Page 14 of Immortal Hunter
“No. That is not my intention.” Rolling onto her back, she stared up at her ceiling. “Tell me about your life. I want to know you.”
As he lay back down and wrapped his arms around her, she found a peace she’d never known and desperately wanted to experience every one of her days. “I was born in Scotland.”
“Ah. So you are a Highlander then? That is one of the few movies I have watched over and over again,” Kára said with a smile. “There can be only one, you know.”
“Aye. Tis true.” He chuckled, then turned melancholy. “I miss Edinburgh every day. My ma’ and da’ died when I was a wee lad. There was an accident on the motorway. Broke both me legs. Spent a month in hospital.”
His sadness seeped into her, and Kára snuggled closer. “I am sorry, Ewan. Do you still remember them?”
“Aye. Every day. He leaned over and snagged his pants from the floor, dug in the pocket, and then dropped a pocket watch in front of her. “This was my da’s.”
“It is beautiful.” Kára ran her fingers over the family crest engraved on the gold cover. “What happened to you after they passed?”
“The Hunters took me in.” His voice lowered, and he nuzzled her hair. “That’s how they grow their numbers, luv. Find orphans they can raise by their rules. The man who came for me…he took me passport, never let me get a national identification card. But I thought he loved me. Or at least cared for me. Until I aided the vampire who killed his son.”
“You…helped another vampire?” There was so much more to her mate than she’d ever imagined, and Kára turned in his arms so she could look him in the eyes. “Where? When?”
“Not long ago. Ten days or so. I lost count.” Ewan picked up the watch and turned it over and over in his hand. “There’s a witch back in Dublin—that’s where I spent the last ten years—mated to a vampire. Her blood…is unique, and we were told she was a weapon we had to obtain. Riley…she dinnae deserve what they—we—did to her, and her mate found her, saved her, and told me to run. So I did.”
He spoke for another hour, all the way until sunrise, telling her about pretending to work for the Guarda, how he’d obtain information about the Dublin vampire gangs, but never admitting to any killing. Still, she sensed when he cut a story off too quickly or changed the subject. He’d killed her kind before, and he did not want to do so again.
“Ewan,” she said softly as she cupped his cheek. “I know what you were. I understand why. You do not have to protect me from your past. Though…” She could wait no longer to tell him. Her eyelids were already starting to feel heavy with the coming of the sun. “I need to protect you from mine.”
“What are ya’ talkin’ about?” Scooting back, he leaned against the headboard, the movement highlighting the tattoos running across his chest.
Kára retrieved his t-shirt and pulled it over her head. For this conversation, she could not be completely naked in front of him.
“You felt my heart beating earlier?”
“I dinnae think that was common. Never had much opportunity to find out, though.”
“It is not. Made vampires have no heartbeat, and I was sired more than four hundred years ago. My heart started beating again last night.” She paused, holding his gaze. “When I met you.”
“Bloody hell, why? I’m nothin’ special, luv. Ya’ canna’ think it was me that did it.”
Get it over with. Just tell him.
“You are my mate, Ewan.”
Kára didn’t move as the words registered in his eyes. “No.” A pause. “No. No. No. I canna’ be.”
His entire body tensed, and Kara grabbed his arms, holding gently, but firmly, hoping she could calm him enough to explain. “I do not know why my body, or whatever soul is left within me, chose you. Yet it did, and there is nothing I can do to change it. You are my mate, and I will be bound to you for the rest of your life.”
Ewan jerked back, breaking her hold, and jumped out of bed, his toned muscles making her want him all over again. “I am no one’s mate. I willna let ya’ turn me into a vampire because yer heart started beatin’.”
His tone edged towards disgust, and Kára’s anger flared. “Being a vampire…is not as terrible as you think.”
“Ya’ kill people!” Ewan backed away slowly, not taking his eyes off of Kára as he fumbled for his pants. Tugging them over his hips, he shoved his feet into his boots. “There was blood in the alley a few blocks from the pub last night. Ya’ murdered a shifter, did ya’ not? Drank his blood to keep yerself alive?”
“No!” She followed him out into the main room, lunging for his hand and linking their fingers before pressing their joined hands to her heart. “I donotkill people. I have not killed a human in almost two centuries. Iprotectthis town, Ewan. Keep those from theOtherin line when they fight. The full moon is a dangerous time, but otherwise, we have a peaceful life in St. John’s. Can you not see that? Feel the truth in my words?”
“I care for ya’, lass. I dinnae ken why, but I do. That dinnae mean I want to give up my life. How can ya’ ask me to do that?”
“Because it is the only way to keep you safe,” she cried, her emotions making her eyes tear.
Ewan broke free from her hold and shoved his hand into the pocket of his dark pants. When he pulled it out again, thrusting it close to her chest, Kára hissed as the silver chain wrapped around his fingers turned her stomach and singed her skin under his shirt.
She lost her footing, fell to her knees, and wrapped her arms around herself. “How could you…?”
