Samia Savage...
That was a name he'd heard bandied about by other Dark-Hunters over the centuries. She was one of their fiercest--hence the surname the other Dark-Hunters had given her several hundred years ago as an homage to her brutality in a fight. As immortal slayers who protected humans, all Dark-Hunters came from horrific backgrounds. Each one different, they all had one thing in common: Someone had betrayed and killed them in a manner so foul that they sold their souls to the Greek goddess Artemis for a single act of vengeance against their betrayer. Not something someone undertook lightly and he couldn't help wondering what had happened to Sam to make her sell her soul.
Who had killed her and why had that event turned her into something so brutal even the stoutest male Hunters tended to cut her a wide berth? All the stories he'd heard about her had never answered that. They only said that this woman lived for the thrill of the fight.
The bloodier the better.
"You were an Amazon general at the end of the Trojan War." The granddaughter of their greatest queen, Hippolyta, Sam was said to have been the one to escort Helen home after the war. Something that had been extremely difficult given how many Greeks had wanted to kill Helen for causing the war that had kept them away from home for over a decade.
One corner of her mouth quirked up. "You say Amazon like it's a bad thing."
Dev laughed. "I've met a few of you over the centuries. Not bad, just...interesting."
The Amazons were the goddess Artemis's chosen people. It was why there were so many who were Dark-Hunters. When Artemis had set up her army to fight for humanity against their preternatural predators, the Amazons had always been her first choice and were rumored to be paid ten times more than the rest of the Dark-Hunters. A little favoritism that led to hard feelings from some of the other Hunters toward any Amazon in their bunch.
For Dev, it just meant he had to watch her since the Amazons tended to be ferocious partiers who liked to brawl.
"So what brings you here tonight?" he asked her, changing the topic to a pertinent subject.
Sam paused before she answered. "Don't know really. I had a feeling that something wicked this way headed. So I thought I'd beat it here in order to grab it by the throat and hurt it before it did any damage."
He tsked at her. "Ah baby, don't you know I'm the only thing wicked here?"
She wrinkled her nose at him. "Are you flirting with me?"
"Depends. Is there an ass-whipping in it and will you be naked when you do it?"
She gave him an arch stare. "So you like to have your ass whipped?"
"Not really, but so long as you're naked when you do it I could take it quite happily...."
She laughed. "Kinky. I like that."
He had no idea why he was flirting with her. While he was as much of a manwhore as any of his unmated brothers, he didn't normally waste time on women he knew were off his menu. And sleeping with Dark-Hunters was a key no-no in their world...for many, many reasons.
But he couldn't seem to help himself. There was something about her that invited him straight to suicide. "More horny actually. It's been a while."
She sucked her breath in sharply. "Brutal honesty. Nice change of pace. Most men would try flattery first."
He shrugged. "I would say life's too short to beat around the bush, but I'll live for centuries and you for eternity so for us, not a concern. So I'll just say that I don't like to play games or sugarcoat things and leave it at that."
"A bear after my own heart, but don't you know we're not supposed to fraternize?"
He shrugged. "I don't like following rules."
She dipped her gaze down his body with a heated look that set his hormones on fire. "Me neither."
"Yeah, I can tell by the way you drive."
Sam really didn't want to be charmed by the werebeast in front of her, but honestly she couldn't seem to help it. There was something about him that made her smile. And it wasn't just that he was hotter than hell. Or that he had a smile that should be illegal.
He just seemed to be the kind of person who was fun to hang out with and in her world such people were few and far between. His long, curly blond hair was pulled back from a face that appeared to be chiseled from steel. Blue eyes teased her with their intelligence and humor.
And his body...
She could lick on that all night long. Even more disturbing, there was something about him that reminded her of Ioel and the way he'd always been able to make her smile no matter how bad her day had sucked. Even after thousands of years, she still missed him.
Trying not to think about that, she dropped her gaze to Dev's arm, which bulged with well-defined muscles, then frowned as she saw the tattoo peeking out from under the short sleeve.
Was that...