"Oh, my God, TMI--way too much information. Tell me you're joking about this."
"Nope, not a bit. I'm telling you, Selena, forget the Energizer Bunny, this guy had it all."
Selena groaned. "What were you thinking? You just met him."
"I know," Sunshine said, agreeing completely with her friend that she was a lunatic for Dark Hunter Series (04) - Night Embrace - Sherrilyn Kenyon Page 107 of 460
doing something so stupid. "It's so not like me, but I couldn't help myself. It was just like that weird magnetic force that grabs me when I'm walking past the Frostbyte Cafe and makes me swerve in to get a triple scoop of Ben and Jerry's Chunky Monkey."
That was her one major vice. Sunshine had never been able pass up Chunky Monkey.
"The power of temptation was just too much, Selena. I couldn't resist it. He was a Chunky Monkey container and all I could think was, 'Someone give me a spoon.' "
"Oh, good grief," Selena said.
"Yeah. It was weird. I was here, he was here, and then he said, 'Let's do it,' and the next thing I knew, the spoon was in my hand and I was going for it."
Selena made a disgusted noise. "Please tell me no one was using a spoon." Sunshine smiled devilishly. "No, no spoon, but there was a whole lot of licking going on."
"Oh, oh, oh! You're killing me. Don't go there."
Sunshine laughed. "I can't stop myself. He was so hot that I feel this deep need to share his spectacular hotness with you."
Selena snorted at her. "Are you at least going to see him again?"
"No, unfortunately not. I didn't even get his last name."
"Sunshine! Girl, you are nuts."
"Yeah, I know. It was just a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing."
"Sheez, are you okay, though? He didn't hurt you or anything?"
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"Oh no, not at all. It was the best day of my life. Freaky, ain't it?"
"Ah jeez, Sunny. I can't believe you did this. You've been hanging around all those weird friends of yours so much that you're picking up their bad habits. Bringing home stray men you don't even know. Next thing you know, you'll be dancing naked on tabletops
Oh wait, that was me."
Sunshine laughed. "Don't worry. It'll never happen again. You know me, I do date occasionally, but I usually spend at least a few normal, boring days with a guy before we rock the house down. Of course, no one ever rocked my house down the way this guy did. He leveled the mother to its foundations."
Selena shrieked. "I can't believe you keep telling me this."
Sunshine laughed at the tortured angst in Selena's voice as she continued to tease her.
"I can't believe I spent the day in bed with this guy, but I'd do it again in a heartbeat. I'm telling you, these were the best eighteen hours of my life."
"Jeez, you didn't even know him a whole day?"
"Well, I know him now. Every last yummy inch of him. By the way, he had a lot of inches."
"Stop it, Sunny," Selena begged, her voice cracking with laughter. "I can't take any more. I don't need to know the sexual athlete of all time is running around New Orleans and I'm married to the lawyer. This is so cruel."
Sunshine laughed again. "Well, Bill is nice, in a very Bill sort of way."
"Oh gee, thanks, now you're ripping on my Bill."
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"I'm sorry. You know I love Bill, but this guy was really, really great." Sunshine, dragging the heavy, psychedelic phone in her wake, crossed the kitchen toward her fridge to get some guava juice. Teasing Selena was fun, but oddly enough there was a part of her that was extremely sad Talon had left.
He really had been a lot of fun and not just in the bed, or on the floor, or on the other five thousand places where they'd had sex. He'd been fun to talk to too. Best of all, he hadn't lost his patience with her. She opened the fridge, then laughed again.
"What?" Selena asked.
Sunshine saw Talon's prized Snoopy Pez dispenser standing up, looking straight at her.
She couldn't believe it. So that was what he'd been doing in the fridge while she was in the shower. No wonder he had looked uncomfortable when she caught him. How adorable.
"Awww, he left me his Snoopy Pez dispenser on top of the soy cheese."
"What?" Selena asked.
"Nothing," Sunshine said, taking the cold plastic toy into her hand. "It's an inside joke."
"Oh, don't tell me you did something with the cheese."
"No, we just ate it. Jeez, Selena, get your mind out of the gutter. Not everything has to do with sex."
"Well, with the two of you it does. The basis of your whole entire relationship seems to be nothing but sex
Oh wait, it's only been eighteen hours since you met him. Does that qualify as a relationship?"
"Believe me, the way he does sex, it counts. Besides, he did leave me his Pez Dark Hunter Series (04) - Night Embrace - Sherrilyn Kenyon Page 110 of 460
dispenser."
"Ooo," Selena teased, "he's bodacious and generous. What a guy."
"Hey now, be fair to my bodacious biker. It's a valuable Pez dispenser. A 1960-something collector's item."
"Yeah, but did he leave you his phone number?"
"Well no, but he did put Snoopy on the top shelf so I would find it."
"Enough said. Case closed. You're still riding the loser train when Snoopy becomes something valuable."
"Okay, fine, Selena, you're bringing me down from my love fest and I'm losing my afterglow. It's been ten months since I last slept with a guy and it'll probably be forever and a day before another one who's not gay darkens my doorstep, so let me go back to work where I can bask in the after-greatness of my afternoon."
"Okay, sweetie. I'll call you later. I was just concerned. You go back to work and I'll see you tomorrow."
"Okay, thanks. Bye."
Sunshine hung up the phone and looked down at the Snoopy in her hand. She laughed.
Talon might not be perfect, he might even occasionally screw up and get run down by a Mardi Gras float, but he had been a great guy, and great guys were hard to come by in this day and age.
It was a pity she'd never see him again. But then, she wasn't the kind of woman to Dark Hunter Series (04) - Night Embrace - Sherrilyn Kenyon Page 111 of 460
mope over what could have been. She was an artist with a good career that she had worked very hard for. A serious relationship with someone wasn't something she was looking for right now.
She liked living alone. Loved having the freedom to just pick up and go whenever and wherever she wanted to. Her brief marriage in her early twenties had schooled her well on what a man expected from a wife. She had no intention of ever revisiting that fiasco.
Talon had been a fun afternoon diversion, but that was all he was. Her life would now go on just as it always had. Her heart lighter at the thought of him, she took Snoopy into her bedroom and set him on the nightstand by the bed. Sunshine smiled. She'd never had a memento before. But that's what Snoopy was to her. A token reminder of a wonderful day.
"Have a nice life, Talon," she said, turning off the light by the bed before she headed back to her work. "Maybe someday we might meet again."
It was just after one a.m. when Talon found himself outside the club Runningwolf's on Canal Street. He'd tried to tell himself that he was here because Daimons were often found hanging in and around clubs where drunken humans made easy pickings.
He'd tried to tell himself that he was just doing his job. But as he looked up at the dark windows above the club and wondered if Sunshine was up there in her bed or if she was at her easel painting, he knew better. He was here because of her.
Talon cursed under his breath. Acheron was right. She was inside him in a way no one had been inside of him in centuries. No matter what he tried, he couldn't get her out of his mind. Over and over, he could feel her. Feel her body under his, h
er breath on his skin. Hear the sound of her soft Southern drawl whispering in his ear.
And when she had touched him
It was like a song from heaven. The physical comfort
and companionship she'd given him this afternoon had touched him profoundly. He'd Dark Hunter Series (04) - Night Embrace - Sherrilyn Kenyon Page 112 of 460
felt welcomed in a way that wasn't sexual.
What had she done to him? Why after all these centuries had a woman crept inside his feelings? His thoughts? Even more frustrating, he knew if he were human, he'd be with her now. You're not human.
He didn't need the reminder. All too well, he knew what he was. He liked what he was.
There was a special kind of satisfaction that came with his job. And yet
"Speirr? What are you doing?"
He tensed at Ceara's voice coming out of the darkness and at the fact that someone had caught him doing something he shouldn't be doing.
"Nothing."
She appeared beside him. Her shimmering face smiled knowingly. He let out a disgusted breath. Why did he bother trying to hide anything from the ones who could see straight into his thoughts?
"Yeah, okay," he admitted reluctantly, "so I wanted to check up on her and see how she's doing."
"She's fine."
"And that really irritates me." The words were out before he realized it.
Ceara laughed at that. "You were expecting her to be sad?"
"Of course. She should at least have had a moment or two of regret or something."
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Ceara clucked her tongue. "Poor Speirr. You found the only woman alive who doesn't think you hung the moon and the stars."
He rolled his eyes at her. "So maybe I'm being a little arrogant
" She arched a brow
and he corrected himself. "So I'm being a lot arrogant, but damn, I can't get her out of my thoughts. How can she feel nothing?"
"I didn't say she felt nothing, I only said she's not sad."
"So she did feel something for me?"
"If you like, I could do more investigating."
"Nae," Talon said quickly. The last thing he wanted was for Ceara to find out what he and Sunshine had been doing all afternoon. Ceara was naive and he wanted to keep her that way.
His sister walked a small circle around his body. For some reason she'd always liked to do that. As a little girl, she'd made him dizzy as she raced around him at a dead run, giggling as she went.
Even though she was a young woman before him now, in his heart he always saw her as that chubby little toddler who used to sit on his lap for hours, playing with his braids as she gibbered her baby speech at him.
Just like Dere
His stomach clenched at the memory. Ceara hadn't been his only sister.
Three more had been born between them. Fia had died her first year of life. Tress had lived to age five when she perished of the same illness that had claimed their mother.
And Dere
She had died at age four. She'd gone out at sunrise, wanting to see the fey folk Talon had teased her with. He'd told her how he often saw them out the window at daybreak while she slept.
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Only five years old himself, he had heard someone leave their hut. At first he had thought it was his father. But as he snuggled back down to sleep, he'd realized Dere wasn't in their bed. He'd gotten up immediately and rushed out to find her.
She had slipped on the rocks along the edge of the cliff that looked out onto the sea where he'd told her the fey frolicked in the early dawn's light. He heard her scream and had run as fast as he could. By the time he reached her, it was too late. Her young arms had been unable to hold on until he got there.
She lay below on the rocks with the waves rushing over her. Even now, he could see her lying there. Could see the looks on his parents' faces when he had awakened them with the news. Worst of all, he could see the accusation in his father's eyes.
Neither of his parents had ever uttered the words aloud, but in his heart he knew they had blamed him for it. Not that it mattered. He blamed himself. He always had. It was why he had been so protective of Ceara and Tress. Why he had been so determined that nothing bad would ever happen to his youngest sister.
Tonight, he saw a hesitancy in Ceara's steps. "So, what's the news from the Daimon world?" he asked her.
Ceara paused. "How did you know?"
"You've been strangely quiet tonight. It's not like you to stay hidden while I hunt unless you're conferring with the others."
Her eyes glowed warmly. "I never could hide from you." She wrapped her arms around herself. "There was talk. There is a force here. One not Daimon born."
"Goblin, ghoul, demonic? What?"
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"No one seems to be sure. There are Daimons surrounding the source of it, but it is not one of them. It's something else."
"A god?"
She looked up, exasperated. "I'm trying to find someone who knows, but as yet
" She
paused and wrung her hands. "I want you to be careful, Speirr. Whatever this thing is, it holds a great deal of malice. Hatred."
"Can you locate it?"
"I have tried, but it moves whenever I draw near. It is as if the source knows to avoid me."
This wasn't good, especially with Mardi Gras right around the corner. When Bacchus came to town, even the most moderate of things went wild. To Talon it sounded like something or someone was counting on the excesses of the celebration to propel whatever plan it had.
Talon's thoughts were distracted as a car drove down the street in front of him. It was an old VW Beetle. Someone had painted the top of it dark blue with glow-in-the-dark stars and the lower half was bright sunshine yellow with red peace symbols.
He smiled at the sight. It had been parked outside the club earlier when he had left.
Instinct told him it had to belong to Sunshine. No one else would be caught dead in such a monstrosity.
True to his suspicions, the car turned into the alley behind Runningwolf's. With his honed Dark-Hunter sight, he watched her leave her car and pause to pull a sealed box out of the backseat. His body hardened instantly. Tonight, she wore her black hair in Dark Hunter Series (04) - Night Embrace - Sherrilyn Kenyon Page 116 of 460
two braids down the side of her face. She was dressed in a long fuchsia sweater coat that displayed her lush curves to perfection.
In his mind, he could imagine walking up to her, pulling her back against his front, and just inhaling her warm patchouli scent. Letting his hand trail down the front of her, to her tight black sweater held closed by small buttons. Of working those buttons through the cloth until she was exposed to him.
His body burned with aching want.
"Speirr?"
Ceara's voice jarred him from his reverie. "I'm sorry, I was distracted."
"I said I will go and investigate further. Or do you need me to stay here and keep you grounded?"
"No, thanks. I'm grounded."
"I'm sensing conflict inside you. Are you sure you want me to leave?"
About as sure that the world would end in fifteen minutes. No, he wasn't sure. Because every time he looked at Sunshine, he had a nasty tendency to forget everything else. To want nothing more than to stare at her. To touch her. "I'm sure."
"Very well, then. I shall listen out for you. If you need me, call."
"I will."
Ceara vanished and left him alone in the darkness. Sunshine slammed her car door closed and entered the rear door of the club. He took a step toward her before he even realized what he'd done.
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Talon ran his hands over his face. He had to get her out of his thoughts. There was no point in this. Dark-Hunters d
idn't date and they damn sure didn't have girlfriends. Well, no one except Kell, but he was weird anyway and Kell's girlfriend was a constant source of irritation for Acheron.
Not that Talon minded being an irritation to Acheron. It was actually enjoyable to nettle the Atlantean, but he couldn't screw up Sunshine's life that way. Dark-Hunters didn't date and most especially not this one. He'd already learned his lesson and he'd learned it hard.
Unlike the others, he was cursed by his own gods. It was why he refused to have a Squire. Why he refused to have anyone near him. "For what you have taken from me, Speirr of the Morrigantes, you will never again know the peace or happiness of a loved one. I curse you to walk eternity alone. Curse you to lose everyone you care for. One by one, they will suffer and die, and you will be powerless to stop it. Your agony will be knowing they are doomed because of your actions and wondering when, where, and how I will strike them down. I will claim them all and live only to watch you suffer."
Even after all these centuries the angry god's words rang in his ears.
Talon groaned at the pain of the memory of his wife dying in his arms. "I'm afraid to die, Speirr
"
It had been all his fault. Every death. Every tragedy.
How could so many lives have been shattered by one stupid mistake? He had let his emotions lead him and, in the end, he had destroyed not only his own life but those of the ones he loved.
He winced at the truth of it. Agony seared him so deeply that he cursed aloud from the force of it.
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"You were born cursed," Gara's gnarled old voice whispered in his head. "Born bastard to a union that should never have been. Now get out and take the babe with you before the wrath of the gods falls to my head."
At age seven, he had stared in helpless disbelief at the old crone his mother had worked for. When his mother and Tress had taken sick, Gara had allowed him to do his mother's tasks. After his mother's death, the old woman had turned on him.
"But Ceara will die if I leave. I don't know how to care for an infant."
"We all die, boy. It's no concern of mine what becomes of the child of a whore. Now get out and remember how quickly our fates change. Your mother was a queen. The most beloved of the Morrigantes. Now she is a dead peasant, like the rest of us. Not even worth the dirt that covers her."