A Hunter's Choice [The Hunters 2] (Siren Publishing Classic)

by Suzy Shearer

  Leaping to his feet, Tomas called down the lightning and incinerated the horror. He cleansed himself and grinned ruefully when he realised one of his knives had gone up in smoke with the strigoi. He looked down at his wounds. They were deep and he would need to repair them once he settled to sleep.

  He picked up his knife, distracted by the loss of the other, when he heard a twig snap. Turning late, he fell back under the onslaught of another strigoi. The vampire fought hard, Tomas trying to stab it with his remaining knife. They twisted and turned, the vampire biting and slashing Tomas’s leg. Tomas drove his knife toward the heart but the vampire moved at the last moment and instead of entering its heart, it went into the chest and lungs.

  The strigoi faltered a moment, and Tomas tried to pull his knife free. The strigoi slashed out, catching Tomas’s throat, and he fell to one knee. Trying to stand, he pulled on the leg of the vampire and managed to trip it over. Tomas pushed himself forward to grab the knife again. He pulled hard and was rewarded as the knife came free from between the ribs. The vampire, realising his enemy had the knife, got to its feet and ran between the trees, dematerialising as it went.

  Tomas had no chance of following it. He had lost a lot of blood. The slashes on his chest and arm were deep, though fortunately the one on his leg was not. The gash on his neck gave him the most concern, as it was quite deep. He would have to get to shelter and try to heal himself immediately. The neck wound was dangerous, he licked wherever he could reach trying to stop the blood flow, but he would need blood as soon as possible, and rest.

  He called to Michael, telling him what had happened. He told him he would return to the cave he slept in the first night, as it wasn’t that far away. Michael and Louisa were still many hours away. They were looking for somewhere safe to spend the day. Tomas gave Michael directions and began to make his way toward it.

  He transformed and tried to fly all the way but his blood loss and neck wound were too severe. In the end, he was about halfway there when he was forced to rest on the ground. He sent another message to Michael telling him and assuring him he would be safe, although he knew he wasn’t.

  The sun would be rising in another hour. Tomas had to find shelter nearby. He knew he didn’t have the strength to make it back to the cave. He floundered through the trees and bushes, hoping to find a cave amongst the rocky outcrops. Or at the very least, somewhere heavily forested where he would hopefully be protected from the sun. He could sleep and, hopefully, begin to heal.

  Tomas was feeling very weak. He knew if he didn’t find shelter soon he would be caught outside in the sun and would die. Spurred on by self-preservation, he stumbled onward into a tiny clearing and stood swaying on his feet in surprise.

  A small tent was pitched underneath two large trees. Tomas rocked on his feet, was about to moved forward when he sensed someone inside the tent. He took a step toward the tent to ask for help when he fell unconscious to the ground.

  * * * *

  Julie was not sure what woke her. She sat up in her sleeping bag and listened with both her ears and her mind. Someone or something was out there. Carefully, she got out of the bag and picked up her heavy torch, thinking she could use it as a weapon. Crawling to the opening of the tent, she looked out just as someone fell in front of it. Julie let out a scream and awkwardly pushed herself backward.

  She risked a glance outside. Whoever it was, they didn’t move, so she hesitantly crawled from the tent. She didn’t understand it, she was about thirty or forty kilometres from the city outskirts. How someone stumbled onto her tent in the dark was a complete mystery.

  Holding the torch as a club, Julie stood. She looked around and listened. There were only the usual night-time animal and insect noises.

  She switched on the torch and gasped.

  Whoever was lying there was obviously hurt. There was blood on their clothing. She got to her knees and tried to roll them onto their back. Julie thought whoever it was, it was a woman, as they had beautiful black waist-length hair held back by a leather thong. But as she rolled them over, she gasped in surprise.

  It was a man!

  There was blood everywhere, it was hard to tell where it was coming from with the torch light, but somehow she would have to get him inside the tent. She crawled back inside and spread out the sleeping bag to lay him on. Quickly pulling her jeans on over her panties and a T-shirt, she went back outside. Leaning forward, she put her hands under his arms and pulled.

  He was no lightweight and he was really tall, maybe six foot eight. It took her ten minutes to manoeuvre him, dragging and pulling him into the tent. Once she had him inside, she closed the front flap. Using the torchlight, she examined the wounds. He had a very deep slash across his throat and another across his chest that followed onto his arm. They looked very nasty, especially the one on his neck, which still bled. She just hoped she could stop it bleeding.

  There looked like another on one of his legs, judging from the amount of blood on his pants. She would have to take his clothes off, clean his wounds, and try to dress them until she could get some help. She wondered what had happened to him. They looked like claw marks, but she didn’t know of an animal around here that could inflict them.

  “Sorry, handsome, but I need to strip you.”

  She giggled a little when she realised she was talking aloud to an unconscious man.

  She managed to get his shirt off, but his pants were a different matter. In the end, she used a knife to cut them off. Sitting back on her heels, she took an appreciative look at him. Despite the blood and wounds, he was a hunk. He was very tall, muscular, and had a strange tattoo that wound around his body and legs. He was also extremely handsome and looked to be around thirty or thirty-five.

  Shaking herself, she grabbed her first aid kit from her backpack. Pulling out a bottle of peroxide, she poured it over the wounds on his neck, chest, and arm, and was grateful to hear a groan.

  Suddenly a hand whipped out and grabbed her wrist tightly.

  “Stop!” she yelled, “I’m trying to help you! Let me go!”

  She shone the light up and looked into his face. Amazing light-green eyes with brilliant flecks like glittering emeralds looked back at her and suddenly she felt her pulse race. She felt someone shuffling in her thoughts and immediately she slammed down a barrier. Staring at the man, she had the distinct impression he was amazed at what she had done.

  “Who are you?” he gasped weakly, trying to sit up.

  “My name is Julie, Julie Smith. Look, you’re badly hurt. Lie down, don’t try to move. Just let me help you.” She pushed against him, trying to make him lie back down.

  What a stupid man, Julie thought to herself. He’s going to make himself worse if he doesn’t lie down.

  “Not stupid,” he whispered.

  “You are, just lie down.” Julie pushed him down again as he kept struggling to sit.

  “I need to be out of the sunlight before the sun rises.”

  “What are you talking about? The sun? It will be up in about half an hour.”

  Her patient got agitated when she said that.

  “I need to be out of sun. Will die in sunlight.”

  “I don’t understand. Have you something wrong and you can’t tolerate sunlight?”

  “Yes.”

  “Okay. It’ll be fine. The tent is under the thick trees. I dragged you and now you’re inside it. It’ll be pretty dark in here, plus it’s supposed to rain today.”

  “Need blood.”

  “Sorry, buddy, you are a long way from help. I think your wounds will be okay, although you have lost a lot of blood and your neck wound looks pretty serious. It’s still bleeding a little. I’m no expert but I don’t think it has touched anything important. You’d be dead if it had. Once it’s daylight I’ll hike out but it will take me all day, we are about a forty kilometres from the nearest place.”

  “No!”

  “You need a doctor. I can clean your wounds and cover them but you need stitches, a
ntibiotics, and yes, probably some blood.”

  “No doctor. Need blood.”

  Julie came to the conclusion he was delirious. She knew she had to find someone to help or he would die. Ruefully she thought, first time I have ever wished I wasn’t so far away from civilization. Damn, I need someone to help.

  “Michael.”

  “Michael? Is that your name?”

  “No. Michael will come.”

  “Were you with someone? Are they looking for you?” Julie was about to look outside.

  “Michael coming.”

  “This Michael is looking for you and coming to find you?”

  “Yes.”

  Julie suddenly realised that he had not been speaking aloud, yet she was having a conversation with him. She rocked back on her heels in shock.

  “Hang on. How did you know what I was thinking? How can we be talking when you haven’t opened your mouth?”

  She tried to stand, to get away from him, falling instead in the cramped tent.

  “Who are you? What are you?”

  She was terrified. He reached out a hand and tried to take hers but she was too far away, he too weak.

  He spoke aloud, “Tomas. A hunter.”

  She looked at him with wide, frightened eyes. He looked helpless. There was so much blood on his clothes. He was still bleeding. Crazily, she felt her heart flip. For some strange reason she thought she would be safe, so Julie wriggled forward again and looked at his face.

  “Your name is Tomas and you’re a Hunter?”

  He nodded. He took her hand.

  Weakly he whispered, “Need blood.”

  “Yes, well, we’ve talked about that. I need to get you to a doctor and he can give you blood. I don’t have any spare on me at the moment.”

  He nodded his head. “Yes, yours.”

  “What!”

  Surprisingly his grip on her arm tightened as he pulled her toward him. She watched mesmerised as he opened his mouth.

  She watched as his teeth lengthened.

  He lifted her arm to his mouth.

  He sank his teeth deep into her wrist.

  She gave a tiny scream and fell forward, unconscious, onto his chest.

  Chapter Three

  Tomas drank deeply but took great care not to take too much from Julie.

  He was stunned to think he had found his One, here in the middle of nowhere!

  He licked his wounds wherever he could reach, spitting into his hand to rub across the neck wound. He still felt very weak but needed to make sure she slept the day away. He gave her a heavy command to sleep until two hours after sunset. That would give him enough time to fly somewhere and get more blood. He was confident that his wounds would be healed enough to make the flight. And on the plus side, he had taken fresh blood to help him heal.

  Tomas fiddled with her memories, making it seem like she had been dreaming, that they were friends. So grateful that there was a heavy cloud cover, he settled feebly beside Julie inside the tent. Pulling the opened sleeping bag over both of them, he then gratefully fell into the healing sleep of the immortal.

  When he woke, he felt stronger. Feeling his neck, he noted that it was almost healed, just a few sticky places, the rest covered with fresh scabs. He looked down at his chest and leg, glad that his wounds were healing nicely. He licked himself again, making sure to rub spittle onto his neck wound, just to ensure the healing would continue. Checking that Julie was still deeply asleep, he crawled out the tent.

  He stood, checking his strength. He needed more blood. Tomas had lost a lot and needed to replace it, and as well it would speed up the healing processes.

  Stretching, he contacted Michael and told him what had happened, as well as telling him that he thought Julie was his One.

  “I tried to enter her mind but she slammed down a barrier. Then we held most of our conversations mentally before she realised and freaked out.”

  “Congratulations, kid! That is wonderful, amazing news! Take care and get yourself fixed.”

  Tomas then transformed and flew to the nearest small village about twenty minutes away, finding several people to drink from. Once done, he felt stronger.

  Flying back, his only fear was Julie.

  He hoped the false memories he planted would hold up. He also wanted to see her, last night he had been too ill to really look at her and tonight had been a rush to get more blood and back before she woke.

  Once back at the campsite, he set a fire going in the little clearing and sat down to impatiently wait for her to wake.

  * * * *

  Julie fought her way up through the fog of her mind, trying to remember what had happened. Sitting up and holding her head in her hands, she recalled a man. He had been hurt, there had been a lot of blood. She remembered dragging him into the tent and then things got rather fuzzy after that thought.

  Opening her fingers a little, she peeped through them. She was the only person in the tent. Strange. Surely, she could not have been dreaming. She noticed the medical kit was thrown into a corner. Her head was pounding as she tried to remember everything.

  There was something important she needed to remember. Something weird and very scary.

  She held one hand in front of her face, something about her hand, her wrist.

  It seemed to come from the pit of her stomach, a long terrible scream as she remembered long teeth. No—fangs, sunk deep into her wrist.

  Suddenly, the tent flap was pushed aside and a man crawled in. It was him, the man in her nightmare, the man who had bitten her.

  She tried to move backward, her feet tangled in the sleeping bag.

  “Julie! Julie! It’s me. It’s Tomas!”

  “No!” She screamed, “Get away!”

  She tried to fight him off as he knelt to take her hands.

  “Julie, please. You’ve been dreaming. Relax, it’s me.”

  Julie stopped struggling a little to look warily at him. She didn’t speak. She looked at her wrist. It looked normal. Suddenly she lunged at him and pulled the shirt at his throat aside.

  She wanted to scream again but nothing came out, she could only stare at the horrid scar across his throat that was still scabby in places. He held her hands.

  “Hush, Julie. Please. Just relax.”

  She started crying, rocking back and forth. Something terrible had happened to her and she could not remember. However, she did remember this man. He had a gaping, bleeding wound across his neck earlier this morning.

  He tried to put his arms around her but she pushed them off. There was no escape from the tent, he was in her way.

  “Who are you?” she shouted in terror. “What are you?”

  * * * *

  Tomas sighed. He had hoped that when he erased her memory, she would wake thinking it had all been a dream. What he hadn’t counted on was finding his One. Here, in the middle of forest. Instead of thinking it was a dream, she was remembering everything.

  He quickly spoke with Michael. “She remembers everything, Michael, she is panicking.”

  “I guess that is more proof she is your One. Congratulations.”

  Michael was laughing.

  “It isn’t funny, Michael. What will I do?”

  “I’m sure you can think of something.”

  “Very funny! You know perfectly what I mean.”

  “The same as all us of had to do when we found our partner—talk fast.”

  Michael was still laughing as he added, “We’ll be there in the morning now that the danger to you has passed. So we’ll meet you both tomorrow night for dinner.”

  He looked at Julie, “What can you remember about this morning?”

  She looked terrified as she tried to shrink away from him, her body pressed against the back of the tent. He held out his hand to her.

  “Please Julie. Relax, I’m not going to hurt you.”

  “What….What are you?” she stammered.

  “I told you this morning. I’m a Hunter.”

  She shook h
er head. “What do you want from me?”

  He tried again to touch her. She panicked.

  “Get away from me!”

  “Oh Julie, please. I can’t hurt you. I would never hurt you.”

  Wide eyed, she screamed at Tomas, “You fucking bit me with…with…you had…You had teeth! Big long bitey fangs!”

  Tomas groaned and push his hair from his face.

  “I’m sorry, Julie.”

  “Sorry! You’re sorry! You fucking bit me! And you’re sorry!”

  Things were going from bad to worse. Julie was getting angry now instead of terrified, or maybe a bit of both.

  “Please, Julie, I can explain. How about sitting outside beside the fire, there is more room. Then I can explain.”

  She looked at him sideways then pointed to the door. Tomas crawled out and a few moments later Julie followed, carrying the large flashlight in front of her as a weapon. She stood and walked away from him to stand on the opposite side of the fire. She crossed her arms and watched him carefully, the fire between them.

  Tomas felt his breath catch. She was gorgeous, no, she was beautiful!

  She was about average height for a woman, maybe five foot eight.” Her hair was a strawberry-blonde red, reaching past her shoulders in masses of unruly curly waves. He couldn’t see what colour her eyes were—the fire was being reflected as gold and red in them. She had a curvy figure, very lush, well padded and full, with large breasts. She looked to be around forty.

  He went to walk to her, but she held up her hand, the flashlight aimed at him, and moved away from him. She waggled the torch.

  He held his hands out, palms up. “I won’t hurt you, Julie.”

  She shook her head, the vision of his teeth sunk in her wrist foremost in her mind. He tried to push the vision away but she glared at him.