 11

The next night, Kyrian was haunted by what had happened with Amanda.

He’d come so close to losing it with her. So close to …

He forced it from his mind as he walked the rooftops of the French Quarter at midnight. The frigid winds whipped at his leather coat while he walked along the roof’s edge, looking down into the alleys below.

Like a cat, he often prowled high above where no one could see him coming. At least not until it was too late.

He paused as he heard something.

“Don’t hurt me.” The frightened voice was faint on the wind and came from several blocks over.

Twice as fast and as surefooted as a cheetah, he glided over the rooftops until he found the one who had spoken. To most, it would look like a poor man being mugged in a dark alleyway, but the four blond Daimons were highlighted by Kyrian’s Dark-Hunter vision.