Page 3 of The Vampire's Hunter

“Why are you here, Quinn?” she sighed.

Quinn leaned back in the booth, propping his arms over the cracked vinyl seat. “Can’t a man check up on his baby sister without getting the third degree?”

She lowered her eyes, instantly ashamed. Her brother had never been unkind to her, even if she didn’t care for his protective instincts. “I’m sorry. It’s just…I…wasn’t expecting you. That’s all.”

When she glanced back, Quinn’s gaze seemed to have softened then. However, briefly. Like how he’d looked at her when they’d been children. Before she’d been a disappointment to him. Back when it’d been them against the world, and before he’d stopped fighting her battles for her.

“How are you, Dani? Really?”

She gave a little shrug. “Good as I’ll ever be.”

Quinn didn’t respond.

Dani shook her head. “You know how it is. I’ve got a job now. Two, actually. Though I’m getting fewer hours at the bar these days, but I’m making my own rent, barely. Waitressing gives me enough to keep food on the table, and you know, that’s about all I could ask for really.”

Quinn grunted his disagreement. “And why here?” He gestured to the diner around them. To all the humans in it.

Like them and yet, somehow, different. Neither of them would ever be one among them.

Not with the knowledge they’d been forced to carry since she’d been barely more than girl, and Quinn barely a man.

Back then, her brother had been her anchor, though he’d been just as orphaned as she’d been, thrust into a knowledge of a supernatural world neither of them had ever wanted a part of.

Now, things were different.

For a moment, Dani wasn’t certain how to answer.

Howhadshe ended up here?

However, it’d happened, it was better than before, that’s for certain. Better than when she’d been trapped under Cillian’s thumb, unable to escape, and yet…

“Trixie thought it’d be better if I stepped away from the community for a bit,” she said, lowering her voice. As if speaking in whispers could somehow hide her shame.

“Trixiethought it’d be better?” Quinn lifted a brow as if to say,But not you?

Dani winced. That was the thing about her brother, he’d always seen straight to the heart of her. She’d once liked that. When exactly had he started judging her for it?

“We both decided, I guess?” She shrugged a shoulder.

Quinn didn’t appear convinced.

Dani huffed again. “Did you come here to just point out all the ways I’ve disappointed you, Quinn, or are you here for a reason?”

Quinn’s eyes widened, like he was surprised at how uncharacteristically confrontational she was being. “I don’t think you’re a disappointment, Dani. I just think you deserve better. I wishyouthought you deserved better, that’s all.”

And there it was.

Dani couldn’t help it. She was crying now. No longer able to hold back her tears.

She swiped at them with the back of her hand, but there was no stop to it. The floodgates had opened. “And you came here just to tell me that?” She sniffled.

“No.” Quinn shook his head.

The tears came faster then, silent but steady.

Of course she’d known that. She’d known from the moment he’d walked into the diner that she wasn’t the reason he was here, and yet, she’d still allowed herself to believe otherwise, to hope that someone was finally here to save her, to give her the home base she’d been searching for since long before either of them had ever been orphaned. Their parents had never exactly been kind before their deaths, but still, she’d been dumb enough to trust Quinn when he said he was here to check up on her.

That had always been her problem, hadn’t it? She was too trusting. Too naïve. Everyone said so. She’dletherself be taken advantage of time and time again.

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