Night's Pleasure (10 page)

Savanah woke with a start. She glanced at her watch, noting that it was after ten. Sitting up, she stretched her arms and legs, a little surprised that she had fallen asleep, and then she shrugged. At least she'd had a few minutes of blessed forgetfulness, but now, all too soon, everything she had learned earlier that evening came rushing back.

Rane was a Vampire.

She didn't want to believe it was true, couldn't abide the thought that he was one of them, a blood drinker, like the hideous creature that had killed her mother and very likely murdered her father, as well. Nor did she want to believe that Rane drank blood. She didn't want to believe that he had lied to her about what he was. A shape-shifter, indeed! Not that she could blame him for lying. Who would admit to being a godforsaken, blood-sucking, creature of the night? She didn't want to remember that she had made love to him only hours ago. At least she didn't have to worry about getting pregnant, she thought with relief.

She picked up the book that had slipped from her fingers when she dozed off. Thumbing through it, she frowned when she looked at the list of Cordova names again. How could Rane's parents be Vampires? Everyone knew the Undead couldn't create life. She glanced at his mother's name. A notation in the margin indicated that Cara Aideen DeLongpre Cordova had been adopted by Roshan DeLongpre and Brenna Flanagan. There was no such notation alongside the names of Rane or his brother, Raphael. Had it been an oversight on her mother's part? Or had Rane's parents found a way to reproduce?

Savanah shook her head. Such a thing was unthinkable. There were enough Vampires in the world already without their being able to mate and produce dozens, maybe hundreds, of Vampire offspring. And since male Vampires didn't age and females didn't go through menopause, they could probably reproduce indefinitely. Lordy, that was a scary thought, a world overrun by Vampires. Not to mention Werewolves and who knew what else.

She wrapped her arms around her midsection as she imagined giving birth to a Vampire child. Would it sleep all day and need blood to survive? She was letting her imagination run wild. Rane and his brother had to have been adopted. Vampires didn't age. If they had been born Vampires, they would have remained infants forever. Wouldn't they?

Shaking off her disconcerting thoughts, she closed the book and set it aside, then glanced at her watch again. Rane had said he would see her tonight. What would she do when he showed up? Alarm skittered down her spine. Vampire.

She jumped when the doorbell rang. Was it Rane? Gaining her feet, she ran into the kitchen. Opening the metal box on the table, she grabbed one of the wooden stakes and slid it into the waistband of her slacks. It felt reassuring against the small of her back. Deciding it was better to be safe than sorry, she dropped a bottle of holy water into her pants' pocket.

She took a deep breath when the doorbell rang again; then, shoulders back, she went into the living room and peered through the peephole. Rane stood on the porch. She didn't have to let him in, she thought, her mind racing, but then, he no longer needed an invitation. If she didn't let him in, would he huff and puff and break down the door?

“Calm down,” she muttered. “He's never hurt you before. He doesn't know that you know what he is. Just open the door and revoke your invitation. He can't come in without it. And don't look in his eyes!”

She waited a moment more, and then opened the door just a crack.

Rane sensed the change in Savanah the minute he saw her, knew that, somehow, she had discovered the truth about him. The knowledge was in her eyes, though she avoided meeting his gaze directly, and in the way she held herself, as if poised for fight or flight. He could hear it in the rapid beat of her heart, smell the fear on her skin. See it in the heavy silver filigreed cross that nestled in the hollow of her throat.

“You can't come in,” she said quickly.

“Yes,” he said dryly, “I guessed that.”

She blinked at him, surprised that he could find humor in the situation.

“Who told you?” he asked, curious in spite of himself.

“My mother.”

“Indeed?”

“Well, not directly, of course. I found your name in a book.”

He didn't like the sound of that. “What book?” he asked sharply.

“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.

Closing the door, she went into the living room and curled up in a corner of the sofa. She glanced at the two books lying on the table. The volumes listed the known Vampires and Vampire hunters, and obligingly listed the ways to find and destroy the creatures of the night. The only thing the books didn't explain was how one gained the courage to take stake and mallet in hand and get started.

 

Rane stood in the shadows outside Savanah's house, his fists shoved deep into his pants' pockets as he stared at her silhouette in the window. So, she thought she was a Vampire hunter, did she? The very idea was ludicrous and yet he couldn't forget the stubborn set of her jaw or the determined look in her eyes. Did she actually mean to take up stake and mallet and go hunting the Undead? To do so would be suicide. Surely she knew that? She had no training, no one to teach her, no one to guide her. If she was foolish enough to go up against a Vampire who had been turned for more than a year or so, she would be way out of her league. Vampires might not be able to abide the sun, but once they had a few years under their belt, many of the stronger ones were able to defend themselves even if they were attacked while at rest. With her inexperience, Savanah would be no match for any but the weakest fledgling.

He frowned as another thought occurred to him. Even though he had stayed out of the war between the Vampires and the Werewolves, there were secret, out-of-the way places in every big city where the Undead gathered. He had kept up-to-date with the war news, listened to the rumors, heard the names of those who had been killed on both sides. When the war ended, there had been a period of relative peace as the Supernatural community withdrew to lick their wounds. After six months or so, the Vampire hunters had gone into retirement. For a time, all had been quiet but then, after a few years, Rane began to hear rumors that another war was being waged. If what he heard was right, this war was being carried out by an unknown assailant who was quietly and methodically killing Vampire hunters. Was it a Vampire? The same one who had killed Savanah's father? Did that make Savanah the next victim? And was it hunters the killer was after, or the book Savanah had mentioned?