He shoved a white-hot ripple at Tain, willing his brother back through whatever hole in hell he’d sprung from. Tain laughed, the magic not affecting him at all. He stood up, dropped the sword to the marble tiles, and disappeared.
The clatter of the sword on the cold floor rang loudly in the silence. Leda’s voice blended with it. “Hunter? Are you all right?”
Hunter felt himself slamming back into his body as Leda touched his face, her eyes anxious. “You kind of . . .”
“Zoned out?” He remembered the vampire’s words after the demon had wrenched him away at Samantha’s mother’s house. “No, I’m here, sweetheart.”
Leda watched him in concern. “You stopped. You didn’t even breathe. It scared me.”
“I’m sorry, love. Are you all right?”
She nodded, brows drawn. The water in the bathtub was clear and clean, no blood at all, and Hunter’s palm was whole.
“Ripples in reality,” he said, staring at his hand.
“What does that mean, exactly?”
Hunter pressed a kiss to her forehead. All he wanted to do was to lie in this decadent bathtub with his beautiful woman, his hands flowing over her slick skin. But he knew he couldn’t continue to hide from the world. Tain seeking him out meant that things were moving beyond these protected walls—if Tain thought Hunter was ready to join him, he must be getting desperate or winding up his dire plan.
Hunter drew Leda close for a long kiss and then reluctantly unwrapped himself from her. “I need to make a phone call.”
Leda got out of the bath with him, delectable and naked. Wrapping herself in a snowy towel, she followed him back to the bedroom, and at his request, dug out the phone number Septimus had given Leda for Amber in Seattle. Not bothering with a towel, Hunter punched numbers with damp fingers and waited until the sweet-voiced woman who answered at the other end put his older brother on the line.
“Adrian?” Hunter said when he heard the deep voice for the first time in centuries. “What the fuck is going on?”
Hunter left the room to talk to Adrian, deliberately closing the door on Leda when she tried to follow him out. Leda fumed, then dried herself off and put on her nightshirt, enjoying the soft feel of it. The world was going to hell and taking her with it, but Leda thought the worn, nubbly nightshirt might make her feel better.
Hunter finished his phone conversation about an hour later and returned to the bedroom, his brow furrowed, movements distracted. Leda stepped in front of him, demanding to know what he and his brother had talked about. Instead of answering, Hunter scooped her to him and kissed her with hard desperation.
Leda rose into the kiss, then found him lifting her and laying her on the bed.
“Hunter, what did—”
Hunter balled her nightshirt in his hands, yanking it off. His towel landed on the mattress beside her before Hunter laid Leda down and climbed onto her.
He made love to her as though his life depended on it, thrusting into her until Leda ached. No slow sensuality of opening her chakras or coaxing Leda to become one with him. Hunter took her in need, as he had on the boat, his face hard, green eyes intense. They were both still wet from the bath and from new sweat, their bodies slick against each other’s.
The single coherent thought that slid through Leda’s mind—far in the background—was Hunter’s claim that he could give her a child, if she chose. Leda’s divorce had closed the door on her having children, at least for now. Her husband had wanted to wait when they’d first married—until they were truly ready, he’d said. When they’d divorced, he’d said it was a mercy they had waited, because their fighting and breakup would have been hard on the children. Leda had been left bereft and wondering if she’d ever have another chance for a family.
And then in walked Hunter. When all this was over Leda could ask him to leave her with a child. She almost did it on the moment, but Hunter closed his eyes and came into her in a rush. Leda’s own peak swept away her thoughts, her body lifting against his as his weight pressed her into the bed.
A lovely feeling, to ride the wave with his warmth covering her, the pillows at her back. Another wave came at her, this one of sleep, dark and soothing. It picked her up and rolled her over, her eyes closing on Hunter’s kiss against her damp skin.
When she opened her eyes again, it was daylight, and she lay in bed alone, her stiff body punishing her for the frenzy she’d encouraged it to enjoy. She smelled eggs and bacon frying and heard the water rushing in the shower, Hunter’s voice rising over it in a faulty baritone.
Leda relaxed in relief. He hadn’t gone off looking for demons or his brothers, hadn’t trapped her here with his magic, claiming it was for her protection. That didn’t mean Hunter wouldn’t rush off without her, just that he hadn’t yet.
Leda swung her legs out of bed and suppressed a groan as her muscles protested. She really should learn not to have wild sex with an Immortal man twice her strength, especially not three times in two days. Her job looking after wild animals required physical stamina, but it couldn’t keep up with Hunter.
The thought of her animals reminded her she needed to contact the Institute and have some food shipped here for Mukasa, or else buy up every steak in the local grocery store. She hoped Hunter had brought the supplements, though the Institute could provide those as well.
She pulled clean underwear and clothes out of her bag and slid into them. She needed to shower, but the cooking breakfast smelled good. She’d clean up later.
Hunter strolled out of the bathroom before she could leave, a white towel draped around his neck. This gave her a nice view of his long body, tight pectorals and abs, strong legs, red-gold hair at his groin, and the perfection of his dark, firm cock. She sat down on the bed again, the will to run off to breakfast leaving her.
He sent her a smile as he entered the walk-in closet and started plucking clothes off its shelves. He pulled on a sleeveless T-shirt first, leaving the rest of his body exposed a few moments before he slid leather motorcycle pants on over nothing.
Leda closed her gaping mouth. Goddess, he looked good. “Won’t those chafe?” she asked when he emerged.
Hunter sat on the bed next to her, his clean, soapy scent blending with the leather of the pants. “I never got used to underwear. It was only invented a couple hundred years ago.” His thigh touched hers, the sag of the bed pressing her against him.
“What did Adrian say last night on the phone?” she asked. “We were, um, distracted before you could tell me.”
Hunter grinned, knowing exactly how they’d been distracted. “In a nutshell, Adrian said Tain’s crazy and for me to get my ass to Seattle.”
“I guessed that part of it. We’ll go, presumably as soon as Septimus has his plane ready?”
“Yes, but I hate to rely on a vamp.”
“We don’t have much choice. We could use my boat, but it would take days to sail up there. With a plane it’s only a couple hours.”
“You could persuade Samantha to lend me hers,” Hunter suggested.
“It was a rental, and she returned it.” Leda looked at him in alarm. “And who would fly it, anyway? You?”
“You’d be amazed at my skills, sweetheart. I’m not just good in bed.”
“Don’t try to make me laugh. This is serious.” Leda let out a breath. “I know you don’t want me to go with you, but I can help. I know spells, and I know something about how demons think.”
“What I want is for you to be safe.” Hunter pressed a kiss to her hair. “Besides, I’ve changed my mind. I do want you to come with me. This house is protected, but you’ll be more protected if you’re with both Adrian and me. Double protection, especially if we have to fight.”
“And if your other brothers are there, then four times as much protection.”
“If Adrian can find my brothers. Kalen doesn’t exactly come when called, and I don’t know what happened to Darius after we fought together in Scotland. Darius was a good drinking buddy; Kalen, too full
of himself. Adrian and Tain were close. This must break Adrian’s heart.”
“Has Tain gotten that bad?”
Hunter laid his right hand, palm-up, on his thigh. The skin on his hand was smooth, sinews tight.
“I saw him last night,” Hunter said. “When you said I zoned out, I had a vision of Tain. Except I don’t think it was entirely a vision. He messed with reality, or my perception of it. He cut my hand with my own sword.”
Leda touched his skin, but it was whole and unblemished. Hunter shook his head. “When I came out of it the blood was gone. But I saw Tain, the real Tain. His mind is twisted all to hell. He’s the love slave of some demon, and tried to persuade me it was perfectly wonderful, and that I should join him.”
Leda traced lines across his palm. “Demons do try to make it wonderful. They promise the most intense pleasure you’ll ever know.”
“Sure, while they’re sucking out your life force. Like a drug that makes a person crave the euphoria at the same time it’s melting his brain.”
“That’s why demons are evil.” Leda hesitated, looking for a way to ask her next question. “Hunter, I know that, at the end of this, you’ll go. No.” She pressed her hand to his lips as he started to speak. “Hear me out. If we win this, if you rescue Tain and kill the demon, I’d like you to give me a child. I want children, Hunter—and something to remember you by.”
Hunter went still, all traces of humor and playfulness gone. She’d learned, even in this short time, that he liked to act crazy or oblivious, but his behavior hid an intelligence that ran deep. He’d seen so much in his two millennia of existence and had experienced profound grief as well as intense happiness. He knew much, and he hid his pain with his seeming carelessness.
The gaze he fixed on her now was quiet but hard. “It would be a mistake.”
“I’m not asking this on a whim. I want this, Hunter. Why not?”
“I can think of a thousand reasons why not.”
“I can think of a thousand reasons why,” Leda countered.
“I know better than most that things don’t last. Lives, people, entire civilizations.”
“No kidding,” Leda said. “I know life is short and goes by fast. So I grab on to what I have and enjoy the hell out of it while I can.”
Hunter’s expression was bleak. “That’s what I do.”
“No, you don’t. You don’t connect at all. You play the bad boy and pretend you don’t care, so you can walk away at the end and say Didn’t we have fun?” Leda’s hands curled to fists. “I know that when you’re finished with me, you’ll go and won’t give me a choice. So forgive me if I want some part of you to cherish after you’re gone.”
“Leda.” Hunter didn’t touch her, but his eyes held her in place. “I’m not human. I’m an Immortal warrior created by goddesses to right wrongs. I can’t give you what you want.”
Leda glared at him for a moment, her breath hurting. Then she stood up, jerking away from his outstretched hand, and walked away from him. The smell of cooking food now made her stomach churn, but she knew if she stayed in the room with Hunter she’d knock him back across the bed.
Hunter got between her and the door before she saw him move. One moment he was on the bed, the next, he was standing in the doorway, blocking her exit. “Leda.”
“What?” she demanded, glaring up at him. “Aren’t you finished telling me what I can and can’t feel?”
“Another woman loved me,” Hunter said, his voice fierce. “She died for that love. She wanted my children, and they died for it.”
“Are you saying it was her fault?”
“No, it was mine. If I’d have walked away, Kayla would have lived a normal life to its full extent.”
“That was a thousand years ago, right?” Leda asked. “Where Hungary is now, you said. I’m betting her lifespan wouldn’t have been very long anyway, and you probably gave her incredible joy while she had time. You’re only a demigod, Hunter—you don’t get to decide who we fall in love with and who we die for.”
He gave her a raw glare. “Do you know how it feels to have someone die for you? It tears you to pieces. You spend the rest of your life wondering whether you could have prevented it—if you had done something else a minute sooner, would it have happened at all?”
Leda put her hands on Hunters shoulders and pushed, but she couldn’t move him any more than she could have moved a twenty-ton boulder. “Guess what, Hunter. It’s not all about you. Now, get out of my way so I can have breakfast. I’m hungry.”
Hunter remained in place, watching her with eyes that gave nothing away. She sensed vast hurting in him and anger he tried to mask with his antics. Maybe, for Immortals, time didn’t ease pain as it could do with humans. Hunter had lived so long and seen so much—maybe it all stayed with him and never went away.
Leda watched as he slowly tucked his emotions away again, the harsh glow in his eyes fading as he shuttered himself to her. He sniffed, frowning. “Someone’s frying bacon.”
“Don’t worry, I’m sure we can find you something vegetarian.”
Leda slid around him, and he let her go this time. She heard Hunter come behind her, his bare feet quiet on the cool tile. His silence told her he believed the conversation over. Leda hid her hurt and pasted on a cheerful expression, knowing the conversation had just begun.
In the spacious kitchen overlooking a deck, Leda found Samantha with a long-legged blond woman, and a dark-haired man cooking up a storm at the stove.
Samantha greeted Leda and Hunter neutrally. She looked more rested this morning, though her face was still pale with worry. “This is Kelly,” Samantha said, indicating the blond woman. “She lives next door and has a chauffeur, and she says we can use him and her car. So we have transportation again.”
Leda gazed blankly at the beautiful young woman in the linen dress and sandals who seemed very much at home in Adrian’s kitchen. “You look familiar.”
“Kelly O’Byrne,” Hunter rumbled behind her. “The actress. She was in that movie, Last Summer.”
Leda blinked. “Oh, yeah, you are. I really liked that one.”
Hunter went on. “And What’s New, The Twenty-One Brigade, and Total Shutdown.”
Kelly looked at him in surprise and respect. “Not many know I was in Total Shutdown. You must have been talking to Adrian.”
Hunter shrugged and peered over the counter at the chef. “I go to the movies a lot. What’s that?”
“Don’t worry,” Samantha said. “I told him about your interesting aversion to meat.”
Hunter ignored her, his gaze still on the cook and the wonderful smelling things coming out of his sauté pan. “When did you pick up the vampire lover?” he asked Kelly.
Kelly started, and her slim fingers stilled on her orange juice glass. “How did you know?”
“You try to hide the bite marks,” Hunter said, watching the chef. “But you can’t hide what’s in your eyes.”
Kelly put her hand to the blue and pink silk scarf she’d tied around her neck. “It’s Septimus, if you must know. He called last night and told me you were coming, so I brought my cook over for you.”
“Septimus seems to be doing a lot for us,” Samantha observed as the cook started dishing a heavenly smelling concoction of eggs, tomatoes, cheese and bacon onto three plates.
“He doesn’t like what is happening,” Kelly said. “That, and he’s loyal to Adrian, and is willing to help him.”
“Or Adrian will kick his undead ass?” Hunter asked.
“Something like that.”
Further conversation was interrupted by Kelly’s cell phone ringing, Septimus himself on the other end. Kelly handed the phone to Hunter, who talked to the vamp for a while in the living room, then returned as Leda began eating the savory breakfast, the best she’d had in years.
“Septimus wants to see me,” Hunter announced. “He’s sending his car. Why they hell are vampires awake in the day?”
“Septimus doesn’t need much slee
p,” Kelly said. “He’s an Old One.”
“I know that. Where’s the coffee?”
Manny the chef had ground fresh beans and brewed coffee, and Hunter downed three cups of it, not speaking, while the other three ate in silence. By the time they finished breakfast, Septimus’s car, driven by a human this time, pulled up in front of the house.
They all walked out with him, even Manny, who seemed protective of Kelly. Hunter got into the car alone, telling them all to stay put until he returned. He spoke generally, saying nothing directly to Leda, not even kissing her goodbye. Leda pretended it didn’t hurt her that the only one Hunter addressed by name was Mukasa.
“Stay here and guard them,” he told the lion. “Take care of her for me.”
Mukasa seemed to understand. He sat on his haunches as Hunter slammed the door and the limousine glided away, then he gave a lion huff and turned for the path that led to the beach.
“So what do we do?” Samantha asked, hands on hips. “Twiddle our thumbs until he decides to come back?”
“No, we do magic,” Leda said, squaring her shoulders and walking back into the house. The wind from the sea was fresh, filling the house with clean air, stirring Leda’s hope. “I want to try that locator spell on your mother.”
Chapter Thirteen
The limousine hadn’t made it to the end of the road that led to the main streets before the driver jammed the car to a halt. Hunter wrapped his hands around his sword hilt, as someone flung the door open. Leda scrambled inside, breathless, and waved the driver to go on.
She cuddled up to Hunter, oblivious of the sword and said, “I wanted to come with you.”
The driver, assuming everything was fine, sped on down the hill with a squeal of rubber then turned onto a busier street, traffic flowing thick and heavy. Even demons and vampires dividing up the metropolis couldn’t thin Los Angeles’ traffic very much.
“What do you want?” Hunter growled. “Stop trying to look like Leda.”
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