Ignoring her question, he walked silently through the small house, checking for any hint of a heartbeat. Discovering nothing, he relaxed and returned to the front door.
He found Athena standing where he’d left her, but now she stood before him naked, leaning coyly against the wall in the living room, smiling. A single lamp cast a soft yellow light on her body, and Jake stopped.
He hadn’t correctly guessed just how gorgeous her body was—firm in all the right places, with naturally full breasts and small pink areolae. Her waist, not too narrow, but not overly large, gave way to wide hips marked by reddish pubic hair, growing in a full bush. And her legs aroused him even more as she drew one foot up, sliding it along the front of her shin. She held her braid against the front of her body between her breasts, twirling the end in one finger.
“I think we should finish what we started, Jake. Don’t you?”
He clenched his jaw at the wave of undeniable hunger washing through his body as he strode to her and held her bare waist. Then he took her mouth, unable to make himself stop, needing to taste her, needing all of her. He sensed her fear—this wasn’t usual for her, he could tell—but the thirst swelled faster than his cock, and all rational thought disappeared. Only senses remained, open and receiving everything she offered: her beauty, her scent, her warmth, her touch.
She pulled his shirttail up and her fingers singed lines into his skin.
He pinned her to the wall and caressed her breasts, enjoying the way they filled and heated his hands. He rolled the hard nipples between his thumbs and forefingers; she groaned into his mouth.
Athena unbuttoned his pants and reached in to stroke his cock, and Jake’s knees nearly buckled. Her touch was magnificent, intense, nearly unbearable.
“Damn,” he muttered against her lips. “I want to be inside you when you come.”
“Yes,” she whispered back.
“But there’s more,” he said, reaching between her legs, finding her pussy dripping for him.
“What?” she said, then gasped as he stroked her clit.
“I need more than your gorgeous cunt, sweet thing.”
She pulled his rock-hard cock forward, raising herself until she gripped it between her thighs. “What do you need, Jake?”
He groaned and eased forward and back, letting her stroke him and coat him with her juices. “I need to taste you, Athena. I need—”
The world crashed to a halt as white-hot fire exploded through his chest. Jake yelled and straightened, then spun around.
The man from the Tunnel—what the hell was his name? Chris?—stood with his hands in front of him, his feet spread, and his eyes wide.
Behind Jake, Athena screamed and slid along the wall.
The pain continued, burning through him like molten lava.
Jake looked down to find a bloody point protruding from his chest. His knees gave out and he dropped to the floor.
“Are you okay?” his attacker asked.
Jake followed Chris’s gaze and found Athena shivering in a corner, her arms wrapped protectively across her chest. For a moment, he regretted that he couldn’t come to her rescue, until he saw her nod.
Jake steeled himself against the pain. “Why?” he managed to get out.
“We search out creatures like you,” the man said, sneering. “We must protect the mortal world, even if they don’t believe.”
Hunters. They were both goddamn hunters.
So much for a fair fight.
Jake reached back and yanked the stake from his back, crying out at the unbelievable pain as he did. Resting on all fours, he worked to steady himself as blood dripped to the floor beneath him. He looked up at his assailant, smelling the young man’s fear.
“You shouldn’t…have done that,” he said. Then he struggled to his feet.
Faster than the mortals could see, Jake charged across the room, grabbed Chris’s shoulder and his hair, and pushed his head to the side. Showing no mercy, he bit into the boy’s neck and drank, letting the healing liquid fill him with strength and warmth and pleasure.
Athena screamed and charged forward, pounding against Jake’s back with her fists.
He held her off as he took another long draw from Chris, then he released the young man, who crumpled to the floor in a heap.
Jake drew Athena close and stared into her beautiful green eyes. “I had no intention of hurting you, sweet thing.”
She pulled away and collapsed against the wall when he released her arm.
He hurried out the front door, straightening his clothes and buttoning his pants as he staggered to the car. The hole in his back bled profusely, draining his strength almost as fast as he’d drained his attacker.
Driving like a maniac, Jake managed to get to an abandoned field, where he drove his car across the dirt and parked under an elm tree. He stumbled out, unlocked the trunk, rolled in, and pulled it shut. Just as he heard the lock click, he passed out.
Athena huddled in the corner, shaking uncontrollably, trying to get her mind around what had just happened. One moment she’d been in the arms of the most attractive man she’d ever met, and the next she’d been standing in front of a monster with glowing gold eyes and fangs, blood smeared across his mouth and dripping from his chin.
The memory played over and over, coalescing into three words.
Vampires are real.
How could this possibly be?
She remembered the first night Chris had told her about his mission.
“People are in denial. It’s easier to pretend they don’t exist than it is to face the truth.”
She studied his face, his youthful skin lined with worry and determination, his blue eyes glistening.
“What truth?”
He glanced around as if he expected to find people crouching behind him, then leaned across the table and whispered one word. “Vampires.”
Athena bit back a laugh, immediately understanding how important this absurd idea was to him. “Vampires?”
He nodded, watching her face for a reaction.
She swallowed hard, trying not to compare her would-be boyfriend to her alcoholic father swearing his bed was filled with spiders and scorpions. They’d been every bit as real to him as the whiskey he craved.
“Chris—”
“They’re real. I’ve seen them.”
The red-checkered table, mugs of coffee, crowds of fellow diners, and sound of
