“Okay,” I said as I shook my head. “Fair enough.” I started to head up the paved rock path leading through the large front yard to the porch. “Is this a good number to call back with updates?”
“It is,” he said. “Have a blessed day.”
The line went dead before I could respond. A blessed day, my ass.
“Marcus?”
My bedroom door flung open before Aleksander burst through like a bat out of hell…or an incubus out of hell.
“What the fuck?” I yelled, jumping from the bed and backing against the furthest wall from the incubus. Since Faline’s capture, my patience with the incubi leader waned with each second. His behavior shifted from controlled leader to half-mad, love-sick energy manipulator. It wasn’t pretty or pleasant, and it pissed me off.
“Marcus! There you are!” he shouted, his eyes wide and crazed.
I almost called for Mason to come control his leader, but the boy was staying with the succubi in a separate house, and anyways, we had no prison cell to keep the irrational incubus in.
“Dude, get out,” I seethed, clenching my fists. I closed my eyes and tried to count to ten, taking a deep breath with each number. Marie had shown me how to do it the night Faline had been taken, the night I’d almost forced my dagger through Aleksander’s gut.
Aleksander backed into the hallway, but still spoke to me. “Rod is on his way. He just texted to say he’s coming.”
I ran my hand through my hair. “Why did he notify you and not me?”
Aleksander seemed to think clearly for half a second. He stilled and met my eyes. In a mischievous tone he answered, “It is not my news to tell.”
Eighteen
“Good evening, Faline,” John, the leader of the previous Washington State Hunter complex said as he walked into my room escorted by two Hunters.
I’d spent the afternoon running my fingers over my numbered tattoo, only noticing the fresh traces of red when I studied it hard enough in the natural light of the window. I’d been so preoccupied with my dagger wound that I hadn’t noticed the faint new lines on my thigh.
The Hunter on John’s right carried what looked like an old-fashioned leather doctor’s supply bag. He placed the bag on the empty dresser and unzipped it from the top. He wore his light brown hair high and tight, like most of the other Hunters I’d seen. I watched him carefully as John continued drabbling on as though I were a guest in his home and not a prisoner.
“Any headaches since you woke this morning? Any nausea or upset stomach?” John asked.
His question surprised me enough to make him my new focus. I tilted my head.
He behaved as though the last month of fighting had never happened. As though I were attending a check-in and he was still pretending to the be the nice guy we huldra could go to for whatever reason.
“Oh,” he gave a short laugh. “The medication we gave you should have worn off by now. If it hasn’t, we need to know. So, any headaches or nausea to report?”
Out of reflex to his question, I shook my head, and then immediately scolded myself for giving him any information at all. How I felt was none of his damn business. Clearly, he didn’t care if he was going to hole me up in a tiny room against my will.
“Perfect,” he said with a gleam in his eyes.
He turned and nodded to the Hunter with the medical bag. The Hunter pulled a syringe from the bag and I crab-crawled on my bed backwards to the headboard. My slowly healing stab wound in my abs made itself known in a nasty way.
“Now, now,” John said, his friendly voice returning but with an edge to it. “Don’t make this harder on yourself. Don’t make me call Clarisse in with the shawl I know you love so much.”
“What’s that for?” I said, motioning with my chin to the syringe.
John put his hands out like he was leveling with me. “How about this? If I tell you what we’re doing, you’ll sit still and be a good girl. How about that?”
I considered my lack of options. I either got poked with Hunters holding me down and a bloodstone shawl draped across my body, or I got poked without Hunters holding me down and a bloodstone shawl draped across my body, along with an explanation.
I relaxed my body and un-plastered myself from the headboard.
“Good, good,” John said, interpreting my body language correctly.
He waved away the Hunter with the syringe and sat beside me on the bed. I wanted to shove him off but controlled my urge. “You have been our target from the very beginning of all this,” he started. “At least this round. You see, we’re trying to help your kind, trying to unite our two species into a master species, but you all fight us at every turn.”
“Stealing us away against our will, holding us in captivity, and forcing us to create a race that you’ll brainwash into conquering us is an odd way to unite our two kinds,” I critiqued.
John’s smile dropped. “There’s something about mixing the DNA of leaders that has proven successful.”
“Huldra have no leader,” I corrected. “I thought you were a specialist of my kind.”
John gave a harsh laugh. “No, you don’t have a leader, that much is true. This is why we had to create a leader, why we had to force one of you into that role.”
I couldn’t help but let my expression give away my whirling thoughts. It made so much sense. The Hunters triggered the release of my inner huldra because they knew it’d put me in an impossible position: either be found out and jailed at the next monthly check-in, or stand up and fight back. If I stood up and fought back, I’d be the leader of a revolution, a revolution Marcus had told me our first night in the motel room the Hunters believed had been prophesized hundreds of years ago.
I thought back to Marcus’s words that night.
“The old monks,” he’d said, “who went rogue from the church to raise and train the first Hunters, told a story that a Wild Woman would rise up from her station and challenge the Hunters. If they were weak and allowed her to win, they’d cause the demise of not only Hunters, but of all civilization. If they gave her a deserved bloody death, they’d squelch future uprisings and secure their future as masters over all.”
They were forcing the prophesy to play out, forcing a Wild Woman to challenge them and at the same time, become the ultimate leader of the American Wilds and therefore a secure mother for their master race.
“If your focus was me, why did you take other Wild Women?” I asked.
“Simple,” he answered with a shrug. “To weaken the ranks and test out our newest methods before using them on you.”
My stomach turned and I swallowed the lump in my throat.
Another, more disturbing realization settled in. I studied my enemy as he sat on the same bed as me, his grey hair cut high and tight like a true military man. “You’re building a master race to take back control of Wild Women from all over the world.”
John’s lips curved into an evil smile. “Your time with our traitor has increased your wisdom. We Hunters have that effect on females of all species, I suspect.”
I refrained from punching the asshat in his sour face. I wished I could grow branches through his lungs and watch him choke on his own blood. Soon. Very soon.
John nodded to the Hunter waiting at the dresser, the syringe still in hand. He accepted the signal and walked toward the bed where I sat.
“So,” John went on. “Now that I completed my end of the deal, explained to you how well you’ve managed to fit into our plan to rule over each and every one of your kind for the foreseeable future, it’s your turn to allow us to take a sample of your blood.”
I sat still while the Hunter hastily shoved the needled into my left arm and drew enough blood to fill the vial. He walked my blood back to where he had left the bag and placed it in a small insulated box, then zipped the bag up and waited beside the door.
John stood and opened the door, allowing the two Hunters to go through before himself. Standing outside the open door, he turned to me. “Once the test re
sults reveal that the medications have been cleared from your system, we’ll be back to begin the process of invitro fertilization. The male’s specimen is ready and waiting.” He winked like he’d just let me in on a secret. “We’ve learned the uselessness of trying to impregnate a medicated huldra, thanks to your sister.”
I couldn’t hold myself back any longer. I lunged from the bed. He slammed the door shut right before I reached my hand out to wrap my fingers around his neck and choke the life out of him.
Nineteen
After a tense drive, locked in a vehicle with my current least favorite incubus, I stepped from the blue truck Aleksander had rented with a fake ID and surveyed the woods around me. According to the ex-Hunters we’d scheduled to meet, about a half a mile into the forest we should find a clearing where they’d be waiting.
Aleksander’s stillness caught my attention from the corner of my eye and I turned to watch him. He stood from the truck’s bucket seat, eyes closed, hands out. His lids fluttered open and I gave him a questioning look. The incubus read energy, not minds. My time with him had taught me the power of energy, that energy couldn’t lie in the same way a mind or mouth could lie. The body held onto truths, new and old, whereas the mind had the ability to bury those things it didn’t find useful.
“Yes,” Aleksander said on an exhale. “They’re out there, waiting.”
“And?” I urged him to continue. Knowing they’d held up to part of their bargain was helpful, but that other part of the bargain was what concerned me. Where they here as allies or enemies?
“They mean well,” Aleksander commented as he began walking forward, lifting his loafers high enough from the ground to keep them semi-clean. I’d warned him to wear boots, but the old incubus refused to “sully himself.” His words, not mine. “Rod is among them, as is another incubus.”
I narrowed my eyes and started walking to catch up to him. “What do you mean another incubus? Is this something you agreed to ahead of time? I thought they had to pass everything by you.”
Aleksander shot me a side-glance before looking forward again. “Yes, they passed it by me already.”
Goddamn this incubus. I’d been able to handle him with Faline nearby. His affections for her grated on my nerves, but I respected him as a fellow supernatural and I knew he disliked the idea of his mate bond connecting to a huldra almost as much as I hated his affections for her. I’d be kidding myself if I said joining his brotherhood wasn’t more than a little tempting, just to get him to back off her. But without Faline to keep the energy-manipulator in check, the guy behaved like a lovesick teenager—one whose personal logic had a hard time connecting with reality.
I exhaled long and loud to release just a portion of my irritation before speaking to him. “And why is this thing they’ve already passed by you something you’ve failed to tell me?”
Earlier the Hunter had texted Aleksander rather than me and now he was passing information by the incubi leader as though Rod needed Aleksander’s permission? My girlfriend was being detained by my own kind, which was why I gathered the rogues together to meet with me—to incorporate them in the Wild Women’s plan. When my own brothers, my own rogues, answered to the incubus and kept me out of the loop, it made me want to impale things…or beings…with my new-to-me dagger.
“I would have told you, but out of respect for Rod’s wishes, I have chosen to refrain,” Aleksander answered, skirting around a muddy patch by choosing a path of dead pine needles. So he chose now to behave dignified and use his brain.
I sloshed through the mud, splattering wet earth onto my pants legs.
I grumbled and grit my teeth.
One positive thing about all of this was Aleksander had stopped hanging around the house so much without Faline’s presence calling him to be near. He’d taken to staying at a nearby motel, the one the harpies occupied, said it enabled him to rest better. I moved around a fern, not to keep from getting dirty, but to keep from crushing the bright green living thing. When I got Faline back…and I would get her back…we’d need to come up with some way of dealing with Aleksander. Neither she nor I accepted Aleksander’s claim to her as his mate, and after this little stunt, I didn’t know if I could spend another hour with this man hanging around once she returned.
Thoughts of our reunion was what kept me going. Not the actual retrieval of my huldra woman, but the hours and days afterwards. Holding her in my arms, caressing her hair, taking in her sweet scent, kissing her lips, her shoulders, and beyond. More of me than my lips and arms yearned for Faline. I slowed my gait to readjust my pants and my thoughts.
If everything went as planned, we’d be Hunter establishment-free very shortly and while I knew we couldn’t go back to life as usual, I had hope in the new life we would create for ourselves.
“They are past this line of trees,” Aleksander said, pausing to wait for me.
I gave a nod and walked by him, intent on approaching my brothers first.
The clearing lay before me, a circle of field grass, wet and muddy from the autumn weather. Evergreens surrounded us, tall and mighty, while other types of trees stood barren, asleep for the coming months.
Seven men stood before me, two holding hands, and the others spread out, standing at attention. None wore the black cargos and shirts of the brotherhood. A few had begun to grow facial hair, their chins and upper lips scruffy with early signs of beards and mustaches. All but one wore daggers at their waists. I imagined they’d been given those daggers when they’d reached their teen years. Before that, as little boys, Hunters carry around wooden daggers to practice with and get used to.
“Thank you for coming,” I said, spreading my hands wide and making sure to create a visual connection with each man in attendance. “You’ve made the right decision, done the right thing.” I motioned to Aleksander. “Now, if you’ll just give Aleksander here a few moments to assess the loyalty among you, once he’s done we can begin.”
Aleksander nodded his head and went to work absorbing the energy of each individual man, a decision we’d discussed on the way over as an extra precaution. I needed to make sure these men were true rogues before I offered them any intel on the Wild Women or our strategies.
“They’re clear,” he muttered with a quick glace toward me. “And we are the only ones within earshot.”
I thanked him and addressed the men, loud and clear. “I had wanted to jump right in on battle strategy and the sharing of helpful information.” My words held a little more irritability than I’d wanted to show. “But I’m told one of you has an announcement to make and that I’m apparently the last to know.”
“Yes.” Rod stood taller and released the hand of the man beside him, a blond incubus. His perfectly slicked hair had grown longer, more tussled since we fought together in Oregon. Hints of silver shone through the black on his temples. “I do have an announcement to make. I wanted to tell you, Marcus, but the truth had to flow through the proper channels before it reached you.”
I held back my retort.
“And as such,” Rod continued, “I am glad to finally share the news. You are not looking at six rogue Hunters and one incubus, as you may have thought. You are looking at six rogue Hunters and two incubi.”
I sighed. “You were changed, then.”
“I was,” Rod answered, proudly. “The process is much less involved for gay men than it is for straight men.”
The incubus beside him chuckled and the two shared a look. They clutched hands again. “Edward here is my mate, and I am his. Our bond has been sealed and I am now in the incubi brotherhood under Aleksander.”
Aleksander pressed his palms together in a prayer pose and gave a nod, smiling. “And we are most happy to have you.”
For the life of me I couldn’t figure out why Rod felt he needed to keep such a thing from me. Did he assume I’d be upset?
“Congratulations,” I said with sincerity. “Will there be a wedding when this is all over? A reason to celebrate?”
Rod looked to Edward and the two smiled.
“Incubi don’t usually marry,” Edward said, his voice happy and in good spirits—a feeling I missed right along with Faline.
“We also don’t usually participate in the wars of others,” Rod joked.
“True, true,” Edward agreed. “But let’s not take up any more of the group’s time with our talk of romantic endeavors.” The incubus gave me a nod and I returned one to him.
“All right,” I started. “One other incubus, Mason, will be joining us in the fight, besides the three you see here today. Outside of that, it’ll be us and the Wild Women joining forces. I recently spoke with another rogue Hunter, one who hasn’t left the complex life yet, and he wasn’t so sure his comrades would be willing to do this. Before I continue, I need to see a show of hands. Who all here is willing to fight alongside Wild Women?”
Every hand went up. I didn’t think my expression changed or my body language, but Rod answered my unasked question. “The rogues have factions, as I’m sure you know,” he said to me. “This faction doesn’t have much to do with the larger group of rogues.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Because we’re all gay,” another Hunter answered. “The other rogues would probably dislike fighting beside us almost as much as they dislike the idea of fighting beside the Wild Women.”
I rubbed the back of my neck. I’d only re-joined the Hunters for a short while before Faline and the other American Wild Women overtook the Washington complex. Before that, it’d been years since I’d stepped foot in a complex, years since I’d surrounded myself with the Hunter ways and beliefs. Within every large group lived divisions, but to divide over such a thing as personal preference made no sense. It only weakened a group, which was probably the opposite of the intentions of those determining the divide.
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