Tall, Dark and Paranormal: 10 Thrilling Tales of Sexy Alpha Bad Boys

by Opal Carew

  “Rachael!”

  She wheeled around to see her uncle watching her, his expression severe. Taking a deep breath, she turned and crossed the floor toward the door that led to the outside stairs and parking area. But after she exited the building and descended the flight of stairs, she turned back toward the hotel.

  Walking down a path, she made her way to the back of the building. Except for a faint light from the ballroom above, the grounds remained mostly shrouded in dark.

  The fragrance of pine needles scented the cool crisp air. She looked up at the balcony that stretched out from the ballroom. No stairs led to the balcony from down below. The only access was from the ballroom itself.

  A breeze tugged at her hair, blowing shoulder-length strands into her eyes. Then a sound like a footstep crunching on fallen leaves caught her ear. She whipped around. Gooseflesh dotted her arms as her eyes widened, seeking out the source of the footstep. Her heartbeat quickened and blood pounded in her ears.

  If a hunter or huntress had come down here to be alone, he or she would have announced themselves. Something else remained cloaked in the dark. Something mysterious that drew her into the ebony web.

  A new gypsy melody drifted down to her from the party, but it didn’t disguise the footstep she had heard. Had someone walked in her direction, or away from her? She couldn’t be certain.

  She pulled the dagger from its sheath at her waist. A vampire wouldn’t endanger its life by coming to a hunter’s ball with so many hunters about, would it?

  His scent floated to her as the wind shifted direction. Her throat dried instantly as if a sponge suddenly soaked up the moisture. She strode forward, attempting to perceive anything, an outline of a body, anything she could make out in the lightless void.

  Whoever it was took three steps back, drawing her forth. She charged forward and felt a piece of satiny fabric, suspiciously fluttering in the breeze like a cloak... like a vampire’s cloak. Panicked, she swung her blade, attempting to strike the creature, but all she touched was air.

  Unsure of herself, she remained frozen to the walk. Why hadn’t he attacked her? He could have easily taken her as disadvantaged as she was alone in the darkness. Yet, she was drawn to him and couldn’t free herself from wanting to solve the mystery of who or what he was. But it was more than that. Almost as if her backbone had turned to steel and a man-sized magnet drew her into the shadows... like she had no willpower to resist his force.

  Then a masculine hand grasped her wrist and attempted to drag her into the dark. Her heart pounded out of bounds. Although she knew she should have struck at him with her dagger, his touch was warm, full of life, and filled her with need. An unnatural need... well, for her it was unnatural. She’d never been interested in any man before. Certainly, desiring a vampire was anything but normal. Her molecules dashed around inside her, colliding with one another in a madcap frenzy. Her knees grew weak. Her head spun out of control with the sensation.

  “Rachael!” Zachary hollered from the parking lot.

  The man released her, severing his tie to her. Her stomach flip-flopped as she fought the urge to find him in the dark—to learn his identity, to know how this man could undo her with a simple touch. What would he have done to her if he’d pulled her into the shadows with him? Kissed her? Or torn her throat out with his lethal fangs? She touched her shoulder. Or marked her. She shuddered. Maybe he was the one who’d already marked her and now came to claim her. All at once, dread bunched in her stomach.

  What was wrong with her to even want to know the answer to the questions? Her uncle had only allowed her to kill vampire dogs. Not human vampires. She wasn’t experienced in dealing with them. That was the problem.

  She backed up, then ran for the parking lot, her heart thundering. His intriguing scent seemed to follow, but she saw no sign of anyone other than her cousin searching for her in the low light of the parking area.

  “There you are.” Zachary hurried toward her. “Where have you been?” he scolded. “Father said you were to go straight home, change, and come directly back here at once. Half an hour... no longer.”

  She strode to her car without a word to her cousin, her thoughts still consumed with the man in the dark.

  “Father doesn’t like it that you said you were going after Piaras, even in jest.”

  “Tell the whole world, Zachary.” After unlocking the door to her car, she climbed in, slammed the door, and locked it. Hating feeling unnerved, she sat still, watching for any sign of who or what had accosted her.

  Seeing no sign of him, she jammed her key in the ignition. No time for paranoia.

  Yet, she couldn’t help feeling the man hidden in the shadows had targeted her, not anyone else. What was worse, she should have told Zachary, who watched her while she drove out of the parking lot. Something prevented her from doing it, as if the creature had woven a spell of silence over her—binding her to him for as long as she lived.

  Which undoubtedly wouldn’t be long, if she continued to act unhuntress-like in his presence.

  ***

  Like a stalker, Adonis studied Rachael when she exited her apartment wearing a red gown, cut provocatively low in the front, and having virtually no back, a black shawl hung over the crook of her arm as she hurried to his car. Her lips were coated in blood red lipstick that shimmered in the lamplights’ soft glow.

  His blood heated with envy. He didn’t want any of the bachelor hunters seeing her dressed like that. He craved to hold her close and dance with her under the full moon to the enchanting gypsy rhapsody—to nuzzle his face against her soft skin, to drink in the subtle floral fragrance she wore that floated on the breeze. His longing to have her would be his undoing.

  Even when he’d seized her and tried to drag her into the shadows outside of the ballroom, he couldn’t help himself. Since he’d been turned, he’d been incomplete—not a hunter, and not totally a vampire, a being caught somewhere in between. But Rachael created an urge in him to recapture his humanity.

  He cursed himself for his wayward thoughts and actions.

  What made her so irresistibly appealing? Using her to kill Piaras had to remain his sole focus. Yet she blurred that focus—an enchantress is what she was—stimulating the hunter’s craving to have her for his huntress mate. He cursed his weakness as she drove back to the ball.

  Tonight, one way or another, he would lure her away from her kind and turn her world inside out through no choice of his own.

  ***

  Twenty minutes later, Rachael crossed the parking lot to the hotel again, the air cool, but she decided not to bother with the wrap. Everyone could see the vampire’s mark and know why she hated affairs like this. Nothing would chill her heated blood, as angry as she was about having to attend the ball. A few tendrils of unruly curls pulled loose from her hastily improvised bun, tickling her bare shoulders in the light breeze, and with annoyance, she brushed them away.

  But then her anger shifted to morbid curiosity, and she glanced at the path leading into the dark behind the hotel. Did the man who had accosted her still lurk in the darkness? She considered the flagpoles. The flags had been taken down for the night. Taking a deep breath, she didn’t smell any of the spicy scent that warned her the vampire was near. He was gone and a tinge of disappointment left her feeling abandoned. She chastised herself for the thought and focused again on the evening ahead—which she would cut short as soon as her uncle saw she was in attendance.

  When she entered the ballroom, several males smiled appreciably at her attire, and her body warmed, despite being annoyed at herself for feeling anything but anger.

  Uncle Tobias gave her a small smile and bowed his head. Yeah, Rachael had done his bidding, and he was damned pleased with himself, but she chided herself for not having more determination to stand her ground. She wished she could be like her cousin, Michael, the rogue. That’s who she looked up to, a man who made his own decisions and wasn’t ruled by his father, her uncle.

  Needing a glass o
f champagne for fortification, she maneuvered through couples after the wine steward. Before she reached him, Gregory Devine walked in her path. The bachelor hunter had always kept his distance from her before tonight. What was his problem now?

  “Would you care to dance with me?” Gregory asked, his voice somewhat demanding, but a hint of insecurity moderated his tone.

  “Thank you.” Rachael smiled sweetly. “Not now.”

  His sharp blue eyes took her in, his gaze quickly shifting to her breasts. He smiled. But then he looked at her scar, the raised white jagged line a reminder of the vampire who’d marked her and killed her parents.

  She hated Gregory’s changed expression—a flicker of... well, she wasn’t sure whether it was pity, concern, or disgust—none of which she appreciated. She sidestepped him and headed for the wine steward.

  Typical of a hunter, Gregory wouldn’t let her go. He again walked into her path. He acted as though she was now seeking a lifelong mate—a big deal in hunter societies. The mating kept the hunter families from dying out. Because traditionally fewer females were born to a family, they were highly prized. But thankfully her uncle had discouraged hunters to pursue her before this, rumors abounding that her tragic loss had made her unsuitable for mating too early. Which suited her fine. At twenty-six, she was still free to pursue a hunting career when other women were busy raising their second or third child and had to abandon hunting altogether.

  She glanced at her uncle, hoping that her brief show of attendance and wearing the gown her aunt had given her last year, would satisfy him enough to earn her the contract he was holding for her. But she didn’t like the expression he wore, too serious, too much like the one he displayed when he was conducting business, not when he was socializing at the annual ball. He nodded to her.

  Instantly, her blood heated. He couldn’t…

  She quickly looked around the room, saw the bachelor males appraising her, studying her actions as if they were on a hunt and this time she was the prey.

  Her uncle was presenting her as eligible for marriage to the bachelors tonight? She could scream. Was this the family secret? No way was she getting tangled up with a hunter, not before she proved herself as a huntress and successfully rid herself of her fears. Rarely did the females hunt after they began to have babies.

  When Gregory couldn’t snag her interest, another bachelor approached her. He smiled at her and his green eyes sparkled with fascination. She frowned. How was she going to discourage the single men’s interest in her without encouraging her uncle’s wrath?

  She caught sight of the wine steward disappearing into the sea of hunters and huntresses and smiled. “Whoever can get me a glass of champagne first, I’ll dance with.”

  One dance and then she was out of here.

  Hearing her challenge, five bachelors standing nearby, plus the two who had approached her, rushed for the wine steward. A scuffle ensued when two of the men struggled over the glass the steward tried to fill.

  Despite the irritation running through her blood over the whole affair, she stifled the urge to laugh and shook her head. They acted like a bunch of bulls during rutting season.

  But the glint of light outside on the balcony shimmered again, intriguing her despite how dark it was outside. She crossed the floor to the door, grabbed the handle, and jerked it up.

  After stepping outside, she closed the door, shutting out all but the music that served as a romantic backdrop, and the soft light that filtered into the blackness from the ballroom chandeliers. But the rest of the balcony remained dark and foreboding. Instantly, the familiar fragrance of spice reached her, sending her system on high alert. Her heart beat erratically and her hands grew clammy.

  The shiny object had faded into the darkness... the same kind of darkness she’d feared ever since she was a child, but was determined to conquer.

  She remained frozen in the soft wash of light, not moving any closer to where the object had vanished. Yet a part of her wanted to explore the shadows, to seek out the source rather than let it come to her.

  “Who are you?” she asked, her voice firm and demanding, trying to sound sure of herself but afraid her voice might have reflected her fear.

  “You won’t ever get to Piaras without my help.”

  At the sound of the deeply sexual, but deadly male voice hidden in the ebony gloom, her heart nearly stopped.

  Chapter 2

  Her heart began beating double time and another icy shiver rippled down Rachael’s spine as she stared into the darkness where the male voice had originated. If he was a vampire, he would hear her panicked heart, just as she heard her blood rushing in her ears. She tried to see what it was he held or wore that had so effectively lured her here.

  She could see nothing in the ebony void, and the words he spoke again sifted through her brain. You won’t ever get to Piaras without my help.

  Had he heard Zachary speak to her in the parking lot about how she was going after Piaras in sarcastic jest? Would he tell Piaras what she’d said? And then would Piaras, the devil of a vampire himself, come after her?

  She swallowed, but her throat was dusty dry. She tilted her chin up, showing him he could not intimidate her. Yet every ounce of her huntress sense screamed at her to leave the balcony at once, to warn the hunters a vampire was lurking here, to have him destroyed before he could make her do something she would forever regret.

  She’d never heard of a vampire behaving so boldly with that many hunters nearby. Which warned her he was a danger she should well heed. “If I scream, the hunters will come and rescue me.”

  Hidden in the shadows, he made a derisive sound. “You’re not interested in anything they have to offer. To dance with any, you must ply yourself with liquor. You wish to be intimate with none of them... not like you wish to be with me.”

  Instantly, her blood sizzled. “Why you arrogant—”

  “But I can help you, and in return, you’ll aid me.”

  To kill Piaras? The vampire had to be delusional, if he was sincere in the least. But he didn’t sound crazy, which left a more disagreeable reason he was risking his neck here. Some darker reason that had nothing to do with her helping him to kill the evil one.

  “What makes you think I... “ She folded her arms and changed her tactic, not wanting to discuss the most hated vampire in the region further, or give this vampire any clues about her own nature—that he hadn’t already sensed. “Who are you?”

  Another inkling of dread twisted her insides—what if he were Piaras? What if he wished to see if she’d come willingly to him? The ultimate challenge for a vampire of his demonic stature? Right here under the noses of the gathered hunters of the biggest annual bash held in the region? And she, the head of the League of Hunters only unmated female relation?

  “Come closer and I’ll whisper my name to you.” His sensual voice stroked her like a brush of black velvet against naked skin. “I wouldn’t want the others to know I have an interest in you.”

  Interest? At seduction! Manipulating vampire! Yet, she was nearly ready to let him manipulate her right into his enticing embrace. Unless he was Piaras. Still, she’d heard he was a master at seducing women. Human women, of course. He couldn’t control hunters as far as she knew.

  But maybe…maybe this cloaked man wasn’t a vampire after all. A hunter, who wanted to do away with Piaras, to earn himself a name. Someone who wasn’t part of the hunter families in the area. Someone who wanted to join them and needed a way to prove his worth.

  Then again, what could she do to help? She wasn’t trained to take down anything as dangerous as the ancient one. No, he had to be a vampire. “You’re not a hunter. If you were, you’d be at the party. Unless you’re a renegade hunter. But you couldn’t slip onto the balcony unless you came through the ballroom, or…”

  He had to be a vampire, and she was foolhardy not to ready her weapon. She reached for the dagger at her waist and belatedly realized she wasn’t wearing it. Not to a dance while wearing a go
wn. Her skin prickled with fresh awareness at how vulnerable she truly was.

  He chuckled and the silky sound sent a volley of heat to her belly. “Are you afraid of me?”

  He knew she teetered between fear and macabre inquisitiveness. She wasn’t afraid of dying, not at his hand. But of being seduced by his voice, by his touch, the memory of his strong fingers on her arm, the power, the possessiveness, the desire in the heat shared between them still clouding her judgment.

  “Should I be afraid?” she asked, much more breathlessly than she wished.

  “You should be more afraid of them.” His tone was ominous, as if he knew something about them that she didn’t.

  Which was absurd.

  “The hunters, you mean?” When he didn’t respond, she shook her head. “I’m not afraid of them.” Willing herself to fight her fear of the dark and what waited therein, she drew a step nearer the shadows. Only in an effort to learn what the vampire’s business was. If she could, wouldn’t her uncle be pleased with her? Maybe even enough to give her a really good paying contract? “I’m close enough. Tell me your name.”

  “Come closer.”

  She’d had enough of his game. She stood still and crossed her arms, determined not to move another step in his direction—no matter how badly she wanted to see if the creature’s appearance was as sexy as his alluring voice.

  Time for the vampire to play his cards. She raised her brows. “I won’t draw any closer. Are you afraid?”

  For a minute, that seemed like an eternity, neither moved, and she wondered if he’d grown tired of the game or was truly afraid of showing himself in the event any of the hunters noticed and so then had vanished. But then he walked partly out of the shadows, a ruffle of thick lashes framing his penetrating black eyes and pinned her with an aroused look, dark and lustfully dangerous.