The Hunter

by Theresa Meyers

  He’d barely made it two steps past the entrance before she materialized from the shadows. Relief washed over him in a cooling rush. She’d changed into a fresh forest green satin gown with a black and copper brocade corset that dipped beneath each breast to emphasize the swell of her bosom, the flare of her hips, and the inward curve of her dainty waist.

  Colt shook a finger at her. “Don’t you ever do that again.”

  “What? A girl can’t freshen up when she’s been tramped through a mine, attacked by hellhounds, and threatened by some mad scientist?” she said without heat. She smelled of a flower garden in the midst of summer, heady roses and sweet honeysuckle and fresh cool green things.

  “Don’t disappear like that. I gave you an order to stay outside until I was done with Marley.” Sure his tone was a bit harsh, but damn it all, she’d given him a scare by just vanishing like that. He’d become far more attached to her than was good for him.

  Lilly crossed her arms, making her breasts swell to the point where they almost spilled out of the confines of her gown. “Yes. But see, that’s a problem. I don’t take orders very well.”

  The creamy expanse of her plumped-up breasts tempted him to lean forward for a better peek. Colt forced himself to focus on her face. “You always hightail it off to wherever you’ve been when things get bad?”

  She glared at him. “You know that’s not true. I didn’t vanish out of the mine, did I?”

  “That’s not the point.”

  “Then what is?”

  Colt ground his teeth and tugged his hat down tighter. He didn’t need anybody’s help. Didn’t want it. He’d do fine on his own. But it was more than that. He didn’t want to lose her, but he had no right to keep her, and the combination made him feel at a distinct disadvantage. “I need to know if you’re still gonna help me find what I’m searching for.”

  The disappointed moue of her soft pink lips made him feel instantly like a worm, but this was the time to use his head, not his other senses, which were far too attuned to her.

  “We made a pact,” Lilly said simply. She folded her hands in front of her, but Colt noticed her grip was tight, causing her flesh to form white crescents around each fingertip. Either he’d upset her or she was toying with him. Neither made him feel any better.

  Colt pulled his shoulders back, attempting to preserve what little barrier there remained between them. His growing attachment to her wasn’t right. Didn’t matter how strong it seemed. She was a demon, he reminded himself sternly, and with a demon there were unbreakable rules. And you sure as hell didn’t trust one with your heart. “Yes, I gave you a kiss, you opened the door, which means that pact is over.”

  “But the thing you were looking for wasn’t there,” she countered.

  He turned on his heel and glanced over his shoulder at her. “Not your problem.”

  Her proud features fell and Colt caught a glimpse of the concern shimmering in her eyes. “But you promised to help me.”

  “You offering another pact that don’t involve my soul?”

  She paused for a moment, then took in a deep, reluctant breath. “Yes. I shall help you find the piece of the Book you are searching for in exchange for another kiss.”

  The tension in his shoulders and chest relaxed. “Sounds good. But you don’t follow orders well.”

  “A pact is an agreement between equals. Not a superior giving orders to an underling,” she said with asperity.

  Colt made a noncommittal grunt. “You seem to be able to take orders from Rathe fine enough.”

  “I do have a mind of my own,” she countered.

  “That’s what worries me.” He paused, tugging on his hat, making sure it was firmly in place, then checked where he had holstered the sting shooter to make sure it wouldn’t go off inadvertently. He cast a cautious glance at her. “I wouldn’t have let Marley hurt you. You know that, right?”

  Her mouth tipped up in an almost shy smile. “Perhaps. But it seems I must admit that you were right about Marley’s dislike of supernatural beings.”

  “Where’d you go?”

  She shifted uncomfortably and cast a scathing look over her shoulder at Marley’s house. “Rathe wanted to check up on my progress. Believe it or not, he wants me to help you find your father’s portion of the Book of Legend.”

  Colt shoved his hands into the front pockets of his pants to keep himself from throttling her. He’d been stupid to feel so comfortable around her. Hell, he’d almost begun to trust her without reservation and let himself fantasize what it might be like to be with her for longer than just this mission.

  “Oh, I believe it. Makes it a lot easier for him if I do the work and take the risks in getting to it so he can have you steal it.”

  Lilly made a sour face. She was getting tired of his contrary attitude, especially when she’d been the one almost fried by his inventor friend. “I came back, didn’t I? I didn’t let you die any number of times we were down in the Dark Rim, did I? I battled through and went with you to your brother’s jail.”

  He moved so quickly Lilly could have sworn he was a demon himself. He certainly looked the very devil at the moment, his blue eyes dark and stormy. “None of which means anything if you thought you could use me to help you.” He trapped her against the wall, his hands bracketing her, making her distinctly uncomfortable. She was strong, but not as strong as he was. “How about you stop beating around the bush and tell me the truth?”

  “Rathe wants you and the Book. That truth enough for you?”

  He pulled back just a fraction. “You mean it, don’t you?”

  “He thinks he can use the Book to permanently open the Gates of Nyx.”

  Colt gave a harsh bark of laughter. His strong jaw was dark with stubble and flexed as he gritted his teeth. “Good luck with that. He’d need all three to do much of anything, same as us.” He had the keen-eyed gaze and muscular build of a predator. Rathe might think Colt could be easily controlled, but just looking at him, Lilly knew the truth. He was stronger, more wily, and better able to deal with the demon lord than anyone she’d ever met.

  “He knows that.”

  The intensity in Colt’s gaze changed, turning more sensual, and somehow that was far more unsettling than his hostility. The determined edge to his mouth was still there, but it had softened, begging to be kissed, and the predatory light in his eyes gleamed just as brightly.

  She sucked in a breath, but it didn’t do any good. She still couldn’t get enough air. He leaned in closer, invading her space, the mix of leather and male determination saturating the air around her. “So are you going to get him all three portions of the Book?” The smooth quality of his voice rubbed against her skin like dark silk.

  Lilly swallowed hard, her heart beating hard, but not from fear. “Tell me something. If you can send a demon back to Hell permanently, can you also rescue one?”

  He leveled his killer blue gaze on her. “Haven’t ever tried.”

  “But you could, in theory.”

  His brows dipped down, his mouth twisting into a seductive smile. “Yeah, I suppose.”

  “And would you?”

  She waited a heartbeat. Then two. He purposely didn’t answer her, but she saw the flicker of uncertainty in his eyes. He was at war with his own feelings, instinct raging against training and no clear victor in sight. Lilly understood the battle only too well. A similar one raged within her as well. As a Darkin she should be fulfilling her duty, getting the Book and taking his soul. But this wasn’t just any man. This was Colt. And every minute she spent with him only intensified her unrealistic dreams of becoming human once more and inspired fantasies of what it could be like to actually have him as all her own.

  He moved in closer, putting her on intimate terms with the firm wall of his chest. Her breasts tightened, aching as they rasped against him.

  “What exactly did Rathe want with you? Surely it wasn’t just to give a report.” His tone grew husky as his gaze lingered on her mouth.


  She turned away, unable to bear the intensity of his stare any longer and the way it wormed down into her deepest fantasies about him. He leaned in closer, the tip of his nose skimming against her cheek and down along the length of her neck and back up again, making shivers follow in its wake. His lips brushed against her temple, his warm breath filling her ear. “Tell me, Lilly,” he whispered.

  His lips, warm and solid, replaced the skimming touch. A full body shiver started at the edge of her jaw and shimmied all the way down to her toes.

  She turned and gasped. Big mistake. His sinfully sculpted mouth captured hers, sucking her bottom lip, his clever tongue lightly brushing against hers, the slow slide teasing and seductive. Everything in Lilly responded with heat, melting from the inside out.

  The scent of leather, male, and desert wind washed over her as his mouth pressed more firmly to hers, branding her with his touch. His hand slid from the wall to cup around her rib cage, pulling her firmly against him with his palm while his thumb traced along the upper edge of her corset until it found the juncture where it disappeared beneath her breast.

  With slow, deliberate strokes, his thumb caressed the outer curve toward the tip of her breast, making it peak and tighten and rasp against the dark green satin of her gown. Lilly couldn’t stop herself from arching into his touch. It just felt so damn good to let herself go, and he knew exactly how to make her respond. But more than that, he touched her heart at the same time. Heaven help her, she was falling in love with him.

  He broke their kiss, dragging in a ragged breath. “You certainly know how to tempt a man, I’ll give you that.” The low, rough words vibrated through his chest, making everything in her twist up even more, begging for that one touch that could release it all.

  It took everything she had to be honest with him. “I’d be the best you’ve ever had, but that wouldn’t satisfy you.” She knew what he didn’t—this was no longer just physical attraction arcing between them, but something far more rare, far more lethal.

  He ground the ridge of his erection against her. “I think I’d be willing to give it a try.”

  Lilly groaned. “I think the price would be higher than you’re willing to pay.”

  “You’re a demon. Don’t you like taking souls?” he teased.

  She looked to the right, not wanting to face him or the truth. Up until now soul stealing had been gratifying. But he was different. He was an honorable man, the first to treat her with some dignity and respect in her entire life. The first to make her desire him more intensely than any man she’d ever met. The first to make her believe that escaping her damnation and having a normal life with a man who would treat her as an equal was a possibility. The first to consider what it might be like to love a man without reservation and have him return that affection.

  “If I took your soul, I’d damn us both. As good as we’d be together, there’s too much at stake to risk it.” Like my heart.

  Colt blew out a ragged warm breath against her neck, the sound of a man on the edge of his control. “Risk or not, that doesn’t mean I’ll stop thinking about what it could be like between us.” He pulled back, and the instant change in temperature from his heat against her made the aching cold spear all the way through her to her heart.

  She was never going to be able to be with Colt Jackson. Not while she was still a demon and he a Hunter. And certainly not as the one woman who mattered to him most.

  When her thoughts had turned in that direction, she wasn’t exactly certain. She only knew that in addition to reuniting with her little sister, despite her advanced age, she now yearned for something to fill the growing Colt Jackon–shaped hollow in her heart. Lilly gave a resigned sigh past lips that were still tingling from his kiss. “So now that Marley’s decoded your message, where are we going?”

  He pulled his hat down low and started walking to his mechanical horse. “To see my other brother in Tombstone. Marley’s machine decoded it from Navaho, but it’s a riddle only Remington would likely understand. He and Pa both had that way about them. We’ll ride Tempus into town and catch the train there. It’ll be faster.”

  He held out his hand to help her up, and with reluctance, Lilly stepped forward and took it, wishing it were so much more and knowing it never would be.

  Chapter 14

  Tombstone. Had a real cheerful ring to the name, Colt thought sourly as he and Lilly, dusty and tired, rode into town on the Ohnesorgen Stage from Benson. That was as far as the Southwestern Pacific Railroad went for Tombstone. It had been sit on the dusty stage, rent a horse, or walk, since he’d had to leave Tempus back in Bodie. Time was of the essence and the train was faster than Tempus, but he’d paid for the convenience in different ways.

  First he’d had to sit, pinned against her, in the narrow wooden train seat, her soft shoulder rubbing against his arm, with an entirely far too distracting view of the shadowed valley between her plump breasts. Even on the stagecoach, his nose filled with dust and the odor of horse sweat, he could detect the alluring floral-and-spice scent that seemed to cloak her skin. Both made him hard as a board and distinctly uncomfortable, requiring that he place his hat on his lap a good portion of the time.

  Despite the jostling and bump of the stagecoach, where they’d been crammed shoulder to shoulder, three per seat facing one another, Lilly seemed to fare just fine. She looked as fresh as the proverbial daisy in her green taffeta gown accented with the copper and gold brocade corset that practically put a display shelf underneath the low-cut neckline of her gown. Colt had wanted to punch the man who’d deliberately sat on the opposite side of Lilly and was even now enjoying the display. Just remembering it made him agitated. He huffed. Succubus. Attracting male attention came as naturally to her as breathing. Didn’t mean it didn’t rile him up any less. Just the thought of another man’s gaze or hands on her made him feel the need to hit something. Hard.

  Colt pulled his hat down low against the glare of the afternoon sun as they stepped out of the hot, stuffy confines of the coach and into the fresh dry air scented with sagebrush and new wood. He offered Lilly a hand down from the coach, not trusting any other man to understand the difference between a succubus’s natural powers and their own actual attraction. Once she withdrew her hand from his, she propped open a parasol, a black fringed little thing, which she seemed to have materialized upon exiting the coach without attracting undue attention.

  “The sooner we get there, the better,” Colt muttered. “Shall we?” He offered her his arm and they took a stroll from the stage stop at the far end of the town’s main thoroughfare toward his brother’s offices. Colt immediately began to understand the appeal of Tombstone for his brother. It was booming. Hell, half the buildings were new since the last time he’d been here.

  On one half of Allen Street were the respectable businesses. The other half harbored saloons, game halls, and bath houses that doubled as brothels, where discordant, badly played piano music and the loud boisterous noise of the gamers carried out into the street. But that was exactly how his middle brother Remington liked to play things. He straddled the line between Hunter and normal solid citizen, between big brother and little brother, between straight shooter and maverick.

  Colt kept them to the respectable side of the street, if for no other reason than he didn’t need to fight off a half-dozen men overcome by supernatural urges to meet a succubus they thought they could buy for a dollar. Their footsteps echoed on the wooden plank walkway beneath their feet.

  About halfway down Allen Street was Remington’s building. Everything about the two-story building looked predictable and utterly normal: the brown-painted boards offset with white trim, the symmetrical four-pane windows on either side of the double doors. Only the fancy cut glass in the doors gave a hint of something different. Beneath the first-floor wooden awning that covered the plank sidewalk swung a sign on a black wrought-iron hanger. The elegant black lettering, outlined in gold paint, read BARTEL & JACKSON, ATTORNEYS AT LAW.

  “He�
�s up on the second floor.”

  Lilly grasped his arm, stopping him, her brow pinched with concern. “I’ve got a funny feeling about this.”

  He bet. Colt grinned. “Afraid of being with two Hunters in the same room, are you?”

  Lilly cocked her head to one side and wrinkled her pert little nose, her eyes narrowing. “No. He’s got something supernatural up there with him. I can smell it.”

  Colt tensed and sniffed the air. Lilly was right. He detected a faint whiff of sulfur, but it was overlaid by the heavier smell of black tea and vanilla. His stomach dropped in a swift dip and an itching started up in his gun hand. It’d be okay, but it wouldn’t be pretty. He’d only come across one supernatural being that smelled like that. China McGee. “It’ll be all right. Remy’s got it under control. I think I have an idea who’s up there with him.”

  Lilly raised a silky brow, her vivid green eyes sparkling with awareness. “Another supernatural that doesn’t concern you? Interesting.”

  “Interesting ain’t the word for it,” he grumbled. “Trouble is more like it.”

  He opened the door for her. “He must be doing better at law than I thought. These are new.” The cut leaded glass sent a splash of sparkles over the walls of the wide central staircase as they headed to his middle brother’s offices on the second floor. Colt ran his finger over the smooth wall. “See they repaired the plaster too.”

  “Some redecorating you brothers did together?”

  Colt grunted. “Small misunderstanding. Few gunshots. Nothing major.” Of course it had been about China, and the fact that she was here now didn’t bode well. He was already agitated enough thinking about how Remy might react both to the truth hidden in the pages of Ma’s diary and to Lilly. He would either be outright hostile like Winn or attracted to her like him. Either choice wasn’t putting Colt in a good mood.