Night Pleasures

Desiderius laughed. "Spoken like a true Dark-Hunter. But all of us have an Achilles' heel, especially those who serve Artemis. You are no exception."

  Amanda swore she could almost hear Desiderius lick his lips in satisfaction. "Your greatest weakness is your nobility. That woman hates you, yet you won't kill her to be safe. While she tries to kill you, you'll guard her from me with your life." Desiderius laughed evilly. "You just can't resist a human in peril, can you?"

  "Desi, Desi, Desi," the Dark-Hunter tsked. "What am I going to do with you?"

  "Don't you dare take that flippant tone with me."

  "Why ever not?"

  "Because I am not some scared little Daimon to run cringing from you. I am your worst nightmare."

  The Dark-Hunter scoffed. "Must you resort to cliches? C'mon, Desidisastrous, couldn't you think of anything more original than that B-movie dialogue staple?"

  A furious snarl echoed in the room. "Stop mocking my name."

  "Sorry, you're right. The least I could do is show you respect before I expire you."

  "Oh, you won't expire me, Dark-Hunter. You are the one who will die this time. Have you given thought to how much she's going to slow you down? Not to mention the existence of her little friends. They will take you down like a pack of wild dogs. And if I were you, I'd pray for that. You have never known the suffering I will inflict upon you when next we meet."

  His lips in a tight, firm line, the Dark-Hunter smiled at Desiderius's threats. "You seriously overestimate your abilities."

  "We shall see."

  Amanda heard a mike click off.

  The Dark-Hunter jerked again at the cuffs. "I am going to kill that horror-movie reject."

  "Hey, hey, hey!" she said as he flapped her arm around while trying to free himself. "That arm is attached."

  He paused and looked down at her. His gaze softened. "Twins. It never occurred to him. Have you any idea where your sister is?"

  "I don't even know where I am or what time it is. For that matter, I don't know what's going on here. Who are you and who is that guy?" Then, she lowered her voice and added, "Can he hear us?"

  Kyrian shook his head. "No, the mike channel is closed. For the moment, he's off plotting his Igoresque revenge. I don't know about you, but I have this image of him rubbing his hands together and laughing like Dexter from Dexter's Laboratory."

  Kyrian took a minute to study her. She didn't appear hysterical ... yet, and he wanted to keep it that way. Telling her Desiderius was a soul-sucking demon who was after her sister didn't seem like the best way to accomplish that.

  Of course, given her sister's penchant for vampire-hunting, it shouldn't really come as a surprise to her, either.

  Closing his eyes, he reached into her mind with his and found confirmation of his suspicions. There was a healthy dose of fear in her.

  Unlike her sister Tabitha, she wasn't one to jump to conclusions, but she was curious and angry over their situation. It was possible he could tell her everything without freaking her out, but the Dark-Hunter in him operated on a need-to-know basis.

  Right now all she needed to know was the bare minimum. With any luck he would be able to separate them without having to reveal anything more about himself to her.

  "I am called Hunter," he said solemnly. "And that guy is a man out to harm your sister."

  "Thanks, but that much I already got." Amanda frowned. She should be frightened by all this, but she wasn't. Her anger over it was too great. Leave it to her to get mixed up in her sister's crazy life.

  In fact, she was glad they had captured her by mistake, since Tabitha would no doubt have pulled some kamikaze stunt and gotten herself killed.

  She looked up at the Dark-Hunter and her frown deepened. How did he know about Tabitha? For that matter, how had he been able to tell them apart when even their own mother had trouble at times? "Are you one of my sister's friends?"

  He looked at her blankly, before pulling her to her feet. "No," he said as he patted his chest, hips, rear, and legs.

  Amanda tried not to notice just how incredibly toned that body was as her hand was dragged in the wake of his. And when her hand brushed his hard inner thigh, she thought she would moan.

  He was built for sex and for speed. Too bad he wasn't her type. In fact, he was the total antithesis to everything she found desirable in a man.

  Wasn't he?

  He cursed. "Of course, he has my phone," he muttered, before leading her to the door.

  After trying the knob, he studied the hinges.

  When he unbuckled his left boot and toed it off, Amanda arched a brow. "What are you doing? Going for a swim?"

  He gave her a cocky smirk before leaning down to pick the boot up off the floor. "Trying to get us out of here. You?"

  "I'm trying not to get irritated at you."

  Amusement flashed in his eyes, then he returned his attention to the door.

  Amanda watched as he pressed one of the silver inlays on the boot heel and a vicious five-inch blade shot out of the toe. He was definitely Tabitha's type. She wondered if he had throwing stars inside his pockets, too.

  "Oooo," she commented dryly. "Very scary."

  He gave her an unamused look. "Baby, you ain't seen scary yet."

  Amanda smirked at his Ford Fairlane, tough-guy demeanor and gave a very unfeminine snort.

  He ignored her. Using the jagged blade, he tried to pry loose the rusted hinges.

  "You're going to break that blade if you're not careful," she warned him.

  He gave her an arched look. "Nothing on this earth could break this blade." He ground his teeth while hammering the boot with his fist. "Much like nothing on this earth appears able to move this hinge." He tried for several more minutes.

  "Damn," he snarled when the hinge refused to budge. He retracted the blade, then bent over to put the boot back on. The back of his coat parted with his movements, gifting her with a nice view of him.

  Oh yeah, nice butt.

  Amanda's mouth went dry as he finally straightened to his full six-foot-five-inch height.

  Oh my, my, my.

  Okay, she took it back, he did have one feature she found irresistible. His height. She'd always been a sucker for any man taller than her. And with this guy, she could easily wear three-inch heels and not offend his male ego.

  He towered over her.

  And she liked it.

  "How do you know my sister?" she asked, trying to keep her thoughts focused on the matter at hand and not on the matter of how much she wanted to taste those lips of his.

  "I know her because she keeps getting in my way." He snatched at the cuffs again. "What is it with you humans that you feel this incessant need to delve into things you should leave alone?"

  "I don't delve into..." Her voice trailed off as his words penetrated her mind. "You humans? Why would you say that?"

  He didn't answer.

  "Look," she said, holding up her arm to show the handcuff. "I'm stuck with you right now, and I want an answer."

  "No you don't."

  That did it. She hated alpha men in the worst sort of way. Those domineering, I'm-the-man-baby-let-me-drive types nauseated her.

  "All right, macho babe boy," she said irritably. "I'm not some little ditz to bat my eyelashes at the buff stud in black leather. Don't try your he-man tactics with me. I'll have you know, in my office I'm known as the ball-breaker."

  Kyrian frowned at her. "Macho babe boy?" he repeated in disbelief.

  There had never been a time in his extremely long life that anyone had had the mettle to stand up to him. As a mortal, he had made entire Roman armies flee in stark terror of his approach. Few men had ever dared meet him eye to eye.

  As a Dark-Hunter, he made legions of Daimons and Apollites quake in his presence. His name was whispered in awe and with reverence, and this woman had called him ...

  "Buff stud in black leather," he repeated out loud. "I don't think I've ever been more insulted."

  "Then you must have been an o
nly child."

  He laughed at that. In truth, he'd once had three sisters, but none of them had ever dared insult him.

  He swept a look over her. She wasn't classically beautiful, but there was an exotic quality to her almond-shaped eyes that lent her a fey charm.

  Her long, mahogany hair was loose, spilling about her slender shoulders. But it was her blue eyes that were captivating. Warm and intelligent, they were narrowed on him now with malice.

  A faint blush stained her cheeks, making her eyes a full shade darker. In spite of the danger they were in, he wondered what she would look like after a full night of raw, exhausting sex. He could just see her eyes dark with passion, her hair mussed, her cheeks red from his whiskers, and her lips moist and swollen from his kisses.

  The thought made his entire body burn.

  Until Kyrian felt the familiar prickling on the back of his neck. "It will be dawn soon."

  "How do you know?"

  "I just do." He pulled her to the left, then began examining the rust-covered walls for an escape. "Once we're released, we'll have to find a way to break out of these cuffs."

  "Nice of you to state the obvious." Amanda glanced down his body and saw the jagged wound through the torn material. "You really need to tend that."

  "God forbid I should bleed to death, eh?" he asked sardonically. "Then you'd have to cart around my rotting corpse."

  She wrinkled her nose in distaste. "Could you be any more morbid? Jeez. Who was your idol growing up? Boris Karloff?"

  "Hannibal, actually."

  "You're trying to scare me, aren't you?" she asked. "Well, it won't work. I grew up in a house with an angry poltergeist and two sisters who used to conjure demons just to fight them. Buster, I've seen it all, and your gallows humor isn't working on me."

  Before he realized what she was doing, she grabbed the bottom of his shirt and lifted it.

  Amanda froze at the sight of his bare stomach. It was lean, hard, and flat, and he had a rippling six-pack of abs that any gymnast would envy. But what made her gasp was the multitude of scars covering his flesh.

  Worse, she saw the terrible gash in his side that ran along his lowest rib.

  "Good Lord, what happened to you?"

  He jerked his shirt down and took a step back. "If you mean the scars, it would take me years to account for all of them. If you mean the gash, it came from a thirteen-year-old Apollite I mistook for a child in need of help."

  "You walked into a trap?"

  He shrugged. "It's not the first time."

  Amanda swallowed as she swept her gaze over him. An aura of danger and death surrounded him. He moved like a sleek, graceful predator, and those eyes ...

  They seemed to be able to take in more than just his basic surroundings. Those wicked jet eyes held an indescribable ethereal glint to them.

  And they stole her breath every time he looked at her.

  She'd never seen a blond man with eyes like that. Nor had she seen any man so incredibly handsome. His features were chiseled and perfect.

  He oozed an almost unnatural masculine sexuality. She'd seen plenty of men who had tried their best to project what nature had dumped by the truckload onto this man.

  "What is a Dark-Hunter?" she asked. "Is it like Buffy the Vampire Slayer?"

  He laughed at that. "Yes, I'm a small, emaciated teenage girl who struts around fighting vampires in earrings they would rip out of my ears and shove up my--"

  "I know you're not a girl. But what is a Dark-Hunter?"

  He sighed as he led her around the room, looking at the walls as if searching for a secret door. "In short, I execute the things that go bump in the night."

  A chill went up her spine at his words, and yet she sensed there was something more than just his simple explanation. He appeared deadly, but not twisted, or even cruel. "Why do you want to kill Desiderius?"

  He glanced at her before trying to open the steel door again. He wrenched the handle so forcefully, she was amazed he didn't rip the doorknob off. "Because he not only kills humans, he steals their souls."

  She tensed at his words. "Can he do that?"

  "You said you've seen it all," he said in a mocking tone. "You tell me."

  Amanda wanted to choke him. Never in her life had she met a more arrogant, or infuriating man.

  "Why do I always get sucked into this supernatural mumbo jumbo?" she muttered. "Is it too much to ask that I have one average day?"

  "Life is seldom what we want it to be."

  She frowned at his words, and at the odd note in his voice.

  Kyrian tilted his head, and held his hand up to signal her for silence.

  Out of nowhere, the doorknob clicked.

  "Knock, knock," Desiderius said. "You have the day to hide. Come nightfall, we hunt."

  "Yeah, yeah," Hunter said. "You and your little dog, too."

  His blithe tone amazed her. The chilling words had absolutely no effect on him. "You're not scared of his threats?"

  He looked at her dryly. "Chere, the day I fear something like him is the day I lie down at his feet and hand him the knife to cut my heart out. The only fear I have is getting you back to your sister and convincing High Queen Hardhead to leave off this matter until I can locate Desiderius and send his soul into oblivion where it belongs."

  In spite of herself and the danger they were in, Amanda laughed at his words. "High Queen Hardhead? You know Tabitha well."

  He disregarded her comment as he carefully shielded her with his body, then opened the door slowly. He paused to look around.

  Outside the door was a narrow hallway with large, dust-covered windows that showed the dawning sun.

  "Damn," Hunter snarled under his breath as he took a step back into the room.

  "What?" she asked, her heart skipping a beat in terror. "Is someone out there?"

  "No."

  "Then let's go." She started out the door.

  He didn't budge.

  Clenching his teeth, he looked down the hallway again and said something in a language she didn't know.

  "What's the problem?" Amanda asked. "It's dawn, and no one's out there. Let's leave."

  He took a deep, aggravated breath. "The problem isn't the people. The problem is the sun."

  "And the problem with that is...?"

  He hesitated for a few heartbeats, then opened his mouth and ran his tongue over his long, pointed canine teeth.

  CHAPTER 3

  Mr. "Do Me" Gorgeous Man is a vampire!

  "Oh no, no, no." Amanda's entire body shook from terror and it took every piece of self-control she possessed not to launch into a screaming fit. "Are you going to suck my blood?"

  He arched a sardonic brow. "Do I look like a lawyer to you?"

  She ignored his sarcasm. "Are you going to kill me?"

  His face completely unamused, Hunter sighed irritably. "If I intended to kill you, don't you think you'd already be dead?"

  He stepped closer to her and offered her a wry, evil grin she knew was meant to intimidate her. And boy howdy did it work.

  He lifted his free hand up to stroke the skin of her neck where her jugular was. The feather-light touch sent chills over her. "Come to think of it, I could just suck you dry, then gnaw your hand off with my fangs and be free."

  Her eyes widened in terror.

  "But lucky you, I have no intention of doing that, either."

  "Don't be sarcastic, okay?" she breathed, her heart still pounding because she wasn't sure if he was joking with her or if he really would turn all grisly on her and start feeding off her blood. "I can't cope with it. Imagine if you were in my shoes. I just went to let Tabitha's dog out so he wouldn't mess on her bed. I went from that to being knocked on the head, and chained to a vampire. Excuse me if I'm a little freaky at the moment."

  To her amazement, he dropped his hand and backed off. "You're right. I imagine you're not used to having people attack you for no apparent reason."

  By his tone, she could tell he, on the other hand,
was rather experienced at finding himself in the middle of such situations.

  He offered her a tight-lipped smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "If it makes you feel better, I don't feed on humans."

  For some reason, it did make her feel better to hear him say that. Not that she believed it. But still, it was a little reassuring. "So, you're like Angel?"

  He rolled his eyes at her. "You watch way too much television," he muttered. Then louder, he said, "Angel has a soul. I don't."

  "Now you're back to being scary again."

  The look on his face reiterated his earlier words: Baby, you ain't seen scary yet.

  He glanced back out the door. "All right. We're going to have to run for it before the sun rises any higher."

  Hunter gave her a penetrating stare. "The main problem is that I don't know where that hallway leads. In the event it leads out into the open and I die a particularly agonizing death where I spontaneously combust into flames, I need a favor from you."

  "A favor?" she asked in disbelief. The man had one serious set of cojones on him. He bullied her, threatened her, then dared to ask a favor?

  "Sure, why not?" she asked.

  He took the ring off his right hand and gave it to her. "I need you to take that and find a tree."

  Amanda frowned at the ring in her hand. The gold was scuffed and nicked in a number of places as if it had been seriously mistreated. Or rather the hand that bore it had been through a lot of damage.

  The top of the ring was made of flat rubies and held the design of a sword of diamonds surrounded by emerald laurel leaves and topped with a sapphire crown. She could tell it was a valuable antique.

  Why would he entrust it to her?

  Unsure of what to make of him, she placed it in her jeans pocket. "Any tree?" she asked.

  "Any tree. Then say the words 'Artemis, I summon you to human form.'"

  "Artemis--"

  He put his hand over her mouth. "For the love of Zeus, only say it once I'm gone. After you utter the words, wait until a very tall, red-haired woman appears and tell her you need protection from Desiderius."

  Amanda arched a brow. "You want me to summon a goddess to protect me?"

  "If you don't, he will get you and your sister."

  "Why do you care?"

  "It's my job to protect the humans from the Daimons. That's what a Dark-Hunter does." Though his face was harsh, there was a light in his eyes that told her there was much more to the story than that.

  "What are Daimons?" she asked.

  "They're vampires on steroids with a God complex. Now, promise me you'll do it."