Primal Desire (Heart of the Huntress #6) - Terry Spear Page 0,5
available seat.
“Sit,” the man with the vivid blue eyes said. He motioned to the barstool. “I’m Basil. And you are?”
“Thirsty.” She gave a small smile but didn’t take the seat. She assumed now that Basil had telepathically told the blond guy to vacate the seat for Selena. Was he attempting to get her under his spell?
“I’m the owner of this dance club. I’m curious as to why you’re here.”
Ahhh, so he wanted to ensure she didn’t cause trouble.
Most of the conversation in the club ceased and even the music piped down. As long as the club owner didn’t force the issue, she didn’t intend to explain her business and risk losing her contact. But everyone seemed to want to know just how she would respond.
The bartender reached across the counter and slid the drink to Selena.
She handed him a ten-dollar bill, but Basil shook his head. “Drink’s on me.”
“Thanks.” But she didn’t mean it.
The guy made her uneasy, although she knew why he had targeted her. For his patrons’ peace of mind, she was certain he was determined to learn if she had come here looking for a vampire on her terminal list. Except he wouldn’t know she didn’t have a terminal list…for now. They were handed out only by the League, and she was on their no-hunt list. Still, it was nobody’s business that she was a huntress without backing from the League. The vampires would look upon her with as much disdain as her own kind did. Some might even test her resolve not to take them on.
But she had no trouble with fighting rogue vampires. Or renegade hunters, for that matter. Even if the League said it wasn’t fully convinced the hunter she had killed had been a rogue. Yet, she knew differently, or they would have terminated her for killing the hunter.
Her mind still mulling over her choices, she watched the dancers and listened to the beat and rhythm of the music stirring up the heat. Against her express permission, she moved slightly to the music, then caught sight of a couple of blood bonds whispering to each other while their gazes remained glued on her.
She frowned. Even most humans, if they knew the truth about her, wouldn’t have anything to do with her. After all, what good was a huntress who couldn’t terminate vampires legally if the humans needed protection? At least that’s what she’d heard a few say.
As much good as a dentist who wouldn’t take care of someone’s bad teeth, or a lifeguard who wouldn’t save a swimmer in distress.
Tara Green was the exception. For whatever reason, the human liked her.
Basil, the club owner, lingered near her as if he was a bouncer, waiting for her to reveal wrist daggers or pull out a sword from her silky dress, then he would toss her out of the building. Did he think she had a death wish? And heck, couldn’t he see she was totally unarmed? Nowhere to hide anything in this clingy creation. Besides, that was one rule she didn’t violate—the no-weapons-in-a-club rule. Drinking and weapons could be a dangerous—and deadly—combination.
It was bad enough that vampires carried their own weapons intact.
Once she realized this was a vampires’ place of entertainment, she really wouldn’t have been that stupid to walk in armed to the teeth anyway.
Coming here had to have made her more of an enigma in the vampires’ eyes. Any hunters who were different should be warily watched. Who knew what crazy things a person who wasn’t like the others might do?
Before she could take a sip from her drink, she noticed a man sitting at a table observing her. Not that most weren’t already, but something about him caught her attention.
Maybe it was his dark brown eyes the color of Brazil nuts narrowed in dissatisfaction, bordering on contempt, or the way his body language shouted at her to go away, or the way his umber hair was cut short, making him look roguish in appearance when all the other vampire males wore theirs pulled back in tails and looked much more vampirish. Not only that, but when most of the males were a bit dressed down compared to the women who were dressed to the nines, the vampire was dressed in a tux, like the one who had been dancing with the vamp. She was…impressed.
Though somewhere in the crowd she’d seen a guy who looked like a cowboy—one of the bad guys all dressed in black—that had caught her eye also.