Raven's Desires (Night Hunters) (10 page)

“I was paying attention.”

“Oh really? And what was the last thing I said?”

Raven thought for a moment then giggled. “You said that you wanted me to suck your—”

“Don’t finish that statement unless you are prepared to do just that,” Kristian jumped in.

“In your dreams, buddy. You will never know what it feels like to have me.”

Raven rolled her eyes and walked past him. She yelped when a hard smack came across her butt.

“Did you just spank me?” Raven turned to face him while rubbing her butt. She hoped to sound just a bit annoyed, but she knew he could feel the heat that was boiling inside her. All he did was spank her, and she was acting like a horny teenager. Wait! She
was
a horny teenager. She was nineteen, but that did not make her any less horny than the rest of her classmates.

It wasn’t like she didn’t try to find a boyfriend to have sex with, even with her parents not approving, but no boy ever really did it for her. They were just that, boys. Maybe it took someone like Kristian to give her what she needed. Sadly, she had challenged him, but she could never give herself up to him so freely.

It took a moment for Kristian to speak. “I did spank you, and to tell you the truth you deserved it.”

Raven saw Kristian go to a bookshelf on the far side of the room. The room was beautiful. The floor was lined with a patterned dark brown carpet. Two small tables, each with a lamp, sat on either side of a brown leather couch and a small coffee table. A picture of a boat hung on the wall behind the couch. The room was somewhat small compared to the rest of the house but in all it looked so homey.

“And why would I deserve to be spanked?”

Kristian pulled a book off the shelf, flipped through a few pages then placed it back. He did that for several books.

“Not going there with you, little girl. I know what you want and if you want to play this little cat and mouse game, we can. Just remember that this tom cat always catches the mouse.” Kristian pulled another book off the shelf. “Ah, this is it.”

“Over confident are we?”

Kristian shook his head. “Not one bit. The fact that you enjoy being chased is the amusing part to me. Just know that if I want to make love to you right now, there is nothing stopping me.”

Kristian sat on the couch beside her.

Raven rolled her eyes at him again.
If he wants to think that way, so be it.

A knock came on the door.

“I’ll get it!” Raven heard a female’s voice yell.

“Are you expecting someone?” Raven asked as Kristian still flipped through the old book that he held in his hands.

“Yes,” he said while still not looking at her.

“Mr. Blackburn
—
Councilman and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Solomon,” Elisabeth announced from the door.

Kristian grasped her wrist, pulling her to her feet as he stood. Elisabeth moved from the doorway and Raven would never forget the feeling that curled up inside her when the man and woman appeared in the room. The man was tall, very tall with skin that looked as if he had not seen daylight in many years. His short black hair looked good against his transparent skin. He had on black pants and a black silk shirt. He moved with grace as they walked up to them.

The female. Thatwas a different story. Her skin wasn’t as pale as the man’s, but they both projected the same thing. Danger. The female had long, very long red hair. The color seemed to glow under the lights. Her green eyes seemed to penetrate Raven’s soul. She had on a green silk dress that touched the floor. The color brought out her eyes more. Her hair was up in some type of bonnet style that she’d never seen before. Around it were different types of hair accessories. Never had she seen something so beautiful.

“Welcome to my home, Councilman Arthas and Mrs. Solomon.”

“It’s a pleasure to be here,” Arthas said.

Raven could not help but shiver at the sound of his voice. It echoed as if they stood in a very large room. She’d never heard anyone’s voice so deep and dangerous sounding before.

Kristian let go of her hand to take the woman’s hand. In some way that made Raven jealous, but she held down the jealousy.

“And you, the lovely Jana. So very good to see you again.”

“Yes…” the woman’s voice floated into the air just as the man’s voice had. “It’s been a long time since I have seen you, my dear Kristian.”

Kristian kissed her hand then released her.

“Are you going to introduce us to this…” the female licked her…her…well to Raven, they looked like fangs, similar to Kristian’s. But unlike Kristian, looking at this woman’s fangs made her a bit edgy. “Beautiful female?”

Kristian laced his fingers with Raven’s. She was sure that if he had any type of powers he could feel just how uncomfortable she was right now. The woman kept staring at her as if she wanted to eat her. Literally. Raven eased closer to Kristian in an effort to get away from the freaks in front of her.

“Yes. This is Raven Nowles, my
mate
.” The way Kristian said mate, whatever the hell that meant, must have meant something. The female sighed and looked away. “Raven, this is Councilman Arthas and Jana Solomon. He is what we could call the president over the eastern coast.”

“Nice—nice to meet you,” Raven said then extended her right hand.

Arthas took it first and she shivered at his touch. He reeked of danger and death. She resisted the urge to wipe her hand on her pants when he let go. The woman then took her hand and even though the woman seemed dangerous, Raven did not see any dangerous signs. No, this woman wanted—
ewwwww
—she wanted her!
No…no…no! Not going to happen
. Raven snatched her hand away from woman.

“Awwwww, Kristian, your little mate doesn’t want to play with me.” The woman’s voice sounded sad, but Raven was not buying that crap.

“Well, you know you are here to try to explain to her what’s going on, Jana, not to seduce her into your bed.”

Raven looked up at Kristian. No matter what they had to say, she did not swing that way, and if anything they were going to say involved her between another chick’s thighs, that was not something she wanted to experience.

All three of them laughed and Raven knew that they had read her mind.

“Could you not be inside my mind? That’s kinda rude.”

“Well, dear, you were projecting so loudly we couldn’t help but sneak a peek of what you were thinking. Also…” The woman moved closer to her. “Don’t knock it until you try it. I could do things to you that no man would ever dream of doing.”

Like what?
What could another woman do to her that a man couldn’t do? As interesting as that sounded, she never wanted to find out.

“Have a seat,” Kristian said, while sitting down on the couch with her.

Jana and Arthas sat on the other smaller sofa next to the bookcase.

Raven knew it was rude to stare, but she could not take her eyes off of them. Deep down she knew they were vampires, but the rational part of her brain would not let her believe it.

“So, what’s everyone here to talk to me about?” Raven broke the long silence.

“Raven, dear, you already know what we are. Don’t you?” Arthas spoke first.

Raven looked at Kristian for a moment then back to Arthas and Jana. Yes, she kinda had a guess on what they were, but would they think she had lost her mind if she came right out and said it? Maybe she had imagined the fangs. She always liked scary movies and watched them frequently. Maybe they manifested themselves inside her mind to make her think she saw fangs. Or the werewolf that Kristian killed. Raven took one more look at the three staring at her and shook her head. She could deny it all she wanted. but she knew that there were four people in this room and only one of them was human. Her.

“Not to sound crazy, but you are vampires.”

Arthas sat up in his chair.

“Very good. We are vampires, but we like to be referred to as Night Hunters. Vampires are so
last century
.”

“Night Hunters? Vampires? What’s the difference?”

Arthas snarled at her and she saw the woman place her hand over his.

“We, Night Hunters, are more civilized than regular vampires and other demons. Our race of hunters is more than just vampires. We are made up of werewolves, demon seekers, shadow demons, and many many other non-human beings in this world. What makes us different is that we set out to destroy those who want to destroy humans. There are many demons who want to take over the world and destroy humans. It seems like a great thing, but what would this world become if it was run by demons?” Arthas stopped talking to watch her for a moment. “No guesses? Well, my dear, it would be a hell dimension. We have many hell dimensions already and I doubt that we need more.”

“So in other words, you are the good guys?”

“Yes, we are. Not only us, but there are gods that are higher power than we are—”

“Wait, can I ask the typical vampire question before you continue?”

Arthas frowned at her but nodded.

“Can you go into the sun? Do you ever age? See yourself in mirrors? Garlic…fact or fiction? Would that kill you?”

Arthas sat back in his seat and Raven knew she might have annoyed him a little.

“I’m sorry to ask, but if I’m to understand what’s going on I have to start off with the usual questions.”

Kristian grabbed her hand, holding it in his. She looked at him for a brief moment before turning back to the couple.

“I’m over nineteen hundred years old. Nineteen hundred and seventy six, to be precise. I know you want to know, but those questions do tend to get old after a century or so.” Arthas sighed. “But to answer your questions. Yes, we can go into the sun with special made jewelry. Some of us have tattoos made from ancient Indians so that we do not fear losing or having the jewelry stolen from us. We never age unless we want to.”

“Want to?” Raven questioned.

“Yes. Let’s say that one of our demon brothers or sisters want to live a human life with a human partner. They can project to every one of them aging and even dying. Some actually die to follow their human loves, some go back to being young and start over. We can see ourselves in mirrors. We are not evil creations. Some of us, such as myself, Jana, and Kristian, are full blooded. Some are hybrids—half-human, half-demons, but still able to see themselves. I love garlic and if you really think about it, if you put a stake through a human heart, wouldn’t they die also?”

Raven thought about it for a moment and what he said about the stake and the sun was true. The other vampire myths such as garlic and mirrors were what they were, myths.

“Does that answer all your vampiric questions?”

Raven nodded her head.

“Good, then I can continue. As I said, I am Councilman Solomon, and we run this part of the state. I’m like a judge to be more precise. If anything happens, it is brought to me so I can pass judgment.”

Raven watched as Jana looked at Arthas and he nodded.

“Now, dear,” Jana began speaking. “I don’t want my husband to bore you with endless talk about vampires and what happens if they kill humans and all that other bull that will not mean anything to you until you learn what you are.”

Raven lifted an eyebrow at her.

“What am I?”

“Kristian called us because there is so much more to the council than you would ever know. We fight against evil all the time, but then there are times where we cannot protect all the humans, and our gods give us a helping hand. They invented what we call you. A slayer. A super human, if you want a better word.”

“Me? A slayer?” Raven asked with a smirk. “Like Buffy the Vampire Slayer type of slayer?”

Jana sighed and rolled her eyes. “Please. Get all of the movie mumbo jumbo out of your head, Raven. You will not be staking out graves at night. You will not go out patrolling to find evil. Trust me, evil will find you. What our job is now is to train you to defend yourself.”

“Defend myself,” Raven repeated.

“Yes. When evil comes to you, we want you to think smart and be able to protect yourself. There is a lot of evil in this world, Raven, and it’s going to come for you, which makes this a very dangerous job for you.”

“Job? You say that is if I will get paid.”

“You will,” Arthas spoke again. “Being a slayer will be a job of its own. You will make way over the salary of a regular worker.”

Raven was kinda interested in finding out about the pay, but was it worth her life? Would being this so called slayer they wanted her to become be worth her life?

“Raven,” Arthas interrupted her thoughts. “You cannot stop what you are to become. You cannot call in to your boss and say you quit and it is over. You are a slayer, and it is your blood that makes you what you are. The upside to being a slayer is, this is how you will look, now and forever. You will never age, never change, never grow old and die. Another thing, you will never have to work a day in your life. It is hard to understand but the gods provide us with enough money to pay everyone under the Council. Your pay will be around a million a year.”