Silence.
Then Hans nodded his head and closed his eyes, head lolling towards the floor as he settled to sleep.
CHAPTER NINE
Hans woke up remembering everything that happened, unfortunately.
That didn’t mean he wasn’t disoriented, though. That had to be a pretty powerful sleeping spell to knock him out, just like that—shifters weren’t easily knocked out, thank you very much. He rubbed his head, glad he wasn’t getting a headache and he was still in one piece. Then he slowly assessed his surroundings.
He was no longer in the cottage. In fact, the cottage was nowhere to be seen, as his eyes took in miles after miles of forest that was filled with the strangest group of trees he’d ever seen. There were maple trees with yellow leaves and something he didn’t recognize with purple leaves, and they all filled the area with a riot of colors. It was beautiful.
But it wasn’t right.
His eyes stopped at the lump by his side, covered by a cloak. Her breathing was deep and normal. Sleeping. Without warning, a memory flashed in Hans’ mind—that kiss with her, glorious and shocking and just a tad bit addictive. His inner bear whispered at him to do it again—to do it longer this time until he was steeped in her taste and pleasure was taking them both. His mind? His mind was not so taken in.
Another image flashed: that of the predatory hunger in her eyes, and her mouth filled with blood as she ripped the witch to pieces.
He’d just kissed the enemy.
Had wanted to touch her.
Still did.
A surge of anger filled him at her lies, and he had to fist his hands to stop himself from moving. Anger he could deal with—he’d always gotten angry when things didn’t go his way, and he had worked at it his whole life. Tenacity was something he had in spades, and he’d be damned if he let go of it right now.
This was what things looked like at the moment: the witch who’d put the curse was gone, but the cure was still somewhere North, where she apparently kept everything precious. Last he remembered, that was still his mission.
He couldn’t kill Lena—no, Nell—because she saved his life twice.
Which meant he needed to leave her here and move on.
The lump under the cloak stirred. Then Nell shot up from her spot, eyes wide and fangs out in defense. She looked at him, her expression changing realizing how much she’d revealed—then she was clamping her mouth shut and backing away.
Only the chain between their wrists wouldn’t let her. She got only about a meter away before it strained, a spark of magic lighting it green.
With a growl, he tried to shift—and only got to his claws, with the rest of him stuck in human form. Hans tried to tug at the chains with both hands, willing it to break. His palms went hot, but nothing happened. He tried again, and this time felt a tugging on the other end.
He glared at Nell, a silent warning at her to stop. Not surprisingly, Nell glared back.
“It’s not going to break,” she said. “So stop doing that.”
“How the hell do I know it’s not going to break,” he ground out, “If I don’t do anything about it?”
“Because it’s magic, you idiot!”
“Don’t call me an idiot.”
“Well, you’re hurting my wrist with all your tugging!”
Immediately, he dropped the chain he was gripping like it was on fire. He didn’t notice it earlier, but her wrist did look tender. A few seconds later, her wrist stopped turning pink, but didn’t heal as quickly as he expected. He gave her a puzzled look.
Nell ignored the silent question and gave him a determined look in return.
“You owe me.”
Hans jerked his head, somewhat already expecting that.
“So we need to work together in the meantime. I’m going to hunt rogues and you’re coming with me.”
Hans raised a brow. “I take it you know who I am?”
“You’re a clan leader. And a jerk.”
“Exactly. Which means I don’t take orders from anyone.”
Nell stood up in frustration, and he had no choice but to stand up, too. “Fine. What are you doing here, then?”
He hesitated, then realized there wasn’t anything she could do with the information. “I’m trying to find a cure. That witch gave my clan a disease and I intend to get rid of it.”
“Because you killed her lover?”
“Someone did. Now all bear shifters are being punished for it.”
Sympathy filled her gaze momentarily before she shut it down quickly. Anger surged in him again, because he didn’t need her sympathy.
“I propose since we’re stuck together, we find the cure together and hunt rogues along the way.”
“And the nest,” she added. “They’re nesting and I need to destroy it.”
Well, that was a problem. No matter where they turned, it seemed like rogues were populating like crazy. Hans nodded his head grimly, understanding the vampire leader’s strategy in this case. It was just another way to get Lucinda’s image cleaned up.
“Fine. Are you her lackey or something?”
Nell’s chin went up. “That’s none of your business, Mr. Hans.”
“Hans.” He held out his hand. “I take it we have a deal?”
She eyed his hand warily before finally nodding her head and shaking it. Her palm was warm, a contrast to how he always expected vampires were—cold, always cold. She broke the contact within seconds and cleared her throat.
“Well. I guess we’re partners now,” she declared, false cheerfulness and underlying sarcasm in her voice.
Like hell they were.
*****
They trudged on. It was the only thing to do other than bickering—and heavens knew Nell seemed to be a champion at that. It was now obvious that all her sweetness earlier was a façade as she now argued with him about the direction they needed to take. Nell wanted to just cut through to the forest and hike straight up, right into another lake that was covered with fog and a cave that looked too ominous to be safe. Hans didn’t like it at all and suggested—strongly—that they needed to use the long cut at the side, using the edge of the river connected to the lake, since it was infinitely safer.
She, of course, didn’t like this. At all.
“We would be extra quiet and I’ve got potions to conceal us,” she argued. “It will be just like The Lord of the Rings, except the enemies won’t see us at all!”
She was crazy. No—she was beyond that, because she actually believed what she was saying.
“I don’t trust witch spells any more than I trust my own instincts,” he growled.
And his instincts were telling him that going into that cave was suicide.
Normally, Hans didn’t mind challenges like that—but now wasn’t the time to risk dying, considering the monumental task at hand to save his entire clan. So he stood his ground, while Nell stood hers. In the end, they realized that no one was going to budge, so they reached a compromise: to cross the river straight through and use one of Nell’s makeshift rafts, which she kept in her bag.
It was amazing that she even had something like that. When Nell took out a bamboo box the size of her palm, he didn’t bother to hide his disbelief. All he got was her smirk, right before she clicked a button on the bottom.
The box unfolded into a bamboo mat, which then kept expanding until they had exactly what they needed. She shot him a look before pushing it to the edge of the river, then stepping on it.
Sighing, Hans followed.
Not surprisingly, she also had a foldable paddle, which they alternated using to paddle across. What was surprising was that the river had no current—not upstream or downstream as it went on a straight line, widening at some parts and narrowing at others. They passed by a waterfall, the only part with the current going down, where they had to refold the raft and get it up the waterfall’s starting point. Once there, they placed the raft back in the water and kept paddling.
It was a definite contras
t to the river earlier, which was as normal as any river could be. This only indicated to Hans that the more they climbed up, the stranger the place got—and they needed to be extra careful.
Hans eventually took over the paddling an hour later, with no incidents or attacks happening so far. Nell had wrapped the cloak around herself, claiming that she needed to change her icky clothes, or her pants anyway seeing as changing a shirt hand cuffed would be nothing short of a miracle. He let his senses get a feel of the surroundings, finding nothing alarming so far. They were in the wider part of the river, with the same colorful trees dotting one side and a mountain view on the other. The sun was still up, and he estimated they still had about two to three hours before it disappeared and they had to rest for the night.
Shuffling movements had him turning back again, just in time to see Nell folding up the cloak. She was now wearing new pants showing off a fit, petite body, and her hair was tied back in a ponytail, showing off her slender neck. Blue eyes met his, and his inner bear clawed in response.
But it wasn’t the disgust he was expecting.
Something hot shot up his stomach, spreading through his body and trying to cut off his breath. His instincts told him to take her, to taste her, and he had to wrestle them back inside and smother it.
She was a vampire, he reminded himself.
Not gonna happen.
Her eyes held his for a few seconds before she strode over and held out her hand. “Let me paddle for a bit. You’re muddy and in desperate need of a change.”
“Can’t stand mud, vampire girl?”
She winced at the nickname, but didn’t comment. Hans knew it was a stupid shot, but he wanted to put some distance between them without being overtly antagonizing. When he handed her the paddle, their hands brushed, and he ignored the attraction he felt. Then he went to the edge of the raft and removed his pants, replacing them quickly with clean ones from his bag. He didn’t need a cloak to hide what he was doing, considering shifters didn’t really care about propriety, but he turned around to spare her the frontal details.
When he turned back in her direction, her eyes quickly shot down to the water, almost guiltily.
Hans smirked.
They passed by a narrow part of the river, the trees turning to a dark emerald green and their branches arching towards them and brushing his head when he stood up. So they both knelt down while she paddled, the silence keeping them company as they both listened for any sound.
Hans heard a splash, but it was mild. He concentrated his eyes on the water, watching as a fish the size of his palm jumped out of the water and wiggled. Then it fastened its tiny jaws on the side of the raft, sharp teeth digging in.
More splashes, and more fish fastened on to their raft. He was about to shoo them away with his feet when he felt Nell tense beside him, realization dawning on her face.
“What?”
She snapped her head towards him. “They’re magically-enhanced fish. Like piranha, except they bite on wood.”
He nodded. “They’re small. We can still round the bend and—”
“They have a leader. A mother.”
As soon as the words were out, Hans felt it—his hair prickling and an icy cold sensation running down his spine. It was magic, deep and old, and he felt it down to his bones. Nell shivered beside him, her hands tightening on the paddle until her knuckles turned white.
Something terrible was about to come.
They rounded the bend, the fish on their raft flapping. A large shadow slithered under the water before leaping to the air towards them—huge, like a shark, except its eyes were blood red and its jaws were bigger than the raft. Razor sharp teeth filled its mouth—and its scales were pronounced and dagger-like.
His claws couldn’t kill something that large.
Another one jumped out of the water, leaping towards them.
Hans cursed. Nell dropped the paddle.
They grabbed their bags in lightning speed and jumped towards the shore, feeling some of the small fish jumping to snip at their legs. Hans managed to grab hold of a tree root and pull himself out of the water, throw his bag to the ground and pull Nell up.
Nell was panting and her feet were bleeding.
They both stared at the raft, now completely obliterated.
“Looks like we both walk,” Nell said, looking at her bag. It had torn open during the jump, and now only a few of her items remained.
Hans sighed. Looks like they had no other choice.
CHAPTER TEN
They trudged the rest of the way until night fell, and Nell realized it was steadily getting colder. The temperature dropped to the point that she couldn’t hear the usual forest suspects scurrying around, and could only hear their light footsteps. But she could sense nothing alarming so far.
Until the howl of what sounded like a wolf pierced the air.
Hans stopped at the same time she did. They looked at each other before they climbed a huge tree, with the branches interconnecting and the leaves giving them enough coverage. She religiously dabbed the masking potion all over herself, then handed the bottle to him. Once that was done, Nell made sure her bandaged legs were wrapped tight and no blood was seeping out.
If they were lucky, whatever creatures lurked nearby would leave them alone for the rest of the night.
Nell took first shift, insisting she wasn’t sleepy yet. Darkness surrounded them, the leaves blocking out some of the light from the moon. But her vampire senses allowed her to get attuned with the ground below, and she focused her attention there.
Another howl pierced the air, farther away this time. She didn’t think there were any rogues here, because they didn’t like mingling with other animals—or rather, other animals stayed far away from them.
Thirty minutes later, something shifted in the air—enough for her to try to sniff it. Movement came, but from the top. It smelled like rain, only rain didn’t get you this cold. A white, powdery substance fell on her nose, making it twitch.
Snow.
Of all the things she expected to encounter here, snow wasn’t one of them.
Great. And now all her insulated clothes were gone in the river. Nell pulled her cloak tighter around her, wondering what else wasn’t going to go smoothly. She turned her head towards Hans, who was leaning on the tree beside her with his arms crossed and his eyes closed. The pose had his biceps firming up, and she couldn’t help but stare.
He had been the first in a line of things that had gone wrong—except she knew, deep inside, that he wasn’t as he seemed. The city painted him as a deserter, someone who was selfish and had no care for anyone but himself.
But he was here to save his clan, even when he was healthy.
He’d saved her life once, and attempted to a second time.
It bothered her that she couldn’t get a clear picture of him. Nell liked reading people well—specialized in it, in fact, because it allowed her to observe the people who Lucinda rubbed elbows with. Tics, expressions, body language—anything to tell if their vampire leader was about to be betrayed.
But Hans Grayson was hard to read.
He stirred, a subtle movement, and she whipped her gaze back to her surroundings. She couldn’t let it bother her, because it would throw her off stride. They were only together due to the chain. After this, they would both disappear from each other’s lives.
An hour later, the snow fell more steadily, coating the ground a pristine white. This was troublesome, because now they’d have more visible footsteps on their next trek. She shivered inside her cloak, her vampire body unable to insulate properly and give her the warmth she needed. Lucinda said the longer you were a vampire the stronger you became. In her mind, it only meant one thing.
She had a weakness she needed to fix as soon as possible.
Two and a half hours later, she was numb and trying not to let her teeth chatter. Her hands were ice cold inside her cloak, and rubbing it vigorously would only add unnecessary noise. She wiggled her toes,
feeling pain slice in them. She stifled a curse from her tongue and tried not to feel miserable.
Suddenly she felt herself being pulled, and her fangs came out of her mouth in a flash.
“Jesus. You’re a vampire. Why the hell are you cold?”
Hans’ whispered voice penetrated her numb thoughts, and his breath made her ear warm. Then she became aware of his heat on her back, and his heat wrapped around her arms…his heat everywhere.
He’d basically plopped her in between his seated body and wrapped the cloak around them. His shirt was gone, and his chest was as hot as any furnace.
Nell’s cheeks turned pink, and she was glad he couldn’t see them. But her body had grown warmer, and it was simply the best feeling ever.
“Thank you,” she said through another bout of shivering.
“Why are you cold?” he asked again, his tone serious. Quietly persistent.
She didn’t feel comfortable telling him about her weakness, so Nell attempted a shrug. Her shoulders ended up trembling, and his hands went there to let his own warmth penetrate. She almost jumped at the touch.
He was getting under her skin, and she didn’t like it.
“I just lack sleep,” she reasoned out.
For a moment it felt like he was about to call her out on her lie and argue with her all over again. But Hans surprised her when he only pulled her closer, his hands settling on her stomach area under her shirt and burning her skin.
“Sleep, then,” he murmured.
Nell tried not to, feeling more vulnerable than she ever had in her life. It wasn’t a feeling she savored.
But eventually, drowsiness took over, and his warmth coated her with tropical sunshine.
Nell was asleep before she could even blink.
*****
She woke up with a start, disoriented. Hands squeezed her waist in warning, and Nell went into alert in an instant.
She sensed it before she heard it—movement below them, quiet and measured. Something crunched, then everything stilled. No sound stirred, not even air.
Nell waited it out. She could barely feel Hans’ breath behind her, could barely sense his heartbeat. His posture was heavily controlled, that of a predator patiently waiting out its prey. Ready to strike out at any second. She knew her posture was the same. They were both predators in their own way.
Hans (The Clan Legacy) Page 6