A Hunters Promise Read Free Page A

scent, but nothing turned up. Frustrated, Charon stopped and stared into the darkness surrounding them. Fuck, he’s rather be back at the hospital with Irish. For a human, she was a quick study and, more importantly, never asked any questions. She also believed in things most humans chose to ignore or overlook. She never asked where the things he taught her to hunt came from. She just wanted to know how to kill them. He liked that in a person. She also never hesitated. He’d seen Paranormal Investigative Agency agents die because they overthought a situation. Irish just whipped out the blade and hit hard.
    She also smells good. He stopped the thought before it went any farther. Of course she smells good, he rationalized, she’s a human. She was food to him. The blood pumping in her veins sustained his kind. But she wasn’t a donor. She was too young, anyway. Charon liked the humans he fed from to be at least mid-thirties and all business. They weren’t getting together to create a relationship or even to fuck. They were employees of the Paranormal Investigative Agency and, as such, were carefully screened to ensure they would make good donors to the five Ancients. Four Ancients, he amended. Talon now had Joelle who he fed from exclusively since she was his Liaison. Charon never wanted to get entangled with another person. That kind of permanent relationship wasn’t for him. In fact, other than Talon and Joelle, he’d never seen a good relationship, and he really didn’t know about them. He wasn’t sure if they stayed together because they had to or wanted to. His parents had split as soon as they realized he carried the Ancient gene. He ended up with his mother only because his father had left first, and then, within the year, she was gone too.
    At least she’d dropped him on the doorstep of a place that cared for vampire children. He’d heard stories of vamps growing up among humans, not realizing what they were, until it was too late. Very young, he’d realized that he didn’t need anyone, couldn’t depend on anyone, but himself.
    Training the human was becoming a drag, he decided suddenly. He’d spent too much time on her anyway. Yeah, too much time on her, and not enough tracking down the blood cult. He was done. He’d just tell her he was cutting her lose and get on with his job. Fuck, why should he even have to tell her anything? He’d shown up and found her. The training was just something he did to pass the time. Now, it was over. When he didn’t show up, she’d know what it meant. The end. Decision made, he and Grimm disappeared back to home base.
     

 
     
     
     
    Chapter Two
     
    Patrick James Flaherty sat back in his chair and sipped expensive bourbon. Soon, he promised himself, soon he’d have enough money to bathe in the stuff if he wanted. Right now, with his parents controlling the purse-strings, he didn’t have the freedom he craved to go and do what he wanted. He would, though, as soon as he got what he wanted. The man sitting across from him guaranteed it.
    “Your sister is Aislinn Flaherty?” the man asked again. “The one I read about in the old newspaper articles? The one who claimed a vampire came into her room and killed her roommate?”
    Patrick stifled the urge to roll his eyes. Damn, the man was tedious. All he wanted to do was talk about Patrick’s crazy sister, Aislinn, as if Patrick cared. She was someone his parents had locked away to be forgotten. The rich and powerful Flaherty family didn’t do crazy and certainly not crazy big enough to get in the papers. He’d grown up being told over and over to never talk about her. To never mention her. To deny she was part of the family. And he had, until this man had come along flashing money and asking questions. So, now, Patrick would talk to get what he wanted. It was totally his parents’ fault. If they were more generous with what was rightfully his, he wouldn’t have to talk about crazy Aislinn.
    He glanced around