Wild Hunt

by Bilinda Sheehan

  Relearn? What the hell did that mean; why would I need to relearn anything?

  Frustration had me screaming inside my head and my arm twitched again, this time lifting off the bed a fraction of an inch. The jangle of handcuffs met my ears and I became aware of the bracelets wrapped around my wrists. They’d restrained me.

  Shit.

  Graham came into view and I felt his hand on mine, but it felt distant, as though he were touching me through cotton wool.

  The demon had taken over, pushing me out of the driving seat, so to speak. The thing I needed to relearn was how to control my own body….

  “Focus, Amber, focus on the touch of my hand on yours,” Graham said as I let my eyes drift shut once more.

  Forcing the focus wasn’t going to work, so I imagined travelling down the length of my own arm to where Graham’s hand held mine. The moment I reached the spot, the press of his skin against mine became stronger and I sucked in a deep breath. Letting it out slowly, I imagined curling my fingers around his.

  My fingers twitched and something gave way within me like a rubber band snapping back to its original size. Opening my eyes, I lifted my arm, Graham’s hand clenched in my own.

  “Why am I handcuffed?” I asked, my voice hoarse. I sounded like I’d taken up smoking as an Olympic sport, but I knew that wasn’t true.

  The second everything snapped back to the way it should have been, the pain intensified. Whatever battle had raged inside me had more than taken a physical toll on my body; I felt raw and bruised and I could only hope that I didn’t look as bad as I felt.

  “The demon possessed you and, from what we could make out, pushed the Fae back out of your head,” Graham said, his voice guarded.

  “And?” I asked, but he didn’t answer me. “Graham, what else did I do?”

  “You broke my arm.” Jason’s voice cut the silence and I glanced up at him. One side of his face was a mottled array of bruising, his right arm pinned up against his chest in a navy sling.

  “I broke your arm?” I asked, suddenly not believing the words leaving my mouth.

  How was that even possible? I’d seen Jason’s power, seen just how strong he was. To think I would be capable of overpowering him seemed utterly ridiculous.

  “I was lucky that was all you managed to do. You also tried to impale me on the broom handle you had….” He trailed off.

  “Why would I do all of this?”

  “Because it wasn’t you,” Graham piped up. “Jason subdued the demon with a little help from Nic, who distracted you,” he said.

  I turned my head and glanced over at Nic, but aside from the faint beginnings of a black eye, he seemed utterly untouched. “How did I not hurt you?” I asked.

  He shook his head and smiled, leaning over me to press his lips to my forehead. “Because even your demon understands I’m too handsome to kill,” he said with a grin.

  “So why am I handcuffed if the demon was subdued back at Elite?”

  “Because when we brought you in here, you were fitting. We didn’t know if you’d wake up yourself or if the demon would come back…. Restraints seemed like the best option,” Graham said, slowly undoing the handcuffs that held me pinned to the bed.

  Once my hands were free, I dragged my bruised body upright and did a quick assessment from head to toe. There didn’t seem to be anything broken, just bruised, and really, from what I could tell, the worst of the bruising seemed to be inside where the real battle had been fought.

  “I’m sorry,” I said to Jason, indicating his broken arm. “It really wasn’t intentional.”

  He shook his head and smiled. “I know, and usually I’d be advocating to get rid of the mark as quickly as possible, especially as it acts as a doorway for the demon. But in this case, it came in quite handy…” he said.

  It had come in handy; without the demon mark, I’d have been nothing more than the Fae’s mindless slave by now. But I also didn’t like the fact that the demon could gain access to me, take control the way he had. It felt a little too much like going from the frying pan into the fire.

  “Any idea why he’s so interested in you?” Jason asked, and my shoulders stiffened.

  “Nope. For some reason, he’s fascinated by me…” I said.

  “It’s probably because she was the one who walked the first crime scene,” Graham volunteered. “She was the first contact the Fae had; he tried to take her over then and couldn’t, so Amber became a challenge….”

  It was so utterly plausible that I couldn’t help but feel stupid for not thinking of it myself. It would have been a much easier answer to give and I watched as Jason nodded thoughtfully.

  “Yeah, I think we all know what the Fae are like with their obsessions,” Jason said.

  Nic gripped the side of the bed, his knuckles white beneath the pressure he was exerting, and I half expected the bed rail to snap any second.

  “Nic, any chance I can have a word with you?” Jason asked, and the tension started to ratchet up.

  Without a word, Nic turned and stalked from the room and Jason followed.

  “What happened between those two while I was out for the count?” I asked, turning toward Graham.

  “Jason couldn’t exactly be gentle with you in order to push the demon out and Nic didn’t agree with his methods…” Graham said, giving me the sanitised version of the story.

  Obviously, there was a hell of a lot more to it than that.

  “Did I give Nic the black eye or did Jason?”

  Graham smiled and shook his head. “Does it matter who did what to whom? As long as you’re back and feeling like yourself, well, that’s all that counts.”

  I smiled at him, but what he said wasn’t really true. The last thing I wanted was to be the wedge that caused the gap between Nic and Jason to get wider. They were brothers and they needed each other, in their own peculiar ways. The fact that neither of them would ever admit to this, well, that was just another one of their bone-headed moves that I would have to figure out a way to work around.

  “You don’t mind if I catch some sleep, do you? As ridiculous as it sounds, I feel kind of beat.”

  Graham nodded. “I’ll be right here if you need me,” he said.

  Leaning back against the pillow, I couldn’t help but smile. We might have gotten off to a rocky start, but Graham was rapidly becoming one of the most important people in my life. Without him, I wasn’t sure I could have gotten through half the things I had. And I was certain that without him on my side, my secret wouldn’t still be a secret.

  Chapter 18

  When I woke, the room was dark once more, and I searched the table next to the bed for anything that could tell me what time it was. Finding nothing, I swung my legs out over the edge of the bed and paused as my head spun.

  It seemed like way too much time had passed since I’d last eaten and as though on cue my stomach told me, loudly, how truly pissed off it was at me for keeping it so empty. Pushing myself off the bed, I stood, my legs a little unsteady beneath me. I didn’t care. At least they were my legs and at least I hadn’t woken up completely paralysed like I had the last time.

  That was a feeling I never wanted to experience ever again if I could avoid it. No, scratch that—I needed to make sure it never happened again.

  Making my way to the door, I peered out into the quiet, sterile hall.

  “Where are you off to?” Nic’s groggy voice called to me and I jumped. My entire body protested at the sudden and violent movement and I cringed as I gripped the doorframe.

  “I was going in search of food,” I said, turning to face him once more.

  He sat up in the chair he’d been sleeping in and scrubbed his hands over his face and into his hair. It stood on end and he grinned at me with a wide, boyish smile that had my heart melting.

  “Food, God, that sounds good…” he said, pushing up onto his feet.

  “I can’t imagine there’s much here though,” I said, glancing back out at the empty corridor.


  “Give me a few minutes. The nurses have been desperately trying to feed me all day. They’ll only be too happy to know I’m willing to take them up on their offers,” he said, his smile curving wickedly.

  I had a feeling that even if they didn’t want to feed him, he’d still find a way to come back with food.

  “Hop back into bed, I’ll be back in a few,” he said, and headed for the door.

  As he passed me, I touched his hand, and he froze as though I’d done so much more than barely brushed my fingers against his skin. Glancing down at the place where my hand touched his, his gaze travelled up and met mine.

  “Thanks, Nic,” I said, my words woefully inadequate for how I really felt. It was all so complicated and I was still pretty freaked out by the thought that perhaps he only felt as strongly about me as he did because he was supposed to be a Saga Venatione just like Jason.

  “You don’t have anything to thank me for. Jason did all the heavy lifting,” he said. The bitterness in his voice made my stomach hurt.

  “No, I don’t mean that, I….” I trailed off. How was I supposed to explain something to him that I didn’t fully understand myself?

  I didn’t want to hurt him, but if I was honest, I was tired of hurting myself. I liked him, liked him a lot, and I wanted him to know…. This constantly dancing around the truth, avoiding one another because we were both afraid of things we had no way of knowing were true or not—well, it was beginning to seem more stupid by the second.

  “It’s all right, Amber, you don’t need to explain it,” he said.

  The tone of his voice and the way he dropped his gaze to the floor told me I really did need to explain it. He was so determined to believe that I was just going to fall in love with his brother because of some stupid spell….

  How could I fall for someone else when I’d already fallen for him?

  “I’ll be back in a few minutes and….” I cut him off, crushing my body to the front of his as my mouth sought his.

  The second my lips tasted his, Nic’s arms locked around my body tight enough that breathing became difficult. But who needed breath when I had him?

  Biting down on his lip, I groaned as he deepened the kiss, his hands sliding to my ass as he lifted me back against the door. I wanted him like I’d never wanted anything else in this world. All of my worry and panic suddenly melted away and there was only him and me.

  What did it matter if we’d fallen for each other because of some stupid spell? I had him in my arms, his lips against mine, hard body crushing into me. There was more I wanted, more I needed, but some small part of me whispered that up against a hospital door was really not the most romantic place on Earth to do it.

  Giggling, I planted my hands against his shoulders and pushed gently. Breaking the kiss, he leaned into me, breathing heavily against my neck as he sought to compose himself.

  “I don’t want to stop, but we can’t … not here,” I said, whispering into his ear and feeling more and more like a naughty schoolchild.

  Nic nodded and slowly lowered me to the ground once more. The moment his eyes met mine, I felt my knees threaten to give way. There was a promise in them; a promise of darkness, of all the things he would do to me once he had me alone, and it sent my stomach flip-flopping.

  He wanted me just as much I wanted him. That thought alone was enough to make the world lighter and brighter. After all the darkness I’d seen, experienced, after all the things I’d done and everything Nic knew I was capable of, he still wanted me, still desired me. It was a heady experience and one that threatened to leave me breathless and without any inhibitions if he didn’t back up and let me compose myself once more. The way I felt right now, it would be all too easy to close the door to my room and take him back to the hospital bed….

  Pressing my hands a little more firmly to his chest, I pushed him back until there was at least one arm length between us.

  “Food, before I….”

  Nic grinned at me and nodded. “Yeah, the hospital isn’t really what I had in mind either.”

  Laughing, I shoved him gently and he stepped out through the door and into the hall. Turning back to the room, I made my way back to the bed and grabbed the bag of clothes left on the chair. Either Nic or Graham had picked up the clean clothes I’d left in the locker of the Elite and I scrambled into them, quickly discarding the patterned hospital gown.

  At least with my clothes on I felt a little more in control and not as though I was about to jump Nic the second he walked back into the room. There would be plenty of time for that.

  I sat perched on the edge of the bed, and when he reappeared a few seconds later, he was carrying a large tray with an assortment of food. The smell of fresh toast hit my senses and had me reeling like I was drunk.

  He hopped up onto the end of the bed and laid the tray between us. Jell-O, fruit cups, warm buttered toast, and one lone packaged ham sandwich.

  “Everything you could possibly want,” he said triumphantly. “Fruit, carbs, protein.” He waved the ham sandwich under my nose. “And for dessert,” he said, pulling something from the inside of his jacket, “chocolate!”

  He dumped his haul of chocolate bars onto the tray and I grinned at him.

  “You know, they reckon the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, but I’m not entirely convinced that just applies to men. As far as I’m concerned right now, you’re a veritable god amongst men.”

  He took an awkward bow and then pushed the plate of toast toward me. “Eat. I know certain freaky-deeky shit, like the stunt you pulled with the demon and the magic eats at your physical strength. You need to replenish…. I need you in tip-top physical condition when I get you home,” he said without a hint of sarcasm.

  Heat spread up through my cheeks and into my face. I felt it reach my roots and I ducked my gaze to the tray in front of me, my mouth beginning to water. “Who told you about the metaphysical toll?” I asked around a mouthful of the buttered toast.

  “You’re not the only one with dark secrets,” he said with a small smile as he scooped up one of the Jell-O pots and popped the lid. “Jason told me. I watched him devour twelve half-pounders and the same amount of fries and milkshakes after putting your demon back in its box,” he said, slurping a green lump of Jell-O into his mouth.

  “Twelve?” I asked incredulously.

  “Yup, grossest thing I’ve ever witnessed…. If I even attempted half that amount, I’d have been in the bed next to you getting my stomach pumped out,” Nic said, wrinkling his nose up. “Wait, you don’t need twelve half-pounders too, do you?” he said, suddenly sitting up a little straighter and eyeing the tray critically.

  “Nope, this will be fine,” I said, finishing the last of the toast and ripping into the sandwich packet. Despite being pre-packaged and from a hospital, the sandwich at least tasted nice and the bread was still fresh.

  “Okay, ’cos I’m not sure where I’d get you twelve at this time of night.”

  I grinned and shook my head. “Nope, once I finish this, we can get out of here,” I said.

  “Whoa, no one said anything about a jail break. I’m here to specifically stop you from doing that.”

  “And unless you want me to wait for you to go back to sleep and then sneak away, you’ll help me get out of here,” I said firmly, swallowing the last of the sandwich. I was beginning to fill up; bread had a tendency to make me full pretty fast, but I had no intention of leaving the chocolate neglected without at least giving it a good crack first.

  “Fine,” he said with a long suffering sigh, “but only so I know you’re safe. Who knows what you’ll get into if I don’t?”

  Smiling, I popped the first piece of chocolate into my mouth. Having him with me would make what I needed to do far easier. There was no way Madeline was going to let me into Sanctuary without him.

  Chapter 19

  “I can’t believe this is what you needed to break out of the hospital for,” Nic said grumpily as he parked his motorcycl
e.

  “I need to know who this Fae really is, and if anyone is going to have the answers, it’ll be Madeline.”

  “Why couldn’t you have asked the banshee?”

  “Because I haven’t seen her since we found that other crime scene, and I have a feeling she won’t be exactly forthcoming on any information I might need.”

  “But Madeline will?” Nic asked, and I could hear the scepticism in his voice.

  “Madeline is desperate to get back at those who hurt her; she’ll probably see this as the opportunity it is,” I said, searching the wall for the perfect place.

  “Here,” Nic said, drawing a small pocket knife out and running it down over his hand.

  “No, wait….” I trailed off as the blood welled up in the cut and he slammed his hand into the wall.

  Nothing happened and it was then I noticed the silence surrounding us. Nothing moved; not the rats beneath the garbage at the end of the alley, or the traffic that just moments before had zipped up and down on the road a couple of feet from where we stood.

  The air popped and shimmered, a wide black door appearing where just seconds before there had been nothing but ageing red bricks.

  “How did you do that?” I asked.

  Grinning over his shoulder at me, Nic pushed open the double doors and stepped into the darkness beyond. “Just one of the perks of being a Hunter. I told you before that I do some of my best business in this place.”

  He’d told me that the first time we’d ever met, back before I’d even known his name, before he’d kissed me. Following him inside, I made my way down the long, winding staircase, the gloom gradually dissipating into the warm red glow of the reception area of Sanctuary.

  “Name, please,” the bored Hell spawn called Flora said, her eyes focused on the fashion magazine spread out before her. I remembered her from the first time I’d come here and the battle we’d had that had almost cost me my life. Glancing down at my wrist, I could still see the faint pin-prick marks where her claws had dug into my wrist as she’d tried to make me sign the book.