Hunted by the Alien Vampire: An Alien Abduction Romance (The Hunt Book 4)

by A. M. Griffin

  “Someone’s coming,” she whispered. She took the bottle from Lexi and dropped it in the diaper bag. She then looped the bag around her shoulder and plucked Lexi from Adam’s arms.

  She stood and pulled Adam to his feet. After she secured Lexi in her sling, Miranda made eye contact with Adam and put a finger of her lips. He nodded his understanding. She tiptoed toward her hole and pulled Adam along. The grip she had on his arm was probably painful but loosening it wasn’t an option. She didn’t know what she’d do if they got separated.

  When she made it to her trap, she took a big step over the leaves. “Jump,” she whispered to Adam.

  “Mine!”

  She startled at the roar from behind them and whipped around. Her eyes settled on an alien unlike anything she’d ever seen before. It was large and imposing with dark brown skin. Lighter shades of tan ran along its torso and upper thighs. Muscles were coiled and on display. It didn’t wear any clothes. Where a penis would be on a human at the groin area, there was a smooth plate.

  “I claim you!” it continued in a menacing growl.

  Her eyes snapped to the hunter’s face. Its mouth was a small slit and right above that were two dark holes. Smooth plates covered where she thought his eyes should’ve been.

  “Stay,” it called out.

  “Jump,” she whispered again to Adam.

  Adam didn’t move. His frantic gaze was stuck on the alien. The hunter advanced on long, powerful legs. Its feet slammed against the ground making a thumping sound as he walked.

  “Adam! Now!”

  Adam blinked his stupor away then leaped as she pulled him, helping his momentum to clear the trap. There was no way they could outrun this thing. His stride was longer than hers. She backed away, keeping Adam behind her.

  She could call a pod. But what if it took her straight to another hunter?

  The alien advanced. Indecision filled her core. She wanted to get away, but she also didn’t want to be hand-delivered to another hunter with no way of escaping. Min had to fight her hunter when it had happened to her. Miranda didn’t think she would win if placed in the same situation.

  “Stay away from us,” she warned in a shaky voice.

  He stepped closer.

  Wait. Be smart. If the trap doesn’t slow him down, I’ll call a pod.

  She willed herself not to look at the trap and continued backward, putting more distance between them. If he cleared it, she would only have seconds to call for a pod.

  The alien’s foot hovered over the leaves, then came down. His foot lost purchase and he snapped his head back, releasing an angry roar. He tried to right himself but lacked balance and fell to the side. A sickening gurgle followed. Then silence.

  “What happened to him?” Adam whispered.

  “Shh. Follow me.”

  Miranda tip-toed toward the hunter. She smelled it before she saw it. Blood. Although the hunter was an alien, his blood had the distinct metal smell a human would have. One more step forward confirmed it. The alien was on his side. Blue liquid seeped from his body, dripping over the sticks. The sticks would’ve been inconvenient for a human, something that might’ve slowed them down, but to penetrate the skin like this? His had to be paper-thin, and his muscles not much better.

  “He’s dead. Why did you kill him?” Adam’s voice was higher than usual. “We shouldn’t hurt people. Now he can’t go home to his family tonight.”

  Oh, my God! What have I done?

  She whipped around and dropped to crouch in front of Adam, forgetting about the dead alien. “Oh, no, honey. This isn’t a real person in a costume, like the hunters that work for the campground. This is a special robot that they use to help out.” She had to remove the guilty feeling bubbling in her gut. She’d killed someone. I had to.

  She pointed toward the alien. “It doesn’t even have real blood. It’s just a machine. When this is over, the people who run this campground will come to get their equipment and fix it.” She forced herself to smile. “See? It’s all part of the game.”

  Adam watched the alien warily. “It’s not real people? Are you sure?”

  She would be lucky if he didn’t come out of this scarred for life.

  But he would come out of it. The thought was made with such conviction she believed it herself. She used a free hand to ruffle his hair. “You betcha. I only paid for the basic package, but your dad paid for all the extras. He wanted to give you the best adventure package ever. So realistic.”

  She hated using Lucas in her lie, but if Adam thought his dad had a part in their adventure, he would go along without so much as a question. To get them through The Hunt and back home, she needed Adam on board with everything she did, including killing an alien. When they got home, she would pay for therapy. Hell, she would get two or three jobs to pay for twice a week therapy for both of them. They would surely need it after this.

  He pulled his gaze from the dead alien and gave her a half-smile. “I can’t wait to tell Grams and Grandad about our adventure. They’ll finally stop talking bad about dad.”

  Would she ever see her parents again? She’d been so focused on surviving that she hadn’t let herself think about it. They were probably worried sick. Even Lucas would be worried when she didn’t answer the phone for his weekly call.

  Miranda suppressed the choke in her throat and smiled brighter to hide her hurt. “Yeah, sure.”

  Her parents hated Lucas with a passion. They’d blamed him for leading her on. They’d blamed him for getting her pregnant, twice. They’d even blamed him for her losing her job at the finance company.

  Lucas was only partly to blame for one of those. She’d been more than a willing participant in their affair and hadn’t done much in the way of birth control. To her parents, as their only child, she could do no wrong.

  Yes, she’d been upset with Lucas when he’d told her that he didn’t have plans to leave his wife. She’d gotten angry when he’d offered her money to “get rid of the baby.” But the meltdown in the middle of the workday and going bat-shit crazy on everything in his office? That was all her. She’d been fired instantly without severance or a back-up plan.

  Adam pointed behind her. “So how are we going to take down the other robot, or is that one a hunter?”

  Miranda turned slowly to where he pointed. Another hunter stood across the small clearing. This one was dressed in a black outfit that clung to his body. His arms were uncovered, revealing muscles under pale blue skin. He wasn’t as big as the dead alien. His height and build resembled any regular human man in good physical shape and lifted weights in their spare time.

  While everything below his neck was human-like, his face screamed alien. It was diamond-shaped instead of oval, and he had deep V-shaped ridges on his forehead between his eyes. Hoops hung off a chin that didn’t have any roundness to it. His ears protruded from the sides of his head, and also held hooped rings. The sharpness of his chin and ears made his cheekbones high and severe.

  Rings seemed to be the theme of this one because through his flat nose was a septum ring. The hunter’s coal-black eyes, while wide and deep-set, matched his face and made it appealing. He had shaved his head on the sides and the back. His white hair was high in a ponytail, and the length of it still hung past his shoulder. His appearance was strange but oddly handsome.

  He smiled, parting his full lips, revealing a mouth full of canines. Miranda stood slowly. Alarm bells bounced around her head, drowning out all thought.

  He pointed a hand, indicating the dead hunter. “He wasn’t smart, was he? He saw you jump over the leaves, yet decided to step on them.”

  “Don’t come any closer, or I’ll do the same to you,” she warned in a voice full of false courage.

  His eyes twinkled with humor. “Do you have any other traps set, Mishka?”

  She lifted her chin. “I might.”

  He chuckled. The sound was light and…nice. Her shoulders relaxed. The tension in her neck receded.

  “But you don’t, do
you?” His voice was warm and oh so comforting.

  “I don’t.” She didn’t want to lie to him. It was wrong to lie to such a friendly alien.

  He took a step into the clearing. “That’s good to hear. I don’t wish to die today.”

  She didn’t want him to die either. He was so lovely.

  Chapter Five

  I’ve finally got her.

  Fanian smiled to himself, but the effects weren’t lost on the human. She relaxed her tense muscles and stared at him longingly. All he had to do was keep smiling and talking, and any thoughts of running away would fade from her mind.

  It had taken all day to find her. He’d wasted precious time setting his traps on the nearest paths, ensuring that escaping on foot wasn’t an option for her. After he’d finished the last trap, he’d found another hunter stalking her. He’d thought all his efforts were a waste, because surely, once she saw the lumbering hunter, she would use a pod to escape. He didn’t doubt he would find her again, but that also meant there was a chance another hunter would find her in the meantime.

  But Fanian was happy with this outcome. He was able to get to her before she called for a pod, and she’d killed the Zorvan. One less hunter meant one less competitor.

  “I’ve been waiting for this day for a very long time.”

  She let out a breathy sigh. “Really?”

  “You were so hard to find.”

  She pouted. “I’m so sorry.”

  He had her hooked now. I’ll be sleeping in my own bed tonight!

  The sound of his voice made others relax around him; however, it didn’t make anyone do something they didn’t want to. If this female were compelled to run, she would. There wouldn’t be anything he could do to stop her. But, if he kept talking, she would become so relaxed and in-tune with what he said that she would forget about running and why she should.

  His voice was a gift. It was also one of the reasons he’d had to flee his planet and galaxy. They hunted him for it. The Thruul used the Givveks’ voice as a weapon. They broadcasted it across fleets of enemy combatants, giving the Thruul a tide-turning advantage in any war.

  He would end his life before he let the Thruul capture him and use his voice for war, but here, his zvodny fit his purpose well.

  The female blinked rapidly, her gaze losing its soft appeal. “Why am I feeling this way? What’s wrong with me?”

  “Nothing is wrong with you, Mishka.”

  Eyebrows that protruded from her round face pinched together. “What…what does that word mean?”

  “Mishka means birth giver in my language. Your universal translator might not pick up on all the words of my language because it isn’t wildly known.”

  She touched the back of her ear where her translator would be. “We just learned about the translators. I knew it let us understand the different languages that we all spoke. I didn’t know it would let us understand aliens too.” She frowned and tilted her head to the side. “I guess I did understand that first alien. I must’ve been too scared to realize it.”

  “I’m happy that we can understand each other, Mishka. This would be much harder if we didn’t.”

  She pulled the boy-child closer to her. “I-I don’t think I like that term.”

  “Relax. It’s meant as a term of endearment.”

  “You have blue skin,” the boy child said.

  Fanian held out his arm. “Would you like to touch it?”

  She took a step back, clutching the boy’s shoulder. “No. No. No. I don’t want you to come any closer. I need to leave.” She whimpered. “Why am I not running?”

  He tsked. “Why do you want to leave? We’re having such a nice conversation. You want me to come closer. I can take you and your children away from here. Don’t you want me to save you?” He couldn’t contain the excitement in his voice. He was so close to claiming his prey. He stepped closer.

  This was the first time he’d ever been this close to a human. He’d seen them on the projection and from afar. A hologram and distance didn’t do the human justice.

  She was much prettier in person. So different from a Givvek female. Instead of the blue he was used to, her pale skin was blotched with pink and red. The markings were new and not on her original hologram. Maybe this was an effect from the sun or another irritant found in the jungle? Her hair seemed like it would be the same texture as his, but hers was brown with gold strands that shined when the sunlight hit it just so.

  She was also shorter than him, only by a few heads. Her eyes were small and round and… He squinted. Dark blue. The thick eyelashes framing them made her eyes stand out even more than they already did. Her nose was small and she had thin lips. The only adornments she wore were small gold balls, one in each ear. Her children resembled her. Az’ud wouldn’t doubt she’d birthed them.

  Fanian’s gaze roamed down her body. She was small but voluptuous. A thick dark material covered her shapely legs. Her shirt was made from a lighter material and clung to her breasts and torso. Az’ud would be happy with his choice. He might even give him a bonus for this catch.

  Fanian smiled and stepped closer. The female opened her eyes wide. Panic shone brightly in them. He stopped, not wanting to press his luck. “Let me take you away from this inconvenience.”

  Creases formed at her brows. “You want to claim us as your prey?”

  “Prey is such a horrible word, don’t you think? What I want is to rescue you from here.”

  She raised her chin. “Why should we go with you? If we finish all the Levels, we can go home. If I let you take us, I don’t know what will happen.”

  She was resisting the zvodny. He had to find a way to keep her listening.

  “Return to Earth? That’s not possible.”

  “You’re lying. You’re only saying that because you want us to go with you.”

  What would give her the idea that she could go back there? “I assure you, Mishka. I’m not lying about this.”

  “Stop calling me that. It sounds so wrong when you say it. My name is Miranda.”

  “And the children’s names?” When she didn’t answer, he quirked an eyebrow. He was curious, so he asked again.

  “Adam and Lexi.”

  “Adam and Lexi.” The words sounded funny on his lips. “Mi-ran-da.” Still funny. But he liked it. “My name is Fanian.”

  “Nice to meet you, Fanian.” She frowned, then shook her head as if she didn’t know why she’d spoken those words. “How do I know you aren’t lying about us not being able to return to Earth?”

  “There’s no reason to lie. Earth is protected. No one who leaves is allowed to return. Do you want to return because you have a mate there?”

  Why had he asked her that? It didn’t matter if she’d left two mates behind. Her life there was over. Az’ud would be her mate soon.

  This time he was the one who shook stray thoughts from his head. “No need to answer that. All that matters is you understand you can never return to Earth, so there’s no need to go through the different Levels.”

  “One of you told my friend that we could go home as long as we won The Hunt. I don’t know him but what he’s said so far is true. Or at least I think it is.” She chewed on her bottom lip. “When the evening alarm sounds, are you allowed to pursue us?”

  “No. We must return to the lodge. We can’t come back to the gaming arena until after the morning alarm.”

  She nodded once. “See? Xrez told the truth.”

  Hm, so the Game Warden was not only helping the humans but lying about then returning to Earth? That would definitely motivate the humans to persevere and try to win The Hunt.

  “Trust me. Returning isn’t an option. You would be better coming with me.” He stepped closer. If he leaped the small distance, he could reach her maybe before she called a pod. But he didn’t want to take the chance on losing his prey after finally getting this far. A little closer and they would be his.

  Her mouth twisted. “Why would I leave with you? So we could play hous
e and pretend we’re a family?”

  Fanian barked out a laugh. He couldn’t help himself. A family was the furthest from his mind. “No, Mishka. You aren’t for me. You’re for Az’ud.”

  He took another step forward.

  “What’s an Az’ud? Is that another planet or something?”

  He moved again. Almost there. “No, Az’ud is a rich merchant who badly wants a human pet to bear his children. He’s paid a lot of money for me to capture you.”

  Her facial features contorted and pinched together again. “You…you want to sell us?”

  “Well, not actually. The credits are already in my account. Expenses need to be paid for upfront and all.”

  She squinted her beautiful round eyes at him. “So, I guess I’ll just stand here and let you ruin our lives.”

  “Ruin? I don’t know about that. But yes, stand there.”

  He reached out and grabbed her. Finally.

  “You really need to learn about sarcasm.”

  She stepped back and to the side while simultaneously grabbing his wrist and wrenching him toward and past her. He overstepped, trying to avoid the hole she’d dug and landed awkwardly on his heel.

  The human used his unbalance to her advantage. She pushed him to one knee and leaned over him with a snarl. Before he could regain his footing and launch toward her, she pulled a small device from a front pocket. She pressed it hard against the skin on his arm and a bolt of electricity shot through him. His muscles went rigid and he slumped to the ground.

  “Quick! Hand me that rock!” she yelled.

  If he could dislodge the device from his arm, he could escape the continuous jolts.

  Her son handed her a rock bigger than his small hand.

  “What damage could such a small weapon do?” he said through gritted teeth. “My skin is much stronger than the other hunter.”

  “Oh, no. I’d never hurt such a strong hunter.”