The Claimed (Sin Hunters)

by Caridad Piñeiro

  When the emcee stepped away from the podium after providing the rules for bidding and lighthearted banter about inadvertently using others’ paddle numbers, Adam Bruno took the stage. He got the auction going with a short speech about the importance of protecting the environment and safeguarding the local areas. Victoria used the moment to excuse herself from her friends to take a slow walk along the periphery of the hall, searching for the dirtied energy she had sensed earlier. She needed to make sure she was aware of what was happening so she could take the necessary steps if her family and clan members were in danger.

  From the back of the room, Christopher couldn’t fail to notice what was happening with Victoria and her friends. The man who had been with Victoria moments earlier had disappeared in the direction of Maya and two of his cadre members. Victoria seemed shaken by something also. As she slipped away into the darkened wings of the large hall, he tapped Ryan with his paddle.

  His second-in-command glanced at him.

  “I need to check on something,” Christopher said, and cocked his head in the direction in which Victoria had disappeared.

  “I’ll keep my eyes open in here,” Ryan confirmed.

  Christopher nodded, not that he expected anything to happen in the vicinity of the hall. It had filled up in the short time since the emcee’s announcement and introduction, with a large number of humans present from what he could see of their life forces. Those he had identified as possible Light Ones would not risk any kind of confrontation with his small group in the company of so many mortals. But that did not mean the Light Ones would not cull the Shadows out of the larger group and take them out one by one if they discovered what they were.

  Striding quickly toward the wings, he caught a glimpse of Victoria as she spoke to the man he had seen earlier. He seemed agitated, but Victoria laid a hand on his chest and he quieted with that comforting gesture. A familiar one, Christopher surmised from the ease with which Victoria had touched the man.

  Jealousy bit deep, but he pulled its ugly teeth loose. He had no call to allow such an emotion to trouble him since he barely knew her. Or so he tried to tell himself, even though they had connected the previous night in ways much more profound than a simple first date. But that connection brought its own risk because he still did not know if he could trust her.

  Trust being a big issue with him. Of all the people in his life, there was only one whom he could truly say he trusted—Ryan. And in his Shadow clan, there was not a woman who thought of him as anything other than a way to advance her position of power since he would be their future Añaru.

  Neither situation screamed happily-ever-after, but then again, Christopher had never counted on that kind of life for himself anyway.

  As the man hurried away from Victoria, Christopher sucked in a breath to gird himself against his attraction to her and cautiously approached. When he neared, she looked his way, and there was no denying the flare of desire that stretched between them. It only grew stronger the closer he got. For a moment it seemed as if she would bolt again, but then she faced him and stood her ground.

  “You seem upset. Is there anything I can do?”

  “I’m sorry. I’ve just got some family things going on right now.” With a weary sigh, she shook her head, and he couldn’t contain his need to touch and try to reassure despite his concern about not knowing if he could trust her.

  The second he placed his hand on her shoulder, the pull of energy arose, so in sync with his own that his center vibrated in harmony. He stepped closer to her as her eyes widened and then dilated with the pleasure created by the link.

  “Why is this happening?” Victoria asked, placing her hand over his heart, creating an arc of power that only strengthened the bond between them.

  With such a strong current, he could no longer deny what she was. “I think we both know the answer to that.”

  A silence like dead air over the radio followed his answer, yet she didn’t break the connection with them. If anything, the flow of power increased as if she was testing the circuit that had bound them together.

  “If you’re a Shadow, why is there no sign of the pox on your body or in your aura?”

  “My people and I have returned to the ancient methods of gathering. We do not feed on those who carry the pox.” Despite his words, the energy flowing between them was tempting, and where his hand rested on her shoulder, tendrils of silver and blue emerged, seeking to sink into her body.

  She turned to that violent display, but did not move or show an ounce of fear. Her courage only made her that much more intriguing.

  “You are an Añaru. I can tell from your power. It’s immense,” she said, a slight huskiness to her voice that heated the need building inside almost to boiling.

  “But you are not afraid and your energy is as strong as mine. Pure,” he said as the stream continued between them.

  “I am a Quinchu,” she admitted, and met his gaze directly, her perfect little chin thrust out, almost daring him.

  “I will not feed from you, and yet…”

  He skimmed his hand along the strong line of her shoulder, to the sensitive spot at the crook of her neck. Her pulse beat strongly as he passed his thumb along that point, and her life force, so close to the surface, was impossible to ignore. The beat of Hunter power, so achingly familiar, registered against his senses, but he held back the almost instinctual desire to feed from her.

  “You are sharing your energy. I feel it flowing through me, but it is free of the pox.” A storm cloud of confusion colored his words and was surely visible on his features as her vitality continued its path through him and back.

  “My Quinchu family is virtually untouched by the pox. As for the sharing…”

  With the faintest shift of her hand across his chest, she awoke his aura and hers. Bright aqua and a deeper blue melded beneath her hand and roused tiny bursts of silver and gold. His body reacted to that kiss of power and he grew hard, expectant, as his Equinox recognized sympathetic power and desired it.

  Her sharp gasp of need confirmed that she, too, was experiencing the call for bonding. At that, she broke her contact with him and wrapped her arms around herself defensively.

  “This is not possible. This…” She gestured to him and then herself with a flip of her hand.

  “Cannot be ignored. Our energies are alike. They attract one another,” he said and obviously hit a sore point.

  “I will not let my Hunter needs and obligations rule me.”

  Her defiance was more of an aphrodisiac than even her intensely pure and impressive Hunter energy. Particularly since he, too, was determined to buck centuries of tradition.

  “I understand and accept what you’re saying. It’s one of the reasons my people are here.”

  “Here as in ‘at the auction’ or ‘down the Shore’?” she asked, and did not move away as he once again approached and laid his hand on her shoulder, feeling deprived without a connection to her.

  Despite her question, Christopher had no doubt that she knew the answer and opted instead to find out more about her. “Is that your family in the front row? The people with Adam Bruno?”

  Disquiet arose in her body and gaze as she narrowed her eyes and considered him. “Why are you so interested in Adam?”

  Dropping his hand to instead hold hers, he said, “My family has business with Salvatore Bruno. Unfinished business.”

  “Salvatore is dead. He was buried two days ago,” she said, and Christopher seemed shaken by her announcement.

  “My condolences, although I don’t think that will matter to my father. He struck a bargain with Salvatore and I expect he will want to see the deal finished.”

  She tilted her head upward and peered at him intently, as if trying to discern if she was misreading the underlying threat in his words. “And what was that deal?”

  “To deliver Adam Bruno.”

  CHAPTER

  12

  Maya had managed to elude Ryan’s two guard dogs, giving the
cadre members the slip through a back exit to the building. But as she had gone out into the night, intending to find herself a snack to feed her waning energy, the presence of Light Hunter power had registered. Incredibly potent and alluring vigor.

  When she sought out the source of it, she noted the tail end of the entourage that entered the building and chased after them. Once she had returned to the auditorium and hidden in the shadows near the front, she detected the real font of the inimitable life force. It was a vitality that somehow seemed familiar.

  Adam Bruno.

  It had shocked her when the emcee announced his name and Adam took the stage, the glare from the floodlights nearly bleaching out the thin veneer of silver-blue aura surrounding him. Nearly, but not entirely, confirming to her that his father Salvatore had not been lying to Alexander about his son’s abilities.

  As Adam completed his short speech and returned to the front row, Maya could discern matching power in the woman beside him. His wife, and a pregnant one at that, if Maya was not misinterpreting the slight baby bump. Beside them were people who could only be Adam’s real mother and father, and yet there was only a minimal hint of power from them and those further down the row. They were cloaking their Hunter auras, not that it mattered anymore.

  Adam’s presence had given them all away.

  She had to find Christopher and the others to tell them, uncertain if they had detected the Light Ones. Maya was eager to win her place amongst them because she was uncertain whether Alexander could retain the position of Añaru for much longer. Even she had detected that his life force grew weaker every day despite the repeated feedings he undertook from any Shadow who came near and the ever increasing body count of humans he left drained of life.

  Maya was no fool. She planned on being on the winning side. When she turned toward the darkened wings of the hall, intent on alerting Christopher and Ryan, she saw them.

  Christopher and a woman, standing close together. A singular aura surrounded them, pulsing almost melodically as the two life forces united.

  Impossible, Maya thought. Light and Shadow Hunters could not meld their energies, and yet Christopher and the woman beside him seemed to be in harmonious sync.

  She pivoted, intent on hiding in the shadows to further observe them, and nearly bumped into the man. No, not a man, but a Light One, she realized as her energy rasped against his like stone grinding against stone. She was about to reach out for power to defend herself when he growled his warning.

  “Do not consider it.”

  His hands were low at his sides, but at their centers were two gleaming balls of energy. Considering his size, the density of the orbs, and his proximity, one blast would be enough to literally fry her alive.

  “I mean no harm,” she said in a low husky voice, almost a purr, as she allowed some of her sexual energy to leak, hoping he would not be immune to her allure.

  He maintained his slightly wide-legged stance. A warrior’s carriage, ready to act. His attention was focused on her except for a quick glance beyond her shoulder, which was followed by a longer look.

  He had seen them. Christopher and the female Light Hunter. It seemed to take all of the warrior’s willpower to return his attention to Maya, revealing a weak spot in his armor: the woman.

  “She is important to you,” Maya said, recognizing his interest in the female with Christopher.

  A slight give in his posture and a trembling in his fingers created another chink for her to widen. “He is important to me. The last thing I want is him bonding with a Light Hunter bitch.”

  In a move so quick she was unable to defend, the Light Hunter warrior grabbed her by the throat and drove her against the wall. The orb of energy that had once been at the palm of his hand snaked around her neck and slowly tightened in punishment.

  He leaned down until his face was so close, his nose bumped hers as he snarled, “Do not dare disrespect her. She is my Quinchu.”

  Somehow Maya managed to eke out, “And he is my Añaru’s son.”

  Reaching up, she splayed her hand on his chest and although the temptation of his energy was strong, inviting her to feed, she instead released smidgens of her sexual energy, in such tiny doses that it would produce comfort and not need.

  Within seconds his grasp at her neck relaxed in hesitant fits, although he remained on guard and capable of ending her life with a blast of the orb in his other hand.

  “We cannot let this happen,” she said, inclining her head in the direction of where Christopher and the Quinchu had been just moments earlier.

  The Light Hunter warrior tracked her gaze and when he found himself staring at empty space, the defined lines of his face became brittle as crystal. Bits of neon crept into his irises, proclaiming that he was starting to lose control of his power. Emotion would soon make the true extent of his energy visible to all around them.

  “Will you help me?” Maya asked. The heat of his anger was evident, and she hoped she could use it to turn him.

  “Yes,” he hissed and released her.

  Victoria tugged on Christopher’s hand as they stepped into the early summer air, drawing him away from the auditorium and over to a nearby gazebo where they could have a private discussion. Where their hands touched, there was no denying the flow of power, passing between the two of them in a perfect and untainted circuit.

  Once they were within the protection of the gazebo, she dropped his hand and wrapped her arms around herself, trying to contain her energy and restore some kind of balance.

  “I don’t understand,” she began, still unsure of what he had mentioned earlier. “Why does your father want Adam?”

  “Salvatore told him Adam had great power and my father is all about the power,” he responded, no hint of evasion in his voice.

  “Speaking of power, how is it possible that our life forces are so similar? You’re a Shadow,” she said, pacing back and forth in the small space.

  Christopher dragged shaky hands through the thick locks of his dark wavy hair and blew out a long breath. “I don’t know, why, except… my affinity is water.”

  “As is mine,” she confessed, imagining that was one reason for the synchronicity of their energies.

  “We were once the same people. Before the pox and contamination. We are not all that different,” he urged.

  Victoria could not accept such a bald-faced statement. There was very little that was similar between the warlike Shadows and her people.

  “Why does your father want Adam?” she pressed yet again.

  He shrugged those impossibly broad shoulders, and beneath the fabric of his dress shirt, powerful muscles rippled with the action. “Why else? He wants to suck him dry of every bit of energy.”

  “And you don’t?” Victoria immediately challenged, standing directly before him, but in a defensive stance, legs slightly apart and her hands at her sides where, if need be, she could release an energy blast to protect herself.

  He mimicked her posture, but there was something almost relaxed about him. Especially as he approached until he stood barely an inch from her and the thrum of his power became one with hers, creating that circuit once more without even touching her. The energy was so in tune with hers, an almost audible tone sang in the silence of the night.

  “If I wanted to take you, don’t you think I would have already?” It was impossible to miss the double entendre behind his words.

  “Do you think I am that easy?” she asked, and took hold of his hands, releasing a wave of energy from deep within that had him shaking beside her with want. But her display backfired as the power surged back through the circuit between them and into her.

  She stifled a moan as desire slammed into her. When she attempted to break away, he held her fast with a gentle grip. As their gazes connected, the slow rise of fluorescent light in his eyes mimicked the revelation of his real life energy.

  His dark, nearly black eyes grew a startling shade of teal, and his aura, unlike the muddied energies of other Shado
w Hunters, was a clear crystalline sapphire. It was as pure as her life force which awoke in response, acknowledging the similarity of their vitality, making it impossible to tamp down the need that weakened her physically and stole her resolve with each passing second. But as he drew near, leaving not a millimeter of space between their bodies, she realized she was not alone in her insanity.

  Christopher raised his hand and with his index finger, traced the line of her cheek, leaving a trail of warmth and excited energy everywhere he touched. Then he dipped that finger lower, along the edges of her lips, before taking an almost playful swipe across her chin.

  But then he went farther, skipping down the long line of her neck to the swell of her breasts exposed by the scoop neck of the gauzy summer blouse she wore. In response, her nipples tightened and as he circled the tight peak with just that one finger, her insides clenched and she could no longer just stand there.

  She slipped her hand between them and to his rock-hard midsection. Running the back of her hand all across those lean muscles, she moved farther up to a spot directly above his heart. With one blast there she could take him down, but instead she splayed her palm across that spot and experienced the surge of his energy, sympathetic and strong.

  He moaned and his erection jumped against her belly, yanking a pleased smile to her face before she shifted her hand over and covered the swell of his chest. The hard button of his nipple pressed against the palm of her hand and she mimicked his actions, tweaking that tight bud.

  Over and over they touched, caught up in something bigger than themselves. In something almost primordial as the true essence of their beings, unique and yet similar, stirred the Equinox tucked deep inside both of them.

  Victoria sensed the tendrils of his energy seeking hers, wrapping around the core of her Hunter vitality for a more lasting binding, but she retreated, stumbling away from him, thanks to the force necessary to break the connection and the weakness in her knees.

  He would have reached for her again, but she whipped her hand up to stay his motion. He jerked to a halt, his eyes glittering in the night. The sapphire of his aura and silver-blue threads in its field gleaming as bright and clean as a newly minted coin.