She nodded. He ran around the building and closed the other door. Then he hunted around the nearby buildings for something to secure the doors. Eventually, he found some long lengths of rope in what looked to have been a tool shed. He lashed the handle and tied it back to a rock outcrop. Then he raced back to the blonde.
She looked around as he approached. 'You took your time.' Her words were punctuated by thumps against the door.
He showed her the rope then began lashing the door. 'Do you have a name?' he asked, realizing he couldn't keep referring to her as 'the blonde.'
She hesitated again. 'Seline.'
He looked at her as he began securing the other end of the rope to the door handle of the building directly opposite. 'Really?'
'Really.' She crossed her arms and looked somewhat defensive. 'Why?'
'Because you don't look like a Seline.'
She raised a dark eyebrow. 'Then what do I look like?'
He shrugged. 'Something softer.'
A smile twitched her lips. 'Softer? Do I look the soft type to you?'
His gaze did a tour down her body, then rose to meet hers again. Heat touched her cheeks, and awareness and longing burned in her amazing eyes.
'I think you're cotton candy with a steel core,' he said softly.
She smiled. 'You could be right.' Her gaze lingered on his for a moment, and then she glanced down and frowned. 'You're bleeding.'
A fact he knew, as he could smell the blood. It wasn't much more than a trickle though, and would undoubtedly dry up soon. He shrugged. 'Got shot a few days ago. The wound is taking time to heal.'
'You'd better let me look at it.'
'It's fine.'
'But it might get infected.'
'I said, it's fine.'
She still persisted. 'But if it was silver—' 'Damn it woman, I do not need or want your help—with anything.'
She raised an eyebrow, her expression closed, yet green-tinted eyes filled with anger and frustration.
'Fine. I'll just be leaving to continue my search for those men, then.'
He frowned. 'Alone?'
'Yeah. Why not?'
'Because you are a woman, and this is a rough town. And because wolves come in all forms.'
She shrugged. 'I can protect myself.'
'So you've said before.' And he was no more inclined to believe her now than he was then, despite the fact she'd tipped him on his ass earlier.
He glanced at the town below them. Lights shone warmly from the hotels and the whorehouse, but there seemed to be little activity anywhere else. Dunleavy hadn't been down there at dusk, and previous night searches had proven useless. He had a feeling tonight's search would prove just as useless.
And as much as he didn't want this woman's help, he also couldn't bear the thought of her wandering out here alone. Why, he had no idea. It wasn't as if she meant anything to him. Lord, he'd only just met the woman. Yet, at the same time, it seemed as if he'd known her forever.
He met her gaze again. 'Perhaps I should accompany you on your endeavor.'
She raised her eyebrows. 'Why? I thought you didn't want my help?'
'I don't. But if you insist on wandering out here alone, then I shall accompany you. I intended to search beyond the main boundaries of the town tonight, anyway.'
'So this is not so much an offer of help, but a way of protecting me while you continue your own search.'
'Precisely.' He turned and offered her an arm. 'May I escort you free of this mill? The paths tend to be uneven.'
'My sight is as good as yours, vampire.' She brushed past his offered arm and strode away, as if to prove her point.
He chuckled softly. He'd never met such a fiercely independent woman before, and while it was annoying, it was also extremely refreshing. Would she be this feisty in bed? Somehow, he suspected the answer would be yes.
He followed her, enjoying the sway in her walk, the flash of calf. She hitched her skirt up as she reached the longer grass, revealing lithe, well muscled legs. Not a woman who spent most of her time on her back, that was for sure.
He lengthened his stride to catch up with her. 'So, what does the witch do when she is not hunting killers?'
'I do not spend my time whoring with drunk or sober louts.' She cast him a sideways glance. 'What does the vampire do?'
'For the most part, try to stay out of trouble.'
'Some things never change,' she muttered. 'Vampires, no matter what the age, are a close-mouthed lot.'
He raised an eyebrow. 'You've associated with vampires previously?'
'Yeah.' She looked at him, and there was something in her eyes that strangely stirred him. 'You might even say I love one.'
'If the feelings are returned, then why are you here alone?'
She ducked her gaze away from his. 'Because my vampire went away.'
'Ah. I'm sorry.'
She shrugged. 'It doesn't matter.'
It mattered a lot, if the sense of hurt and frustration he was picking up from her was anything to go by.
Though why he was picking such things up from her was something he didn't know. 'Would it help if I say vampires rarely stay in relationships for long?'
Her gaze came back to his. Amusement touched the amber-lit green depths. 'So I've been told.' She hesitated. 'Have you had many long-term relationships?'
'Very few.'
'How many is very few?'
He raised an eyebrow. 'That is none of your business.'
She smiled, and he couldn't help feeling her amusement came from a joke he should be able to share.
'You called me a whore, but I can count the number of men I've had on a couple of fingers. Can you say the same, vampire?'
He studied her for moment, wondering why this seemed so important to her. Wondering why the thought of her having had a couple of lovers tore at him so. 'That depends on what you term a relationship.'
'More than just sex. And more than a few nights.'
'Ah, well.' He paused, thinking back through the long years of aloneness. 'Maybe three.'
Her eyebrows raised. 'Really?'
'Really.' His voice was a little sharper than he'd intended. 'Watching someone you love grow old and die is never easy. Mostly, it's better not to love.'
'Then why not make your lover a vampire?'
'Are you always this damn nosy, woman?'
'Yes. And I tend to nag when I don't get the answers I want.'
'All women nag. It's an ability I'm sure you're born with.'
Amusement touched her eyes. 'And it seems men are born with the innate ability to sidestep questions.'
'Then let me answer yours. Turning your lover into a vampire almost never works, because the fledgling stage of vampirism is basically a madness that can last ten or twenty years.'
They skirted the old pump house situated on the southern edge of the pond and continued on. The scent of
