Page 23 of The Vampire's Hunter

Dani was simply one thing more.

Another of his men walked past them then, nodding to Kharis, who returned the gesture. Kharis faced Corbin, lowering his voice to a whisper. “They’re in position now.”

Dani’s brow furrowed. “Who’s in position?”

If Corbin didn’t know better, he would have said she was growing suspicious of him. Well, within the past moments, at least.

“Nothing, darling,” Corbin said, lying through his teeth, as he pulled her to him, into another intimate embrace. The way she melted against him either showed her adoration for him was genuine, or else, Dani was a far better actress than he gave her credit for.

Over top her head, he shot Kharis a harsh look, before he laid a kiss within the soft span between her throat and her cheek. She smelled of the sun, and summer rain, of honeysuckle and every daytime delight he’d once held dear. The woman was temptation incarnate.

Goddamn, he was a right bastard, betraying her trust like this.

But he’d worked too long, too hard not to see this through.

His own revenge took precedence.

“Now’s your cue, darling,” he whispered. “Godspeed.”

To Dani’s credit, she played her role well, meeting his kiss with a tender peck of her own, her soft, red lips brushing against the barely there stubble of his jaw. Her hand trailed over the curve of his bicep, down the arm of his suit coat, and to his fingers, where she lingered there, holding onto him briefly, as if she were inviting him to a private rendezvous. As if she couldn’t bring herself to part with him, for even a moment.

Corbin grumbled his approval, his fangs aching at the sight, his cock growing hard.

Fuck, she was making this difficult.

Everything with Dani had always been difficult.

She slipped into the ballroom’s ether, as at home among the beauty and the harsh cruelty which lay beneath the facade as any one of them. She was a part of this world, and yet, not.

Not in the ways that truly mattered.

“Are you certain you want to do this?” Kharis asked from beside him.

Corbin nodded. “We’ve been through this. We stick to the plan.”

Kharis lifted a brow. “And if the plan means you no longer get to enjoy your little human? If she hates you for it?”

Corbin swallowed, hard. Some sacrifices were worth making, and already he’d sacrificed more than a century. What was one thing more?

“Tell Orpheus to stick to the plan,” he said, “And if Dani gets in the way, then so be it.”

Better she be dead than continue to make him feel.

To remember everything he’d tried so hard to forget.

Ridinga high from the thrills of the evening, Dani snaked her way across the dance floor, making her way toward the stairs without fear. All she had to do was slip quietly upstairs, undetected, and then she was home free. She was in the home stretch, almost there now, so close she could taste it, when suddenly, a sharp hand tugged at her wrist.

She rolled her eyes. This was getting old quickly.

She turned, expecting to find Zane again like she had in the club the night before, but instead, it was Lucien who held her in his grip.

Instantly, Dani’s blood ran cold.

“He doesn’t know I’ve already had you before, does he?” Lucien hissed, the hate in his words sharp enough to pierce. “He doesn’t know that I’ve already had my way with you?”

Dani twisted toward him, spitting into his face. “Fuck you!” she shouted.

She wouldn’t be manhandled anymore.

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