Primal Desire (Heart of the Huntress #6) - Terry Spear Page 0,2

be on her terminal list. Atreides would not harbor a rogue vampire, but there was no way a hunter was coming into their club to kill one either.

He watched as she continued on her way to the bar, her chin held high, her gaze taking in a few of the vampires and blood bonds filling the place. He sat on his chair at a table where he waited for Iconia, his girlfriend, to show up, who was late, as usual. He waited to see what the huntress was up to, but if he had to remove her bodily from the club, he had no qualms about it.

As soon as Selena Towson entered the Portland, Oregon dance club, disco lights flashing over the dark room making everyone look surreal, she knew it was a mistake. Then again, if she knew how to do anything extraordinarily well of late it was making mistakes. Not that killing the hunter was a mistake, but it sure had cost her when it came to having any friends now within the hunter community.

Clueing her in right away that coming here was the wrong thing to do, she saw that everyone visible to her in the packed place turned to stare at her. As loud as the thunderous beat of the New Age music was, no one would have noticed her, unless they were vampires or hunters. But this wasn’t a hunter club.

Fans circulated the air through the high-ceiling building and the scent of bloody cocktails drifted overhead. If that wasn’t enough to convince her where she’d ended up, two of the women standing nearby bared their extended canines at her in a sinister taunt.

Selena’s skin prickled as if thousands of stinging nettles had suddenly punctured it. Straightening her shoulders, she wouldn’t give up now. Had she known the woman called Twilight meant to meet her at a vampire hangout, Selena would have insisted on going to another place. Hunters did not enter vampire establishments, nor did vampires violate hunters’ space, not unless either intended violence. Just the hostile look from the vampiresses in the group was enough to prove at least one side was itching for battle.

Everyone wore black—satin, silks, taffetas, leather, the most dressed down—denim. Selena’s silky creation stood out like a red rose among a bed of black roses full of thorns. She had dressed appropriately for a human’s club!

Quashing the irritation that spiraled in her blood that she hadn’t had enough foresight to ask her friend more about this meeting place earlier, Selena proceeded to the bar. She had assumed Twilight was a human—unless she was a blood bond who offered sustenance to vampires for the sexual intrigue. The woman ought to have known a hunter would never enter a vampires’ lair unless he or she had no other choice. Well, Selena supposed she had no choice if she was to find her sister. This was the first lead she’d had.

Making her way through the crowd of men and women observing the dance floor, Selena felt every eye on her now. Faint unease skittered along her nerves—a necessary evil or she would be just as cold and heartless as a rogue vampire, who had long ago dispensed with any emotions. But she would not show how she felt in front of a bunch of vampires and their blood bonds. As much as she could fight it. She didn’t have any control over her heart rate, or the tiny smattering of chill bumps that erupted on her skin.

Wishing she could read their telepathic communication, she guessed at what most of them were thinking. What was a huntress, who was trained to take down rogue vampires, doing in one of their clubs?

The thing of it was she wasn’t like other hunters. Trained, yes. Always ready to take down a bloodsucker who was bad news—yes. But she wouldn’t always play by the League of Hunters’ rules. Too much corruption and politics for her. She did it her way—and had been ex-communicated for the latest infraction again—after killing a hunter in self-defense and protecting a vampiress this time. The punishment meant that she couldn’t legally carry a hunter’s weapon or have a list of vampire rogues to take down.

She ignored that rule too. Not that she was armed at the moment. Her weapons were waiting for her back in the car because no club allowed weapons inside. But being a hunter without her sword was like being a surgeon without a scalpel. They were just tools of