Harlequin Nocturne January 2014 Bundle: The Vampire HunterMoon Rising Read online

  Harlequin Nocturne January 2014 Bundle

  The Vampire Hunter

  Moon Rising

  Michele Hauf

  Lori Devoti

  Harlequin Nocturne brings you two new dark and sensual romances for one great price, available now! This Harlequin Nocturne bundle includes The Vampire Hunter by Michele Hauf and Moon Rising by Lori Devoti.

  Take a bite out of paranormal romances with 2 titles every month with Harlequin Nocturne!

  Table of Contents

  The Vampire Hunter

  By Michele Hauf

  Moon Rising

  By Lori Devoti

  A vampire hunter finds himself powerless to resist a bewitching stranger’s dangerous magic in Michele Hauf’s latest romance

  In all his years of battling the undead, Kaz has never seen bloodlust like this. And as a Knight of the Stake, it’s up to him to find out who’s responsible for the mayhem sweeping the streets of Paris and put a stop to it. Kaz’s task becomes infinitely more complicated when a very attractive witch wants to help.

  With her quirky charm and irresistibly kissable lips, Zoë just feels right to Kaz, the way no mortal woman ever has before. But as a sworn enemy of the supernatural, can he really trust a witch? Especially one with dangerous secrets of her own?

  The only thing Zoë knew about Kaz was that his mouth knew exactly how to fit against hers for maximum pleasure.

  And that the heat of his body felt like a fantasy in which she was granted everything she had ever desired.

  It never worked like that in real life. Not even with a healthy dose of magic tossed in for good measure.

  But never in her life had Zoë felt so connected to a man she didn’t even know.

  Sighing into the kiss, she tilted her body towards Kaz’s aggressive stance, and as their hips met, he drew his fingers down her spine, coaxing her even closer with his touch. Chest to chest, she melted against his heat and strength. He made her feel delicate and pretty and so, so desirable.

  A girl could become bewitched by such a kiss. And a bewitched witch was a rare thing.

  Also available from Michele Hauf

  Harlequin Nocturne

  *From the Dark #3

  Familiar Stranger #21

  *Kiss Me Deadly #24

  *His Forgotten Forever #44

  Winter Kissed #52

  “A Kiss of Frost”

  *The Devil to Pay #55

  +The Highwayman #68

  +Moon Kissed #72

  **Angel Slayer #90

  **Fallen #109

  The Werewolf’s Wife #133

  Vacation with a Vampire #139

  “Stay”

  Forever Werewolf #145

  This Wicked Magic #153

  Beautiful Danger #164

  & The Vampire Hunter #175

  *Bewitching the Dark

  +Wicked Games

  **Of Angels and Demons

  &In the Company of Vampires

  HQN Books

  Her Vampire Husband

  Seducing the Vampire

  A Vampire for Christmas

  “Monsters Don’t Do Christmas”

  LUNA Books

  Seraphim

  Gossamyr

  Rhiana

  MICHELE HAUF

  has been writing romance, action-adventure and fantasy stories for more than twenty years. Her first published novel was Dark Rapture. France, musketeers, vampires and faeries populate her stories. And if she followed the adage “write what you know,” all her stories would have snow in them. Fortunately, she steps beyond her comfort zone and writes about countries she has never visited and of creatures she has never seen.

  Michele can be found on Facebook and Twitter and at www.michelehauf.com. You can also write to Michele at P.O. Box 23, Anoka, MN 55303.

  THE VAMPIRE HUNTER

  Michele Hauf

  Dear Reader,

  I’m a little obsessed with Breaking Bad. It’s the characters that get me, not the subject matter. And yet, I couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like if Breaking Bad was smashed together with vampires. Toss in a witch and a few faeries? It could make for an interesting story. So I did just that. No meth in this story, but the faery dust the vampires are dealing is similar.

  Once I got beyond the mechanics of the story, I was once again drawn to the characters. Kaz and Zoë push and pull at each other in ways that made me smile, lift a brow in concern and sometimes even cheer. Life is about trust and belief and learning to trust when there is no belief.

  I hope you’ll enjoy their story.

  Michele

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Excerpt

  Prologue

  The thing came at him so quickly, Kaspar had little time to react beyond putting up his arms to block the crazy long teeth that gnashed for his neck.

  He’d been minding his own business, digging in the garbage behind Madame du Monde’s dance studio. He’d found a broken chair and had screwed off one of the wooden legs. If he whittled down the serrated edge he might use it as a weapon. Call it a sixteenth-birthday present. Living on the streets a guy needed all the protection he could get.

  But after nearly two years of street life, he’d usually seen the attack coming. This maniac had lunged at him from out of nowhere, and it was as if he were on drugs because he growled and shoved Kaz to the winter-wet tarmac, then jumped on top of his chest, compressing his thin rib cage with a hard knee.

  Twice as big as Kaz and dressed all in black, the attacker snarled, revealing teeth that belonged on a monster. Kaz yelped and swung the chair leg before him. The man batted it away.

  “No way!” Kaz yelled. Using all his strength, he managed to kick the crazy guy off him, leaped to his feet and swung the weapon wildly. “Get away from me, you creep!”

  “A tasty little boy,” the guy muttered like some kind of menacing villain a person only saw in the movies. “I can smell your blood. Starved for sustenance as you are, I’ll squeeze a few drops from your skinny neck.”

  The man lunged for him, gripping Kaz’s shoulders and sinking sharp teeth into his neck. It hurt so bad, worse than all the times his dad had used him as a punching bag. Kaz kicked and yowled; he didn’t want to die. He was too young. He may not have much to live for, but—no, it wasn’t going to happen this way.

  Pushing the thing off him tore the long, pointed teeth from his neck. Kaz whined at the pain, yet he didn’t take his eyes from the attacker. His blood dripped from the maniac’s mouth. With a hungry smirk, the thing again lunged.

  Without second thought, Kaz swung around the chair leg, jamming the serra
ted end into the guy’s chest. The creep growled and swore at him, cursing him with all the bad words Kaz had learned to use to vent his anger, and then some.

  And then a blast of ash formed where the guy had been speared with the end of the chair leg. Dark gray flakes formed the shape of a man, then sifted to the ground, leaving behind a pile of clothing—and no vicious attacker.

  Swinging down the hand that still clutched the chair leg in a painful squeeze, Kaz stumbled backward, hitting the steel garbage can in a clatter, and slipping to land on his butt.

  “What the—?”

  Another man swung around the corner of the brick building, gripping the wall to stop his running pace. He wore a plaid vest over a fancy shirt and pants, and looked like one of those rich guys Kaz always saw escorting pretty girls in and out of shops on the Champs-Élysées. “You got him, kid?”

  Got him? Got what? What was that thing? It...it had dissolved right before his eyes. There wasn’t even blood in the pile of ash. Human beings didn’t do that. And it had—Kaz slapped a hand over his neck—bitten him.

  The man approached him carefully, hands held out in placation. “I’m not going to hurt you. I’m one of the good guys.”

  Kaz drew up his legs as the man squatted beside him. He was too scared to run, and he didn’t want to stab at him. One pile of ash was weird enough. Had he just murdered someone? He didn’t want to go to jail. He’d take the cold, tough streets of Paris over jail any day.

  The man inspected Kaz’s neck with probing fingers that made him wince. “How old are you, boy?”

  “Si-sixteen. Today’s...m-my birthday.” Kaz shivered because his windbreaker jacket was never warm enough for February. “Who are you?”

  “You can call me Tor. Happy birthday, kid. Looks as if you got the grand prize. I didn’t expect to run into any action tonight. You’re lucky I was in the vicinity.”

  “I’m luck— Really?” Kaz held up the bloody chair leg. “I’m the one who took him out. What...what was that thing?”

  “You’re right. You took care of the longtooth all by yourself. That was some incredible work, kid. What’s your name?”

  “Kaspar,” he murmured. His eyes scurried over the ash and clothing. He couldn’t process, didn’t want to listen, but the man’s next words pulled him into focus.

  “Kaspar, you just slayed your first vampire. And here’s the good news. Even though you’ve been bitten, and normally a bite will transform a mortal into a bloodsucker, if you kill the one who bit you, then you’re in the clear. You won’t transform.”

  A worried noise scratched at the back of Kaz’s throat. Transform?

  Tor pointed over his shoulder to the pile of ash. Apparently, not transforming meant he wouldn’t turn into a vampire. Was that some kind of twisted birthday present?

  “The bad news,” Tor continued, “is monsters exist.”

  Ah, hell. Kaz had always liked monsters. They’d not slept under his bed when he was little because his mother had chased them away with the broom. But then she died, and his world had, as well.

  Tor picked up something from the ground and studied it. He held the bloodied key before Kaz. “This fall out of your pocket?”

  Kaz swiped the old brass key and nodded, shoving it deep in his jeans pocket.

  “Key to your house?”

  Kaz shook his head. “Don’t have a home anymore. I’m on my own and doing just fine.”

  The man nodded, and stood. “Damn right, you are. You’re one tough kid.” Hands at his hips, he peered over the destruction, then began to shuffle the ash toward the garbage bin, spreading it out. He picked up the singed clothing and dropped it in the trash bin. “My job is to ensure others don’t start believing all the myth and legend that really does exist. No one will suspect those bits of ash were once a creature of the night. You going to tell anyone what you saw, Kaz?”

  Kaz tucked his head against his elbow and closed his eyes. He shook his head. He wasn’t even sure what he’d seen. What he’d done. He’d killed a vampire?

  “You have a talent with the stake,” Tor said. “Homeless, eh?”

  Kaz nodded minutely but didn’t look up at him.

  “Well, you’ll need the wound cleaned up so it doesn’t get infected. And...to be totally up front with you, I don’t have a home for you or a means to help you.”

  “Don’t need your help.”

  “Course not. But there is a man I know who would be interested in talking to you. His name is Rook, and he heads an organization of knights who protect humans from creatures like the one that attacked you.”

  “Knights?”

  Kaz looked up into Tor’s eyes, blinked and saw...the truth. Along with the truth, he also saw a deep and concerned kindness he’d not recognized for years. So without thinking it through, he grabbed Tor’s offered hand and stood up, wobbly, yet not out for the count by any means.

  “You can trust me,” Tor said, “though I know you won’t. You’re a smart kid and know how to protect yourself and that’s how it should be. But do you want to learn how to use that thing the right way?”

  Kaz looked at the bloody chair leg he still gripped. The man was offering him something he hadn’t known in a long time—trust. And he wanted it with every breath he inhaled.

  “Come on,” Tor beckoned.

  And Kaz took his first steps toward chivalry, something he wouldn’t comprehend until many years later.

  Chapter 1

  The vamps were fast, and he—well, he wasn’t much faster, but he was skilled. A human matched against a vampire must wield some mean martial-arts skills or he had better be a track star. Kaspar Rothstein possessed the former, but right now he was contemplating the run.

  Yep, best to go for the run.

  The sickening heat of a vampire’s breath skimmed the back of his neck as he raced down an alleyway in the eighteenth arrondissement near Paris’s shadowed Montmartre Cemetery. His goal: to lure the four vamps far away from humans and curious eyes. Rushing into an open cobbled courtyard behind closed businesses far from any tourists, Kaz stopped abruptly, planting his steel-toed boots.

  With a confident grin teasing his mouth, he swung around, catching one of the vamps in the chest with a titanium stake. The vamp ashed before him, forming the shape of a person out of fried vampire flesh, bone and clothing.

  “Happy birthday to me,” he muttered his victory claim. Wasn’t his birthday, but who needed cake to celebrate?

  The three remaining vamps grinned at him. Kaz had expected the idiot longtooths to actually share a brain among them and run for their lives. But if they wanted to stick around for the party games...

  “Come on,” Kaz encouraged. He tucked away the stake and put up his fists. He hadn’t gotten in a workout this morning. Time for some fun.

  The first vampire charged him. Kaz managed to grab him by the scruff of the neck, and swung the gangly tormentor toward another of his rag-tag pack. Their skulls cracked, both swore, and they collapsed on the cobblestones.

  The leader swung around with a punch that Kaz stopped with his open palm. “Nice to meet you. I’m Kaz. Vampire hunter. I’ll be ashing you this evening.”

  “Wiseass,” the vampire cracked.

  Kaz gripped the miscreant’s fist, twisted, and with a swing from the waist, rocketed up a high sidekick to his jaw. The heavy boots delivered damage by breaking jawbone. The attacker dropped, growling and spitting blood. The other two charged him with fists. Kaz immediately dropped the one on the left with a wince-inducing gut punch.

  A female scream alerted him. A woman clung to the limestone wall not thirty feet from their little soiree.

  “Get out of here!” he yelled at her, and caught a punch across the jaw. He tasted his own blood, and shook his head to chase away the bluebirds spinning about his skull. That one co
uld have led to his death had it been a knockout.

  Enough play. Best to stake them before they beat him to a pulp. But—hell, not in front of an innocent.

  Frozen in fear, the woman watched their antics with wide eyes. Chills scurried up Kaz’s spine. He delivered another kick and landed a vamp at the hip, sending it stumbling backward. He had to keep the vampires busy and away from her until she grasped her senses and ran. Only then could he ash these idiots.

  Out the corner of his eye, Kaz alternated his attention between fight and female. Was she scared—or interested? She leaned forward from her position against the wall, her bright eyes following the action. A vampire charged him; he landed a kick to a particularly vulnerable part of its anatomy, bringing it down.

  Licking her lips, the woman seemed to marvel over the show.

  “Go!” Kaz shouted at her, but too late he realized the command had alerted one of the vampires to their audience.

  He swung a fist at an attacking vamp and took him out cleanly. The other vampire raced toward the woman and pinned her to the wall by her wrists. She didn’t scream. That was good and bad. A scream would call attention to this altercation and alert other innocents.

  But why didn’t she scream?

  Must be scared voiceless.

  Wishing he could stake the attacker from behind, Kaz left the stake clipped at his hip. He ran toward the vamp, grabbed him by the head and shoulder and peeled him away from the woman.

  “Wow,” he thought he heard her say, as he landed on his back on the cobbles, bringing the vamp down with him.

  Twisting to straddle the vamp, Kaz punched him repeatedly until the longtooth’s lights went out, his hand sprawling across the toe of the woman’s lace-up boot.

  Springing up to stand in the center of the fallen vamps, Kaz looked over his mayhem. Fists still coiled at his sides, brows drawn and serious, he was ready for another four, or even a whole gang.

  But the vampires were only out, not dead. They wouldn’t stay down long. He had to get rid of the girl.