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

by Opal Carew

  Her heart pounding hard, she strode toward him. She was ready to strike at him with a razor sharp tongue and everything else she could use to convince him to stay the hell away from her.

  Or die.

  Chapter 5

  Rachael shoved her finger into Adonis’s chest while he moved toward her in the kitchen, not in the least bit affected by her angry demeanor. Her voice raised an octave when she unleashed her words. “Who the hell do you think you are, just barging into my home like this anytime you want? And why are you advertising you’re a…a, well, vampire, if you truly are one, by popping in and out of buildings at will?”

  Yet the fact remained, he had stood in the sunlight and the rays hadn’t affected him.

  “Do you want my cousin to end your life? Even if you were normal, which you aren’t, you can’t be seeing me on the sly. My uncle wouldn’t permit it.”

  He remained cemented to the floor like an unyielding statue. Except his lips lifted into a mystifying smile and his dark eyes sparkled with mirth. Then his expression grew serious. More than serious. Lustful. “I’m the one who’ll get you close enough to kill Piaras, remember?” He reached out to touch her arms.

  She slapped his hands away. “Don’t you dare touch me again.”

  “All right.” He folded his arms across his chest again and remained where he stood.

  That was it? She commanded and he’d obey? But she didn’t believe it for a minute. He wanted to touch her, to prove to her how much she needed him like he needed her. And badly. Yet how could a vampire need a huntress?

  Trying to calm her racing heart, she took a deep breath. “What are you?”

  “You already know the answer to your question.”

  “A vampire. But they don’t live in broad daylight. They can move around on overcast days and when the sun’s not full strength as when it’s just rising or setting, but when the sun is high in the sky on cloudless days?” She shook her head.

  “Can we sit in the living room and get more... comfortable?”

  She hesitated. Getting comfortable with him was bound to get out of hand. Just like she wanted it to. “All right.” Her voice remained dark, untrusting, despite her desire to find out all she could about him.

  She crossed the living room and sank into the soft cushions of her velour couch.

  After following her into the room, Adonis ran his hands across the back of a velvet-covered chair seated opposite her, his gaze never leaving hers. Just the way he caressed the soft fabric stirred disloyal longings in her.

  Then he smiled and joined her on the sofa. His leg touched hers, and she scooted away from him to give them some breathing room. There was no way she could listen to him, or question him effectively if he was touching her.

  “We have to talk, Adonis.” Her voice remained businesslike.

  “Ask away.”

  “Vampires don’t live in daylight.”

  He took a ragged breath, his face wearying all at once, his gaze locked on hers, softening her hard stance. “No, most don’t.”

  Most don’t? None did! “I’ve never heard of one who can be outside on a day when there’s not at least some cloud coverage.” Then a new worry came to her. It was bad enough hunters had to deal with nighttime feeders, but...

  “That’s because I’m a hunter... or was.”

  A hunter? She stared at him in disbelief. Hunters were never turned. They’d be too dangerous, too uncontrollable. He had to be lying. Yet the fact he had been out in the sunlight…

  “You can’t be,” she said under her breath, her hands growing clammy. Although she couldn’t help looking at him differently now. What if he truly had been an honorable hunter, fighting the good fight and lost the battle with a pack of vampires? Had to have been a number of them ganging up on him if he was telling the truth. Or was he feeding her this hunter tale to get on her good side, to sway her to do anything he wished?

  Not saying a word, he waited, allowing her time to assimilate his words. She shook her head. “How do I know you’re telling the truth?”

  “You don’t, except that I can exist in the sunlight when others can’t. I do have hunter swords and daggers passed down through my family for generations.”

  “That could have been stolen.” Although it didn’t explain the part about the sunlight.

  He bowed his head slightly, acknowledging her sentiment. “Maybe then my being a hunter is the reason why I intrigue you when a huntress would most likely not be interested in a vampire, particularly a huntress with your history.”

  Her history, yes. How could she be intrigued with a vampire after one murdered her parents?

  She had a hard time believing he could be a hunter turned, not as arrogant and sure of himself as he was though. Wouldn’t he have been more upset by the prospect? If he’d been a weakling, then overcome in a raid…but that wasn’t Adonis.

  Still, some part of the way he had acted so confident around hunter types was more typical of a hunter, not a vampire. As if he belonged among them, was just as much or even more eligible to be one of her suitors, and longed to be part of a hunter family again. Her thoughts shifted to dangerous ground, to wanting to believe him, to wishing she could help him somehow.

  “My God, Adonis.” What if it was true? With all her heart, she wanted to believe him. If he truly had been a hunter, he wasn’t the same person she’d known before. He was, but he wasn’t. She was sure he could never have charmed her if he’d only been a human turned vampire. But as a hunter, that made sense. No wonder she was so attracted to him.

  Nevertheless, she felt no relief in the notion she wasn’t a disgrace to her own kind for desiring his touch. He was still a vampire. Hell, for the first time, she truly had the hots for a hunter, and she couldn’t have him. Being a hunter turned made him even more dangerous to her in her way of thinking. She couldn’t resist the hunter in him, if he was telling the truth. Yet she had to tell herself she couldn’t have just the hunter part of the equation. It was all or none. And unfortunately that meant none.

  When she didn’t say anything more, he leaned against the couch and continued, “I assumed I’d die some day in my hunting career, killing vampire renegades and not keeping up my guard, but I never expected to live like this.” His voice was filled with soft regret, the arrogance gone. He kept watching her, studying her reactions, hopeful maybe that she could still accept him.

  But she couldn’t. Not while he was a vampire. And there was no cure.

  Her thoughts shifted to the woman in his shop and the necklace she wore. “What about the woman at the antique store?”

  “Danai, my sister, yeah, she’s one, too. But we don’t go after human victims. Nor are either of us interested in human hosts or having blood bonds. We’re not anything like the renegade vampires or even those who live within the laws of the city. When we have the need, we buy blood from the blood bank.”

  Her heart sank with the notion. She’d secretly hoped he hadn’t needed blood, being a hunter turned daylight vampire. What else was different about Adonis and his sister from the normal ones? “Did Piaras turn you both?”

  “Yes. He threatened to kill my sister if I didn’t agree to being changed. He’d already weakened her to the point she was near death. I was in bad shape. She begged me in her declining state to let her die, but I couldn’t.” Adonis’s jaw tightened. “That’s why I can’t kill him. But thankfully because of my hunter abilities, he can’t read my thoughts. So he can’t know my plans. And he can’t... “ He hesitated to speak, his gaze shifting to the floor, then back to her. “... normally can’t control my mind either. Except as far as not allowing me to kill him. The hunter genes help me to resist him in other ways.”

  Pain filled his eyes, and she fought tearing up. The memory of losing her parents would never fade. How would she have felt though, if her parents had been given the choice—life as a vampire or death?

  To save her mother, she figured her father would have done anything.

  To save h
er parents, she would have.

  Hearing Adonis’s confession tore at her heart. She imagined he had never told anyone the story who wouldn’t have already known it, certainly not any of their hunter kind. Being a hunter, then turned by a vampire against his will, had to be the worst thing that could happen to any hunter. Now he had to live among the creatures that he’d made it a calling to kill. Not only that, but he wanted her, like a hunter wanted a huntress, but he could never have her.

  He vanquished the silence between them. “I can’t kill him,” he reiterated. “I’ve tried six times. Even had a hunter’s dagger at his throat once while he slept. But it’s got something to do with his turning me. I just can’t kill him, no matter that I desire to with every ounce of my being. Until he’s dead, he’s still in charge of my sister and me.” Adonis’s vampire cool exterior had dissolved, his superior hunter pride set aside. Now he was only a man caught in a nightmare.

  She touched his hand, then grasped and squeezed it. “I’m so sorry.” Which, although she meant the sentiment with all her heart, couldn’t aid his cause. She was certain he didn’t want her sympathy. Only her help. But could they successfully go against Piaras? “Why didn’t you tell me before?”

  His fingers locked onto hers with determination as though he’d lose her forever if he let go. “Would you have believed me? Not until you saw me in the sunlight could you have accepted I was different from a normal vampire.”

  Her mind swirled with the concept while she tried to think of questions that needed answered. No, she wouldn’t have believed him. Even now it was difficult to fathom. “Why me? Of all the hunters you could have asked to kill Piaras, why have you chosen me?”

  He hesitated to speak and in that fleeting moment, she knew he wasn’t to be entirely trusted.

  Adonis shook his head. “Piaras has my family. My mother, father, and younger sister.”

  Jerking her hand out of his grasp, Rachael stared at him, the sickening notion she was the trade for Adonis’s family sinking in. Seduce the huntress first. Get her to agree to facing Piaras, with the notion—as far-fetched as it was—that she’d terminate the bastard, when all along he and Adonis had a deal. Turn her over and in return Piaras would release Adonis’s loved ones.

  Not that she didn’t have any sympathy for Adonis and his family, realizing he was living his own nightmare, but the dishonest way in which he tried to get her to agree...

  Damn Piaras and Adonis both.

  “Rachael,” Adonis said in a formal tone like a hunter would take when making his business known, and the other person had no choice, “I couldn’t very well have told you the truth before. You would have thought that you were a pawn in this whole charade.”

  She glowered at him. “Which it seems I am. Thank you for finally being honest with me.”

  “Listen,” he said, his voice strained, but not resigned, “I don’t have any choice. He means to take you one way or another, although we have no idea why exactly, but no amount of protection will keep you safe. Either I bring you to him myself, or he kills me and sends someone else to do the job. But as far as he’s concerned, you’re his. And one way or another, he will have you.”

  “He wouldn’t kill you—”

  Adonis raised his hand. “He would have to kill me before I’d let another vampire come for you, Rachael. Another one of his blood bonds would not hesitate to turn you over to him. Even now I’ve gone against his orders by failing to take you to him last night when you were at the ball. Twice, I could have escorted you to join him without giving the matter a second thought, but I couldn’t. Not without us coming to terms first.”

  The longing returned to his eyes, and she wondered if the hunter part of him fought the vampire’s control in this issue also.

  “Only a hunter or a huntress would have the training to kill the bastard. But a hunter would never be able to penetrate his defenses. The alternative is that it has to be a huntress. Since Piaras is dead set on having you, I figured the plan could succeed. But we have to work together every step of the way.”

  She quirked a brow and looked steadily into his smoky gaze. “You lied about having to desensitize me to a vampire’s touch.”

  His face turned to granite again, and he shook his head slightly.

  Was it the vampire in him that craved her so? Or the hunter? Or was it all just business?

  “If you become flustered when he attempts to take you, your huntress training could be for naught. I believe I can help you to overcome the way your heart flutters every time a vampire draws near, to help you to overcome your fear of them…us.”

  Of Piaras, she wasn’t certain. Of others? If she had to confront them in battle, if she was giving the chance to take them down…

  But maybe Adonis was right. She’d never thought she could be sitting on a couch with one, talking as if they were old friends. Then again, was that the hunter in him that made her feel so secure?

  “I could very well not have wanted any part of it. Even after having learned that Piaras killed my parents. The sons avenge the parents’ deaths. Not the daughters. Even though I was an only child. One of my male cousins would take on the job, or my uncle, since he raised me. If I’d been any of the other huntresses, I’d never had stayed on the balcony with you. Despite that you…” She almost said despite that he claimed he had been a hunter, but she chose to give him the benefit of the doubt, at least for now.

  “Despite that you had been a hunter. And certainly once you had access to my place, if I’d been one of the other huntresses, I would have moved in with my uncle. Did you really think I’d go along with you on this once I knew the real truth?”

  If that was even the real truth. What if there was something more he wasn’t telling her? What if Piaras really didn’t have his family? What if he only agreed to release Adonis and his sister, and Rachael was the bargaining chip?

  Adonis’s eyes darkened and she couldn’t tell if he was angry with her or what. “You must. Neither of us have a choice, but together we have a chance to defeat him. Will you go with me to kill him?”

  Now the real problem as she saw it. Yes, she feared vampires in general, feared Piaras in particular more than any of them, now that she knew he was the one she had the nightmares about, his long black hair loose about his shoulders, a madness in his black eyes as he bared his extended canines and dug them into her shoulder, scarring her for life. But the real problem wasn’t her fear, although once she had to face the devil himself, she was sure it would come back to haunt her. “I don’t have any experience terminating human vampires.”

  Adonis’s jaw dropped slightly as he looked into her eyes with incredulity. “I thought you were trained.”

  At the sound of astonishment in his voice, she folded her arms across her waist, frustrated. “Certainly, I’ve been to hunter schools just like the rest of our kind, trained to use a sword and dagger, throwing stars even, and I have a pair of wrist daggers. Technically, I know how to kill a human vampire, although I’ve never actually had the opportunity. My uncle has only seen fit to give me contracts to kill dangerous vampire dogs. The jobs barely pay enough to permit me to live alone, but still I want to go after the bigger prey.” She wasn’t about to tell him her deepest insecurities. Would he think her incapable of going after Piaras then? Most likely. “The pay is better and killing human vampires gives the hunter higher status.”

  He lifted her chin, his gaze intense. Was he trying to decide if she was being sincere? “Together we’ll kill him. He’s the biggest prey of them all in this city. You’ll earn the highest hunter status there is.”

  But would she? Or if she managed a feat such as that, would her hunter family believe it was a fluke? That in a million years she couldn’t manage the task again? That’s saying she could even take him down. But if Adonis had a way into the bloodsucker’s lair, and Piaras himself had ordered Adonis to bring her to him, maybe she’d have a chance.

  Adonis’s gaze focused on her lips, and she parted them to sp
eak. But only to stop what she suspected he intended to do next. He gave her a knowing smile, not to be deterred from his mission—whether the notion of desensitizing her was necessary or not—then pressed his mouth against hers. Wine-sweetened lips caressed hers with a tentative touch, not boldly like she’d anticipated, soliciting her participation, asking for forgiveness, or just a gentler form of seduction. She fought leaning into the kiss, of grabbing hold of him and forcing him to show her what he was truly feeling, instead of teasing her to death.

  But the kiss didn’t stop there as his hands slid up her arms to take hold of her, his thumbs stroking the silky sleeves of her blouse, his mouth promising to stir her blood like no man had ever done. Just a kiss, what harm could there be in that?

  She reached up and untied the leather strap confining his hair and that simple action propelled him forth.

  His mouth caressed hers with tenderness, yet she sensed him still holding back, almost as if he was afraid to go too far with her, to scare her off. But she wanted the passion she was sure he could bestow on her if she but encouraged him. Just a wild and passionate kiss.

  So she did what she knew she shouldn’t and leaned into the kiss, offered her heart and soul, her blood racing through her veins, her lips pressuring for more. He groaned and tightened his hands on her arms, compelling her—although it didn’t take much persuasion—to part her lips for him, to open herself to him, their tongues tangling, probing, their breath shortened, hot, labored.

  She stroked the silky dark brown strands of his unbound hair, when his tantalizing mouth moved down her neck in a honeyed caress. No man had ever kissed her so sensually as he did. Was it the vampire influence that made him so sexual? Or the hunter? Or the combination that made him so irresistibly appealing? Whatever it was, she was ready to strip off her clothes and take him to bed.