I waited to get out of the car after Knight was out and near my door. There were so many people here. I hated how scared I was. When I stepped out onto the trodden grass, Knight reached for me the same moment I brought a hand up to clutch his arm.
“We'll leave soon,” he promised, rubbing my shoulder. I tried to focus only on the smell of the barbecued meat. It was mouthwatering.
Jesse's trailer was at the head of the area. It was decorated with Halloween decorations and a large red flag with a paw print on it. His mate sat on the small wooden front porch snapping green beans. I could sense him inside the trailer.
“Hey Toni,” Knight said to the Alpha female. “Jesse here?” I whispered, “He's inside” at the exact moment she said it out loud.
Jesse came out, hearing us, and smiled a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. “Knight.” He glanced at me and the smile faded when he saw Knight's arm around me. “You're here for the car?” Knight nodded. “It’s waiting for you, but you don’t have to rush off. Stay for lunch.”
“We appreciate the offer, but we have to get going,” Knight told him. Jesse gestured to Toni, who understood his wordless cue and stood up and went inside to rummage through the fridge for something before she came back with a foil package. She tossed a small object to Knight and he caught it without looking. Car keys. She pitched the foil to me, but I flinched and cowered behind Knight, so he caught it and handed it to me. It smelled like brisket.
He threw her the keys to Excalibur and motioned to my tiny car. “You can keep it.” Considering she, and most of their pack, drove motorcycles, I wasn't sure if she'd like my little economy car. They’d probably sell it. Or Balthazar would steal it again.
“She okay?” Jesse asked, showing genuine concern for the way I was behaving. I was a powerful vampire and I was hiding behind a werewolf. I really had to get this under control. I took a deep breath and stepped away from Knight.
“I’m good,” I said. And I knew I would be. Eventually.
“Sorry you can't stay,” Jesse said. He meant it, but I could feel something off with him. Knight stiffened, feeling it too, and quickly said his farewells before leading me to the car they’d gotten for us. It was a teal convertible. Knight didn’t even pause before dumping our bags into it. As scared as I still was despite trying not to be, I was still able to turn my nose up at the color.
“Teal?” I commented when we'd driven away. “Couldn't have picked something nicer like seafoam?”
“He didn't consult a color expert, I guess,” Knight teased, but then he sobered, his fingers gripping the steering wheel firmly. “That was weird. He offered for us to stay but… I could sense he was just being polite about it.”
I wanted to mention that they probably didn't like seeing a werewolf holding hands with a vampire, but my eyes went to the glove compartment. Someone had added a little sticker of a vampire smiley face right next to the press handle. Why would Jesse put that there? Maybe it had been there when they bought it? I opened the compartment and found a letter on top of some maps.
It was addressed to me.
I shut the door quickly and leaned back against my seat before Knight could notice what I was doing. Instead, he poked the foil package in my lap.
“That smells good. They were nice to give it to us.”
“I made her do it. I reached inside and I said, brisket, woman!” He knew I couldn’t do that anymore, so I hoped he knew I was trying to be funny.
He snorted and poked me in the side. “Let me have some and I'll let it pass.”
“You are mistaken. She gave this to me. Not you. Find your own brisket.”
“Hey, I gave you my lifeblood. I am entitled. Now give.” He tried to swipe it from me, so we played keep away until I decided to open it before could he tear the foil and get brisket everywhere.
Twenty-four
I didn't read the letter until we'd checked into a hotel before nightfall and Knight went swimming. After checking him out for several breathtaking minutes, I paid close attention to his position in the courtyard with my now normal level of powers while I retrieved the envelope from the glove compartment. I opened it to find a letter written by Jesse.
Lisbeth,
Knight isn't safe. He stayed with my pack for a few days last month, and in that time, everyone could tell he was different. It caused a stir among us.
You must understand. He is the true form of our species, one of the Primal werewolves. They are dangerous and uncontrollable when the moon has them in her grasp, no matter what they are like during the day.
I know he is a good man since he has chosen to protect you. It didn’t matter what I said to them, a few in my pack were too afraid. They told others that a Primal werewolf has been found. I banished them from the pack, but the damage was done. The Lycan elders have dispatched packs to find Knight.
I don't know what they'll do to him if he's captured. I ask you to protect him like he has protected you. Make sure they don't find him. I have to believe he's not dangerous, as I hope you do too.
Jesse
I stared at the page for a long time, the words boring holes into me. Now Knight was being hunted too, and would most likely be executed if they caught him. I felt him get out of the pool, so I left the car and walked to where he stood, toweling himself off. I stared at the water drops that floated down the five pink scratches on his chest.
Drool pooled in my mouth and I wanted to taste those droplets.
“What's up?” he said when he saw me. “You look serious. And sexy.” I handed him the letter. I didn’t care if Jesse thought I should keep it secret. I wouldn’t hide anything from Knight. Not now. Not after all we’d been through. He took it, started reading, and slowly lowered himself to the nearest pool chair. He handed it back when he was finished, and sighed, his eyes staring at the concrete by his feet. “Why'd you let me read that? You could have just told me the gist of it.”
“Full disclosure,” I reminded him. But there was something else. He’d been rejected by his own kind so much, and Jesse had treated him with kindness. “And also, I didn't want you to think Jesse doesn't like you.”
His gaze softened when he looked up at me. “Thank you. That was kind.” He looked away and sighed. “So. Now I'm being hunted too. And not for breaking rules. Just for who I am. That's comforting.” He stood up and grabbed his towel. Wrapping it around his waist, he took hold of my neck and kissed me enough that I wanted to rip both our clothes off. “It's the full moon tonight,” he breathed against my lips. “I'm going into the forest until dawn. Stay here and wait, please?”
Begrudgingly, I agreed. He took his room key and a change of clothes in case his current outfit was ruined in the shift. After he left, I couldn't sleep. Between the nightmares about James, and the constant worry he’d somehow capture me and take me back to be his slave, I could only rest when I was too exhausted to keep my eyes open. I watched history specials until the only thing playing was infomercials. So I watched those too.
At almost 7 am, I was still awake when the hotel door opened and Knight stumbled in wearing the change of clothes he'd brought. He was favoring one leg and had a nasty red scratch on his collarbone. His breath came in ragged puffs. Without speaking, he walked over to the bed I was sitting on and collapsed next to me, and within seconds I heard snoring.
He slept past noon, so I had to renew our hotel reservation for another night, whether or not we would stay that long. I was munching some cereal I'd snagged at the free hotel breakfast, and watching something about King Tutankhamen when Knight finally stirred. He sat up, wiped his mouth, and stretched until his back and shoulders popped. His eyes looked like he had a hangover, but the mark on his collarbone was healed and his leg was fine when he stood up. Kissing me once, he went to the bathroom for a shower and came back in by the time I'd finished my cereal. I was trying not to stare at him, but he noticed me peeking glances.
“I know,” he said. “I look like shit. It happens. And I have a few more days
until it's over, so, you know, yay.” He fell into one of the chairs and leaned his head back. “Did you sleep?” I shook my head. I was tired, but I wasn’t to the point of collapsing yet.
“Do you remember anything when you're shifted?” I asked him.
He shrugged. “Bits and pieces. Mostly just the things I kill. I always kill something. For sport I guess. I don't eat it or anything. I just kill it.” He scrubbed a hand down his face. “I don't know if Jesse is right. I don't know if I'm good. Maybe there's a reason there's no one else like me. The Lycans obviously don't like a Primal werewolf existing. Maybe I am a goddamn monster.”
The bed creaked when I got up and I walked over to put my arm around his shoulders. “It's just fear. Fear makes us do stupid things. Take the Salem witch trials, for example.” I was trying to lighten the mood, but it didn't work. Knight stayed pensive and distant the whole day. He even made me drive the convertible, which made me a nervous wreck for the first hour.
When night rolled around, he left me at the truck stop I'd picked for us to sleep at. I had no intention of staying in the car waiting for dawn to arrive. I locked the car doors and hoped no one would bother it, before following Knight across the parking lot. He walked far into the forest until he reached a clearing that let in the light from the stars. He set the change of clothes on the ground and walked far away from them before he sat down to wait for the moon to rise.
It took over twenty minutes for the moon to reach its zenith and he was fine until the beams of ghostly light fell upon him. He didn't have time to remove his clothes before they were shredded when his body started growing. As before, his hands became claws, his face contorted into a snout, and every inch of his skin grew hair as his muscles grew. I was prepared for his scent turning acrid, but this time it wasn't quite as unpleasant as it had been the first time. The Primal werewolf, Knight, howled at the moon in a long mournful breath and sped off into the forest.
Following him was easy. I ran for the first time in months, and even though my powers were back to normal, I’d somehow retained a higher level of senses. I knew that there was a family of six rabbits asleep in a burrow five trees over. A herd of 23 deer half a mile to the right. Squirrels sleeping in trees, birds in their nests. Bats, owls, raccoons, mice.
The sounds and images were overwhelming me and I started having a panic attack. I stopped following Knight and rested for a minute. If I focused on him alone, I could make myself ignore everything else. I closed my eyes and found Knight running and jumping to grab tree branches so he could swing on them. That was weird. I focused, and everything except him fell away. I started running again.
I followed him for hours, always making sure to stay downwind so he wouldn’t catch my scent. Oddly enough, he was acting like a kid at the playground. He growled if any animal got too close to him, but he never hurt them. Was this really the werewolf who had sliced me open with one swipe?
Everything was going fine until we passed a river and a group of wild dogs came into scent range. Knight caught their smell and his elongated ears perked to the direction their scent was coming from. He growled but didn't charge in their direction. Instead, he turned to go the other way. It was too late. The dogs had caught the scent of a wolf in their territory. They growled, yipped, and barked, and then they came after him. The dogs were small in comparison, but they knew how pack rules went. He was alone. There was no pack to help him, and he had trespassed in their home.
They attacked.
I wanted to help him. If he hadn't attacked me the first time, I would have charged in and tore those dogs to pieces. But I had to watch from a distance. The Alpha, a large German shepherd, tore into Knight's leg, but his skin was too tough for the dog to break. That didn't stop the big dog from trying. The other dogs did the same, so Knight fought back. He swiped a hand at them and hit his marks. The ones he'd hit whimpered and staggered away. As focused as I was on him, I could tell he wasn't doing this for enjoyment or sport. He had attacked them back to protect himself. It was fucking magnificent to watch. He was beautiful and powerful.
Knight clawed the Alpha off his leg and the dog's body flopped to the ground where it stopped moving. Their Alpha dead, the other dogs ran away as quickly as they could. Knight heaved, whimpered, and put a clawed hand over his leg. It was slightly pink from the dog's teeth, but it wasn't bleeding. He jumped up and started running again. I lifted a leg to follow when something grabbed me from behind.
“Lisbeth,” said a voice from above my head. “I’m so glad I've finally found you.”
Fuck. Me.
It was Arthur.
I considered running. I really did. But I couldn’t. Knight was far enough ahead of us that Arthur with his limited senses hadn't seen or smelled him, I hoped, and if I ran, Knight might be seen. Even if I was caught, Knight would be safe as long as the Lycans didn't find him. That’s all that mattered to me, keeping Knight safe.
“You are one hard vampire to find, my lady,” Arthur observed, his hold on me very tight. He rummaged through a pocket for something, keeping a knife pressed to my spine. When he found what he was looking for – handcuffs – he slapped them on my wrists. They were made for vampires, so tugging on them did no good. He turned me around and clicked a padlock and chain onto the handcuffs, a chain that was connected to his belt also via padlock. I didn't put too much hope in finding the keys.
I looked up into his icy blue eyes and scowled at him. “And you’re one persistent fuck.”
“After you,” he said gallantly and gestured to the direction he wanted me to walk. I dutifully went, trying not to glance back at Knight. “Funny,” Arthur commented when we'd been walking for a few minutes. “After how hard you tried to evade me, I thought you'd give up a fight when I caught you.” 'When' he'd said. Not 'if'. He was nothing if not egotistical. Why had I ever thought he was attractive? Not that he could ever hold a candle to Knight. “And I never expected you to be just standing there either. Are you that short on blood that you couldn't sense me?”
Why did he care? He'd caught his quarry. Job well done. Maybe he liked gloating. Or maybe he didn't like catching his prize so easily. Either way, he was a buttmunching asswipe.
This fucker prattled the whole way back, and loudly. It wasn't typical for him. Back at the Order, the most words I’d ever heard him say was the conversation we’d had at the chessboard.
“Is there a reason you won't shut the fuck up?” I finally asked him.
“Never you mind,” was his response. Lovely.
We finally reached the abandoned building the Hunters were staying at, after a good thirty minutes of hiking. Arthur marched me through the old rusted doors, past two Hunters guarding them. A warehouse opened before me, and I was surrounded by Hunters. There had to be over two dozen of them, and each one as cold, ruthless, and slightly scary looking as Arthur was. My senses informed me of their exact number: 29, and how many weapons they all had: over 200 collectively.
That was a tad overkill. I mean, I was awesome, no doubt. But I was just a single vampire.
“Well damn,” I commented as Arthur put a hand to my back to shove me forward. “I wasn’t aware I was this dangerous. Maybe I should’ve gotten a tattoo to look scarier. Oww, fuck!” Arthur had shoved me again, hard, and tugged on the chain to stop me from falling, but it made the cuffs dig into my wrists.
“That’s enough, Arthur,” a clear stern voice said. I knew that voice. Olivier walked through the ranks as they parted for her. Her tight steampunk dreads perfectly match her leather Hunter garb, which included a leather bikini. She had seven weapons on her person, and I could only see four of them. Her face looked hard as she turned to me. She breathed in a heavy sigh, but other than that, she had no reaction. This wasn’t my best friend. This was Olivier the Hunter, and fuck was she hot. She looked back at Arthur. “We’ve got her. Now let’s go. The Council has convened in New York and we need to get her there as fast as possible.”
Arthur held up a hand. “Not just yet. I
have some extra business here. In the meantime, let’s lock her-“
Arthur was interrupted by a large crash as the warehouse doors burst open. It was Knight, still shifted, swinging his paws at the guards. His claws hit deeply and the guards fell. He turned to see the large group of Hunters surrounding him and roared in fearless challenge. The other Hunters sprang into action, unsheathing swords and cocking guns, and Arthur grabbed my arm so hard his long nails cut into me. I cried out, just slightly at the unexpected pain, and drew Knight’s attention to me. He charged through the Hunters, clawing and throwing until he reached me.
“Well,” Arthur started saying, no doubt about to monologue, the fucks. Knight brought his claws down to the chain that tied me to Arthur and it snapped in half, the force knocking me to the floor. With his other hand, he smacked Arthur so hard he went flying.
Knight stood over me in a protective stance, his teeth bared and with a loud growl, dared them to challenge him. He’d done massive damage to the other Hunters. Vampires didn’t heal quickly when a werewolf or Lycan was the attacker. I smelled blood everywhere. Knight looked down at me and I felt a twinge of fear that he would attack me as well. Instead, he gently reached down to hook my cuffs with a claw and huffed at Olivier in signal to unlock them. She grabbed the keys from Arthur, whose stupid face had a red slice from cheek to forehead from Knight’s claws. She freed me, giving my hand a slight squeeze as she did, and backed away.
I stood, and Knight knelt with his back to me. He motioned with a claw and grunted. Get on my back. I mounted his back, he grabbed my legs tightly, and we sprinted out of the warehouse.
Twenty-five
Knight ran and ran, his claws never slacking on their grip around my legs. I clutched his neck tightly, my face buried in his furry neck. He took us away from the car and our things. None of that mattered now. If the Hunters found him, they’d take him to the Lycans and he’d be killed. I couldn’t let that happen. I wouldn’t. I didn’t care what I had to do to keep him safe, nothing was more important to me than him staying alive.
Knight of the Hunted (NSFW Edition) (Born Vampire Book 1) Page 16