The Dark-Hunters (217 page)

“In one afternoon, my entire life shattered and then all of a sudden this great guy comes along like some mythical knight in shining armor. He’s gorgeous, loaded, and says all the right things to me. He makes me feel like I can fly, and every time he shows up, he makes everything better. I’m not used to this, okay? And I’m not used to being with a guy who is so incredibly sexy that he makes me feel like the booby prize.”

“I think you’re beautiful, Bride.”

“See!” she said, gesturing toward him. “There you go being perfect again. I think you need your head examined.”

He looked extremely offended by that.

Bride pulled back and sat up straight. “Okay, let’s try this again.” She held her hand out to him. “Hi, I’m Bride McTierney. Pleased to meet you.”

His expression said he thought she was the one who needed her head examined. He took her hand into his. “Hi, I’m Vane Kattalakis and I’m starving. Would you like to have dinner with me, Bride?”

“Yes, Vane. I would.”

He smiled at her. “Okay, so now is this the part where we share sex stories?”

Bride burst out laughing—so loudly that several people nearby turned to stare at her. Covering her mouth, she looked at him. “What?”

“That’s what Nick said you should do to get to know a woman.”

“Nick?” she asked in disbelief. “The tacky-shirt-wearing, I-can’t-drive-my-way-out-of-a-paper-sack Nick?”

Vane’s eyes turned dark. Dangerous. “Did he offend you when he picked you up? Say the word and I’ll kill him.”

“No, but if I were you, I don’t think I’d take dating advice from him.”

“Why? He gets women all the time.”

“Yeah, but does he ever keep any of them?”

“Well … no.”

“Then don’t take his advice.”

“Okay.” Vane motioned for the waiters who were waiting nearby. “You want to share the chateaubriand Bouquetière with me? Since it’s supposed to serve two they get kind of scared when I wolf it down by myself.”

She bit back a smile at his words. “I would love it.”

Vane looked up as Bernie returned. “We’ll start with two Crêpes Barbaras for appetizers, then the chateaubriand Bouquetière.”

“Very good, Mr. Kattalakis. Very good.”

Vane handed them the menus, then leaned forward. “And make sure to save room for the dessert.”

“I don’t know if I can hold it, but I’ll try. If you want a woman who can eat all that, you need to date my friend Tabitha.”

He took her hand into his again and massaged it as if it were unspeakably precious. “I don’t want to date Tabitha,” he said, laying her hand against his smooth cheek. “I only want to be with you.”

Bride had never felt like this in her whole life. She felt so desirable around him. So feminine.

He somehow even managed to make her feel petite.

“So how is it a guy like you has never had a date before?”

Vane took a drink of wine as he thought about how to answer her question. He didn’t want to lie to her, but he couldn’t exactly tell her that he was a wolf who had grown up living in the woods, sleeping in dens with other wolves.

That might scare her a bit.

“I grew up in a commune of sorts.”

She seemed nervous now and reminded him of a cornered rabbit. “What kind of commune? You’re not one of those religious nuts who’s going to kidnap and brainwash me for my money, are you?”

Vane shook his head. This woman got the strangest ideas. “No. Definitely not. I just grew up in a way most people don’t. What about you?”

“I grew up here. Both my parents are vets. They met in grad school and got married when they graduated. There’s really not much to tell. I had a very normal, average life.”

Vane tried to imagine such a thing. In his world, where they could command magic, the elements, and even time itself, normal didn’t really factor in. In a way, he envied Bride her human world where the impossible wasn’t reality. “That must have been nice.”

“It was.” She took a sip of her water. “So what do your parents do?”

“Think up creative ways to kill each other.” Vane cringed as that flew out of his mouth. He was so used to saying it that he didn’t think about it until he’d heard himself say it.

“No, really.”

Vane looked away uncomfortably.

Bride’s jaw went slack as she realized he wasn’t kidding. “Why would they do that?”

Vane actually squirmed a bit before he answered. “It’s a long story. My mother ran off not long after I was born and my father wants me dead, so here I am … With you.”

She didn’t know what to think of that. “This … um … this family insanity, it’s not hereditary, is it?”

“It doesn’t appear to be,” he said seriously. “But if it creeps up on me, feel free to shoot me.”

She wasn’t sure if he meant that or not. So, suddenly grateful that they were in a public place, she decided to change the subject to something a little safer. “How do you have so much money? After what you just said, I don’t think your parents gave it to you, did they?”

“No. I make investments. Sometimes I sell artifacts.”

Now that sounded interesting. “What kind of artifacts?”

He shrugged. “This and that.”

The waiters brought their appetizers. Bride sat back and watched as Vane set about eating. He looked regal and refined as he ate in the traditional European manner.

“You know, for someone who grew up in a commune, you have impeccable manners.”

A deep, dark sadness came over him. “My sister taught me. She said … well, she felt that people should eat as people and not animals.”

Bride heard his voice break as he spoke of his sister. It was obvious that his sister meant a lot to him. “Where is she now?”

His sadness increased tenfold as he swallowed. The pain in his eyes was so profound that it made her ache for him. “She died a few months ago.”

“Oh, Vane, I’m so sorry.”

“Yeah, me, too.” He cleared his throat.

Her heart breaking for him, Bride reached out and brushed her fingers against his cheek to offer him comfort. He turned his face into her arm and kissed the inside of her wrist.

The look in his feral eyes made her quiver.

“You’re so soft,” he breathed, then kissed her hand and moved slightly away from her. “If I keep smelling you, we might make a spectacle here tonight.”

“What kind of spectacle?”

“I just might toss you over my shoulder and carry you out of here so that I can ravish you again.”

She laughed at the thought. “Would you really?”

She saw the raw, ragged truth in his eyes. “I would if you’d let me.”

Bride retreated to her side of the table and they spent the rest of the meal in idle, safe chitchat. Vane was witty and warm. A rare treat.

Once they had polished off dinner and dessert, they made their way back downstairs where she saw Taylor and his date sitting outside the kitchen door. Neither one of them looked pleased.

“You are so bad, Vane,” she said again, laughing at the sight of them.

“Hey, that’s kind compared to what I want to do to him. At least this way, he’s still breathing.”

Henri bid them good night as they left and headed back toward her home.

“Do you mind walking?” she asked him. “It’s really nice out tonight.”

“Walking doesn’t bother me.”

She took his hand and led him toward Iberville.

Vane watched the way the moonlight played in the tendrils of her auburn hair and reflected off the beaded choker he’d bought her. Her dress set her curves off to perfection and the halter top reminded him just how easy it would be to slide his hand inside it and cup her breast gently in his palm.

His groin tightened. Over and over he remembered what she had felt like. How warm and tender her caresses had been.

He craved that now. The wolf in him was howling for a taste of her.

Bride was a bit nervous from Vane’s intense stare. There was something animalistic about it. Devouring.

There were times when she was with him that she felt like prey to his predatorial nature.

They didn’t speak much as they walked back to her apartment. At the gate, she called for her wolf.

“You don’t think they picked him up, do you?”

“No,” Vane said. “I’m sure he’s okay. He’s probably out enjoying himself tonight.”

“You think so?”

He grinned wickedly. “Yes, I do.”

She sighed. “I hope so. I’d hate to have anything bad happen to him.”

He followed her to her apartment door. Bride opened it, then hesitated.

Vane dipped his head down to the crook of her neck where he inhaled her scent. He rested his warm hands on her shoulders. “I want to be inside you again, Bride.” He lifted his head up and cocked it in a way that reminded her of the wolf Vane. “Would you take me in?”

Bride was uncertain. She wanted him too, but what kind of relationship was this?

She started laughing uncontrollably.

Vane frowned at her. “What’s so funny?”

“I’m sorry, I just heard this horrible cliché in my head of ‘Will you still respect me in the morning?’”

He looked baffled. “Humans don’t respect each other after they have sex?”

“You know, when you say things like that, you sound like an alien from outer space.”

“I feel like an alien from outer space. A lot.”

What an odd thing for him to say. “How long did you live in that commune of yours?”

“All my life. Up until eight months ago.”

“Oh, my God. Really?”

He nodded.

No wonder he didn’t know how to date. She couldn’t imagine living isolated from the world.

He brushed his hand over her shoulder. “Since then I’ve been staying with … friends who own the Sanctuary bar on Ursulines. They’ve taught me a lot about how people behave, but Amanda said that you wouldn’t appreciate my using the lines and moves that the men in the bar use to pick up the women they meet there.”

Bride tried not to focus on how warm his hand was on her bare skin. How good his caress felt. It sent chills all the way through her, straight to her breasts, which hardened, aching for his touch. “Amanda who?”

“Hunter.”

Bride started at the name. “Tabitha’s twin sister?”

He nodded.

Good grief, what a small world. But if he knew Amanda, that was a relief. Amanda, unlike her twin sister, wasn’t a lunatic and didn’t, as a rule, hang out with psychos. If Amanda had really helped Vane, then he was most likely safe.

“You said no one dated in your commune. What did you do when you found a woman you liked?”

He looked a bit frustrated. “‘Like’ doesn’t have the same meaning where I come from as it does to you. We didn’t really ‘like’ anyone. If you were attracted to someone, you slept together and then moved on. We didn’t get our emotions tangled with our bodies the way you do.”

“How is that possible? It’s human nature.”

Vane sighed. It might be human nature, but it wasn’t animal nature. “We just thought differently.”

She stiffened indignantly. “So you think nothing of sleeping with me and then moving on to the next woman?”

Shit!

“No. That’s not what I meant.” He toyed with a curl that was brushing her bare shoulder. “I want to be with you, Bride. Only you. I want you to accept me.”

“Why?”

“Because I need you.”

“Why?”

Vane ground his teeth. How could he explain to her the feral yearning inside him to claim his mate? This infectious insanity that wouldn’t rest until they were joined.

He’d never understood what had driven his father to attack his mother. Now he did. Every part of him simmered for her. It was feverish and raw and he wasn’t sure how to control it.

How did a wolf mate with a human?

“I’m scaring you,” he said as he smelled her fear. “I’m sorry. I’ll leave you alone now.”

He started away from her.

Bride took his hand. She was being stupid and she knew it. Vane had done nothing to hurt her. He’d gone out of his way to make her happy and to be kind.

What was she so afraid of?

The mere fact that he was willing to just walk away told her he would never do her harm.

Before she could stop herself, she pulled his lips down to hers and kissed him soundly.

Every hormone in her body sizzled at the taste of him. He crushed her against him, holding her in those steely arms she remembered so well.

He was overwhelmingly masculine.

His breathing ragged, he pulled back from her. “Tell me to go, Bride, and I will.”

She stared up at him in the moonlight and saw the sincerity of those hazel eyes. “Stay with me, Vane.”

His smile made her knees weak as he threw his head back and let out an eerie howl.

Before she could move, he picked her up and carried her through the door of her apartment.

*   *   *

“You were right. They’re not dead.”

Markus Kattalakis looked up from the bonfire where his wolf pack was gathered around as fury grabbed hold of him. For the last two months, his pack had been out in the backwoods of Nebraska, tending their young and biding their time until the pups would be old enough to jump time periods under the light of a full moon.

“What?” he asked his second in command, Stefan.

“Your senses were correct about Vane and Fang. I shifted to Sanctuary myself and saw Fang there.”

“Why didn’t you kill him?”

“He wasn’t alone. One of the bears was with him. Their female cub. It appears the Peltiers have made them welcome. I can’t strike at either of them while they are there. Not unless you wish a feud with the Peltiers.”

Markus curled his lip at the news. It was tempting. But wolves and bears …

It had been a long time since Katagaria clan had fought clan. To engage the bears, who were renowned for maintaining one of the few Were-Hunter sanctuaries, was suicide. If the bears and their miscreants didn’t kill his clan, others would. The Peltiers were respected by all.

To take them on would be to break their one and only cardinal rule.

Damn.

“For once you showed good judgment,” he said to Stefan. Damn it, though. He needed those two killed. He should have sent someone sooner, but he kept hoping that he was wrong. That the Daimons he had sent for Vane and Fang would return with news of their deaths.