by Opal Carew
Her blood felt like ice. “Damn.”
“Rachael.” Adonis’s deep voice washed over her like sunlight on a crisp fall day.
She turned to see Adonis step inside from the back door of the shop. He didn’t make another move toward her though. In daylight, he appeared so much more real but just as handsome and sexy as at night. His dark eyes gazed into hers, like they’d done before as if attempting to lure her away from the door and into his arms.
And she would have been enticed, if it hadn’t been for worrying about Zachary. “Got to go.” Adonis’s expression shifted from predatory to surprise.
She yanked the door open and bolted down the street away from her car. Even if her cousin didn’t recognize Adonis from the brief look the hunters had of him half-hidden in the shadows on the balcony, she worried Zachary might see the perspiration already freckling her temple and know something wasn’t right if he caught her in the store. And he probably would wonder what she was doing in an antique store, of all places.
Despite it being a cool autumn day, she felt as though the temperature in Dallas had risen several degrees. She pulled off her black cashmere sweater and tied the sleeves around her waist, then ran down the next street. She had to find another shop to explore... the one that she could allow Zachary to find her in, if he decided to search for her.
Half were boarded up or were not the kind of place she visited... one a pool hall, another a pawn shop, and a bar with blackened windows, lots of vehicles sitting out front. The last choice, a Vietnamese grocery. It would have to do.
She slipped inside. The clerk attempted a smile at her, but his frail body shook as if he were afraid. He had nothing to fear from her.
“Is there anything the matter?” she asked, studying his reaction.
He observed the dagger at her waist, most likely realized she was a huntress, glanced at the back part of the store, then shook his head vigorously.
“I see,” she responded, coolly, not wanting to alert whoever was here causing trouble that she was aware of it.
She looked up at a security mirror that reflected two men wearing black ski masks, hiding behind one of the racks of canned goods. Both held guns and were arguing about something. The dagger she had couldn’t take out two robbers armed with guns.
She moved closer to the counter and whispered, “Why don’t you leave?”
“My wife tied up backroom,” he whispered back.
“Oh.” She said out loud, “I’m looking for a box of rice.”
He pointed a shaking finger at the end of the aisle. “Down there.”
She whispered, “Call the police.”
“But... “
She headed down the aisle, knowing she had to do something. Even if it didn’t turn out perfectly well. Humans might not survive if the gunmen shot them full of bullets, but she might because of her hunter’s advanced healing abilities. Besides she’d have no trouble taking out one of the men before he could shoot her. Although if she could think of an alternative, she would have tried something else. Getting shot wasn’t a really good plan.
With an accelerated heartbeat, she grabbed a box of rice, whipped around the corner, and yanked out her dagger.
A startled lanky gunman raised his weapon at her, the white’s of his widened eyes yellow, his long hair greasy. A druggy. She threw the box at his gun, ruining his aim. The weapon discharged, the bullet hitting the floor. Instantly, the shorter man lifted his gun to shoot her. She struck him in the hand with the dagger. A shot rang out. The bullet lodged low in a wall. Recovering, the other gunman aimed at her again, cursing a string of foul words.
Before she lunged at him with the bloodied blade readied, a hand grabbed her wrist. Her heart stuttered, and the blur of a tall, imposing figure yanked her out of the way, then released her.
Shocked and thrown off balance, she fell back against a shelf and landed on her butt. Hitting the shelf unsettled the boxes of rice, and they rained down on her head like an annoying avalanche. She quickly got to her feet and witnessed her savior. Welcomed relief replaced her surprise when Adonis grabbed the gun from the taller man and tossed him against the wall like he was an unwanted rag doll. The robber groaned and collapsed on the floor, out cold. The other gunman held his bloodied hand and cowered in the corner.
“Police coming,” the clerk shouted and hurried to get his wife out of the backroom.
Adonis lifted Rachael out of the debris of spilled groceries, his hands lingering on her arms as he set her down in a clear area, his dark eyes assessing her for damage.
“I wasn’t hit,” she assured him. Again she couldn’t shake the uncanny desire to feel more than his hands on her arms, the heat from his touch seeping through her silk long-sleeved blouse. Even a quick, firm embrace would have done wonders for her morale. Although something lingering and longer would have been even more welcome.
Before she could say another word to him, the storefront door banged open, the bell jingling, and she barely breathed as she and Adonis stood hidden behind the tall shelving.
“Hello?” Zachary called out.
Her heart lurched to hear Zachary’s voice. Of all the poor timing...
“You have to stay out of sight, Adonis,” Rachael urged, her hand on his arm, trying to push him deeper into the aisle where her cousin wouldn’t spy him, closer to the gunman. Someone had to watch them until the police arrived anyway.
Adonis’s jaw tightened, and he wouldn’t budge.
Damn it. He wasn’t going to make this easy for her. She hurried through the packages of spilled rice, noodles, and canned goods and smiled at Zachary, although she hoped her expression didn’t look purely faked, or that she didn’t look half as harried as she felt. She prayed Adonis would have the sense to remain hidden behind the grocery shelves or better yet, vanish, disappear, return to his antique shop pronto.
“Jeez, Rachael. What the hell are you doing here?”
“Trying to stop an armed robbery. But initially, I’d wanted a box of rice.” She hoped Zachary wouldn’t see through her lie. The last time she’d tried to make rice for a family gathering, it turned into a mixture of soggy lumps and hard bits of uncooked rice, a total disaster. After all the ribbing she’d gotten from her cousins, she’d sworn never to fix it again.
Zachary’s gaze shifted to Adonis, who walked around the end of the shelves, and then he remained standing next to the rice rack. Rachael stared at him as if he had lost his mind. Did he have a death wish?
“Is he one of the robbers?” Zachary asked, his voice dark as he pulled out his sword.
“No,” she quickly said, too quickly she thought belatedly, as if she was trying to protect a guilty man. “He helped me to stop them. Without his assistance, the one would have shot me.”
“Hell, Rachael, what were you thinking?” Zachary asked, switching his attention back to Adonis, appraising him too closely for her liking.
“She was thinking that the man and his wife needed help,” Adonis said, with a slight bow of his head, “although I’d have to agree that she could have planned the rescue a little better.” He lifted a brow as he looked at her.
She opened her mouth to defend her actions when the clerk aided his crying wife out of the backroom. “Thank you, thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” Rachael said, grateful that no one but the bad guys had been hurt.
“Take rice.”
She smiled and walked back to the rice rack and selected another box, but glared at Adonis. What was his problem? Didn’t he know how much danger he was in with her cousin seeing him here if he figured out he was a vampire—worse than that—the one who drew close to her on the balcony of the ballroom?
Adonis’s lips turned up slightly.
God, she could have killed him. What would her cousin think of the way Adonis acted toward her? Zachary would think Adonis was a human and attracted to her, but no way was a huntress ever to get mixed up with one of those. Not that she hadn’t made a few attempts, but without success.
She’d even thought of having the scar removed on her shoulder so that she wouldn’t be reminded of the night of her parents’ death every time she looked in the mirror, every time a person whispered to another about her, every time people stared at the sight as if she was a freak. But trips to two human plastic surgeons resulted in hurried rejections. All because they recognized the mark of a vampire as well and didn’t want to have to face off the one who had put it there.
A police siren grew closer, breaking into her preoccupation with vampires and scars.
“Thank you for helping me,” she said to Adonis, truly thankful he had saved her butt, although still annoyed with his boldness and his stating she could have planned her actions a little better.
“Anytime.”
Which she figured meant he was going to continue to harass her until she agreed to go along with his scheme to deal with Piaras. And she wondered if he was sincere, or just plain crazy. And if the Goth-looking guy was one of his own minions or someone else’s.
Two police officers entered the store, took the would-be thieves into custody, and obtained everyone’s statements.
Once she and Zachary were free to go, she turned to leave the store, but Zachary seized her arm and began scolding her. “You said you were going to a beauty shop. I should have known you were feeding me a story to get back at me for monitoring your whereabouts. I thought the last time you made such a mess of rice, you wouldn’t have tried it again. You swore you wouldn’t. And why did you park on the block so far from the store, if this was the only place you intended to go? There was plenty of parking out here.”
She tried to pull away from her over-protective cousin and cringed to think Adonis would hiss again, that the elderly couple would go into hysterics that the police might make a note that he could be a borderline rogue vampire, and Zachary would see Adonis for what he truly was.
But this time Adonis kept his cool. Thank the heavens.
“Father’s going to be furious.” Zachary continued to reprimand her while he pulled her toward the exit. “You said you were going to the beauty parlor. So that’s what I told him. Now what do I tell him? You were in some foreign grocery store buying rice and disarming gunmen? What in the hell were you stopping in this part of town in the first place? Why not at the grocery store near your apartment where you usually shop?”
They glanced back at Adonis when they exited the shop. “And what the hell was that all about?” Zachary asked, his brows knit in a tight frown.
She noted the anger on Adonis’s face, his dark brown eyes black, narrowed, his gaze fiercely warrior like. He didn’t seem to like it when her cousin accosted her, even if he was concerned for her welfare. “Nothing was going on. You can release me.”
They walked along the sidewalk, weeds filling the cracks in the cement, smears of gum turned gray and splotches of faded paint that had undoubtedly dripped from a paintbrush in the distant past speckling the gray blue.
Zachary shook his head, still holding her hostage. “I’m driving you straight home.”
She frowned at him. “I can’t leave my car here.” Not in this area. The tires would be missing by morning.
“I’ll have someone pick it up.”
She yanked her arm free from him and stood her ground. “Zachary Bremerton. I’m driving my own car home. You can follow me if you like.”
“Straight home then.”
He grabbed her wrist again as if she was going to get the urge to rescue more shop keepers, or secretly rendezvous with another Adonis type and her cousin wasn’t about to allow it. As he walked with her toward Kismet’s Antiques, Rachael had the urge to speed on by, but Zachary would notice and question her about that, too.
Instead, she tried to act cool and calm, not in the least perturbed with him hauling her off like an unruly child. But when they reached the halfway point in front of Kismet’s Antiques floor-to-ceiling display window, Adonis stood boldfaced behind an assortment of antique secretary desks, his arms crossed. All he needed was a scimitar hanging from his belt and a turban on his head to finish off the look of a prince of the Arabian Nights—a devious one—at that. His look was dark as he eyed her cousin and the grip he had on her wrist.
She yanked Zachary on past, trying to keep her cousin from observing Adonis. If he saw that the man had reappeared in the shop without having to walk there—damn, what was the matter with Adonis anyway? He paraded his actions toward her like a male proclaiming his interest in the female of his species, just like he’d done on the balcony of the ballroom. He was bound and determined to get himself killed.
Yet being a huntress, who should have been concerned about her own safety, this would have been a good thing. So why was the thought giving her major heartburn?
***
Not long after they left the downtown area, Rachael and Zachary arrived at her apartment and parked side by side. She was certain Zachary had millions of questions to ask her, so she was glad she’d insisted they drive their respective cars home. She tried not to steal too many glances around the parking area also, looking for the Goth guy. Although she didn’t see any sign of him.
Zachary seemed preoccupied with something else though once they entered her apartment, and that didn’t ease her worry any that he would delve more into her chance meeting with Adonis at the grocery store.
“I’ll check out your place,” Zachary said, already heading for the hallway.
“There’s no need,” Rachael insisted, but as soon as the words left her lips, Zachary looked over his shoulder at her.
She was afraid he’d recognized her fear, that he might find something he shouldn’t, and she wished she’d kept her mouth shut, or agreed with him sweetly.
This time he didn’t say anything and proceeded toward her bedroom and bathroom to investigate.
“All clear,” he said, stalking back down the hall. “You don’t always have to be so fiercely independent, Rachael. Guys like to be a knight for a woman. We all know how much the past has affected you, but you don’t have to prove anything to any of us.”
She hadn’t expected his kind words, so accustomed to the ribbing from all her cousins and their ordering her about. She didn’t know what to say, but she again felt less of a huntress and more like she wasn’t worthy of his compassion.
Yet, she gave a tentative sigh of relief, glad he hadn’t walked in on Adonis in her bedroom or found him hiding somewhere else. Well, not really hiding. That didn’t seem like the vampire’s nature. More like Zachary might have discovered Adonis reclining in her bed, his arms propped up behind his head, his lips curved up in arrogance, his expression saying, I’m here to stay, so you and the rest of the family will have to deal with it.
Yet she couldn’t quit wondering what he really was. If not a vampire, then what?
Zachary yanked his car keys out of his pocket. “I’ve got plans for lunch, or I’d hang around. After what just happened at the grocery store, you’re not to go anywhere. I’ll be back here in a couple of hours.”
So that’s what was preoccupying him. She spared him a cross look. “Uncle Tobias said nothing about my having to have a constant chaperone. Just during the night.”
“As soon as I tell him what happened at that grocery store downtown, he’ll want some more changes. It’s for your own protection, Rachael.”
Knowing he truly only meant the best for her—although in reality he was trying to keep his own butt out of trouble because if she ended up getting hurt, he’d be in a bigger mess—she let out her breath and focused instead on what he was up to. “Got a date, Zachary?”
His cheeks turned slightly red. Yeah, he was seeing someone. And by his reaction, Uncle Tobias wouldn’t approve.
“You’re not to go anywhere. If you do, my father will move you back to his place with a snap of his fingers until you’re married, then your husband will be responsible for you.”
She sat on the couch and patted the soft blue velvet. “I’ll be right here when you get back.�
�� She hadn’t planned any more excursions out today, and she didn’t need to go anywhere to set up her Huntress for Hire website anyway. She was also glad he hadn’t said anything about Adonis at the grocery store.
Smiling, Zachary reached out his hand. “I’ll be assured of that when you give me your car key.”
Irritated all over again at his need to control, she yanked the car key out of her pocket and shoved it at him. “Here. You just better hope I don’t tell Uncle Tobias you’re seeing a human woman behind his back. With Michael, it’s one thing. He’s already on his own.”
Zachary’s neck muscles tightened. She’d guessed right.
“I’ll be back.” He slammed the door behind him.
She knew he couldn’t help it. There weren’t enough huntresses to go around. The guys had to find some kind of female companionship. Still, hunters mixing with humans was frowned upon. If they grew attached to a human a vampire later targeted, a hunter was more at risk. He’d try to save the one he loved and would take dangerous chances, sometimes getting killed in the process. At least with a huntress companion, they could help fight and defend their mate.
She dragged herself off the couch, went to the door, and locked it. First, she’d have a cup of hot peppermint tea, next, post an ad on the Internet offering her huntress services, set up a website like she’d done for one of her cousin’s wives for her cake decorating business, and then she’d take a well-deserved nap. She’d considered calling her cousin’s wife, Mary, also, to see if she’d heard any rumors about the family meeting and what she wasn’t supposed to hear. But she couldn’t talk about what she truly wanted to discuss... Adonis.
She rounded the corner into the kitchen and her heartbeat surged, her lips parting in surprise. His expression hinting at smug satisfaction, Adonis crossed his arms as he leaned his back against the white-tiled island counter. He wasn’t in her bed like she had envisioned in her fantasies, but close enough.
“I didn’t think that cousin of yours would ever leave. Now we have two hours alone together. And more time for me to desensitize you to my touch.” Adonis’s brows and lips lifted with a devilish twist. He took a step forward.