Vampire's Hunger Read Free Page A

that still ran in spite of being held together by hope and rusted bits of metal. The illumination from the pole light she’d parked under gave a glossy sheen to his black hair. When he saw her he slid to his feet.
    Duncan MacDonnough. Vampire prince-wannabe and royal pain in her ass. She’d known him for a couple of years. There’d been an initial, immediate attraction she’d done nothing to fight until the night she’d realized what he was and what that meant for her—that because of him she and her parents had come to the attention of the local vampire queen, and her parents had died.
    After that she’d made sure to keep things friendly but not too friendly, but there had always been a sexual undercurrent flowing between them she couldn’t deny. She knew if she issued an invitation to her bed he’d take her up on it. She just wasn’t overly interested in a relationship where her lover could drain her dry. No matter how sexy he was.
    “Duncan,” she greeted. After the night she’d had she was in no mood to put up with any of his crap.
    “Kimber.” His deep, husky voice rasped across her ears. As usual, his demeanor was solemn. Somber. “I hear you had some trouble tonight.”
    She stopped a few feet away from him and crossed her arms with a scowl. “And how did you hear that?”
    “Bishop.” He rested a lean hip against the back fender of her vehicle. It creaked and she had the hope it wouldn’t fall off. How embarrassing would that be? Duncan added, “We talked briefly when he came out to his car.”
    She frowned. “What, you’ve just been hanging out in the parking lot?”
    One of his dark brows quirked. On anyone else she would have thought it to be a sign of humor. With Duncan… She didn’t think she’d seen him smile more than a handful of times over the years she’d known him. “As a matter of fact… I was not,” he said. “I came to see the doc, but when Bishop told me what happened and said you were on your way out, I thought I’d wait to talk to you out here.”
    “Talk to me about what?”
    “You know about what.”
    She tightened her lips. She was not going to work for him or his queen. There was nothing in the world that would make her join forces with a bunch of bloodsuckers, even if she did regularly spill her own blood on the job. For one, she didn’t trust that none of them would bite her. Second, she didn’t trust that none of them would bite her. Yeah, that whole biting thing they had going on was the overriding reason she refused to work for them.
    She shoved memories of her parents’ dying expressions, agonized and fearful, to the back of her mind. “There’s nothing to talk about,” she muttered and moved forward. “Get off my car.”
    He straightened and let her unlock the door. As she opened it he said, “Maddalene is very determined, Kimber. And very old, which means she’s more powerful than you can know. I’ve never known her to not get what she wants eventually.”
    “Well, then, I guess she’ll finally have to learn what disappointment feels like.” She tossed her purse onto the passenger seat and turned to face Duncan. He was less than six inches away. She gasped and backed up until she bumped into the open car door. She hadn’t heard him move. It was surprise that made her move back, that was all. It certainly wasn’t because he was a hot, sexy beast that made her want to forget about all her misgivings. It had nothing to do with those clear glass-green eyes of his that seemed to see into her soul. Nothing to do with the way the muscles of his shoulders, arms and chest seemed to beckon her to rest within their shelter. Nothing to do with the way his night-black hair beckoned her fingers to twine in its depths.
    He rested a long arm on the roof of her car and bent toward her, effectively caging her in the opening of her car. “Be careful. She won’t put up with this attitude of yours any more than she’ll continue to accept your refusal.” His