“You would?” I challenged.
She nodded. A smile spread over her lips. I didn’t know why, but it made me grin back.
“You should leave the Caribbean . . . Fane.” Her smile brightened when she used my moniker, as though she’d said a naughty word and delighted in doing so.
Something stirred inside me as she spoke my name. Something akin to disappointment filled my soul as I watched her hasten up the ramp like a midnight Cinderella fleeing from her dark prince.
She’d warned me.
I had no interest in getting mixed up with vampire hunters. I owed it to Joss to keep him safe.
But first I had to warn Cassie.
FIVE
Back on the boat, the vampire’s twitching had subsided. He now sat on a bench and rocked slightly, hunched over, eyes out of focus. As I stared at him, I wondered what kind of body count he’d amassed. My upper lip curled involuntarily as I looked at him and envisioned stony-eyed bodies in his wake.
“Okay, party’s over, everyone,” said a toned man in skimpy white shorts as he waved his long muscular arms toward the stairs. His body had an unnatural tanned shine to it. He narrowed his eyes at me as I walked up the stairs, brushing against people walking down.
When I reached the deck he stepped in front of me, a wall of bronzed muscles directly in my path. I lifted my eyebrows in challenge.
“Party’s over,” he said to me.
“Too bad. I haven’t finished my beer,” I returned.
Before he could respond, Cassie appeared by his side and squeezed his hulk-like arm. “This is Fane. He can stay.”
“You’re Fane?” the guy asked, face relaxing. “Why didn’t you say so?” He stepped aside. As soon as I passed him, he resumed herding people off The Sea Serpent.
Cassie led me away from the stairs.
“Is that Bastian?” I asked, jutting my chin in the ripped man’s direction.
“Yeah. Did you just arrive?” Cassie asked as she craned her head all around, not really paying attention. “There’s been another vamp attack right here on Bastian’s boat.” She grabbed my arm and pulled me toward the bench where the vampire still sat rocking back and forth.
“Is he okay?” I asked, making a half-assed attempt to mask my indifference regarding his well-being.
The blonde huntress had told me that Ronald had murdered women. I was willing to bet this vamp and the others she’d killed had done something similarly heinous.
Cassie looked at the vamp. Unlike me, she frowned with concern. “He’s still twitching, but he was convulsing earlier. It was terrible—thrashing all over the floor. He’s only just started to talk. He said a vampire hunter did this to him. Bastian told him to be quiet until he got everyone off the boat.” She glanced around. “You came at the right time. We’ll finally have our first description of the hunter.”
A chill snaked down my spine despite the balmy night sky.
I couldn’t speak so I nodded thoughtfully.
Footsteps thumped above our heads as partygoers emerged from the upper deck and made their way down to our level to join the line flowing off the boat and onto the dock.
Once Bastian’s guests had abandoned ship, he sat beside the trembling vamp in the polo and leaned forward. “Now talk.”
The vamp swallowed and looked at the remaining faces standing around him: me, Cassie, and two other men in their late twenties, arms folded over chests that looked as toned beneath their T-shirts as the ship’s captain. The vamp’s gaze passed over them quickly, coming to a rest when he found me.
He sat up a little and demanded, “Who’s he?”
“Fane,” Bastian said with a lazy glance in my direction.
The vamp didn’t take his eyes off me. They were still stretched in terror. “Is he a vampire?”
“Of course he is,” Bastian snarled, gums showing as his upper lip curled. “I wouldn’t have allowed him to stay on my boat if he were human. Now tell us what happened.”
Guess Bastian wasn’t too thrilled that a vampire hunter had found her way onto his yacht.
“It was a blonde in a white dress,” the vamp said, words rushing from his mouth. “She started flirting with me and asked me to take her someplace private. I had no reason to suspect she was anything other than a human looking to get sucked off. So of course I took her into one of the empty rooms and bit her. But as soon as I swallowed her blood my body seized up and began to convulse. I’ve never felt anything like it. As soon as it started the bitch smiled.” The vamp’s fingers curled into fists as a sneer appeared over his face. “Then she pulled a dagger out of her purse. I could barely move, but I knew if I didn’t get out of there I was dead so I threw myself at the door and managed to stumble through the cabin to the deck before the convulsions overtook me completely.” The vamp looked around, wild-eyed. “Did anyone see her? The blonde in the white dress?”
The group shared glances and shook their heads. Cassie’s head turned slowly toward me, a look of eager anticipation crossing over her face. “Fane? Did you see a woman matching that description on your way here?”
I stared upward doing a convincing job of thinking, made all the more believable because it was exactly what I was doing. The glaring overhead lights stunned my eyes as my mind jerked from one thought to the next.
I didn’t want to lie to Cassie. Nor did I wish to out the huntress who had not only let me off the hook, but gone so far as to warn me that more of her kind were coming. All this despite the fact that I was a vampire and she, a hunter. Even though I’d seen her face.
“I wasn’t really paying attention to people on my way here,” I answered truthfully, lowering my gaze until it was level with Cassie’s.
Her lips pressed together tight.
Bastian’s eyes flicked up to me. “You sure you didn’t get a glimpse of her? There’s not a whole lotta people walking the docks this time of night.”
With a sniff, I stuffed my hands in my pockets and shrugged. “Maybe she had snorkeling gear stashed on board.”
“That’s right,” Cassie said, eyes alighting. “Ronald was found in the ocean dressed in dive equipment. She probably arranged the whole thing and had planned to do the same with Edward.”
The vamp in the polo scowled. “She tried to stab me, not suffocate me.”
“Well, she probably has to change things up to keep authorities guessing,” Cassie said, placing her hands on her hips. Abruptly, she moved to the boat’s railing and looked across the water as though expecting to catch sight of the huntress butterfly stroking her way back to shore.
Bastian got to his feet and joined Cassie at the railing, shaking his head. “Four attacks in the last month. I don’t like this. It’s time to set sail.”
Edward got to his feet sputtering, “Set sail? What about the bitch who tried to off me tonight? Are you going to leave her to prey on island vampires?”
“I don’t know who she is, and it’s not my responsibility to police the islands,” Bastian said. “Tomorrow I head for the Bahamas. From there . . . that’s nobody’s business but mine. I’ll send you a postcard,” he said with a glint in his eyes. “Maybe.”
I mirrored Bastian’s smirk. I was beginning to warm up to the guy. Maybe I’d run into him at some other time and destination in the future. The world could be a small place, especially among vampires.
Bastian turned to Cassie next and said, “You should come with me.”
“To the Bahamas?” she asked uncertainly.
He nodded. “You did an admirable job looking into the island attacks. There’s nothing more to be done here. It’s your choice, of course, but I believe it would be foolish to stay.”
Tension eased itself from my shoulders. It was good to hear Bastian wasn’t all muscle mass and no brain cells. When Cassie looked at me I smiled.
“What do you think, Fane?” she asked.
“I think Bastian’s right. The Caribbean’s been compromised. It’s time to leave the islands.”
Cassi
e’s forehead wrinkled. “Are you leaving?”
“Tomorrow.”
“But you just got here. It doesn’t seem fair.” Cassie chewed on her bottom lip.
“I’ll catch up with you again later down the road. Maybe next time we’ll try Hawaii.”
Cassie sniffed. “So long as it’s off limits to hunters.” She stepped away from the railing and made her way toward me, a smile lifting her cheeks. “I’ve always wanted to visit Hawaii. You remembered.”
I grinned back. “The island girl from Canada. How could I ever forget?”
“Why don’t you just join us to the Bahamas now?” Bastian asked.
Cassie’s face lit up. “That’s an excellent idea. Come with us.”
I looked at the pair of them, sexy and carefree, offering companionship and conversation. A new adventure awaited on the horizon. It was ever so tempting, but the idea of Alaska had formed and grown in my head like a snowball wheeling down a mountainside, getting bigger as it went.
I pulled my hands out of my pockets. “I appreciate the offer, but I’m traveling with a companion. We have business to wrap up in New York before we move.”
Cassie’s forehead wrinkled. “You’re moving?”
“To Alaska,” I said, a grin widening over my face. Saying the words aloud made them feel real for the first time.
The Last Frontier. My own adventure awaited, perhaps not on the horizon, but along the Arctic Circle.
If I were really lucky I’d meet my soulmate there—the one I’d been searching for my entire life. I wasn’t going to find her if I confined myself to a boat. Cassie would never be my forever woman; she wasn’t even open to being my “little while” woman.
“Alaska?” she asked now, shaking her head as though snow had gotten into her ears and she hadn’t heard right.
With a grin and nod, I said, “They’ve got direct flights to Hawaii. That will be convenient when I come to see you . . . or you could pay me a visit for a change.”
“In Alaska? I don’t think so,” Cassie said. “I grew up in Canada. I don’t ever want to see snow again so long as I live.”
“So long as you live?” I challenged, raising a questioning brow.
Cassie rolled her eyes. “Ask me in another hundred years.”
“In another hundred years the ice caps will have melted.”
Bastian snorted. “Good thing I have a boat.”
“Such a pessimist,” Cassie said, glaring at me.
I smiled wryly. “Quite the opposite. My awareness of the world is the reason I live each day to the fullest.”
“Very well,” Cassie said, stepping over to kiss me on each cheek. As we hugged she sighed. “Don’t freeze your fangs off up north.”
“Maybe I’ll find someone to keep me warm,” I said with a chuckle. An image of the blonde in the white dress drifted across my mind then vanished in an instant. I had a feeling I’d never see her again.
It was probably for the best. How could a romance between a vampire and a hunter ever hope to survive?
Then again, there was always a first time for everything.
###
Thank you for journeying to the Caribbean with Fane Donado.
Fane is preparing to embark on the adventure of a lifetime. He’s encountered his first vampire hunter, but it won’t be his last. Soon he finds himself tangled up in Alaska’s underworld, where no one is who they seem and a forbidden romance changes everything.
Join Fane, Joss, and their new friends in Aurora Sky: Vampire Hunter.
“Full of action from the very first page.” ★★★★★ - Examiner.com
If there is one thing eighteen-year-old Aurora Sky wants, it's to get off the iceberg she calls home. Being kissed before she graduates wouldn't hurt either.
Then a near-fatal car wreck changes everything. Government agents step in and save Aurora's life in exchange for her services as a vampire hunter. In Alaska. Basically she's a glorified chew toy. All thanks to her rare blood type, which sends a vampire into temporary paralysis right before she has to finish the job . . . by hand.
Now Aurora's stuck with an overzealous partner, a group of misfit friends, and a maddening attraction to a rebellious man keeping secrets of his own.
Start the Aurora Sky: Vampire Hunter series HERE!
Slaying, Magic Making, and Running Wild . . .
Discover your next fantasy fix with these riveting paranormal romance titles by Nikki Jefford:
AURORA SKY: VAMPIRE HUNTER
Night Stalker
Aurora Sky: Vampire Hunter
Northern Bites
Stakeout
Evil Red
Bad Blood
Hunting Season
Night of the Living Dante
Whiteout
True North
SPELLBOUND TRILOGY
Entangled
Duplicity
Enchantment
Holiday Magic
WOLF HOLLOW SHIFTERS
Wolf Hollow
Mating Games
Born Wild
Moon Cursed
About Nikki Jefford
Nikki Jefford is a third-generation Alaskan now living in the Pacific Northwest with her French husband and their Westie, Cosmo. When she’s not reading or writing, she enjoys nature, hiking, and motorcycling.
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