Obsession

by Jennifer Armentrout

  Spinning around, Hunter caught Light Bulb by the back of the neck and flipped him over his shoulder, pile driving him into the floor. Hunter was astride Light Bulb within a heartbeat.

  Under him, Light Bulb’s form flickered and then the light faded, revealing the man. “Do it, you leech. But you can’t—”

  Hunter gripped the man by the throat, forcing his head back. “I’m not interested in last speeches. Time to kiss your ass good-bye, Lite-Brite.”

  Then Hunter lowered his other hand to Glow Stick’s chest. From my huddled position, it looked like half of Hunter’s arm had suddenly turned to smoke and then disappeared, but then, as I pushed up into a sitting position, I saw what Hunter had done.

  His arm had become less solid, and the hand—holy shit—the hand went through Glow Stick’s chest and was inside it.

  I smacked my hand across my mouth, muffling my scream. I wasn’t sure what to be more freaked out about in this whole fucked-up situation—that Light Bulb wanted to kill me? Or that he was a Light Bulb? Or that Hunter could apparently shadow poof and put his hand inside someone? The options were limitless.

  Light Bulb reared off the floor, his mouth gaping in a silent scream. Hunter leaned over him, keeping his head in line with Light Bulb’s. It seemed like he was inhaling. Whatever he was doing had Light Bulb flickering in and out. Human. Light. Human. Light.

  And then Hunter reared back, pulling his arm out of Light Bulb. Fully solid, his arms fell to his side. The hollows of his cheeks were flushed as if he’d been sun-kissed. Hunter opened his eyes.

  I let out a ragged breath, pressing against the wall. If he could do that to Light Bulb, what in the hell could he do to me?

  On the floor, Light Bulb wasn’t moving. The light had faded, leaving a pearly shell that had human form but reminded me of jellyfish. Networks of veins were visible on the arms and legs. Light Bulb even had fingers.

  Light Bulb was also most definitely dead.

  Hunter rose fluidly, his pale eyes fixed on mine. Yep. He was inhuman. That might have been the exact moment when I decided I’d blown past the acceptable level of bizarreness for the day, but I was there, knee-deep in it.

  He stepped around the body of Light Bulb and stopped in front of me. “I do believe I told you to go straight home, Miss Cross.”

  I struggled to my feet, swaying to the side as I inched away. Every part of me ached and it hurt to stand. “Don’t come near me.”

  One single brow went up. “Wasn’t planning on it, but I at least thought there’d be a ‘thank you for saving my life’ statement thrown in.”

  “You’re not human,” I said slowly.

  “And that obviously has nothing to do with the fact I saved your life,” he replied.

  Maybe not, but I was beyond caring. There was a dead…something on my floor and a whatever standing in front of me. “Thank you, but please—”

  “That didn’t sound sincere, but it doesn’t matter. We—”

  He had taken a step toward me, and I shrieked, “Don’t touch me!”

  Hunter exhaled loudly. “We really don’t have time for this.”

  All I could see was his hand disappearing into Light Bulb’s chest. Pressure clamped down on my heart as I continued to make my way toward the hallway. “You’re not human,” I mumbled again, because I needed to hear it to process it.

  He closed his eyes, face tight with impatience; and when his eyes reopened, the obsidian pupils seemed to expand. “I’m pretty sure we’ve covered that.”

  My chest rose and fell rapidly. “What…what are you?” My gaze dropped to the other thing. “What is that?”

  There was a pause, and then he nodded at the prone form on the floor. “That’s an alien. I’m an alien. We’re aliens. Aliens everywhere, actually, which is why we have to leave. I’m sure someone has called the police by now.”

  I stared at him. “Aliens?”

  Hunter nodded. “Aliens.”

  My mouth opened and I was pretty sure I was going to scream, because at that moment, it seemed like the only logical thing to do. Scream. Why not? There were aliens everywhere apparently.

  Hunter shot forward, gripping my shoulders. “I really don’t have time for this. We don’t have time for this.”

  He tugged me against his chest and lowered his head, angling it in a way that his mouth lined with mine. For a wild second, I thought he was going to kiss me. The funny thing was what flashed through my mind in that moment was that I didn’t know him. Not that I was about to be kissed by an alien—or a murderous alien. The problem was that I didn’t know him. Yeah, I was officially cracked.

  Hunter’s lips didn’t touch mine, but it almost felt like they did. I could feel their coolness, and in the back of my mind I wondered how they would feel and taste. And then, his mouth was on mine. His lips were cool and firm. My startled gasp opened my mouth to his. He tasted like winter snow and something dark and rich, like chocolate. But he wasn’t kissing me.

  Hunter inhaled.

  Chapter 6

  It probably made me a son of a bitch to do this to her, especially considering I was in charge of keeping her safe, which by the way was ironically laughable, and in her vulnerable state, it wouldn’t help things. Not to mention this just proved my whole lack of self-control issue. Patience was a virtue I found pointless.

  But we really didn’t have time for her dramatics.

  The stir of energy around her was a deep violet, which meant she really was about to go off the deep end. Totally understandable—there was a dead alien on her floor. But when I’d grabbed and pulled her close, there was something else swirling in her energy fields. Thin slivers of red broke through the violet; the hallmark of arousal. It wasn’t a lot. Serena wasn’t going to drop her panties and jump me, but it was there. And that made me very curious.

  My kind did like to covet pretty, little things.

  She was frozen in my arms, eyes wide, when I brought my mouth down. Her full lips, shaped like a pouty bow, were incredibly soft and warm. I wanted to investigate that, discover if they could be demanding and hungry, but there wasn’t time.

  I slid a hand to her chest, my palm resting just below her breasts. The tips of my fingers brushed the heavy swells. Very distracting. To most the move looked like one of pure dominance, and in a way, it was. But it was also necessary.

  I inhaled.

  Fed as I was off the Luxen, taking from a human would be like getting a cheeseburger off the dollar menu when you just had filet, but…damn. Serena’s taste—the heightened emotions and adrenaline pumping through her—was exquisite.

  Warmth poured into me. Unlike with Luxen or hybrids—humans mutated by the Luxen—I didn’t pick up any memories or emotions. With them, one never knew what you were going to get. Usually it was something the Luxen or hybrid was stressing over, a memory they kept rehashing. The one I just killed had been smart. When I’d fed, the Luxen had thought about a TV show he’d watched the night prior, which meant the Lite-Brite was probably a fucking gold mine of information. Too late for that. But with Serena there was silence. Nothing was coming off her except warmth and softness and sunlight. Yeah, that’s it. She tasted like sunlight.

  I wrapped an arm around her waist, holding her close as I continued to feed. She had been stiff in my arms, like she had locked up every muscle, but hadn’t tried to fight me off. Not that she could if she tried, and if I hadn’t showed up when I had, the Luxen would’ve easily killed her.

  Humans were so fragile.

  Serena let out a breathless sigh against my mouth and then deflated like a paper bag in my arms.

  Thick lashes fanned her pale cheeks. A faint blue shadow had appeared under her eyes, and I knew that if I continued, that hue would spread through her. No doubt it already shaded her lips.

  If I continued, I would kill her.

  Stopping would be going against my nature. Arum were killers. And I didn’t hide from what I truly was, even if I was the DOD’s bitch boy. No matter how many leashe
s they put on me, or any Arum, I would always be what I was—part of a race that had been bred to kill.

  But last time I checked, I wasn’t supposed to kill her.

  With supreme effort, I lifted my mouth and broke the connection. Her head flopped back so quickly I caught her by the back of the skull before she cracked her neck.

  “Shit,” I said, staring down at her. She was going to be out for a very, very long time.

  …

  Waking up was like climbing through quicksand. Every time I clambered to the top, coming close to opening my eyes, I was dragged back down. My body refused to get up and move around, and I slipped back into the kind of deep sleep that dreams couldn’t penetrate, until oblivion finally loosened its grip on me.

  My eyes felt like they’d been sewed shut and when they finally fluttered open, I immediately winced against the harsh brightness. Turning my head, I swallowed, surprised by how dry my throat was. As my vision adjusted, my heart kicked into overdrive.

  Where in the hell was I?

  I was definitely not in my apartment. Everything in the room was far too nice and pricey. The bureau in the corner, which matched a standing mirror, looked like a priceless heirloom. A chaise lounge against the off-white walls was covered with fluffy pillows.

  I turned my head, frowning.

  Delicate white curtains billowed gently in the warm, rolling breeze from an open sliding glass door. I could see potted flowers in an array of colors beyond the door. More evidence I wasn’t where I should be, because I had a thumb of death when it came to plants. It was some kind of raised deck, because it was at level with thick, leafy tree branches. The chirps of birds were a soft chorus. No sounds of cars. No people yelling or laughing.

  Pushing up, I fought back a wave of dizziness and tugged the covers off—where were the rest of my clothes? I stared down at my bare legs, dumbfounded. My jeans were gone. It was just the old tee shirt and my polka-dotted panties.

  “What the hell?” I whispered in a hoarse voice.

  Throwing my legs off the bed, I stood on wobbly knees. Not going to panic. Not going to panic. The last thing I remembered was standing and talking to Hunter after he killed the…alien.

  Hunter was also an alien.

  Aliens were real.

  “Oh my God.” I pushed the tangled mess of hair out of my face.

  My gaze darted around the opulent bedroom. First, I needed to find my pants and then a weapon—possibly a nuclear level weapon.

  Had Hunter kissed me?

  No? Yes. Kind of? My brain needed to shut up, because it wasn’t spewing out anything helpful. Spying two sets of doors, one across from the bed and the other by the chaise lounge, I tried the one across from the bed first.

  Locked.

  Jesus. A bedroom door that locked from the outside. Nice. I hurried to the other door and discovered a bathroom…that was bigger than my bedroom back in the apartment. Enough room for me to lie down and make bathroom angels in without touching a single thing. It was ridiculous—garden tub and a separate, standing shower with expensive-looking tile.

  Heart pounding and feeling sick, I quickly shut the bathroom door and backed up, sitting on the edge of the tub. Okay. It was obvious that I’d been taken somewhere, most likely by Hunter. Whatever he had done to me had knocked me out and for God knows how long. Add that to the fact that he was an alien, and I really couldn’t consider myself safe.

  But he had saved my life.

  Or had he?

  I didn’t understand the why of any of this. Hell, I didn’t even know where I was. Pressing my palms to my forehead, I squeezed my eyes shut. My head pounded along with my pulse. I felt like I’d just come out of a dangerous fever. Everything was surreal, too bright and vastly confusing—but this was real.

  I had to come up with a plan. I needed to find out where I was, find a phone, find a weapon—find my damn jeans. Lowering my hands, I glanced around the bathroom. There was nothing in here I could fashion into a weapon unless I was James Bond.

  But there was a bowl of sour grape Blow Pops on the sink counter. Odd.

  I stood, dragging in a deep breath. Spotting a linen closet of sorts, I found a wide array of products: soaps, shampoos, lotions, and enough girlie-girl products to survive an apocalypse with.

  “Okay,” I murmured, rooting through the various bottles. Obviously a woman had stayed here before or currently did, one with really good taste, but unless I planned on throwing bath salt in someone’s face, there was nothing of use for me in here.

  Going to the sink, I turned on the faucet and splashed water over my face. It cleared some of the fuzziness. Then I opened the bathroom door, stepping back into the bedroom cautiously.

  I came to a complete standstill as air punched from my lungs.

  There was a shadow in front of the deck doors. It wasn’t a normal shadow, either. It sucked the light out of everything around it. My heart pounded painfully. Instinct took over and a fear so cold, so powerful took root. Reaching blindly for a weapon, my fingers wrapped around a small figurine—which turned out to be a cast-iron pioneer—and I threw it hard.

  The shadow took form as it darted to the side, but there was a fleshy thud as the statue hit what was now a denim-clad thigh…that belonged to Hunter, a currently shirtless Hunter.

  “What the fuck?” Hunter exploded.

  I didn’t wait to offer up an explanation. Darting back toward the bathroom, I opened my mouth to scream. Out of nowhere, a hand smacked down on my mouth and an arm snaked around on my waist. I should’ve known he’d move that fast, should’ve realized that escape wasn’t possible. The guy was a damn shadow.

  Panic clawed its way up my throat. Kicking and thrashing, I tried to wiggle free from the powerful hold, but only managed to knock my leg into the dresser.

  “Oh, for the love of God,” Hunter grunted. “Knock it off.”

  I shoved my elbow back, satisfied when it connected with hard skin.

  Hunter swore again, and the next thing I knew my feet were off the ground. One moment I was hovering in air, my back pinned to his cool chest, and the next second I was flying.

  Hitting the middle of the bed, I let out a sharp squeak as I bounced. A second later, the weight of a building crashed into me. My back hit the mattress, knocking the air out once more. The worst sort of terror spread, and I turned more into caged animal than human. I swung wildly with both hands, but he caught my wrists with astonishing and frightening ease, securing them to the bed on either side of my head. Arching my back, I tried to knee him where it counts, but he pressed down, covering my legs with his.

  I couldn’t move—couldn’t breathe. Hunter weighed a ton, and every part of him that touched me was hard and cool. Heart racing into cardiac territory, I went completely still.

  “Are you insane?” he growled. “Look at me!”

  Shaking my head frantically, I kept my eyes squeezed shut. “Please don’t—”

  “Please don’t what? Strangle the ever-loving common sense into you? I might do that.” There was a pause and his chest rose against mine. “Jesus H. Christ, woman, I didn’t sign up for this. I think you gave me a flesh wound.”

  I pried open one eye, and then both. Those startling pale eyes, full of anger, fixed on mine.

  “Are you done acting like a psychotic, cracked-out Muppet baby?” he asked, and I could tell by the way his fingers spasmed around my wrists, he really wanted to shake me. “Or do you need a couple more moments to return to sanity? I have all day. And you actually feel kind of good under me, so take your time.”

  My eyes popped wide. I was under him, like really under him. Our bodies were touching in all the right areas one wanted them to touch when they were in bed. I shifted just a fraction of an inch, and his eyes narrowed. Something long and thick and hard pressed against my belly. A flush stole across my cheeks and swept down my neck. Alien or not, he was endowed like the small percentage of men who actually had something to brag about.

  He smirked and then p
ulled back a little. The rest of his face came into view, and somehow I had forgotten how good-looking Hunter was in this form. It wasn’t a pretty kind of beauty, like Phillip or the man who attacked me in my apartment. His was a harsher beauty, wild and untamed, a kind of beauty that would be hard to replicate.

  And why was I thinking about how good-looking he was? Seriously not important, but at some point, I realized he wasn’t trying to kill me…and that my heavy breathing had nothing to do with fear at the moment.

  “Calm now?” he asked.

  “You’re a—”

  “If you say alien again, I’m probably going to strangle you a little. Okay?” By the edge in his voice I wasn’t sure if he was joking or not. “We’ve already established what I am. You don’t see me walking around blabbering about you being a human.”

  My mouth dropped open. “But that’s different!”

  “How so?” he proposed.

  “You’re on Earth!”

  He smirked. “Okay. I’ll give you that.”

  That infuriated me. “What did you do to me?”

  “When?”

  My fingers curled helplessly around air. “When you, like, kissed me?”

  “I didn’t kiss you,” he scoffed.

  For some reason, I thought I should be insulted by the way he said that. “All right, when you put your mouth on mine? Is that clear enough for you?”

  Hunter’s grin tipped higher. “You have a feisty little attitude, don’t you?”

  “You’re about to get a feisty little foot up your ass,” I spat back.

  Tipping his head back, Hunter did the most mysterious thing. He laughed. At me. A deep, body-shaking laugh that shook me and made me shiver for what was probably all the wrong reasons.

  Quieting down, he lowered his chin. “I fed off you.”

  “You fed off me?”

  “Yes. I took some of your energy from you—sort of like tapping into your life force,” he said, giving me a cheeky grin that said he didn’t feel bad about it.