Brendon waited until nearly dawn up on the same roof he had sat on the night before but the vampire, Ella, did not leave her home. This ensured Brendon had plenty of time to think.

Ella did not fit the description of any other murdering vampire he had ever hunted.

She killed men, but only men who were treating women badly. She spent her days visiting with orphans. She was seemingly scared to death of her own shadow and so very very sad…..

Why was she sad? Brendon wanted to know. He wanted to make her smile. He figured she’d probably have a pretty smile.

He shook his head to clear such foolish thoughts. He was a Hunter. It was his duty to kill whoever the council sent him to kill. It didn’t matter how badly he wanted to help her, it was his job to end her life.

But could he?

Of course he could. He’d been a Hunter for centuries. He was one of the best, despite his slightly rebellious nature. He was damn good at what he did and if killing her is what he had to do than he would do it.

And he’d have to do it soon so he could make it back to the council before they sent someone after him. After the stunt he’d pulled with Grange, they would not tolerate him staying gone.

Whatever this strange tenderness he felt for this vampire was, it was time that Brendon forget it. He would kill this vampire the next time she went out to kill a man. That was just what had to be done.

His mind resolute and set to the task he had to complete, Brendon climbed down from the roof and made his way to the hotel to get a few hours of sleep.

When he woke it was breakfast and he made his way to the diner to eat and then went for a walk to the edge of town to check the house where Ella lived. He walked close to the house, noticing the cracks in the log construction and wondering why no one thought to fill them with mud.

It was clear that his house had been constructed before the sawmill had been built, before the city had grown and expanded.

He scented the air, searching it for the her scent and while it was thick in the air here since this was her home, he could smell it stronger, more concentrated in an upstairs window.

She was still at home.

Brendon breathed deep through his nose and clenched his fists tight, fighting the urge to go to her.

Brendon had never felt a pull like this toward a woman before. He wanted to take care of her, which was odd since Brendon had never been the caretaking type.

He’d been trained to be strong and independent and just assumed that everyone else should have to be the same.

So why then did he want to protect and take care of this vampire? This vampire that he was sworn to kill?

The vampire with haunted eyes that were so light green they were nearly translucent when they gazed back into his own appearing almost dead and expressionless.

This vampire who could ruthlessly kill a man one night and then visit orphans the next day?

It didn’t matter, Brendon decided. Whoever she was, whatever this was that Brendon was feeling, it could not be. He would do the job he’d been sent to do and then he would get back to the council and hopefully be put back on their good list.

Brendon’s mind went back to the orphanage and the little girl, Maggie. He had promised the girl chocolate, though he wasn’t sure why since he didn’t normally take to children. He liked them and their innocence, it was just that they were so fragile… Brendon did not like becoming too close to anything that could be so easily destroyed.

But a promise was a promise and Brendon was a man of his word. He had vowed to bring chocolate and so it was chocolate he would bring.

Chocolate wasn’t cheap and not many places even had the sweet stuff but this was a big city full of rich people so he was more than a little confident he’d be able to find some and as far as money went, the council gave him a certain amount a month for expenses, he figured it was about time he used some of it.

***

Ella had only intended to get Widow Callahan’s attention and ask the old woman how Maggie was feeling this morning. She had walked to the back of the orphanage and looked over the fence to see the kids all running and playing happily, while the red haired boy, Benjamin, helped Maggie as she limped around on a tiny crutch.

Ella had been preparing to turn away then before the girl could notice her but then she had seen him. Brendon.

He threw his head back and laughed loudly at something Maggie said and Ella might as well have been under a spell. She walked, without telling her legs to do so, to the gate and pushed it open and then her legs carried her, without her permission, straight to Brendon, who had stopped laughing and was watching her with curiosity.

“Miss Ella! I knew you’d come back.” Maggie exclaimed as she limped hurriedly to Ella and threw her arms around her legs.

“Uh.. Yeah.. Yeah I came back.” Ella replied as she snapped out of her daze and realized where she was. She spared a quick glance at Brendon’s face and saw that he was frowning as he looked down at her.

“Look, Ella! Brendon brought me chocolate just like he said he would!” Maggie exclaimed as she pulled away and held up her half eaten chocolate bar. Ella nodded.

“I see that.” she replied, noticing the chocolate that was smudged all over the young girls face.

“She shared some of it with me too.” Benjamin stated and Maggie giggled.

“A girl has to share with her beau.” she replied and Ella raised a brow, Brendon chuckled and Benjamin blushed furiously.

“Okay, children, it is time to go in and have our rest time!” Widow Callahan called out from the doorway.

With moans and groans of varying volumes the children all made their way to the door. Maggie handed Ella the last of her chocolate.

“You can have it. Widow Callahan won’t let me take it inside.” she said with a sigh. Ella thanked the girl and then watched as Benjamin helped her back inside.

It was then that Ella realized she was alone in the back yard with Brendon.

She looked at him and found herself confused by his expression. He looked torn and confused himself. His hand was resting on the gun on his side and his face was drawn as he stared at her with his free hand clenched tightly into a fist by his thigh.

And yet still she felt that pulling in her soul. That instinct deep down that said she could trust him.

But why?

She absentmindedly raised the remaining chocolate to her lips and broke off a piece between her teeth, moaning and feeling her eyes slipped closed as it melted against her tongue and the bitter sweetness filled her mouth.

Then she froze and the chocolate still left in her hand, fell onto the sparse grass and dirt at her feet.

She had just eaten. She had eaten real good food and she had enjoyed it. She had tasted it… But that had to mean….. She stared up at Brendon, her mouth hanging open and her eyes wide.

He seemed concerned as he stared back at her and then Ella forced her frozen legs to move and she turned and ran as quickly as she could away from him.

She ran down the crowded city streets, shoving people out of her way in her panic. She wasn’t even sure where she was going as she ran faster and faster and faster, entering the woods and still running.

It all made sense now. The reason she felt as if she trusted him. The way she was drawn to him.

Brendon, a mortal man, was her life mate.

But a life mate was the last thing that Ella wanted! Men were dangerous! Evil! A life mate would expect her to give him her body and she would never willingly do that! He would just be one more man to take what he wanted by force! Ella would kill him, life mate or not, before she ever let that happen!

When a vampire met their life mate, there were several things that would happen to show them that it was their life mate. One, the vampire would not be able to use their mind control or powers of persuasion on their life mate. They would feel an unexplainable pull toward that life mate and they would also once again begin to eat and enjoy food.

Vampires could eat any time but after a long enough while it lost it’s taste. But finding their life mate gave vampires new taste for life, and food, strangely enough.

Ella finally stopped running in a field miles from town. She sat down on the long grass beneath a big willow tree and pulled her knees up into her chest, wrapping her arms tight around them as she stared off into the distant horizon.

Meeting her life mate should be a cause for celebration but it was not. Ella had trusted two men in her life; Faugrimm and Warren, and both those men had turned out to be evil. Brendon would be no different if she allowed herself to trust in him.

He was just a mortal man. A mortal man would be no match for Warren should the vampire discover that Brendon was her life mate and even if Ella trusted him, if Brendon believed her and allowed himself to be changed, Warren was an old vampire and much too powerful for a newly changed vampire to even think about going up against.

There was only one thing for Ella to do. She could not trust Brendon. She would not tell him what he was to her. But she could not just let him go because his scent was already on her. There would be a change in her own scent now that she knew her life mate, it would be a subtle change but a change that Warren was sure to pick up on. And if he did then she would pay and so would Brendon himself.

No, there was only one option. Ella had to get rid of him. It would be swifter and much more merciful coming from her than from Warren. While it would destroy whatever part of her that wasn’t already destroyed, Ella knew that she had to do what she had to do. If she did this then that should pacify Warren’s anger in learning she found her life mate while he’d been gone. Whether she liked it or not today she had a target already picked out before heading off into the night.

Tonight she would kill her life mate.

***

Brendon sat in his hotel room, the afternoon sunlight shining through his open window, bouncing off the dust motes floating lazily in the air as Brendon stared at the faded and peeling paper on the wall.

He had seen Ella’s eyes widen with fear after she had tasted the chocolate. He had seen the realization in her eyes almost the same moment it dawned in his own.

He was her life mate. Life mate to a vampire. How was that even possible?

‘Because life likes to screw you over, you fool, haven’t you figured that out yet?’ A chiding voice in his head replied. Brendon rubbed his stubble covered jaw roughly and slumped against the hard backed rocking chair.

Hunters were the only immortals that never felt the ‘mating’ bond. They were trained from a young age to be loners and depend on no one, remaining faithful to only the council and their fellow Hunters.

While Brendon had made exceptions to that rule for Grange and his pack, he could not, would not, make such an exception for a vampire!

The council would have his head for sure! And they would kill Ella as well since that was already their intention.

What a giant cluster fuck.

Brendon stood up, his lean legs swiftly covering the distance between the walls as he paced the cramped hotel room.

A mate. Someone made for him, or someone he was made for was more like it. The one person he could place his trust in. The one person with whom making love would never get boring. The person he could count on, love, cherish and spend eternity beside. The greatest gift anyone could ever hope to receive…. and Brendon couldn’t have her.

He was a Hunter. Love was not allowed. There were no married Hunters. No Hunters in love with anyone, at least not that they admitted to anyone.

Hunters were not allowed to have strings or ties to anything other than the council.

Brendon loved no one. He had never learned how and didn’t know that he could even if he wanted to. And for a vampire with issues that murdered men in dark allies he wasn’t willing to test the theory.

Ella had to die. It was his orders and he’d been a fool to think he could get by with leaving the job undone. Today he had chickened out. He had caught her scent, felt that alluring pull toward her and been unable to pull his gun, or his knife, or simply snap her neck with his hands the way he should have.

Tonight would be different. It had to be. Tonight he would kill the vampire.

Even if he was her life mate.