by Terry Spear
“She’s not like most huntresses,” Samuel said.
“Yeah, that’s why he’s so hung up on her,” Mark added.
Robert swore under his breath, trying to ignore his brothers’ words. Rules. He would lay them down with her…as soon as he got her safely in his grasp. “We’ll search the surrounding houses. This one first.”
Fearing the wrath of a vampire more than the human host with the gun, Crystal whipped around to face him.
To her surprise, he turned out to be a she. Less strong than the males, a female vampire still remained a deadly adversary. The pale creature dressed in a black negligee, smiled at her. Almost at once, she extended her canines.
Crystal swallowed hard. The vampire meant business. Crystal yanked out her sword. A shot rang out. A prickle of pain in Crystal’s right shoulder registered in her brain. She dropped her sword and grabbed her shoulder. Blood covered her fingers. Her thoughts swirled. The host had shot her.
The distant muffled shattering of glass followed. The hosts screamed.
The vampire grabbed Crystal by the throat and thrust her against the wall. While gasping for air, Crystal released her left wrist knife. With the shiny blade fully extended to ten inches, she jammed it into the vampire’s chest. The vampire hissed a curse and tightened her hold on Crystal’s throat.
Crystal had missed the vampire’s vital organ. Had she aimed too high, or too low? She fought for air as she tried to wrench the vampire’s hand from her throat. With her right hand, Crystal pulled the knife free and propelled it into the vampire again. This time her aim was true, and the blade struck the vampire’s heart.
Immediately, she loosened her hold on Crystal. Crystal gasped for breath and leaned against the wall for a second. The vampire collapsed on the floor in serious need of a facelift…well, a whole body lift. Guarded triumph filled Crystal, but she still had to find Nicolai.
A rush of footsteps into the living room ensued, spurring Crystal on. Without looking back, she grabbed the sword, and darted to the next door.
The gun fired again. This time Crystal felt no pain. The woman must have missed. Crystal jerked the next door open. Swords swinging in the air caused a whooshing sound in the living area. She turned.
Robert and his brothers fought an onslaught of male hosts. They were no match for the hunters though. They must have been hiding when she first entered the house, hoping to give her a false sense of security. She winced as a host struck Robert in the chest with his fist.
Before she could do anything about it, an ice cold hand caught her wrist, grabbing her attention. She turned to face a giant of a vampire. At least six and a half feet tall, she’d never seen one so big. Her breath caught in her throat. Immediately she knew she was in trouble.
He yanked her into his dark room and locked the door. His black nightshirt rested provocatively high on his skinny stork-like legs. Her eyes shifted upward as he grabbed her shoulder with a gargantuan-sized hand. Pain ripped through the bullet wound, making her head spin.
His gaze locked onto the blood soaking her shirtsleeve. The bloodlust called to him. The look of longing in his black eyes intensified. His fangs extended, sharp and deadly.
She struck at him with the sword. With a swift hard movement, he knocked the sword from her weakened grasp as she thrust at him. The weapon flew across the room, struck the wall, then landed several feet away with a clatter. He reached for her throat with his hand like the female had done, but Crystal dove for the sword on the wooden floor.
Grasping it for dear life, she attempted to get to her feet, but he lunged for her. His huge body slammed into hers, sufficiently immobilizing her.
With her wrist knife, she jabbed him, but missed his heart. He cried out in anguish, then readied his bite while he dug his fingers into her injured shoulder. The excruciating pain radiated all the way down her arm, causing her to see stars briefly. Again, she jabbed with her knife, determined not to lose consciousness. If she passed out, she’d lose her life.
The door to the room shuddered as someone banged against it.
“Crystal!” Robert hollered. The banging continued.
The vampire licked Crystal’s blood from his fingers. He smiled. It didn’t kill him. If he lived to tell Nicolai…
She rammed her knife into him again, this time fatally penetrating his heart. He cried out.
The door slammed open, banging hard against the wall. Stars appeared against a black velvet night, then blackness enveloped Crystal as her world faded away.
Taking a deep breath, Robert dug the bullet out of Crystal’s shoulder with a scalpel. His heart pounded with concern while she lay unconscious in his bed. Mark handed him the medicinal bandages Thomas had specially prepared for her.
“No bite marks, right?” Mark asked.
Robert finished wrapping her shoulder. “No. No bite marks.”
Thomas wrinkled his forehead. “She can’t stay here any longer.”
“She refuses to leave here. I think we all know he’ll follow her wherever she goes. As far as he’s concerned, she’s his, and she’ll provide him with a superior vampire race.” Robert pulled the covers under her chin. He was relieved she’d been saved this time, but concerned that they hadn’t located Nicolai, and he knew he’d come for her again tonight.
Samuel placed his hands on his hips. “She didn’t obey you.”
“Neither did our sister. She’s stubborn like her.” Robert pushed a golden curl away from her cheek. Despite being angry that she hadn’t listened to him, he couldn’t help but understand her need to kill Nicolai. When she came face to face with the vampire again, would she be able to? His stomach churned with anxiety at the thought. “I’ll fix some lunch for us.” He rose from the bed.
“Shouldn’t one of us stay with her? Make sure she doesn’t try to slip out through the window again?” Mark asked.
“The medication we gave her will make her sleep until morning.”
“I’d suggest,” Thomas said, “we move her to our home, but we’d never make it before nightfall.”
Samuel glanced at this watch. “Nope. It’s only another couple of hours before they begin to stir.”
Robert patted Crystal’s good shoulder. “Tomorrow.”
Thomas grunted. “She’ll be awake by then and as obstinate as before. We would’ve done better taking her there when she was knocked out.”
Mark and Samuel laughed.
Robert closed the door behind them. “I’d suggest we continue to look for Nicolai by daylight, but I’d rather we kept our forces together. Someone would have to stay behind to watch her.”
Samuel and Thomas looked at Mark. He shook his head. “You’re not leaving me out of all the fun.”
33
While Robert and Mark made lunch, Samuel and Thomas sharpened their blades. Robert walked into the living room with a bottle of wine after starting the lasagna. “So what do we tell Uncle Walter?”
Thomas opened his mouth to speak, but his gaze shifted to the hallway. Robert and his other brothers looked that way.
Standing only in her lacy black bra and black denims, Crystal leaned against the wall to support herself. Robert nearly dropped the bottle as he hurriedly passed it to Thomas. Then he crossed the floor to where Crystal barely managed to stand. He lifted her off her feet and carried her back to bed.
“The medicine is supposed to help you sleep and heal more quickly, Crystal. You’re to stay in bed until I say otherwise.”
She shut her eyes as she snuggled against his chest. He studied her sleep-filled face. She moaned with pleasure and licked her lips, stirring his loins. Had she been walking in her sleep?
He tucked her back into bed. “Crystal?”
She parted her lips to speak, but didn’t say anything, only furrowed her brow, her eyes still shut tight.
After sitting beside her on the bed, he took her hand and caressed it.
In barely a whisper, she said, “He knows.”
“Crystal?”
T
homas poked his head into the room. “Is anything wrong?”
Robert’s stomach tightened with irritation, then he frowned at him for the intrusion. He motioned for him to be quiet. “Crystal, who knows what?”
She licked her lips again and waved her fingers slightly in the air.
He couldn’t understand what she tried to tell him. Whatever it was, he was sure it was important, or it wouldn’t have filled her with concern and awakened her.
“Crystal honey, what does he know?”
She licked her lips again. Was that the key? He touched her full moistened lips.
“Oh, he’ll know.” She groaned and ran her fingers through her golden curls, stirring Robert’s desire for her.
“What’s going on?” Samuel asked.
“Shh,” Thomas warned him.
“What will he know?” Robert whispered in her ear.
She parted her lips again, but only took hesitant breaths, turning her head from side to side as if plagued by a nightmare. He gripped her hand tightly, trying to reassure her she remained safe with him.
“Crystal, you’re safe with my brothers, Thomas, Samuel, Mark, and me. We’ll take good care of you.”
“He…he…” Tears moistened her cheeks.
His heart rate increased. Seeing her tearful, tore him up. “Nicolai?”
She wrinkled her brow.
Not Nicolai.
Her tongue moistened her lips again. His gaze followed her movements with intrigue. He wanted to be the one licking them. Sighing deeply, he turned to look at his brothers who hovered at the entrance to the room.
Thomas raised his brows at him. Robert shrugged.
The last vampire that had come in contact with her was the giant. Robert tried to recall anything about him that would give him a clue. He spoke to his brothers in a low voice, “When we found Crystal passed out on the floor of the bedroom, was there anything about the vampire she’d killed that would make her so fearful?”
Thomas shook his head. “Samuel and I left to take care of the vampires in two of the other bedrooms. Only Mark stayed to watch your back while you carried her out of the house to the vehicle.”
Mark cleared his throat. “There was blood on his lips.”
“That’s why you asked me if she’d been bitten?”
“I didn’t think he could have gotten the blood any other way. It was fresh blood, and there was no host in the room.”
They all looked at Crystal.
Mark shrugged. “He had blood on his wizened-up hand. Maybe he grabbed her wound and tasted some of her blood.”
“And he didn’t die from it.” Robert ran his fingers through her silky hair. He couldn’t believe the implications…if that bastard Nicolai bit her, could he turn her? He sucked in a breath trying to settle the new worry chilling his bones to the core. “Is she worried he told another vampire through mental telepathy?”
“Damn,” Thomas said. “She’s more trouble than she’s worth.”
Robert glared at his brother, then stroked Crystal’s hand. “She can’t help the way she is,” he growled. The notion everyone treated her as an outcast riled him.
Samuel folded his arms. “If Nicolai knows she can be bitten and it won’t kill either of them, he’ll do it, you know. The bloodlust will force him to, and there won’t be anything holding him back. He’ll want to see if he can turn her that way.”
“They can’t turn us.”
“We don’t know that. Not when it comes to this unstable gene of hers. We don’t know what’ll happen. Will she fight him, if he gets hold of her again? We don’t even know that.”
She puckered her lips slightly. Again Robert touched them with his finger, desiring with all his heart to press his lips against hers. But not with his brothers watching. Thomas had warned him not to kiss her. Not to get too close, too involved. She’d bewitch him like she did Nicolai. But he was already taken in by her spell, her animal magnetism. It was too late.
“Uhm, Robert, I heard the bell ring on the oven. Is it time to eat, maybe?” Mark asked.
“Yeah, why don’t you go serve it up, and I’ll be there in a moment.”
Thomas poked Samuel. “Why don’t you pour us some wine? We’ll join you momentarily.”
Robert took an exasperated breath. He’d hoped his brothers would give him a moment alone with Crystal. Thomas knew him too well.
When Samuel and Mark were clanging around in the kitchen, Thomas folded his arms. “I know Mark thinks you’re going to keep her. But you can’t. She’ll always be a danger, until she’s dead. Once other vampires learn of her special gene, she’ll be highly desired. She won’t stand a chance. Neither will you if you try to protect her. You realize that, don’t you?”
“I know the song and dance, Thomas.” Robert rose from the bed. If his family had their way, she’d be left on her own. But didn’t they realize that a new vampire race could threaten their own existence?
As if Thomas could read his mind, he said, “Her own family should have killed her long ago. Many do. That’s another reason why there aren’t any who are as old as her. I didn’t want to mention it.” He took a deep breath. “Vampires can’t take a child bride. A huntress with the gene couldn’t have his offspring too early on. Since she wasn’t hunting for some time, the vampires must have been unaware she had the twisted gene.”
Thomas’s choice of words irked Robert further. If he wasn’t holding her hand to comfort her, he’d punch his older brother. Crystal was a seductress, totally desirable, different gene or not.
He leaned over and kissed her forehead. She tilted her head up as if directing him to kiss her lips instead and puckered them again. God, how he wanted to do her the honors.
“Come on, Robert, before you get any deeper with this.”
Deeper…yeah. That’s just what he had in mind. Would a baby he created with her have even more special abilities? Or just the same transmuted gene that would make it at risk if it were a female? Males never carried the gene so if they had a son, there’d be no worry. If any of the huntresses who carried the special gene had ever had a child, no one knew the consequences. Would carrying a hunter’s child bring about any changes in the mother, for instance?
He furrowed his brow, then squeezed her hand. With a heavy heart, he crossed the floor, and attempted to curb the hostility he felt toward his brother. Couldn’t he have allowed him a moment of privacy?
“So about the sleeping arrangements…,” Thomas said.
34
Robert faced Thomas. His older brother smirked. “Two of us can sleep on the foldout couch. You’ve got an inflatable bed for the other two, right?”
When Robert led him into the dining room, but didn’t respond, Thomas said, “You can’t sleep with her.”
Robert glared at him as his brothers stopped setting the table and looked up to see his response.
Thomas shrugged as he took his seat. “She’s injured. She needs to rest. If you sleep with her, you might bump into her injured shoulder. It’s best she sleeps alone. Agreed?”
Not at all.
When he didn’t respond to his oldest brother’s question, Mark and Samuel chuckled. Robert glanced at them, both grinning big time at him.
He sat, then grabbed his wine glass.
“Another hour,” Mark said, giving the countdown until the time it turned dark.
“He might not come tonight.” Thomas scooped a forkful of lasagna dripping with melted mozzarella cheese. “He’d most likely figure there are too many hunters in the house to make it worth his while. If we left, he’d make his move. While we’re in the house, he won’t come near the place.”
Mark shook his head. “I predict he’ll come for her. He wants her too badly.”
Samuel twirled his wine in his cup. “Thomas might be right. Most vampires wouldn’t attempt to go against four male hunters.”
They looked at Robert to see his take on the situation. “He’ll come. He believes I’ve claimed her for my own. Now I’ve brought
my family here to help me keep her…or so he’ll think. He’ll come.”
Thomas pulled a piece of bread off a loaf. “Uncle Walter’s not going to like this one bit.”
Crystal groaned in pain as her shoulder ached and burned at the same time. Where was she? The room was dark, illuminated only slightly by a light in the hallway that reached underneath the door. She pulled the velvet covers aside. Her whole body hurt from when Kostya threw her down the flight of steps and from fighting with the vampires.
She reached for the lamp and turned on the switch. For a moment, she sat staring at the television, the bed, side tables, and drawn curtains. She sighed deeply. Somehow, she’d ended up back at Robert’s house.
With an unsteady pace, she made her way to the bathroom. She blinked at herself in the mirror. She only wore her black bra and jeans and her hair was disheveled. Had Robert removed her shirt? Sure, to take care of her wound.
Feeling dizzy, she sank to her knees on the cold tile floor. Was it the wound that made her head fuzz so badly? Or maybe the medicine? No, perhaps the loss of blood.
She sat on the floor for some time, too unsure of herself to stand. Then she turned to the window. The night sky had returned. Would Nicolai come for her? She touched her neck. To rip out her throat? She’d certainly wreaked enough havoc with his family to warrant it.
Men’s voices drifted to her, then laughter. Robert’s brothers were still here. She grabbed the doorframe and pulled herself up.
The effort made her mind go blank. She clutched at the door to keep from passing out. No way could she fight Nicolai or anyone else in her present condition.
She made her way back to the bed. Her pink negligee lay on the end of the mattress, waiting for her to put it on. She pulled a black one out of a drawer, then collapsed on the bed and closed her eyes.
After taking a deep breath, she managed to remove her jeans. Luckily her bra fastened in the front, so she was able to remove it without too much hardship. Then she slipped the negligee over her head. Getting her injured arm into it proved impossible though. She needed Robert’s help. With exasperation, she stood up from the bed, then made her way to the door leading into the hall.
