Austin's Lost Bride (The Sterns) by Mindi Winters Page B

about the other hunter.
    Rebecca didn’t even want to look over at the figure moving out of the shadow. The flutter in her stomach told her everything she needed.
    “Hello, Austin,” she said.
     
     
    Scuffed up, dirty, bruised, and bleeding Rebecca still looked beautiful, thought Austin Stern. A tight fitting hunters suit didn’t hurt either, he smiled.
    “Don’t clean your dagger,” he said.
    Rebecca shot him a hard stare. “I know my job,” she said.
    He shrugged. “You were trying to do my job, so I’m trying out yours.”
    A lone police car was outside the building now and approaching sirens meant more cops would soon be here.
    “Take care of the bodies. I’ll get Mannus’s blood on the ground.”
    Rebecca nodded, her eyes still seething. He watched her move quickly to apply oil on each of the thrall’s, noticing her trim figure as she bent over each of them. He started throbbing, and he wondered if it was more than just her arm and leg muscles that had gotten stronger since they had seen each other.
    More cops had arrived on the scene. An officer commanded them to come out and surrender.
    “Ready,” she said.
    “Do it!”
    Austin marveled at her control and finesse. Her arm must hurt like hell, he thought. She etched a quick word of power and a glowing symbol formed in the air in front of her. The thrall’s bodies erupted as incandescent light and turned to nothing but dust. No trace of human existence remained and nothing for forensic CSI folks to work with. Austin smiled.
    Instinct took over as Austin grabbed Rebecca and spun her to the ground. Bullets poured into the building from the police, but he couldn’t stop a vision of him throwing her down, slipping between her legs and thrusting into her.
    Rebecca smacked him. “What the hell are you thinking about? We have to get out of here.”
    He was crazy. She hated him and now was definitely not the time to be thinking sex.
    The shooting stopped and they were commanded to come out again. The building was surrounded.
    “Hold my hand, you idiot. I can veil better,” she said.
    She held her hand out and he took it. The strength in her grip startled him. She had trained hard. They got up and he wondered how it would feel to have her hands work their way around his body and over his cock as the bulge in his pants got bigger.
    He waited for the world to change. When he looked up, the night sky and moon were just as clear as before. Rebecca started walking toward the exit and he frowned.
    “Veil us here,” he said.
    Rebecca let out a single laugh. “We are veiled. Keep quiet and let me lead. Don’t let go of my hand even for a second.”
    Rebecca smirked and Austin realized he must look like his face had just been hit by a sledgehammer. His own veils, when they were done well, left him looking at the world through a huge fuzzy haze. Good enough to get around undetected, but crap for noticing details in the outside world. Even the best cast veils should leave a slight but still noticeable snow effect on his perception of the world. But Rebecca’s was perfect.
    Her abilities were less combat and more on the sensitive side of detection, tracking, and stealth, but he couldn’t deny her talent. She really was one of the most powerful hunters alive today, he thought. But here she is trying to be a lone wolf and do her own vampire crusades wet work.
    The police were approaching the exit as they neared it and she swung him in front to go out first. Their eyes met and she gave him a wicked grin. He was fucking dead. We’re not really veiled and she’s going to push me out and get me killed by a cop.
    He started to say something but she squeezed his hand and with her other hand put one finger to his lips to silence him. He stayed quiet and thought how he wanted to put his mouth around that finger and suck it slowly. Her eyes looked triumphant as if he had lost some contest he didn’t even know he was in.
    They moved outside and she swung back into the