Hunter's Fall (28 page)

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Authors: Shiloh Walker

Tags: #Romance, #Contemporary, #General, #Paranormal, #Fiction

BOOK: Hunter's Fall
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Some people deserve to die . . . and I’m probably one of them.
Her breath caught in her throat. Her blood roared in her ears and her heart raced. Meeting his eyes, she demanded, “Am I next?”
He said nothing. He just stared at her, his dark velvet eyes staring at her as though he saw nothing else. Just her. Only her.
Jerking her chin up, she demanded, “Well, what are you waiting for?”
“You think I want to kill you,” he said.
Deadly words. A deadly man. That voice. Damn it, that voice . . . rough, low and slow . . . that sexy velvet drawl. It had her remembering dreams where he had made love to her, whispering in her ear as he touched her.
You’ve lost your mind. You never saw him before now. He’s never made love to you.
In the back of her mind, a voice jeered,
“He’s here to kill you . . . he might beat your sorry ass before he does it, but he’s not going to make love to you
. ”
“Aren’t you?” She flexed her hands and mentally checked her energy. She could fight, if she had to. But somehow, she knew she didn’t stand a chance against him.
The thick black fringe of his lashes lowered, shielding his eyes. “I’m not here to kill you.” He held out a hand. “Come on. We don’t have that much time.”
Morgan stared at his hand, shaken by how very much she wanted to put her hand in his. Shaken by how much she wanted to follow him, do whatever he asked.
He would keep me safe.
With clear, blinding clarity, she knew it. So at odds with the angry, raging voice that even now whispered of her death . . . her death at his hands.
“He won’t keep you safe . . . he’ll kill you. Then he’ll find Jazzy and kill her.”
Mentally, she squared her shoulders. She wasn’t going to have a fucking mental breakdown, and if she
was
, she’d rather do it because something really scary wanted her dead,
not
because the voices in her head wouldn’t quit arguing.
As the voice started in on more of its nasty, slippery warnings, Morgan said silently,
Just shut the hell up already
.
If
he wanted her dead, she didn’t stand a chance anyway.
“How did you do that?” She glanced past him to the men on the floor. “Are you . . . How . . . ” Her voice trailed off as she struggled to understand all the questions in her mind. “People can’t move that fast. How did you do that?”
Although his expression didn’t change, Morgan had the strangest feeling that she had startled him. His dark chocolate eyes narrowed on her face, his gaze heavy and intent.
“No time,” he muttered, shaking his head. “We don’t have time for this. Come on, we need to get out of here.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you.”
“Yes, you are. Relax. I’m not going to hurt you. I wouldn’t.”
She gaped at him. “You come in here like the Grim Reaper, kill everybody in just a couple of minutes. And I’m supposed to believe that you don’t want to hurt me?”
A muscle jerked in his cheek. “If I wanted to hurt you, I wouldn’t be standing here talking to you. If I wanted to hurt you, I wouldn’t have kissed you the moment I had a chance.” He cocked his head then, as though listening to something.
Although how he could hear much of anything outside this room other than the music, she didn’t know.
“Time’s up. We’re going. Now.”
It wasn’t a request.
Narrowing her eyes, Morgan said, “I don’t think so.”
He stared at her. In the depths of his eyes, she saw . . . something. Her heart started to race. Warmth unfurled inside her. Without even realizing it, she started to lift her hand.
Out in the hallway, there was a crash. Voices raised. Then the door rattled on its hinges as somebody began to pound against it.
“Peter, open up, man. Everything okay in there?”
The man in front of her sighed. “I’m sorry.”
“Sorry . . . ? ” Morgan shook her head, confused. From the corner of her eye, she saw a blur. But it came too quick. Alarm barely had a chance to form in her mind before he hit her.
Darkness swirled up, pulling her under.
CHAPTER 15
 
S
HE hadn’t recognized him.
“Put it away, man,” Dominic told himself.
No time for it. Not right now. These streets were too open, too unfamiliar . . . and that damn werewolf was out there somewhere.
Dominic should have killed him, but he couldn’t risk it—if he had moved toward Nessa . . .
Somehow, Dominic knew she wouldn’t have been able to handle it. Not in that moment.
With her slight weight draped over his shoulder, he ran through the streets. It was dark and late, most of the streets abandoned. Nobody followed him, but his handiwork had been discovered.
He was a quarter mile away when they had finally busted the door down.
Not for the first time, Dominic was grateful for a vampire’s speed.
He was almost to his beach house when she started to stir. Putting on an extra burst of speed, he closed the distance. He was inside the house just as she woke up.
She didn’t wake up happy. She began to kick and struggle against him as he closed the door behind him. “Fucking asshole. Put me down.”
Dominic did just that, putting her on the couch. As he straightened, his eyes lingered on her face.
Damn it, your face . . .
This wasn’t really happening, was it?
It was her. The woman he’d dreamed about for most of his life. Her pale, peaches-and-cream complexion, a pink Cupid’s bow of a mouth, her heart-shaped face.
And those big blue eyes, so wide and confused and frightened . . . staring at him as though she didn’t know what in the hell was going on.
That makes two of us, sweetheart.
There was no recognition in her gaze.
When he had seen her earlier, she had been standing off to the side. Although none of the mortals would recognize it, she had been terrified.
Dominic had recognized it . . . miles away. It had drawn him in, pulled him close. He’d felt her. Sensed her fear . . . even now, he could feel it, sense it, smell it.
It roused every protective instinct he had, and all he wanted to do was hold her close, promise her that nobody would ever hurt her again.
But it went deeper than that.
Looking at her, even from a distance, it had felt like home. It was like he had found some part of himself that he hadn’t even realized was missing.
And she stared at him like he was a stranger.
Backing away, he stood in the middle of the room as she came off the couch. Her blue eyes blazed at him. “You hit me, you bastard.”
“You didn’t leave me with much choice.” Dominic swallowed the bitter taste of guilt, knowing he had done the right thing. But even knowing that didn’t make it any easier to swallow. “I needed to get you out of there and you made it clear you weren’t going to budge. I didn’t have time to fight with you, not if I wanted to keep you safe.”
“You son of a bitch.” She jerked her hands through her hair and started to pace. “You want me to believe you
hit
me to keep me
safe
. ”
“I don’t expect you to believe anything you don’t want to,” he said, and he knew he lied.
Yes, he expected her to believe him.
He expected her to look at him and feel the same crazy shit
he
felt when he looked at her.
But she didn’t . . .
Damn it, enough already. Just deal with it, you moron. Deal with it. You’ll just have to figure things out as you go.
Yes. That was exactly what he had to do, and he knew he could. Because he had to—he’d
found
her, damn it, he could figure the rest of this out. He hadn’t gotten this far, hadn’t made it this far to quit now. They could figure this mess out, damn it, and they would.
Decision made, he looked at her. His heart broke a little as he picked up on the fear dancing inside her, spinning through her, drawing her tighter and tighter. She kept it hidden deep inside, not letting it show on her face, but she couldn’t hide the signals her body was sending out.
Not from him.
“Okay,” she said, taking a deep breath. “So you don’t want to hurt me. Fine. You got me out of there. I’m safe. Can I go now?”
Dominic cocked a brow. “Go? Exactly where do you want to go?”
“How about home? It’s late. I’m tired.” Fear and worry hovered in the air around her, like a cloak. “Besides, I’ve got somebody waiting for me. I don’t want her to worry when I don’t show up.”
“Jazzy isn’t expecting you to come home.”
She froze, her slender body rigid. She was strung so tight, it was like she’d shatter if she took even one deep breath. “Jazzy?” she parroted back at him.
“Don’t worry . . . she’s safe.” But even as he said it, he laughed at himself. Ugly, acrid bitterness flooded him. How could he expect her not to be scared? She didn’t know what was going on. She didn’t know who he was—didn’t know
what
he was.
Hell, he didn’t think she entirely understood what
she
was.
How could she? She had thought he was going to kill her . . .
Stop it. Stop. One step at a time. One thing at time.
“How do you know about Jazzy? And why wouldn’t she be waiting for me?”
“I know Jazzy. She’s the one who told me where to find you.” He did know Jazzy—in the shallowest sense of the word. He’d met her. He knew her name. Not a lie, right?
Hell, he wasn’t sure who he was dealing with, at least not entirely. She’d looked at him with utter fear, utter confusion—she didn’t know what he was. Which meant she didn’t know what she was . . . and if she didn’t know what she was, she didn’t know
who
she was.
Which meant he couldn’t exactly trust her, especially considering he could smell the blood on her.
Blood.
She had blood on her hands. He had to make sense of that, somehow. Had to, but he didn’t know where to start.
He knew where he wanted to start, though.
He needed her.
He ached . . . deep inside. Inside his heart, in a way he had never known. He knew, as surely as he knew his own name, that if he held her the pain would go away. No . . . not go away. It would
change
, change into that kind of ache that wouldn’t go away entirely until he had that soft, sleek body under his, with her arms wrapped around him, clutching him tight.
Maybe a few dozen years of that would help.
If he could just make love to her, let the rest of the world fall away, then later, they could make sense of everything.
Of course, he somehow suspected she wouldn’t be open to that idea.
He heard her moving behind him, drawing close. He turned and instinct had him stepping to the side at the same time. He was two feet away before she could try to brain him.
Caught off balance, she stumbled forward and the castiron poker she held struck the floor.
She scowled, spinning around to glare at him. “Damn it, how in the hell do you keep doing that?”
Okay. Might as well start with this, then. See if we can make sense of anything.
She looked completely, utterly confused, and it wasn’t any sort of act. That would reek of lies and he scented no deceit on her.
Dominic ran his tongue along the inside of his teeth, then idly pressed the tip of his tongue to the sockets where his fangs rested.
Do I start there? Flash my fangs and see what happens?
So . . . do you know you’re a witch? Yes? No? Maybe? Here’s another one to try on for size . . . I’m a vampire. And I’m the reincarnation of your long-lost lover. Whaddya say . . . wanna go to bed with me?
Somehow, he didn’t see that conversation going over very well.
 
 
T
HERE was something seriously unnerving about the way he stared at her, Morgan decided.
It made her twitchy.
It made her edgy.
Be honest. Be honest with yourself even if you can’t do it with anybody else. He doesn’t make you twitchy or edgy.
He makes you
hot
.
She scowled and wished the voices in her head would start clamoring at her again. She’d had no thoughts but her own, and right now, she’d give almost anything to have those other voices whispering at her. Her id and her ego. Both of them were quiet and she was left alone to face the man in front of her.
With nothing to distract her.

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