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

by Opal Carew

  Michael called ahead to the others on his cell phone. “We’ve been separated from the convoy. Yes, Father.” He clicked off his phone. “They saw, and they’re doubling back.”

  “You know this area, Adonis,” Curt said. “Is there anywhere safe to go?”

  “Not my place. The human hosts have already been inside. They could have invited Piaras in any time.”

  Another eighteen-wheeler pulled in front of them. “Should we make a stand?” Michael asked.

  “No, not until we have backup,” Curt replied.

  Adonis turned the car. Michael called in their location again.

  A warehouse came into view. One of Piaras’s. Adonis took a deep breath. “Tell your father they’re corralling us into the warehouse on 22nd Street.”

  “One of Piaras’s?” Brent asked, sounding surprised.

  “Yeah. I’ve noticed activity here before, but without a family to back me up, I haven’t been able to hit it. The warehouse appears to be used to store Piaras’s contraband after he kills humans and plunders their businesses and estates.”

  But tonight, it would be used to eliminate a vehicle full of hunters. Only, the vampires didn’t know that Adonis was driving the vehicle and could lead the other hunters to their location. In their view, they’d isolated one of the hunter vehicles, and the others would never be able to locate them in time.

  A pickup truck slammed into the tail end of his vehicle, propelling him toward the open warehouse. He attempted to turn, but two more wedged him in. He jammed his brakes on. The squealing of tires and burning of rubber filled the air.

  Curt said, “Our men are right behind us.”

  Adonis glanced into the rearview mirror. Tobias and his entourage barreled down the street behind them.

  The pickup stopped pushing once the SUV was inside, then it backed up, but one of the hunter’s pickups rammed him in the rear, propelling him into the frame of the warehouse entrance.

  Now the human hosts couldn’t close the warehouse doors and effectively cut the hunters off from the rest.

  Zachary said, “What are we waiting for?”

  A vampire dropped onto the hood of Adonis’s vehicle.

  “That,” Adonis said, then yanked his sword out from its sheath, and he jumped out of the SUV.

  Before the vampire could react, astonishment was evident in his expression to see Adonis with the other hunters. Adonis stabbed him in the heart before he could give Adonis away. Adonis had never realized how much the vampires trusted he was one of them. And yet, they hated him for being a hunter turned. Now he gave them good reason.

  Instantly, aging to a white wrinkled raisin, the vampire collapsed on the hood.

  Human hosts charged across the cement floor with steel rods and swords while Adonis’s blood heated. The vampires were letting their minions do their dirty work. But the speed and agility of the hunters were too much for the human hosts, and once they’d laid them to rest, the vampires attacked.

  Although the vampires could have easily vanished and sought safety, it wasn’t their way. In the heat of battle and as conceited as they were, they knew they’d win and would never back down in a fight. Still, the hunters vastly outnumbered them here tonight and were just as arrogant a breed, having every intention of winning the battle, too.

  The vampires drew swords from sheaths hidden beneath their cloaks and charged the hunters. The razor sharp metal struck with a clatter and clang against metal, but a sword wasn’t the way they’d kill their intended hunter victim here in Dallas. The sharp weapon was the teasing foreplay they’d use before they ripped a hunter’s throat out.

  Then a human host standing high above on a stack of wooden crates beaded a dot of red light at Michael’s temple. Adonis’s blood chilled. He was too far from him to shove Michael out of harm without revealing how he could move as a vampire. The only other way Adonis could prevent the human host from killing Michael was by appearing on the crate where the sniper hid. But if any of the hunters saw Adonis vanish, then reappear there, they’d know he’d been turned.

  Still, he had to chance it.

  In a split second, he vanished, then reappeared before the shooter, the man’s weapon pointed straight at him. The adrenaline coursed through Adonis’s veins as he grabbed the man’s arms and thrust them upward. The weapon discharged into the ceiling twenty feet above them. With Adonis’s deft help, the man took a dive for the cement floor, breaking his neck on impact.

  Adonis glanced back at the hunters still fighting the vampires. Gregory watched him and so did Michael. Had they seen him arrive on top of the crates like a vampire moved? Or had they thought he’d climbed to the top sometime while they were distracted?

  A fluttering sounded behind him, and he shifted his attention to the vampire that threatened him next.

  “Why don’t we dispense with our swords, you and I, Adonis, and just rip each other’s throats out? How would your new friends view you then?”

  With his blade, Adonis struck Marion’s sword hard with a clang. The rest of the warehouse had grown quiet, and he imagined the hunters had successfully eliminated the other vampires. Now, he had to put on the show of his life in front of the other hunters. He fought the urge to fly or move like a vampire, and yet he’d have greater success if he did. Instead, he thrust his sword, parried, diving forward, and sliding back as graceful as any skilled hunter swordsman, his way just like before.

  He never once took his eyes off the vampire in front of him, one of Piaras’s main henchmen, black haired and eyed, the devil’s partner in crime. He smirked, a glint of red in his eyes when the footsteps of several hunters sped along the cement toward the crates.

  “Do they seek to aid you? Or kill you like they intend to kill me?”

  “Talkative tonight, aren’t we, Marion? I don’t think I’ve heard more than two words from you since we became friends.”

  Marion’s lips curved upward in a sadistic smile. “I like to listen. You can get more of a feel for people that way, don’t you think?” He thrust his sword at Adonis’s chest, but Adonis quickly sidestepped the blade, the weapon piercing Adonis’s shoulder deeply instead of his heart. Burning pain streaked down his arm.

  Hell.

  Marion’s canines extended as his eyes focused on the blood staining Adonis’s shirt.

  Adonis lunged at him, thrusting his steel into the vampire’s chest. But the vampire had moved just enough to lessen the blow, the blade missing the heart.

  “How in the hell did he get up there?” Brent shouted while they searched for a way to aid Adonis.

  “You mean they don’t know?” Marion asked. His black brows rose in question while he clutched at his wound. The vampire and the hunter healed quickly, but even so it could take a day or two or longer depending on the severity.

  The vampire dropped his sword and took a flying leap. He knocked Adonis’s sword from his grasp and slammed his back prone against the wooden crate, knocking the breath from him. “Your sister and parents will die now, as I’ve always said.” He bared his canines and choked Adonis with his vise-like grip.

  Adonis struggled to reach the dagger at his waist, his mind blackening from lack of oxygen.

  Finally freeing the dagger, he heard Curt shout, “Over here!”

  The vampire smiled. “They found the ladder, but it will do you no good.” He tore Adonis’s shirt with his teeth.

  The blood rushing in his ears, Adonis shoved the dagger’s ten-inch ancient blade into the vampire’s heart.

  The creature shrunk into a dehydrated mass of skin and bones, his clothes hanging loosely from them. Immediately his death grip on Adonis’s throat ceased. Flat on his back, Adonis attempted to catch his breath as he coughed and hacked.

  “Adonis!” Michael shouted, running across the top of the crates. He jerked the dead vampire off him and tossed the body aside. Just as quickly, he reached down and seized Adonis’s good hand and helped him to stand.

  Hating feeling so damned weak, Adonis teetered.
Michael clasped his hand over Adonis’s bloodied shoulder and wrapped his arm around his waist, steadying him. “Let’s get you down from here.”

  Zachary poked his head above the crate. “Adonis is all right! The vampire’s dead!” he relayed to the others.

  Every rung on the ladder Adonis grasped, shot pain through his arm. He wished he could reappear down below without the agony of climbing down the ladder with an injured shoulder.

  He hadn’t been wounded in a long while, and he’d forgotten how painful it could be. But worse, he was losing consciousness. The blood loss. He needed more blood.

  His fangs itched to extend. Then a wave of nausea and dizziness overwhelmed his senses. The powerlessness angered him as he attempted to remain conscious. Blinking, his vision blurred, the light of the warehouse fading, growing dimmer with each passing second... fading until it vanished.

  Chapter 18

  The house was all a stir when the hunters arrived back at Tobias’s home at two that morning. Rachael, hearing all the jubilation, grabbed Mary’s robe, yanked it on, and headed down the hallway to the stairs.

  When she saw Michael and Zachary carrying Adonis into the house, his face as white as fresh fallen snow and his dark brown eyes hidden under heavy lids, her heart was crushed. She ran to them, but they shook their heads at her.

  Tobias grabbed her arm, stopping her. “Dr. Stevens will take care of him. He was stabbed in the shoulder, and he’s lost a lot of blood. But he’ll be given a blood transfusion, and that’ll take care of that. In a few hours, maybe sooner, he’ll be as good as new.”

  “I want to be with him while Dr. Stevens attends to him.” To protect him. To discover how he fared. Was he able to kill other vampires? Had he proved his worth to her uncle? She prayed he had.

  “Later, Rachael. Your stirring the hunter up isn’t going to help him to heal faster.”

  Gregory threw his sword on the floor. “Damn it! Why won’t anyone listen to me! He’s one of them! Michael, you saw the way he just vanished and reappeared on top of the crates! You saw it.”

  Michael looked at Danai whose soulful eyes waited for him to say something.

  He walked over to her, then took her hands in his. “Your brother saved my life tonight. For that, I’ll always been in his debt.”

  Curt grunted and folded his arms. “Yeah and Adonis saved your life, Gregory, and what thanks does he get?”

  Gregory glared at him, then said to Tobias, “You can’t let him have Rachael. He’s the devil spawned and has deceived all of you.” He grabbed up his sword and stormed out of the house.

  Zachary shut and locked the door behind him. “I’d say tonight calls for a celebration.”

  Michael kissed Danai’s cheek, but she pulled away.

  “I... I have to see to my brother.”

  “I understand.”

  She hurried toward the location Dr. Stevens had disappeared.

  Michael didn’t begin to understand how Danai felt. Danai looked like she was ready to collapse when Gregory accused her brother of being one of the vampire kind.

  Had Michael seen what Gregory said he saw Adonis do? Rachael swallowed hard and rubbed her arms.

  Mary joined her. “You look almost as pale as Danai over Adonis’s health, Rachael. Come, sit down. You know he’ll be just fine. And you’re not totally recovered from your own injury either.”

  The living room filled with conversation recanting the battles the hunters had conducted with the human hosts, blood-bonds, and vampires while the huntresses listened, entranced with their warrior tales. Didn’t the women desire to continue the fight for good against evil? The women seemed happy to be housebound, raising children, and no longer fighting.

  Rachael touched Mary’s arm to speak to her privately.

  Mary grasped her hand. “My goodness, Rachael, you’re ice cold.”

  “Don’t you ever miss terminating the vampires?”

  “Nah. I enjoy training the next generation of our kind to fight them.”

  Maybe when she had a child of her own, Rachael would feel differently.

  When Dr. Stevens walked into the living room, everyone grew quiet. He turned to Tobias. “Adonis will be fine. But he’s asking to see Rachael.”

  Her uncle motioned for her to go.

  She hurried off the couch and headed for the medical room where Dr. Stevens kept supplies and equipment enough for a small clinic, plus two beds for wounded hunters.

  Adonis weakly smiled as soon as she walked into the room where he lay in a standard hospital bed. That he wasn’t as dead as he first looked when they’d brought him in reassured her he’d live. But if Dr. Stevens discovered the truth about Adonis, no one seemed the wiser. Danai looked as though she needed a blood transfusion herself as she sat quietly next to the bed.

  Trying for cheerfulness to lighten the serious mood, Rachael said, “My, are your cheeks burning because I’m here now, or is it the blood dripping into your veins?”

  His smile broadened. He turned to Danai. “Can you leave us alone?”

  She shook her head. “I want to stay with you. That Gregory said the most awful things about you, and... “

  His brows furrowed. “What?”

  “He said you vanished, then reappeared somewhere else.”

  His voice dark, he prompted, “And?”

  “He said that Michael had seen it, too. But Michael denied it. Said that you saved his life, and that he was indebted forever to you.”

  Adonis took a deep breath.

  Wanting to give him moral support, Rachael walked over to his bed and kissed his cheek. “If my family doesn’t accept you for what you are, I’ll leave with you and never come back.”

  He touched her face, his gaze telling her how much her sentiment meant to him.

  “Adonis, I don’t want to go out there with them,” Danai said. “Michael will pounce on me as soon as I do.”

  “You can’t be afraid to live life any longer, Danai.”

  She folded her arms. “I’m not. I’ll have to take Rachael to Piaras’s estate in your place now that you’re injured and hope that we succeed.”

  He blew out his breath. “They’re still planning on laying siege to his place later today?”

  “Yes. They’re anxious that the word may reach Piaras that we’re coming for him, so Tobias wants to strike now. He figures they won’t expect multiple strikes. Although I’m sure they wished you’d come with them as you know the layout. But now you can’t go.”

  “I’m going. As soon as I’ve had enough of a blood transfusion, I’ll be fine.” He waved his hand at her. “Go... keep Michael company.”

  “She doesn’t have to, if she doesn’t want to, Adonis.” Rachael walked over to her and gave her a warm embrace. “Do what you feel comfortable with and don’t listen to your brother’s bullying.”

  Danai smiled and hugged her back. “I’m going to like having you in my court.” She wrinkled her nose at her brother and walked out of the room.

  Adonis chuckled. “I’d never have moved her from the room like you just did.”

  Rachael kissed his mouth, tangling her tongue with his.

  “Hmm, Rachael.” He grasped her hair with his good hand. “You taste so good.”

  “I guess you won’t be joining me in my room later.”

  “I believe I might need to rest a bit. But later this morning... “

  She smiled. “Okay, then I’ll just sit here and try to behave myself.”

  An hour later and after much coaxing, Mary led Rachael back to bed. “Danai will sit up with her brother. You can spell her later, and she can get some rest then.”

  “Whatever was the matter with Gregory?” Rachael had to know how the others felt about his accusations.

  “Well, you know a couple of our distant cousins were concerned. Said all of a sudden Adonis and Danai have their family imprisoned and want to destroy Piaras, but make contact with our family first. Which is fine, but now they’re getting our hunter family involved in t
he mess.”

  Mary sat on the edge of the bed. “But most agree that Piaras has to go, for your safety more than anything. They know he won’t stop trying to get to you.”

  She reached over and touched Rachael’s hair. “Besides, we all know what Gregory said was preposterous. Vampires wouldn’t turn hunters. It’s never been done before, at least here in this region ever. They kill us... we kill them. They could never trust a hunter in their midst.” Mary leaned over and kissed her cheek. “You look exhausted. Sleep and you can take over from Danai later.” She rose from the bed. “You’ll be all right alone tonight?”

  “Yes, thanks, Mary, I’m fine.”

  Mary shut the door and Rachael lay awake unable to sleep. Not with distressing over the part she’d have to play concerning Piaras, nor with worrying that someone might still believe Gregory’s accusations. But it was the movement of the mattress rocking her slightly that stole her thoughts away. Thinking Danai had returned to bed, she turned. In the darkness, she couldn’t tell who it was. She whispered, “Danai?”

  Adonis’s deep, seductive chuckle sent a spark of electricity down her spine.

  “You locked the door?” she whispered.

  He pulled her nightgown up to her waist.

  She reached out and touched his arm. “Is your injury already—”

  “I’m still tired, Rachael. But if we work quickly—”

  She chuckled. “You said next time we’d spend more time at this.”

  “Next time. I promise.”

  She touched his bare chest and frowned. “You’re naked already.” She wiggled out of her gown.

  “I left my clothes in the bathroom of the clinic.”

  “Danai?”

  “She’s my lookout. She’ll tell anyone who checks on me that I’m in the bathroom.”

  He ran his hand up Rachael’s thigh, and she shivered. He quickly pulled back. “You’re feeling all right, aren’t you, Rachael?”

  She took hold of his good arm. “My head still hurts a little, but the rest of me is working perfectly fine.”