He held her close, enjoying every moment of their despair. Chase remained relatively calm next to Gabriella, who was near hysterics. The tense standoff seemed to last forever before Gavin surprised everyone by releasing his hand from Sable’s neck. His stared hard at Gabriella and Chase as he purposefully turned his wrist, offering it to Sable.
“Go ahead,” he encouraged her.
She hesitated, suspecting a trap.
He brought his wrist to her lips. “Do it,” he urged.
Cautious at first, she wrapped her fingers around his forearm, parted her lips, and sank her fangs into his flesh. He allowed her to feed, seemingly bored despite the pain.
“Sable, that’s enough,” Gabriella anxiously insisted after a long moment.
“She’s okay,” he said softly. “I’ll stop her if I need to.”
Sable continued greedily for another moment, then reluctantly withdrew her fangs, giving Gabriella a gleeful, bloody smile.
“Don’t leave me marked,” he instructed her. She happily sealed the wound, bathing his wrist with her tongue for much longer than was required. He released her, matching her steady gaze as she walked backward toward Gabriella.
“You’ve had a were-panther now,” he calmly proclaimed. “Don’t attack me again, because if you do, it won’t end so favorably next time. I will kill you. It will be the most painful thing you will ever experience. And if you call me at any point, you will suffer the same fate.”
Sable answered with a demure smile, her lips still bright with his blood, clearly more enamored than before. Gabriella nodded graciously.
“Sable,” Demetrius snapped, disappointed. “Do you understand?”
She tore her attention from Gavin just long enough to acknowledge Demetrius, then was hustled out the door by Gabriella.
CHAPTER 11
The search areas were determined according to locations where the creatures had previously attacked or been spotted. Michaela and I strolled the woods near Thaddeus’s home. She paused, as if noticing something for the first time, then lifted her chin and took a long, leisurely sniff of the night air. Her lips spread into a delighted smile.
“Hmm. Death.”
“Thaddeus,” I said matter-of-factly. His body remained in the house, the scent of decomposition drawing the predators who would eventually pick the bones clean of flesh.
“A friend of yours?” she asked, slyly hopeful.
“Gloria’s son.”
“How disappointing.”
We continued for some time, silently traipsing between the trees, deliberately snapping twigs and crunching leaves to draw as much attention as possible. The Mistress of the Seethe walked beside me in a delicate t-shirt that clung to her thin frame and worn jeans that hung from her hips.
“If I don’t have something to kill soon,” she said, “I just might die of boredom.”
“We’re not here to kill,” I chided her. “If you draw blood from a creature, it will disappear and we’ll lose our chance to capture it.”
“You’re no fun.” Her lips twisted into a mocking pout. “If this goes on much longer, I might need a snack.”
“You ate before the search began.”
“Did I?” She frowned. “I suppose I won’t find much out here, anyway. Nothing I’d enjoy. It’s a shame playgrounds don’t have late-night drive-throughs.”
Michaela’s appetite for children was notorious. For a moment, I considered killing her.
“If it hadn’t been for your little wolf,” she continued, “Demetrius would’ve completed his ritual and I’d be able to visit any playground I wished in the middle of the day, when all the little darlings are laughing and playing their sweet little hearts out.”
“I would never allow it,” I growled.
“Oh, you would. Even if you could stop me. All you wolves care about is yourselves. As long as your precious pack remained outside human purview, you’d tolerate anything. You’re not much different than we are. You like a bloody steak just like we do; you just buy yours at the grocery store.”
I ground my teeth. “We are nothing like you.”
Thankfully, for a few minutes she remained silent, the corners of her lips progressively drooping into a bored frown until she sighed audibly.
“Just how long must I endure this?” she asked.
“This alliance represents the Seethe’s interests as much as the pack’s,” I reminded her.
“When vampires hunt with dogs, they use leashes,” she said with an acerbic tone.
“You don’t approve.”
“Nothing personal. You’re an inferior species. It’s certainly not your fault. Demetrius simply spends too much time with your kind, as well as the fae. And his human. He forgets himself. He was glorious, once; feared by all,” she said wistfully. A malignant, secretive smile spread across her lips. “One day he’ll remember. He just needs a little … motivation.”
I remained silent for a moment while I weighed the cost of snapping her neck. She was baiting me. She didn’t want our alliance any more than Gavin did. I needed to be careful.
“I selected you for a reason,” I said, eventually.
She placed a hand on a broken tree branch as she steered around it. “For my waifish charm, I assume.”
“We have a shared problem.”
“Do we?” she asked, genuinely surprised. “Finally tired of your fellow were-animals, or just your little wolf? I wish you would’ve told me before dinner.”
I answered with a baleful glare as I stepped on a twig, snapping it in two. “She and your creation have an unhealthy fascination with each other.”
Michaela thought for a moment, her head bobbing slightly as she stepped around a large rock. “He sees something in her. I admit I am at a loss as to what. When I see that lovely little heart-shaped face I want to crush it between my palms and drink from her skull. Perhaps you could enlighten me. What is it about her that makes men stupid?”
I stopped to glare down at her, balling my hands into fists and squeezing until my knuckles cracked. “Tell him to stay away from her.”
“Quell is free to do as he wishes, just as he’s free to incur my displeasure. Honestly, I don’t know why you don’t just keep that pup of yours in a kennel.”
As my jaw clenched, I felt my teeth grind together until I tore my gaze from her. In her, every quality I despised about vampires was on display. More than their passion for senseless violence, they loved their games. I didn’t need her to deal with Quell, but her cooperation would simplify matters. I decided to try a different tack. “He abhors blood. That doesn’t bother you?”
“It’s part of his charm. I allow his plant because his choice fascinates me.”
“He favors human life over his own kind.”
She scoffed. “Quite the opposite, I assure you. My Quell is an accomplished killer.”
“But he doesn’t take part in the usual … pleasure.”
Her lips clamped together in a thin smile. “If you have a point, I’d be delighted for you to make it.”
I smiled, pleased at finally getting under her pale skin. “It would be in our mutual interest to discourage their acquaintance.”
“You’re worried that he’ll break his vow to foreswear blood and kill your little wolf. Allow me to put your mind at ease. None of our vampires will harm your little wolf.”
“You think I’m going to accept your word?”
“When the time comes, her blood is mine, silly,” she said cloyingly, sending a cold chill down my spine. “Everyone knows that I’ve claimed her.”
I stopped, but she continued ahead of me, oblivious as I drew a knife from the sheath at my thigh. Taken by a sudden rage, I couldn’t stop myself as I strode toward her, knife poised to strike up into the back of her skull, scrambling her brains and incapacitating her while I sliced off her neck, but I didn’t get the chance.
A creature burst from the darkness on my right and tackled me to the ground. Fighting from my back, I managed to evade the
initial stab of its claws, then kicked the creature back a step. Before it could answer, Michaela leapt onto its back. It threw her off easily, dropping her back-first onto an exposed boulder. She let out a stifled cry as she landed, but gathered herself in time to roll away from a rake of claws that scraped stone. I drew the tranq pistol from its holster but hesitated as the creature pressed her, forcing her to dodge and counter from the ground as it relentlessly attacked.
Let her die. I considered it for just a moment, but I doubted Demetrius would believe that I didn’t have a hand in her death. I growled as I fired two of the darts at the creature, striking it in center mass with both. It stumbled back toward me, giving Michaela a chance to rise to her feet. The cloying sweetness was gone from her expression, leaving nothing but a raging killer eager for vengeance.
“No!” I shouted, but too late.
As the creature fell back, succumbing to the tranquilizer, she grasped one of its massive hands between her own, twisted the wrist, then drove its claws into its own chest. It disappeared instantly, leaving her growling over a flattened patch of dirt.
“Dammit!” I shouted at her.
She glowered up at me and then disappeared, leaving me to vent my fury to the trees in a string of expletives.
When I returned to the retreat, I found Chris in the main room, sitting on the edge of a chair, absently hunched over a steaming cup of coffee between her palms. Her cheeks were drawn, her visage gaunt as she blankly stared at a wall, oblivious to my arrival. I’d never seen her so lost. Before I could approach her, Gavin walked into the room, offering her a nasty scowl.
She drew herself upright, prepared to answer some unspoken accusation, but her mouth snapped shut when she noticed me on the other side of the room. She glanced at the coffee, then set it down and strode out of the room.
I turned on Gavin for an explanation.
“Your girlfriend lost her shit out there,” he snapped.
“Explain.”
His scowl deepened. “One of the creatures morphed into something she didn’t like. She froze. If it wasn’t for me, she’d be dead.”
“Morphed,” I said tightly, “into what?”
“A man with black hair. Had a scar.” With a finger he traced a line down his right cheek.
Ryan? How is that possible? Are the creatures reading our thoughts, now? Up to then, they had appeared to morph into whomever they were attacking, often confused by the presence of more than one target. Had their abilities evolved?
I started out of the room when Gavin called after me, “When we hunt tomorrow, I suggest she stays home, unless you want to babysit her. I don’t need that crap.”
After a quick search I realized that Chris had left the retreat. Not surprisingly, she didn’t return my call.
Still no response from Dennis. Before the meeting with the vamps, I had left him a message to stop following Chris until further notice. I didn’t want him following her onto the retreat grounds, and I didn’t want him anywhere near Demetrius and the Seethe. He didn’t respond to me, either. Once again, I wasn’t surprised.
The next night, Michaela didn’t show up for the hunt. I continued without her, but gave up shortly after midnight. By the time I returned to the retreat, Sebastian had returned as well. Gavin had not, which meant Chris was still out there. For all his bluster, he hadn’t complained when she’d joined him.
I walked the grounds, calming my nerves as I waited for their return. She’s a professional, I reminded myself. I worried for Chris, anyway. That she could be so shaken by a reminder of her old mentor was another sign that her effectiveness as a Hunter was slipping. She loved him. She’d never confessed her feelings to me, but I suspected it. I knew she blamed herself for his death.
Gavin called an hour later. “We’ve got one,” he announced. “On our way.” He hung up before I could ask if any of them had been hurt.
At the house, I found Josh had fallen asleep in the library with his boots on a table and a book in his lap, snoring obnoxiously. I knocked his boots from the table, waking him. “They’re coming,” I said, then found Sebastian.
When the SUV parked in the driveway a few minutes later, I hurried outside with Sebastian and Steven, while Josh held open the front door. His excitement was palpable. The doors to the SUV swung open. Gavin and Chris emerged to join us at the back of the vehicle while Gabriella slipped away to watch from a distance.
Growling and grunting could be heard from the back, followed by the metallic thump of flat feet pounding the inside of the hatch. Peering through the window alongside Chris, I saw the creature was bound at the ankles, its wrists bound behind its back.
“So much for sleeping beauty,” Chris said, drawing her tranquilizer pistol as she took a step back, waiting for me to open the hatch. I raised an eyebrow at her. Ready? She nodded, bracing the pistol with both hands in front of her.
“Don’t draw blood,” Sebastian warned her.
“I’ll try not to shoot it in the eyeball. Other than that, I can’t make any promises.”
I snatched the hatch open and she fired two darts in quick succession, striking the creature twice in the chest. The tranquilizer took effect almost immediately. Once the creature was asleep, Gavin pulled it toward the edge of the hatch, then reached beneath its arms and wrapped his arms around its chest. I reached for the legs, but Chris brushed me aside to do the job herself.
“I got it,” she snapped.
I could hear the gleeful racing of Josh’s heart as they carried the creature past him into the house. Sebastian, Steven, and I followed closely, wary of trouble. The dosing of the tranquilizer was a guess, at best. We had no idea how long the effect would last, or how deeply. Any jarring motion might wake it. Fortunately it remained unconscious as Chris and Gavin jostled it downstairs to the cage reserved for just such an occasion that occupied a large portion of the cellar. The creature was too strong for the locked rooms upstairs. I wasn’t entirely sure the bars of the cage would hold, either, but if the creature escaped, it would be surrounded, and contained.
“Good job,” I said as I stepped in to help guide the body through the open cage door. Once the thing was placed inside, Chris reached in with a knife and cut its bonds. I didn’t like the idea, but she acted too quickly for me to stop her.
Josh locked the cage door, and Gavin wasted no time jogging up the stairs. “I’m out,” he announced, then disappeared past Gabriella, who watched scowling at us from the top of the stairs, clearly uncomfortable alone in a house filled with were-animals.
“I’ll take my leave as well,” she said politely, then followed him.
Josh immediately set to preparing his magic, distracted only by Sky when she appeared on the stairs. He gave her a welcoming smile. Of course he did. If the creature managed to escape, Sebastian, Steven, Chris, and I were there to contain it. Sky’s presence only served to put her at risk, but there was little I could do to deny her. Sebastian had included her in the hunt, and then Josh thoughtlessly invited her to witness the ritual he was about to perform.
I positioned myself between her and the creature, standing next to Chris, who didn’t notice as she stared into the cage. Chris’s eyes grew distant and the corners of her mouth bent into a frown as she seemed increasingly absorbed in her thoughts. Glancing between her and the creature, I wondered if she was waiting for it to once more morph into Ryan.
Eventually, she noticed Sky, scrutinizing her and glancing between her and me. My agitation only piqued Chris’s curiosity as she gave Sky a long, searching look. Another reason to get her out of the room. The less she attracted Chris’s attention, the better. I was pretty certain that she’d noticed Sky’s terait on at least one occasion. The small orange mark in the corner of her eye was an indicator of bloodlust in a vampire—an unusual occurrence in a were-animal. Chris wasn’t the type of person to let such oddities go unexplored.
The two women held each other’s gaze for a long moment before Sky, shifting uncomfortably, turned her attention to
Josh and the slumbering creature.
“What happened last night?” I asked Chris. It was a conversation I’d intended to save for a private moment, but I figured a room full of ears would only piss her off, which was one way to get her attention from Sky. “Gavin told me you froze when the creature morphed into Ryan.” She gave me a hard, weighted look, then turned back to Sky with an intensified curiosity. Sky, meanwhile, pretended not to notice, but I saw the uncomfortable shift in her posture. So did Chris.
A groan from the cage distracted us. Chris drew the tranq pistol and checked to make sure it was loaded, while I checked the lock on the door, but the creature remained on the floor, dazed. I looked to Josh, encouraging him to speed up his efforts. When he began his spell a moment later, the creature was jarred alert. In a desperate bid to reach him, it leapt to its feet and charged, rattling the cage as it struck the bars. Both arms shot between the bars and slashed at him, but Josh was well out of reach. His concentration remained unbroken as he continued the spell.
Grunting and growling in frustration, the creature gripped the bars in its massive claws and tried pulling them apart. The cage seemed to be holding, but I moved closer to my brother just in case, careful to remain out of reach of the creature’s claws.
Eventually, it noticed Sky. Its struggles ceased in an instant as it stared at her, almost disbelieving. After a moment, it let out a hissing sigh, then morphed into a humanoid creature with scaled, jet-black reptilian skin. From its dark, gaping maw it hissed, “Maaayyyyaaaa.”
Josh remained unfazed, while Sebastian and I exchanged wary looks.
“Maaayyyyaaaa,” it hissed once more, this time in a high, whining pitch.
I could see the curiosity burning in Chris’s eyes as she stared, fixated on Sky.
Sky took one sideways step down the stairs, as if drawn to the creature, then hesitated. Her fingers were splayed at her side, twitching as she seemed to struggle.
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