The Vampire Hunter

by Lisa Childs

  Since she had no doubt he could explain the circumstances to Dr. Davison, she also had no reason to stay. Liam would never trust her. And if he couldn’t trust her, he would never be able to love her.

  His eyes icy again, he repeated, “You need to go.”

  Liam needed to go. The doctor had taken the bloodied body of the dead vampire away with him. But before he had, he’d checked out Liam and had given him a clean bill of health. Hell, his life expectancy, since Roger was dead, was now forever. As long as he abided by his list of new rules. No sunlight. Sleep during the day to recharge. Be careful of his strength, which was so much greater than human. And always guard the secret of the society.

  What about his heart? He should have guarded that, but Jennifer Williams had snuck inside it. He stared up at his brother’s portrait.

  “I’m sorry,” he said to Bryan’s picture. “I had no right to her. No right to take what should have been yours.”

  Bryan just kept smiling at him, as if he were happy for him. And knowing Bryan, he probably would have been. He’d been like that: generous, loving and forgiving. Liam wasn’t like that, though. He’d lived too long with hate in his heart. He didn’t know if he could love Jennifer like Bryan had loved her. And she deserved that. She’d been willing to give her life for his, even after the horrible way he’d treated her and her sister. Like Bryan, she was generous and loving and forgiving.

  She deserved so much more than him—and his bitterness and cynicism and anger. He needed to go.

  “We’ll be together forever now,” Eve said, hugging Jennifer tightly as the two of them stood in the living room of the professor’s underground apartment. With its venetian plaster, archways and chandeliers, it was far more elegant than Jennifer’s place. “We will always be a part of each other’s lives”

  “This is what you want?” Jennifer asked her younger sister, pulling back from their embrace to study Eve’s face. Her hair was a deeper gold than Jennifer’s, her eyes a richer green. She was so beautiful, so vibrant. “To be one of the society? Are you sure?”

  It was too late for second thoughts, though. The professor had already turned Eve into one of them. But Jennifer needed to be certain that her sister had made her decision for the right reasons.

  “I didn’t do this for you,” Eve assured her, as if reading her mind. Or her face. “Not like you turned for me.”

  “I did it for me, too,” Jennifer assured her. “I didn’t want to die.”

  A smile of pure happiness brightened Eve’s already beautiful face. “And now neither of us will.”

  Jennifer wasn’t sure about that anymore. Could a vampire die from a broken heart? “If you didn’t change for me, why did you change?”

  Eve glanced through the arched doorway leading off of the living room to the professor’s den. He sat with his feet propped up on his desk, as he leaned back in his chair, his hands crossed behind his head, his fingers tangled in his long, black hair.

  “For him?” Jennifer asked.

  “For love.”

  If only Liam had had her turn him for the same reason.

  “The professor’s a wonderful man,” Jennifer said, giving her blessing. “You’ll be happy together.”

  “Will you?” Eve asked, picking up on her moods as she always had even when they were kids.

  “I don’t know,” Jennifer answered honestly. “I think he’s going to be gone when I get back.” She’d told Eve and Professor Vossimer everything that had happened since the alley, leaving out only a few intimate details. But she suspected they were aware of what she’d left out of her story, that they’d read it on her flushed face.

  “He could have killed Roger with the gun even if he was human,” Eve said. “He didn’t need to turn into a vampire for his protection—not with the gun he’d made. I think he turned for you.”

  If only she could believe her sister, but she knew the real reason he’d become a vampire. And it had had nothing to do with Jennifer. She didn’t argue with her sister, though; she just hugged her close again and then left her alone with her lover.

  After flying the short distance home, she turned the key in the locked door of her apartment. Dread filled her stomach over what she would find. The body was gone; she was certain of that. But she was just as certain that Liam would be as well. Drawing in a breath, she pushed open the door and stepped into the dark foyer. Faint light glowed in the living room. Someone had lit a fire, and flames crackled in the hearth.

  Chilled to the bone, she was drawn to the warmth and didn’t realize she wasn’t alone until strong hands closed over her shoulders. She swallowed a gasp of fear. It couldn’t be Roger; he was dead. “You’re still here?”

  “Yes. I told you I was fine—that you could leave.”

  “No, I didn’t think you were going to die.” Or she never would have left him alone.

  “I’m never going to die now, thanks to you. You turned me successfully. According to the doc, you did a great job,” he assured her, squeezing her shoulders in his big hands.

  She breathed a sigh of relief.

  “How’d it go with your sister?” he asked. “Is she okay?”

  “She’s one of the society now.”

  “The professor turned her.”

  “Only because she asked,” Jennifer said, defending him. “And she asked because she loved him and wanted to be with him forever.” Was it possible? Could Liam love her, too? Dare she hope that was why he’d stayed?

  “I’m happy for them,” he said, with sincerity. “And sorry for everything I did to them.”

  “Without you, they would never have found each other,” she said. “Without you, she never would have found me. I owe you.”

  He expelled that little, bitter chuckle again. “You’re too forgiving.”

  And he wasn’t. “I was lying to Roger—in case you heard what I told him….” She had to explain, even if he wouldn’t accept the truth.

  “I know.”

  She turned toward him and stared up into his handsome face. The color had returned to his complexion, making his pale eyes sparkle even brighter. Or could it be emotion that caused that glitter? “You knew I was lying?”

  “You wouldn’t have tried to kill me,” he said with conviction. “You love me.”

  “What?”

  “I see it in your face,” he said, as he cupped her cheek in his palm. “And in this painting you started.”

  He’d taken the canvas from the easel she’d been working at when Roger had broken into her apartment again. The easel had survived their struggle. In his portrait, Liam slept, and his skin was burnished with light and warmth: each brush stroke as intimate as she had touched him when they’d made love.

  “It’s not done yet.” She hadn’t had time to define his features; they were in soft focus—the whole picture was a little blurred. “I need to do more work.”

  “You have time,” he assured her. “I’m not going anywhere.”

  “You’re not?” she asked, surprise and relief filling her. “Why not?”

  “Because I love you. I didn’t want to. I thought I was betraying my brother, but then I realized that instead of making Bryan jealous or angry, that our being together—that our being happy—would make him happy.”

  “Is that the only reason you’re saying this?” She had to know. “Because of Bryan?”

  “It’s not because of Bryan. It’s despite him. He’s the reason I thought I could never be with you. But he’s gone. I have finally accepted that. I’m finally ready to move on, but I can’t do that—I don’t want to do that—without you, Jennifer. I love you.”

  The doubts and fears left, leaving only love in her heart as she accepted his word. “You love me….”

  “It’s okay if you don’t believe me yet because I have eternity to prove to you how much I love you.” He swung her up in his arms and headed toward the bedroom. “Starting right now…”

  She would never tire of his carrying her. In the bedroom, he set her o
n her feet, sliding her slowly down the length of his hard, muscled body. She explored those muscles, pulling up his shirt and dragging it over his head. Then she skimmed her nails down his chest, over his rippling washboard abs, to the button at the waist of his pants. Her fingers trembled but she pulled the button free. She pushed down the dark pants, along with his boxers, until he stood naked before her. And her breath hissed out between her teeth. He was so damn beautiful. She couldn’t wait to finish that painting, but she wouldn’t need it. She’d have him here with her—always.

  He was equally as busy pulling off her sweater and pushing down her pants. When she stood naked before him, even the bits of lace discarded, he groaned. His eyes bright with passion, he murmured, “I love you….”

  He lifted her again, carrying her the last few feet to the bed. Jennifer flopped onto the mattress, locked her arms around his neck and pulled him down on top of her. “Prove it,” she teased. “Love me.”

  He kissed her deeply, their fangs scraping against each other while their tongues mated. He pulled back, his eyes wide at the new sensation.

  She smiled at his reaction and invited him to “Bite me….”

  He shook his head, as reluctant as she’d been to give in to the new craving.

  “It won’t hurt me,” she promised. “And it’ll join us completely. I’ve taken a part of you inside of me. Now you can have a part of me flowing through your veins as well.”

  He groaned, but then he slid his mouth across her cheek to the hollow below her ear. He licked, like she’d licked him the night before, tasting her. But he didn’t stop at her neck, he slid his tongue down over her collarbone and a tip of a breast, teasing the nipple.

  She shifted beneath him, parted her legs and arched her hips. Her heart pounded hard with passion as she rubbed against his straining erection.

  He replaced his tongue with a fang, lightly scraping it over her nipple. And she cried out at the exquisite torture.

  “Did I hurt you?” he asked.

  She nodded. “I hurt. I ache for you….” The tension had wound so tight inside her…it was unbearable. She needed the release only he could give her. Lifting her legs, she locked them around his lean waist.

  He reached between their bodies and slid a finger inside her. He closed his pale eyes and groaned. “You’re so hot…so ready….” So he thrust inside her, burying himself deep.

  Jennifer lifted her hips, meeting each of his thrusts, pulling him deeper inside her. She ran her nails down his back, clutching him close.

  He held her tight, his face buried in her neck. She felt the heat of his breath; it raised goose bumps along her skin. Then his fangs scraped over those fine bumps. He closed his mouth around her, the points of his fangs sinking into her flesh. He suckled, drinking the blood he’d spilled.

  The pressure inside her broke free, and she shuddered at the force of the orgasm slamming through her. In her arms, his body tensed, and he came, spilling inside her even as her blood filled him.

  He pulled back and licked his lips. His breathing labored, he only gasped in surprise. “That was…”

  More than making love. They had become one—two souls united for eternity.

  Look for Eve Williams and Professor Vossimer’s story in The Huntress, availabe now from Harlequin Nocturne Bites wherever ebooks are sold.

  Look for these other tales of The Secret Vampire by Lisa Childs wherever ebooks are sold!

  The Secret Vampire Society

  Mistress of the Underground

  The Huntress

  Don’t miss the other spooky and sensual NOCTURNE BITES, available at www.ebooks.eharlequin.com and wherever eBooks are sold. Titles include:

  At Your Command by Anna Leonard

  A Vampire’s Vindication by Alexis Morgan

  Dragon Warrior by Meagan Hatfield

  Firebreak by Anna Leonard

  Halo Hunter by Michele Hauf

  Prisoner of Temptation by Zandria Munson

  Demon Kissed by Patti O’Shea

  Marked by Lydia Parks

  A Vampire’s Mistress by Theresa Meyers

  Hunter’s Surrender by Anna Hackett

  Looking for more paranormal romance? The sizzling and spine-chilling books of Harlequin Nocturne are available at www.eHarlequin.com or your local bookstore.

  Interested in writing for Nocturne Bites? Send your submission to NocturneBites@Harlequin.ca

  ISBN: 978-1-4268-6669-2

  The Vampire Hunter

  Copyright © 2010 by Lisa Childs-Theeuwes

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