The Rogue Hunter Read Online Free PDF Page A

to Lucian, but it was something to consider. He turned and made his way back across the yard.
    "Only an Argeneau would think this was a cottage," Bricker said dryly as Mortimer entered.
    Pausing inside the door, Mortimer let his gaze slide over the large open kitchen/dining/living area with its high, cathedral ceiling and huge, old-fashioned fan hanging in the center. The kitchen was on his right, sectioned off by a large, L-shaped, marble-topped counter. The floors and cupboards were pine, the appliances stainless steel, and included a microwave and dishwasher along with the standard stove and refrigerator. A large island filled the center of the kitchen, with glasses and copper pots and pans hanging overhead.
    The dining area on his left ran along the glass wall overlooking the lake. The hardwood continued there, and a large, long table and twelve chairs of light wood filled the space.
    The living room took up the other half of the open space and held white leather furniture and stone-topped tables, as well as a huge sixty-two-inch television.
    All the comforts of home, Mortimer thought with amusement. This was a rich man's idea of a cottage, but then Decker was a rich man.
    "It doesn't belong to an Argeneau," Mortimer reminded Bricker as he finally turned back to push the door closed. "It's Decker's cottage, remember."
    "Yeah, but he's Martine's son and she's an Argeneau by birth," Bricker pointed out.
    Mortimer didn't argue the point. Martine had been born an Argeneau. In fact, she was the eldest Argeneau daughter, and while she'd taken on her husband's last name when she married Aloysius Pimms, they switched off between Argeneau and Pimms each century in an effort to avoid their failure to age from being detected. This century, Decker was a Pimms, but an Argeneau by any other name was still an Argeneau.
    "I never would have taken Decker for a cottage-country-type guy," Bricker commented, interrupting Mortimer's thoughts. "He always seemed to have too much class."
    "Yes, well, as you said, this place isn't exactly your average cottage," Mortimer said dryly as he turned from closing the door and glanced around again. The windows were all open now, when he was sure they hadn't been the first time he'd entered. Bricker, he assumed, had opened them to let the night air circulate.
    "There are three bedrooms up here and another two downstairs, as well as a rec room and laundry room," Bricker announced, waving back toward the door they'd entered through.
    Mortimer followed the gesture, surprised to realize that there were stairs right next to the entrance.
    "Every outer wall on this level of the cottage seems to be full of windows," Bricker said. "There's no way of knowing how good the window coverings in the upstairs rooms are, but the bedrooms downstairs have no windows so I took our stuff down there. I put my stuff in the room closest to the stairs and yours in the far room."
    "Thanks," Mortimer murmured, walking past the table into the unlit living room. While he was surprised one of their kind would own a home with so many windows to allow damaging sunlight in, it did come in handy at that moment. The windows allowed what little light the stars were shedding to seep inside. Like any good night predator, Mortimer had incredible night vision, and even without electricity, that bit of light was enough for him to see by as he moved toward the door leading into a hall.
    "There's a bathroom up here and one downstairs," Bricker announced as Mortimer crossed the hall to peer through an open door into a three-piece bathroom.
    Mortimer noted the standard services and then wandered up the hall to the right, glancing in one bedroom before continuing on to a second at the end of the hall. He walked back to find the last bedroom at the opposite end of the hall before turning back into the living room.
    "So," Bricker said as Mortimer joined him by the sliding glass doors overlooking the deck. "What do we do until Decker gets