Vaughn watched Brendon ride out of town with a loaded wagon, a tiny girl and the vampire he had been charged with killing.

Farris had not trusted Brendon to get the job done. Farris had been certain that Brendon was compromised, that his loyalty was no longer with the council or his job.

It turned out that Farris had been correct.

Not only had Brendon failed to complete his job and kill the guilty vampire, but he had killed two innocent vampires, pulled their fangs and ran off with the vampire he’d been sworn to kill.

If Vaughn was a betting man he would say that Brendon planned on lying to the council. A Hunter lying to the Council he was sworn to serve?! The very thought was preposterous!

Vaughn had never understood why the Council put up with Brendon. Yes, he was a good killer. Yes, he was a good tracker and yes, he generally got the job done in some form or fashion but he was a loose cannon. Hot-headed, temperamental and sarcastic. He didn’t appreciate what an honor it was to be a Hunter.

True Vaughn had only been living this life for a quarter of the time that Brendon had but even he knew he was a better Hunter than Brendon.

It was about time the bastard got what was coming to him. Brendon thought he was above the rules just because he was one of the oldest remaining true Hunters. Most Hunter’s were killed long before they reached Brendon’s age.

Vaughn would prove that he was the best. Brendon would fall and it would be Vaughn that brought him down. He would send word to the council, tell them of Brendon’s deceit and then he would kill the vampire and prove that he was more than just Farris’s favorite. He would prove that he deserved everyone’s respect.

Vaughn smiled and pocketed the gold coin he’d been tossing. Life had just gotten a little brighter.

***

“We get to sleep outside?!” Maggie exclaimed the next night as Brendon brought the wagon he had rented to a halt beside a small forest of oak trees. A trickling stream just down the hill would provide their horses and themselves with water.

Brendon looked up at the clear sky and scented the air. As far as he could tell there wasn’t any rain for miles.

“Sure do.” he replied with a grin. Maggie’s face lit up and her smile seemed to stretch from ear to ear.

“Wow! It’s like I’m a real live outlaw!” she exclaimed as she clapped her hands and jumped up and down in the new gingham dress that Brendon had bought at the shop for her. He had paid a small fortune for a ready made dress and a pair of special shoes, that thankfully had already been on order for the girl, but it had been worth it to see the way her eyes had lit up at the sight.

“An outlaw?” Brendon asked with amusement. He was aware of Ella walking down to the water. She hadn’t said a word to him all day. She had simply obeyed every request he had made and kept her head down.

She had told Maggie that they were going to take a trip together, just the three of them and while the girl hadn’t understood why she couldn’t say goodbye to Widow Callahan and her friends, she had been very happy to be going on a trip, since she had been in that orphanage for her entire life that she could remember.

“Yeah. Are you an outlaw? You look like an outlaw.” Brendon shook his head as he went about unhooking the horses from the rigging.

“Naw, I’m no outlaw. And you shouldn’t want to be one either. Outlaws are bad men. They break the law and take things that don’t belong to them.”

“That’s not what Benjamin said. He said they were rough and tough. And he said that they always get to sleep under the stars and don’t have to follow any rules!”

“Yeah until they get caught and get a rope wrapped around their necks and go swinging at the gallows.”

Maggie’s eyes widened and she rubbed at her neck. Brendon chuckled and led the horses down toward the river. He wrapped their reins around a shrub, ensuring they could reach both grass and water before walking over to where Ella stood, still staring into the water.

“Are you okay, Ella?” he asked gently and she looked away from the swiftly moving water and at his face.

“What?”

“Are you okay?” he repeated. “I was going to cook something for dinner but if you also need to feed, I’ll make an excuse and you can go off on your own for a while to hunt something to feed on.”

“Hunt?” Ella asked with a frown. “You mean an animal?”

“Well I sure as hell don’t mean a man. We talked about that.” he reminded her sternly. Ella scratched at her red hair which was up in a tight bun on the back of her head.

“The only man for miles is you.” Ella stated simply and an image of her sharpening her fangs and sinking them into his neck sent a bolt of lust through his body.

Without thinking he stepped closer to her and took her arm in his hand, pulling her body in to him.

He saw her light green eyes darken and her nostrils flared as he lowered his face toward hers.

Ella’s tiny hands clutched at his chest, burying themselves in his new duster coat.

The heat was nearly unbearable. Sparks seemed to be flying from her lips to his as he moved closer. Their breath mingled on the warm evening air.

Brendon had never seen anything so beautiful, so perfect, as the sight of her pale skin flushing and her green eyes slipping closed. He had never wanted anything the way he wanted this kiss.

The hand on her arm stroked her soft skin and his other hand went to her jaw, tilting her head back further still in order to gain better access to her mouth as their lips barely brushed.

It was if a bolt of lightning had come down from the heavens and struck Brendon as his entire body caught fire and his legs grew weak. Brendon wanted to deepen the kiss and at the sound of Ella’s moan he was encouraged to do so until he felt a tugging on the back of his coat.

“Mr. Brendon, I’m really hungry. Are you and Miss Ella done kissing now so you can cook for me?”

Brendon broke away from Ella quickly and saw her blink several times as if trying to gain her bearings.

Blinking, however, was not going to help him and the raging arousal beneath his gun belt.

“I’ll be back.” he grunted. “Ella will cook for you.” With that, he took off down the hill and around the rolling hills, away from Ella and Maggie and the temptation that was proving to be more than he could handle.

What had he been thinking!! Oh he knew damn well what he was feeling. A lust and desire unlike anything he’d felt in the last century.. Hell who was he kidding? It was unlike anything he had felt in the last three centuries. But what was he thinking?

Kissing her? Kissing a vampire who had been tortured and abused her entire life? A vampire who, technically, should already be dead by his hand? A vampire who he was risking his life just to give a second chance to when he didn’t know for a fact she deserved it? A vampire with lips soft as velvet. A vampire who tasted just as sweet as she smelled? Whose scent reminded him of a home. A safe place. A vampire with eyes that were haunted with the pains of her past?

This was ridiculous! These thoughts were ridiculous. He was just getting Ella to a safe place and then he was leaving her and never going to see her again.

Hunters were born to be alone. That was just the way it was.

***

Ella had no knowledge of how to start a fire out here in the wilderness. It wasn’t like at home where she had matches, tinder and dried out wood already cut and stacked.

And she needed a fire in order to heat the canned beans that Brendon had brought for the girls dinner. In truth Ella was eager to taste them as well. While real food would do nothing to satisfy or nourish the vampire inside of her, it was amazing to finally taste things again other than blood.

She had Brendon to thank for that.

And she had Brendon to thank for Maggie’s whining and the girls rumbling stomach that Ella could plainly hear. And she also had Brendon to thank for the way her legs were still shaking, her heart still hammering and her mind still swirling.

Their lips had barely brushed and yet it had been the most incredible sensation that Ella had ever felt in her life. The first kiss that she had given freely and she had wanted more.

Yes, Ella would give him whatever he took from her. She would gladly let him force her to share his bed.

“I’m hungry.” Maggie whimpered for what seemed like the thousandth time though was probably only the twenty-third or so.

“Eat them cold.” Ella replied with a shrug as she held out the glass jar full or cold beans. Maggie curled her nose.

“I don’t like them cold. I want them warm.”

“Then start a fire.” Ella replied, her patience nearing their end. Where had that man gone? Was he going to leave she and Maggie to manage on their own out here?

Ella could get to safety fine but Maggie would die for sure if left to the elements and wildlife. Was her new captor so cruel? Ella did not think so.

“I can’t start a fire.” Maggie stated with a giggle as she climbed up on a large boulder and sat down, swinging and dangling her feet over the edge. “You start a fire.”

“I need matches and sticks.” Ella replied as she looked around for the latter. Thankfully there was a smaller sapling next to the large oak tree that had been knocked over by wind some months ago. It was dried out and dead and Ella knew that the wood would burn.

She broke off a number of sticks and larger branches and then made her way back to a rather dirt covered patch of earth where she planned on starting her fire.

She piled the wood up the best way she knew how and then went over to the wagon to look for matches.

With all the things piled inside that would be like finding a needle in a very large haystack, though Ella had never truly understood that expression or why anyone would have a needle anywhere near a haystack.

“You’re just going to have to eat your beans cold.” Ella stated very matter of fact as she walked back over to Maggie, picked up the jar from where she had set it on the ground and held it out to the girl.

“Ugh.. Fine.” Maggie relented, the rumbling in her stomach finally overriding her dislike of cold beans. Ella handed the jar to the girl and then walked back to the wagon and the bag where she had found the beans.

Inside she also found hardtack biscuits and some jerked beef. She grabbed a handful of each and took those over to the boulder where Maggie sat. She climbed up beside the girl and sat down.

Together they dined on their feast. At least it seemed a feast to Ella after so many years without food.

Maggie limped down to the stream when they were finished and Ella knew the girl would need more pain medicine soon. She had no idea where Brendon had packed that and she hoped the man would come back soon.

She had barely thought that thought when she caught a whiff of sandalwood on the wind and she heard a chuckle behind her.

“What are you doing?”

Ella turned her head and saw Brendon standing there with two dead rabbits clutched by their ears in one hand and a canteen in the other.

“Eating. You did tell me to feed her.” Ella replied as she brushed crumbs from her biscuit from her skirt.

“You didn’t start a fire.” Brendon stated.

“No, I did not.”

“Was that sarcasm?” Brendon asked, his grin broadening. Ella frowned.

“Sarcasm?”

“Did you eat those cold?” Brendon questioned as he pointed toward the empty jar. Ella followed his gaze and then nodded.

“As you just pointed out I did not start a fire. I had no way to heat them.” Brendon just shook his head and then walked closer to her, though Ella noticed he kept a kept a good three feet of distance between their bodies. That wasn’t what she wanted. Ella wanted to be pulled up against all that rugged hardness.

He held out the canteen and Ella caught the scent of fresh warm blood.

“Here ya go, Ella.” his voice was low and it rumbled quietly, washing over Ella. She reached out a trembling hand and took the canteen, letting her fingers brush over Brendon’s in the process.

She heard his sharp intake of breath. Saw his jaw tighten, the muscles jumping beneath his dark stubble.

Quickly he pulled his hand away and then walked over to her pile of sticks. She saw him stare at them a moment and then shake his head before rearranging them all and adding some dry hay from the wagon. Then he pulled the matches from his pocket and within minutes he had a roaring fire burning.

Ella took a long drink of the rabbit blood in the canteen and her eyes widened with surprise. She had never had animal blood before, always having either been fed the blood of humans or drinking it straight from their veins. This was somehow sweeter as it washed over her tongue.

She heard a moan slip from her own throat and Brendon’s eyes fell on her and flashed in the setting sun.

Ella felt that trembling in her thighs once again and that heat pooling low in her stomach as he looked at her much like a hunter looks at his quarry. Ella squirmed on the boulder she was seated on and then she bit her lip and met his gaze.

“I would let you force me.” she whispered, hearing Maggie still splashing and laughing down in the stream. Ella saw a line appear between Brendon’s brows.

“What?” he demanded. Ella’s lips curved in a faint smile.

“I wouldn’t fight you like I did all the others in the beginning. I would let you force me if you want me.”

Suddenly Brendon’s face changed and the scent of rage began to roll off of him in waves. He pulled his knife and walked back to the rabbits he’d killed.

“I’m not that kind of man, Ella. You damn sure should have realized that by now.”

Ella felt ashamed, though she wasn’t truly sure why, as she watched Brendon begin to skin the rabbits. His hands moving roughly and jerking with the anger she could still smell.