by R. Sullins
I heard each set of the group check in with their location and “all clear” and Crispin did the same quietly. There was so much silence. That’s when it hit me. The silence. There was no sound around us, in the trees, there wasn’t even any sound around the pond. Shouldn’t there be croaking bullfrogs around the pond on the lily pads?
I came to an abrupt stop, tugging on Crispin’s hand. He turned to look at me with a question in his eyes, but they immediately flashed to silver and I saw his fangs elongate and press into his lower lip. It made me shiver with hot pleasure at the sight of this alpha male displaying a fierce dominance until I came to my senses and realized now was most definitely not the time. Especially when the putrid stench of rot filled the air around us.
Turning slowly, I looked around. There were no visible signs of the revenants but there was a heaviness to the air. The smell was the strongest indicator. I heard Crispin give the group our location and the details so far. Still no sign of the revenants but I could swear the stench was getting stronger.
I unsnapped the scabbard and slowly drew my sword while Crispin did the same with his two. We stood back to back, something we had practiced many times over the weeks. We had become very comfortable and had gotten to where we could anticipate each other’s moves. It also helped that Crispin could communicate with me telepathically which I had found out during our training sessions. Crispin believed it was because we were growing a closer bond between us. He had explained most vampire mates were able to communicate that way. Learning about vampires, their abilities and Crispin himself was an ongoing experience.
“I see 3 sets of eyes in the darkness in front of me.”
Crispin’s voice caused my heart to jump but on the outside I held steady as I searched deeper into the reigning darkness. There, and there, two more there. One in the tree. “Oh my god Crispin, there are five over here. There’s one in the tree to my right.”
“Steady, Hunter, let your instincts guide you.”
There was an underlying steeliness to his voice, an indicator that he was pissed off. He’d told me before that revenants don’t hunt in packs, the last time they did they managed to kill the last leader’s mate of the area and caused many other deaths. Why had we heard of revenant activity but not of any deaths? With a group this large there should have been a sweep of deaths throughout the city. Instead, they were here, clustered in a tight group in a remote city park.
“They led us here.” I gasped at the unexpected shock of such a thing. It required thinking and planning, something revenants were supposed to be unable to do.
“Yes.” Crispin’s agreement was short, sharp. He’d come to the conclusion far faster than me.
“Why?” It was a whisper that received no answer because at that moment, with a blur of movement, 4 of them charged at once.
An ear-piercing screech came from the one in the tree as it hurled itself in my direction along with one from the ground. I moved back to defend myself at the same time Crispin moved to my left to avoid the 2 that came running at him from the opposite side. We were now several feet apart and facing down four of the eight revenants. I lost sight of the others as I focused on the two in front of me.
With a slash at one, I sliced through its chest, the stench enough to have my stomach heave. Swallowing back the saliva that pooled in my mouth, I spun to pierce the other one in the heart but it danced back out of reach of my sword. The one with the slash wound screeched and ran forward, this time close enough for me to swing my sword and sever the head. It rolled away while another revenant came running forward to take the fallen one’s place.
I kept my eyes between the two, not able to take my eyes off them to check my back. I could see Crispin fighting with the two that had attacked him, they were doing the same with him, lunging forwards alternately, forcing Crispin to step backward while slashing his sword. He plunged his sword through one and another ran forward to take its place.
“What is happening Crispin?”
“This is not normal behavior Hunter, be on your guard, they are separating us.”
I continued my slashing and stabbing with the sword while grabbing my dagger from its sheath on my thigh. I had to focus fully on the revenants in front of me as they were dancing ever closer, making me step back. The distance between Crispin and myself was growing further.
I heard in my ear the static of the radio, the others were on their way but had met with a few more revenants. None of this was like what I had been taught over the months I had been training. Something was very wrong with this behavior. These monsters were supposed to be mindless but they were working together.
I managed to cut the arm off another one and used my dagger to slice the throat of the next. I’d lost count of the revenants that had surrounded us and how many were left.
Suddenly I felt a hand wrap around my throat from behind, startling me enough to drop my sword when I reached up to grab the hand. I also nearly missed the revenant that charged at me from the front. Luckily, I still had my dagger and raised it in just enough time to stab it through the heart. I had a heart-stopping moment of fear when I felt the dagger glance off a rib first but then felt it slide between and into the chest cavity. The revenant collapsed at my feet before turning into a sludgy mess.
The hand at my throat tightened, trying to drag me further into the trees. I couldn’t see Crispin anymore, I was too far away. I grabbed the hand that held me, but I kept sliding off it because the skin had sloughed off with my clawing and struggles, now it was just a stinking, gooey mass, its bones digging deep into my throat, cutting off my air.
“Hold on, I am coming to you, my Hunter.”
I realized I still managed to hold onto my dagger, so I swung back with it, trying to calculate where the monster’s head would be. The dagger glanced off its head making it screech in fury. I readied myself for another swing, my ears ringing. Through the ringing, I heard “Huuunnntterrr.” It was a raspy sound, one that held little air and was frightening to the core of my being. They talk?
I swung with all my might and felt the sharpest blade I’d ever held sink into the cranial cavity of the revenant. I felt the hand disappear from my throat and started to fall just as I saw a giant black wolf come crashing through the trees with agility and amazing speed, a speed that I was able to see with my inherent born Hunter senses.
I fell in an ungraceful heap onto my ass. No revenant was below me, instead, I sat in a dark puddle of rancid goo. Crispin reached me and whimpered, nuzzling my face, his eyes frantically searching for injuries before stopping on my neck. I started to reach for the spot, feeling the sting before he stopped me by nudging my hand aside. I looked at my hand and saw it covered in dissolved revenant. The shudder that went through me was deep down to my bones.
Then we heard the tires of a vehicle squeal as it took off behind me. When I looked back I could see that just beyond the trees was the street.
“Do you think it was a human?” My voice was shakier than I wanted it to be, betraying the terror I felt still running through me.
“It’s possible.”
He had changed back into his human form. I was sad that I missed the transformation and tried to remind myself to ask him to do it for me sometime soon. He motioned for a couple of his sentinels, Ariel and male I didn’t know, to chase down the vehicle. The vampires took off with inhuman speed to chase it down.
Crispin hauled me to my feet and tore off his shirt, giving me a glorious view of his amazing chest and abs. He used the shirt to gently wipe the gore and blood away from the holes in my neck. “You are lucky, Miss Moore, that the injuries are not closer to your jugular.” Yes, I knew that as well, a Hunter is naturally stronger and able to heal quickly, however, they are still too human to survive a serious injury, including one where their artery is punctured or ripped out.
“Its fingers weren’t in the right position to grip me there,” I said, my voice still slightly raspy from the feeling of having my larynx squeezed.
&
nbsp; Jared jogged in through the trees, having stayed back from the fighting, not strong enough as a human to survive a fight with revenants. He held my sword and a few other weapons others must have dropped or discarded in the fight. When he reached us he bent to retrieve the dagger that lay in the puddle of goo at my feet. “I’ll, umm, clean this up and return it.” He held the dagger with two finders by the hilt and I burst out laughing at the disgusted look on his face. He looked over at me with a scowl on his face until it changed to a look of concern. “You ok there, princess?”
Crispin responded with a curt, “She’ll be fine” before picking me up and running back toward our vehicles.
“Crispin?” I lay my hand against his cheek while looking at his glowing silver eyes.
“Not now, my Hunter.” Well then, it looked like Crispin had his own demons to work through. I sighed and huddled against his chest, exhaustion suddenly taking over my body.
We piled back into the cars, me on Crispin’s lap when Rhys spoke up. “That wasn’t normal.”
“No, it wasn’t” Crispin’s voice was still short and full of… something. Anger perhaps, but that seemed wrong too.
“They worked as a team.”
“Yes.”
Yes, they worked as a team. They separated us, herding me into the woods and toward a street, possibly toward a waiting vehicle. “That last one spoke to me.” Silence.
Suddenly the temperature in the vehicle seemed to drop several degrees as Crispin’s fury rolled like a tangible thing through the car. His arms tightened around me so tight I nearly had to fight for breath.
“As it was dragging me it said to me ‘hunter’ before I killed it.” I took as deep a breath as his arms would allow me and looked into his still glowing eyes. “I take it that’s not normal?”
“Nothing about this night has been normal, Miss Moore.” He used to say my name like that as a way to distance us but now, as he ran his nose up the curve of my ear, it no longer felt like derision but rather an endearment. Though I did like ‘my hunter’ better. Or when he called me ‘baby’. I liked that one a lot. I had a distinct impression that he never called anyone an endearment, ever.
“Why do you think they were acting like that, Crispin? They separated us on purpose. They kept pushing me further away from you and towards the road.” His eyes flashed. “Were they trying to kill me or capture me, Crispin?”
His eyes met Rhys’ eyes in the rearview mirror.
“That is what I must find out the most right now, Hunter.”
Chapter 15
*****
Crispin carried his Hunter into the house and up the stairs, not stopping until he reached his bathroom and sat her atop the counter. He didn’t stop pulling off her clothing until she sat before him, completely bare and trembling. He knew he must be frightening her but could not stop the rage, fear, and need rushing through his veins. He almost lost her. It may have been to death or it may have been, what it was looking most likely to be, her captured by the most deadly of monsters that appeared to be strategically thinking. Something that was, until now, completely unheard of.
He ran his fingers through the hair falling around her, assuring himself she was alive and in front of him. He undressed and picked her back up, her legs instinctively wrapped tight around his narrow waist, trapping his steely erection between their bodies.
Her gasped, “Crispin” had his throbbing cock jerking against her belly making him want to moan at the pleasure of having her soft skin pressed against his hard body.
He stepped into the shower, turning his back on the cold water until it warmed before turning her around to wet her. He washed her and himself thoroughly, even with her tight against him, loathed to place her down and away from him. It was not the easiest of tasks but one he enjoyed very much. Her soft skin over hard, feminine muscles was a pleasure unto itself.
When he was done he didn’t bother drying either of them off, just grabbed a couple of towels from the warmer, shook then threw them out over the bed. Finally, on top of his bed, did the millennia-old vampire set down his Hunter. Seeing her lay bare to him in his domain, his very private quarters, sent a wave of possessiveness through him that he had never felt in all his existence. “Mine” was growled before he pounced.
*****
I cried out with surprise and ecstasy when Crispin covered my body with his own, his wet body sliding against mine. His kiss was passionate and bold, a statement. I was his, yes. And he was mine. His hand ran from my thigh, slowly, ever so slowly, over the curve of my hip bone to the dip of my waist, higher, higher, to finally brush seductively over my breast. His thumb pressing on my nipple, rubbing back and forth while his other hand tangled in my hair, holding my head still for the onslaught of his kiss.
He was stealing all my senses until I could focus on nothing but what his body was doing to my own. On and on until I couldn’t breathe unless I was breathing only the air he allowed me, the air he provided me.
His hand on my breast squeezed and plumped, pinching and rolling my nipple gently and occasionally with just a hint of pain. The sensations had my back arching, pressing deeper into his chest, my legs wrapped back around him to anchor myself more than to trap him.
His hand slid from my breast, down my quivering belly, rubbing softly there, and then to the center of my thighs. His fingers slid between my folds and slid in the moisture there a few times, rubbing on my clit with each pass, making me gasp deep into the relentless kiss before finally stopping at the entrance to my core. My moan was loud in the air around us when he finally lifted his head, his bright silver gaze, not glowing but bright nonetheless, stared deep into my soul when his rich, masculine voice rumbled out, “You will allow me inside you, will you not, my Hunter?”
There was no other answer, none at all that was possible at this moment. Or ever. “Yes!” I responded to his demand, my voice breathy and anticipatory, just as his finger penetrated me fully. The sharp pain was momentary and fleeting as the pleasure of having a part of him fill me filled every molecule of my body. My hips bucked against his intrusion, not trying to push him out, but rather, to keep him in.
“Please.” Was my whispered gasp as he continued to assault my senses with his finger as he added a second, stretching me with a delicious pain that bordered on torture. He withdrew his fingers as he held my eyes and brought his fingers up from between our bodies and held them up for me to see. The streaks of crimson on them plain to see. He took those fingers and rubbed them across both of my nipples while I watched, cheeks turning hot with the heat of embarrassment and want.
I lost his eyes when he bent his head and licked the remnants of my innocence from my breasts. The sensations of his tongue and teeth and the suction of his mouth making me forget my embarrassment swiftly. All too soon the sensations ended as he moved further down my body, kissing and caressing as he made his way to my center.
He yanked my body roughly to the edge of the bed as he dropped to his knees beside the high bed that was at the perfect height for his face to appear between my legs. There were no words as he leaned forward and cleaned the last of the proof of my innocence from my thighs and folds. He continued to lick and suck, healing the damage he’d caused and pushing me deeper into an oblivion I wasn’t sure I would be able to survive. He pushed his tongue deep into me while my legs shook and my breaths came in erratic pants. When he placed his mouth over my clit and sucked, hard, I shattered into so many pieces I knew I would never be the same again.
When my quakes eased, and I was able to see and hear again, I realized I was back in the middle of the bed and Crispin hovered over my boneless body, his deep voice raspy and full of hunger, “I will only ever kneel for you, my Hunter.” And then he plunged into my body with his thick cock.
The scream I let loose echoed in the room while my body quivered with the shock of his possession. I met his eyes, alternating the inner glow and shining a bright silver that would never be considered normal. “You are mine, now and always H
unter. I will never share you. I will take the heart and head of any male that dares to covet what is mine.”
I was panting heavily as I said in return, “And I will destroy any female that thinks to take you from me, my vampire.” His grin was immediate and wicked when he responded to me. “I believe you will.”
He shifted his hips and I felt him slide out a fraction before pushing back in gently. His groan was the best sound I had ever heard. The drag of his cock inside me was delicious against the swollen tissues of my passage. With every slide and thrust I could feel the veins of his massive cock stimulate me further and when the head of his cock hit against my cervix I arched my back at the sweet pain it caused.
I tightened my legs around his waist and tilted my hips, causing him to slide and hit against a different part of me, one that promised a heaven I never knew existed. Over and over he slid through me until I thought I would go mad from the teasing of a being that had long ago learned patience. His growls amped up my pleasure.
“Mine! Always only mine. My Hunter. My mate!” Over and over he pounded into me, building me higher and higher. His growled words promised to send me over the edge. My nails dug deeply into his back while I kept my legs wrapped tightly around his hips. Finally, when I thought I could take no more he quickened his pace. I saw in his eyes what he wanted and tilted my head up to give him access to my neck. He sank his fangs deeply at the same time he thrust as deep as he could into my depths.
I screamed in ecstasy as he drew my blood into his mouth while I felt him throb inside of me. The pleasure became too much and I slipped into the sweetest oblivion.
*
I awoke lying on my side feeling a weight across my waist. I looked down and saw a sheet laying haphazardly across my hips. Crispin’s arm was holding me close to his body, his arm across me and his hand gripping my breast in a possessive hold. Delicious shivers raced across my skin as I remembered all he had down to my body.