by Brenna Lyons
Another level of her mind reached out to touch the prince. He was swarmed in and making his way to them by way of an unearthly slaughter the likes of which she had never seen. He was locked in a fierce Blutjagd, but his mind raged at more than the beasts. He raged that any Warrior would hunt Cross land without leave from the Crossbearer house, would interfere with his hunt, and would drag a protected woman into battle.
Sarah smiled at that. Hunter of Crossbearer-König, elder hunter and prince worried for her. It sent a thrill through her. Battle was one issue where few worried about her, Sarah decided.
She ducked suddenly as a red shimmer lunged at her. Her scream was more pain than terror. The slightest touch of a beast sent knife points of agony through her brain. Though the hand that skated her shoulder barely triggered her amulet, crushing Sarah to the ground, her mind exploded, fragmented like glass thrown against a brick wall.
Kohl took the beast’s heart and scowled at her. “Get up, Sarah. The battle isn’t over yet.”
She cursed at him under her breath and directed Kohl to another red that started closing when it perceived him as distracted. Her mind screamed in pain as she pushed to her feet. All her shimmers came through a fog. Her directions left her lips in gasps. Once, Sarah even slipped into an older code, earning a scathing glance from Kohl.
“Couldn’t you see him coming?” he demanded, annoyed at her flagging strength and wandering mind.
“Shut up, old man! I don’t have your speed. You know that.” She may listen to him, but Sarah didn’t have to take his criticism. Kohl knew she wasn’t up to this after traveling all day. He did this to her over and over.
She directed him to two yellows to his left quietly, trying to train her mind on the correct code. Sarah panted, pressing her hands to her temples for the illusion of relief it brought her. “Kohl, I can’t do this much longer.”
“It will be done soon,” he replied absently.
Sarah gritted her teeth in fury. “It better. I have no intentions of spending days in bed for you.”
But, Kohl would expect that of her. She had no doubt that he would rationalize it as one more repayment for his saving her – or for Darrien. Sarah wanted to quit. She’d asked to quit, but Kohl kept demanding one more hunt, one more night. Some angry kernel in her wondered how much more of this torment she could take without snapping on her house lord.
The shimmers shifted, and her heart thundered in her chest. “The remaining have all gone for the prince,” Sarah informed him in a thick voice. “You must help him.”
Kohl grunted and grabbed her hand to drag her along. Together, the two Warriors made short work of the remaining beasts. Hunter didn’t seem to register anything else until the beasts were dispatched. Then, he turned on Kohl with a fierce rage building in his shimmer, worse even than he expended on the beasts.
“Kaufmann,” he bellowed. “How dare you upset my hunting this way.”
The old man smiled coldly. “Even you must admit that your battle would have taken three times as long alone.”
“That isn’t the point. You dragged a protected woman into a battle and allowed her to be injured. Are you insane?”
“She’s a fighting sensitive. She chooses this life, and she’s not injured. She is fatigued.”
Sarah started to protest then groaned. “Kohl, we must go. There are three more reds misting in.”
“Reds?” Hunter asked in confusion.
“High-level beasts,” she explained, trying to focus on his face through the fuzzy shimmer.
Kohl dragged her between the two Warriors, and she bit back a scream at the burn that radiated over her arms from his grip. Tears pooled in her eyes, and Sarah hit his shoulder, not caring how much it hurt anymore.
“Damn you, old man! I told you I’m wiped out. I can’t battle again.”
“Stay there. Three won’t take long. Besides, you were sloppy enough to allow that beast to touch you. The pain is your own fault.”
Sarah gasped as Hunter sheathed one of his weapons and scooped her to his body, but the burn didn’t come as she expected. His body felt cool and hard next to hers.
Hunter took off at a run. “We’re leaving,” he ordered. “Come with us or face them alone, Kaufmann.”
She nestled into his embrace, closing her eyes against the shooting pains in her skull, slightly more bearable now. Was she further from the beasts?
Sarah stiffened as a beast closed on them. “Release me. There’s one here,” she breathed, knowing the beast could hear her too and unable to use the protective code foreign to the prince.
Hunter sensed his surroundings carefully. She could feel the wave of energy wash over her. “Where?”
Ghosting. He can’t see it. “Back right quadrant. He’s about to attack. Put me down, please. You can’t fight this way,” she pleaded.
Hunter wheeled around, finding a weak disturbance that she knew she would like to investigate further when she was well, and took the ghosted beast’s heart in a single blow.
He turned before it even hit the ground and ran again. “I have practice at fighting this way,” he joked. A crooked smile lit his face.
Erin. He’s talking about fighting while he protected Erin as a baby.
At his truck, Hunter wrenched the passenger door open and slid Sarah in. His eyes were wide in concern and he touched her face fondly. She wanted to thank him, but all her remaining concentration was focused on controlling the sudden wash of pain that seemed to engulf her when she was alone on the seat.
“We’ll get you to safety,” he promised.
Kohl caught up with them and labored the cold air in and out from the run. “I had to take out another on the way,” he explained. “I don’t know where the last one is.”
“Bringing friends,” she breathed.
Hunter’s eyes burned. He threw a ring of keys at the old man violently. She could read the thought from him that if he hadn’t forced them to leave, she would have been trapped for far longer than those three.
“You drive,” Hunter growled. “I’ll care for her.”
Kohl scowled. “She requires no coddling, König.”
“You’ll answer for that in good time,” he promised. “Drive.”
The cab was crowded, and the prince drew her into his lap to conserve space as they left the small New Hampshire town behind. The pain crested, threatening to swamp her, and Sarah groaned at the knowledge that she would be paying for this battle for days.
Hunter brushed his knuckles over her cheek and pulled her further into the cooling shelter of his body. “What is it?” he asked. “What do you need?” His voice soothed back the wave of pain slightly.
Sarah forced her eyes open, seeing his dark good looks through an aura of his shimmer: white shot through with gold and other swirling colors she had yet to identify after she locked on the gold. She’d never seen metallic gold before. “Hunter,” she mused, identifying his shimmer to her battered mind. It was beautiful. He was beautiful.
“Yes, I’m Hunter. What’s your name?” There was no amusement in his eyes when he said it. He seemed sad. Yes, his shimmer showed that, the intricate swirl over his heart speaking of sadness and concern.
Sarah furrowed her brow, trying to make sense of the question. Name? Her mind was mired in agony, and trying to retrieve whatever information he was seeking hurt too much. One clear thought emerged. “Medicine,” she croaked.
“It’s not safe yet,” Kohl snapped at her.
She sobbed and turned her face into Hunter’s chest. Her eyes closed as she drank in his scent. He smelled of mint and pine and Blutjagd unleashed.
“What is the medication? What does it do?” Hunter demanded.
Kohl sighed. “It suppresses the center of her brain that senses the beasts and renders her unable to function normally. If we encounter some danger after we administer it, she’ll be helpless, unable to move and protect herself.”
“She’s unable now,” he stormed.
“She is not,”
Kohl asserted. “I’ve battled with her by my side many times. She can still function.”
“Does it relieve her pain?”
“Yes. I imagine it relieves some of her pain,” Kohl admitted.
Sarah considered kicking him. Some? It made her life bearable again, and he knew it. He simply didn’t want to give her the medication while there was any chance that she still might need to defend herself.
“Give it to me,” the young prince demanded.
“But, if we encounter another battle,” Kohl started to protest.
“She is a protected woman. You cannot treat her this way, whether she battles or not. Her life must come before your own, and I can battle carrying dead weight even if you can’t.” His voice was low and dangerous. It brooked no argument. “Give me the medication, Kaufmann.”
Kohl sighed raggedly and pulled the pre-filled metal medicine pen from his coat. “It’s IM. I usually administer in her upper arm,” he informed Hunter.
“Will one dose be enough?” he asked as he peeled off Sarah’s coat and pulled her arm from her sweatshirt.
Some part of her mind screamed that she should be embarrassed by a strange man taking off her clothes, but his touch was tender and calming.
“No,” Kohl admitted. “She’ll need it every twelve hours or so, probably for a few days. Being touched is bad for her. She usually doesn’t allow it.”
“Do you have more?” Hunter asked as he rubbed the alcohol swab over her arm and readied the pen.
“In the car,” he ground out as Hunter injected the first dose.
“You left it behind?” he thundered. Hunter made a soothing noise, as Sarah winced, mumbling his apologies for shouting so near her aching head.
“I hadn’t planned on leaving any other way, and if she’s not touched, one dose is sufficient for any after-effects she experiences.”
Hunter swore fluently in several languages, a trait she found most Warriors shared. He pulled a cell phone from his jacket pocket and flipped it open. “Piers cell,” he commanded the phone. His jaw was set angrily and his eyes burned in barely controlled Blutjagd.
Sarah watched him through a drugged haze, her head already wrapped in layers of wet cotton batting. His shimmer caught her, and she started her examination again, touching the gold flecks that danced before her eyes. His shimmer swirled with more color than she had ever seen in one. It was like a fiery opal. Blues, purples, and golds warred with a wide streak of crimson that announced his fury in the brilliant white.
As the medication worked its magic, his shimmer faded away, stolen from her by the drug. Sarah cried out harshly in protest and tears pooled in her eyes. Kohl startled at the unusual occurrence, but she didn’t have the words to express how painful loosing that shimmer was to her. It was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.
Hunter’s face softened. He brushed a hand through her hair. “It’s all right,” he soothed her. “I’ll care for you.”
Sarah let the tears fall, touched by his kindness and tortured by the loss of his shimmer. Purple and gold. She had never seen purple and gold before. She wanted to know what the new colors meant. She closed her eyes with a sigh as her warm muscles seemed to melt into him.
* * * *
Hunter echoed her sigh of relief as the young woman relaxed into his arms, oblivious to the pain that wracked her mind only minutes before. Healing sleep. He could almost feel it seeping into her, easing the damage in her mind. He nestled her into his chest as the phone rang on Piers’ end, enjoying the warmth of her against his broad chest.
“Yes, Hunter?” Piers answered. “Who is with you?”
“Your old friend Kaufmann,” he managed evenly.
“What’s the problem?”
“Apparently, he was dangerously short-sighted. The protected woman in his care requires medication that he left in his car when we fled. We’ll need some by ten o’clock in the morning. What is the name of her medication?” he demanded of Kohl.
The old man darkened. “It’s specially made for her in our range. It takes weeks to formulate — or more than a day to send.”
“You bastard,” he growled. “Change of plans. We’ll need the stash from his car, even if we have to break in to get it. Where is it?”
“In the trunk, packed in our luggage.”
“I caught that,” Piers assured him. “Where is the vehicle and what is it?”
Hunter got the information and relayed it to Piers automatically. He seethed at the situation. He couldn’t even send Kaufmann back to do it himself. Until sunrise, it wouldn’t be safe to return to the battle site, and they would be too far away to go back at that point without making her dose much later than was wise.
“How dire is her need?” his grandfather asked, breaking him out of his reverie.
“Dire. She’s a human sensitive. The beast that touched her left her in agony. Kaufmann had only one dose on his person to hold her over.”
Piers sucked in his breath. “He brought Sarah into our range without warning us?”
“Sarah? Is this Sarah?” he asked Kohl, his mind working the possibilities that he was really holding the legend in his arms.
He nodded in response. “Yes, that’s Sarah.”
Hunter felt his blood boil. He’d heard of Sarah of Kaufmann. Who hadn’t? She was a true legend, the finest sensitive encountered in all of the second beast war. Why hadn’t he realized? Surely, Kohl Lord Kaufmann couldn’t have two sensitives under his personal protection.
“Hunter?” Piers called suddenly. “You’re lit up. What is it?”
“I’ll get back to you,” he promised, his eyes boring holes in the older man in the cab with him. “We’re going to the training house.”
“Your family is there.”
“I know. I need to see them. Goodbye, Piers.” Hunter hung up before his grandfather could question him further and fisted the phone is his hand, trying desperately to release the fury that gripped him.
“You don’t understand,” Kohl said softly, nervously.
“You’re damned right I don’t understand! How dare you risk one of our greatest treasures this way.”
Kohl sighed. “It’s necessary.”
“You raised her as your own. Have you no compassion for her needs? For her pain?”
“I had to be ruthless for her own good. It is necessary.”
“Why?” Hunter thundered, shielding her deeper within his body. If she were his, Sarah would never have to face what she did tonight. He vowed it without wondering why he would think such a thing.
“Lorian has come up with a mad idea that human sensitives are descended from the Cursed Warriors and that they retain a portion of their curse — perhaps enough to allow them to carry beast children. I have made my own inquiries. Two of our sensitives are descended from Cursed Warriors. Sarah is five generations removed from Haus Landwirt. The others may be, but their connection would be further removed than I can easily trace.”
“Then, you should keep her close and heavily guarded. All of the sensitives should be. You shouldn’t be dragging her into battles. Erin isn’t permitted to hunt, and she’s a Warrior born and stone chosen.”
“None of the other sensitives are in danger. Two are beyond childbearing age. The last is too weak to be of any interest to Lorian. He wants Sarah. She’s the youngest and the most powerful. He believes her curse runs the strongest. He wants her to be his mate.”
Hunter shivered involuntarily at the idea. “But, if he touches her?” His stomach clenched. If tonight were any indication, if he touched her, it would spell disaster for her.
“Yes, he’ll destroy her beautiful mind,” Kaufmann confirmed. “I cannot allow that to happen. I won’t allow it.”
“Then, why drag her into battle? Protect her.”
“I wanted to teach her and to build up her resistance, but it hasn’t worked. If anything, every touch leaves her more sensitive, more susceptible.”
“Does she know? Does she know what Lorian plans f
or her?”
He nodded. “Sarah thinks he’s mad, but she knows. He — approached her. It took all of Kaufmann to drive him off, all working at Sarah’s direction. The event traumatized her, but she started to battle. I don’t know if she saw it as a way to learn to protect herself or as revenge. I didn’t care. I thought it was a good idea at the time. She has never quite recovered from Lorian. To her mind, looking at the elder is akin to looking into the gates of hell.” He looked miserable.
Hunter watched her face, while Kohl talked. It seemed hard to imagine Sarah battling for revenge, but Lorian had a way of changing people. Erin all but cut herself off from people her own age after her encounter. No, she had cut herself off completely now. She wasn’t even talking to Curt anymore. The only people she interacted with were her own family — including the Hunters and Crossbearers and a few older, printed Warriors and their wives.
“Why bring her here?” he asked suspiciously. “Why drag her all the way to Cross?”
“We can no longer ensure her safety. König is already committed to protecting Blutjagdfrau. It’s the house of elder killers. There’s no other safe place for her.”
Hunter sucked in his breath in surprise. “You’re relinquishing Sarah’s care?”
“I have no choice.” The house lord sounded tortured by the admission. “Every parent must release his child when the time is right. I may have waited too long. I vowed to protect her with my own hands. Instead, I must beg this favor and send her away to keep my vow. Don’t think this is easy for me. The gods blessed me with this beautiful mind to protect, a girl after my wife gave me four sons. Sarah is my life, but I must do this or risk losing her to Lorian.”
“She has my personal protection,” he assured the old lord.
Kaufmann raised an eyebrow in surprise. “I thank you, but being with you would be not much safer than being in my range. I want you to speak with your parents. Sarah will be safer with the Blutjagdfrau and their company.”
