Night's Pleasure (Children of The Night 4)

“Does it matter?”

It mattered a hell of a lot. For years, it had been rumored that Van Helsing, the most famous hunter of them all, had compiled a list of all the known Vampires in the world, and that it had been handed down from generation to generation. Rane, like most of his kind, had scoffed at the idea. Now it looked like such a book did, indeed, exist, and that Savanah had it. Did she have any idea that just possessing such a book put her life in danger? That it was, in all probability, the reason her father had been killed.

“Savanah…”

“You lied to me.”

“Did I?”

“You know you did! Withholding the truth is the same as lying.”

“Is it?”

“Stop that! I want you to go. Now. And never come back.” She blinked back her tears, her hand closing over the crucifix at her throat. It was unfair to lose her father and Rane within days of each other.

She stared up at him, hurt and anger warring within her. “Why did you pretend you cared for me? How could you let me care for you and not tell me the truth?”

“I wasn’t pretending,” he said quietly. “Don’t ever think that.”

“Right! As if Vampires were capable of…of…” She made a dismissive gesture with her hand, unable to say the word aloud.

“Love?” He grunted softly. “My parents have been together for well over a hundred years. Are you going to tell me that they aren’t in love?”

Savanah shook her head in disbelief. A hundred years was longer than most people lived. But it didn’t change anything. He was still a Vampire. He had still lied to her. For all she knew, he could be the one who had killed her father…and maybe her mother, as well.

She took a step backward, intending to slam the door in his face, but he forestalled her by putting his foot in the way.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she demanded. “Move your foot!”

“No. I’m not leaving until we settle this.”

“There’s nothing to settle. You’re a Vampire, and I hate you!”

“Why? I’ve done nothing to you.”

Savanah stared at him. “Why? You dare to ask me why?” Her voice rose with her anger. “You stole my virginity!”

He lifted one brow.

Savanah’s cheeks grew hot under his gaze. He hadn’t stolen anything. She had practically begged him to take it.

“And…and that’s not all. A Vampire killed my mother.”

“It wasn’t me.” It occurred to him that Mara might very well know who had killed Savanah’s parents.

“My mother was a Vampire hunter,” Savanah said. “Did you know that?”

“Yes.”

Savanah blinked at him. “You did?”

He nodded. “I saved her life one night, and she returned the favor by letting me live.”

“I don’t believe you.”

He shrugged. “It’s true nonetheless.”

She lifted her chin defiantly, her hands clenched at her sides. “Did you know that I’m a Vampire hunter, too?”

Rane’s laughter cut across the stillness of the night.

The sound of it stiffened Savanah’s spine and spiked her anger. How dare he laugh at her! Her mother was dead, killed by one of his kind. She would soon be burying her father who, for all she knew, had also been the victim of a Vampire attack. And Rane dared to laugh at her! It was too much.

Slipping her hand into her pocket, Savanah flipped the top from the bottle of holy water and threw the contents in his face. “Laugh at that!”

With an oath, Rane darted to the side. He avoided most of the bottle’s contents, but not all. Drops of holy water sprayed across his left cheek and down the side of his neck, leaving pinpricks of fire in their wake.

Savanah stared at him, horrified by what she had done. She had never raised a hand in violence against anyone or anything in her life. A strange state of affairs for a future Vampire hunter, she thought with wry amusement. But there was no time to think about that now, not when she was face-to-face with an angry Vampire.

“Dammit!” He hissed the word through clenched teeth. “Why the hell’d you do that?”

His anger frightened her, but she refused to let him know it, refused to back down. Barbara Gentry had killed Vampires, and when she died, William Gentry had taken his wife’s place. Now it was up to Savanah to carry on in their stead.

“You’re lucky I didn’t drive a stake into your heart,” she said, her words underscored by a bravado she was far from feeling.

Rane drew in a deep breath. It had been years since anyone had tried to destroy him. He had forgotten how painful even a few drops of holy water on preternatural flesh could be. Never taking his eyes from Savanah, he drew another breath, and then another.

Guilt warred with the anger in Savanah’s heart as she watched Rane’s skin redden and blister. “Are you all right?”

Rane regarded her warily for a moment. He could tell by the tone of her voice that it hadn’t been an easy question for her to ask. “I will be, but if it makes you feel any better, it hurts like hell.”

She didn’t say she was sorry, and he didn’t expect it.

Savanah Gentry was a pretty woman, and he would miss her, but there was little chance that they could have a future together now, not when her mother had been killed by one of his kind, not when she was deluding herself into thinking she could become a hunter. It wasn’t an occupation a man or a woman decided to pursue on a whim. It took years of training, a strong heart, and a stronger stomach.

And yet, looking at her now, at the fire in her eyes and the determined tilt of her chin, he thought she might become the most dangerous hunter of them all.

Savanah kept her hands tightly clenched to hide their trembling. In his Vampire form, Rane couldn’t cross the threshold, so she was safe. But what if he transformed into the wolf? Was he still bound by the same rules?

“I’m sorry it’s come to this,” Rane said quietly, “but it’s probably for the best for both of us. Good-bye, Savanah.”

He didn’t give her a chance to respond. By the time she realized what he was saying, he was gone and she was alone, more alone than she had ever been in her life.

Savanah stood there a moment, unsure of how to feel, or what to think. Rane was a monster, inhuman, a killer, and she had wanted him gone from her life, so why did she suddenly feel so bereft? She told herself that the heaviness in her heart had nothing to do with Rane’s departure, that it was grief over her father’s death, shock from learning that her mother hadn’t died from an illness, as she had long believed. But she couldn’t shake the fear that she had just lost a part of herself, a vital part she could never get back.