The Hunter Read Online Free Page B

in one of the three brothers of the Chosen?”
    Rathe’s gaze bored into her as if the question were complete idiocy.
    “I’ll take that as a yes.” Rumors of the Chosen ran rampant among the children of the night, like a scary bedtime story told to scare little demons straight. In the Darkin world, now her world, everyone believed the Jackson brothers could be the Chosen. Three brothers who were merciless, determined Hunters unlike any that had been seen in generations.
    She could see now why Rathe had chosen her and not just any succubus. For the last twenty-five years she’d been studying the legend, looking for any loophole that might get her out of her ill-conceived bargain with Rathe so she could return to her sister, maybe live a normal human life. Lilly was sure there wasn’t anyone but one of the Chosen who could possibly undo what Rathe had done in capturing her soul. In her efforts to learn all she could about them, she had become somewhat of an expert on the Chosen, and on Colt in particular.
    “Where can I find him?”
    “Bodie.”
    Lilly laughed, the sound light and musical, like chimes in the wind. “That’s easier than I thought.” Perhaps Rathe did have a sense of humor. Going after a Hunter who liked women, and who was already in Bodie, was like offering a drunk a bottle of whiskey—the chance of refusal was nil. And she already knew enough about Colt to know precisely what to offer him to gain his cooperation.
    Rathe’s mouth broke into a wider reddish slash in his pale white face. Revealing two rows of pointed teeth with slightly longer canines, it was as close as he’d ever get to a smile. “You have three weeks. Good hunting, Lillith Marie Arliss.” He vanished in a cloud of dark particles. At least she was alone in her room once more.
    Lilly sighed. She pushed back her thin curtains and glanced out at the moon. In three weeks it would be new with an eclipse—the darkest a night could get, and a powerful time for endings and beginnings. She let the curtain drop, then flung off the covers and got dressed. There was no point in going back to sleep. Rathe might have found a sense of humor, but he’d still be impatient.
    She blew on the wick of the candle in a brass holder by her bedside and it flamed to life, casting the room in flickering light and dispelling the sulfur stench Rathe had left behind. Nothing else bore evidence of Rathe’s visit, not even the worn wooden floorboards covered by a braided rag rug where he’d stood, or the washstand with its chipped white porcelain pitcher and bowl. Capturing a Hunter’s soul was no easy matter. If he were a normal man, she could materialize in his dreams and steal away with his soul after she’d killed him with the biggest orgasm of his life. A Hunter would never give her the opportunity. No, she’d have to make him believe he wanted her, needed her, as much as any mortal woman before he’d let himself go with her completely enough to snare his soul. And that would require gaining his trust.
    The way to a man’s mind was first through his eyes, then through his britches. But the way to his trust, to taking his soul if he was an experienced Hunter who knew demons, that was through his family. And in the case of Colt Jackson, specifically his older brothers.
    She waved her hand, materializing three small books on the faded thin quilt on her bed. All of the books were bound in black leather that had grown shiny through wear, and each was intricately tooled with the gilded name of a Jackson brother. When she’d studied the legends about the Chosen, the three brothers prophesied to bring about the opening of the Gates of Nyx and control all Darkin, she’d never dreamed she’d ever meet one, let alone have to seduce him.
    Instinctively she reached for the book with the name COLT emblazoned in gold across the black cover, caressing the familiar leather. She’d already read this book more than a hundred times from cover to cover. She knew