Page 10 of The Vampire’s Hunter (Rogue Brotherhood #2)

10

T he moment Corbin finished his speech, Dani tore from the room, more thankful than ever for the reprieve. She hadn’t been able to breathe since the moment Cassandra had walked in, moving with all the grace of a preternatural beast. A kind of grace to which she could never aspire. Not if Corbin had his say.

She found her refuge in the choir room, her heart still racing. She could hardly keep her balance, hardly think.

Why was it so difficult to breathe? Though, if she was honest, she already knew.

Because Corbin had an entire life, an entire existence before her. Hell, likely several, and yet, he’d never bothered to share it with her. It was one more sign of how little importance she was to him. One more reason she needed to take fate into her own hands.

Dani’s mind wandered, each recollection of Cassandra’s words bringing fresh pain again.

Suddenly, Dani felt as if she’d been transported then, back to several years earlier as she stood outside another mansion, another party, one that was so much like the one she’d attended with him two nights before. An unexpected rain as she’d walked up the driveaway, her taxi driver unable to navigate through the sea of town cards and private limousines, had left her soaked through, ruining her dress and smearing her makeup, until she was certain she’d looked awful, but none of that had mattered, or it at least, it wasn’t supposed to, as she’d stood on the steps, waiting outside the entrance to the party for longer than she knew.

She’d waited, and waited, and waited, until still he hadn’t come.

And finally, when others noticed she was waiting too, for the first time in her life she’d felt like a fool. For assuming Corbin could ever want her, for mistaking his kindness as an invite to be his mistress, or at the very least, the woman on his arm for the night.

She’d been about to go home. She even would have walked if she had to. Anything was better than standing there, realizing she’d been made a fool. She turned to leave then, only for Cillian to stop her by her wrist.

“Come inside,” he’d whispered, his voice a glamour filled hiss. “Come inside and join me, Dani.”

Abruptly, the door to the choir room opened, startling Dani from the memory. The door shut just as quickly, sealing behind whoever entered.

Dani swiped at the tears which prickled at the corner of her eyes and spun to face him. “You could have told me that you—”

She stopped; her words cut short.

“You thought I was Corbin, didn’t you?” Cassandra asked, taking a step toward her. “Don’t worry. He’s looking for you. I just happened to get to you first.”

Dani stepped back a little, placing more distance between them. “Please, don’t hurt me.”

At that, Cassandra threw back her head and laughed, her joy a sharp, and shrill cackle. “Now, explain to me why I would want to do that, hmmm?” She trailed her manicured fingers over a nearby music stand, her words sharper than its metal edges. “Corbin already wants me dead for how I sold him out to Lucien. Touching you would make me a fool.”

There was that word again, the one she’d used to disparage herself. Dani didn’t know how Cassandra knew the power it held over her, but the siren latched onto it like a hungry babe at the tit.

“You make him look foolish, you know? Every time he stands beside you when he could be standing by me.” Cassandra ran both hands over her breasts, down the curves of her sides, curves any woman would have envied. “I’m more beautiful than you’ll ever be,” she whispered through pouty, full lips. “Anyone with eyes can see it.”

“You’re right,” Dani admitted. “You are beautiful.” She let her gaze fall over Cassandra’s form, appreciating. “Flawless really.”

Cassandra preened, smiling that smug grin of hers.

“But Corbin sees my flaws, scars and all,” Dani gestured to her own body, “and he likes those, too.” She met Cassandra’s eyes then. “I don’t think he’d say the same for you.” Forcing herself to be braver than she usually would be—practice, she supposed—Dani stepped forward. “You may be beautiful, Cassandra. More beautiful and powerful than I’ll ever be.”

Her gaze raked over the other woman, voice lowering to a whisper. “But inside you’re ugly, and it’s what a man thinks when he’s inside that really counts.” Dani drew toe-to-painted-toe with the other woman, turning down her nose at her. “You’d best run back to Angelo. No doubt he’ll be missing you.”

“Don’t be surprised when he gets bored with you,” Cassandra said, a surprising flash of pain in her eyes. “Corbin took longer than most, but eventually, they all grow bored with you.” To Dani’s surprise, Cassandra left without another word, slithering back to her new lover. Thankfully for Dani’s pride, the gorgeous siren had miscalculated on exactly where to hit Dani to make it hurt, what to say truly undo her. It wasn’t Cassandra’s beauty Dani envied. Dani was a beauty in her own right. True: a human beauty, but a beauty, nonetheless.

No, it wasn’t Cassandra’s sumptuous looks that drew Dani in, made her heart turn green with envy. It was the power Cassandra exuded from every pore. The power that came from being a siren, from being an untouchable, supernatural entity. Someone who could defend herself, who didn’t have to rely on anyone to save her anymore.

And given time, if Dani had her say, she’d claim that same power for herself.

And her revenge against Lucien, too.

It was all within her grasp. All she needed to do was reach out and take it.

Corbin had scoured the whole of the church’s interior and had even contemplated clomping across the grounds all the way to the rectory, before finally on his second pass through the main corridor, Cassandra blew past him, spitting angry. “She’s in the choir room, if you must keep searching.”

Corbin quickened his steps, moving a faster. Reaching the choir room shortly, he paused momentarily, before finally charging in.

Dani sat in one of the practice chairs, her back facing toward him, staring up at a painted portrait of Christ, as she thumbed through an abandoned music sheet.

“Is it true?” she whispered, not bothering to turn toward him. “Tell me, is it true?”

“Whatever Cassandra said to you Dani, it—”

“Is it true that you grew bored of Cassandra and that’s why you left her? From my guess, only a handful of days before me.”

Corbin chose his next words carefully. “I’ve lived a very long life, Dani. I won’t apologize for having relationships before you.”

“I don’t expect you too,” she whispered softly, her voice cracking a little. “But why didn’t you tell me you had a wife? Children too?”

The question settled between them, unsurprisingly heavy.

“I lost them a very long time ago,” Corbin said, treading gently. “I don’t see why it’s—”

“Because it’s important to you,” Dani snapped, glancing over her shoulder toward him. There were tears running down her face, fat, wet tears, tears full of real emotion, something he’d once worried he hadn’t felt in decades. Not until Dani at least. “They were important to you, so they’re important to me,” she whispered, instinctively knowing the kindest thing she could say. “Tell me about them.”

Corbin stood silent for a long time, searching for the right words to say, and realizing there were no words that would ever do them justice. They were thoughts, feelings. Memories lost in the sands of time, slowly drifting away with each passing day.

And still, their loss haunted him.

“Rosalind would have loved you,” he said finally, speaking of her for the first time in an age. “She was a kind and gentle woman, a survivor, much like you. Fearsome only when she needed to be. Plague had taken most of her siblings very young, so she wanted a large family. Most women at that time did. She always longed for a sister. She was, in truth, a woman set in her ways—quiet, full of virtue—but I think, despite your differences, she would have adored you.”

“And your children?”

Corbin hesitated. “It’s still too difficult to speak of them, but we…we lost them, shortly after Rosalind faded away. Elias and Gertrude. Elias lived to the old age of twenty and three, only to be lost to smallpox. Gertrude barely made it to two.”

“I’m sorry.”

“When Rosalind died, they were lost without their mother. They relied on her, as children are ought to do. Sometimes, I think…sometimes I think if she hadn’t died so soon after I… after I was changed, that they would have lived, too. That I would have been able to see them through.”

“You can’t possibly know that, Corbin. You can’t blame your—”

“I can,” he said, not allowing a moment of her pity. “I can and will continue to blame myself, because their deaths were mine too.”

Dani lifted a brow, clearly misunderstanding.

“Shortly after I was turned, I…I tried to turn Rosalind.”

The sharp hiss of Dani’s breath told him she knew. She knew what a poor choice that’d been, though at the time he hadn’t. “Newly turned vampires have little control, you see,” his voice continued, though it felt as if it’d been, disembodied from him. “They’re not yet fit to become sires. Had I known…had my own sire ensured I was properly educated then, maybe…”

“Oh, Corbin.” Dani stood, making her way toward him.

“I do not want nor need your pity.” He shook his head, refusing to accept her outstretched hand.

Slowly, it returned to her side once more.

“I only ask that you try to understand, why I—”

“Why you refuse to turn me,” she finished for him. “Why you’re afraid.”

“It’s not turning you I’m afraid of, Dani,” he said, finally holding her stare. “It’s the risk of losing you, that thing that makes you you . It’s not something I can do.”

Dani was shaking her head, refusing to see his reasoning. “But Corbin, if you don’t turn me, you’ll still lose me. I’ll grow old. I’ll rot away and turn into—”

“But first you will have lived,” he countered. “First, you will have lived a long and happy life, far away from this world. That is what I hope for you.”

“And what about what I hope for, too?” Dani patted a hand against her chest, indicating the heart that beat beneath. “Have you ever stopped to consider what I hope for too?” She shook her head at him, incredulously. “All my life I’ve been preyed upon, hurt, by men like you.”

Corbin bristled at the insinuation, but still she continued.

“I can no longer find a home among humanity when I’m the only human in every room who knows about you, your world, about all the dark and twisted and beautiful things that wait just beyond the dark. That kind of knowledge, when you bear it alone, it kills you softly, sweetly, Corbin.”

“Dani—”

She held up a hand, causing him to fall silent once more. “I’m not yet finished,” she said, inhaling a breath clearly meant to fortify herself. “I know your world. I know the human one too. I’ve seen the darkness in both and been given a chance to choose, and while I’m certain my brother will hate me for it, it’s your world I choose. The world I know best. The world without rules. The world that, if you turn me, will empower me in ways I’ve never known, because I will be born anew, and most importantly, I will be able to share in that newfound power with you.” She met his eyes then, her irises once again teeming with tears. “I’ve loved you for years, Corbin, even when you have not loved me.”

The silence that stretched between them then felt vaster than eternity.

“Please say something,” Dani whispered.

Corbin shook his head, sitting down on one of the nearby choir chairs, before he ran both his hands through his hair. “You know nothing of what you speak,” he said, refusing to look at her.

Dani bristled. “I have lived in your world for more than—”

“That’s not what I mean, Dani,” he snapped. “Do not ever claim that I—”

“You left me there, Corbin,” she hurled the words at him, tears falling violently. “You left me standing alone at that godforsaken party. Or was it so insignificant to you that you can’t even be bothered to remem—”

“I did it to protect you!” he shouted, standing once more. “I did it to protect you, because I have loved you since the moment I first held you in my arms years ago. And I will continue to protect you, from this too. As I’ve done countless times before. As I continue to do, even in my weakest moments.” He dropped his gaze to her lips, brushing the spot where he’d first smeared her lipstick. “Even when I almost came back to you.”

Corbin could see the exact moment Dani’s breath caught. Could hear the way her heart raced as he reached just above her breasts, pulling the delicate gold chain which laid against her skin, until the skeleton key appeared. “You never once questioned who gave this to you. Who would leave you such a message?”

Dani shivered a little, practically vibrating with untold emotion. “I…I didn’t think—”

“No, you didn’t.” He released the key, allowing it to fall round her neck once more. “You didn’t once think that denying you, leaving you, could possibly hurt me too.”

She was crying again. Tears aplenty. “I didn’t know.”

“Of course,” he cupped her chin in his hand. “How could you? How could you when I worked to hide it so well?” His hand slipped around the back of her neck, pulling her to him.

He claimed her lips then, pouring every emotion he felt into it, no matter how new. Every joy, every heartache, every misguided quest for revenge. He gifted it all too her. Everything he’d once held back. Everything he’d thought he could feel no more. Save for one final confession.

By the time Corbin broke the kiss between them, they were both panting, Corbin’s cock growing hard as the claimed one another in a delicious battle of tongue, touch, and teeth.

But he wouldn’t be dissuaded from gifting his truth to her. Not this time.

“Do you know what this is a key to?” he asked, once more clutching the chain of the necklace. “This is a key to my heart, to my home. That’s why I gave it you to.”

Dani looked a little confused, causing him to smile. “To your penthouse?” she asked, as if the answer were a little anticlimactic.

Corbin chuckled. “Yes and no,” he said, drawing her to him once more. “You’ll find it works there these days, but it was originally designed for a small cabin in Yorkshire. A home that belonged to my parents.” He cleared his throat. “To me and my wife, too, before she died.” Saying these things was far harder than he’d anticipated, but he hadn’t come this far only to run at the first sign of fear. “She would have wanted it to belong to you.” He kissed her, a soft brush, gentle brush of lips. “To someone who brings me more happiness than I have any right to.”

“Then turn me, Corbin,” she pleased. “Why won’t you allow me that same happiness, too?” She smoothed a single hand over his cheek. “An eternity of it?”

“Because I cannot do that to you, Dani. I cannot bear the thought of your death being on my hands, bear the memory of you dying in my arms. It’s why I left you standing in the rain on Cillian’s porch that evening, why I threw myself over you in that ballroom, even though I thought I might still lose you, even though I knew I might lose my revenge against Lucien, too. And I’d do it all again. I’d do it all again in an instant.”

“Your revenge?” Dani’s eyes suddenly grew wide. “Lucien,” she breathed, a knowing gleam passing through her eyes. “Lucien is the vampire who sired you, only to abandon you,” she said, finally making the connection.

“Yes.” Corbin didn’t say anything further on the matter.

He didn’t have to.

“Which means…your wife, your children wouldn’t have died had Lucien not turned you, not left you unknowing of your own kind’s ways, your own weaknesses, and yet, I…I took your chance away from you. Your revenge.” Her voice trailed off.

Dani gripped him by his shirt then, suddenly desperate. “What can I do? What can I do to make it right?”

“There’s nothing you can do, darling, short of saving yourself.” He wiped one of her tears away with his thumb, where it trailed across her cheek. “I’m a broken man, Dani. No one can undo that. Not even you. So, when this is through, leave. Leave this world and never come back.”

“I can’t.” She shook her head, pulling away from him. “I can’t do that to you.”

“You can and you will, Dani.” He captured her in his arms. Dani. His love. His fearsome huntress. A sharp-eyed harpy disguised as an angel. “Go forth, darling. Live your life. Live it well and full of joy as I know you can do. Find a husband, a human husband, one who will laugh and cry and have children with you, beautiful blue-eyed children that will make your belly and heart so full, you’ll never once long for the things you left behind you.”

“I don’t want that,” she cried. “Don’t you see? I don’t want any of that, unless it’s with you.”

“I can’t give you that life, Dani. I cannot give you any kind of life at all. I can only give you death.”

A slow clap sounded behind them, as sharp as it was sarcastic. “This has all been rather touching, truly, but there’s someone waiting for you.” Cassandra scowled, before beckoning them back into the main room.

Corbin wasn’t the least bit surprised by the new faces he found waiting there.

“Lucien,” he said.

“Quinn,” Dani echoed, as if it were a chore for her to breathe. She came to stand beside him then, staring at her brother, shaking her head a little, as if for the first time ever he’d disappointed her too. “What did you do?” she breathed, eyes darting toward Lucien momentarily.

“I warned you, Dani,” Quinn said, slipping off his Stetson and placing it over his heart as if in apology. “I warned you there was a split in the organization.”

Corbin didn’t need to hear the steady beat of Dani’s heart to know it’d been ripped in two, decimated by a man who had the gall to consider himself her family. “So, you decided to throw your lot in with the vampire who raped me and come for my boyfriend, too?” She gaped at him.

“To be clear,” Corbin said, in an attempt to lighten the mood, “I am too old to be called anyone’s boyfriend, darling. Only lover will do,” he said, glaring directly at Quinn.

Apparently, he was now taking his cues from Cassandra and Angelo when it came to pettiness. But in this case, he’d take whatever shot he could take.

“There was nothing I could do.” Quinn swallowed. His apology appeared sincere. “I’m sorry, Dani.”

“And I suppose it’s the same for you?” Corbin asked, turning to address the other members of the bloodsucking crowd. “You’d all continue to war amongst yourselves sooner than bow to another?”

Angelo shrugged. “It’s politics. Nothing personal, Corbin. But between me and you, it’ll always be me I choose.” He stroked a hand down Cassandra’s leg. “And Sandy, of course.”

Sandy? Corbin lifted a brow toward Cassandra as if to say, You sell me out and this is the idiot you go running to?

Cassandra shrugged her expression implying, He’s better than you.

At least that was one area in which they were in agreement, because while the other vampires in the room were just as ancient, and lethal as he was, he was the snake in the Garden, the one precious Eve had been tempted to, and for a man who’d crafted his life as if it were a stage, his last act was hardly through.

“Of course,” Corbin said, his smile twisting into something fierce. “Which is why I planned for your betrayal. All of you.” His eyes turned toward Quinn and Lucien, then to the other bosses of the syndicate. “Consider this fleeting moment my goodbye gift to you.”