Masters of the Hunt: Fated and Forbidden

by Sarra Cannon

  Elaina turned to Vicq. "You saved him?"

  "I don't know if saving him is the appropriate phrase," Vicq replied. "I could have put him out of his misery quickly, but he had not an ounce of blood left for me to siphon. I'm not sure what sparked my sympathy for him that night. I was already mad at the world because I’d lost you. I just couldn't bring myself to end his life with my bare hands...so I gave him what was taken from him. I figured he'd either expire or change. Over the next few days, when he didn't die from the infection or change, I knew that he was like you and Leo."

  "You knew immediately that I was infected too. How?" she asked.

  "It takes one to know one," Emory said.

  "Why couldn't I tell?"

  "You should learn to embrace who and what you are. If you never acknowledge your true nature, you will never see past your own disguise. Nor will you be able to distinguish your own kind. Dresdan. And those like myself who are infected,” he said. “You would have known earlier that Paige and I carry the infection if you had paid attention."

  Elaina was silent but knew that what Emory spoke was the truth. She was ashamed because she had become something she'd once been against. District 5 had fed her lies about the Dresdan. "Why haven't you crossed over then?"

  Emory grinned. "I'm stubborn. But unlike you, I embrace both sides. My human and Dresdan side. When was the last time you looked at yourself in the mirror, Elaina? I mean, really, truly took a good long look at what you are."

  There had never been any mirrors on her houseboat. She never so much as took more than a few seconds to glance at her reflection in a car window or her rearview mirror to make sure she was presentable before work. "I didn't really want to see." She shook her head. "Back then was different. I wanted it then because I knew it was the only way that I could truly be happy with Vicq."

  Vicq turned in his chair. "You know that’s not true. I'm happy with you no matter what you are or become. I've told you that many times."

  "You missed the point. I won't be happy until I know that I can provide for you without failure."

  Vicq grabbed her hand and squeezed it gently. The corners of his eyes wrinkled and his forehead creased. He wanted to say more but didn't want to have the discussion in front of Emory. She could tell because the expression was reminiscent of what he projected when he meant to argue his point.

  Emory sat back in his chair, lifted his legs up on the desk, and crossed his ankles. "New love is a beautiful thing."

  "Yes, it is," Vicq said softly, and his eyes began to cloud over in red lust.

  Elaina shyly looked away and made a mental note to carry on the conversation when the two of them were alone. "How come you have fangs and I don’t?"

  Emory chuckled, showing his sharp pearly whites once again. "I take vampire blood regularly. I'll drink from rogue Dresdan when I can dominate one, but I find that lesser species of vampires are much easier to trick. I take just enough to get me by from day to day. If I don't drink at all, I'm as good as dead. If I drink too much, I risk crossing over sooner rather than later."

  "And crossing over is not something you want to do alone," Vicq added.

  "Then you're deliberately postponing your change," she said.

  "Exactly." Emory smirked. "I’ve considered succumbing many times and joining Vicq’s coven."

  "The offer has been on the table for months," Vicq replied.

  "I won't join you while I'm still human," Emory said firmly. "I have respect for what you've established, and I refuse to be a weak link while there."

  Vicq nodded. "Fair enough."

  "Where do you get the Dresdan blood from if you're not already a part of Vicq's coven?" Elaina asked.

  "I hunt them down," he said. "I stick to the ones who are driven to kill without reason. I call it my payment to society for being a menace during my criminal days."

  "Emory walks on the wild side. He lures them in with the promise of blood, and then he takes theirs instead."

  She raised an eyebrow. "Clever, but I can see how that could earn you a death sentence."

  "It's not my first, and certainly won't be my last," Emory replied. "The rush is amazing. They're amped up because they think they have hit the mother load." He licked his lips. "The blood is more savory when those emotions are high."

  "And you gain more powers from feeding on vampires rather than humans," she recalled.

  Emory cocked his head to one side and winked. "You should try it."

  "I'm content."

  "I see...you run with a Superior." Emory gestured toward Vicq with his hands. "I can understand why you have no desire to take from another's veins. When you cross over, I imagine your strength will be vast."

  "How do you figure?"

  "I suspect you've taken blood countless times from Vicq, who is a Superior of the Dresdan Court—."

  "Was," Vicq corrected.

  "Your bloodline doesn't lie. You were created by a Master and are the only Superior in the Court who can say that."

  "And the first Superior to have ever formed my own coven. I'm being hunted down for it."

  From what Vicq had told her, the Superiors were the next level down from the Master himself. Often, Superiors were elder Dresdan who'd proven themselves, risen in the Court ranks, and were delegated certain privileges. It was rare that a Master created any more vampires after taking the title. If he did, he risked being challenged, or worse—his powers stripped. In the Dresdan world, it was left up to the Superiors and Soldiers to create.

  Just as she was about to ask another question, Vicq rose from his chair. "We should move out."

  Emory stood immediately and led them out of the office. When they turned the corner right outside of the office, Elaina immediately sensed that something was wrong. That was when she saw the blond in the red bodysuit laying lifeless on the floor and the Dresdan creatures that stood over her.

  "What the fuck?" Emory exclaimed.

  Her breath caught in her throat as Vicq teleported away from her, meeting the Dresdan in the center of the floor. There were five of them. Their skin pale and bones protruding as if they hadn't eaten in days, yet their lips were red from Paige’s blood. Their eyes were glossy red. As they circled Vicq, they hissed and flashed their fangs.

  Elaina reached into the inside of her coat and grabbed the hilt of her dagger. She licked her lips, tasting cold anticipation in the air.

  The first Dresdan rushed Vicq and met death swiftly by a roundhouse kick to the head that broke his neck. The others folded in for close combat. Fists pounded flesh. Kicks snapped bone. Angry growls and protests rang out as the vampires sparred.

  Elaina's veins stretched and tightened as blood filled them. Up until now, her feet would not move. She was hungry for a kill. It had been months since she'd last fought a Dresdan. She pulled her dagger and took a step forward.

  "Don't move!" Emory warned, putting his arm out to stop her. "We got this."

  Her eyes trailed up from where his forearm brushed against her abs to his face. Before she could voice her protests, he was gone. He joined Vicq in the fighting, throwing punches and dropping kicks to the head. All of them, Emory even, moved with inhuman speed and strength. Most of the lights overhead had burst as a result of the rapid and careless movement. Had they not paused to spar between the shifting and transforming, she wouldn't have seen a thing. Before long, blood was shed and the sparring became more gruesome.

  Vicq grabbed another Dresdan solider, body-slammed him onto the hood of a truck, and gutted him.

  Emory bashed his opponent’s head into the cinder block wall, and the Dresdan slithered to a heap on the floor.

  All the while, the last two took that chance to hone in on Elaina.

  The dagger was still grasped in her palm when they approached her. They were both covered with what could have been a mix of their own blood, Vicq's, and Emory's. She didn't plan on having her blood added to the amalgam. Their feral red orbs told her that they had nasty motives.

  "A hum
an female. Lovely," one of them said, his voice low and strained. "You would be a nice snack."

  They flashed fang, and saliva foamed at their mouths.

  "You want a snack?" Elaina shrugged off her long trench coat and let it fall to the floor at her ankles. The chilly air washed over her exposed skin, smelling of sulfur and death. "Work for it."

  "Elaina," Vicq warned, but it was too late.

  Her survival instincts had taken over. Ripe hunger consumed her, and her stomach rolled over. It was a type of hunger that she had never experienced before.

  They attempted to capture her, grasping at thin air as she thwarted their attempts. Her kicks weren't powerful enough to land a deathblow, but they were strong enough to weaken. Not one time did she have to use her dagger. She didn't let them get that close to her. As she swung left and right, she felt her knuckles connecting with cold vampire flesh and bone. They were beginning to get angry. She could sense this from their enraged hisses and panicked attempts to grab her.

  There was no escaping a Dresdan once one got ahold of you. Death was the only outcome. Theirs or yours. And she would never welcome death.

  The more aggressive of the two Dresdan shot toward her. She leapt into action, drop-kicking him in the face then straddling him on the ground. Without hesitation, she sliced the blade of her dagger cleanly across his jugular. His hands went to his throat, but it was too late. The blood spurted upward, gurgling in his mouth, and choking him to death.

  Strike first. Don’t ask questions. No regrets later. It was one of her mottos, and she was sticking to it.

  She felt cold, clammy fingers at the back of her head as the other Dresdan captured her. His fingernails felt like pins digging into her scalp. His other hand was around her waist, pulling her upward and against him. Before she knew it, she was being dragged.

  As the Dresdan solider cornered himself against a row of shelves, Vicq and Emory followed. Her heart beat furiously against her breastbone. The inside of her mouth was dry and she ran her tongue across her lips and found droplets of the Dresdan blood there. She swallowed from the foreign taste of it and grimaced as the soldier yanked her head back and exposed her neck.

  "I will fucking kill you!" Vicq spat. His body shook with rage.

  "Is this your Donor," the Soldier leered. "You oughta keep a better eye on her."

  Elaina struggled against the Soldier, but his grip only became more painful. His fingernails had pierced her hips and drawn blood. Ragged pain seized her body and her dagger slipped from her hand and fell to the floor.

  "The 5," the Soldier hissed. "A District tracker. What games do you play, Superior?"

  "Drop her," Vicq warned, "or I will tear you to shreds."

  "Russo will make you burn for this, traitor," it hissed. Fangs scraped across her neck, and the Soldier's body shivered against her own.

  His teeth barely nipped her flesh when she lifted her foot and stabbed through his shoe with the heel of her boot. He hollered in shock, and his grip loosened on her.

  Elaina took that moment to execute a spin kick, connecting her boot with his jaw. He crashed back first onto the floor. She snatched up her dagger, pounced on him, and stabbed him in the neck. This time, she did not let up. She tilted his head to one side and descended on him.

  As she'd done dozens of times before with Vicq, she siphoned the blood. It tasted sweet and felt icy cold when it hit her tongue. When the liquid flowed down her throat, it chilled her insides. He struggled against her, yet she held tightly to him. The more she took, the more her body responded in satisfaction. The feeling that rushed through her was a different kind of high. Not the sexual or fulfilling high she felt when she took from Vicq. This high was different. She felt triumphant in her kill. The emotions of the Dresdan Solider washed through her. Anger. Hunger. Regret. Fear. Rage. The feelings sent her over the edge and her body convulsed with what felt like raw elation.

  It seemed there was an endless supply of blood, and she took until his veins no longer pulsed with life.

  Elaina tore her lips from the deceased Soldier's neck and rose. When she turned around, both Vicq and Emory were frozen to the spot, looking at her wide-eyed and in shock. Emory's eyes swirled with speckles of red while Vicq's were a solid, fierce crimson. But Vicq's expression was no longer clouded with rage. Somehow, his madness had transposed to fascination.

  Emory's lips turned up into a grin. "How does it feel?"

  Elaina didn't answer him. Instead, she licked her lips and sheathed her dagger in the belt loop of her jeans. She crossed the room to grab her trench coat. In two seconds, she’d shrugged into the garment again and was headed toward the door.

  Vicq was on her heels. She could hear him rushing behind her as he attempted to keep up with her unusually fast pace, using his teleportation powers to eat up the distance between them.

  He caught up to her next to a shiny black Lamborghini. Exhausted, she gave up, falling against it and into his arms. She drug the sleeve of her coat across her face to rid herself of the blood evidence before lifting her gaze to meet his.

  He stared at her for a long time under the moonlight and then leaned in to kiss her. She finally exhaled as his lips brushed against hers like the finest silk. In that moment, she felt like a human again. A human capable of real emotions and devoid of all animalistic instincts. Yet she was still high. Her veins throbbed from the aftermath of the kill.

  "What have I become?" she whispered when they parted to catch their breaths.

  He smoothed his calloused fingertips across her face. "The woman I love."

  Chapter 12

  The morning after the attack, Elaina and Vicq rented a cabin to spend the next day and a half. Being raided by Dresdan Soldiers and driving endlessly and literally non-stop to ensure no other vampire enemies tracked them had really taken a toll on their bodies. Both of them had agreed to stop and regroup. Come sundown, they'd pack up and head out again.

  After all, Elaina didn't know what to expect when she arrived at the sanctuary. Would they welcome her as she was? Unchanged? In stasis. Not quite human, but not truly vampire, either.

  The cabin was situated far into the dense mountainous region. Once they left here, the winding roads, hills, and valleys would lead them deeper into the wilderness until they reached Vicq's coven. Apparently, they had less than two days of travel ahead of them. Before long, she'd join his coven to pursue a greater purpose—to shut down District 5. She wanted to enjoy the uninterrupted moments in Vicq's arms while they lasted.

  "I don't want to lose you, Vicq."

  "You won't."

  "You're going up against someone who everyone else fears," Elaina said.

  "Who is everyone else?"

  "Russo," she said. "I might not know the intimate details, but I know enough about your organization to understand how the politics work. You once told me before that Russo rules with an iron fist. He bends the rules to satisfy his own goals."

  "Don't worry about him." Vicq pulled her in closer, molding their naked bodies together. "Leave that to me."

  Her core was still heated from an intense round of sex, yet a cool breeze flowed across their skin through an open window next to the bed. She shivered and snuggled deeper into his embrace. "You've helped me deal with my problems, and I've gotten you into a deeper bind. We could have all been killed back there."

  "Those Soldiers were trailing Emory last night. He’d failed to clean up his mess after he fed," he said. "And even if they were after me, you're not the main reason."

  "What's the main reason? Because you started your own coven?"

  "That, too."

  Elaina didn't know what he meant, or what he could be failing to tell her. She needed to figure it all out, and she wanted to return the favor by helping him. To do that, she'd have to delve deeper still.

  A weary expression crossed Vicq's face. "Don't you trust me anymore?"

  She narrowed her eyes. "You practically lied to me. I thought I had no one. It took a plan by some Dist
rict 5 trackers to take me down for you to come to me?"

  "I'm sorry for that, but I will do whatever I have to in order to keep you safe. And I do mean whatever. Do you believe that?"

  "Yes." There was no doubt about it.

  He kissed her gently on the lips. "Then believe in me."

  "I do."

  "Things will work out...," Vicq whispered. "Join me at the waterfall."

  Before she could respond, he’d teleported them from the confines of the cabin to see water cascading over the mountainside. The quick move was like a flash right before her eyes, giving her body no chance protest, even if she’d wanted to. They'd glimpsed a view of the water feature on the way to the cabin, but had yet to experience it up, close, and personal.

  "You have to start warning me before you do that," she said, as a fine mist of water coated their naked bodies.

  "I imagine I won't have to," he replied softly, brushing his nose against the back of her head. "It won't be long until you’re be able to do it yourself."

  "And more power brings more enemies, right?" Although, this time, she was referring to the later afternoon sun peeking through the leafy branches hanging above them. She glanced up towards the sky and basked in the rays.

  Vicq brought her deeper under the branches, which provided just the right amount of privacy and shade from the glare. "Know thy enemies well. Some you will have no choice but to destroy, others you will learn to tolerate." His breath was hot and heavy against her neck.