It stretched for several minutes and all Amanda heard from the other end was the noise of traffic.
Tabitha was trying to read her.
Damn!
Tabitha said the word at the same moment Amanda thought it. "You're with that vampire again, aren't you?"
Amanda cringed. How did someone tell her sister, the vampire hunter, that she had a crush on a vampire and planned on spending the night in his home?
There was no easy way around that one.
Sighing, she tried to think of some way to explain it. "He's not a vampire... Exactly. He's more like you."
"Uh-huh," Tabitha said. "Like me how? He has breasts? He has a boyfriend? Or he just likes to kill things?"
Amanda ground her teeth. "Tabitha Lane Devereaux, don't be such a bitch. I know you don't like to kill things, either, and I don't want to play Twenty Questions with you. The guy who attacked me in your place is really scary, and not like the other scary things you play with. This is different. Hunter wants you to lie low and I agree."
"Hunter? Is that the same bloodsucking ghoul who threatened your life to me earlier?"
"He didn't mean that."
"Oh no? So you're willing to bet your life on it?"
"I'm willing to bet both our lives on it."
"You're friggin' crazy, you know that?"
"Watch your mouth, little girl. Unlike you, I know what I'm doing. I trust Hunter. And this guy Desiderius is seriously evil. Like Hannibal Lecter evil."
Amanda could just imagine Tabitha rolling her eyes as she made a disgusted snort. "I'm not afraid of either one of them."
"Maybe you need to learn a little fear. I for one am terrified."
"Then why don't you come home where we can protect you?"
Because I want to stay with Hunter . Amanda didn't know where the thought came from. But there was no denying it. She felt safe and protected with him.
He had yet to offer to take her anywhere else. She had no doubt that if she asked, he would let her leave, and yet...
She didn't want to.
But she didn't dare tell Tabitha that. Things were bad enough between them, so she offered her sister the only excuse she could think of. "I can't do that. Not while this thing is after me."
Tabitha cursed again. "How do I know this Hunter guy doesn't have you under some kind of mind spell?"
Amanda laughed at that as she recalled Hunter's words to her in the factory. "Because, much like you, I'm too stubborn for it to work. Besides, he's a friend of Julian Alexander. You trust Julian and Grace, don't you?"
"Well, yeah. Of course."
"Then trust their friend."
"Okay," Tabitha said reluctantly. "But my trust is wearing thin. I want you safe."
"And I want the same for you. Hunter said you're safe so long as it's daylight, but make sure you're in Mom's house once the sun sets and stay there. In fact, I don't think you should go to the hospital. You should probably go to Mom's right now."
"Allison is my best friend, I need to see her."
"What if you lead them to her? For all you know they're watching you already."
Tabitha growled low in her throat. "I don't like this. Not at all, but okay. You're right. I don't want to draw them to Allison. Mom can handle anything. I'll turn around at the next street and head to Mom's for the night. You call if you need me."
"Will do."
Amanda set the phone down and picked up her plate from the counter where Hunter had left it. She carried it to the small breakfast table that was set next to a large picture window. It looked out onto a beautiful, old-fashioned courtyard behind the house, complete with a rose trellis, Greek statuary, and sculpted shrubs. The area was lit by antique oil lamps that cast an eerie glow against the white stucco walls.
Amanda sat alone for several minutes until Hunter returned. He'd changed into a long-sleeved, black T-shirt that hugged his broad shoulders. He had the sleeves pulled up on his forearms and she saw the vicious cut that ran along his arm.
"Did the Daimon bite you or is that a knife wound?"
Hunter glanced at it as he sat down across from her. "Bite wound."
She went cold. "You need that tended, don't you?"
"No, the entire wound will be gone by tomorrow."
"Yeah, but don't such things turn you into a vampire?"
He laughed and gave her a droll stare. "Technically, I already am a vampire. As for turning, it's impossible unless you're an Apollite."
"So they can't bite humans and make them into vampires?"
"Bedtime story."
She thought about that a minute. "So where do all these misconceptions about vampires come from?"
He swallowed a bite of his food and took a drink. "Scared villagers mostly. Since the day Atlantis was sucked into the ocean, Apollites and Daimons have been persecuted. At one time, all the Greek city-states knew about the Dark-Hunters and we were revered. But as time went on and the Dark-Hunters became more solitary, we were mostly forgotten except in myths and legends. Acheron and the others liked it that way. Ash even went so far as to collect and hide the ancient writings that referred to us."
"Acheron?" she asked, cutting a piece of her chicken. "You keep mentioning him. Who is he?"
"He was the first Dark-Hunter chosen by Artemis."
"And he's still alive?"
"Oh yeah. I think he's in California this week."
She arched a brow at him.
Hunter smiled. "He travels to a new location every few days."
"How? Why?"
He shrugged. "I guess when you're eleven thousand years old, things get rather boring. As for how, he has a custom-built helicopter that can break the sound barrier."
Amanda digested the news and tried to imagine what this oldest Dark-Hunter must look like. For some reason, Yoda came to mind. Some small, gray-green-skinned ancient who walked around stooped over, spouting broken words of wisdom to the others.
"Have you ever met Acheron?" she asked.
Kyrian nodded. "We all have. He trains all the new Dark-Hunters and in a way he is our unofficial leader. There's also the theory that he's the hit man the gods call in to execute us when we step over the line of propriety."
She didn't like the sound of that at all. "Step over how?"
"Preying on humans, for one. We have a Code of Conduct that has to be followed. No revealing of our powers before the masses, no association with Apollites or Daimons, et cetera."
It was strangely comforting to know that they had such a thing, but also scary to think of one of these guys turning bad with the powers they possessed. "If Dark-Hunters are forbidden to hurt each other and you drain one another's powers, how can Acheron be an executioner?"
"He doesn't drain our powers." He took a drink of wine. "Ash was the guinea pig Dark-Hunter. Since he was the first, the gods hadn't quite got the kinks out of the system. So he has some... peculiar, shall we say, side effects."
Now she definitely pictured some mutant life-form. A little hunchback Dark-Hunter with a lisp.
"And just how many Dark-Hunters are there?" she asked.
"Thousands."
Amanda's jaw went slack. "Seriously?"
By the light in his eyes, she could see the answer.
"How often are new ones created?"
"Not often," he said quietly. "Most of us have been around for quite some time."
"Wow," she breathed. "So if Acheron is the oldest, who is the youngest?"