The Immortal Hunter(50)

"Not in this lifetime," Dani assured him, grim-faced as she headed back toward the house. "Just giving the grass more time to dry so I don't ruin the blanket."

Decker nodded, trying not to show his relief. Despite what he'd said, he didn't like being out in the sun. The damage would be minimal for her and simply add to the aging process over time, which wasn't the case for him. His skin was a little more sensitive due to lack of exposure, and would take on more damage because of that. Decker was old enough to have been trained from birth to avoid such an occurrence. More sun meant more blood needed, which meant more risk of discovery.

Despite the fact that they now used bagged blood from blood banks, they still tried not to use any more blood than necessary. The mortal blood banks were often notoriously short on supplies, and the blood banks the immortals ran were really no different. Wasting blood made him feel guilty and uncomfortable, Decker acknowledged to himself as he followed Dani back to the house.

He'd thought she intended to return inside, but learned his mistake when she laid the blanket over the railing surrounding the deck and then turned to the left and began to walk away.

Grimacing, Decker quickly followed. "Where are we going now?"

"To explore," she muttered, and then asked, "Where are we anyway?"

Dani glanced over her shoulder as she asked the question, catching, him eyeing her behind and legs again. Decker raised his eyes, but shrugged unrepentantly. He was a man, and if the woman was going to charge ahead of him, he was going to be looking at her butt. There wasn't much else to look at out here.

"Just outside Toronto," he said, answering her question.

"Hmmph," she grunted, though whether it was at his ogling her or his answer, Decker couldn't tell.

"What are we going to explore?"

"The barn," Dani muttered. "You can't see it from my room. I didn't realize it was here."

Decker glanced to the barn ahead, not that there was much to see. It was a barn; old, red, rectangular, and huge, with large sliding doors on both the front and back and a small swinging door in the middle of the side facing them. Dani headed for the smaller door.

Decker automatically moved ahead as they neared, to open it for her, his gaze moving curiously over the interior as she walked past him. It appeared to be filled with empty stalls that lined the opposite wall for two thirds of the way before stopping to leave an open area. This side was the same except that the middle stall was missing to make way for the doorway they were entering through.

"They're going to tear it down and build a garage here for the SUVs," Decker announced as he followed her inside.

Dani's response was another grunt as the door swung closed behind him, leaving them in darkness.

"Hang on," Decker said. While he could still see well enough to move around, he knew she was probably now left as blind as the proverbial bat. He moved back to the door and swung it open again, but all the way this time, until it banged against the outer wall. When it stayed open, he nodded his satisfaction and stepped back inside, but Dani was no longer where he'd left her. His head turned, eyes searching the shadows anxiously until the squeal of metal on metal drew his gaze to the huge double, sliding doors at the front end of the building. She had braved the darkness to approach and slide one open. It moved along the rusty track for perhaps four feet before coming to a grinding halt. Dani gave it another shove, putting her whole body behind it, but the door wasn't going any farther.

"Here, let me try " he offered.

"That's all right. It's fine," Dani decided as she turned to see the effect.

Decker followed her gaze. It was much lighter in the barn now. There were still dark corners, and it was a bit dim overall in comparison to outside, but good enough, he supposed, and moved away from the door to follow as she set out to explore.

"There's still hay in here," Dani commented with surprise as she peered at the half a dozen fresh bales stacked against the wall. At least two more lay broken open on the ground in front of them. He couldn't tell if they'd been deliberately put there, or had simply been knocked off the others and broken open themselves, but they had made a small mound of fresh-smelling hay.

"It's a barn," he said with a shrug. "Barns have hay."

"Yes, but why didn't the previous owners take it with them?" Dani asked curiously as she glanced around and added with surprise, "And the saddles."

Decker turned his head until his eyes settled on two saddles that had been left hanging on the wall. He moved closer to examine them, noting the poor shape they were in. "They're pretty old. They probably aren't much good anymore."

"The hay looked pretty fresh though," Dani commerited, and he glanced around to see that she'd started moving along the stalls. Peering curiously into each one as she went, she added, "I would have expected they'd take that with them."

"Maybe they were getting out of farming and had no use for it," he suggested, trailing after her.

"You don't usually farm horses," she said, sounding amused. "At least I don't think you do. I guess they could have been breeders."

Decker didn't comment, and he wasn't looking around much either. It was a barn. Wood walls, wood stalls, the smell of hay, and motes of dust floating in the pools of light spilling from the open doors. It wasn't really very interesting to him. Decker was more concerned with how to tell her what he had to... and make her listen.