“You’re…you’re a vampire, aren’t you? My God, you’re a vampire! You made me invite you into her apartment, didn’t you? She’ll kill me.” Tara let out her breath. “I don’t know why Twilight needed to see her. She said she had information for Selena.”
“About her sister?” Atreides kept his eyes on the huntress. She jerked her wrist away from Colt and collapsed on the white leather sofa. In fact, now that he had a chance to look at the place, he noticed how it looked like a puff of cloud, from the white leather couch and loveseat and the white-washed wood end tables and wood tables, to the ceiling fan overheard, its five white blades twirling around.
“What kind of information did Twilight have for her?” he asked the human.
Selena’s eyes darted to Atreides’s.
“I told you I don’t know.”
“Who can Selena call to protect her?”
“No one. Sounds to me like you’re it. That would be a real switch.”
He could hear amusement in the human woman’s voice, but he was not amused.
“I’ve gotta run. Nice talking to you. Keep her safe, will you? She’s the only huntress friend I’ve got.”
The phone clicked dead.
Atreides glanced at Selena, looking red-faced and small as she sat on the couch. He crossed the floor to join her. “You have a human friend. You were meeting with a blood bond for some kind of information, and your family won’t protect you. What kind of a mess have you gotten yourself into?”
She tilted her chin up and glowered at him. “I haven’t gotten myself into any mess. It’s my…” She shook her head. “My business is none of your concern.”
“When you walked into my jurisdiction and were attacked by one of my kind, it became my business.”
“We can’t let her stay here alone,” Basil warned.
“She can still come to my ranch,” Colt offered, looking hopeful.
Atreides rubbed his chin, realizing he had no other choice but to put her under his protection until he could discover what information she needed from Twilight and why her hunter family was ostracizing her.
“Colt, Renault, search her place for huntress weapons.”
The two men bowed and vanished.
Selena’s back stiffened. “I’m perfectly fine here, as long as you don’t invite my attacker into the place.”
His friends reappeared and shook their heads, which confirmed Atreides’s suspicions. Her kind had banished her from carrying weapons. Yet she had somehow kept a sword for her defense. She was a rogue huntress. None of her kind would aid her, and without other weapons at her disposal, she was no match for a renegade vampire. Despite his misgivings, he would not leave her at the mercy of the one who had targeted her.
“Pack your bags. You’ll return with me.”
Selena’s eyes narrowed. “You won’t tell me what to do.”
“You don’t have a choice, huntress. Either you come with me, or I stay here with you.” Though he had no intention of staying here with the huntress.
Renault grinned. “What will the neighbors think?”
“Fine.” Selena stormed off down the hall.
Colt snickered. “I guess she’s worried about her reputation.”
“I doubt she has much of one to protect,” Atreides said under his breath.
“Meaning?” Colt asked.
“She’s a renegade,” Basil offered. “I knew when she came to the club that she wasn’t a typical huntress. Hell, first your brother Daemon gets tangled up with a huntress who was a borderline renegade, Atreides, and now you are involved with one who is a full-fledged renegade.”
No, she wasn’t a typical huntress at all. Which made her that much more dangerous.
“Basil, can you locate Twilight for me? I want a word with her at once. It sounds to me like she knows more of the story than she’s telling us.”
Basil bowed his head. “I will see to it, Atreides.” He cast a glance down the hall, then looked back at Atreides, his brow furrowed. “The huntress will complicate matters.”
“No doubt.”
Basil gave a sardonic smile and vanished.
Chapter 8
“I’m proud of you, Daemon,” Tezra said, stretching out on a chaise lounge in the dark beside a pool of warm water in the Virgin Islands. “Atreides needed this time to prove to you that he could run the clans without your watching over his every move. That’s part of why he’s so restless all the time and gets into trouble, just trying to prove his worth.”
Daemon snorted, then began untying Tezra’s string biking top, kissing her shoulder while he did so. “It was only because of your insistence that he couldn’t do much damage while things are fairly settled down in the area for now that encouraged me to do so. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have given him an inch.”
“He did just fine while you were in Florida helping the hunters and other vampires take out the rogues.”
“Maison and Voltan were watching over the situation.”
She shook her head and slipped her hands down his bare chest, her fingernails raking the top edge of his swim trunks. “He deserves your faith in him.”
“You have no idea all the shenanigans he has pulled over the centuries. But this one time…” He kissed her deeply and she moaned into his mouth.
“Daemon,” she whispered against his lips.
“At least while your sister is at the hunter school,” Daemon added, pulling off Tezra’s bikini top and dropping it on the chaise lounge, “she’ll be safe and sound.” His fingers began untying Tezra’s bikini bottoms.
“You could just pull them down,” she said, amused.
“It’s the untying and letting it slip away from your body that intrigues me more.”
His fingers slid between her legs, and he smiled. “Wet already and we haven’t even gotten into the pool yet.”
She moved against his fingers, raking her nails over the erection pressing against his swim trunks.
He groaned and jerked off his trunks, unable to hold back. He still thought of Tezra as a borderline renegade, but all his now. He was just glad his brother had hooked up with a vampiress and seemed to be satisfied enough, although Atreides had talked of wanting a huntress just like Tezra, even though Daemon knew he jested.
One renegade huntress in the family had been problematic enough. Two would be a disaster.
Thankfully, Daemon had convinced Atreides he wouldn’t want Tezra’s sister for a mate. No other huntress in her right mind would hook up with another vampire—so Daemon knew in that regard, he had no worries about Atreides.
On the drive back to Atreides’s home, the vampires all began talking again about how they had room enough for the huntress at their homes.
Atreides gave them all cold looks. He was in charge now, and the huntress was his to protect.
“All right,” Renault said, “so you don’t want any of us to take her home with us, but you have your butler and housekeeper, and no one else to protect you. At least Daemon has Voltan to serve as his bodyguard, should the need arise. But you have no one. We could stay with you and see that she has extra protection should the rogue attempt to get to her again.”