I needed to get off of him, to put some distance between us. I was becoming giddy on his power as it wrapped its arms around my cool flesh. Giddy, along with other things I knew would serve us no good tonight, except maybe kill him a little faster. And I so wanted to do this slowly, to enjoy the fight that he offered.

“I didn’t come here to destroy you,” he said, his voice rolling through the silent room like a rumble of distant thunder.

A bubble of laughter escaped me as I moved forward so my face hovered above his. “And that is supposed to stop me from killing you? You come into my territory, kill my people, and then you say you’re not here to destroy me. No, Danaus, I plan to dig around inside of you to find out where that little ball of power is hiding.” I smiled at him, broadly enough to expose my fangs.

Danaus was moving before I even had a chance to react, rolling so he was now on top of me. But I was still holding his wrists. I pushed him backward, throwing him off me and across the room. The hunter landed on his back and slid a couple of feet. When he was standing again, I was on the other side of the room.

I leaned back into the corner, balanced on my heels, with my shoulders braced against the two walls. After letting his warm powers wash over me, I forced myself to slow down. I had never encountered a creature with powers that felt like his. We had acquired a new, dark threat. I needed to discover who or what he was, and if there were more like him. We had not spent countless centuries fighting, and finally defeating, the naturi, only to find ourselves faced with a new foe. One free to walk about in the daylight hours.

I forced a laugh, sending the sound dancing around the room until it finally skipped out the open window to my right. My laughter seemed to put him more on edge than my straddling him. Or maybe it was the fact that he had enjoyed being pinned. I doubted he’d ever allowed any nightwalker get that close to him without putting up a fight.

Staring at him now, something else caught my eye. “Where’s your cross, Danaus?” I called across the distance, hooking my thumbs on the front pockets of my leather pants. “All good hunters have a cross dangling about their necks. Where’s yours?”

“How can you control fire?” he demanded. His face was grim and half hidden in the shadow of his hair as it fell forward. “It’s forbidden.” He took a wary step forward, the gritty floor crunching under his foot.

I gracefully rolled to my feet, as if I was a marionette pulled up by my strings. There was nothing human about the movement, and I was pleased to see it still unnerved him even after all his years of hunting us. He took a half step back before he could stop himself, his frown deepening.

“Forbidden?” I repeated. “Has someone written a book of rules on nightwalkers that I don’t know about?” Information. Could that be the reason he had come hacking and slashing into my domain? He was curious and seeking information?

“No vampire has ever been able to control fire.”

“Few have ever hunted us without the protection of a silver cross,” I countered.

Danaus stared hard at me. I had a feeling he would have growled at me, but I think he was leaving the animal-like noises to me. He turned the knife handle around in his hand, weighing his options. How important was this information to him? Enough that he would finally be forced to divulge some of his own? Of course, he could then kill me and that would be the end of it.

When the hunter spoke again, the words seemed dragged from his throat. “A cross cannot protect one who is already damned to Hell.”

A dozen new questions rushed to my lips, but I had my answer and knew he wouldn’t willingly give up any more. At least, not without my answer to his question, and I was willing to play, for now.

“We all have our gifts,” I said with a shrug. “Yuri can call wolves to his side. Seraf can raise the dead.”

“But fire…” His voice drifted off.

“Doesn’t quite seem fair,” I said. “The one thing that is supposed to kill us all, and I am completely immune. But it has nothing to do with being a nightwalker. I could control fire before I was reborn. Somehow, I retained the gift.”

“Like the naturi,” he murmured.

“I am nothing like the naturi!” My temper flared to life instantly and I took a step toward him with my fangs bared. All I saw was a quick flick of his wrist, faster than I had ever seen any human move. But that was my fault. I was still thinking of him as human.

The blade flashed for half a second in the moonlight before burying itself in my chest. I stumbled backward, my back slamming into the wall behind me as my hand closed around the knife. It was an inch below my heart, clipping the side of my left lung. With his skill, I guessed he missed my heart on purpose. Even a blow to the heart wouldn’t have necessarily killed me, but weakened me enough so he could stroll over and take my head off. It was supposed to be a warning, and if I wasn’t so angry, I might have heeded it.

I pulled the dagger from my chest, gritting my teeth as it rubbed against bone and sliced more muscle and flesh. Pressing my left hand against the wound, I tried to slow the flow of blood as it moved like warm fingers down my stomach. The dagger fell from my fingers and clattered to the floor. The sound echoed through the house like shot across an empty plain. I glared at him, finding he had already pulled another knife and held it clenched in his right fist, waiting for me.

This time I walked across the room. I wanted him to see me coming. The movement pulled and twisted the cut in my chest as the flesh struggled to mend. I’d worry about that later. I kept the faint smile on my face, burying the scream of pain deep in my chest.

He slashed at me with the same speed he’d thrown the knife, but I expected it as I watched the twitch and flex of muscles play below his skin. I knocked his hand away, feeling the crack of bone in his wrist as my arm connected. The knife fell to the floor as his fingers spasmed under the flash of pain. He kicked out with his left leg, trying to keep a safe distance between us, but I caught his leg with my right hand and threw him back into the wall. I grabbed his arms, slamming them against the drywall with enough force to dent the surface, keeping them raised above his head. My left hand pressed a bloody handprint into his forearm, and I crushed my body against his with enough force that he grunted. I was done playing nice.

I was shorter than him even in heels, but I could still reach his neck without tiptoeing. I smiled, displaying my fangs. His heart skipped faster, pounding against my chest with its intoxicating warmth. His scent came back to me, the sweet kiss of the wind sweeping over dark waters and the bright sun.

“What are you, Danaus?” I whispered, peering into his eyes. His lips were pressed into a firm, tight line. He was furious. I smiled and leaned into him, close enough that he could feel my words caress the tender flesh of his neck. This time he struggled, muscles straining up and down his body as he tried to rid himself of me, but he was trapped. In a battle of strength, he knew he couldn’t win.

My breath brushed across his ear. “It doesn’t matter.” My lips dipped down to graze his neck, and I could feel a chill skitter across his sweaty flesh. “You’ll tell me one day. Before I’m through, you’ll even trust me.”

I released him and jumped backward, landing easily on the other side of the room. No reason to give him another chance to put a knife in my chest. I had a feeling that this time he wouldn’t miss. I stared into his eyes, and there it was this time: fear. A deeper look of uncertainty and doubt. I had finally shaken him down to his core; touched something no one else had. It made him infinitely more dangerous, but then again, I had just become infinitely more dangerous to him, threatening him with something far more horrible than a painful death.