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

by Suzy Shearer

  Julie pulled aside the curtain and looked out into the yard.

  She almost retched when she saw the strigoi. It was barely recognisable as any human shape. Skin hung off it in ropes, the flesh almost gone. She jerked back from the window as the creature lurked forward to look in.

  “Come pretty, come and play with me.”

  Julie dropped the curtain back across the glass.

  “Michael, it isn’t the strigoaică, I have no idea what is going on but this one looks stronger than the others.”

  “We aren’t far away. Don’t go outside, leave it to us to destroy, iubită.”

  Louisa turned to look at Julie.

  “Michael said they aren’t far off. The strigoi won’t stay long, he will know the men will be on their way. We can’t risk going outside. He is too strong. You have no training and I’ve no idea if this is a master or a suitor, I dare not risk fighting it.”

  “What can we do to keep him here? I mean if it goes then the men will have to try and find it again. If we keep it here they can destroy it. Any ideas?”

  “Beats me.”

  The two women knew the longer the strigoi stayed the more chance the Hunter’s had. They tried to think of a way to distract it and keep it close.

  “Go away!” Julie shouted. “Leave us alone!”

  “Aw, my pretty. That is not nice. Let me in so we can play.”

  Louisa joined Julie in shouting.

  “You have no control here, leave!”

  “You have no control here!” the strigoi mimicked them sarcastically. “I have all the control, foolish woman! You Hunters think you know all.” It began screaming, ranting. “She has long gone, she will wait until you forget then she will come and kill you all!”

  Julie and Louisa looked at each other.

  “See my control! Watch!” it screamed.

  Louisa lifted the curtain and the two women looked through the window. The beast raged around the yard, throwing things until it reached the chicken coup.

  “No, no, not my chickens,” whimpered Julie.

  Louisa held her hand as the creature smashed through the fence and the coop as if it were made of paper. The shrieks and screams from the fowls as the strigoi tore their bodies apart was heartbreaking.

  Julie collapsed to the floor, sobbing.

  “Iubită, please do not cry. Please. We are almost there. You need to be brave and keep his attention focused on you both.”

  Sobbing, Julie got to her feet. “Okay, I understand, but you must be careful. I hate this, I hate what these things do.”

  Looking outside, Julie saw the strigoi was throwing bodies and pieces of the coop around the yard. She looked at Louisa and then screamed through her tears.

  “You aren’t brave. You can only defeat chickens!”

  The strigoi flew to the window, spittle and rotting flesh flying onto the glass as it stormed.

  “I’ll tear you apart! I’ll throw the pieces across your house! She knows I’ll protect her. She carries our child! Together they will destroy you all!”

  It thumped on the glass and the two women jumped back.

  “Get out here now!” it demanded. “I order you!”

  “Keep him distracted, we are here!”

  Louisa shouted back, “You have no control, you are weak! We will kill her too!”

  The strigoi raised his bony arms and went to hit the window again when he gave a bloodcurdling scream. It turned around to face the three Hunters who had materialised and had thrown the remaining holy water across him.

  They advanced toward the beast as he crouched down, claws extended in front of him, growling at the Hunters. Julie had the knuckles of one hand in her mouth as she watched.

  Suddenly the strigoi darted forward from his crouch to swipe at Martin. He leapt back but not before taking a slash to one arm. Michael pressed forward with a knife in each hand and Tomas began to circle behind him.

  As Michael jabbed forward Tomas tried to stab him in the back but he spun quickly to one side, his talons catching Tomas’s leg. Martin threw a knife at the same time and caught him on the side of the neck. The strigoi ripped the knife out but staggered, giving Michael a chance to push one of his knives into the side of him.

  “Get him onto the grass, Michael. I’ll call down the lightning, distract him.” The two women clearly heard Tomas “shouting” to the others on the open channel.

  Martin and Michael made feints toward the strigoi while Tomas stepped back from the verandah into the yard.

  The strigoi was concentrating on avoiding their knives. It still had one foot on the verandah as Tomas began to call the elements. The beast made another dart forward, trying to stab at Martin with his claws, and Michael slashed upward with a knife into its ribs.

  A scream of rage and agony rent the air as it turned and stepped away from the two Hunters. Tomas quickly brought the lightning down and hit the strigoi in the chest. In an instant, it was all over as the creature was finally destroyed.

  The two women raced outside to their partners, flinging their arms around them.

  “You’re hurt, show me.”

  “It’s nothing, iubită, just a scratch.”

  “Show me,” Julie ordered.

  Tomas rolled up his pant leg and showed her the long scratch across his thigh. To Julie’s eye, it looked deep and painful.

  “I told you, it’s nothing. Once I clean it, it will be gone in an hour or so.”

  Julie looked into his eyes to reassure herself he was telling the truth.

  “Martin! How are you?” Tomas called across the yard to where Martin was now sitting on the verandah.

  “Scratch to the arm, nothing much. We were damn lucky, if the girls had not distracted it…”

  “You’re right, Martin,” Michael agreed. “I’m so glad that is over. Now we just need to find the female. Come inside, everyone, let’s clean up.”

  Tomas went to lead Julie inside but she was standing rooted to the spot. Tears were falling as she looked at the ruins of the chicken house and the tattered bodies of her pets. They all heard her sobs as she fell to her knees.

  “Hush, iubită. Hush. We will look after them.” He pulled her to her feet.

  “Louisa, will you take her inside, please?”

  Louisa nodded and put her arm around Julie’s shoulder. “Come. Leave the men to fix things.”

  Julie allowed herself to be led indoors. Louisa settled her on a couch and sat beside her.

  “Viorel and Avril are on their way, they’ll be here any moment. Are you okay?”

  “Yes.” She sniffled, “I think it is just the shock of it all and my poor darling chickens.”

  “You’ll feel better once the men are inside and we can all relax.”

  Julie nodded, then stood as she heard a car pull up.

  “That’s Avril. I’ll let them in.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  “Are you okay? Is everyone all right?” Avril hugged Julie as Viorel stood behind her.

  “Yes, Martin and Tomas got hurt, but they both said it wasn’t anything serious. They…they are outside.” Julie paled.

  Viorel and Avril followed her into the house. Viorel went outside while the three women stood in the room.

  “It was horrid, Avril, I still can’t quite believe it.”

  “Come on, girls, let’s make something hot to drink. They will want to just relax and put this behind them.”

  Louisa walked into the kitchen with the other two following her.

  “This calls for the hidden biscuit and slice cache to come out.” Julie giggled as she rummaged in a cupboard, pulling aside containers to get to the four she had hidden away.

  The women finished making tea and had taken the filled cups into the family room when the four men came inside. Tomas had taken off his pants and Martin his shirt so they could clean their wounds. Julie could not hold in her laughter as Tomas bent his head to lick across his thigh.

  “What?”

  “You look so fu
nny licking yourself. You could’ve asked me.”

  His eyes took on a smouldering look at her words.

  “Oops. On second thoughts that probably wouldn’t be a good idea.”

  Louisa laughed and agreed with her.

  Julie sobered. “It wasn’t the female. He said she had gone.”

  Louisa nodded her head. “The way it spoke, I believe the strigoaică is pregnant. I would guess it left to protect the monster it carries.”

  “Tell me all it said,” Michael asked the two women.

  Louisa and Julie repeated all they could remember.

  “You’re right,” Viorel admitted. “The strigoaică tricked us and escaped.”

  “She must have ordered the strigoi to hide somewhere, knowing we had located her lair. Then she left, giving it orders to attack here when it thought we were heading for her old lair.”

  “What will happen now?”

  “I hardly think she will stay anywhere near here. If she is pregnant she’ll want to get as far away from here as possible to have the baby safely.” Michael looked disgusted at the outcome. “All we can do is the usual monitoring of police databases for suspicious deaths.”

  “At least we have taken seven strigoi out of action. Let’s face it, that was a hell of large group. I can’t recall a group of eight in one area before. We’ll add this to our information. From now on when there is a large group, we can consider it may have a female at the centre.” Viorel reasoned. “She may have escaped but seven are destroyed.”

  “True.”

  Julie walked back into the kitchen, returning with three of the four containers, which she placed on the table.

  Martin threw himself on the ground, his back against the side of a couch, and grabbed a tin.

  “Hey, that’s not fair! I want some, too.” Michael tried to wrestle the container away, but Louisa grabbed his arm and showed him the other two tins.

  He opened them both and was trying to decide which to take when Viorel’s arm swooped in, taking a handful.

  “Don’t forget the rest of us!” Julie warned.

  When everyone was settled, Michael voiced what they had all been thinking.

  “When we found the lair empty I despaired of getting her.”

  “So what happens now? I mean, will you try to find where he was hiding?” Avril asked.

  “We will. For no other reason than to make it unsafe for any strigoi to use at some point in the future.”

  Michael looked over to Viorel. “What about you, Viorel? You were on your way to Europe.”

  Viorel looked lovingly at Avril perched on his knee.

  “I know. Avril’s mother comes back tomorrow. We are going to tell her I have been Avril’s fiancée for a while. I’ll plant that memory. Avril has said she would like to travel with me so we’ll have a human ceremony here for her mother then will head back to Europe. Avril has agreed to convert.”

  Avril looked a little upset. “I hate lying to Mum, but there is no way she would ever understand. At least this way she will get to see me marry, something she had always wanted.”

  “That is wonderful news, Avril.” Louisa and Julie both gave their good wishes.

  “It was an easy choice. Once I had learnt about Hunters and met you all, I knew that when I met the one destined for me I would accept conversion. I wasn’t quite prepared for the amazing feeling of love that hits so quickly.”

  The three women got misty eyed when they recalled meeting their mates.

  “It is overwhelming,” Julie agreed. “I kind of panicked when I met Tomas so I ran away.”

  Tomas grinned at her. “The worst few days of my life. I thought I would never find you again.”

  “I don’t know what I’d have done if you hadn’t, Tomas. I was starting to feel as if my one chance at happiness had slipped through my fingers. I realise now that it is part of being the mate for a Hunter. Guess we just can’t escape destiny.”

  Avril looked into Viorel’s face. “I don’t think I would ever want to now I know how wonderful it is.” Viorel kissed her softly.

  Viorel looked at his friends. “Michael, you and Louisa can go back to Matei’s, continue with the round he would be doing. They won’t be back for another six weeks. Hopefully all will be quiet. Martin, I have a change of plans for you. That’s why I decided to stop by.” He looked at Avril ruefully. “I can’t imagine what would have happened if I hadn’t changed my plans. We would have been sending Hunters here for years, never knowing I was destined for you.”

  He shook his head in wonder and continued.

  “Anyway, there has been some activity reported to the council. The database flagging has turned up some suspicious deaths north in Smokey Hills, three states away. There’s no Hunter in the area and, as you are between assignments, can you go and check it out?”

  “Sure, what do we know?”

  “Well, the usual suspects. Bodies drained, people missing. It is inland. There are a lot of cliffs with caves in the area, similar to here. Perfect places for lairs. We don’t have a council property there so I have arranged a rental place. It is isolated, so no one should bother you.”

  “Tomas, after you clean out any lairs in the area, can you and Julie follow up on this idea of a database of psychic mortals? I know the council toyed with the idea a few years back but nothing has really been done. Julie, with your computer knowledge you may be able to come up with something useful. If we can identify potential mates, it would make life so much easier. We could protect them until their mates are found.”

  Julie nodded, then wondered, “What would happen if there was no mate for them? I mean, well…you said that some Hunters are no longer alive. Would it be possible that their mates are alive now?”

  “I guess so. I would like to think that there is someone, both mortal and immortal, for each. Anyway, all we can do is hope for the best.”

  “It would make it so much easier to accept if you knew all about Hunters beforehand. I wouldn’t have run away if I understood it fully.”

  Avril agreed. “You’re so right, Julie. Once I accepted there were vampires and Hunters the rest followed naturally. I was so eager to meet that one person destined just for me.”

  “Once we identified someone, then we could introduce them to the world of Hunters.” Michael chuckled. “Of course they would probably think we were nuts to start with.”

  “Well the first thing is to come up with some way of identifying them. Once we have that then we can worry about how to inform them about Hunters.” Viorel wisely said.

  Once they finished their tea and had devoured everything in the tins, Avril and Viorel bade them all a good night.

  Michael, Louisa, and Martin stayed another hour then they, too, left.

  “Come, iubită, there is nothing more to do tonight. Tomorrow night I’ll teach you how to look for traces then we will try to locate the missing lair.”

  He held out his hand and Julie took it. Pulling her into his arms, he kissed her passionately.

  “I think you need to lick my wound.” His voice deepened. “I may not have checked it all.”

  Julie grinned at him but pulled herself out of his arms and ran carefully into the bedroom, Tomas on her heels. She tried to avoid his arms with little success. Laughing, they tumbled onto the bed, Tomas kissing her wherever he could reach.

  Their laughter quickly turned to heavy breathing as Tomas’s kisses became more passionate, more demanding. Julie wrapped her arms around him and held him tightly against her.

  She felt so different today. Her body was still hers but today she had felt more attuned to it. More alive, somehow more womanly, more feminine. She guessed it was because she was immortal, although she felt strangely aware of her own body. She pulled Tomas’s head to her breast and felt him kiss it through her clothing.

  He quickly tore aside her top to lick the swell of each breast. Julie released his head to run her hands up and down his body, trying to pull his clothes off at the same time.

&n
bsp; Tomas waved a hand and immediately he was naked. Julie sighed in delight and tried to do the same. She almost succeeded but still wore the bra that Tomas was playing with. He grinned up at her, then lengthened a talon to slash through the centre. As her breasts spilt free Tomas latched onto one nipple, taking the other between his fingers.

  Julie arched backward, her breasts pointing up toward his mouth. She reached down to grasp his growing member. Slowly at first, she began to run her fingers up and down the length of it, delighting as it grew harder.

  She wanted to take it into her mouth but wanted to continue feeling him suckling at her breasts. Instead, she felt a hand wander downward to settle in the bushy thatch between her legs. He teased and tweaked the hair, his fingers brushing against her clit. Julie moaned a little, increased the speed of her hand and watched as his fangs lengthened.

  The sight of his fangs sent her a little crazy and she felt her own descend. She wanted to wrap her mouth around his cock but he kept her away. Moving until he was positioned at the head of her wet slit, Tomas took his weight on his arms and thrust into her.

  He bared his neck close to her teeth and groaned loudly when she sank her fangs deep and drank. As he continued to pound into Julie, she continued to drink. All at once she felt her muscles tighten around his tumid member. Her teeth slipped from his neck as she gave a quick lick to the bite, then felt her whole body tense.

  Tomas quickly sank his teeth into the soft swell of one tit, drinking deeply as Julie screamed his name as her orgasm overtook her. Julie threw her head back, closed her eyes, and felt Tomas thrust deep then hold as he spurted his seed deep within her.

  He collapsed onto her and they both lay panting, fully sated, their bodies still rocked by tiny spasms as their joint climaxes slowly died.

  Tomas rolled off her and dragged her into his arms.

  “Iubită, I love you.”

  “And I love you, Wolfie.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Eight weeks later the Hunters gathered once again at Julie’s.

  Avril and Viorel were to be married the next evening. Julie’s house was filled with guests, as was the house that Avril had rented. The apartment complex that Michael, Tomas, and Louisa had stayed in was now filled with Hunters, who had travelled to see Viorel formally wed his mate. It had given renewed hope to the many unattached Hunters—if Viorel could find his mate after almost three thousand years then there was always a chance that the rest would.