She leaned forward and whispered. “This is the part where you say, ‘Yes, Simi, I would like to be your family.’ ’Cause if you don’t, then I’ll have to take my mitt back and barbecue you. Akri is still upset about the last Dark-Hunter I barbecued and that was… oh, a thousand or so years ago. He part elephant when it comes to remembering things. So tell me, do you want Simi to be your family?”
He smiled in spite of himself. “Yes, Simi, I would like to be your family.”
She beamed. “Good. You’re such a smart Dark-Hunter.”
Before Gallagher realized it, Simi had led him back to Sanctuary. She opened the door and stood back, waiting for him to enter. The earlier loudness was nothing like what was happening now. There were four hawks lined up on one curtain rod, dancing in time to the rocking Christmas carols. The Howlers (all in human form) were singing while Dev Peltier played the piano. A white tiger was lying on its back on the sofa while Marvin the monkey jumped up and down on its belly.
A large black bear he assumed was Aimee Peltier was feeding two baby cubs peanut butter sandwiches. A red-headed human woman with a scar on her face came up to them and grabbed Simi into a hug. “Hey little demon, where’s boss man?”
Simi shrugged. “He off attending to Lord Queen Pain-In-My-Butt. How are you, Tabitha? Is your sister and Kyrian coming?”
“No, they’ll be here tomorrow. Morning sickness hit Amanda as they were leaving, but Talon said he’d be here just as soon as he could.” The two of them drifted off into the crowd.
Gallagher stood back, watching the revelry. There were Arcadians here, Katagaria, Dark-Hunters, demons, humans, and who knew what else. By all rights none of them should get along and yet they were together tonight.
Bound by something other than blood. They were bound together by their hearts.
Colt came up to him. An Arcadian Sentinel, his job was technically to hunt and slay the Katagaria. But years ago the Peltiers had rescued and protected Colt’s mother and then raised him after her death. He was as loyal to the bear clan as any of their natural sons.
Smiling, he pulled a pineapple mitt out of his back pocket. “Man, Gallagher, you must really rate. You got one of the good fish. All I got was a lousy pineapple.”
“What, does everyone she meet get one?”
“Nope. Only family.”
Gallagher looked around at that and saw something he hadn’t noticed earlier.
Everyone there had a mitt.
UNTIL DEATH WE DO PART
Prologue
Romania, 1476
He was coming for her. She knew it. Esperetta of the house of Dracul could hear him out in the cold darkness. Unseen. Fearsome. Threatening.
And he was getting closer.
Closer.
So close, she could feel his breath on her skin. See his evil eyes as he relentlessly stalked her through the night while she ran from him, hoping to find some way to escape.
He wanted her dead.
“Esperetta…”
There was magic in that deep, sultry voice. It’d always had a way of making her weak. Of lulling her into a stupor. But she couldn’t afford that now. Not after she knew him for the monster he really was.
She stumbled through the darkness as the fog seemed to wrap itself around her, slowing her down, pulling her back toward where he waited to devour her. The cry of wolves echoed on the wind that sliced through her dirt-stained gown and cloak as if she were naked in the woods.
Her breathing labored and painful, she tripped and fell against a wall of solid black steel. No, not steel.
It was him.
Her hand was splayed over the frightening gold emblem on his armor of a coiled serpent that mocked her with its venom. Terrified, she looked up with a gasp into those deep, dark eyes that seemed to penetrate her. But that wasn’t what scared her. It was the fact that she was in her white burial gown. The fact that she’d clawed her way out of her own grave under the weight of the full moon to find herself alone in the church cemetery. She’d stared down at the tombstone that had held her name and death date for almost an hour before she’d found the courage to leave that place.
No longer in Moldavia as she’d been when she went to sleep, she was in a small village outside of Bucharest. In the churchyard by her father’s castle, where she’d been born. Needing to understand what had happened to her, she’d made her way toward her father’s home, only to find an even worse horror than waking in her own grave.
She’d seen her husband kill her father before her very eyes. Seen him gleefully hand her father’s head off to his Turkish enemies. Screaming, she’d run from them, out into the night.
And had run without stopping until now. Now she was in the arms of a man whose black armor was covered in her father’s blood. A man she’d sworn to love for all eternity.
But it wasn’t this man she’d loved. This was a coldhearted monster. A liar. He might bear the same imposing height. The same long black wavy hair and sharp, aristocratic features, but it wasn’t Velkan Danesti who held her now.It was the devil incarnate.
“Let me go!” she snarled, wrenching herself away from him.
“Esperetta, listen to me!”
“No!” she shouted, moving away as he tried to touch her again. “You killed me. You killed my father!”
He scowled at her and if she hadn’t seen his darker side for herself, she might even believe the sincerity he feigned. “It’s not what you think.”
“I. Saw. You. Kill. Him.”
“Because he killed you.”
She shook her head. “You lie! You’re the one who gave me the poison. You! Not my father. He loved me. He would never have hurt me.”
“Your father stabbed you through the heart when he saw you dead to make sure you weren’t feigning.”
Still, she didn’t believe him. He was lying and she knew it. Her father would never have done such a thing. When Velkan had given her the sleeping balm he’d told her that it would make her sleep so soundly that no one would know she was alive. He’d promised that no one would bury her, since that had always been her fear. Side by side, they were supposed to awaken from their sleep so that they would be free to stay together forever.
But she hadn’t awakened in her bed. She’d awakened in her grave.
Now, she knew what he’d planned all along. To kill her and her father so that he could avenge his own father and take their lands for his family. Velkan didn’t love her. He’d used her and like a fool, she’d played into his hands and cost her father his life.
She ran for the woods again only to have Velkan overtake her.
She tried to pull away, but he held her arm in a fierce grip.
“Listen to me, Esperetta. You and I are both dead.”
She frowned at him. “Are you insane? I’m not dead. I only slept as you said I would. What madness are you trying to convince me of?”
“No madness,” he said, his eyes burning into her. “When we wed, I bound our souls together with my mother’s sorcery. I told you that night that I didn’t want to exist without you and I meant it. When your father killed you, I swore vengeance against him, and after he killed me, a goddess came and offered me a bargain. I sold my soul to her so that I could avenge you by killing him. For you. I didn’t understand when I made the bargain with Artemis that it would involve you, too. Because I live, you live. We are joined together. Forever.” Then he did the most unbelievable thing of all. He opened his mouth to show her a set of long, sharp fangs.
He was an upyri!
Her heart pounded in terror. It couldn’t be! This wasn’t her beloved husband, he was an unholy demon. “You’re in league with Lucifer. My father was right. All of the Danestis are an evil who must be purged from this earth.”
“Not evil, Esperetta. My love for you is pure and good. I swear it.”
She curled her lip at him as she pried his grip from her arm. “And my love for you is as dead as my father,” she spat before she ran through the fog once more.
Velkan forced himself to stand still and not follow her again. His bride was young and she’d been through a shock tonight.
She would return to him. He was certain of it. In all the violence and horror of his life, she’d been the only thing he’d ever had that was good and gentle. She alone had touched his long dead heart and caused it to live again. Surely, she wouldn’t stay angry at him. Not when all he’d done was protect her.
She would see the truth and she would return to him.
“Come back to me soon, my Esperetta.” And then he uttered the one word that had never left his lips before. “Please.”
1
Chicago, 2006
“Just out of curiosity, can an immortal choke to death on a baby?”
Retta Danesti cut a vicious glare to her best friend as she tried to swallow the bite that was lodged painfully in her throat. As a shape-shifter who’d befriended her over five hundred years ago, Francesca was well aware of the fact that Retta’s husband had sold their souls to the goddess Artemis and by default made Retta immortal.
And Francesca’s latest news had stunned her so badly, she’d sucked a piece of bagel down her windpipe, where it burned like fire.
Francesca pounded her gently between the shoulder blades. “C’mon, babe, I knew it would piss you off, but I didn’t mean for it to kill you.”
Retta reached for her bottled water and finally cleared her throat even though her eyes were tearing up unmercifully. “Now what did you just tell me?”
Francesca put her hands in her lap and gave her a level stare. “Your husband is opening the Dracula Theme Park in Transylvania next summer and the key attraction is the mummified remains of Vlad Tepes – Dracula himself. Apparently Velkan’s going to release the body to scientists so that they can verify the remains through tests and prove that it really is The Impaler of medieval legend.”
Every part of Retta seethed. “That rank bastard!” She cringed as she realized several heads in the deli turned toward her.