Demon's Hunger Read Online Free Page B

particularly sexy, but when he said it, touched by a question, low and a little husky, she thought it sounded damn fine.
    "Yes, I'm Dr. Cairn." Forgetting that she'd had her conservative bob cut in a short, spiky style, she lifted her hand to shove a hank of hair back behind her ear. Finding only gelled wisps, she dropped her hand and looked away.
    Her gaze slid beyond him to the gleaming black SUV parked at the far end of the driveway. Two other men lounged against it, one tall and blond and stunning, the other tall and dark and stunning. What was this, a three-for-one deal?
    Following her gaze, her visitor said, "My associates. Ciarran D'Arbois" the blond lifted a black-gloved hand in acknowledgment "and Darqun Vane "the dark-haired guy grinned and gave a friendly nod. "And I am Dain Hawkins."
    She thought she ought to recognize the name, that she'd heard it before. He waited a beat, and when she said nothing, he continued. "We spoke on the phone last night. We set up an appointment for this morning…"
    Panic clawed at her. She didn't remember . She could recall opening the soup can, dumping the contents in the mug, and then blowing on the hot soup while looking out the sliding door at the sun-drenched deck… this morning . An entire night, wiped from her thoughts.
    One memory lapse she could explain away as stress. Maybe even two. But this was the third.
    Cold dread gouged her.
    Wrapping her arms around herself, she struggled for calm, and then the hairs at her nape prickled and rose. Her gaze shifted to the tree line. No one there. There was no one there . She had to stop doing this.
    "What time did we… umm… talk?" she asked, returning her attention to Dain Hawkins.
    "Ten." There was subtle downturn to his lips, a crease between his brows, and his attention slid away, his gaze moving slowly along the perimeter of her property. Restrained tension wove through him; she saw it in the shift of his posture, the set of his shoulders.
    Vivien frowned, noticing that the two guys by the SUV had straightened and were looking around, suddenly alert. She'd worked with enough cops to recognize the intensity of their perusal. Only these guys weren't cops. Somehow, she was certain of that. Private security? Government? Neither possibility felt right. Which left what? Criminals?
    Right now, she felt the same cloying unease that crept up on her every time she'd thought she was being watched. Only now, she had three big guys in front of her house, and they were looking around like they felt it, too.
    That small vindication of her paranoia was comforting. Again, she scanned the trees and then turned her gaze back to the SUV.
    Ciarran and Darqun exchanged a look. Without a word, they strode off in opposite directions, one toward the uncut grass and the other toward the tree farm. The way they moved, purposeful, targeted, made her think they had a definite plan in mind.
    Dain watched them go, then turned his attention back to her. "I had some difficulty finding you," he said.
    Vivien stared at Darqun's back as he strode away, wondering exactly where he and Ciarran were heading. After a second, she shifted her gaze back to Dain.
    "Yeah, I'm a little off the beaten path here."
    He gave her a strange look. "No, I meant I had a bit of trouble tracking you down. I had expected to find you at UTM. When they told me you were on sabbatical, I had expected you to be holed up in the library of another university, hard at work on some thesis or other."
    Was that a criticism? "I'm not exactly on sabbatical," she snapped defensively. "It's more of a… break."
    Those cool, gray eyes met hers, flat as poured concrete, and his brows rose at her tone. She instantly felt ridiculous.
    She'd needed the break. She'd been the chief forensic anthropologist in the investigation of the ostrich farm belonging to Roger Pape farmer, recluse… mass murderer. She'd examined almost forty thousand pieces of bone fragments on that investigation, the remains of