"I can't do that, Amanda. I have an oath and a duty to fulfill."
The job. It was all that mattered to him and she wondered if he protected her because he cared, or if she were just part and parcel of what his duty entailed. "Still, you tell me you believe in my powers and then when I tell you-"
"Amanda, please. I had no choice."
She nodded. "I hope you kill him."
"I will."
Amanda squeezed his hand. "You don't sound quite as sure as you did before."
"That's because I spent the night nailed to a board and I don't feel very well this morning."
"You're not funny."
"I know," he said. "It just bothers me that he really did know where to strike to do the most damage. Right down to-"
She waited several minutes, but he didn't elaborate. "To?" she prompted.
"Nothing."
"Kyrian, talk to me. I want to know how he got you into this condition."
"I don't want to talk about it."
Before she could press him, someone knocked on the door.
"Please," he said quietly, "go let D'Alerian in."
"The Dream-Hunter?"
He nodded.
Curious, she got up and opened the front door, then stepped back. The man on the porch was nothing like she'd expected. Towering over her, the Dream-Hunter had hair as black as night and eyes so colorless and pale, they seemed to glow. Dressed all in black like a Dark-Hunter, the man before her would command attention if not for the strange tendency of her eyes to want to look away from him. It was weird. Really weird. She had to force herself to look at a man who should make any woman gape in lustful awe.
Without a word, he stepped past her and went to Kyrian. The door jerked itself out of her hands and slammed shut to keep the daylight out of the room.
D'Alerian had a sleek, graceful walk as he moved toward the couch where Kyrian lay. He shrugged his leather jacket off and pulled the sleeves of his black shirt back on his arms.
"Since when do you knock?" Kyrian asked.
"Since I didn't want to scare the human." D'Alerian swept a gaze over Kyrian's body. "You're a mess."
"That's what people keep telling me."
There was no humor in D'Alerian's face. Nothing. He was even more serene and calm than Talon. It was as if he had no emotions whatsoever.
D'Alerian held his hand out and one of the armchairs moved to rest beside the couch.
Without paying her any heed, he touched Kyrian on the shoulder. "Sleep, Dark-Hunter." And before he finished the words, Kyrian fell soundly asleep.
Amanda watched as the Dream-Hunter kept his hand on Kyrian's shoulder and closed his eyes. Only then did she see emotions cross D'Alerian's face. He gasped and tensed as if he were the one being tortured. In fact, he showed all the pain she would have expected from Kyrian.
After a few minutes, D'Alerian pulled his hand away and leaned forward in the chair, his breathing labored. He covered his face with his hands as if trying to banish a nightmare.
When he looked up at her, the intensity of his stare made her jump.
"I've never, in all eternity, seen anything like that," he whispered hoarsely.