Tabitha hung up the phone, feeling a little odd about her conversation. And she felt even odder about Amanda's prediction for her health. It concerned her a lot, especially when combined with her own uneasy feeling.
She'd almost died twice three years ago when Desiderius had been out to kill Amanda and Kyrian. Since then, no Daimon had gotten near her. Mostly because she had honed her skills and become much more observant.
But the ones last night...
They'd been tough kills and a group of them had gotten away. Surely they wouldn't be back. Most Daimons vacated the area very quickly after they ran into her or one of the Dark-Hunters. Courage wasn't exactly something they were known for: Since they were young and the idea was to stay alive, very few Daimons wanted to run head-to-head with Artemis's army, which was comprised of warriors with hundreds, if not thousands, of years of combat experience on them.
Only Desiderius-who had been a half-god-had possessed the strength and stupidity to fight the Dark-Hunters.
No, the Daimons from last night were gone and she would be fine. Amanda must have had bad chicken or something.
She returned to Valerius, who was finishing up his food. "What are your powers?" she asked.
He looked a bit taken aback by the question. "Excuse me?"
"Your Dark-Hunter powers. Do they include premonitions or precog?"
"No," he said before taking a drink of wine. "Like most Roman Dark-Hunters, I got rather, and please excuse the crassness of this, 'shafted' in that department."
Tabitha frowned. "How do you mean?"
He took a deep breath before he answered. "Artemis didn't care for the fact that in Rome, she wasn't a major deity. Rather, she was mostly revered by our lower classes, slaves and women. So she carried her grudge over to us when we were created. I'm stronger than a human and faster, but I don't have the elevated psychic powers that the rest of the Dark-Hunters do."
"Then how do you manage to fight the Daimons?"
He shrugged. "The same way you do. I battle more skillfully than they."
Yeah, maybe, but she often found herself bloody from her battles. She wondered how often he did, too. It was hard to fight a Daimon as a human.
"That's not right," Tabitha said, angry on his behalf that Artemis would create such a disparity among her Dark-Hunters. How could the goddess turn them loose, knowing what they were up against?
Man, Simi was right. Artemis was a bitch-goddess.
Valerius frowned at the anger he heard in Tabitha's voice. He wasn't used to anyone taking his side in any matter. Neither as a man nor as a Dark-Hunter. It had always seemed his ill fate to end up on the losing end of any matter regardless of whether he was right or wrong. "Few things ever are fair."
He drained the last of his wine and rose to his feet, then inclined his head to her. "I thank you for the food."
"Any time, Val."
He stiffened at her use of a nickname he despised. The only people to ever use it had been his brother Markus and his father, and then only to mock or belittle him. "My name is Valerius."
She looked at him dryly. "I can't call you Valerius. Jeez. It sounds like some broken-down Italian car. And every time I hear that name I feel the deep need to break out into Vo-lar-ray, Oh, oh, oh-and then I start thinking of the movie The Hollywood Knights and believe me you don't want me to go there. So to save my sanity from that crappy song echoing in my head and images of a lunatic running around a high school gym doing unspeakable things, you can be known as Val or Babycakes."
His gaze darkened. "My name is Valerius and I will not answer to Val."
She shrugged. "Fine then, Babycakes, have it your way."
He opened his mouth to protest, but already he knew better than to argue. Tabitha had a way of doing just as she pleased, all arguments be damned. "Very well," he said grudgingly, "I shall endure Val. But only from you."
She smiled. "See how painless that is? Why would you hate the name, anyway?"
"It's coarse."
She rolled her eyes at him. "You must really be fun in bed," she said sarcastically.
Valerius was stunned by her words. "Excuse me?"
"I'm just wondering what it would be like to make love to a man who is so concerned about being rigid-then again... Nah. I can't imagine someone so regal getting down and dirty with it."
"I assure you, I've never had any complaints in that regard."
"Really? Then you must be sleeping with women who are so cold you could freeze ice cubes on them."
He turned to leave the room. "We are not having this discussion."
But she gave him no reprieve as she followed him toward the stairs. "Were you like this in Rome? I mean, from everything I've read, you guys were raw with sexuality."
"I can just imagine the lies they tell."
"So were you always this uptight?"
"What do you care?"
Her response stunned him as she pulled him to a stop. "Because I'm trying to figure out what made you like you are now. You are so closed off, you're barely human."
"I am not human, Ms. Devereaux. In case you haven't noticed, I'm one of the damned."
"Baby, open your eyes and look around. We're all damned in one way or another. But damned is a far cry from dead. And you live like you're dead."
"I'm that, too."
She ran a hot look over his scrumptious body. "For a dead man you look remarkably fit."
His face hardened. "You don't even know me."
"No, I don't. But the question is, do you know you?"
"I'm the only one who does."
And that simple sentence told her everything she needed to know about him.
He was alone.
Tabitha wanted to reach out to him, but could sense that she needed to give him some space. He wasn't used to interacting with people like her... then again, few were.
As Grandma Flora, the gypsy seer of their family, always said, Tabitha tended to come on to people like a freight train and mow them down where they stood.
Tabitha sighed as he took another step away from her. "How old are you, anyway?"
"Two thousand, one hundred-"
"No," she interrupted. "Not Dark-Hunter years. How old were you when you died?"
She felt a profound wave of pain go through him at the thought. "Thirty."
"Thirty? Jeez, you act like an old, wrinkled-up prune. Did no one laugh where you came from?"
"No," he said simply. "Laughter was not tolerated or indulged."
Tabitha couldn't breathe as his words sank in and she remembered the sight of the scars on his back. "Never?"
He didn't respond. Instead, he continued up her stairs. "I should retire now."
"Wait," she said, rushing up the stairs to sneak around him so that she could keep him still. She turned to face him.
She could feel turmoil inside him. Pain. Confusion. She knew just how hated this man was. Maybe he deserved it, but deep inside she wasn't so sure.
People didn't close themselves off from the world without reason. No one was happily this stoic.
And in that moment, she realized something. It was his defense mechanism. She got brash and wild whenever she was out of sorts or uncomfortable.
He turned cold. Formal.
That was his facade.
"I'm sorry if I said anything that offended you. My sisters often tell me that I've made offending people an art form."
A smile tugged at the edges of his lips and, if she didn't miss her guess, his eyes softened ever so slightly. "I wasn't offended."
"Good."
Valerius was tempted to stay here and talk to her, but he felt uncomfortable with the thought of it. He'd never been the kind of person other people chatted with. Even as a man, his conversations had revolved around battle tactics, philosophy, and politics. Never chit-chat.
His conversations with women had been even fewer than his conversations with men. Not even Agrippina had ever truly spoken to him. They had passed comments, but she had never shared her opinions with him. Merely agreed with him and did as he asked.
He had a feeling Tabitha would never agree with anyone, even if she knew they were right. It seemed a matter of principle that she had to disagree with everything.
"Are you always so outspoken?" he asked.
She smiled widely. "I know no other way."
Suddenly Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Gimme Three Steps" started playing on the radio.
Tabitha let out a small squeak of happiness and dashed down the stairs. Valerius barely had time to blink before she cranked the volume up, then ran back toward him.
"I love this song," she said as she danced to it. Valerius found it hard to focus on much of anything except the sway of her hips as she danced and sang to the song.
"C'mon, dance with me!" she said at the first guitar solo. She ran up the stairs to take his hand.
"This isn't really dancing music."
"Sure it is," she said before she broke into the chorus. In spite of himself, he was greatly amused by her. In all his lifetime, he'd never known anyone who enjoyed life so much, who took such pleasure from something so simple.
"C'mon," she tried again when the singing paused. "It's a great song. You have to admire anyone who can rhyme 'feller' with 'the head color yeller.'" She winked at him.
Valerius laughed.
Tabitha paused. "Oh, my God, he does know how to laugh."
"I know how to laugh," he said lightly.
She pulled him from the stairs and two-stepped around him before she used him as a maypole and continued dancing.
She let go, snapped her fingers and twisted down, then rose back up. "One day, I think you're going to bust out of those hand-polished loafers and actually cut loose."
Valerius cleared his throat and tried to imagine such a thing. It wasn't possible. There had been a time once, back when he'd been human, when he might have attempted it.
But those days were long gone.
Anytime he'd ever tried to be anything other than what he was, someone else had paid a terrible price for it. So he'd learned to stay as he was and to leave everyone else alone.
It was for the best.
Tabitha watched as his face turned to stone once again. She sighed. What would it take to reach this guy? For someone who was immortal, he certainly didn't seem to enjoy life very much.
In spite of all of Kyrian's faults, she had to give him credit. The former Greek general did enjoy every breath he took. He lived his life to its fullest.
Meanwhile, Valerius just seemed to exist
"What do you do for fun?" she asked.
"I read."
"Literature?"
"Science fiction."
"Really?" she asked, surprised. "Heinlein?"
"Yes. Harry Harrison is one of my favorites, as are Jim Butcher, Gordon Dickson, and C. J. Cherryh."
"Wow," she said, amazed. "I'm impressed. Go, Dorsai."
"Actually, I rather like Dickson's The Right to Arm Bears and Wolfling novels better."
Now that she found surprising. "I don't know, Soldier, Ask Not seems more your style to me."
"It is a classic, but the other two spoke to me more."
Hmmm... Wolfling was about a man alone in an alien world with no friends or allies. That further confirmed her suspicions about his life. "Have you ever read Hammer's Slammers?"
"David Drake. Another favorite."
"Yeah, you have to love the military stuff. Burt Cole wrote a book years ago called The Quick."
"Shaman. He was quite the complex hero."
"Yeah, strangely amoral and yet moral at the same time. Never sure what side of the fence he's on. Kind of reminds me of a few friends I've had over the years."
Valerius couldn't keep from smiling. It was so nice to have someone who was familiar with his guilty secret. The only other person he knew who read science fiction was Acheron, but the two of them seldom ever talked about it.
"You're a remarkable woman, Tabitha."
She smiled up at him. "Thanks. Now, I'll let you go on to bed," she said gently. "I'm sure you could use the rest."
She ached to give him a tender, friendly kiss on the cheek, but thought better of it. Instead, she watched as he headed out of the room, up the stairs.
Valerius made his way silently back to Tabitha's room. She had such a powerful presence that he literally felt drained just from having been around her.
He removed his clothes and hung them back up so that he wouldn't wrinkle them, then returned to bed to sleep.
But sleep was something that didn't come to him. For the first time, he smelled the perfume on her sheets.
It was Tabitha's scent. Warm, vivacious. Seductive.
And it made him instantly hard for her. He covered his eyes with his hand and ground his teeth. What was he doing? The last thing he could do as a Dark-Hunter was have a relationship with a woman. Even if he could, Tabitha Devereaux was the last woman on the planet he could have.
As a friend to Acheron, she was so far off limits to him that he should call Acheron again and demand he find some way for Valerius to leave.
But Acheron had left them together.
Rolling over, he did his best not to breathe in deeply or to imagine what Tabitha might look like in this bed. Her bare limbs entwined...
He cursed, then pulled a second pillow over toward him. As he did so, he saw a small black silk gown. An image of Tabitha in it seared him.
He couldn't breathe. Before he could think better of it, he pulled it close and let the cool silk caress his skin. He held it to his nose and inhaled her scent.
She is not for you.
It was true. He'd already killed one woman because he'd been foolish. He had no desire to retread that path.
He tucked the gown back beneath his pillow and forced himself to close his eyes.
But even then, he was haunted by images of a woman who should, by all reason, repel him and yet completely captivated and beguiled him.
Tabitha spent the rest of the day between her store and walking to the foot of the stairs where she forced herself to reverse direction and go back to business.
But she felt a horrible pull toward the Dark-Hunter who slept in her bed. It was stupid. He was an ancient warrior who didn't seem to even like her.
Yet his kiss had said something else. There for a few minutes, he had been as eager for her as she had been for him. He wasn't completely repulsed by her.
She waited until four, then went to wake him.
Opening the door slowly, she paused as she caught sight of him asleep. He lay with his back to her, but what made her stop was the fierce scars that crisscrossed his flesh. Those weren't battle scars. They were the kind of marks you would find on someone who had been beaten with a whip. Many times.
She couldn't take her eyes off it. Without thinking, she crossed the room and placed her hand on his arm.
He rolled over with a hiss and seized her.
Before she even realized what he was going to do, he had her on the bed beneath him, with his hand at her throat.
"Let go of me, Valerius, or I'm going to hurt you bad."
He blinked as if he were coming out of a dream. His grip loosened immediately. "Forgive me," he said as he lightly stroked her neck. "I should have warned you not to wake me by touch."
"You always assault people when you wake up?"
Valerius couldn't speak as he felt the softness of her skin beneath his fingertips. In truth, he'd been dreaming of her. Only she had been in his world. Dressed in nothing but a pearl necklace and covered by rose petals.
She was incredibly beautiful. Her eyes were so blue. Her nose pert and her lips... they were the stuff of legends. Full and lush, they begged for his attention.
Before he could stop himself, he lowered his mouth to hers.
Tabitha moaned at the taste of Roman warrior. His kiss was tender and soft, a total antithesis to the steely feel of his body. It melted her as she wrapped her arms around his bare back and traced the scars she found there.
And she was all too aware of the fact that he was completely naked.
Valerius growled at the feel of her tongue lightly stroking his. Of her scent and soft curves wrapped around him. The denim of her jeans scraped against his flesh as she opened her legs and cradled him with those long, lush legs. She raked one hand through his hair, brushing it back from his face before she sank her hand deep and held him to her.
He lifted the hem of her sweater so that he could gently cup her breast through the satin of her bra. She moaned deep in her throat, a husky raw sound that sizzled through him.
As Tabitha had pointed out earlier to him, he'd spent far too many nights with women who had never reacted so openly to his touch. She ran her hands over his shoulders, then down to the small of his back.
All he could think of was taking her. Of sliding himself deep inside until they were both sated and weak.
As he fingered the front catch of her bra, a tiny shred of sanity reared its ugly head. She was not for him.
He pulled his hand away.
Tabitha cupped his head in her hands and pulled back. "I know what you are, Val. It's okay."
She took his hand into hers and led it back to her breast. She pushed the satin aside until he felt her hard, swollen nipple teasing his palm. He couldn't breathe as he cupped her soft breast. She was so warm, so welcoming that he found it hard to believe he was anything special to her.
"Do you sleep with all the Dark-Hunters?"
She stiffened. "What?"
"I was just wondering if you'd been with Acheron... Talon."
She bucked him off of her at that. "What kind of question is that?"
"I just met you and twice now you've offered yourself to me."
"Oh, you arrogant jerk!" She grabbed her pillow off the bed and assaulted him with it.
Valerius held his hand up to shield himself, but she didn't stop.
"You are so stupid! I can't believe you'd ask me such a thing. I swear, I will never again be in the same room with you!"
Finally the pillow bashing stopped.
He lowered his arm.
She nailed him with a final blow upside his head, then released the pillow. "For your information, buddy, I am not the town bike. I don't sleep with every guy I get near. I thought you were... Oh never mind. To hell with you!"
She turned and stormed out of the room. She slammed the door so hard that it actually rattled the windows and shook the beads on her mirror and altar.
Valerius lay on the bed completely stunned by what had just happened. She had beaten him with a pillow?
He knew from his encounter with her last night that she could have assaulted him with something much more painful, yet she had refrained.
In all honesty, he was relieved by her untoward reaction. Her indignation had been too great to be feigned.
And that brought a strange warmth to his chest. Could it be that she might actually like him?
No. It wasn't possible. No one liked him. They never had.
"You are worthless. I weep for the day Mother bore you into this world. I'm only glad that she died before she could see what an embarrassment you are to the family." He flinched at the harsh words that his brother Markus had repeatedly hurled at him.
His own father had despised him. "You are weak. Pathetic. I should have seen you dead rather than waste the water and food it has taken to rear you."
Their words were kind compared to what his Dark-Hunter brethren had uttered.
No, there was no way Tabitha "liked" him. She didn't even know him.
He didn't know why she was so receptive to his touch.
Maybe she was merely a woman of strong passion. He was a handsome man. Not that he was vain about it. It was a simple statement of fact. Countless women had offered themselves to him over the centuries.
But for some reason that didn't bear thinking on, he wanted something more than a one-night stand with Tabitha.
He wanted...
Valerius forced his thoughts away from that. He didn't need anyone, not even a friend. His life was best spent alone, far away from other people.
Getting up, he dressed and left her room to go downstairs.
He met Marla in the dining room.
"Ooo, shug, I don't know what you did to Tabby, but you have her panties in a tight wad. She said to tell you to eat before she poisoned your food or did something worse to it."
Valerius was surprised to see veal marsala and an Italian salad with garlic bread waiting for him. "Where did that come from?" he asked Marla.
"Tony's from down the street. Tabitha sent me over there to get it. She and Tony aren't on speaking terms at the moment. God love her, she tends to make everyone irritated with her. But he'll get over it. He always does."
Valerius took a seat and then bit into heaven. He'd never tasted anything better. Why would Tabitha have gone to such trouble for him?
He was halfway through the meal before Tabitha came out of the door that led to her shop.
"I hope you choke on it," she snarled as she headed toward the kitchen.
Valerius swallowed his bite of food, wiped his mouth, then slid out of his chair to go after her.
"Tabitha?" He pulled her to a stop. "I'm sorry for what I said. It's just..."
"Just what?"
"People are never nice for no reason." And they were never nice to him.
Tabitha paused at that. Was he serious? "Was dinner okay?"
"It was delicious. Thank you."
"No problem." She pulled her hand away. "You probably know that it's already dark. I can get you home whenever you're ready."
"I just need to stop and pick up some lamp oil."
"Lamp oil? Don't you have electricity?"
"I do, but it's imperative that I get some tonight and get home."
"Okay. The chariot awaits four blocks over at my sister Tia's. We can grab the oil at her shop."
"She has lamp oil?"
"Yeah. She's a voodoo priestess. You probably saw the altar upstairs that she made for me. She's a bit offbeat, but we love her anyway."
Valerius inclined his head respectfully to her, then returned upstairs for his coat.
Tabitha was about to pick up his dishes when Marla shooed her away.
"I'll take care of that for you."
"Thanks, sweetie."
Marla wrinkled her nose. "Anytime. You two go and have a wild time for me. I want all the details."
Tabitha laughed as she tried to imagine what a "wild" time with Valerius might entail. It would probably be nothing more miraculous than getting him to wear a pair of tennis shoes and drink out of a paper cup.
Valerius rejoined her. She quickly ushered him out the shop door before Marla saw his coat and confiscated it.
He stopped so short inside her store that she actually ran into him. His jaw slack, he scanned the shop with a look of complete horror on his face. "Where are we?"
"My store," Tabitha said. "Pandora's Box on Bourbon. I cater to the strippers and drag queens."
"This is... it's a..."
"Adult store, yes, I know. I inherited it from my aunt when she retired. Now close your mouth and stop gulping. I make a lot of money and friends in this place."
Valerius couldn't believe what he was seeing. Tabitha owned a den of iniquity? Why was he even surprised?
"And this is exactly what has caused the Western world to decline," he said as she led him past a glass case of pasties and thongs.
"Oh, yeah, right," Tabitha said. "Like you wouldn't give your right arm to have a woman dressed in my stuff strip for you. Good night, Franny," she called to the woman behind the register. "Make sure you give Marla the receipts and deposit when you close up tonight, okay?"
"You got it, boss. Have a good night."
Tabitha led the way to the street. The city was already placing the barricades at the intersections that would turn Bourbon into an after-hours pedestrian mall. She hung a left onto Bienville Street toward her sister's house; all the while, she scanned for any suspicious activity.
Valerius remained remarkably silent.
As they neared the next intersection, she heard Valerius curse.
Two seconds later a lightning bolt struck him.