Hunter's Blood Special Edition (Cursed by Blood Saga) by marianne morea

Sean.”
    Sean didn’t answer. He looked over to
his Lieutenant and flicked his head sideways. “Thank you, Jack, but I think
it’s better if I escort Ms. Saburi this afternoon. You can go.”
    The young man left with barely a nod,
but Lily remained, arms folded across her chest waiting for what Sean had to
say. Grabbing a jacket from the hall closet, he opened the front door. “Come
on, I’ll give you the grand tour.”
    Arms still folded, she followed him
out into the snow. The grounds were a blanket of white, except where the late
afternoon sun had cast shadows in a deep, amber hue. It was perfect. Or it
would be if things were different.
    Sean was gorgeous. There was no
denying it. And he affected her in ways she didn’t want to admit—there was no
denying that, as well. You’re weak, you’re letting your body betray you.
Betray Terry, her thoughts admonished.
    Yet, the more she fought it, the worse
it got. How could her body want what she had vowed to destroy?
    The snow crunched under their feet,
leaving footprints five inches deep as they walked. Sean didn’t say a word but
led the way across the lawn toward a large greenhouse. The glass walls were
frosted over as if painted with intricate lace. Wrought iron benches lined the
walk way, and there were stone urns with the remains of winter withered
flowers, frozen in ice.
    Stopping to clean the snow from one of
the benches, Sean took off his jacket and laid it on the seat, motioning for
Lily to sit.
    “What about you, aren’t you cold?” she
asked.
    “Nope. It’s a Were thing. Our bodies
naturally run warmer than humans. I guess you might say I’m a hottie,” he
winked sitting down on the bench, patting his jacket again. “Sit down. I won’t
bite.”
    Lily sat with a huff. Did he have to
sit so close to her?
    “Pretty isn’t it?”
    “Yes, it is,” she sighed. “Sean, I…”
    “Tell me about Terry,” he said cutting
her off. Deftly redirecting the subject, he wanted to steer clear of her
questions. “I’ve never encountered a shade before, and I’m curious. Has she
been haunting you long?”
    Lily pushed her legs back and forth
digging deep grooves in the snow with her heels. She knew Sean watched, but she
didn’t look up. She also knew he had deliberately changed the subject. “To
answer your question, Terry wasn’t always a shade. She was my best friend. We
grew up together. Our families were extremely close, so when mine was killed in
a car crash, Terry’s family took me in.”
    Sean fell silent. The wind had picked
up blowing Lily’s chestnut hair loose. He couldn’t see her face, but he didn’t
need to. Her sorrow was in her scent. “I’m sorry, Lily. How old were you?”
    “Ten. It wasn’t too long after that my
psychic abilities showed up.” Lily exhaled sadly, looking out at the horizon.
The sun was low in the sky, casting a halo of gold across the distant treetops.
“Terry believed my abilities were a gift from God, a way for me to still see my
folks. She was the only one who knew. That is until I started working with the
police.”
    “But you’re a bounty hunter? You hunt,
and you kill. How does that fit in with helping the police?”
    “Bounty hunter? I’m no bounty hunter,
Sean. I hunt for one reason and one reason only. Revenge. And don’t pretend you
don’t know why. Terry was murdered not far from here, by the same thing that
almost killed me out on the cliffs.
    “I had been working a lot of cases.
Mostly unsolved homicides and kidnappings. The sadness inherent in that type of
case load became too much for Terry. You see, she was my business partner as
well as my friend. Terry was tired. She wanted to take a break from our
investigations, but I didn’t. I had become immersed in them. The case here in
Maine was supposed to be a compromise. A routine haunting. Something easy.”
    A hawk cawed in the sky above them
pulling her attention, but even its shrill sound couldn’t drown out her guilt. It
should have