Connor had been a Slayer, and there was 58
Vampire Lover
little comfort to be had from that fact.
Hayden disembarked from his private plane and paused to look around the tiny airfield. The one useful thing about inheriting family money carefully gathered over the centuries was the protection it afforded him.
He could come and go as he pleased. A car waited to pick him up.
As the scents of home hit him square in the face, he took in a deep, overdue breath. He’d forgotten how much a part of him this land was, but still approached the car with reluctance. He was home because of Kelsie Connor, and returning to Ireland was dangerous for them both.
Hayden nodded to the driver before climbing through the open door. Noting how few lights shone in the distance, he settled on the leather seat. After the illumination of Miami, with its circus-style neon and continuous noise, the utter darkness of the rural countryside, coupled with the total absence of sound, caused a pleasant ruffling of his senses.
He could hear himself think. His thoughts turned to her, as they had every waking moment for the past week. As the car started off into a nighttime landscape lit only by stars and the car’s headlights, Hayden envisioned Connor’s face and tried to reason with himself.
The dilemma was driving him mad. She couldn’t have been faking, he was almost sure. Connor’s arms and legs had wrapped around him. She’d been like nothing he’d ever encountered, but did she have an Linda Thomas-Sundstrom
59
ulterior motive for her behavior?
He lowered the window to cool off his face, and tried to think about something else. Home. Ireland. An ancient land ruled by ancient edicts and timeless grudges. No one had dared stand in the way of the Flynn-Connor feud in all the years it had been going on. No one had put a stop to it. The two remaining recipients of that deathly grudge were supposed to have been raised to hate each other, and trained to fight to the death. But from what had already transpired between them, neither he nor Connor appeared to have the heart for this war. Quite the opposite. She’d have him think she didn’t know what she was.
He remembered the night her mother had died, because he had lost his father at the same time. Each of them—his father, Connor’s mother—had died by the other’s hand.
Hayden closed his eyes, let his head fall back against the seat. Fifteen years ago, Kelsie Connor would have been a kid. By now, though, a staff member for the Miami Tribune with a Connor grandparent of long standing in the Irish community, would have to know the score.
She would have to know that his father had gone after her mother, and that her mother had taken his father with her to the grave. Still…would Kelsie Connor have invited Hayden close if she knew those things?
Inhaling the familiar green smells, he thought he could smell Connor’s sultriness in the cool, fresh air.
Connor, damn her beautiful hide, haunted him in ways 60
Vampire Lover
no female had. He couldn’t wait until they met again.
Opposites, yet with so much in common. Like himself, she had fled from a place that held too many memories. The land of her ancestors. It was ironic that he had stumbled upon her, thinking to go far out of his way to avoid that very thing.
Serendipity? Fate? Had those things played a part?
Was the feud to end here, either way? Death, or a second embrace?
Kelsie Connor had some kind of mysterious hold on him. She was a warm ray of sunlight on his face, though she wore a curse around her neck. She had called this meeting, dictated its terms, he reminded himself. For revenge? In order to own her birthright?
To get back at him for giving in as much as she had?
He should want those same things for himself, but didn’t. Never had. He’d thought to relegate the battles to the past. He had made a vow to leave the next Connor Slayer alone. That it turned out to be Katherine Connor’s daughter had been a shock. Now,
Vampire Lover
little comfort to be had from that fact.
Hayden disembarked from his private plane and paused to look around the tiny airfield. The one useful thing about inheriting family money carefully gathered over the centuries was the protection it afforded him.
He could come and go as he pleased. A car waited to pick him up.
As the scents of home hit him square in the face, he took in a deep, overdue breath. He’d forgotten how much a part of him this land was, but still approached the car with reluctance. He was home because of Kelsie Connor, and returning to Ireland was dangerous for them both.
Hayden nodded to the driver before climbing through the open door. Noting how few lights shone in the distance, he settled on the leather seat. After the illumination of Miami, with its circus-style neon and continuous noise, the utter darkness of the rural countryside, coupled with the total absence of sound, caused a pleasant ruffling of his senses.
He could hear himself think. His thoughts turned to her, as they had every waking moment for the past week. As the car started off into a nighttime landscape lit only by stars and the car’s headlights, Hayden envisioned Connor’s face and tried to reason with himself.
The dilemma was driving him mad. She couldn’t have been faking, he was almost sure. Connor’s arms and legs had wrapped around him. She’d been like nothing he’d ever encountered, but did she have an Linda Thomas-Sundstrom
59
ulterior motive for her behavior?
He lowered the window to cool off his face, and tried to think about something else. Home. Ireland. An ancient land ruled by ancient edicts and timeless grudges. No one had dared stand in the way of the Flynn-Connor feud in all the years it had been going on. No one had put a stop to it. The two remaining recipients of that deathly grudge were supposed to have been raised to hate each other, and trained to fight to the death. But from what had already transpired between them, neither he nor Connor appeared to have the heart for this war. Quite the opposite. She’d have him think she didn’t know what she was.
He remembered the night her mother had died, because he had lost his father at the same time. Each of them—his father, Connor’s mother—had died by the other’s hand.
Hayden closed his eyes, let his head fall back against the seat. Fifteen years ago, Kelsie Connor would have been a kid. By now, though, a staff member for the Miami Tribune with a Connor grandparent of long standing in the Irish community, would have to know the score.
She would have to know that his father had gone after her mother, and that her mother had taken his father with her to the grave. Still…would Kelsie Connor have invited Hayden close if she knew those things?
Inhaling the familiar green smells, he thought he could smell Connor’s sultriness in the cool, fresh air.
Connor, damn her beautiful hide, haunted him in ways 60
Vampire Lover
no female had. He couldn’t wait until they met again.
Opposites, yet with so much in common. Like himself, she had fled from a place that held too many memories. The land of her ancestors. It was ironic that he had stumbled upon her, thinking to go far out of his way to avoid that very thing.
Serendipity? Fate? Had those things played a part?
Was the feud to end here, either way? Death, or a second embrace?
Kelsie Connor had some kind of mysterious hold on him. She was a warm ray of sunlight on his face, though she wore a curse around her neck. She had called this meeting, dictated its terms, he reminded himself. For revenge? In order to own her birthright?
To get back at him for giving in as much as she had?
He should want those same things for himself, but didn’t. Never had. He’d thought to relegate the battles to the past. He had made a vow to leave the next Connor Slayer alone. That it turned out to be Katherine Connor’s daughter had been a shock. Now,
Similar Books
