Austin's Lost Bride (The Sterns)

by Mindi Winters

  When she woke up at the hospital the next day, Austin was at her side, head hung low. He couldn’t even look at her as he spoke. The fighting had ended almost as quickly as it had begun. They weren’t looking for a big fight. They just wanted one person and then they fell back.

  They wanted her father.

  Austin had organized the available hunters as fast as he could. Austin’s connection with her father was strong. Her father had loved him and couldn’t wait until he was a proper son-in-law. Another hunter had used tracking charms to trace the connection from Austin to her imprisoned father. The hunters fought the thralls and Austin confronted Mannus to save her father.

  But he didn’t. Mannus had already turned her father. Instead of saving him and killing Mannus, he let Mannus escape. Then he killed her father.

  She knew in that instant that if she had been able to move better she would have killed Austin in the hospital. She gave back his ring and dismissed him from her life. No man who could harm her father, even as a vampire, could be her husband. She knew her father had to die. He had become a vampire and the beast would drive even a good man to evil. But other hunters were nearby and could have done it. Austin chose to do it himself and she would never forgive him.

  That day she lost her future husband, her father, and her connection to her mother. Her paranormal senses never fully came back and she didn’t know why.

  Sitting in the park thinking of the past, she didn’t hear the man approaching until too late. She spun quickly to face him but the Taser had already pierced her skin. As tens of thousands of volts of electricity surged through her body, she cursed Austin’s name a final time before blacking out.

  Austin watched her walk away, slamming the back door behind her. She was truly lost to him. He realized that now and couldn’t stop the overwhelming regret sweeping over him. Every inch of his body and soul wanted to run to her, take her off her feet and ask for forgiveness.

  He wouldn’t. It was too late and he was too proud. She would never have him back and he was a fool for having briefly thought that she had forgiven him. Something so alien to him like begging wasn’t going to help. Some things can just never be forgiven.

  Like killing your fiancée’s father.

  Rebecca’s face had turned to grief and then to stone when he told her the story at the hospital. He had only told her that her father was dead, not even that he had killed him.

  But she knew.

  He never met her eyes as he spoke and she just knew what he had done. She commanded him to look at her face filled with grief and simply asked confirmation if he had killed him.

  Words tried to come out of his mouth but nothing escaped, not even his breath. He was utterly speechless and filled with shame. As her face went hard and her eyes filled with fury, he answered her. He wanted to explain, tell her why he did it, but she wouldn’t listen to anything.

  She handed him his ring and told him to leave. Forever.

  Killing her father wasn’t something he wanted to do. He wanted to save him, but Mannus escaped and there was no time. As much as he loved Rebecca, her father had been like a second father to him, and they were going to be his family. But no matter how terrible the consequences were, in his heart he knew he’d kill him all over again.

  Austin shook and cleared his head. He had no time for regrets. Mannus needed to die tonight and his preparations weren’t finished yet.

  He heard the shower turning off inside and touched his face where she hit him. She threw a good punch. Blood was still slowly coming out of his nose and he cleaned himself with the outside faucet.

  He felt the hairs on his neck stand up and quickly became alert, looking around for danger, subtly tensing his muscles to fight. In the corner of his eye he thought he saw movement in the neighbor’s window but when he looked up there was nothing there.

  Rebecca was making him twitchy and he went back to finish the stakes.

  He got back to his work and sighed moments later when he heard the front door open. Standing up on a log to peer over the fence he saw her walking down the street. She’d be back, he knew.

  He went back to work.

  Chapter 4

  When he had finished his work, he decided to rest to be at maximum alertness when they went hunting. Sleep was restless and his mind wouldn’t let go of dreams of loving Rebecca. He was just as tired when he finally woke up as he had been before he went to sleep.

  So much for getting rest.

  Rebecca wasn’t there.

  She said we’d finish this together. Austin just couldn’t believe that Rebecca might have gone on to fight Mannus alone for a second time.

  He did another check of the safe house to make sure he didn’t miss anything she might have taken. A quick walk-through the rooms told him that everything was still in place. She hadn’t taken any of the items they had each prepared. She would want to have the stuff she had made, he knew. He also knew that she could have her own stash of items tucked away somewhere else, but his instinct told him that she wouldn’t go solo again.

  When he watched her leave hours ago, he assumed she’d be back well before evening. Dusk was still hours away this time of year, but they needed to get ready, head out, and track Mannus to wherever he was sleeping. Finding him before he woke again to feed and regain his strength was crucial.

  She’d been gone too long for a simple walk to blow off steam, and he knew that she wasn’t going to change her mind to pursue their target. She wanted Mannus dead as much as any hunter that had ever lived. Something had happened when she was out.

  He dismissed in rapid order a lot of the ordinary and everyday but implausible things that could have delayed her. Hunters just don’t get hit by cars or mugged, he thought. Something supernatural had stopped Rebecca from being here and that meant Mannus.

  Austin shook at the thought that Rebecca might be in danger. The thought of her taken again by Mannus was unbearable, but he couldn’t think of anything else it could be. Rebecca could handle any ordinary threats, but supernatural ones could overwhelm a lone hunter. That’s why they always stalked vampires in groups of two or three.

  The sun was still up and Mannus couldn’t have taken her himself. That meant thralls. His team had killed several yesterday and Rebecca took out a few more. The fight last night claimed even more. How many did Mannus have in Detroit with him?

  He remembered the alarm he felt outside earlier, and went cold when he realized where he was. This was a safe house. Mannus shouldn’t have been able to find them here. He started to think he was overreacting because of how he still felt for her.

  Safe houses were secure. That was the whole point of them. It had been nearly thirty years since a hunter had been lost at a compromised safe house. Since that incident, the whole safe house system was reworked to be more secure. No one knew all of them and there were several in every major city. None had ever been discovered while in use. But Rebecca had broken the rules and left seen. She hadn’t veiled like she should have. Still, the idea that the house was compromised or that a thrall just happened to be driving by and noticed her walking began to seem more far-fetched and his idea that she was in danger began to wane.

  Maybe she had gone solo again.

  The attack was so clumsy that he didn’t even need his hunter instinct to warn him. The screeching tires gave it away without any need for his abilities. His body hit the floor before the first bullets broke through the living room glass and he started to crawl toward his weapons but it was over before he made it five feet. People were screaming outside and he heard the car race away.

  His throat went dry and he thought about Rebecca. Now he knew. She was in danger and he needed to get out fast. He had to find her before it was too late. He wouldn’t let Mannus take another person he loved.

  Light streamed through the broken window and a crowd was already gathering, calling out to him, asking if he was all right. Someone shouted out that police would be there soon.

  He ran back into the ho
use and grabbed his bag, thankful that he had at least put some of his stuff together, and then he headed over to Rebecca’s room. Her dagger was too important to leave behind. Even if it didn’t have the same power in his hands, he couldn’t leave it. He wasn’t sure that the oil she prepared was finished but he grabbed it anyway. Sirens were getting closer.

  He started moving out the house again when he noticed it on the floor wedged against the wall opposite the shattered window. Paper wrapped around what looked like a dud gas shell. He tore the paper off without looking at it. Police had just pulled up outside. He needed to get out now and he started mentally preparing himself for a veil. He flew through the back door into the yard. A few logs were still uncut and he grabbed two of them and put them by the back of the fence.

  Police had entered the house, and before they had a chance to see him, he threw up his veil. The world instantly went out of focus and he could only see the jagged outlines of objects before him. He could hear the police calling out, still moving through the house. Through the veil he was unable to see the house clearly but the back door hadn’t opened again, so he was still alone in back. Grabbing his bag he tossed it over the fence, not caring that it would become visible when it left him, then he climbed onto the logs he put down and jumped the fence.

  No one noticed as the bag disappeared again when he grabbed it and he was able to walk out of the neighboring yard undetected. His love, who hated him, was in danger. Someone had tried to kill him, and he needed somewhere to read the note and make a quick plan before it was too late to save her. It can’t happen again, he thought. Whatever happened he wasn’t going to let Rebecca die, he just needed to find her.

  Rebecca’s head felt like it was on fire and her muscles ached throughout her body. Then she remembered getting tasered in the park and cursing Austin. She tried to move but was restrained. Panic hit her for a split second before her training kicked in and she relaxed. She couldn’t believe she’d been captured twice in twenty-four hours. It was embarrassing.

  Images of Austin flared through her mind. As much as she hated him, she hoped they hadn’t found the safe house and that he wasn’t a prisoner too. Thoughts of him chained and hurt flashed through her mind and she forced herself to push them aside. He’s fine, she knew. They wouldn’t be able to take him. He was a good hunter and better than her, she finally had to admit.

  He’d come for her, of course, not out of any personal desire, but obligation. They had paired into a hunter team and he’d come for his partner. He’d probably wait for the other hunters to get back, but by then it’d be too late. But too late for what was the question.

  Her eyes started to adjust to the low light in the room and she took a quick look around. Cinder block walls, exposed piping overhead, a simple table and chairs, and blacked out windows told her she was in a residential basement. Probably not too far from where she was taken. She was sitting in an armchair, her wrists handcuffed and chained to the floor. Another chain belt was around her waist attached to the floor and held her in a sitting position. Her feet were free but it was a small consolation.

  She could hear movement upstairs. At least four people, she could tell and she bit her lip. That’s more than she thought he’d have left to help him. She knew it was one of Mannus’s thralls that had captured her, but where was he now?

  Her body tensed up again and she looked around more slowly, paying more attention to the darkest shadows of the room. Shadows where she knew a vampire could blend in more easily and be unseen even by her. She couldn’t see anyone or anything, but every cell in her body screamed that she was not alone. Mannus could be standing right behind her, she realized, but she didn’t think that would be his style. He had been a barbarian warrior chief, and that in your face manner had held throughout the millennia. He would want to see her face, see her eyes, and see the fear in them. Nothing else would satisfy him. Hunter training took control of her and she drained her face of any emotion. She would deny him, as long as she could, any pleasure from her capture.

  “I know you’re in the room with me,” she said.

  Minutes seemed to pass and she held her face expressionless, her eyes scanning the room where she thought Mannus was standing. He had to be here, her senses were wild with alarm. Without warning or sound, a figure started to appear, melting into existence from shadow until it was a complete person. He stood in shadows and was difficult to see, but there was no doubt. Mannus was here.

  Rebecca drew a large breath to steel herself against the vampire, wishing for once she had more of Austin’s skill. Thinking of him, her mind wandered briefly to her afternoon sex and an instant of regret struck her.

  Focus, she thought, as irritation seeped through her at her inability to keep her mind off Austin. What did she regret, anyway? That she challenged Austin sexually and lost? Or something else? She convinced herself it wasn’t the something else and then silently cursed herself as Mannus laughed.

  “Thinking of things and people lost,” he said. “I can see the doubt in your eye. You try to lie to yourself but your soul knows the truth and betrays you to me.”

  “Go to hell.”

  “Oh, I’m already there, child. I have no doubt about that. But you are a wonder. You have your parents’ spirit, but not their skill or sense. Neither of them would have been so stupid to call a challenge to me and you have done it twice.”

  Rebecca was stunned he brought up her parents and hoped she hadn’t let it show on her face. “Like I said, go to hell. I’m not afraid of you.”

  In the dark she could see Mannus shake his head, “No, your sense and skill is nothing like your parents. When I had captured each of them, they both showed great patience and they were both rewarded for it in the end.”

  Rebecca’s head spun.

  He’s just trying to screw with your mind.

  Mother was dead for years before father was captured and her father certainly wasn’t rewarded for being Mannus’s prisoner. Father died. Austin killed him and she hardened her face at the memory.

  “It was long before you were born,” Mannus said. “She was near your age, and her hunter team had been stalking what they thought was a younger vampire, but it was me. I tore into her partner, satisfying myself with his blood. She was wounded, but I took her prisoner and left her alive to feed later. It was a mistake. I should have killed her instantly, but I didn’t realize how dangerous she was.”

  Rebecca’s instinct told her he was being truthful, but she didn’t understand why. She didn’t know, but her control was beginning to crumble and her face showed it. Was that the plan? To break her control? She wasn’t sure but tried to reassert herself mentally without success.

  “In three hundred years your mother was the first to escape me after having been captured. She collected herself mentally and never spoke a single word unless I spoke to her and forced her to answer. Unlike you, she certainly never would have stalked me alone or called out foolish challenges that practically beg me to kill. She wielded her own power and that of the dagger with skill you simply will never have. That dagger is nearly as old as I am, forged by your ancestors who had converted to the early Christian church. It has power you can’t imagine, but someone like you, who believes in nothing, who loves nothing, can never truly command it.”

  Rebecca knew he had to be lying, just saying these things to keep her mentally off balance. Mannus was hurt badly. She had seen it herself only last night. Austin had shot him with a bolt and she got him with her dagger. He would be practically helpless against an attack now. The whole act, everything he said was just to keep her from realizing his weakness, finding some way to escape and acting against him.

  “I had expected so much more from you than just being a fool,” said Mannus. “As for me, I am so very far from being practically helpless.”

  Rebecca’s face drained of all color at the impossibility of what just occurred. He read her mind.

  He shouldn’t be able to pass through my defenses so easily.
/>   But he had. In a quick motion, Mannus moved over to the light and threw the switch.

  Light flooded the room and blinded Rebecca for a moment. He eyes adjusted and she looked on Mannus. If it were possible to look more shocked she would have, but it didn’t matter. She was very wrong. Mannus wore no clothes except a pair of shorts. Muscles rippled along his body and there was no evidence of any wounds on him from the night before. He was completely healed.

  She was in serious trouble.

  Austin.

  He didn’t know. What if he came? Mannus had more thralls than they expected and he certainly wasn’t hurting as they expected. How could he heal so quickly?

  “I told you, child. You can’t command the dagger as well as your mother. The dagger has some passive power and it did hurt me, but nothing like it would have in the hands of a competent owner. In your mother’s hands I wouldn’t have survived last night, but in yours I could still transform to fly away and fight again today.

  “You wanted to hurry things along with your challenge so you get that wish. Your man will come soon. He’s already on his way. Of course, you threw him aside years ago, but he will come for you. He still cares. When he does, you’ll get to watch him die. You’ll be the one to kill him.”

  With those words, he was on her instantly. His fangs were out and tearing open her throat before she could even breathe. She tried to struggle against him but it was hopeless. Her hands were bound and he just swatted away her legs as she tried to kick him. Her mind was starting to darken and in moments she would be lost to his power. Turned.

  Using the last bit of her strength, she pulled her mind together and stuck out with her all the power she could gather. She hoped in vain that it would be enough to throw him off her. The force of her attack flowed through her body, through her neck wound and into Mannus. The blow cracked his own concentration for a moment and as the beast entered her soul to begin the turning, she broke through Mannus’s mind and connected with him.