by Jayla Kane
My whole heart.
“Baby?” He was staring down at me, and I realized I’d frozen, dangling in mid-air on his lap. I sat up and thought about it all.
I could love him, I realized—and sure, my thoughts had been dancing around the idea of that for hours, but I felt it, suddenly, like a stone in my gut. I didn’t love him yet; I still didn’t know hardly anything about him. But a part of me really didn’t care.
I could love him. And he could love me.
“You need to go check on your sister,” I said, straightening up and holding his face between my hands. “Maybe take her over to the old Warfield place and see if she wants to move in there—check the security systems they have against your own paranoia and see if everything matches up.”
“Does that mean you’ll let me take you—”
“I’ll be begging for a shower from even that goddamn place soon enough,” I told him. “I know I smell terrible,” I said, and his lips curved into a naughty smile, a new one I hadn’t seen before, and every single inch of me thrilled at the sight.
“You smell like sex,” he said quietly, his deep voice thrumming down through my body, echoing into the places he’d so recently filled. There were promises in that smile, and not all of them were sweet.
“We’ll need privacy. Do they have a lot of rooms at the—”
“Yes,” he said, cutting me off, and we looked into one another’s eyes for a long moment, the room suddenly small and tight around us.
I sat up a little straighter and tried to concentrate. If this was the next phase of my life—if Hunter was my future… I needed to make sure everybody would be safe. “Zelle, Charlie and my mom are all still at the house.” I frowned. “Well, mom will be whenever she returns from her latest walk-about.”
“I can set up cameras. Add a patrol. Do you really think they’re in danger?”
“I have no idea,” I said, frowning, “and we might never know why the Society roped you and I into this situation, and got Jake and Raven into theirs. But I’m not even out of high school, so I’d say we should put everyone with their name on that plaque down on Rose on the list.”
Hunter frowned. “That’s a lot of people.”
“Everybody older than us is probably either already in or out; we should just worry about younger ones, people that…” I swallowed, remembering her words about the founding. “People that are old enough to have sex.” Or kill someone.
He held me tighter, with an urgency that had nothing to do with the erotic intimacy we’d just shared. I rested my head on his shoulder, kissed his throat; Hunter dipped his head down and nuzzled my ear, and then we were kissing again, the emergencies surrounding us forgotten, and—
“You should go,” I whispered, pulling back. Our ragged breathing echoed in the dim, dusty room, and I stared into his eyes. “It’s been hours. It’s probably night by now.”
“Yeah,” he murmured, then leaned in, those full lips finding mine again, and he tasted me, so slow and sweet and—
“Damnit,” I muttered, pulling back again, and we both laughed a little bit as we clutched one another in the dark. I realized I was exhausted. And starving. “Hunter… Do you think you could bring me something to eat?”
“Yes,” he said, blinking as he sat back.
“Quickly?” I smiled sheepishly at him, and he kissed my forehead, stood up with me in his arms, and kissed me again one more time before laying me down in the bed. I didn’t realize I’d fallen asleep until he was back, gently kissing my bare shoulder, the room full of the smell of pizza. “Nectar of the gods,” I moaned, and was rewarded with another deep chuckle when I sat up, eyes closed, and groped for a piece. We ate in companionable silence once I was curled up in his lap again.
“So… Is it as late as I thought?”
“Maybe,” he said softly. He was done eating, and leaned back on the bed, propping himself up on long arms, his eyes roving over my skin with unabashed pleasure. “It’s about nine o’clock.”
“Ugh,” I muttered. “No wonder I’m so tired.”
“It’s Saturday night,” he said, still watching me. “We could go out—”
“Sugar, I am not going anywhere like this,” I said, grinning when I heard him snort.
“Well, you could let me take you—”
“Hunter, please,” I said, twisting so that I could look him in the eye. “One more night. I don’t want to spend my birthday here, and I’m not trying to give Zelle a heart attack. But I don’t want to leave yet. I want to know as much as I can about what we’re up against.”
His gaze caught mine and lingered. That tell-tale bob of the throat. That slight exhale. “We?”
“Yeah,” I whispered, putting my pizza down, twisting further, laying my belly down on his as I reached for him.
And then two more hours went by.
We kissed. I was raw and spent; I didn’t have it in me to do more. I had the fleeting realization that he hadn’t finished yet, not once, and fought off a wave of guilt; he caught the change in me and made me tell him what I was thinking. “I want to lay you down on a real bed,” he rumbled into my ear, his hands running over my skin, his tongue teasing my ear. “I want to be somewhere safe. I want to forget about everything but this. And I want to make it…” He paused, and I rolled to face him. Our eyes met; it struck me again, how unusual, how exquisite the color of his iris was. “I want the experience to be worthy of you,” he told me.
So, yeah. Two hours. Probably the best two hours of my entire life.
When he left, we didn’t speak. I just knew he would be back for me in the morning, that I was so tired my eyes were crossing, and that I was an hour away from being eighteen years old.
I knew he wanted me to leave with him, but he respected me. He let me decide.
In the end, I chose poorly. But I didn’t know it then; all I knew, when I watched him jump that last time, was that I felt something it took me a minute to recognize: happiness. Joy, even, in the arms of my captor.
And then he was gone.
Chapter Sixteen
Hunter
I slept in the trailer that night. I could hear my dad rumbling from the other room, no texts from Jake, Molly was tucked in tight; I slept like the dead, but I dreamed like a man that was alive for the first time.
My heart was a fist in my chest, clenched so tightly around that seed she’d planted months before I could’ve crushed it—but I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t. I would do anything to keep it alive, to let it grow. It didn’t hurt any more. It was life itself.
My grandfather would’ve said I was smitten. He was a decent man, Old Man Black, nothing like his youngest son—the only one that survived beyond middle age, because of whatever tricks god likes to play on us. He wasn’t nice, but he was decent. He died when I was five.
My grandmother died the same year; people in my family passed on in clusters. Nothing dramatic, though, just old age. But she would’ve known; she was the kind that paid attention, the kind that dreamed. And she would’ve said I was falling in love.
I was inclined to agree.
I slept for longer than I had in weeks. Rock hard, of course, but I didn’t mind; I was excited. I was patient and persistent, I was Hunter Black as I’d always been, and I was falling in love. Being hard all the time was just a reminder, certainly not a burden. When I showered that morning all I could think about was her hot little hands on me and then I wondered why the hell I’d bothered—she was letting me get her out. Maybe she’d let me shower with her. Hell, a man could dream.
Well, now a man could dream. For the first time in his life.
It was past ten when I finally got my shit together; I drove Molly out to a friend’s house who lived closer to school, and they would go in together tomorrow morning. I picked up pancakes from the diner on the highway, parked my truck in the lot by Jake’s dorm, and walked to the bottom of the staircase leading up to Thorn tower. I wondered if the Rose ever summoned Baby again, if it was worth it to be apart for e
ven that long; I knew Baby wasn’t falling in love, but I didn’t care. I didn’t mind. Patience. Persistence. She was giving me a chance, and I was determined to give her my all. I jumped into her cell as soon as I was sure no one was around, leaving the first landing in one second and landing on the rough stone floor in the next.
And… And then I froze.
That fist in my chest squeezed hard.
Baby was having sex with someone else. That’s what I thought I was seeing—that’s what my mind believed it saw. She was naked on the bed, and someone was on top of her—he’d just finished, I could tell from the rigid set of his shoulders, the way his head was thrown back… He wasn’t facing me, and it took me another second to register the familiarity of his scent.
My canines slid out. My claws cut through my white knuckles.
Baby wasn’t moving. Her arms and legs were just… Hanging there, limp, akimbo. And the guy… He wasn’t having sex with my beautiful girl. She hadn’t reached out and found herself a different magical dick.
That was the strangler. And he raped my Baby.
I jumped without thinking, landing on the bed so that I was standing over him, my feet sinking into the straw as I looked down at her face. Her eyes were blinking rapidly as she gasped for breath; her skin was pale. He’d been crushing the life out of her while he did it—that’s how he did it. How he was able to…
I sank my talons into his back.
He never even knew what hit him.
When I felt his flesh reach my knuckles I jumped up to the office with him speared on my claws, his body ripped from Baby’s in a sharp arc of blood, the sound of his life leaving him echoing around the dark cell. I landed on the floor of the office with him beneath me, gurgling, and pulled my claws out…
And then sank them back in, over and over, until there was nothing recognizable left of his torso at all. And then I thought of the Rose, and how she’d sent him down there not as a jailer—as a back-up. And I tore his head off of his body and roared so loud I hoped she heard me, hoped she was the one who found him, hoped she knew I was coming for her next.
It took less than a minute to destroy him forever. I jumped back down to the cell and Baby was gasping for air, sitting on the edge of the bed, damp with blood.
Not only his. I almost cried.
I started to rush towards her, then stopped myself and held out my hands; my claws wouldn’t retract. “Baby?” I tried to talk, but my canines wouldn’t retreat either; I made a sound, but it wasn’t human.
I was a monster.
“Hunter,” she gasped, and ran to me, not giving a damn about how I looked, the fact that I was painted in blood, that I couldn’t speak—and she cried. The most beautiful girl in the world, crying in my arms. It sounded painful, like it hurt… Like her throat had been squeezed, over and over and over… And I cried too, then. Just a little bit, soundlessly, holding her tight.
Time went by faster than it seemed; I’d just killed someone, she’d just lived through… That. And it had taken less than five minutes. Baby let me go and raced over to pull her pajamas on; blood was running down her legs--not a lot, but it was enough to make me pull it together. If she had the presence of mind to prepare to leave while dealing with such a violation, I needed to be there for her, all the way. I knew better than to wipe away my tears while my claws were still out. She turned towards me, smearing her tears off of her cheeks with the back of her hand, and I opened my arms. Baby dodged my claws and I scooped her up, cradling her the way I had when I first brought her here, to this hell.
And then I jumped.
I went straight inside the mansion; I’d only been in the entry hall four times, but it was hard to forget. Marble statues and busts, portraits that were at least a hundred years old; oddly enough, it made me think of the office. The real one, the one I tore apart. This place was tainted with magic—I could feel it floating in the air. It didn’t matter here; I was safe. I didn’t care if anyone saw—I wanted to tell Jake everything. Everything. I had to.
Baby didn’t let go of my neck, so we stood there in the foyer, bleeding on the plush carpet under our feet while I clutched her to my chest. I wanted to speak, but I couldn’t; Baby shuddered and held me tighter, so we just waited. It took a minute for them to find us. They must have been downstairs already.
Jake saw me first. He froze in the doorway, staring, his eyes so wide it would’ve been funny at any other time. Two men loped up behind him—Leo, and a big guy I didn’t recognize.
And then Raven.
That’s the last thing I remember. Raven’s face. Her eyes locked on her little sister and her mouth fell open in an expression of such anguish I tried to speak—I tried to tell her she was safe now—a rush of sound came out of me, a monstrous sound, the rattle of a wolf’s lonesome wish from some far away place, a place made of ghosts.
And Raven said the word NO!
The world went black. Everything was gone… I felt Baby in my arms and then… I felt nothing.
That fist holding my heart simply let go.
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