The Hunters Series

by Shiloh Walker

  Tori was going to die, or she was going to kill them. Eli still held control of her mind and both men limited her control of her own body. Declan laughed roughly when he slipped one finger inside her mouth, only to have her bite down and lick at the bleeding marks she left.

  “Let her go,” Declan said gruffly, feeling the enormous pressure of his own release building behind the wall of Eli’s mental webs.

  Eli released her and started to pound into her vagina roughly, hungrily, while Declan reamed her ass with his cock. They sought purchase on her body and Tori cried out when they ended up linking their arms for leverage and driving into her body with brutal, uncontrolled force. She cried out in delicious pain and felt her body break open, pleasure swamping her as wave after wave of pleasure swamped her, as climax after climax took her helpless body, still held under their faultless control.

  Declan came in a hot pulsing jet in her backside just as Eli pumped the last of his seed inside Tori’s receptive pussy while another climax, longer and slower, wracked her body from head to toe.

  Moments later they slid her to the floor and they all three collapsed, the men sliding from her body with soft, wet, sucking sounds. Eli rolled over just as Declan did until they cupped her body between them.

  Weakly, Tori whispered, “A very pleasant way to keep a promise.”

  Eli took her mouth gently, kissing her softly and deeply before pulling away to buss her cheek. Over her body, he agreeably said, “Indeed. And as long as we can have this from time to time, I think I can easily die a happy man.”

  Tori laughed weakly and cuddled against Declan, feeling the solid warm strength of him surround her as she said, “We need to find your match Eli, and soon. Otherwise, I may start to crave this always.”

  Tori stood in the full summer sunshine the next afternoon, basking in it while Eli slept a deep silent sleep. He was aware of her though, and he caressed her mind gently and whispered “Good-bye for now, Tori McAdams.”

  Declan led her to the car, eyeing her cautiously. “Are you certain we shouldn’t wait any longer? We have hours of sunlight left.”

  Her face lifted to the sun, drinking it in, delighting in the gentle caress of air over her body. “I’ve nothing to fear from the light, Declan. Not now.”

  The Hunters: Eli and Sarel

  By

  Shiloh Walker

  First digital printing 2003

  Please note: This is the original 2003 version—it has been edited, but no new material has been added.

  The Hunters: Eli and Sarel © Copyright Shiloh Walker, 2003.

  Cover Art Angela Waters

  Prologue

  Elijah Crawford wasn’t on his territory the night he caught scent of a child’s terror, the stench of death, a man’s lust. Not that it stopped him. That sort of thing would never stop him…not when it came to a child.

  He prowled around the ramshackle house in Mississippi, his eyes narrowed and grim as he curled his hands into fists. Ten seconds sooner…even five…and he could have saved the woman as well.

  But it was too later for her now.

  The child’s scream tore the air as her father stumbled out of the kitchen, drunk and laughing, staring at her. The look in his eyes was one of hot, hungry lust—the kind look a man should never have in his eyes when he looked at a child.

  Eli leaped from the window to the front door in one single bound, the blood in his cool body starting to pump hotter and faster as a familiar, uncontrollable rage filled him.

  Striking out, Eli kicked the door down, his fangs emerging. Taking a deep breath, Eli shoved the rage back before he looked at the screaming child who was splattered with her mama’s blood. “Sleep,” he crooned quietly, smiling gently. Her lashes fluttered and she fell in a boneless heap to the floor.

  Eli smiled. “Invite me in.”

  “Come inside,” he whispered, his voice thick.

  The sheer, dumbstruck look on the bastard’s face had Eli’s lips curling in amusement as the thoughts ran through the man’s drunken mind…who is this…why did I invite him in?

  “You did it so I could kill you.” Eli smiled, a cold, cruel smile and his eyes narrowed as the man wheeled around, fear penetrating the drunken haze.

  There is an animal inside mortals, one that recognizes the bigger monster, the predator, and he knew he was staring at death in some small part of his mind.

  Eli laughed as the man rallied and the fight welled up inside him. No quick death for this one…he was a blood relation to that pretty child, no doubt. A blood relation—it was in the scent of his blood, the slope of his brow, the coppery, golden color of his hair.

  No–not a quick death.

  Later, as he washed the blood from his face and hands, Eli stared at his grim reflection. The child still slept in the other room. He would be taking her away. Even in her sleep, she was restless, terrified…she dreamt of a sister. In those dreams, she cried out for her. But where this sister was, Eli didn’t know.

  Alive and well; safe, he hoped.

  But the child was lost to her. Eli would see to it that the little girl never knew pain, never knew this sort of fear again.

  Poor little lost one.

  Terrified screams came ripping from her throat the moment he touched her. Then she threw herself at him, wrapping her tiny arms around his neck, and he could feel brittle bones, smell her unwashed body.

  Underfed, uncared for…Hot tears stung his eyes and burned a path down his cheeks as she sobbed brokenly, inconsolably.

  “Shhh…” he murmured, rocking her back and forth, stroking her tangled, deep red hair. Working her back, just a little, Eli cupped her face in his hand and forced her to stare into his eyes as he whispered, “Sleep, pretty child. When you wake, things will be better.”

  Once the mantle of sleep fell over her, Eli forced his way into her young mind and took the memory of the night and broke it, erased it, until it was gone forever. It had simply not happened. The child would never have any knowledge of it. Some things, even time could not heal.

  Power rippled through the air.

  Eli stood staring up at the moon as Tori and Declan crossed the boundaries of his territory. His heart was too heavy for this–but how could he turn her away, when he hungered for her so desperately?

  But sad frightened eyes, the stench of blood and death clung to him.

  He was still there nearly an hour later when Tori found him and stood waiting for him to turn to her with that slow, feline curl of his lips. When he didn’t, she started to move toward him, only to have Declan’s hands on her shoulders hold her in place.

  “Rough time, Eli?”

  The rich music of Ireland still rolled through the cop’s voice, danced on the air. Taking his eyes from the moon, Eli turned his head and stared at them, revealing a somber, grief ravaged face.

  Misreading the look, Declan swore softly and said, “Eli, we can’t save them all.”

  “I did save her, the child, that is. The one that counted most. Her mother, well, her mother kept her there.” His voice was rusty and his throat felt tight with emotion, all over a child…one child, out of how many? “I did not get there in time to save her mother. And I don’t know that I bloody care. She kept her there, Tori. Allowed her to be beaten, starved, and she would have been raped.

  She died a few nights ago—and I don’t care.”

  Slim, pale arms wrapped around his waist and Tori rested her head on his shoulder from behind.

  Eli stood there in silence as she held him while he grieved.

  * * * * *

  Elijah came awake quickly, the heavy veil of sleep falling aside as though somebody had just jerked a blanket off his tousled blonde head. He didn’t immediately roll from the bed though—instead he reached down and stroked his hand over the pale, smooth arm thrown across his belly.

  Behind him, Tori slept on, exhausted, and behind her, Declan shifted and moved restlessly. The shifter never slept as easily as his mate, nor as easily as Eli did. And eve
n though his shapeshifting abilities were inherent—and not induced by the waning or waxing of the moon—the full moon did tend to increase his restlessness. That was because he was a breed—part were, part Inherent. The Inherent abilities were by far the strongest, but the moon’s call wasn’t one he could ever completely ignore.

  The full moon was drawing near and Eli knew the call of the moon was strong. Eventually the shapeshifter would give in to the call, and then he’d run the night and hunt.

  It may not be this moon, or even the next, but soon. The wildness in Declan’s eyes was proof enough of that for Eli.

  The sun had already sunk behind the mountains and night was upon them when Eli finally pulled himself away from their sweet warmth. He brushed his fingers across Tori’s peaceful face before he stood. The faint, already healing marks on Tori’s neck made him smile.

  Eli had fed from her.

  That was…unfathomable, as far as Eli was concerned. She was something out of legend, not completely vampire, not completely human, but something in between. She could take food and she could walk in daylight, yet he had seen her caught in the hungers of a vampire, had seen her streak across the ground at a pace too quick for human eyes. Tori’s speed was more like that of the shifters thanks to her mate, Declan, who had been her first meal. She also shared his rather voracious hungers.

  Tori’s heart was larger than the ocean and she was as sharp as a fucking whip.

  Eli was half in love with her, half in awe of her. He was generally caught between wanting to worship at her feet and fuck the living daylights out of her.

  Last night she had fed him, the wine-rich taste of her blood lingering in his mouth, memories of the pleasure he had taken from her body as he and Declan had taken her.

  Eli felt his cock stiffen in memory and he grabbed a robe, stalking out of the room before the scent of his lust could awaken either of them.

  Neither Declan nor Tori would be here if they didn’t want to be, but it wasn’t something that sat easily with Eli. Hell, they were more at peace with it than he was.

  Eli was terribly afraid he was falling in love with Tori. At least with the ideal image he had created of her. He was moving past the halfway mark at a speed that terrified him.

  The thought of having a warm, soft woman next to him in bed when the sun rose high in the sky, a woman who would take both his cock and his fangs and glory in the pleasures he could give her. A woman he could love.

  There lay his problem.

  Eli wanted a woman of his own. But the only woman who called to him in such a way belonged to his best friend.

  * * * * *

  Dawn was only a few hours away and he had returned to the house rather pleased with the work of the past week. He had intended to get some tedious business and financial matters out of the way—after all, a vampire had to provide for those he took into his home—but the sweet, seductive scent of aroused woman had flooded his senses as she came down the stairs, laughing and whispering to Declan. He was aroused even before Tori came up behind him.

  Damn her, and damn his cock. He couldn’t think with a damn when she was around.

  Declan stood in the doorway staring at them with hot green eyes. Eli saw the look Declan sent his assistant—and the resentful one Leslie sent back before she left the room—and he suppressed a sigh. Time for the assistant to go.

  “Tori, is there something you wanted?” Eli teased as he turned in the circle of her arms to look down at her.

  Wide blue eyes met his as she brushed the back of one hand down the front of his linen trousers—against the hard bulge there—as she slowly lowered her head and kissed his chest through the layers of his clothing. “Hmm. Wanna get naked and I’ll show you?” she asked, her nimble fingers already flying down the front of his shirt, freeing the buttons and spreading it wide over the pale, muscled wall of his chest.

  Eli couldn’t help it. Even as she shoved and pulled his clothes until he stood wearing only his trousers, he glanced at Declan. Sooner or later, the wolf was going to grow tired of sharing his woman.

  But the Irishman was smiling, aroused and amused. A ripple of power slid through the room and Eli watched as Declan suppressed the animal that lived inside his skin, suppressed the urge to shift and fall on Tori like a monster in rut. Eli groaned and buried his hands in Tori’s hair as she fell to her knees and took his cock inside the wet cave of her mouth.

  Declan knelt behind her, reaching around pull her shirt open and cup her full breasts in his hands, rolling and pinching her nipples while he rubbed his pelvis against her ass.

  When her mate pressed his hand against her wet cleft, Tori shuddered and pulled away, shooting to her feet and reaching for her jeans, only to have her hands batted and brushed aside as two pairs of male hands stripped her remaining clothes away. Eli and Declan fell to their knees before her as a unit, each taking one swollen, stiff nipple—Eli suckling deep while Declan nipped and nibbled.

  Eli slid one hand around to grab her ass, trailing his fingers through the crevice between her buttocks while Declan drove two fingers deep inside her wet, tight vagina, screwing deep and hard. She moaned, shuddering against them.

  The scent of the hybrid was enough to drive Eli nearly mad. He drew in the sweet perfume of her hungry body as Declan pulled Tori to the floor. Declan’s eyes were wide and glowing and green, full of unfathomable hunger. The bond the three of them shared was strong enough that Declan’s urgency frequently spilled over to Eli, along with some of the wolf’s more basic instincts—fuck, hunt, eat. Fuck, hunt, eat.

  Tori screamed breathlessly as Declan pulled her over him and impaled her on his rigid cock. Eli moved behind her, taking her hips in his big hands as Declan lifted her slim body up and down. Eli pushed on her shoulders and she bent forward, presenting her rounded ass and the tight puckered hole of her ass. Eli hunched over her, rocking his cock against her, only to pull away with a rough growl of frustration. No fucking lubricant—

  “Table,” Declan rasped out before Eli even had time to finish the thought.

  Moments later—Eli’s cock wet and gleaming—he smeared some of the clear liquid against Tori’s entrance Tori’s entrance, working two fingers in and out while Declan shafted her.

  Tori’s head fell back as Declan caught one beaded nipple in his mouth, biting down gently. She shuddered as Eli started to prod her ass with deep, slow, strokes, listening as her breath caught. Lying below them on the bed, Declan pushed up inside her and Eli groaned as he had to force his way into her tight, narrow passage.

  Too much, Tori thought…too much…

  Emotions that weren’t hers, sensations that weren’t hers slammed into her mind through the bond they shared and she cried out under the combined sensation of them both invading her body and the pleasure she sensed from them as they invaded her—the wet, slick heat of her vagina around Declan’s cock, the snug, silken clasp of her ass around Eli’s.

  Declan’s powerful, lean body arched under hers and he purred against the mound of her breast, “Tight, so fucking tight and sweet.” A phantom touch caressed his balls, the light brush of Eli’s sac as it just barely touched Declan’s. He bit down on Tori’s breast hard enough that he tasted the sweet, tangy taste of her blood as the scent of it filled the air.

  Eli’s nostrils flared as he scented her blood. But the bite on Tori’s neck hadn’t yet healed, and even as quickly as she regenerated he couldn’t feed from her twice in a day, no matter how much he wanted to. Feeding his other hunger, he gripped her hips, taking her deeper, harder. Pulling out and driving back in with bruising force. He felt the sharp bite of her pleasure-pain through their bond and grinned, pulling out and driving back into her again as she mewled weakly.

  Declan growled and drove his cock upward inside her wet pussy with short, hard digs as she convulsed around him, milking his climax from him while Eli continued to ream her ass. Blood lust and sexual lust made a dangerous pair, and when teamed with the bizarre obsessive-love Eli had for Tori, the
y were even more so.

  Pulling away, his cock still wet and gleaming, regenerated vampire blood making it ruddy, he lifted Tori from where she had collapsed against Declan and spread her out on the floor. Crouching between her thighs and lifting her helpless ass into the air Eli drove back inside her while keeping his eyes on their merged bodies. The sight of his thick cock spearing her tight little hole made his cock swell even more and he fell down against her, riding her snug little anus harder and harder and lifting his golden eyes to stare at Declan.

  The other man grinned weakly at him and rolled onto his side, staring at his wife’s gleaming face as another man fucked her ass and pulled a screaming climax from her.

  When his old friend didn’t protest Eli gave in and concentrated on Tori—on the hot satin sheath that held his cock, on the way she cried and screamed and bucked underneath his body as he fucked her, how her sweet little butt would lift pleadingly when he pulled out. Leaning close he whispered into her ear, “So sweet…I love fucking you, listening to you moan and beg for more. I love your taste, your blood and the cream that comes from your sweet little pussy. You stayed away too long this time.”

  Moaning and squirming against him, Tori searched blindly for the climax, but his weight pinned her down and she couldn’t get the leverage she needed to take him deeper. “Eli, please,” she whimpered as his hands slid under and around her, pinning her arms tight to her body. His cock inside her ass felt huge and if he would just—”Damn it, Eli, let me come.”

  Eli licked at the tiny healing holes on her neck before shifting his weight and turning her head so that she could see her husband, who still lay there, his cock semi- erect as he watched them. “He likes to watch, doesn’t he, Tori? Has he ever shared you with anybody else?”