The Immortal Hunter(32)

"It's okay," he said then. "I know this is hard to accept, and scary for you, but you have to let me explain. You owe me that much at least, don't you think?"

"Owe you?" she asked with surprise, finally raising her face to peer at him again.

It was Justin who pointed out judiciously, "Well, he did take a couple of bullets back there when we saved you. Surely you should at least let him explain?"


"A couple of bullets?" Dani asked, turning back to Decker.

"It doesn't matter," he said quietly.

Dani frowned, but then decided he was right and it didn't really matter. What mattered was that this was the oddest nightmare she'd ever had in her life and she wished it would end. She wanted to wake up and assure herself everything was all right, that Stephanie was at home with her parents or even at the cottage, safe and unharmed.

"Dani?" Decker said, eyeing her uncertainly.

Her gaze focused on the face of the dream man before her, and she found herself wondering where her imagination had come up with that handsome visage. Had she seen him around Windsor or up at the cottage, thought him attractive, and inserted his face in her dream? If so, she really should have made him a cop or some other good guy rather than a fang-bearing vampire.

"Are you calm enough to listen to me?" the dream Decker asked, taking her hands. He looked pretty doubtful on that score.

However, Dani felt perfectly calm, though that was a relative term, she decided, and glanced down at her hands. She tried to shake off his hold, intending to pinch herself, but he merely tightened his grip, watching her with concern. Not seeing any other recourse, Dani suddenly threw her head backward, slamming it into the not-a-dream SUV's rear side window.

"What are you doing?" Decker bellowed, reaching for her.

"Trying to wake myself up," she muttered wryly as he caught her by the shoulders as if to keep her from doing it again. He needn't have bothered; the pain presently radiating through Dani's skull was enough to convince her she wasn't dreaming. It seemed she was awake and in an SUV with two men who claimed to be vampires... and who also had the fangs to back up the claim.

"She thinks she's dreaming," Justin said quietly from the front, his usual amusement notably absent. "I think she's realizing the truth though."

"Stay out of her thoughts," Decker said, but his voice was more resigned than angry, and Dani wondered what he was talking about when he said it. She didn't really care though, except that it was a bit annoying not to know what they were talking about half the time.

"Dani," Decker said firmly. "Trust me, this is not a dream."

"Why is it you men always say trust me before spitting out something completely unpalatable?" she asked, irritation flickering through her. "Vampires aren't supposed to be real. And how come you had to be a cute vampire? You should be a dog. All evil, vile people should look as ugly as they are inside."

"We aren't ev-" Decker halted his denial, and then he did something she hadn't yet seen him do and lifted his lips in a very rare-and in her opinion, totally inappropriate-grin as he asked, "You think I'm cute?"

"Earth to Major Decker," Justin said dryly. "She thinks you're a cute evil bastard."

"Right." He frowned and shook his head as if trying to shake her words out of it, and then said, "We're not evil or vile. We aren't even vampires."

"But you have fangs, and that Lucian fellow said-"

"He said your people insisted on calling us that," Decker reminded her firmly. "But we aren't."

"Well, we kind of are," Justin corrected. "We just don't like to be called that. At least the old bloodsuckers don't. I don't know why. I think it's kind of sexy myself." Taking on a bad fake accent he said, "I am a vampire, and I vant to suck your-"

"Justin," Decker said with thinly stretched patience. "You aren't helping here."

"Sorry," he muttered. "But we do have fangs and drink blood and-"

"Bricker" Decker snapped, turning to glare at him.

"Right. Sorry, I'll zip it." He met Decker's gaze in the mirror and mimed zipping his mouth shut. But the moment Decker stopped glaring at him and turned back to Dani, he piped up again. "Tell her about Atlantis."

Decker sagged, his eyes closing briefly, and then he took a deep breath and said, "Yes, Justin, I was just about to do that."

"Atlantis?" Dani echoed with bewilderment.

"Or maybe you better start with the nanos," Justin said, changing his mind. "She's a doctor. She'll understand the science part of it better."

"Yes, I know. Thank you, Justin, I can handle this" Decker said grimly, obviously on the edge of really losing it. He then turned to Dani, eyed her with a sigh, and asked, "Will you at least listen to me?"

Dani nodded. It wasn't like she really had any choice, not after having seen those fangs.

"Okay," Decker said with relief. "We're human. If you were to cut me open you'd find everything exactly the same as any other man, except that all my organs and tissue would be remarkably healthy and undamaged."

"Everything is exactly the same but our blood," Justin put in.