Raven Walks (19 page)

But more dangerous than all of that was there
was a part of her that didn’t want him to let go. It was familiar,
this dance with death, and the most alive she’d ever felt … like
lightning was dancing around them in their precarious dance. She
thought her heart would burst when his mouth descended on trembling
lips, and sparks flashed between them as his tongue meshed with
hers.

They both groaned as they melted against each
other. Their kiss was literally electric and sending their nerve
endings into high alert as they reached out and clashed against
each other.

In a blue haze she stumbled away from him,
noticing only then how everyone on the dance floor had stopped to
stare at what was happening between them.

Everyone’s hair stood on end and sparks still
flew from the surface of their skin.

Abi’s brow furrowed as she glanced between
Raven and Gina, and Hunter’s cautionary, “Gina,” was lost in the
sudden hum of vampires swaying and hissing in a circle around
them.

Constantine was the first to say the word all
vampires ultimately feared. “Hunters!”

He advanced toward Abi to pull her back to
him but Hunter stood in between, ready for battle. “I don’t think
so,” he snarled.

“Hunter?” came Abi’s confused voice from
behind him.

“In more ways than one,” Constantine
accused.

Raven stared at Gina incredulously. “Is this
true?” he asked, but she didn’t say anything. “Is this true?” he
demanded suddenly as he grabbed her arm in his hand.

It burned him immediately. Just as
immediately he let her go.

He’d met a few hunters before, but never had
they had this reaction to the mere contact of his skin. Gina backed
up toward Hunter and Abi. “We’re not here to hurt you,” she started
but neither vampire was convinced.

“Likely story,” Constantine sneered. “But
while we’re on the subject, why are you here?”

Gina hesitated for a long moment before
Hunter finally answered, “We’re here to kill the Creature.”

They all sat at the booth – humans on one
side, vampires on the other – in the very back of the club, away
from the curious, and cautious, stares of the other patrons.
Fortunately for Gina and Hunter, their great reveal had occurred
when the club was scarcely full, par for the course now that there
was a homicidal Creature on the loose.

Even for vampires, sometimes there were more
than just hunters to fear.

Gina and Hunter drank from their bottles of
water, but everyone else chose something a bit stronger.

“So you’ve followed it here from Europe,”
Raven repeated, trying to digest it all.

Gina nodded. “We’ve trailed it from Greece to
Italy and even as far north as Ireland.”

“What brought it here?” Constantine
asked.

“We don’t know,” Hunter told him. “That’s
what we’ve been trying to figure out.”

“At first all the targets seemed completely
random,” Gina added. “There was no rhyme or reason. We just chalked
it up to simple blood lust and carnage.”

“And now?” Abi asked.

“Now it all seems to lead to one person,”
Hunter told her.

“Me.”

Everyone looked at Raven. No one could really
argue.

“So I guess we need to find out exactly what
your ties are to Europe,” Gina told him.

“That’s easy. That’s where I’m from.”

“That’s what we figured,” Hunter told
him.

“So this Creature is after you,
specifically?” Abi asked. “Why?”

“The thing is we’re not entirely convinced it
is after Raven. We think it’s after everyone that Raven has
touched. Which makes it highly suspect that you’ve not yet been
attacked,” Gina said to Constantine.

Constantine leaned in. He regarded this
redheaded huntress as a threat. It was obvious in his eyes. “And
what exactly is that supposed to mean?”

Gina was undaunted. She knew enough about
vampires to know that he wasn’t menacing. And even if he was, she
knew how to deal with him. “You tell me.”

His eyes hardened as he tried to stare her
down, but it wasn’t working.

“It could mean that the Creature is tracking
both of us,” Raven offered. Constantine looked at him. “Greece is
where I turned you.”

“But it doesn’t seem to care about who I’m
with or why,” Constantine said. “It’s only out to punish you by
taking the people you care about. And since you don’t care about
me, I’m not a target.”

“At least you weren’t,” Raven corrected as he
sent a glance over to Abi, who shrunk back against the seat. She
instantly wanted to apologize, but she didn’t even really know
why.

“So if you guys are tracking this Creature,
does it know about you?”

Hunter shrugged. “This thing is a ruthless
killing machine, it doesn’t really pay much mind to humans or
vampires, hunters or not. It’s like it’s got this one track mind.
If you’re not part of the agenda it barely acknowledges your
existence at all. We’re just speed bumps.”

“Speed bumps it can’t touch,” Raven pointed
out. His mouth still tingled from the electrifying kiss he and Gina
had shared on the dance floor.

Hunter just smiled. “Consider it our little
insurance policy.” He toasted them with his bottled water.

Raven’s eyes opened wide. He grabbed Gina’s
bottle before she could stop him. “I wouldn’t do that if I were
you,” she warned him but Raven opened it anyway. He poured a very
small drop on the back of his hand, and it sizzled almost right
down to the bone.

Gina retrieved the bottle while Raven writhed
in agony. “I told you.”

Raven’s face distorted with pain and with
disbelief. “You drink holy water?”

Hunter chuckled. “Call it Vampire-B-Gone. The
human body is made up of like 70% water. We just replenish with
holy water and it means we’re virtually untouchable.”

“And it’s worked until tonight,” Gina
commented. “That was the first time any vampire has tried to hold
on despite the burning chemical reaction.”

“What can I say?” Raven quipped. “I’m not
your usual vampire.”

“Neither is this Creature,” Hunter said.
“Which is why what happened tonight was so dangerous. It outed us
as hunters, yes, but the only ones who care about that are vampires
like yourself. This Creature only cares that Raven singled Gina out
for a conquest.”

“I’m not scared,” Gina spoke up immediately,
even though both vampires and even her hunter partner could see
that she was lying – if only to herself.

“Always your downfall,” Hunter said under his
breath.

“You’re not fighting him alone,” Raven told
them. “If this thing is tracking the people I care about,” he
briefly hesitated while he glanced at Abi, who sat silently trying
to take it all in, “then I have to confront it myself.”

“You don’t have the knowledge it takes to
fight him,” Constantine told him, and immediately caused Raven’s
fur to rise. Constantine held up his hand. “You’re not a killer,
Raven. Admit it. I have a lot more experience with the hunt and the
conquest. I came back here because you need me.”

Raven said nothing but clenched his jaw in
barely subdued anger because he knew that Constantine had a
point.

“Okay, so we’re all in this together,” said
Hunter. “Where do we go from here?”

“My house,” Raven said with a resolute tone
that invited no argument. “We hold up together, safety in
numbers.”

Hunter nodded, and Gina sent him a surprised
glare. “He’s right. This thing uses the whole divide-and-conquer
approach. Until now it’s not had to deal with a group of people
organized to defeat it.”

“You’re talking about a war,” Abi finally
spoke up.

Hunter’s blue eyes bored into hers. “That’s
because it is.”

“And the enemy of my enemy is my friend?” she
asked him.

“We’re not enemies,” Gina told her sister,
forcing her to look away from Hunter. “We all have the same
objective. To kill this Creature, and to survive. Since that’s
going to be a lot easier with us intact as a group, it serves all
of our purposes to keep each other safe.” Gina glanced over at the
vampires across the table. “Right?”

They nodded, Raven quicker than Constantine,
and then all proceeded to Raven’s old plantation named Bella, in
grand old Southern tradition. It was immaculate and Raven had been
dedicated to its upkeep, making sure it was restored to the
original condition he had enjoyed when he first came to New Orleans
a century ago.

Everything was a step back in time, right
down to Raven’s manservant Bernard, who seemed surprisingly
unaffected by the horde of people to show up at the door of his
ultra-private master.

At a very spry, and permanent, 60, Bernard
looked as though nothing really surprised him anymore. He worked
for a vampire – what else could possibly happen to him?

“Good evening, Bernard,” Raven greeted
warmly. “These are my guests. They are staying with me for an
indeterminate period of time. I trust you will make sure they are
made to feel at home.”

“Of course, sir,” Bernard said with almost a
slight bow. He was old school and treated his job and his master
with ultimate decorum. “Any preferences in the sleeping
arrangements?”

Hunter stepped forward and put his arm around
Gina. “My wife and I would like to stay together.”

Constantine was quick to stake his claim too
and take Abi’s arm in his. “And we would like a room together as
well.”

Though neither came as a surprise to Raven,
he wasn’t all that pleased by either. Yet he understood the logic
behind it. The women had to stay with those who could protect them,
and both Abi and Gina would be at far greater risk to share his
bed.

“Very well,” Bernard said as he gathered the
bags they had stopped to collect along the way to the plantation.
“This way,” he said to Gina and Hunter. With just a small backward
glance over her shoulder at her sister, Gina followed, seemingly
reluctant to leave Abi alone with the two vampires.

“You do realize having them here is like
juggling dynamite.” Constantine said to Raven once they had gone
out of sight. “Are you sure you trust them?”

“I trust them about as much as I trust you,”
he said, sparing Abi only the briefest glance. “Besides,” Raven
headed toward his ornate cherry wood bar in the corner of his main
sitting room. “Can we afford not to?”

He pulled out a bottle of water from the
refrigerator. “It does make your choice a little more difficult
now, doesn’t it?” he asked Abi.

“What do you mean?” she asked with a tip of
her chin.

“He means your choice to become a vampire,”
Constantine filled in as he flopped on the antique sofa.

“Who says I have made that choice?” she
immediately wanted to know.

Raven walked back around the bar to where she
stood. Without saying a word he lifted her hair and exposed her
wounded neck. “A little something you should know about vampires.
We can read thoughts. I know what you felt when these wounds were
made because I was there, thanks to my connection with
Constantine.”

The thought both thrilled and frightened her.
“Kind of makes your Halloween episode to scare me away rather
useless, don’t you think?”

He chuckled. “Indeed.” He went over to join
Constantine in a chair near the sofa. “But if you’re going to
become one of us you should know that is what you eventually
become. The only difference between us and that Creature is some
muscle and skin.”

“I don’t believe that,” she said as she
stalked over to where they sat. “There’s a lot of humanity left in
both of you, whether you choose to see it or not.” They both
scoffed but she put her hands on her hips. “If that weren’t true,
whether I became a vampire or not wouldn’t even be my choice.”

Both Constantine and Raven leveled their dark
eyes on her and said in unison, “What makes you think it is?”

They both rose and approached her where she
stood, one on either side, close enough she could feel both of
their hot breath on her skin. Again she tipped her chin. “I’m not
scared,” she tried to assert, but it came out as a breathless
whisper.

“You should be,” Raven told her in a firm,
low voice. “This isn’t some act of revenge from a jealous sister.”
Her eyes hardened as she stared up at him. “Yes, I read those
thoughts, too.”

“Fuck you,” she hissed as she tried to wrench
away. He held her fast.

“Will that help?” he asked softly, his eyes
enveloping hers. “Will that ease the knowledge that the man you
love is fucking your sister as we speak?”

Her hand flew at his face, but he caught her
wrist before it made contact. He chuckled softly and she changed
tactics.

“Still trying to scare me away, Raven?” she
asked pointedly. “Didn’t you learn anything from last time?”

He answered her question with a question.
“Did you?” As he ran his hands up either of her arms, Constantine
lifted up her hair and kissed every inch of her sensitive neck
except for the two throbbing wounds. She stared into Raven’s eyes,
unable to look away, even when she wanted to tip her head back and
lose herself to the sensations. “This isn’t a game,” he told her,
his finger trailing up her arm and over across her chest, up her
neck and across her jaw. “We play for keeps.”

“So do I,” she whispered as her arms slipped
up around his neck and she kissed him hard on the mouth.

He quickly bent her arms behind her back as
he ravaged her mouth. “You really think they care?” he whispered
against her mouth.

“What makes you think I do?” she asked,
defiantly.

He placed his hand upon her chest, above her
heart. It thundered up to meet his palm. “I can feel it.”

Her eyebrow arched. “Then why do you still
want me, Raven?”

His mouth twisted into a satisfied smirk.
“Like I told you. I always take what is offered.”