Danger caught herself before she gaped. "Are you telling me Ash is 'other' too?"
"I'm not saying anything about him."
He didn't have to. His omission said it all. She wanted to ask more about what Ash and Simi were, but it had been futile enough tonight. She was rather tired of banging her head against the proverbial wall.
Sighing in defeat, she looked over at her plasma TV, which had had a miraculous recovery while she'd been upstairs. "Did you fix my TV?"
"It only seemed right since I was the one who broke it."
She walked over to it to inspect it. Everything looked normal. As soon as she was in front of it, it came on.
Danger jumped, especially since its remote was lying on the bookshelf in front of her. "How did you do that?"
"Same way I always do it." The television shut off.
She quickly moved away. Just how much power did this guy wield?
He moved to stand behind her. His presence there was disturbing to her well-being. She was more aware of him than she had ever been of any man before. There was something about him that was electrifying and magnetic.
"Don't be afraid of me, Danger," he whispered near her ear. Chills shot through her body. "Unless you threaten Acheron, I will never harm you."
"No, you just intend to harm my friends."
She felt him pick her braid up and hold it close to his face so that he could inhale her scent. "I really wish you wouldn't do that."
"I know." He set her hair down and moved even closer. His presence was overwhelming. Powerful. She could feel his desire to hold her.
Yet he refrained.
Alexion ground his teeth as he imagined what it would be like to pull her flush to his body. To reach around her and cup her breasts in his hands. It would be so easy to slide his hand underneath the waistband of her flannel pajamas… To brush his fingers through the triangle of hair between her legs so that he could stroke her. Touch her. Hear her moaning in his ear as her breath tickled his flesh.
He could already feel the slickness of her.
His mouth watered hungrily for a small taste. Carnal pleasure was the only thing that he could still experience as an immortal with the same degree that he had known as a human. It was why he craved it so much. There for a few minutes, he could forget his icy, lonely existence and feel truly human again.
He could feel connected, almost wanted.
But she didn't want him.
His bitter loneliness tore through him, shredding his heart. It was ever his destiny to want and not have. In many ways, he was Tantalus. He could see what he wanted, but every time he'd ever dared to reach for it, something came along and took it away just as he grasped it.
Damn.
Grinding his teeth, he stepped away from her. He sensed her instant relief and that saddened him even more.
"So, do all the male DarkHunters pimp for you?"
He shook his head. "No. They just tend to frequent places where… shall we say… loose women congregate." And normally those women threw themselves at him. It was a pity Danger didn't follow their actions.
"I'll bet they do."
He ignored her dripping sarcasm. She had no idea how important such contact was to him. She interacted with other people nightly. He didn't. His only contact with the world was through the monitors and the sfora in Katoteros. It was cold and sterile.
Like me.
That was true enough. Every century seemed to get a little harder for him. Like Acheron, he lost more and more of his humanity. That was one of the reasons why it was so important for him to try and save Kyros. This was the first time in centuries that something had truly gotten to him.
He really did want to save his old friend.
But that would have to wait for now. He could already sense that dawn was about to break.
Danger looked to the window as if she sensed it as well. "It's getting late. I think I'll turn in."
He nodded as she left him alone.
No sooner had she vanished from his sight, than he felt the prickly sensation of being watched again.
Alexion rubbed the back of his neck uneasily. "I swear, Simi, if that is you messing with me, I won't lock up your credit cards next time. I'll shred them."
Chapter 9
Danger spent a fitful day in her bed, trying to sleep and finding it almost impossible. It was barely six in the evening when she woke up, her heart racing, her mind whirling from horrible images.
Wicked dreams of Alexion had mixed with nightmares of him trying to kill her. No matter how hot the dream started out, it always ended the same way—Alexion locking her into a cramped, dark room that held other DarkHunters. Ragged and ill-kempt, barely more than human skeletons, they begged for mercy until they were led outside, one by one, to the Place de Grève where the guillotine in its red-painted frame waited to behead them.