Bound By Darkness (Guardians of Eternity #8)(50)

The creature’s smile only widened to emphasize the sharply pointed teeth.

“The sweet thing.”

Jaelyn waved an absent hand. “He’s that way if you want to put him out of his misery.”

“No.” She gave a rueful click of her tongue. “Not yet.”

“Fine.” Jaelyn shifted with a growing impatience. “Now you’re all up to date. Was there anything else you needed?”

Yannah drifted closer, her power a tangible force in the air. “I do have a question.”

Jaelyn shivered. “What is it?”

The black eyes surveyed her with an unwavering curiosity. “Shall I tell Mother that you’ve decided to break your contract?”

Jaelyn jerked at the dangerous suggestion. Hunters who failed in their missions didn’t get second chances.

And who the hell knew what happened to anyone stupid enough to fail a contract authorized by the Oracles?

“Of course not.”

“Then you intend to go after the Sylvermyst?”

As if she had a choice?

“Eventually,” she grudgingly promised.

“That seems dangerously vague.”

Not missing the warning in the low voice, Jaelyn lifted her hands in defeat.

“I’m going, I’m going,” she growled, stepping around the tiny demon to stomp across the meadow.

She ignored the sensation of Yannah watching her stiff retreat, instead concentrating on the man who was swiftly becoming the bane of her existence.

Not that she had to use her considerable Hunter skills to follow in Ariyal’s trail.

She could have shut down her senses entirely and been able to find him.

And that, of course, was what scared the hell out of her.

“Christ, why won’t someone just shoot me?” she muttered, picking up her pace as she skirted past the trees and crossed the stream, where she caught the scent of a wounded hellhound.

Obviously Ariyal had managed to find the blood he needed to restore his strength. But instead of returning to her, he was moving even farther away.

At a pace that assured her he wasn’t just pouting.

He was truly trying to leave her behind.

Annoying fairy.

Jumping over a fence that marked the edge of a cow pasture, she at last caught sight of Ariyal as he crossed through the overgrown yard of a farmhouse.

She briefly surveyed the white, two-story home with black shutters and peeling paint before shifting her attention to the nearby chicken coop that lurched to a drunken angle and the more distant sheds and a tin-roofed barn that held the lingering scent of hay.

The place was deserted of humans, although the stale stench of beer cans warned they occasionally used the isolated property to party in private. And she couldn’t detect any nearby demons.

This seemed as good a spot as any to confront the angry Sylvermyst.

With a graceful motion, Jaelyn was leaping on top of the screened-in porch attached to the house and then dropping directly in front of Ariyal.

The Sylvermyst came to a grudging halt, his unbearably beautiful face set in lines of leashed fury.

He was so different from the male vampires who had sought to become her lover, she recognized.

There was no cold calculation. No aloof expertise that offered a clinical pleasure without the messy involvement of emotions.

No.

Ariyal was fierce and temperamental and so passionate he nearly set the air on fire with the force of his emotions.

He was dominating, but he was no bully.

And while he had more than his fair share of male arrogance, there was an inner vulnerability to him that touched her in places she didn’t know she could be touched.

He was exactly what she didn’t need, at exactly the wrong time.

The bronze eyes blazed with breathtaking power. “Get out of my path, vamp.”

She ignored the sudden heat that swirled through the air. She was relatively safe. At least until he called for that damned wooden bow and arrows he could conjure from thin air.

Then things might get dicey.

“Where the hell are you going?”

“I don’t discuss my plans with my foes.”

“Are you pouting because I wouldn’t share my blood?”

“You’re the one who insists on treating me like the enemy,” he snarled. “So either do whatever it is you were sent here to do, or get out of the way.”

Foe? Enemy?

Ah, if only.

That she understood.

This messy, confused muddle that plagued her ...

“You need me,” she said abruptly.

He snorted, folding his arms over his chest. The picture of a male at his most stubborn.

“And you call me arrogant?”

She tilted her chin. “Do you know where the babe is?”

“I will.”

“And you can battle your tribesmen as well as the spirit on steroids without me?”

The muscle in his jaw knotted, his pride once again threatened.

“Yes.”

“What about Sergei?”

He shrugged. “What about him?”

“Enough,” she hissed in exasperation. “I’m not going to let you waltz into a trap just because you’re pissed off at me.”

He arched a mocking brow. “And just how do you intend to stop me, Hunter?”