Page 36 of The Vampire's Hunter

“And you?” he asked.

Dani lifted a brow.

“Were you Catholic before, before you learned about our world I mean?” he elaborated.

Dani smiled then, glancing up at the altar’s wooden crucifix, before glancing down to where she nervously shuffled her feet. A poor attempt to hide the blush in her cheeks. “Considering my reputation, do you even have to ask, Corbin?”

Corbin blinked, surprised and more than a little taken aback, before an unexpected bark of laughter tore from his throat. “Is that a schoolgirl joke?”

Dani didn’t respond, simply smiled coyly, shrugging her slender shoulders a little, before leaving him to take her seat in the front row pew.

That was what he loved about her most, that she was constantly surprising him.

Making him feel. Making him remember the man he was.

Or had once been long ago.

Every time he thought he’d learned Dani’s truth, there was one layer, one other part of her that he had not seen. One part of him that she had not touched, hadn’t awoken what had been missing. What endless gifts might he unlock? What pleasures if they had an eternity?

But there was no eternity for her, and there never would be.

No, he may have been too selfish to have let her go, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t encourage her to live her life, and live it well, before she grew old and passed peacefully in her sleep. How could what he offered her be better?

Even ifthiswas what she chose. Or wanted to choose for herself. This undead existence he was living. He’d love her for eternity, that much was true, but eternity to a human….

She didn’t know understand the true meaning.

How could he ask that of her and more?

Corbin lingered where he stood for a long time, torn between joining her and Kharis, or allowing himself this space, this moment to grieve. He hadn’t been inside a church in several centuries, since not long after Rosalind had died.

He’d need to tell Dani about her soon, considering the promises he’d made.

“You know what I still don’t understand,” Kharis finally said, twisting from where he sat in one of the front pews, “how did Lucien know to glamour that poor woman?”

“Someone tipped him off in advance, clearly.” Dani shook her head in disappointment.

Corbin had known it, too

He had suspected the botched attempt on Lucien’s life wasentirelyhis fault.

“But who?” Dani asked, just as the old wooden door to the church opened and closed, a sharp click of high heels following in its wake.

“Cassandra,” Corbin answered, uttering her name by way of greeting as the siren entered the room.

Cassandra was breathtaking, of course. All sirens were great beauties. With flowing hair and bright eyes and curves that could stretch for days. But all Corbin saw now when he looked at her was disloyalty, hatred, greed. Greed that he would not gift her his heart, although he’d tried thoroughly.

Unfortunately, it’d already been claimed by another.

Though he hadn’t yet realized.

His gaze fell to Dani, the way her eyes went wide and how the point of her chin quivered briefly as she took in Cassandra’s beauty. But there was no comparison between them. Cassandra was perfect, unflawed, as angelic as she was deadly, and Dani, well, her flaws only enhanced her beauty, only made her truer, more real, and lovely.

Crafted by the hand of God in every way.

He looked toward Cassandra once more. He’d known she’d be sour that he’d chosen to end things between them, but he hadn’t exactly expected for her to sell him out either.

Clearly, Corbin had a blind spot when it came to the women in his life.

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