“Christine didn’t kill Mr. Christian,” I ground my teeth together, the rage boiling up. “Luke did.”
Rachel didn’t even flinch. She nodded, “It’s one of the ways to kill a ghost. You have to bind it to a human and kill that human when they are bound.” Rachel pulled into the circular driveway and put the car in park. “I’ll wait for you here.”
“It won’t be long,” I said simply as I got out and made my way to the front door. As I suspected, Hayden was waiting for me when I came inside.
I kept my eyes trained on the floor. I didn’t know what I would find in his eyes and I didn’t know what the sympathy or regret would do to my resolve.
“I just came to get a few things and to tell you I am staying with my mother for a while.” Was that a sniffle that escaped me?
A pained exhale came from Hayden. “I’ve failed you.”
“It wasn’t your fault. It wasn’t anyone’s fault.” Except Luke’s. My eyes glazed over, staring at the Persian rug in the hallway. “Rachel told me about the ultimatum.”
“Hell, if I would have known I’d lose you either way I wouldn’t have bothered trying to keep away from you!”
I swallowed at his intensity. “Either way, you thought I was vulnerable. As soon as you found out what I was it was like you wouldn’t touch me. Why had me being a Hunter changed things? Did you love me in spite of being a human or did you love me because I was human? I’m still me!” My voice cracked at the last bit and I closed my eyes at my screw up. Stay emotionless. Stay strong.
“That’s ridiculous, Ana! I was doing it for you! Look at me dammit!” He appeared in front of me where I was standing by the stairs. I looked up, but kept my eyes focused on something behind him because my throat was becoming thick and I was afraid I’d cry. No tears.
“When I said I can sense how you feel, I meant it.” He went on, “If you were full Hunter, you would have known that, you would have known how I felt about you without me ever having to say a word. I wanted to give you space, I wanted to be with you when you were 100 percent sure that was what you wanted. I want all of you Ana. I want you to want all of me, too. When you become a Hunter your senses are magnified. That goes for your emotions, too. I was afraid that any doubt you felt for us would be magnified. I didn’t want you to resent me. I didn’t think you were vulnerable, quite the opposite. I didn’t want you to resent me because you still have a lot of changes to go through. And what if after going through those changes—I am not the one you want. As your mother said, you are a Queen, I am simply your soldier.
Did he actually doubt my feelings for him? I opened my mouth to protest but he cut me off. “It doesn’t matter now anyway. You are going to the plantation and we are leaving New Orleans.”
That threw my emotionless faux state out the window. “What?”
“We have to leave. We are going back to my parents' in Tampa for a while. What Luke did won’t go unnoticed. We need to lay low for a while. New Orleans isn’t like it was. It’s a more grown-up city now since Hurricane Katrina. We can’t get away with what we used to. Even Troy couldn’t cover this one up.”
“You’re leaving me?”
One corner of his lip curled up, “I’m not leaving you Ana. I was going to ask you to come with me. You are leaving to your mother's now.”
My mouth was open but nothing would come out. “I—“
“It’s the right decision.” He nodded. Could Hunters cry? Because I thought I saw his eyes glisten. “You deserve that life with your mother. You deserve to be away with all the pain I have caused you.”
“Stop it!” I shouted and dared to reach out and put a hand on his shoulder. It was a hesitant touch at first, then it became a stroke and I trailed both hands now down his chest. A deep groan sounded from the back of his throat. “I love you. I really do.”
“How come I feel like there is a ‘but’ attached to that statement?”
“But you’re right. I need to figure out things. I can’t be the person I was. The girl that was weak, that cried easily and fret over things she could or couldn’t change... I need to figure out who I am and what I am capable of.”
He bit his lower lip and looked to the heavens with a pained expression. Finally, his head came back down and he nodded. “Fine.” He nodded again; I wondered if it was more for himself. “But don’t you dare think yourself weak for having a big heart. The girl that cries during those damn puppy commercials but didn’t bat an eyelash when I pulled her in my truck and kidnapped her. I fell in love with that girl.”
I took a step back from him. “I—I can’t. Mr. Christian died!”
“I know. And I am sorry. I am so damn sorry, Ana.” He tried to pull me toward him and I fought him. He pulled his arms around me and I beat my fists against his chest and tried to fight the sobbing that was racking my chest. “It’s okay.”
My protests were muffled. And I relaxed, letting him hold me in mind-numbing bliss for the last time in who knows how long. We stood there for the longest time, perfectly still and silent until I heard the engine of a car pull into the driveway. I pulled back like I had been doing something I shouldn’t have been.
“It’s just Christopher and Elizabeth.”
I nodded. Then wondered if Luke was with them. I wasn’t ready to see Luke again. Not yet. When I did I wanted to be ready. I wanted to know how to kill a Hunter because when I saw him again, I would have to kill him.
“I guess this is goodbye.” There was an odd detachment from my voice.
He licked his lips sadly. “I will wait for you, Ana. However long it takes. I will wait for you.”
I looked away from his intense gaze. Hayden gave me the opportunity to respond but I just stood there stupidly until he walked away. He let out a regretful noise as he opened the door, then with no other words the door slammed behind him.
Chapter Twenty Six
“I’ll be right out.” I called my mother from my cell phone and then left it permanently on the table in the foyer. I walked up the stairs to my room to change out of the dress, knowing I would be more comfortable in jeans for whatever my mother had planned for me. I planned to leave everything behind as I didn’t have anything that truly belonged to me except my charm necklace and the journal Hayden had given me.
Every move I made was deliberate and calm. It took all my concentration to place my hand on the railing, lift one foot and set it on the next step, and repeat. Place hand on door knob, twist gently and push. I suppose thinking about that was better than letting the flood gates open to all the emotions I had to have in me. My grief for Mr. Christian, my joy for having my mother, my love for Hayden, my hatred for Luke. I was a walking contradiction. I tore my mask off and threw it on the bed. Now if I could just get out of this dress that easily. I reached my arm behind my back, struggling to find the top of the laces. I felt a hand brush up against my skin and the laces slowly being loosened. I spun around to find Luke standing in front of me. Luke.
“What are you doing here?” Hatred dripped with each word.
He didn’t reply, only stalking my every move as I backed up. “Get away from me, Luke.” I backed into my dresser. “Leave me alone. My mother is in the car outside.” I used her as a warning.
He looked up at me through his eyelashes, his eyebrows were drawn together and he was exhaling forcibly. I didn’t at first comprehend this look Luke had on him, and then I understood. He was Hunting. I looked down at his hand in which he held a small vile filled with an amber liquid. I sighed from relief. No weapons, but did Luke really need a weapon? And why did he have what looked like a potion? I turned and ran as soon as it dawned on me.
Luke grabbed my arm before I even took a step. He bent down, pulling me backward over his knee. The cork flew off the vile and he held it to my mouth. “Drink” his voice vibrated. It was like he was possessed.
I pressed my lips together and shook my head, too stunned to speak let alone scream for help.
Luke grabbed my face, forcing my mouth
open. The liquid burned as it went into my mouth, somehow working down my throat. I sputtered, trying to spit the liquid out. Luke shut my mouth with his hands. “Swallow,” he now instructed.
I shook my head again, tears now spilling down my cheeks. The liquid was burning in my mouth. It was almost as painful as the fact that Luke was trying to kill me.
He growled and I trembled in his arms. His lips twitched but he didn’t hesitate before pinching my nose shut. I tried to take a breath but my lungs just constricted without air. The pain in my chest and burning in my mouth was too hard to bear. I moaned from under him, pleading with my eyes to have him release my jaw.
“Swallow first.”
The liquid slid down my throat and he let me go, I flew across the room, gasping for air the entire time. I could feel the liquid burn as it went down my throat, and into my stomach. I felt a similar burning sensation through my veins and the feeling spread as it made its way through my blood stream, and finally to my heart.
Epilogue
Damn. This is not how I thought it’d go down. What is this emotion that I feel? Guilt? Remorse? No, how can I feel that when I have the girl of my dreams sleeping on my lap. We are in the backseat, Ana in the middle of Hayden and I as our parents drive us back to the beach house in Tampa. But damn, everyone is pissed at me. Everyone except the only one who matters: Ana. I know I maybe didn’t go the best route in getting her to fall in love with me. Forcing her to drink a love potion is pretty unforgivable according to my family. But I couldn’t help it. I love her. I love her so damn much. I place my arm around her. She is mine.
“Get your hands off my girlfriend.” Hayden is pissed.
“What?” I try to play it off. “I’m keeping her warm. And I don’t know if she would agree that she is your girlfriend anymore.”
That pisses him off even more. “The only reason I’m not killing you is because she’d hate me. Although if she wasn’t under your spell, I’m sure she’d kill you herself.”
“Well more power to ya then.” I sneak at glance at our parents who are doing a bad job at pretending not to hear our conversation.
“She will always be mine. It doesn’t matter what kind of potion you gave her that will fake these feelings towards you. When she had free will, she chose me.”
I shrug slightly, careful not to wake up Ana. He is pissing me off and I can’t help but to make him angrier. Now he knows exactly how I felt all those times seeing him with Ana, seeing Ana love him and kiss him. Just the mere memory was enough to drive me insane. “You should be thanking me. If it wasn’t for me, she never would have gone with us. She would have stayed in New Orleans and neither of us would have had her.”
“You are irritatingly naïve, Luke. It wasn’t our decision to make. If she chose to stay, then so be it! It is far better than the fate you bestowed upon her.”
“Oh, this is coming from the guy who kidnapped her.” Heavy sarcasm.
“That was to keep her safe!”
“And that’s what I am doing now. She wouldn’t have been safe in New Orleans without our protection. And don’t get me started on her mother…”
“All I want to know is what the hell did you have to do to get that potion?” Hayden swore. He must be really losing it.
“None of your damn business. Just be glad that she is with us and we can protect her again.”
“Don’t think for one second I agree with what you’ve done, or am grateful whatsoever. I would rather have her in New Orleans alone than in love with you,” he spit out the last words.
“If you can’t have her then no one can? That’s pretty selfish coming from you.”
“She is not an object, Luke.”
“I don’t care, she is mine.”
“Don’t think for one second I will allow you to bind to her.”
“So, what, you’re going to just let her remain mortal?”
“Yes. Until, I find a cure.”
“There is no cure!” He is in major denial that this is happening.
“I will never stop looking for a cure.”
Missed Tempest? Want more of the Boudreaux brothers? Read on for a preview of Tempest in Hayden’s POV!
Hayden Boudreaux couldn't decide which was worse— that he was falling in love with a mortal or that the only way to break his family's centuries-old curse would be to kill her. Of all that he was certain was the more time he spent with her, the more he knew he would do anything to protect Adriana Alexander, including sacrificing his eternity. What he wouldn't expect was that Luke - his brother that hated Ana, who wanted to kill her - would decide he would want her as his own.
Chapter One
"We are such stuff as dreams are made on, rounded with a little sleep"
-Tempest by William Shakespeare.
What had I become? I hadn’t even bothered paying for the car I was driving. Worse, it was as if I didn’t even give the stealing a second thought, like it was second nature to just take and not think of the consequences to others. Wasn’t that exactly what the Supernatural thought they were? Super, as in superior to the normal, tedious doings of the human world? So what if the entire human world depended on the balance that we as Hunters gave it? What I do is nothing to be proud of. I would never be arrogant about it like some of the others…
My hand clenched the leather of the steering wheel at the thought. It took me a while to get off the main road. Soon, the entrance appeared through the vegetation. This was Louisiana and in swamp territory, what’s not there one minute can appear the next. Unfortunately, the same theory applied to the opposite. I turned into the unpaved entrance. The thin, one-lane road was the only thing cutting through the swamp. As I drove, the trees were becoming thicker, almost more sinister, like they knew what the end of this road held. I was almost there, I could smell it. It was the scent of incense, of candlewood, of death.
I pulled in front of the run-down house, barely putting the car in park before running to the front door. I was already doing everything else in supernatural mode, why not go all in? The humor almost led to a smile.
Sansha was at the door before I could give it another thought. She wasn’t surprised in the least to see me. Of course not. Giving me her pearl-and-gold smile, she held out the door for me to enter.
I kicked away empty bottles as I walked into her clutter. I would never pretend to understand the supernatural. Although, Sansha did chose to live in this modest house and that was something I could understand.
I realized that I hadn’t said a word of greeting, which may have triggered the intense silence between us. Before I could offer a hello, she spoke.
“I hear you were out of your territory.”
“You hear or see?”
She laughed without humor.
“I needed to get away. I think even you could understand that,” I offered as an explanation.
She nodded. “Your brother is doing well.” I scoffed, because I didn’t remember asking about him. “You on the other hand,” she continued, while giving me a once-over, “you’ve really let yourself go, haven’t you? What a waste, having a human form!” She laughed with a little more humor this time.
“I was human. This is my form,” I bit out. I wondered what she saw in me and I looked down at my bare torso. It was no wonder, I wasn’t even properly dressed.
“Mmm,” was all she replied as she left me to sit on a chair.
“So, why am I here?” I remembered my human courtesies and sat down across from her.
She regarded me for a while and I was silent, letting her play her games.
Her mouth parted for a while before the words came out, “I think it’s time to go back to New Orleans.”
“I was just in New Orleans taking care of that vampire situation.”
“I meant for good.” She leaned back in her chair, her braids thrown over her shoulders. “Are you still planning on destroying yourselves just to break the curse?”
I clenched my jaw and gave her a curt nod. Did everyone know
what we were planning? That we would rather not exist at all then have to continue to serve the Underworld?
“What if there was another way? Would you do it? How far would you go to be released from the hold of the Underworld?”
“Anything,” I said with slightly more emotion. She already knew the answer.
“Kill?”
I scoffed. Wasn’t that what I was created to do?
“A human?”
About the Author
Jenna-Lynne Duncan graduated from the University of St. Thomas with degrees in Political Science, International Studies and Middle Eastern Studies. She is the author of the popular young adult novel Hurricane, and the novella Tempest. She is currently working on a fourth Hurricane novel as well as another YA series. Besides writing, Jenna-Lynne likes children and traveling. Preferably together.
To know more about Jenna-Lynne, please visit her website at www.Jenna-Lynne.com
About the Publisher
Stolen Kiss Press is the publisher of the Hurricane series by Jenna-Lynne Duncan.
Stolen Kiss Press specializes in heart-stopping, page-turning, haunting romance in all genres.
For more information visit www.StolenKissPress.weebly.com
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