aHunter4Ever

by Cynthia Clement

  “You need to understand that if we are separated, you can communicate with me.”

  “I’m not telepathic.”

  “I will hear you.” Partlan leaned close. “We are connected. You are my pair bond.”

  Chapter 12

  Grace pulled her hands away from Partlan. “I’ve sworn off men for the rest of my life.”

  “Nevertheless, we are bonded.” Partlan’s tone was quiet. “You were the reason I came back to Beverly Hills.”

  “I thought you wanted to bring the Walters’ boy back.”

  “I could have sent him by himself. I knew he would be safe.” Partlan’s voice dipped low. “I needed to see you.”

  “We hardly spoke.”

  Grace fought back the surge of emotion that Partlan’s words were causing. A vice grip was tightening its hold on her chest. She didn’t want to be connected to a man, least of all one that was from another planet.

  She couldn’t deny that she was attracted to him.

  Being near him, gave her joy.

  She shook her head and turned away. It couldn’t be possible. There was no way that she could be connected with a man who flaunted the law. She believed in the justice system and it was her job to ensure that it was obeyed. Partlan believed in his Sacred Code and he didn’t care about breaking the law to protect his code.

  “You still fear me.” Partlan’s voice held sadness. “I would never harm you.”

  “We are opposites,” Grace whispered. “We would never agree on anything.”

  “You fight for what you believe is right, as do I.” Partlan took a step toward her. “I protect those who need it. So do you. How are we different?”

  “You kill people who don’t agree with your code.”

  “Do you not do the same?” Partlan’s eyebrow rose. “When I did not follow your rules, I was shot.”

  Grace’s eyes widened. He was right. Had she really tried to detain him because he broke the law, or had it been because he challenged her authority? Was part of her determination to hold him because she feared how she reacted when he was near?

  She couldn’t deny that she longed to have his arms around her and to feel safe.

  Partlan’s eyes hadn’t left her face. “I sense that you are uncertain. I will not force anything on you, but I will always be here if you need me.”

  “Men always leave.”

  “Not a Hunter.” Partlan’s voice was sincere. “We bond for life and even if you chose to mate with another, there will always be a connection. I could never leave you. Even in death, I will always be with you.”

  “How could you possibly promise that?” Grace shook her head.

  “As our bond grows stronger, we will be able to share everything with each other, including our thoughts.”

  Grace bit her bottom lip. Partlan spoke with reverence of this bond, but she didn’t know if she wanted to be connected with someone so closely. To have them aware of her every thought seemed invasive, and yet a small part of her was intrigued. To be linked with another person and know that you could rely on them would be less lonely. It would ease the tension and stress of having only yourself to rely on.

  She pushed the thought away.

  Survival meant trusting no one.

  Grace lifted her chin. “I need to be strong and protect myself.”

  “The bond will not interfere with that.” Partlan gave a slight bow of his head. “Remember that I am here always. All you have to do, is reach out to me with your mind. You may not want my protection, but I cannot let any harm come to you. Even if we are never together as mates, I am destined to be your protector.”

  Grace rubbed her temple. It was too much to consider all at once. “It’s difficult to believe everything you’ve told me.”

  Partlan gathered her close, rubbing a soothing hand down her back. A wave of calm ebbed through her. There was no other place she wanted to be. It didn’t matter that they were being held prisoners in a concrete cell, or that the people holding them would kill them. All she cared about was being close to Partlan. She had to be crazy.

  “It is easier not to fight the attraction.” His voice was a throaty whisper. “The bond is real. I fought it myself in the beginning because I did not believe. I was helpless against the strength of the connection. I had to be with you, even when it meant my own capture.”

  Grace leaned into Partlan and closed her eyes. She let the peace and protection he offered flow through her. An urgent craving to know what it would be like to kiss him, overwhelmed her. She gazed up at him as wisps of desire curled inside her. Partlan seemed to understand. He bent and brushed his lips over hers.

  Fire and passion rushed through her.

  Her lips clung to his, as need overcame fear.

  She sighed, luxuriating in the shivers of heat that danced through her. Delicious tendrils of pleasure coiled deep in her womb. She was lost in the touch and feel of Partlan. Her tongue darted into his mouth and twirled around his. Shards of delight sparked and lit flames of excitement that radiated from her inner core.

  She yearned for more.

  Her hands roamed up his firm chest, reveling in the thrill of bliss that settled within her. Partlan was perfect in every way. A shudder of exquisite joy caressed every part of her before the kiss ended. Their breathing was ragged as they rested their foreheads together.

  “That was insane.” Grace inhaled a shaky breath.

  “I have never felt anything like that.” Partlan’s voice shook. “There can be no doubt we are bonded.”

  Grace took a step back. She needed time to consider everything that had happened. Partlan was insisting that they were meant to be together and a part of her wanted that to be true. Past relationships had shown her that there were no happy endings. She had never experienced anything as spectacular as that kiss, though.

  “I need time to think.” Grace ran a shaky hand through her hair. “I don’t do well with relationships. Men always leave.”

  “I am not like other men.”

  Grace blew a strand of hair out of her eyes. “No, you’re not, but I am still the same woman.”

  Before she could say anything else, there was the sound of footsteps outside of their cell. Partlan motioned for her to go back to the corner where she’d been cuffed. He did the same thing. Her heart pounded in her ears as she held her breath. Now they would find out why they’d been taken and how soon they could leave.

  There was a rattle of the handle and then the steel door swung open. The man who’d taken them in Beverly Hills walked into the cell and looked first at Partlan and then at her. He had two armed men in uniform behind him and he motioned for them to enter. Grace didn’t recognize the uniform insignias, but their stance proclaimed them as military. They looked like they would obey orders and shoot on demand.

  “Isn’t this cosy.” The man’s grey eyes narrowed as he glanced between Grace and Partlan.

  “Who are you?” Grace forced her voice to remain calm.

  “You can call me Ian, but I doubt we’ll know each other long enough to be on a first name basis.”

  “Abducting a federal agent carries a long prison term.” Grace lifted her chin. “My office will be looking for me.”

  “Right now, your supervisor is being advised that you were killed when your prisoner attempted to escape.” Ian sounded bored. “This is not the first time we have had to remove law officers who have interfered.”

  “I did no such thing.” Indignation rose in her chest. “I was protecting my prisoner. You were the ones who insisted on kidnapping him.”

  “Your case means nothing to us.” Ian’s eyes narrowed. “You have no idea what you’re involved in.”

  “Enlighten me.”

  “We are a global conglomerate. We don’t answer to governments and definitely not to their law enforcement agents.”

  “You need money to run that kind of a business.”

  Grace’s throat went dry. A world-wide covert operation such as he described made her min
d spin. How could such a group exist and the rest of the world not be aware of it? Better yet, why would any government not know that Ian’s people were working within their borders? They must be sanctioned by someone and that suggested a conspiracy of monstrous proportions.

  “Money is of no consequence.” Ian shook his head. “You still don’t get it. The people I work for, run the world, not just one country. We answer to no one. We make people like you disappear on a daily basis.”

  “You won’t get away with it.”

  “Watch me.” Ian motioned to the men behind him. “Take the woman.”

  “No.” Partlan’s voice boomed.

  Ian’s upper lip rose in a sneer. “You’re in no position to dictate.”

  “She stays, or you will regret it.” Partlan stood away from the wall and flexed his hands into fists.

  “I see you broke your restraints.” Ian shrugged. “Do it again and the woman dies.”

  Partlan’s eyes narrowed. “You would dishonor a woman?”

  “I do whatever it takes to get what I need.” Ian took a step closer to Partlan. “Right now, we want information from you. The woman has only one use.”

  “Your words have sealed your fate.” A muscle tightened in Partlan’s jaw.

  He threw a pair of cuffs at Partlan. “Put these on one of your wrists or I’ll kill the woman right now.” He aimed and cocked a pistol at Grace.

  Partlan picked up the cuffs and put them on his wrist. “These will not stop me.”

  “Knowing I will harm her, will stop you from fighting us.” Ian motioned Partlan to move toward the wall. “Put the other half on the metal ring in the wall.”

  Partlan glared at him for a second and then looked at Grace. He snapped the cuff to the ring and then stood away from the wall as far as his restraints would hold. “Let her go.”

  “She leaves when I say.”

  The two uniformed men moved toward her. Grace backed against the wall and when they reached for her, she twisted out of their reach. When she would have dodged their hands again, Ian yelled.

  “Enough.” His voice was like the crack of a whip. “You go with them or I will kill the Hunter in a long and torturous series of knife cuts. There will be nothing left of him because I will fillet every inch of skin from his body until he begs for death.”

  “A Hunter does not beg.” Partlan’s tone was scornful.

  Grace’s arm was grabbed by one of the men and she was dragged to the open door. A wave of panic hit her. She was going to be separated from Partlan. Her eyes widened as she looked at him. It hit her with blinding clarity that she never wanted to be away from him. She needed him with her always. He was as essential as breathing.

  “I will find you.”

  Partlan’s words were a vow. His eyes never left her face as she was dragged out of the room. For a fleeting second, she thought she heard his voice in her head telling her to believe in their connection.

  Grace struggled to escape, but her captor’s grip was too strong. Her arm was twisted behind her back and she was dragged down a long concrete hallway. There were spotlights on the ceilings at twenty foot intervals, but shadows still clung to the edges of the walls. She shivered as the thought of what might lurk in their dark depths, played at the edge of her imagination.

  She took a deep calming breath.

  She’d survived worse.

  Her nightmares, when she was a child, had been a figment of her imagination. This was real. She forced the thought away. She needed to stay focused. She counted the steps they were taking and the directions they took, to commit them to memory. When she escaped she would be able to find her way back to Partlan.

  She was pulled to a stop in front of a brushed steel elevator door. It had Level 7 written on its door. When it opened, she was thrown against the back wall and one of her captors pushed up against her. For a second, she thought he was going to attack her, but all he did was glare at her, daring her to move.

  The doors shut and the elevator lurched, before it moved down.

  One floor down and it stopped.

  She was forced down another long hall. Doors without windows lined it on both sides. There was writing in strange hieroglyphs that she didn’t recognize. Her nose twitched at the faint odor of formaldehyde that permeated the air. Her arms were jerked and pulled back as they halted at a door.

  It was the tenth door they’d passed.

  She strained to see the buttons that were pressed on a security keypad outside the door. She saw the first three, a nine, eight and four. The last one was blocked from her view. The door opened on silent hinges. Large overhead fluorescent bulbs filled the room with light. No shadows lurked in this space. Everything was lit bright enough that the stainless steel in the room reflected images like a mirror.

  Grace was marched to what looked like a surgical table. It took both of the guards to put her on the table. She twisted and turned her body, flailing her arms and legs at her captors until she was exhausted from her efforts. It didn’t matter what she did, they were stronger. One put his weight on top of her, while the other restrained her hands and feet with leather straps.

  The men left without saying a word.

  Grace stretched her head from side to side, looking for an escape, but there was none. She wriggled her hands and feet, but the leather didn’t budge. There was a table of instruments lined up about a foot away. Her heart beat fast enough to fly from her chest when she focused on what was on the tray.

  Scalpels.

  Scissors.

  Saws.

  All were lined up in straight rows. She grit her teeth and renewed her struggle to escape until sweat poured down her forehead. The straps held tight. She was panting and trying to catch her breath when there was a shuffling noise at the door. Her eyes widened as it opened with a quiet swish.

  Two men, who looked identical to those who had visited Partlan at the hospital, walked in. They were not dressed in black, and there were no hats or sunglasses to disguise their appearance. They had dark eyes and a slit for a mouth with no lips. There was no hair on their face, eyelids, or head. Their skin was a pasty white color, almost as if they had never stepped out into the sunlight. She clenched her jaw shut against the primal scream that rose in her throat. Partlan had been right.

  They were definitely not human.

  Chapter 13

  A murmur passed between the two creatures who entered the room. They didn’t even bother to look her way. Grace swallowed a scream and closed her eyes. Everything Partlan had said was true. The men in the hospital had been aliens. If he was right about that, was he also correct about the need to fear them?

  Partlan claimed they were a threat to humanity.

  Right now, they were a threat to her.

  They walked over to the instrument laden table and ran their long fingers over each tool. It was as if they were counting them.

  “You can’t keep me here.” Grace clenched her hands into fists.

  One of the creatures turned to her. “You are with us now.”

  His lips didn’t move.

  Grace shook her head. “Who are you?”

  “We are here. That is all you need to know.” He turned back to the tray and then picked up a syringe.

  “Wait.” Grace’s voice rose to a hysterical pitch. “You can’t just jab people without an explanation. What are you going to do?”

  “We need your genes.” The other creature spoke this time. “It will not hurt.”

  “I refuse.”

  “You have been given to us. There is no refusal.”

  “This is crazy. I’m just an ordinary person. Why would you want to probe me?” Sweat was beading on her forehead. The constant glare of the overhead light was making her skin crawl. She could taste bile at the back of her throat and fear had settled like a rock in her stomach. This was worse than being locked in the closet by her brother.

  Much worse.

  The restraints were chafing at her wrists, leaving the skin reddened and
sore. For a brief second, she wondered if she had the courage to withstand whatever torture they had planned. Partlan had stood firm against Ian. Could she do the same? She closed her eyes and brought up a vision of Partlan in her mind’s eye. He was strong and brave. If there was a connection between the two of them, then that must mean she had the same strength within her.

  She took a deep breath. “You won’t get what you want.”

  The two creatures turned to her. “We always do. Your words make no sense.”

  “Poking and probing humans won’t tell you anything about us.”

  “Your genes give us the information we need. Everything about your race is there for our inspection.”

  “It doesn’t explain how we think, or what motivates us.” Grace’s words were giving her strength. These Albireons, as Partlan called them, might believe that they knew who humans were, but they didn’t have a clue.

  “We do not need that information.” One turned back to the instruments while the other came closer to Grace. “We are able to replicate you. That is all we need to infiltrate and take over.”

  “We are fighters. Your experiments won’t tell you where that comes from.”

  “Resistance is wasted energy. Only an irrational being would continue in the face of defeat.”

  “Humans will.” Grace grinned. “I told you that there was no way genetics could explain our race. If you try to cage us, we will oppose you.”

  “We already have control.” The creature tilted its head. “You have no need to be afraid. We mean no harm.”

  “Humans demand freedom.”

  “We cannot allow that.” The second Albireon came close. It had the syringe in its long fingers. “We need your genes and this planet for our survival.”

  “You want to take over Earth completely.” Grace spoke through clenched teeth, careful to avoid their eyes. She hadn’t forgotten the effect they’d had on her in the hospital.

  “It is necessary. Humans will work for us, once we have total domination.”

  “As slaves?” Grace didn’t bother to hide her contempt. “Why do you need us once you have control of the planet?”