The Dark-Hunters (102 page)

Talon groaned as she glanced down at his pants where he was sure his erection was plainly visible. He felt his barriers crumbling. Felt a desire to be the man with her that he had always been with Nynia.

With Nynia he had been himself. She’d never expected that he be anything other than her friend.

Nyn had never seen the pathetic little boy who was spat upon and rejected. The one who had been made to clean up after his betters.

The one they had forced to grovel.

She had never seen the cold-hearted lad he had become because he was tired of being beaten and abused.

As a child, he had hardened his heart and learned to take their punches. He had learned to spit back and take down anyone who cast a jaundiced eye or who made a comment about either him, his mother, or his sister.

He’d told himself that he didn’t need anyone’s love or caring. And so he had learned to live like a feral animal, always ready to strike out when someone tried to touch him.

Until Nynia. She had tamed the beast in him. Had allowed him to be gentle with her. To be something other than hard and unyielding. Defensive and brutal.

With her he had just been Speirr. The boy/man who wanted someone to love him. Who wanted someone to love.

It had been so long since Talon had been himself with anyone.

His Dark-Hunter brethren turned to him for advice. Acheron depended on him for his strength, wisdom, and calm leadership.

None of them, not even Wulf, really knew him. He had never opened his heart up to anyone other than the woman who sat before him now.

A woman he didn’t dare open himself up to in this lifetime.

“You are insatiable, aren’t you?” she asked.

“Only with you,” he whispered, moving closer to her as he tried to reconcile the woman she had been with the woman she was now. “I never could resist touching you. Being inside you. Feeling your breath on my skin. Your beautiful hands on my body.”

Sunshine shivered at his words.

He approached her like some great stalking beast. His body was a symphony of movement.

His masculine, leather scent invaded her senses and made her mouth water.

Her head swam at his kiss, but she pushed him back, perplexed by his comments. “You say that as if you’ve known me for a long time. Why is that?”

“I feel like I’ve known you forever. Like I’ve held you in my heart for centuries.”

She trembled at the words. This was the man who haunted her dreams. The Celtic poet and chieftain. The man she remembered riding out to battle, then riding home to love her.

But that couldn’t be
this
man, could it?

And yet as she thought about it, she realized just how weird her dreams really were. In them, she was blond and blue-eyed, but Talon …

Talon looked the same.

Right down to the tattoo on his body. The braids at his temple. He even wore the same torc. The only thing different was his eye color.

This couldn’t be right. There was something strange about all this. Something that scared her on a level she’d never known existed.

Could he be the same man?

Could he?

It didn’t seem possible, and yet living with her father and mother, she’d seen a lot of impossible things in her life. There were otherworldly powers at work in this world.

She pulled back from Talon’s kiss and tilted his head so that she could see the skin just below his right ear.

There was a small scar there. A small scar that she, as Nynia, had once given to Speirr when they were fishing as children. She’d drawn back her rod to cast it and the hook had caught his ear.

The star-shaped scar was still there.

Just as it had always been.

Just as it was now.

No, it wasn’t possible.

Was it?

She trembled in uncertainty.

His eyes were hooded as he stared hungrily at her. His breath fell gently against her face. She could feel his heart pounding under her hands, feel his strength and heat reaching out to her.

“I’ve missed you so much, Nyn … Nyn … neighbor.”

Sunshine froze as he pulled back instantly. By his face, she could tell he was as surprised at what he’d said as she was.

“What did you call me?”

“Neighbor,” he said quickly.

“Before that.”

“Nothing.”

Okay, this was too friggin’ weird.
And she wanted, no she
needed,
an explanation.

“Talon,” she said, leaving the chair to stand before him. “Tell me what’s going on. You know who Nynia is, don’t you?”

His obsidian eyes flashed. “Do you?”

Oh God, it was true! He knew her. Somehow he remembered the past too.

He hadn’t changed a bit. He couldn’t be in daylight. He wasn’t an American citizen and yet …

Oh, it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure this one out. Somehow, Talon was Speirr.

He
was
a vampire or an immortal or something. She knew it.

“How do you remember me?” she asked him.

“How could I ever forget you?”

She ducked his lips and pushed him back again. “Smooth, but that doesn’t answer my question. There’s something really odd about you, Talon. And it doesn’t make sense that you are now as you were in my dreams. Not even I look the same. But you do. Why?”

Talon wanted to tell her, but couldn’t find the words.
After you died I sold my soul for vengeance to a Greek goddess who now owns me so that I can spend eternity hunting down and killing vampires for her.
Even he had a hard time believing the truth of that statement and he’d been living the reality of it for fifteen hundred years.

She growled at him. “You’re stiff again.”

“Can’t you just live for the moment? Accept me as I am?”

“Okay. But answer me one thing.”

“What?”

“When did you graduate high school?”

He looked uncomfortable with her question. “I didn’t.”

“What year did you drop out then?”

Talon backed away from her. These were things he couldn’t answer. Things he refused to answer.

The hurt in her eyes tugged at his heart.

“What’s the deal, Talon? I’m not stupid. No one is so allergic to sunlight that they can’t even walk in front of a window. And don’t think it has escaped my notice that you never show your teeth. If I get too close to them when we kiss, you immediately pull away.”

Talon wished he dared use his powers to make her forget him. To change this subject to something less volatile. “What? You want me to admit that I’m a vampire? That I howl at the moon when it’s full?”

“Are you? Do you?” She stepped up to him and placed her hand against his chin as if ready to pry his mouth open. “Show me your teeth, Talon.”

He stepped back. “I can’t.”

She gave him a mean glare. “You’re Speirr, aren’t you? Somehow it is you,
you,
I see when I dream. Isn’t it?”

He looked away.

“I won’t tell anyone,” she insisted, softening her voice. “I just need to know.”

“What difference would it make?” he snapped, growing tired of this conversation. “Would you throw me out?”

“No,” she said breathily, sounding reconciled. “I don’t think I could ever throw you out.”

“Then why do you have to know?”

The fire returned to her eyes as she narrowed them on him. “Because I want you to be open and honest with me, to share your life.”

Her words tore through him. Bitter longing swelled inside his heart as he remembered how hopeless having her had seemed as a mortal man. Back then only social standing and gossips had stood between them. Now the entire universe was united to keep them apart. “What makes you think I want to share my life? Maybe I’m just using you for sex.”

Her face stricken, she backed away from him. “Are you?”

The pain in her eyes ripped him apart. He didn’t want to hurt her.

“Are
you
?” he asked, turning the question back on her. “Tell me what it is you want from me, Sunshine.”

“I honestly don’t know. Part of me is drawn to you and part of me is scared of you. There’s something very dark inside your eyes. If I wanted to get to know you better, would you let me?”

“No,” he said between clenched teeth, “we can’t.”

“Then you owe me a reason why we can’t. You know I’m not some child in need of a father to make my decisions for me. I thought you respected me.”

“I do.”

“Then treat me like an adult. Tell me why it is you refuse to answer even the most basic question about yourself.”

What she asked for was impossible. He could never tell her about his current life, not unless Acheron or Artemis released him from his oath.

“If I tell you who I am, your life will be in danger.”

“I live in New Orleans over one of the most popular clubs in town and park my car in an alley where two men were murdered last night. My life is always in danger.”

“Those weren’t men last night and they weren’t murdered.” Talon didn’t know why he let that escape.

“Then what were they?”

Tell her …

The command was so strong. Never once had he broken his Code of Silence. Never.

“The Daimons wanted to party with your girlfriend, Celt. Don’t leave her unprotected.”

She had a right to know what was out there gunning for her.

“Talon.” She stepped into his arms and placed her hands on his face. Her touch was soothing and warm.

It almost succeeded in breaking him.

“Trust me. Whatever it is, I won’t ever tell a soul.”

“I can’t, Sunshine. I can’t.”

“You won’t, Talon. You won’t.” She expelled an irritated breath and dropped her hands. “Fine. Keep your secrets. Go ahead and blow me off. Live a happy life and do whatever it is you do.”

She moved away from him.

Talon reached for her, but she bypassed his hand. “Sunshine…”

“Don’t touch me. I’m mad at you.”

“Please don’t be mad at me.”

She shook her head. “Oh, you’re good with those puppy-dog eyes. That deep note in your voice. But I’m too far gone now to care. Just leave.”

He winced at the pain in her voice and her command. It cut him all the way to his heart.

In that moment, he realized something. Zarek and Acheron were right. He was scared. Scared of leaving and scared of staying.

The last thing he wanted was to lose Nynia again and yet as he looked at Sunshine, it dawned on him that though she might have his wife’s soul, she wasn’t his wife.

She was someone else. Someone new and exasperating. Nynia would never have gotten mad at him. Not even when he deserved her anger. She’d always been timid and shy. Not bold and demanding like Sunshine.

If he said to leave a matter alone, Nynia would nod and drop the subject. She would never have kneed a Daimon or fought an alligator.

But even more astounding, he had to admit that he liked the fire in Sunshine. Her ability to stand up to him and the world around her.

“What?” she asked, blinking her eyes as if she couldn’t believe what she saw. “You’re still here? I thought I gave you an order.”

He smiled in spite of himself. “I don’t want to leave you, Sunshine. Can’t you just accept me as I am?”

Sunshine looked away. “I like what little I know about you, Talon, but the problem is just how little I do know about you. You live in the swamp, seem to have a lot of money and no last name, and you like big, creepy gators and have a guy named Nick who runs errands. That’s it. That’s the extent of my Talon knowledge and it’s a really short list.”

She met his gaze. “I refuse to have a relationship with a man who won’t even trust me with his basic bio. Now if all you want is to get laid, there’s the door. If you really want to stay, then tell me something about yourself. Something meaningful.”

“Like what?”

“Tell me the name of your best friend.”

“Wulf Tryggvason.”

Shocked, she dropped her jaw. “Oh my God, you just answered a question. I think the world may end over it.”

“You’re not funny. So do I get to stay?”

She pursed her lips as she thought about it for a minute. “Fine, but only because I know you can’t get back home before the sun rises.”

Determined to keep distance between them until he answered her questions, Sunshine turned around and went to her bedroom. She grabbed a pillow and blanket from her bed, then returned to the living room and handed them to him.

He looked completely dumbfounded as he held her pink quilt and pillow. “What’s this?”

“Until you come clean with me, you can take the sofa.”

“You’re kidding.”

“Oh no. Not even a little. I’m not going to let you back into my bed until you let me inside your head.”

Talon was completely stupefied as she walked over to the far wall and lowered her blinds.

“I told you about Wulf,” he said.

She turned toward him, her look unamused. “You gave me a single name. Oooo. That tells me so much about you, doesn’t it? Well, my best friends are Trina Devereaux and Selena Laurens. Now what does that tell you about me? Nada. Zilch. Nothing. It just means I have someone I can call when I get ticked off, and believe me, if it wasn’t so late, I’d be dialing one of them like a madwoman.”

Talon growled, but it didn’t faze her in the least. The woman had entirely too much chutzpah.

“So tell me about Wulf,” she said slowly, taking a step toward him. “What does he do for a living? Does he live here in New Orleans? Is he married? How long have you known him?”

“He lives in Minnesota and he’s not married.”

She looked pleased and yet at the same time managed to pull off a piqued look too. “How did you meet him?”

At Mardi Gras one hundred and two years ago when Wulf had been moved into the city for temporary duty—which was something he could never tell Sunshine.

Talon let out an aggravated breath. “I’ve known him a long time.”

“Ooo,” she breathed again. “Answers like that will get you voted into office, but they won’t get you back into my bed. And they definitely won’t let you near my body.”

“You’re being unreasonable.”

“Hah!”

This was so unfair. He was trying to protect her and here she was asking him for something he couldn’t give. Denying him her body because he didn’t want to see her hurt.