Hunted Holiday: A Vampire Romance (2 page)

As if hellhounds made eating humans an event. They preferred demons.

Everyone knew that.

Okay, not everyone, but certainly anyone who knew anything about hellhounds knew as much. It wasn’t like humans were new to supernaturals. Since the supernaturals’ giant coming-out party in the mid-seventies, humans had been getting schooled on the paranormal. Dani was too young to have been around during the Paranormal Awakening, as the media had termed supernaturals outing themselves. She’d read about what had happened back then.

It hadn’t been pretty for either side.

“Hey, Dani, look!” yelled Mimi, holding another decoration in the air.

Dani highly doubted Cornell would be too happy with the idea of living next to a winter wonderland. If she thought hard enough, she’d have to admit to herself she’d given Mimi the okay to proceed with decorating in the hopes it would irritate Cornell.

Sighing, Dani strongly suspected she’d be dealing with a few angry neighbors before the week was done, and one would be her boss. She was already public enemy number one as far as the Homeowners Association went. Dani seemed to collect citations. The jerkwad in charge of the thing disliked supernaturals in a big way. He was one of the human purists. A crazy group who thought by protesting everything to do with supernaturals, they’d somehow get them to go away. Guess he didn’t understand they’d been here longer than the humans. Then again, she doubted he cared.

“Where should I put him?” Mimi asked, holding up a light-up elf. It was clutching a book with holly on the front of it.

Dani blinked several times. “In
the Shire
?”

Mimi appeared confused.

No surprise. Dani’s geeky side and her references to it normally fell flat with Mimi.

“Whatever you think is best,” said Dani with a snort. As Mimi rushed off to see what, if any, open spots she had remaining in her spider web of extension cords, Dani’s focus went to her boss’s house once more. She could feel him there, watching her still. It warmed her to an extent, though she wasn’t sure why.

Because you’re totally into him.

She groaned, disliking her inner thoughts for pointing out what she tried very hard to deny.

“I’m bored,” called Dani. They’d been at the decorating for hours. Or rather, Mimi had been decorating and Dani had been trapped outside, watching the holiday horror take shape.

Mimi lifted what looked like a harp from another box. Dear gods above, the girl had managed to get her hands on a harp. “You
could
help me decorate.”

“I’m not
that
bored,” returned Dani, considering taking the harp and some of Mimi’s other decorations and putting them over on the doom-and-gloom, yet well-kept, property.

A little spreading of the holiday cheer.

Cornell would be livid.

She smiled, liking the idea more and more.

Dani couldn’t help but laugh as she glanced at a set of stone gargoyles that flanked the large staircase to his front door. They’d look wicked cool with some holly around their necks. Maybe some tinsel on them as well. She blew on her mitten-covered hands, doing her best to regain some sort of feeling in them. It didn’t work. Snow had soaked through the mittens and pretty much left her hands icy cold. “I’m freezing and I’m hungry.”

“You’re like a small child,” her friend said with a chuckle. “Often I feel like our quality time together is me babysitting you, and you’re a grown woman.”

“Oh yeah, I’m the one with the kid complex.” Dani motioned to the still unpacked boxes of decorations. The delivery truck that had arrived early in the morning had been packed to the point of near bursting. “Often I buy out entire department stores of their holiday collections and insist on putting them all up, on the same day, at the same house. Yep, me for sure.”

With a snort, Mimi shook her hand and motioned to Dani’s house. “I made gingerbread cookies, and can make us some cocoa when we’re done.”

Dani sighed. “I’d say I’m shocked you have cookies and cocoa waiting, but we both know that would be a bold-faced lie. I’d be more shocked if your gingerbread men didn’t have cute little gingerbread women to go with them.”

Mimi blushed.

Pointing, Dani laughed. “I knew it!”

“I’m predictable. So what?” Mimi shrugged. “Sometimes it’s a good thing.”

Mimi was right. It was good to know that no matter what, Dani could count on her.
 

Knowing she wasn’t going to be able to leave Mimi unattended without fear of a fire, Dani set about keeping herself occupied without aiding in the decorating. She gathered snow and began the mindless task of building an obscene snowman. Each time Dani managed to get it at least half-done, Mimi came past and knocked it over. Apparently, making men from snow and giving them enlarged testicles wasn’t considered festive in Mimi’s book. It wasn’t in Dani’s either, but getting under Mimi’s skin always appealed to her.

What are besties for?
 

After a quick trip into the house, Dani returned with the last of what she needed to complete her masterpiece—a carrot. She shoved the carrot in the snowman to represent his penis and smiled widely. “Ah, now that’s decorating.”

“Help me. He’s stuck,” Mimi said, wiggling her backside to the Christmas music she’d insisted on playing from her cell phone as she yanked on the oversized Santa, trying to free him from his box. “He’s too big.”

Dani laughed. “Is there such a thing as a man who is too big? Speaking of size, I need a bigger carrot for my snowman. Hmm, do you think a cucumber would work better?”

“Dani, get that off there!” Mimi shrieked.
 

“Fine. Go ahead. Suck the joy out of that holiday spirit you were so anxious for me to get.”

Mimi gasped as she lost her grip on the Santa. She fell backward and hit Dani, knocking her to the ground with a thud. A dull ache centered at the base of Dani’s skull. “Ouch.”

“Crap. Sorry,” said Mimi, trying but failing to get up. “Slippery spot. There are a bunch of them out here.”

The coppery taste of blood filled Dani’s mouth. She swallowed and bit back a groan as her already battered body adjusted to the newest onslaught of discomfort. Mimi would worry if Dani dared to let on that she’d not fully healed from the battle the night before. As a slayer, Dani healed nearly as fast as most supernaturals. But she’d gotten pretty knocked around and it would take her at least another day to be back to something close to normal. “Way to draw first blood.”

“Well, it really is the only way I can get a lick in on you,” Mimi said, laughing as she went to sit up.
 

Grabbing her friend’s wrist, Dani winked, keeping Mimi held down to the ground. “It’s snow angel time.”

“Dani?” Shocked didn’t even begin to cover the expression Mimi had on her face.
 

“You heard me. I’m letting out that inner child of mine. The one you were complaining about. Snow angels. Now. Or I go back to erotic snowman-building. Only this time”—she put her hands out wide—“I’ll make his cock the size of a zucchini.”

“I hate it when you use those words in public,” Mimi snipped, wrinkling her nose as Dani swooshed her arms and legs out, making her snow angel. “You could be a little more ladylike. It wouldn’t kill you.”

Grinning, Dani tossed a handful of snow at her. “Here I thought zucchini was a ‘Mimi correct’ word for
it
.”

Mimi wiped the snow from her face and rolled her eyes. “You know what I mean. I swear, you let the first thing that comes into your mind fly right out. And do you ever think about anything
but
sex?”

“Yes, dear. Visions of sugarplums will be dancing through my head all night. If, and only if, the nightmares take a break long enough to allow that to happen.” No part of her wanted to upset Mimi with talk of the past, so Dani put her hand out and smiled. “Come on, you can help me castrate the snowman. When we’re done there, I’ve got three, almost four Santas we could do too. Oh, and twelve non-tiny reindeer. Wow, we could be at this all night.”

She pushed to her feet and made a move to rush toward the large Santa. Mimi grabbed her ankle and laughed. “Danielle, you are not going to deface Christmas decorations!”

“Not deface, de-dick, darling.” Twisting, slightly, Dani attempted to break Mimi’s hold on her without harming Mimi. The second she realized it wasn’t going to work, Dani gave in and fell forward. Mimi picked then to let go of her, leaving Dani slipping on a patch of ice. Both of them ended up on their backs in the snow again, laughing.

Chapter Two

Offer to stuff her stocking

“There a reason you keep staring out that window? You’ve been doing it since sunset when I got here.”

Cornell Sutton slipped his fingers around his whiskey tumbler, his dark gaze remaining in place as he stared out the window of his study and into the neighbor’s front yard. He couldn’t look away.
She
was out tonight, playing, enjoying herself, looking so carefree.
She
held his attention, unlike any other woman ever had or ever would.

Dani Malloye.

He longed for these rare moments when he could see her without any cares or worries and without her knowledge. She was always so guarded when she was around him and aware of his presence. Last night, he’d had to fight to keep from drawing her into his arms and holding her until dawn’s break. She had been injured in a battle, one he was sure had been staged to lure his enforcers out and then ambush them.

When he’d happened upon her in the alley and found her staggering, holding her side and bleeding, his rage had nearly taken hold of him. The demon he shared his body with had wanted to unleash its hell upon Dani’s attackers. Several had managed to elude capture, but he planned to hunt them on this night. They probably thought themselves safe, having lasted the day. However, they were anything but.

He had their scent.

And they’d dared to harm his Dani.

Oh, they would most certainly pay.
 

For now, he would watch the blonde who captivated him as she continued her youthful antics, bringing a smile to his face. A face that belonged to a man who all too often forgot to find pleasure and happiness in the things around him—a fault many immortals suffered from. Becoming jaded was easy to do.

As of late, Cornell had found himself falling into the trap. But he had Dani. She was his salvation. His tie to humanity, though he’d never actually been human.

She was a curious woman, one who managed to always keep him guessing. He knew of her past. Of the horrors she’d endured at a young age at the hands of those like him—vampires. When Cornell had been informed of what Dani had suffered through, he’d gone on a hunt for those who had harmed her and he made them pay—for weeks on end, again and again. Until they understood what a mistake it had been to harm Dani and those she loved.

Of what an error it had been to ever lay a hand upon his woman.

Mine.

Burning-hot need rushed over him, and he held his drink so tight he was amazed he didn’t shatter the glass. He had spent years longing for the woman, wanting to know the feel of her body against his, the taste of her lips, the sound she would make when coming.

“Ignoring me now, are you?” asked his best friend and fellow vampire, Finn Mackay. The man’s brogue had never waned in all the years he’d lived in the States.

Many supernaturals that had centuries under their belts tended to cling to certain aspects of old. Cornell did so in the form of his home. He had it built from memory, based off his home from long ago in Europe. This was not the first time he’d had the castle-like mansion recreated. It would more than likely not be the last, either.

“No. I am not ignoring you, despite how much I am considering it,” returned Cornell. “There is a reason I’m looking out the window. And I suspect you already know what that reason is.”

Finn whistled low and laughed. “Aye, you mean who. And my money would be on the tall blonde, not the tiny redhead, though she’s a looker. I would nae kick her out of my bed for eatin’ crackers.”

Cornell sighed, as all the reasons why he could never have Dani for himself, despite what the Fates appeared to think, rushed over him. She was a natural-born slayer. He was a vampire. She was his subordinate. He was her boss. The list went on and on. “It could never work.”

He watched as she danced around an obviously male snowman she’d built that was anatomically correct. Dani’s friend Mimi seemed too focused on adding light-up decorations to an already over-lit display to notice Dani’s antics.

Cornell had been obsessed with the young slayer since he’d first met her five years back, upon her completion of slayer training, and right before she had been officially brought into the Bureau for agent training. She was eighteen at the time. Far too young for him to have the feelings and desires he’d had stirring inside him. Cornell had placed a trusted friend in charge of overseeing Dani’s training within the Bureau, knowing his willpower was pushed too far when it came to the stubborn blonde.

The last few years had been sweet agony for him, being near her day in and day out, yet not in the way he wished and longed for. He wanted her in his bed, by his side as a mate should be. He didn’t bother denying what he and his demon knew to be true—the real reason why he felt so drawn to her.

She’s my mate.

He knew the truth, though he’d not admitted it out loud just yet, let alone to her or anyone else. Besides, she wouldn’t be open to hearing such a proclamation from him. She always came off as disliking him greatly. It didn’t matter. He was more than fond of her.

With as old as he was, he knew better than to fight nature. It ended poorly for any who tried, and for some reason, many supernatural males did. They thought if they buried their heads in the sand, and pretended what was before their very nose was not true, then they could continue living the way they’d become accustomed to. He supposed it was a flaw of most alpha males, it didn’t matter what type of supernatural they were.

As a natural-born vampire, Cornell had never been a slave to his demon to the extent the sired were. But when it came to Dani Malloye, he found himself no more able to control his demon side than a newly sired vampire fledgling.