Seducing the Demon Huntress (2 page)

Dave had been the only one of their family to leave anyone behind. Kerilyn closed her eyes and thought of her niece. Sarah would be five now, not that Kerilyn was able to see her often. Her mother, Jessica, had made it plain she wanted nothing to do with the freakish family who had cost her the father of her child. Jessica didn’t want her daughter raised as a warrior. Kerilyn secretly applauded her decision.

“Life without war,” she whispered, thinking of Sarah. The little girl would get chances she’d never had. She’d get to go to friends’ houses after school instead of racing home for weapons training. Hell, maybe the little girl would get a chance to go to college or move away from her hometown when she grew up. Those were options no hunter ever had.

And now Sarah was all the family she had left. Eight months ago, Patrick and her parents had gone out on a routine patrol. None of them ever came back.

So here she was, alone on the most dangerous night of the year, wondering if she had even the slightest hope of surviving.

Heading for her room, Kerilyn quickly changed into her fighting gear. Tight black pants encased her long legs and she pulled a form fitting black shirt over her head. Baggy clothes could get you killed. No use giving the bad guys something extra to grab. For that exact reason, she kept her black hair cut short to her chin.

At twenty-five, she had the body of a soldier. A lifetime of fighting had honed and toned every muscle in her lithe body. She couldn’t afford to go soft. Sloppy hunters were dead ones.

Jogging back downstairs, she slipped on her weapons with practiced ease. If all her protection spells and technology held, perhaps she wouldn’t need them.

But she knew who would be waiting for her once night fell. Now, since she was alone, she doubted he’d leave her in peace.

She leaned on the window ledge, looking out at the rapidly setting sun.

“Arawn,” she whispered, unable to help the smile curving her lips as she said his name.

Shadows crept along the streets. Some of the younger children were already out trick-or-treating with their parents before bed. A pot of candy waited before Kerilyn’s front gate, ensuring no child would come knocking on her door.

Kerilyn fingered the dagger strapped to her thigh uneasily. Dusk was rapidly turning into evening and she knew what the darkness would bring.

“Game on,” she said, wishing the thought of the night ahead didn’t make her heart race with such excitement.

* * *

Night had fallen when the candle flames in the jack-o’-lanterns started to flicker. Grabbing her touch screen she checked the heat sensor readings. Something was definitely out there, prowling by the garden gate.

Anticipation filled her before she ruthlessly fought it back. Every year it was the same. Her heart beat raced, adrenaline surged in her veins. She tried to remain seated but the energy in her body forced her up from the couch.

She wanted to go outside. It was almost a compulsion more than a desire. The dangers were clear and even so all she could think about was getting to the gate. To
him.

“Hell,” she whispered, pacing. How many times had she stood at her window and fought the inexplicable need to run outside? To cast personal safety to the wind in hopes of a stolen moment or two with the being waiting for her? She’d duped people who loved her to earn a few minutes outside. Every damn year.

And every year it’d been worth it.

But now there was no one to stop her. No voices of reason to hold her back.

“Arawn,” she whispered again before giving in to the pounding desire. Even knowing she was being foolish, Kerilyn grabbed her coat from the hook, threw it on and stepped out into the night. Both pockets were filled with salt. The mineral had been used for centuries to ward off evil and provide protection. It would help her as much as her silver blades if she needed to fight tonight.

Warily, she approached the white gate. It remained firmly locked but that gave her no comfort. Around her the candles continued to flicker, indicating a powerful spirit was near.

“I know you’re out there,” she said, scanning the shadows of her street.

A low chuckle greeted her words.

“So impatient,” a dark, sensual voice teased.

Kerilyn glanced about the street, trying to see where the voice was coming from. She’d turned to scan the dark trees ringing her home when the jack-o’-lanterns flickered wildly.

Whipping back to her gate, she saw Arawn standing before her.

“Hello, Keri,” he greeted.

Kerilyn stepped back hastily. “Arawn.” Her heart thundered in her chest.

Before her stood the man who had haunted her dreams for years. Arawn, Lord of the Spirits and partial ruler of the Netherworld.

She’d been sixteen when they’d first met. As a teen, she’s tried to rebel against the family tradition. Finally fed up, she’d renounced her life as a hunter and run to the gate on a Halloween night, bent on escape.

Arawn had been waiting on the other side. The most beautiful man she’d ever seen in her life.

She gazed at him now, noting that still hadn’t changed. Arawn had always looked as if he’d stepped from some lucky girl’s wickedest fantasy. Towering over her tall frame, he stood proud and arrogant, silently challenging those around him. His face was perfectly chiseled but hard, as if made from granite. Piercing black eyes always burned into her as if he could see her soul. His midnight black hair fell long down his back, but he always wore it braided in an elaborate style. It might have looked effeminate on other men but on him it only added to his powerful, warriorlike presence. Arawn was as awe-inspiring as he was terrifying.

Kerilyn shook her head, remembering her younger self. Having no idea who he was, she’d nearly opened the gate and stepped into his waiting arms before her mother had caught her and pulled her back to safety.

After all, those foolish enough to fall for the Lord of the Spirits never lived long enough to tell the tale.

The spirit lord smiled. His eyes seemed to drink in the sight of her. “Did you miss me?” he purred, stepping closer to the gate.

Automatically she stepped back. “What do you think?”

His smile grew wider. “I think you did.”

Kerilyn shivered, wishing she could deny his words. The sight of him shouldn’t cause her heart to leap or her blood to heat. It shouldn’t make her think of the wicked things he did to her in her dreams or how she longed to run her fingers over his flesh. Her attraction to this man was so very wrong. Especially now, with everything she’d had taken from her this past year. Beautiful or not, he was her enemy and that was one truth she couldn’t afford to ever forget.

“You shouldn’t be here,” she told him, her hands curling into fists. “This is the one night a year you are free from the Netherworld. Go elsewhere.”

Arawn, like his spirit subjects, was only free to cross the veil between the worlds on Halloween. The demons straddled the line between living and dead and were free to come and go throughout the year. The spirits, on the other hand, were very dead. They only had one night when they were free to roam the lands of the living. And for years, Arawn had always spent his one night with her.

Why?
She’d never yielded enough to ask and he’d never given her his reasons. She had no idea what had possessed him to spend his nights with a fanciful young woman, giving her a taste of danger without ever putting her in real peril. Not until the Halloween after her twentieth birthday had he ever looked at her with desire. But that night, his gaze had scorched her. Even now she shivered to think of it. That had been the first night he’d asked her to open the gate and let him in.

Her answer had been automatic. No way in hell was she opening her gate. But Arawn was not one to be deterred. Every year he appeared before her asking the same question and every year she gave him the same answer. She would never admit aloud to the secret part of her longing to give in to his demands. Just once she wanted to touch him skin to skin.

An impossible wish.

“Where else shall I go,” he asked now, “when this is the only place I wish to be?”

She laughed bitterly, knowing his words for the cruel lie they were. Despite the games they played, she knew his lusts wouldn’t outweigh his desire for her head on a platter. Her entire line had spent their lives trying to take his. As much as she might crave his touch, she knew the price she’d pay for a single kiss. All her life she’d been fed stories of this man’s viciousness and she’d seen enough evidence of it firsthand to give credence to the tales. She knew he ruled his realm with an iron fist and his brother had systematically picked off her family. It was ridiculous to believe she was anything more to him than a challenge.

“Lord of Lies,” she mocked, “go play with your subjects.”

Arawn crossed his arms over his chest, unperturbed by her words. “Must you be cruel to me, Keri?”

“Yes.”

“So stubborn.” He sighed. “We could have such fun, you and I.”

“If I opened the gate.”

“Yes,” he breathed, his eyes glowing in the dim light. “If you opened the gate.”

“Don’t you ever get tired of asking? Every year you say that to me.”

“I live in hope. One day, my Kerilyn, you will invite me in.”

“I’m not yours,” she snapped. “And I will never open the gate.”

Arawn shook his head at her. “If only you knew how much you cost us both.”

“You bore me,” she said. “Go away, Arawn.”

He smiled slightly at her words. “Never,” he promised her in a harsh whisper.

Kerilyn swallowed hard, wishing he was a little less tempting. Maybe then she could have resisted racing to him every year. She knew damn well her actions were foolish, dangerous, but she was woman enough to admit this beautiful man drew her. Surely anyone in her position would secretly enjoy the attention he lavished on her, the teasing and witty repartee they’d perfected over the years.

“All I have is one night,” he murmured. “Just a few hours at my disposal to convince you we belong together.”

“We don’t,” she replied with a roll of her eyes.

“Why?”

“Because I’m a hunter.”

Arawn spread his hands out in acceptance. “Yes, you hunt my brother’s men. And I am your family’s nightmare. I don’t deny the barriers, Keri.”

“But you ask me to ignore them.” She laughed at his words. “I know what would happen if I stepped into your arms, Arawn. I’ve known since I first met you.”

He drifted closer to the gate, his eyes on her. “You don’t know anything about me.”

Kerilyn studied him under the street lamp’s flickering light. “I know I’m little more than a game to you. Do us both a favor and leave me in peace.”

Arawn’s eyes flickered to the dark house behind her before scanning the yard around them. “If you want to be left alone, surely all you need to do is wait. After all, one of your cursed family always shows up at the worst possible time, determined to banish me. Given their absence, what am I to think, Keri, except that you wish my company this night?”

Kerilyn stiffened. Clenching her hands, she refused to let him see how he’d hurt her. “Low blow, Arawn.”

Instantly he was alert. “How so?”

She lifted her chin, gathering her defenses. “As if you didn’t know.”

“Keri, tell me what has happened.”

She stared at him fiercely.

The spirit lord studied her face for a long moment before surprise finally lit his eyes. “Dead?” he murmured.

“Don’t act shocked.”

His expression became unreadable. “You are alone.”

“And you care?”

Arawn stepped forward, gripping the white fence as he leaned toward her, careful to avoid crossing the line of jack-o’-lanterns. “More than you know,” he answered, his gaze never leaving hers.

Kerilyn laughed at his words. “A new trick,” she mused. “Will you now try to seduce me into opening the gates? I know very well you would never care about a human, let alone a hunter.”

“The only things you know of me are the foolish tales your family fed you.”

“My family always told me the truth.”

“As they knew it, perhaps. But what you know and what is true are not necessary the same thing.”

“Splitting hairs.”

“Have I ever hurt you, Keri?” he demanded.

“No,” she admitted, “but only because I’ve never given you the chance. I didn’t forget, Lord, whose minions killed my sisters.”

Shadows darkened his gaze. “I didn’t know you then.”

“Would it have changed their fate if you had?”

He remained silent. As enigmatic as ever.

Kerilyn dragged a hand through her short hair. “You and your brother have stripped me of all my family. I’ve seen their bodies one after another, shredded until I can barely identify them. You did that to me. You and your kind. I’ve seen firsthand the cruelty you are capable of. So tell me again, Arawn, to put my faith in you.”

He broke away from her accusing gaze and she smiled bitterly, winning at least one round in their endless sparring.

“Go away,” she said, almost gently. “I’ll see you next year.” She turned her back to him, meaning to take refuge inside.

“Stop,” he commanded, his voice thundering around them.

The candles in the jack-o’-lanterns flared bright before flickering wildly in response to his power. She glanced at them in alarm. If the row of jack-o’-lanterns went out she was dead.

“Aren’t you tired, Keri?” he asked in a softer voice. “You’ve had to fight all your life. They took away your choices before you even knew you had ones to make. But you are free now.”

“Free?” she cried, spinning back to him. “Free of the only people in the world who understood me? Who loved me?”

“They put a knife in your hand when you were merely a child. Kerilyn, they never understood you,” he said. “And others would love you if you gave them the chance.”

Agony slashed through her. She desperately wished his words were true. Burying her pain, she forced herself to saunter back to the gate. Being very careful not to trip the laser sensors, she tilted her head to the side with a coy smile. “Others?” she asked softly. “Who, Arawn? You?”

He merely watched her with inscrutable eyes.