Free Blood Enchanted (Blood Enchanted, Book 1): A Vampire Hunter Paranormal Romance Series by Nicola Claire Page A

intention.
    I'd seen him fight on screen. He was fast. As fast as me.
    "What have you done with Luc?"
    "Lucien is where he needs to be: Paying off a debt and also aiding me."
    It was not the answer I'd been expecting. Hell, I'd been expecting him to avoid answering altogether. But to actually offer an explanation, and one that did not involve skinning my brother alive, threw me for a moment. I frowned at the vampire before me, trying to determine just what his game actually was.
    "How is he aiding you?"
    "You ask a lot of questions."
    Ah, and here was the deflection.
    "I have every right," I pointed out. "Answer me."
    His eyes lifted from their current investigation of my breasts and speared me with intense annoyance.
    "Do you think I like being called here?" he asked.
    I shrugged my shoulders. Wasn't my problem. Luc, however, was.
    "I want my brother back."
    "And I want to understand why I have felt compelled to travel the world to visit an Iunctio owned city and lay eyes on a female."
    I smiled. It was all Nosferatin sass.
    "Wasted trip, bloodsucker." A term that was frowned upon in the crowd I grew up in. Hakan's furrowed brow deepened. "Now you've seen me, laid eyes on me, it's time to go. But not before you hand over my brother."
    He stood up straighter, eyes glinting a steel-like blue.
    "What would you give me in exchange? He is a valuable possession. One I won fairly, according to our laws. Even your father could not argue that fact, so I doubt you would have any chance of succeeding."
    I glared back at him. We were going round in useless circles. And I was acutely aware of the truth that laced his words. Some of the older, more antiquated, rules of vampire society had not yet been changed. My father and the Iunctio council were working on it. But uprisings, and vampire hate politics, and supernatural day to day events, meant things had taken a damn sight longer than originally anticipated.
    The Iunctio was Lighter than it had been before my father became Champion, but it alone could not fight every battle. Ours may not be a democracy, but you cannot lead without some support from the masses. The Iunctio tread a very careful line between change and status quo. Tip too far over in one direction and you have war.
    Some things had slipped through the cracks. Including possession of slaves according to archaic vampire law. Not too many vampires bothered with it, but the law existed. If the debt owed was steep enough, you could take the payment out in servitude.
    What the hell had my brother entered into when he attempted to fight in the arenas? How much had he lost? I had no doubt that Hakan would not divulge that information, but someone, somewhere would know. And I was thinking, with a stomach churning, bile inducing feeling, that I'd have to go to the Source to find out.
    Not the source of the bet, meaning Hakan and Luc - one person of which I couldn't even find. But the Source . Frank. Head of the Auckland ghouls.
    It was going to be expensive, but what choice did I have?
    "Don't underestimate me, vampire," I whispered, rolling my stake around in my palm.
    "I would be disappointed if you weren't a worthy opponent, hayatim ." I wasn't going to ask what that word meant, Travis would know. There were more important things to worry about right now.
    Like getting this vampire out of my home.
    "So, you came, you saw, you found out how compatible we are. Now it's time to leave."
    His smile turned wicked.
    "And if I refuse?"
    I twirled my stake on the flat of my palm, tip up, silver reflecting in the little bit of Light I let free from within.
    "Oh, Éliane," he said, with a twist of his lips. "How you tempt me."
    Hearing my full name fall from his lips felt disturbing. It was one thing for Alain and my father to use it, they could be quite uptight when they tried. But Hakan Bahar, although possessing the presence of a prince, was not above rolling around in the dirt.
    And that, unfortunately, appealed to me. So I said, before