Hunting My Vampire (Immortal Vampire #3)

Chapter Two

Jack

The moment I met her I forgot about everything else.

The proposed merger with the Colorado hotel group, the resorts we were looking to acquire around Aspen and the staff issue we’d been having at the Luxury Suites in Brayer.

After laying eyes on Kaya Lee, I could not unsee her and I didn’t want to.

I had been waiting for her for over a hundred years. It had gotten to the point where I was beginning to give up, to think it would never come my way. That I would never again meet anyone whose company I could stand for longer than a few hours.

I had noticed her arriving at the concert, of course.

I had been in a foul mood, not wanting to sit through a bunch of schoolchildren making a racket in aid of fundraising but I had promised the school principal I’d attend. As CEO of the Topaz Group, I had social responsibilities. Our business sponsored many of the school activities and I was supposedly a guest of honor.

It was important to be seen to be friendly and gracious, as warm as possible. My family has tried to be conciliatory and welcoming towards humans and, in return, we have had access to business dealings that many of our kind have not had.

It was important to nurture these relationships even if only for appearances.

I was tired that day though, fed-up with dealing with one business crisis after another.

Then I noticed her arriving. Dressed as though she was about to do some yard work, or cleaning, unlike the rest of the audience who had made some effort to dress up. She wore jeans and a work shirt with her hair scraped into a ponytail but the way she walked, graceful yet powerful, brought to mind a panther moving through the shadows and I was determined to meet her.

I had noticed her slipping out early on and followed her.

Our little interaction had been delicious, her aggressive, cold behavior was a huge turn-on. I could only imagine what she would be like in bed. I pictured her fighting me, trying to push me away. I was more turned on than I had been in years.

As she walked off, I motioned to my driver, Zoran, who was standing by.

“Who is that?”

“Do you mean Kaya?”

Kaya. What a wonderful name, I thought, it suited her beautifully.

“Details!” I demanded.

“That’s Kaya Lee,” said Zoran. “She works at an auto shop in town. Fixes cars.”

“That’s unusual for a woman, is it not?” I asked.

Zoran laughed. “She’s not your typical Hawston kind of woman,” he said.

No surprises there.

There was something very different about her, the fire and the energy she had shown in our interaction had sparked a kind of desire I could not and would not ignore.

“I want to know everything about Kaya Lee,” I said, watching her disappear into the crowd. “Where she lives, works, who she is with. Her family, her past. Everything.”

“Yes, sir.”

I could tell Zoran wanted to say something but held back.

“What is it?”

“She’s…uhm…different,” he said.

“What do you mean?”

He shrugged and I impatiently pushed him for the truth. “Spit it out, man!”

“She has a reputation,” he said, uncomfortably. “Some guys tried to mess with her… she put two of ‘em in the hospital. She’s trouble. Probably unstable, violent.”

Wonderful, it gets better and better, I thought.

The last thing I wanted was a pushover, some boring little bird twittering on for hours about clothes and parties. Human females were unfortunately often prone to this kind of behavior.

I went out to the street, my eyes scanning the crowd and I spotted her walking down the street, holding the hand of a little girl. Was this a complication? I couldn’t quite picture her as a mother. Not that this would scare me off. At this point, nothing would have been able to hold me back.

We drove back to the castle, which these days, was called the house, even though it had twenty rooms and five reception areas, most of which were unused these days. In my father’s day, there had been parties and dances, huge gatherings with entertainers and music, dancing until the early hours of the morning. My father had died a few months ago, I was still busy taking over and was head of the family business. My brother had some responsibilities, but working was the last thing on his mind. I had inherited all of this.

All of it was mine.

We all knew it.

But times had changed.

The car drove to my lodgings at the back of the castle.

As I went in, my assistant, Natania, rushed out to meet me.

“Charlotte has sent me a message,” she said, a little out-of-breath. “She is coming for the weekend after all.”

This was annoying. I had forgotten that I had tentative plans with her. Charlotte Deane was an actress with whom I had a casual relationship. Our agreement was loose and unspecified, we saw each other when we could, no strings attached. She was beautiful but unpredictable, which was part of her appeal for me. Human beings tended to be so predictable.

But Charlotte had told me she wasn’t coming.

“She’s changed her mind,” said Natania.

“You’ll have to meet her at the airstrip and let her know I had to go out of town.”

“What?” she frowned. “What do you mean?”

Irritated by this new development, I raised my voice.

“Just tell her I’m not here, ok?”

I could see Natania didn’t like this. She got on well with Charlotte and thought she was good for me. Natania was young and I thought of her as family more than an employee. She was one of the human staff members that I had appointed to help us interface with the mortals. People preferred to deal with humans when they had business with vampires, I’d found. She took her job seriously, rather too seriously, I sometimes thought. She could be meticulous in arranging my schedule, sending me endless reminders of meetings and dinners. When I blew her off, or told her to move appointments, she could become tetchy, which I usually treated by putting her in her place. But she was very efficient, which I liked. I could become distracted and disliked being bothered by details. I liked to think of myself as a big picture and vision kind of person.

“Did something happen in town?” She asked. “You seem… different?”

I often ignored her when she pried too much into my affairs. She needed to learn some boundaries, I sometimes thought, or get a life. She had her own room in the castle and was off only over weekends. She could be like a little chihuahua, I thought, annoyed.

I went inside and closed the door behind me, quickly.

I needed to think.

My senses were sharp, heightened. I felt a keen awareness of everything around me and I knew this was because of Kaya. It was intoxicating, this desire I felt for her.

I opened the window and enjoyed the cold bite of the wind. Winter would soon be here, bringing a thick layer of snow to the fields and roads. I took to the air, heading for town. I didn’t know where she lived but I knew what her truck looked like and Hawston was a small place. It didn’t take me long to find it parked on a quiet road outside a modest house.

I went closer, saw the unkempt garden, the slightly neglected air of peeling paint and cracked windows. I snuck up through the bushes and saw Kaya on a couch in the living room reading a book. I stared at her and she looked up, not right at me but behind her. The way one does when you feel yourself being watched.

She closed the book and got up looking at the window.

I stood back, melting into the darkness.

She had sensed my presence, I realized.

Her senses were sharp too, which was not common in humans.

I wondered if she was perhaps another kind of creature but her smell had been unmistakably human.

I wanted to go up to her door, knock, and sweep her off her feet but I knew I had to wait. These things took time and I couldn’t rush it.

Even though I knew that behind her hostility and her dislike, she had been hiding her attraction to me. I could feel it, I knew it was there. She would only be able to resist it for so long.

Meanwhile, I had to wait a little longer.

What was one day when I’d already waited so many years for this?

But I really struggled to walk away from the house, to leave her there. I wanted to stand outside her house all night long and watch her sleep.

I didn’t want to risk being caught out though. Here was Kaya coming outside to check that everything was all right. She opened the door and peered into the night. She turned her head and stared straight at where I was hiding in the bushes. I was sure she couldn’t see me but it seemed like she was able to sense I was there.

For a moment, I thought she would call out to me, tell me to come out. I would have done that without hesitation, going to her, walking into her arms. Nothing could have given me greater pleasure.

She seemed to hesitate, unsure of what to do but then she turned around and went back inside, locking the door. She drew the curtains to stop me from looking at her but I already had her etched in my mind. I could hear her walking through her house, restlessly going up and down, back and forth.

I know what you need, Kaya, I thought, feeling myself harden at the thought. Soon, you will get it.