The Jaded Hunter

by Michelle M. Pillow

  “I’m nothing like you. I’ll run and you’ll never find me. I’ll keep running.”

  “Where will you go, little vampire?” His lips turned up in cruel mocking. “Back to your uncle? Do you think he will take back his little vampiric niece with open arms or ready stake?”

  Jaden paled. He was right. She had no one, nothing but him, and Tyr was cold comfort at the moment. She’d died once and wasn’t so eager to face the pain of it again. She was tired. She saw an eternity of hate and torture stretch out before her. She felt a never-ending wave of heartache and hell.

  In a whisper she heard as loud as a scream, he added, “Do you think he would spare you? When he stabbed his own vampiric sister?”

  Jaden’s throat tightened in horror. What game was this? Her mother had never been turned. Mack told her she’d never been turned. Mack told her a lot of things. Were they all lies? And didn’t Tyr say Rhona was never turned or had he just let her assume she wasn’t? Hadn’t he said he saw the vampire’s report? Had he lied to her too? She was so confused. She couldn’t think, couldn’t reason.

  Tyr watched her with unbearable superiority. His mouth opened again to speak and she couldn’t stop him, couldn’t block him out.

  “Or will he use you like he did the others?” Tyr whispered. Jaden blinked in confusion, but he didn’t notice as he strode away from her. When he returned, he dumped the heavy file on her chest with a thud. Jaden moaned, pushing the weight to the side. The folder slid to rest beside her on the floor. He persisted, “Will he do to you what was done to them?”

  “Please, Tyr, end it now. Finish me or let me go.”

  “Who better to keep you than the vampire you love?” His eyes still did not lessen in their icy rage. “Does your heart sing now that we will spend eternity together?”

  Jaden flinched to hear her words thrown back at her so hatefully.

  “The council—”

  Tyr ignored her as he raged on. “And I’m going to punish you, naughty vampire, for your mortal sins.”

  “The council will find me guilty.” Her laughter that followed was hard and humorless and a bit wild. “You’ll never have me for an eternity.”

  “Yes, it’s possible you will know the death you’ve dealt so much of.”

  Suddenly, feeling another presence, Tyr whipped his neck around to the bedroom entryway. His old friend Shiva stood quietly in the entrance watching. His eyes roamed briefly over Tyr’s lack of attire before glinting with great amusement. Then, Shiva’s gaze went to the newly turned woman on the ground. Coming to Tyr’s side, he looked down his nose at Jaden. Jaden stared fearfully back.

  “Is this the dhampir, then?” Shiva asked quietly, tilting his head as he studied the woman before turning away with a dismissive shrug.

  “Yes,” Tyr whispered. He too left her, turning his back on her helpless state.

  “Get dressed,” Shiva said with a small chuckle, though he was hardly affected by the sight of his naked friend. “I’ll get food. You must be hungry after such a rough turning.”

  Tyr watched the knight leave his bedroom. He quickly donned his clothes, ignoring the solemn eyes that followed every moment from the bedroom floor. His stomach tightened. His heart lurched. He realized he was late in delivering the dhampir and that the council had sent Shiva to check up on him. He grimaced with annoyance over it. The deceitful wench should have left well enough alone.

  “Yes,” Shiva said from the door, holding two bags. He tossed one to Tyr. His slender body held still as Tyr set the blood packet aside. It would seem his blood supply was well intact. Just one more detail Jaden had lied about. The Rakshasa knight continued, “They did send me after you. What has happened here? Why is the guilty one turned?”

  Tyr frowned, taking more care with his thoughts. He didn’t like Shiva referring to Jaden in such a way, but he didn’t correct him. How could he? It was true. She was guilty.

  Tyr changed his language, speaking in Shiva’s native tongue. All the knights taught each other their culture and language so they could speak without being detected. Shiva glanced quizzically at the change but easily slipped into the old words. Tyr gave a condensed version of what transpired, leaving out their passion. Bitterly, he finished with, “She tricked me into the prison and locked me in. That is why we’re late. You’ll have to watch this one. She is cunning beyond measure and she is deceitful beyond imagination.”

  “Ah,” Shiva said in understanding. He moved across the room with the graceful steps of a dancer. “She forced you to attack. Then you did right in changing her. Otherwise, you would have failed in your mission to bring her to the council and you cannot glean information from the mind of a dead human.”

  Tyr knew that Shiva’s acceptance of his story would hold weight with the elders. The word of two Dark Knights would be beyond question.

  Shiva glanced to the folder at Jaden’s side. Picking it up, he thumbed through it. Tyr’s first impulse was to stop him. He didn’t. He held back. Laying the folder on the table, Shiva read a page as he sucked thoughtfully on a bag of human blood.

  Finishing the drink, he threw it into the puke bucket. Motioning to the page, he questioned, slipping back into English, “Her?”

  Tyr nodded. Shiva glared down at Jaden with a look of utter disgust. Jaden tried to shake her head. Shiva ignored her.

  Throwing his empty bag next to Shiva’s, Tyr picked up the bucket. He whisked it from the room, discarding it away from his home.

  When they were alone, Shiva came over Jaden. Reaching down, he touched her face, turning it from one side to the other in inspection. “I have heard many things of you, dhampir, but none as fierce as this.”

  Jaden marveled at his meditative demeanor, but was too weak to ask. Shiva pulled back her gums to inspect her teeth. Jaden knocked her head back, trying to escape his hand. He followed her shaky movements with ease. Satisfied with what he saw, he stood.

  Tyr strode back into the room. Grabbing his jacket from his trunk, he slid it stiffly over his broad shoulders.

  “Come, Shiva, the night is young. Let us begin our journey.” His gaze was cold as he directed it briefly at Jaden.

  She could detect no emotion in him, despite her blood within his veins, despite the intimacy of their past and the profound gift he had just bestowed upon her—asked for or not. Jaden’s mouth opened to speak. She felt her new heart beating, the ache in it worse than before. She wanted to cry, but tears wouldn’t fall.

  Tyr turned contemptuously away. “And grab that one there. I have a vehicle nearby that will shade her new body from the sunny night.”

  Tyr didn’t wait to see if Shiva listened. As he strode past the fireplace, he squelched the flames with a wave of his hand, throwing the cave into completely tomb-like darkness. The knights were fine without the light and Jaden was afforded a chance to test her new vision, as Shiva dragged her by the delicate strands of her hair out of Tyr’s cave home.

  * * *

  Jaden was kept in the dark. Though it was night, the dawn-dusk of the sky was dangerous to her new skin. The trio traveled south through Norway, taking a night ferry across the water to Denmark.

  Tyr barely looked at her, except to glare. Jaden’s vampiric strength grew after her first day of sleep. Though, she had the distinct feeling that, without her, Tyr and Shiva could’ve moved faster across the earth.

  Shiva bound and gagged her at Tyr’s request to keep her from exploring her newfound powers. Once Shiva had her limbs bound, she caught a small glimmer of manly interest in Tyr as he studied her in her restraints. The glimpse sent a rush of excitement through her. The look faded so quickly she began to doubt it was there at all. Her hands had been left to dangle above her head. She fought the ties but could no more cut through them than she could cut through Tyr’s blatant hatred of her.

  At the first of the night, Tyr and Shiva would leave her to feed. When they returned, Tyr would tear off her gag and shove a squirming rat dispassionately into her face. In the beginning Jaden tr
ied to resist, but the pull was too strong and she was forced to bite into the hairy creature to eat. The stiff fur poked at her lips as the animal squirmed against her mouth. Her eyes shot daggers into Tyr’s, refusing to be subdued by him. Tyr’s gently mocking laughter stung, holding no affection, only scorn. Shiva blinked heavily in disgust, turning his back on her, unable to watch.

  During the feared daylight, they would sleep in old crypts, surrounded by skeletal bodies and musty clothes. Jaden was glad she wasn’t forced to breathe in the stagnant dust. Although she had the eerie sensation other vampires were around, they didn’t seek them out. In fact, Jaden felt Shiva and Tyr cloaking their presence from the others.

  From Denmark they traveled on the top of a train through Germany. In Germany, Tyr arranged for a private plane to fly them over most of Eastern Europe. They landed in an empty field in Macedonia. The pilot glanced only once at Jaden, not showing the bound woman any concern. Tyr directed him in German so she couldn’t understand how it was he explained her presence.

  Tyr refused to speak directly to her, though she caught him staring at her. His dislike made her skin crawl and the pain in her chest intensify tenfold. Shiva was more benevolent with his words, ordering her quietly in one direction and then the other as he led her about on a rope. He too would stare at her, his eyes roaming curiously over her disheveled hair and dirt-smudged face. She wondered if Shiva detected Tyr’s scent on her.

  Jaden was forced to piece together the new abilities of her vampire body alone. As she slept in a smelly Macedonian crypt next to her guards, she awoke in a panic to find herself levitating next to the ceiling. Her struggles alerted Shiva and Tyr. The former who laughed in amusement, the latter who grunted and pulled so hard on her ropes she was forced helplessly into the ground with a hard smack to the concrete earth. The landing left her dazed, her eyes rolling in her head.

  Even under the stress of her dire treatment, the nights moved too quickly for Jaden. As they crossed the border into Greece, her heart fell from her chest to the pit of her stomach. Part of her waited, hoping to hear a tender word from Tyr, some gentle reassurance that he would take care of her. Her body longed for his as it had before, only worse now that she had the passionate nature of the beast so newly developed in her. There were times when she felt so needy of him, she was sure she could break through her binds and ravish him in front of Shiva as witness. But then his eyes would turn to her, probing and dark as if he read her longing for him, and she’d force the temptation aside. There was only cold emptiness inside Tyr when he looked at her. Tears wouldn’t come to her eyes, though her nose burned with them. Inside her chest there was a deep physical ache that made her want to retch with the force of her unreturned feelings.

  On the last night before they would take a boat over to the Island of Mykonos to meet the vampire council’s boatman, Jaden was released from her bonds. Shiva cut them from her with his fingernails. Jaden looked at him, blinking in surprise.

  Seeing her fear, he didn’t comment, but handed her a large fish plucked from the sea. His body was still wet from his swim in the cold ocean, the little beads of water glistening on his skin. Jaden smelled the meager blood supply and bit hungrily into it as he watched. His eyes didn’t judge her as she ate her unappetizing meal. When she finished, she tossed it aside. Resentment warred within her, as she managed a grudging, “Thanks.”

  “Come,” Shiva bid her, standing. He walked through sand to the edge of the ocean.

  Jaden followed him, dread poking in her stomach. Her limbs were a little weak from malnourishment, but she didn’t complain as she trailed over the beach. Shiva led her to the calm rolling waters. Pointing out over the dark depths lighted by a round bright moon, he bid her, “Look.”

  Jaden did. She fell to her knees in the white sand, transfixed by the celestial orb. She saw it so clearly, her vision picking out craters and valleys in the bright blue light. The sight entranced her into mindless wonder.

  “It is the vampire sun,” Shiva said, kneeling next to her.

  Jaden turned to look at him. His hand touched the white sand, letting it fall through his fingers. The wind picked up the grains, blowing them across Jaden’s lap. She watched the tiny granules glistening with a silvery white cast all around her.

  “And these,” Shiva said, waving his hand to encompass the endless beach, “are the sands of a vampire’s life.”

  Jaden swallowed, not sure she got his meaning. She blinked, studying his solemn, pale face. He was so slender, so beautiful to behold. His dark eyes were nearly black and beckoned without intending to. She became entranced by him.

  Shiva didn’t pay attention to her enthralled look, pretending not to notice how she stared at his face, his lips, in total fascination as if she could suddenly kiss him. He knew well she felt no real desire for him, above the basest of desires all those recently turned felt in their new forms. Taking a handful of sand, he let it fall again, drawing her attention away from his mouth. “This was your mortal life—short, over. You are now like this beach, as are we all—long and unending. No longer can you predict the number of grains in your life for they cannot be counted. And when you do reach the end of them, the ocean will just wash more up for you.”

  Jaden read the meaning in his eyes, the obscure coming into reason. She was one of them, like it or not. He was telling her to accept it, to choose a new alliance. She felt a peace inside of him. He was giving her hope, comfort, in the only way he could.

  Turning to look up the beach at Tyr, he sighed. “And, like us, you have an eternity to right a wrong.”

  Jaden shivered, knowing this knight knew much more than he let on. Shiva stood, leaving her alone on the sand. Jaden turned to watch Tyr. His strong, proud face glowed in the moonlight. Her love for him hit her like an impacting wave—powerful and all consuming. If she felt it after her change, then maybe Tyr was capable of feeling it too. Maybe she had been blind. Maybe she had misjudged him.

  Needing to tell him, she shot to her feet. Weakly, she stumbled across the deserted beach to reach him. Tyr didn’t move to help her. His eyes stayed steadily focused on her every movement. Jaden came to stand just below him. She looked up into his masked features. A vague hope struggled for life within her chest.

  “Tyr, I—” she began.

  His hard look cut off her words. “Tomorrow we meet with the council. I have received word that the boatman will be ready.”

  Jaden nodded. She trembled in fear. For a moment, she thought she felt Tyr soften towards her. If he would just hold her, she could face anything—her uncle, the council, eternity. She waited breathlessly, unable to speak, unable to sing the joy choking to life in her chest. Her lips parted. Tyr turned away. Her hope withered. The joy died.

  Jaden watched the hard line of his back, knowing automatically that she was to follow behind. Her eyes worked wildly over his long hair. The blond locks were tied back, away from his handsome face. She tried in vain to reason with her sorrow. Her heart sank deeper into the pit of despair. After tomorrow she might not have an eternity. For, if Tyr wouldn’t champion her, the council would be sure to vote against her. However, if she did by some miracle survive, she doubted forever was enough time to make Tyr realize she was sorry and that she truly did love him.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Island of Mykonos, Cyclades

  Tyr sensed Jaden shivering beside him. He knew it wasn’t the cool island night that made her tremble. She was scared. She had been ever since they left his cave. He tried to block her from him, as he had most of the trip, not trusting her emotions as genuine. But as they stood on the silent beach, the partying crowd of Mykonos’ nightlife behind them, he couldn’t help but hear the strained beating of her heart.

  Every fiber inside him urged him to touch her. His lips hungered for her kisses. But he held firm, knowing he must hide his feelings well before they were detected by the elders. He knew Shiva already suspected.

  Besides, Tyr couldn’t forget Jaden’s deceptions. Tim
e hadn’t lessened the pain of her lies. She had rekindled emotions inside him that were long dead, only to dash them into an earthen tomb once more. In centuries he hadn’t dared to feel tenderness of such a magnitude, and she used it to trick him.

  Trust me. I love you. The words morphed in his head until they blended into a silent song of torment that wouldn’t leave him.

  Centuries had passed and no one had loved him. They’d been enthralled by him, enchanted. He’d been desired, lusted for in many ways. He’d even been pursued by women who didn’t know his secrets. More than that, he had been feared, despised, revered, but never loved. And for her to pretend such a cruel thing, to make him hope only to take it away was a brutality much worse than that of endless time.

  From the corner of his eye, Tyr saw Jaden eyeing him. He pretended to ignore her.

  “Tyr?” she questioned.

  Tyr kept his eyes on the water, waiting for the boatman to come. The sooner the boat came, the sooner it was over.

  “Won’t you talk to me?” she insisted.

  “And what would you have me say, princess?” The endearment was not tender. It hung between them like a bitter irony choking in the bowels of the underworld.

  “What will they do to me?” Jaden’s fingers lifted absently to her mouth, feeling the sharp fangs.

  “Are you scared they will treat you as you have treated others?” Tyr thought of the folder in the satchel behind him.

  Jaden shivered again. She glanced at Shiva standing several yards away, nearly hidden by shadows. The slender knight paid them no mind. She dared a glance at Tyr. He was so strong and proud and he had lived through so much. She was a fool for daring to hope he could think more tenderly of her than the centuries of others that came before her. She loved him so much, and yet she was nothing to him.