Huntress by J L Taft Page A

beautiful face. She was pale and her eyes were huge. It took her a second
to focus on him but when she did he knew in that moment there was no one else
for him.
    “Trent?” she breathed and smiled slightly at him.
    “I’m right here,” he whispered.
    “I know what I have to do now,” she told him.
    “It’s okay,” he said as he squeezed her fingers and lifted
them to his mouth to kiss her soft skin.
    “So tired,” she mumbled as her eyelids closed and she
slipped into sleep.
    He watched over her throughout the night, pulling her into
his lap on his granny’s lumpy couch when she thrashed in her sleep, holding her
tight against him.
     
    Dawn broke over the sky in a wide array of colors, deep
purples and pinks then changing to yellow and gold before finally the bright
blue of a new day.
    Fiona woke in Trent’s lap, warm and safe. His strong arms
held her close and his even breathing assured her he was asleep. She knew she
would never be able to move without waking him up. Now that she was awake she
remembered everything from the night before in vivid detail.
    She didn’t even have to focus and the memories were there
for her to call upon. Every kill. Every failure. Every face was there in her
mind.
    All of the training Grandma had picked up from her own
grandmother was there in her brain. Almost as if it were her own. It was no
match for real-life experience but it would certainly give her an advantage.
    She knew now how important it was for her to take her place
in line as a hunter. They kept the balance between the oblivious human world
and the world that lay underneath.
    Some of the vampires Grandma had hunted had been deserving
of their fates on the end of her sword. But some of them had just been in the
wrong place at the wrong time. She had been swift to deal out her own brand of
revenge in the name of justice.
    Fiona could see now that Grandma Eleanor had hunted without
discrimination. After her husband had been killed by a vamp she hadn’t looked
twice at the ones she was killing.
    She rubbed her hand against Trent’s chest as she sorted
through all the new information available to her. His even breathing changed
slowly and she glanced up at his face to see him looking down at her.
    He had cared for her the night before and she realized she
trusted him. She didn’t know when it had happened but as she stared into the
clear green of his eyes she knew he would put her life before his.
    She couldn’t let him. Somehow she was going to have to find
a way to make him understand they couldn’t be together. It depressed her to
know she had finally found someone she could open up to, only to have the
possibility of a relationship ripped away before it even started.
    “Morning,” he whispered, his voice gravelly from sleep.
    “Morning,” she replied and tried to untangle her limbs from
his lap.
    His arms tightened and she stopped trying to get up.
    “How do you feel?” he asked gently.
    “I’m all right. Can you take me home?”
    He hesitated and then said, “Let’s wait until Granny is
awake before we go.”
    Trent stared down at her and she felt that same shiver of
awareness that had drawn her to him in the first place. His eyes dilated and
changed into a darker green as his arms got tighter around her.
    His mouth lowered and he brushed his warm lips against hers.
Her tummy did a slow roll and her fingers went to his cheek. He groaned low in
his throat and deepened the kiss, his tongue slipping into her.
    He slid his arms out from under her and one hand went to the
back of her head so he could tangle his fingers in her hair and pull her
closer. His other hand suddenly cupped her breast and her nipple immediately
hardened at his touch.
    She noticed a couple things at once—the fact that she was
still wearing the sheer purple robe and she could hear Eve chattering on to her
cat as she came into the living room.
    Fiona jerked back out of his arms and stood, hurrying out of
the room to change. Closing