Hunted: A Vampire Romance (Marked by Night Book 3)

by Sara Thorn

  "A fae woman there told me that there was another human who was bound to the land a long time ago and that she had a similar power to mine. She said the woman died in childbirth and her fae lover cursed their newborn baby because he was so blinded by grief. The baby was Quinn, and that is why he is cursed with being drawn to the shadow magic and so susceptible to its influence. It's also the reason he is bound to the land just as you and I are, Cassius."

  "What does this have to do with understanding your power?" he asked. He was really being difficult about entertaining any conversation that leaned toward being empathetic to Quinn.

  "The fae woman thinks my power might be able to help him."

  "We can deal with that later," Cassius said, obviously less interested in that aspect of things. "Right now, we have a job to perform.

  Bree walked out of the room to go get herself ready for the party as well, and Cassius walked toward me until he was able to reach his hand up and touch my bare shoulder.

  "You're shimmering," he said. "Is that magic?"

  "Yes, Bree did it for me. I wanted to fit in with the fae tonight." I smiled.

  "You look beguiling," he said as he leaned forward and kissed me.

  His lips were soft and strong, and as I reached out to put my hand against his chest, his powerful muscles tightened beneath his shirt in response to my touch. When he pulled his mouth slowly away from mine, I wanted to tell him that I wanted more.

  "Be careful with the fae," he warned. "They are beautiful people, that is certain, but danger often lies in the midst of beautiful things."

  I knew he was right, and I didn't mean to play the part of a naïve and stupid mortal who was easily fooled by the shiny enchantments of the fae. But surely there was just as much good in them as there was deceitfulness.

  Cassius looked so strikingly handsome in his black pants and the long-sleeved black shirt that he had left several buttons undone. I wanted to undo the rest of the buttons, too, so I could look again at what lay beneath his clothes. If there had been more time before the party, we would have both been pleased to get lost within the distracting pleasures of each other.

  "Ready?" he asked as he held out his arm for me to take.

  "Yes," I said.

  I walked alongside him arm-in-arm, down the corridors to the castle ballroom. I could already hear the music playing and the low thrum of talking and laughing from inside the room.

  "There will be many people here tonight," he whispered as he leaned in sideways closer to my ear. "Most of the fae have come, and Quinn has brought all of his glamoured humans with him. I'm sure he thought it would be wise to have them all here as some form of protection should something unexpected and underhanded occur. Unfortunately for him, the unexpected thing is to send all of those humans back to their own world, so he ended up playing right into our hand."

  I felt my lips wrinkle to one side as they sometimes did when I felt guilty about having done something I would later regret.

  "Bree will take care of the drinks for the humans, and I will be watching Quinn as well as the rest of the guests. All you need to do is dance. Don't let anything else distract you because, for as long as you are dancing, Quinn will be distracted."

  I nodded. It sounded like I had the easiest job of all; just dance and pretend to be oblivious to everything else that was going on around me. "What happens afterward?" I asked just before we got to the door of the ballroom. "Once the humans are sent back, Quinn will be furious."

  "Yes, he will be. But there will be nothing that he can do here. The fae don't support his behavior as of late, and they won't risk an alliance with me in order to back him up here in my castle. They will look on and spectate as they watch what unfolds and will likely be happy to have the glamoured humans out of their forest.

  Quinn will be livid, but he will not go up against me in my home, surrounded by others who would come to my side if needed. He will probably run back into the forest in a rage-filled defeat and plan his next move, which I am sure will be a vicious rebuttal that we can think about after tonight. For now, there is only the goal of sending all the humans back home."

  I thought about what Cassius had said, and I held fast to his arm. I knew we were doing the right thing; at least, I thought we were. But something about all of it still didn't feel right to me. Cassius pushed open the giant door with the palm of his hand, and the sight inside the ballroom was nothing short of amazing. The glowing and twinkling light spilled across our faces as we stepped into the dimly lit room that was already abuzz with festivity. It was like a part of the fae forest had been brought right here inside the castle.

  Chapter Four

  This party was the hugest yet, and since there were no vampires here tonight, the fae coated the entire revelry with a thick dose of magical elements.

  There were already people dancing in the center of the large room—both fae and glamoured humans alike. The fae had put some sort of dizzying illusion over the dance floor so it looked like the people were whirling by at a blurred pace that would have been quite unnatural to do of their own accord.

  A mist came up from the drinks the fae held in their hands and formed little moving clouds with images in front of their faces as they sipped their cocktails. It was like latte art, except it rose right up from the glasses and danced around in the air. The stone walls seemed to be creeping with movement as vines and leaves crawled along the edges between the floor and ceiling and made the ballroom itself seem alive. Even the light in the air seemed to make the shadows dance, and as we stepped farther inside, I noticed that tiny mushroom caps sprouted alongside each footstep.

  "This is amazing," I whispered to Cassius as I pressed my chest close to the side of his arm.

  "Don't be distracted by it," he said. He turned and gave me a kiss before letting me go. "I'll be watching, don't worry," he said as he went to walk through the crowd of guests and left me to dance.

  He would survey everyone’s placement and then take a seat on his throne at the head of the room where the two regal, high-backed chairs sat atop a raised platform. Quinn would be sitting there, too, right beside Cassius in the second chair as his esteemed guest. I knew right where I needed to position myself.

  I walked through the crowd of dancers, who seemed to part as I made my way closer to the front of the room. Since most of them knew I was the entertainment, many of them left the dance floor when they saw me to make way for the performance they expected to see. As soon as I was near enough for Quinn to see me, I could tell that Cassius’s plan would work impeccably.

  Quinn leaned forward in his chair when he spotted me, and his mouth parted enough that I could see the moist reflection on the top of his bottom lip, or maybe it was a trick of the light playing upon a bit of fae sheen that he had as well. Either way, he was mesmerized, and it showed. Even with his tangled-looking fingers, he gripped the armrest, and it made the dark-purple tint of his knuckles turn a bit paler from the clenching pressure. His eyes grew wild with wanton desire, and I could feel them falling over every inch of my body as if he were touching me with his stare. I had to admit that it was disarming, as was the way he looked tonight.

  Despite the nightmarish qualities of the shadow magic which still plagued him, he was nothing short of striking in his black jeans and a dark-cerulean, silk shirt that hung open down to his navel and draped loosely across the sides of his torso. Even with his deep-purple skin that was nearing the point of ebony, I could still see the cut lines of each and every muscle and the curve of his waist that led down to his pelvis. As horrible as it was for me to even think, he looked almost hotter like this than he had before.

  I needed to remember what I was supposed to be doing. I couldn’t get distracted. I reminded myself of Cassius’s words and closed my eyes to listen for the music to begin. When the sounds started to play, I danced without opening my eyes. I needed to get caught up in the dancing before looking around and chance getting caught up with Quinn. After a few moments, my legs, feet, a
nd arms were so embroiled in the beat that I knew it was safe to take in my surroundings. When I lifted my eyelids, I saw Quinn and Cassius sitting before me, both equally entranced and both staring at me with an insatiable yearning that made me feel as if everything inside of my body was on fire.

  I danced to try to calm down the heat, but it only made my movements more feverish. My choreography spilled over into the mood of the crowd, and I sensed the energy in the air of the shift as the fae refilled their glasses and drank heartily. Bree came with beverages for the glamoured humans, and when Quinn noticed her serving, he got ready to say something to desist her from providing his minions with any refreshments and comforts which they wouldn't remember anyway. But as soon as I noticed that he was about to stop her, I launched into a dance so sensual and invoking that it drew his eyes straight down the inside of my bodice to a place on my body where I knew he longed to be. From that moment on, he was transfixed, and there was no further danger of distraction.

  The party was the most alluring of revelries, and everyone was enjoying the thrill of it. Even the humans seemed to relish in it, although I knew their smiles were just a part of the glamour that was perpetually stuck to their faces like masks. But when the humans started to take the first few sips of their drinks, which had been carefully infused with the Rowan berries, their smiles subtly began to fade. Fortunately, as Bree had said, it took time for the effects of the glamour to wear off, not too much time, but a few solid minutes in which they would be quietly disoriented. During that small window, Bree would be able to push them into her magical gateway without their resistance. That moment seemed to be happening now.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Bree's hands were starting to move as if she was parting the air into two pieces. I could also see that the humans were slowly and silently beginning to wake up. If any of the fae had noticed, they certainly weren't letting on. It was all going so smoothly that I started to think Quinn might not even realize what had happened until long after the humans were gone and my dance had finally ended.

  But then, something so random, so unpredictable, and so simple happened that it couldn't be stopped in time to change the course of events. It played out as if it were happening in slow motion, and even though I willed my body to do something, the disconnect between my thoughts and actions was a few seconds too late to matter.

  A human walked across the dance floor right in front of where Quinn was sitting atop the raised platform. The person must have been just coming out of their glamour and was haphazardly moving toward a random spot in the room to gather their wits. Quinn was heated and thirsty from having been intently focused on watching me dance. He reached down and plucked the drink right from the human's hand without them even stopping to care about it. Then Quinn lifted the cup to his lips and took a sip.

  In an instant, the look on his face broke from being entranced to being enraged. As soon as the liquid had touched his tongue, he tasted the Rowan berry and hurled the glass across the room, nearly knocking into my shoulder as it crashed upon the dance floor. Bree immediately saw the rouse was up, and she called upon her magic to collectively pull all of the humans into the gateway and send them hurtling back toward Earth as she securely closed off the magic on our end within a matter of seconds. She had done it; the humans were freed.

  Cassius got to his feet quickly and faced Quinn, prepared to protect both Bree and me, and all of his guests, from whatever Quinn might try to do now in the aftermath of his fury about being betrayed. But Quinn was so livid and had such little rational control over himself and his emotions, just as I had warned Cassius, that his target wasn't anyone other than Cassius. Cassius was wrong about Quinn not attempting to attack him in his own castle at his own party. Quinn had every intent to engage with Cassius right now and to kill him on the spot.

  The two men were poised to lethally attack each other. Quinn's eyes seethed with a steaming blackness that swirled around in their sockets like ink spills, and his fingers rolled around each other in the air as he summoned shadow magic that would fatally injure Cassius with a powerful blow. I watched as Cassius’s dhampir side eclipsed anything human about him as his blade-like fangs reared inside of his opening jaw, and his muscular frame became so powerful and pronounced that his clothing stretched to the point of tearing. I had never seen Cassius unleash his full dhampir side; I had only seen small pieces of it in carefully discrete and portioned amounts. I had never seen him truly unleash this side of him without restraint as he was doing now to be able to match the power of Quinn's shadow magic.

  I pushed off of my feet and leaped up onto the podium as if I were jumping from a sinking ship to the only chance of survival. I threw myself between both men, knowing that if I didn't, they would surely kill each other.

  "Stop!" I screamed at them both. I thrust both arms out to my side with my palms facing each of them as I flipped my head between Quinn and Cassius so they could see the terror and urgency in my expression. That was the only thing I knew to do in order to force them both to cease battle. "You have to quit! You cannot hurt each other without hurting me, too!"

  I stood there between them with my body shaking and tears streaming from my eyes. Neither of them looked like the men I knew and cared about. They were unrecognizable to me. I stared at each of them in turn and saw that they were now both ashamed of how they appeared in my eyes. Cassius stood frozen in his dhampir state as if he were afraid to make a movement that would scare me. Quinn's posture withdrew as though he were embarrassingly shrinking into the shadows. I didn't move from my place between them. I didn't trust that they wouldn't try to kill each other again. I would stand right here, in front of the gathered crowd of the fae, until one or both of them withdrew.

  It didn't take long for my action to work. Quinn was the first to leave. He glared at me with a piercing stare meant to hurt me. I had distracted him and betrayed him, and he knew it. I had broken a trust that we had shared even when we had been on opposing sides. He wasn't going to easily forgive me for it. He stepped down from the platform and hissed at the other fae who watched him from the sides of the room. Then he turned and walked quickly out of the ballroom without so much as a look back over his shoulder again. For now, the threat of his attacking Cassius had ended. But it wouldn't be long before he came back to finish what he had paused tonight for my sake. As horrible as I felt for deceiving him, at least I knew that even after our trust had been wrinkled, Quinn still cared enough about me to desist instead of putting me in harm's way.

  Once Quinn had disappeared from the room, I turned back to look at Cassius, who was still so emotionally wrought that he hadn't been able to repeal his dhampir and bury it beneath his human features. He looked at me with solid black eyes and acutely whetted fangs as his muscular frame pushed against his taut shirt. He lowered his head as if in shame and turned to walk away from me and out of the ballroom. It was unlike Cassius to leave a party before his guests without giving them some sort of grand fanfare of an exit. They were used to seeing him be arrogantly dramatic and demanding of attention. Some of the fae whispered amongst themselves as Cassius walked from the room without a sound. I didn’t think they knew what to make of this more humbled and reserved dhampir that they had never seen before.

  I got down from the platform as Bree walked toward me. I couldn't stay and dance anymore. I had to go after Cassius.

  "Go," she said as if she could read my mind, which I was pretty sure she could not. "I'll take care of the guests and the party.

  "Thank you," I said as I ran on my toes out of the room.

  I heard the music start back up behind me after I left, and the quiet roar of talking and merrymaking resumed. The fae would continue the party into the wee hours of the night, and although they would surely talk about what had transpired, they wouldn't let it end their fun. The only ones who wouldn't be engaged in frolicking this evening would be Quinn and Cassius, and I knew that I could only go to one of them to ease their suffering.

  I wa
lked quickly toward the bedroom and then slowed my steps when I reached the open door. I looked inside the room and saw Cassius with his hand against the fireplace mantle as he stared down into the dancing flames in the hearth. He was still fully dhampir; I could see it in the bulging muscles on the back of his shoulders. Something about the incident tonight had made it impossible for him to calm down, and he was still being governed by his stronger side. Perhaps it was his anger at Quinn or his feelings of shame he kept trying to pretend were not there. This time, something in his dhampir nature was forcing him to acknowledge it, whether he wanted to or not. Considering he let his human side rest on the surface in unfair timesharing of who he was, it was time for the dhampir to rise.

  Chapter Five

  I walked over to Cassius and lifted my hand to put on the back of his shoulder.

  "Don't," he said.

  I hadn't even touched him yet and was silent on my bare-footed approach. I wasn’t sure how he even knew I was behind him without raising his head and turning.

  "Cassius, please look at me," I said gently.

  "No."

  "Why not?"

  I wanted to reach out and touch him, but he had already told me not to, and angering him was the last thing I wanted to do tonight.

  "Because Mara; I’m a monster, and we both already know that. I don't see why you keep insisting that I pretend to be something other than what I am."

  "You are not a monster,” I said as I tried to step around to his side.

  He turned away from me and switched which arm held onto the hearth so it blocked my view of his face.

  "Yes," he said calmly and with a weighted severity. "I am."

  "Fine," I said, giving in to his stubbornness. "You are a monster; the kind of thing that creeps out from behind the shadows and lurks between the unseen spaces. You're a beast."