Hunted (The Tinder Chronicles) (6 page)

Chapter
Six

So, apparently I’d fallen asleep yet again, and
awoke feeling slightly less out of it than the last time. I got up and
unconsciously did a quick weapons check, my hands going to all the spots on my
body where I kept them concealed. Everything was in order. Then, because my
mouth was really dry, I went to get a drink of water.

When I reached the
kitchen doorway, I stopped short. Bane was seated at the little table, sunlight
spilling across his broad shoulders. I’d never seen him in daylight before, for
obvious reasons. It suited him in ways I could never have imagined. Warm
chestnut highlights were brought out in his otherwise dark brown hair, and his
pale skin was luminous. He looked up from his thin, silver laptop. The sun added
incredible depth and sparkle to his green eyes, making them practically iridescent
beneath their dark lashes.

He was so incredibly
gorgeous, more beautiful than anything I’d ever seen. I didn’t even know what
to do with the overwhelming attraction I felt for him in that moment, so I went
with muttering dumbly, “So, you own a daylight talisman.”

“Of course I do.” He
was watching me closely, his expression guarded.

“Am I free to go?”

“No.”

“I feel a lot better.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Excuse me?”

“You saw what’s
happening out there, Tinder. The vampires are organizing, they’re working
together,” Bane said, leaning back in his chair. “You’re perfectly capable of
taking on one or two at a time, but not five or ten. So until I figure out a
way to make you safe out there, you’re not going anywhere.”

I stared at him
incredulously. “So, you’re actually proposing keeping me prisoner here, locked
up in the Tower of Beige until you think it’s safe enough for me to venture
into the outside world? Are you
insane
?”

“I’m not
proposing
anything. I’m telling you how it is.” He turned back to his laptop, tapping a
few keys. Arrogant bastard.

“Screw that,” I said,
pulling my gun on him. “I’m leaving. You can either hand me the keys that’ll
get me out of here, or I can fill your skull with lead and get them myself.”

“Your gun’s unloaded,”
he said, still looking at the screen.

I checked the clip and
growled, then threw the gun at his head. He caught it without even glancing up
and set it on the table, then clicked a couple more keys.

This infuriated me, and
I pulled two stakes from my jacket and flung myself at him. In the next
instant, I was flat on my back on the tile floor, my hands pinned to either
side of my head. Bane frowned down at me as he straddled my hips. “I don’t have
time for this right now, Tinder. I’m trying to figure out a way to help you,
and it’d go a lot faster if you could stop trying to kill me for five minutes.”

I glared at him. “I
don’t need or want your help. And you’re not helping anyway. What are you doing
on that computer? Did you type
how to help Tinder
into Google? Nothing
on there’s going to do any good.”

“If you feel you can
cooperate, I’ll let you up and show you what I’m doing. I think you might
actually find it fascinating.”

Despite myself, I was
actually getting a bit turned on by being pinned underneath him. And that was
the
last
thing I wanted right now, so I muttered, “Fine. Get off me.” He
plucked the weapons from my hands and got up, tossing the stakes on the table
before sitting down in front of his computer again.

“It’s annoying that you
don’t take me seriously,” I said. “You don’t see me as a threat at all.”

“What makes you say
that?” His eyes were back on the screen.

“You’re not even trying
to keep those stakes from me.”

“That’s because I know
you have no real interest in killing me.”

“Oh really? Then why
did you take the bullets out of my gun?”

“Because while you
won’t kill me, you
might
shoot me. I happen to like this shirt, and
didn’t want it riddled with bullet holes.” He adjusted the lapel of his dark
blue button-down shirt as he said that.

I rolled my eyes and
came to stand behind him, looking over his shoulder. A scan of an old,
handwritten text was on the screen. “Yeah, that’s fascinating,” I said. “Look,
I’m really not going to let you imprison me. So how about if you – hey, what is
that?” He’d scrolled down in the on-screen document, revealing an elaborate
symbol, concentric circles containing text framed by six smaller symbols.

“It’s a protection
symbol, but not the one you need.”

“I don’t know about
that,” I said, pulling up the other kitchen chair right beside him and spinning
the computer to face me.

He swiveled the laptop
back toward him, but only partway, so we could both see it. “No, look here. See
this part?” With a few graceful flicks of his fingers, he enlarged part of the
symbol. “It’s all wrong. It says—”

“I know what it says.”
I read the Greek incantation out loud, and he looked astonished. “It says that
it protects the bearer of this symbol from all things supernatural.” I read a
little more and added, “Oh, I see, it specifically only protects females.” He
was still staring at me like an alien had just popped out of my chest, and I
rolled my eyes. “You think I’m a total moron, don’t you? You can’t even believe
I read Greek.”

“I hardly think you’re
a moron. But your parents never bothered sending you to school, so it does surprise
me that you can do that.”

“I may not have spent
my childhood rotting in a classroom and learning shit like Algebra, but my
parents taught me plenty. For one thing, I learned to read six different
languages proficiently and three more passably by the time I was twelve. And
really, once I knew how to read, a formal education was pointless. Everything
I’d ever need to know is in books.”

“It’s shocking that your
parents took the time to teach five children so many languages. I always
assumed they just taught all of you how to fight and then shoved you out into
the field, from the time you were old enough to hold a stake.”

I admitted, “Actually,
they only taught me all those languages. I picked them up easily. Plus, I was
the only one of their kids…well, with a need to read ancient texts.” I looked
back at the computer, sliding my finger across the touch pad to bring more of
the document into view.

“You’re referring to
your ability to work magic,” he said, and I nodded, not looking up. “Why are
you embarrassed by that?”

I shrugged and said, “I
dunno. Maybe I figure I’m enough of a freak already, without also admitting I’m
part warlock. I mean, you want to totally alienate yourself from the human
race? Go around telling people shit like that.”

“It’s always bothered
you,” he said gently, reaching out and brushing the hair from my eyes. “Not
fitting in, living a life so separated from the rest of society. I hate the
fact that you were never given a choice, or the chance to lead a normal life. I
always wished I could change that for you.”

I met his gaze. “You
don’t know me, Bane. This, right now, is the longest conversation you and I
have ever had. Why do you always act like you have me all figured out?”

Bane smiled at me,
which revealed his fangs. I almost flinched. It was easy to forget what he was
as he sat there bathed in sunlight. “Oh, I don’t have you all figured out,
love. Far from it. But I’ve seen enough over the years to know your parents did
you a real injustice.”

“I hate it when you
talk about my parents. You didn’t know them, either, and have no clue how they
raised me.”

“On the contrary,
Tinder, I knew both of your parents. Not well, but I knew them. I actually have
a long history with your mother’s side of the family, going all the way back to
Portugal. In fact, I was an acquaintance of Duarte Sousa, your great, great
grandfather.”

“You’re kidding.”

“He was the last of
your ancestors to display a strong proficiency in magic, and that’s how I knew
him. Magical ability at the time wasn’t as rare as it is now, it hadn’t been totally
diluted down yet by cross-breeding with the general population. So there was a
small fellowship of warlocks in the parish of Alvor, including Duarte and me. He
was an exceptional fellow. You’re like him in many ways.”

“Did he know you were a
vampire?”

“Of course.”

“So, why didn’t he kill
you? He must have been a hunter, all of my mother’s family were.”

“Oh, he tried. Many,
many times. But he stopped after a while, when he finally realized I wasn’t his
enemy.”

“Now why the hell
wouldn’t he see you as the enemy?”

“Because I don’t kill people
when I feed.”

“But still. You’re a
vampire.”

Bane said, “You and I
are having a civilized conversation right now, despite being hunter and
vampire. It was no different for your ancestor and me.”

“Yeah, well, all that
proves is that I’m kind of a dumbshit.” A thought occurred to me then, and I
asked, “Did you sleep with him too? And if you say yes, I seriously think I’m going
to puke.”

He laughed at that. “God
no. Duarte was hardly my type.”

“Why not?”

“He was straight, for
one thing.”

“Well, thank God. That
would have been really creepy.”

Bane was still grinning
as he turned his attention back to the computer and scrolled down a little
farther. I watched his classically handsome profile for a few moments before
turning my attention to the screen as well. After a while, he said, “I’m proud
of you, Tinder. I really expected you to go ballistic, maybe try burrowing your
way out of here with a soup spoon after I told you I was keeping you here. But
you’re handling this remarkably well.”

“I’m just waiting for
my moment. If I try to escape while you’re here, you’re liable to stake me to a
wall again. Thank you for that, by the way.” When I’d encountered Bane in that
warehouse, he’d tried to prevent me from facing off against a bunch of vamps by
detaining me in an office. His detention method left a lot to be desired.

“You’re welcome.”

“I was being
sarcastic.”

“I know.”

I knit my brows at him.
His attention was still on the computer. “Are you even a little sorry you did
that to me?” I asked.

“Not in the least. You
refused to listen, just as you always do, and I really needed to keep you in
that office for a few minutes. What choice did I have?”

I rolled my eyes and
commandeered the computer, turning it toward me and flipping quickly through
the document. Bane watched me for a moment, then pushed back from the table.
“I’ll leave the laptop with you. There are over two hundred texts on witchcraft
and alchemy saved to that hard drive. Should keep you busy for a while.”

He started to leave the
kitchen, and I asked, “Where are you going?”

“A team of my people are
looking for the vampires that came after you, but they don’t seem to be making
any progress. I should get back out there and keep digging. I just stopped by
to check on you and decided to do some research while I was here.”

“You have a team of
people?”

“I do.”

“What, like minions?”

That earned me a smirk.
“Like employees.”

“Uh huh.” I got up from
the table and stood beside him. “Ok, let’s go.”

“You’re staying here,
Tinder. I thought I made that clear.”

“No, I’m coming with
you to hunt those vamps.”

“Like hell you are.”

“Try and stop me.” That
was an idiotic thing to say. Bane was at least four or five inches taller than
me and maybe sixty pounds heavier – all solid muscle. And, of course, he was a damn
vampire, which automatically made him much stronger than I was. We both knew he
could stop me with no effort whatsoever.

Still though, when he
headed for the front door, I went with him, saying, “Don’t do this, Bane. Don’t
lock me in here. All that’s going to accomplish is pissing me off.”

“It’s for your own
good.”

 “I’m going to do whatever
it takes to escape, so you might as well save me a lot of trouble and just let
me go.”

When he opened the
front door, I tried to slip out with him, and he picked me up and put me back
in the apartment like an errant puppy. After we did this a couple times, I
ended up fighting wildly, trying to get out the door. He scooped me up
suddenly, tossing me over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry, and took me to the
bedroom. As he deposited me on the mattress, I misinterpreted his actions and growled,
“I don’t want to sleep with you, Bane.”

“Oh, don’t flatter
yourself, love,” he said, grabbing a pillow and tugging off the pillowcase.
“Last time we had sex, you ended up pulling a gun on me afterwards. I believe
you told me you’d rather blow your brains out than ever let me back inside you.
Do you really think I’m in a hurry to bed you again after that?” Bane was
ripping up the pillowcase as he spoke, and the expression on his face made me
pause. He looked hurt, and for some reason that surprised me. Why had I thought
he was incapable of that?