Chapter Twenty-Seven

Never Quite Discussed

Ira’s cow gate was unlocked and flung wide open when I rattled up the dirt path to his cottage. Welcome to my parlor, I thought. But I was no helpless fly, I was a hunter born and bred. If his attitude at the park was any indication Ira thought hunters were only effective in ambushes. I would have to show him just how wrong he was, and I was more than up to the task.

The vampire was waiting for me on his ridge, standing with his back to me looking out over the town. He didn’t turn around as I drove up towards him. I parked a small distance away. We would need plenty of room.

I had no way of knowing what kind of fighting experience Ira had, and it didn’t matter. He was a vampire and I was a hunter, in the end. Everything else was just details.

Inside my trunk a cloth-wrapped bundle was hidden under a false floor. With tender motions I uncovered my wakizashi. The gently curving Samurai sword wasn’t the kind made famous by recent movies—that was the katana. Wakizashi were shorter, better suited to close-quarters combat and taking heads one-handed. Mine was custom made, a gift from my father when I turned thirteen. It must have cost a fortune because it was the most perfectly weighted weapon I’d ever handled. The black sheath was inlaid with mother-of-pearl cherry blossoms with a violet tinge. Signature Japanese braiding on the handle was black with a purple diamond pattern in the middle. It was my pride and joy, my most treasured possession, the one thing I’d run inside a burning house to save.

Vampire spoke in whispers about the curving swords of the hunters. Let my vampire see it and know I meant business. History, or not, sex, or not, a hunter I remained. Settling the sword in a comfortable grip in my hand, I started towards the edge.

“Ira,” I said when I was close enough.

He turned, his eyes flicking to sword and then back up at my face. Whatever he saw there made him nod.

“You really want to do this?” He asked.

I shrugged. “It was your idea.”

Looking resigned, he said, “Fine, then.”

And then he was a blur of vampiric speed rushing towards me. I’d seen it coming a mile away. Falling backwards a step, I tossed my sword into my right hand and whipped my arm out in front of me. The sheath flew off the end, smacking Ira in the face and making him stumble. He’d already crossed most of the distance between us, and his loss of footing brought him close enough for me to sweep at his legs. He hit the dirt and went rolling down the ledge toward the road.

I didn’t follow. It made more strategic sense to keep the high ground and let him come to me. It didn’t take long. Had I not been hunter-still, I would have laughed. His preternatural speed kicked up clouds of dust like something from a cartoon as he ran up the unpaved road.

He stopped a few feet away, his whole body broadcasting anger and frustration, but at the wrong target. If the tense lines in his body language were anything to go by, he was blaming himself. He still wasn’t taking this seriously.

“I admit, you’re good,” he started to say, “but not good—”

Swirling on my left foot, I led with my back into him, bringing the round handle of my sword into his face. With a sickening crunch it slammed into his nose. Ira made a surprised sound of pain and fell backwards onto the dirt.

“Quipping during battle is a good way to get yourself killed,” I said calmly.

Spitting blood from his mouth, he rolled to his front, propping himself up with his hands. I could have taken his head right there, and all the superspeed in the world wouldn’t have given that awkward position time to stop me. A part of me wondered why I didn’t.

“So it’s that way,” he said as he regained his feet. He stayed farther away this time. “Is there nothing else, then? Only the battle?”

“You started this,” I reminded him. “I never had it out for you, never wanted to fight you.”

“No, only Zo,” he said, his expression unreadable, even for me.

“She brought it on herself,” I said. “I have an obligation to protect myself and the civilians who have sheltered me. I can’t let them come to harm because Zo has a problem with us knocking boots.”

Something flashed across Ira’s face, too quick to read it. Hurt, anger, I couldn’t be sure.

“Is that all it was?” He said slowly. “Knocking boots.”

I hesitated, and Ira came on again. He led with his left fist, but it was so obviously a feint I didn’t even bother with it. Instead I moved towards his right side, letting the flat of my blade roll his blow away from me. Vampire strength might be enough to break normal metal, but keeping the sword moving distributed the vibrations harmlessly. I ended up slightly downhill from him, and took a step upwards like I was circling him. Automatically, he stepped away, and I regained the high ground.

“I don’t know what it was,” I finally answered, though I couldn’t have said why I bothered. “You said yourself it was no pressure.”

“Then why call me?” He sounded genuinely confused. “Why confess everything to me today? What did you hope to gain?”

“I just thought you deserved to know,” I blurted, and instantly regretted it. Stop talking, St. James. Don’t let him ruin your calm.

“Do you remember when I met you at the park on Friday?”

“Yes,” I said, wary.

“I had decided to let the past go, to see what my future might bring.” He wasn’t even looking at me, his gaze was on the ground. Strike, St. James, strike! But I stood on, somehow frozen by the strange hollowness of his voice.

“That was the night I took you to my home, and we made love.”

“I remember,” I growled. “It was only two days ago.”

He started to say something else, but I cut in. “It was stupid. It should never have happened.”

“Then why did it?” He still wasn’t looking at me. I could have killed him twice over. “I didn’t make you.”

“I was just going with the flow.”

Ira finally looked up, his black eyes completely open, and the weight of emotion I saw there shocked me breathless. “Liar.”

I leaped forward, my sword shining in the sunlight. He moved backwards only just in time, and the sword sliced through the fabric of his shirt. He brought a hand to the tear, face surprised.

“Enough,” I hissed. “I’m not here to talk. No more swaying me into things I shouldn’t do. You wanted to show me what a vampire could do. Show me!”

Moving forward again, I aimed my sword with killing intent. Ira dodged out of the way just barely, but I was already moving again. My wakizashi was an arc of sunshine, paths of light that lingered in my vision as I slashed the sword through the air. My training read several times that Ira tried to fight back, but I kept pressing him. With my sword only millimeters from his throat, he never found the time to make a proper blow. I worked him towards the edge, moving so I was pressing him forward without him ever realizing.

He caught on too late, and tried to duck around me. I kneed him in the gut, and he was forced backwards, teetering on the edge. Sensing victory, I swung my sword one final time.

It bit flesh, meeting resistance and then conquering it as blood ran down Ira’s neck. He finally found his footing, but the further from the edge he got the more I cut him.

We stayed like that for a while, my sword to his throat, the only sounds our harsh breathing.

“Do it,” Ira panted, tilting his chin up a little.

“You think I won’t?” I snarled.

He said nothing, his dark eyes strangely calm now.

“You’re just a vampire.” My voice was perilously close to a whisper. “I’ll kill you in second.”

“I don’t think you will,” he said.

I pushed my sword tighter against his neck. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“Because of us.”

I laughed harshly. “You’re not the first vampire I’ve killed that I’ve liked.”

“No,” he said quietly. “But I’m the first one you’ve loved.”

My whole body froze, and I stared up at him, startled. My voice was more breath with sound than a whisper. “I am not in love with you.”

“You’re starting to be.”

“No.”

“Then stop me.”

He pushed my sword away from his neck, and in one short blur of supernatural speed he was just there, pulling me closer and kissing me, mouth hungry. I let him, tipping my head up and mewling for him. God help me, I let him.

When he pulled back to let me breathe, we rested our foreheads together.

His voice ghosted across us. “You say I have power over you, but whenever you’re close it’s all I can do not to mark, and bite, and claim until the whole world knows you’re mine. What have you done to me, hunter? Why do I want you so much?”

And then he was gone, and I was standing on the edge of the mountain alone, trembling.