by R. Sullins
“Our parents spoiled her and all she heard growing up was how beautiful she was. She had men of all ages vying for her attention before she was old enough for such things.” He shook his head. “It really is my fault. I covered for her and pretended everything was okay.” He looked at Crispin beseechingly. “I swear though, my friend, that I had no idea she had gone to these lengths.”
Crispin walked up to James and took him by the upper arms and shook him. “I already know that she was behind this. What I need to know now is where she is keeping my mate!” It spoke a great deal about how much of a mess he had been in to never once think to ask James if he knew what was going on. It should have been the first thing he thought of when his Hunter told him of Katerina.
His growl was menacing and James paled, never having experienced the wrong side of Crispin’s anger before. He blurted out, “Katerina kidnapped your Hunter and the others. I followed her and watched her enter a warehouse on the south side of the city, opposite where your sentinels have been searching. She has revenants there that she seems to be using as guards. I-I only saw your Hunter briefly when the door was open. I couldn’t get any closer and there were no windows in the building.” His voice shook with fear at Crispin’s look of rage.
Crispin shoved James away and glanced at the window. The sun had only been up for little more than an hour. His sentinels were all in their beds. He’d have to rely on Jared for help retrieving the captive Hunters. He looked at James and finally noticed the fatigue on his face. His friend had battled the sun exhaustion to tell him about his Hunter’s location even though it would be the end of his sister.
He clapped him on the back, all he was capable of offering at this time until he found his Hunter.
“Don’t leave until we’ve had a chance to sit and talk.” James nodded. As he stumbled out of the room Crispin called to him. “Thank you.” Tears gathered in the other man’s eyes before he turned in the direction of his suite.
Crispin watched his friend stumble down the hallway, knowing the pain he was likely going through at his beloved sister’s behavior. And knowing that his sister had assured her own death.
He wasted no time in gathering his human guards. He couldn't take his sentinels because the sun was up. Only a couple of them could stay awake for any period of daytime. None could withstand direct sunlight for more than a minute or two. His human guards were trusted though, and he had no intention of waiting another day to retrieve his Hunter.
*****
I was startled awake by a loud crash and my eyes flew towards the sound. The main door had been practically ripped from its hinges, a mangled mess of metal. Crispin charged through the doorway looking like an avenging angel, sword held aloft. He began to frantically look around, taking in the women and detritus around the room until he saw me.
His eyes met mine and he practically flew towards me. He stood over me for a brief moment, his anger at the sight of the dried blood on my face and body causing him to vibrate with uncontrollable fury. His hands shook as he held them above me before deciding what to do first. He took out his knife and used it to gently cut through my straps and carefully removed my gag. He took a corner of the sheet and gently wiped my face free of saliva, blood, and tears.
“Crispin!” I choked out his name, my mouth was dry and my throat was still raw from all the screaming I had done over the last two nights.
“Shh, don’t talk, my Hunter. Everything is going to be okay now, I promise.” He continued to hold me, the sheet wrapped tightly around my body and wiped my tears away as they fell.
I looked up at his face, my eyes wide. “M-my mother!” I croaked out the words, barely recognizable to my own ears and tried to scramble off his lap. He wouldn’t let me go and held firmly onto my body. We both looked over at the other women. Most of them had barely been disturbed by the commotion of Crispin and his men bursting through the door. It was obvious they had suffered.
Crispin’s jaw was clenched tight and anger showed fiercely in his eyes. He put his palm to my cheek and looked at me with regret. “Hunter, the women need medical help, both physical and mental. I will get you to your mother after she, and you, have been seen by a doctor.”
I watched as the human guards began carefully cutting free the Hunters that were laying on the same small, metal tables that I was on. They looked beyond horrible, emaciated and gaunt. Dirty, with IVs and blood bags attached to their arms. I knew he was telling the truth. What those women had suffered was going to have a lasting effect on their mental health. Then I remembered the revenants and Katerina.
“What about the revenants? And I saw Katerina going through that door over there.” I pointed to the door on the far side of the room.
Crispin gently set me down and then used his vampire speed to rush to the door I pointed out. He practically tore the door from its hinges as he ripped it open. All I saw was sunlight pouring in. It was an outer door. If she went through it, it was only to leave. She was no longer here. The disappointment was heavy in my chest.
Likely, she was long gone from the area. If she knew that Crispin had found me then she would probably disappear before he could find her again and stop her activities. If there were more of these warehouses with Hunters as captives we would have a difficult time trying to find them. I hoped we would be able to put a stop to her plans.
Crispin came back to me, his face a mask of black fury. “I’ll get Alan to track her movements, try to locate her hiding places.” He ran his hand through his hair in agitation. “I will also have to contact the Council. Now that we know who is behind the uprising we will be able to hunt her down and put a stop to her plans.” He pulled out his phone and made a phone call and began arranging for medical transport for the Hunters.
When he was done he picked me up again, cradling me against his hard chest. We sat for a while, him running his hands reassuringly over my hair and down my arms, while the other women were seen to. None of them rose from their beds, many of them lay quietly while a couple of them cried softly. One was moaning. It broke my heart to see them suffering, knowing that they were in pain.
I didn’t know how long we sat there when I heard activity by the main door and saw several people coming in. They looked like nurses, men and women, wheeling gurneys into the building. In the next hour, each of the women were transferred to the gurneys and wheeled out the door. Crispin assured me they were being taken by ambulance to a medical facility that he controlled. I watched as my mother was carefully tended to and transferred out the door. I was eager to go to her but I understood that she would need medical help first.
Once all the women were gone a nurse came over to me. She smiled at Crispin and then looked at me with a comforting smile.
“My Lord Crispin, may I exam your mate?”
He reluctantly released me to sit on the edge of the table and tucked the sheet securely around my naked body. I looked at the middle-aged woman in surprise that she knew what Crispin was. I had no idea that there were so many humans aware of the vampire world and apparently worked for them. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised though. So many humans worked hard to be accepted by a vampire so they would be Turned. I suppose those that weren’t good candidates for whatever reason were just mind-wiped and made to forget all about vampires.
She took my shaking hand gently in hers and checked my pulse. After that, she opened a small bag that looked like it contained several medical implements and pulled out a blood pressure cuff. After a few more routine health checks she asked if she could take a vial of blood for testing. I sat there, keeping eye contact with Crispin, silently urging him to keep his cool while he watched my exam. He looked ready to rip the head off of someone and I didn’t want it to be this nice woman.
“She looks okay, my Lord. A little torn up from the bites but she healing quickly. With rest and some food and fluids she should be back to normal in a couple of days.” Unfortunately, my healing wasn’t going anywhere near as quickly as it normally would have bee
n and Crispin knew that as well as I did. She wrote on the label for the vial of my blood and tucked it securely in a pocket of her medical bag. “I’ll get the results of her blood tests back to you by tomorrow but I suspect it will come back clean. I don’t see any evidence of drugs or poisoning. Her blood pressure is a little high but that is understandable with the ordeal she’s been through.” She smiled, gently squeezed my hand, and walked away, carrying her bag.
“Crispin, what about the revenants? There were three in here earlier but we know she had so many more.”
He picked me back up and started walking towards the door. I didn’t want to look around. I didn’t want to see what I already knew was there and didn’t want to acknowledge. Like the buckets that were lining one wall that had been used to do a shitty job cleaning the women that had been imprisoned. They were treated worse than dogs, cold water used to wash away waste.
“Last night Katerina took a few bags of blood through that door over there.” I lifted my hand and pointed towards a door on the side of the room.
Crispin walked towards the door and sniffed the air. “I can smell them. I will have the building burnt to the ground, that should take care of the last of her minions.”
I started to relax again until a horrible thought occurred to me. “Oh no! Crispin! Where is my stuff? My knives! I don’t know what they did with my weapons. Oh, Crispin, I’ve lost your knives.” After a night of heartbreak this one last thing was what I simply couldn’t bear. I was done.
I shook uncontrollably while the tears came in a torrent soaking Crispin’s shirt and the sheet that was still wrapped tightly around my body. Crispin brushed my hair back from my face and held me quietly. I held onto his neck as I let out all the pain, anger, sadness, terror, all the overwhelming emotions that I had been through in the last 36 hours. Through it all he held me securely and rubbed my back or smoothed my hair, never rushing me, just placing soft kisses on my forehead.
When the sobs started to subside I felt something placed in my hand. I slowly opened my eyes and looked down at a dagger, one of Crispin’s daggers that he lovingly gifted to me. A dagger that I had been afraid was gone forever. I clutched it to my chest and burst out in a fresh round of tears. I felt Crispin’s chest rumble with his chuckle, knowing he knew these were tears of relief instead of grief.
I looked up into the eyes of my friend. “Jared, thank you so much!” I leaned forward and kissed his cheek, ignoring Crispin’s rumble of displeasure.
“I’m so glad we found you, princess. We were all so worried.” His big brown eyes looked sorrowful. I kissed his cheek again, hoping to let him know that I didn’t blame him or anyone else. This was 100% on Katerina.
“Where did you find it? Did you find the other one and my scabbard too?” I was still clutching the dagger to my chest, not wanting to let it go.
He stepped back and waved to the metal box behind him. It had to have been the box I was trapped in the other night. It was shocking to see. It appeared to be so small. It was rough looking, a simple box made from thick slabs of metal that someone hastily welded together. The lid was leaning against the side. It looked as if it were meant to simply sit on top like some kind of macabre gift box. Latches on either side kept it securely on.
I forced myself to look past the horror of being trapped in that dark box and noticed my clothing and weapons laying inside at the bottom. Sitting with my clothes was a small black box with a blinking green light. Next to that were my earrings and a clump of hair that I knew had to have a tracker in it. She really had been listening and watching. How did no one notice?
“Crispin, you don’t think she had help, do you? She knew everything, where I was going to be, how many trackers you had planted.”
He rubbed his thumb gently on my cheekbone. “No, my Hunter, I don’t believe any of my men would ever help her, even unknowingly. I trust them explicitly.”
I nodded my head, I believed him and, though I didn’t know most of them very well, I trusted them too. Which meant that she was really very good at spying. That she was able to gather so much information and not be noticed by trained men and women, not to mention a vampire with nearly two thousand years experience. I could almost admire her if it weren’t for what she used her talents for.
Chapter 28
*****
Crispin was finding it hard to keep his hands off his Hunter. After walking into that warehouse and seeing the condition of those Hunters that had been there for years, he wasn’t sure when he’d be able to let his Hunter out of his sight again.
They sat in the back of his car, grateful for the deeply tinted windows since he wasn’t going to be able to manage the sunlight much longer. The sun exhaustion was pulling at him and all he wanted was to hold his mate while they both got some much needed sleep in their bed.
He couldn’t remember ever feeling as helpless as he had while he held Ivy while she cried. All he could do was attempt to comfort her while her tears fell and her little shoulders shook with emotion.
He ordered his men to torch the warehouse after checking to make sure there wasn’t any information that could lead to other warehouses across the world. They were to secure any belongings of the Hunters and then burn the place to the ground. No revenants were to escape. With the sun up they wouldn’t be able to hide or run away. The problem in his domain would be eradicated once and for all. They would be watchful to make sure the problem wouldn’t have a chance to restart.
Now the other Lords would need to find where the infestation was holing up in their own territories. He knew he would have to be on hand for any help that would be needed but it was up to the others to get control as soon as possible.
It was time to rest for now. Soon it would be time to hunt down the rogue vampire that started this and flesh out the others that helped her. There was no way she could have accomplished everything without some help.
*****
I only have the vaguest memory of being brought into the shower and being washed carefully and thoroughly before being put to bed and held closely by my vampire. We woke again in much the same position as we had been in when falling into a deep sleep.
He must have been watching closely for signs of waking because the moment my breathing changed his hands began a journey over my body.
One hand smoothed up and down my back while the other caressed my thigh that was thrown over his. My face was in its customary place on his smooth chest. It's a wonder that I could sleep so comfortably on his body with how hard it was. My fingers trailed over the grooves and valleys of his muscles. The contrast of our bodies was mesmerizing. My pale skin and his darker olive tone was beautiful to see.
His fingers started drifting higher on my thigh, long enough to reach front to back, they found their way to the crease between the start of my bottom and upper thigh. I tried not to tense my body in anticipation but had trouble keeping relaxed. His chuckle shook me and his hand became bolder. His fingers swiped through my sex and followed the path to my clit.
My groan was long and drawn out as his magical finger swirled a circle around and around. My body was already stiffening for a reason beyond anticipation of pleasure. I turned my face into his pectoral and bit down as the pleasure crested. His groan told me that he liked my response but I had no time for thinking as I was suddenly rolled over and impaled by his huge erection.
“My vicious little Hunter.” He growled before taking my lips in a brutal kiss. His tongue swept through my mouth while he thrust repeatedly into my body. The pleasure-pain from his thrusts hitting deep within me spun inside me like a tornado until my body split apart into a million pieces.
I floated slowly back into awareness, my heart beating out of control and chest heaving with my heavy breaths. Crispin was slowly moving now, gliding his erection in and out leisurely. My eyelids fluttered open slowly to see his beautiful silver eyes glowing down at me.
“Are you with me again, Hunter?” At my jerky nod he said, “Good!” and flipped me over
onto my stomach.
He quickly adjusted my body, hauling my hips up before sliding a pillow underneath me to keep my tired body propped up. He wrapped a fistful of my hair around his hand and yanked my head up. The slight tug against my scalp had tingles of awareness run up my spine. He centered his cock against my entrance and slammed inside.
The pace was beautiful in all its brutal glory. His growls of “Mine!” and the feel of his teeth against the back of my neck, knowing that only I had this effect on him, had me already clenching and rippling along his shaft again.
It was while my fingers were clutching tightly enough to turn my knuckles white in the sheets that I noticed a glint of something unexpected. The sparkle of a brilliant diamond winking at me had my breath catching and my entire body stilling. A hard thrust brought a cry from me.
“Crispin!”
His voice was a deep growl in my ear and I was sure I was hearing from more than the man at that moment. “You are mine, my Hunter, my mate, mine. You will be mine for all eternity. I know it, you know it. Now everyone else will know it. If anyone else, man, woman, or beast tries to come between us I will destroy them.”
He gently pulled my chest up until my back was against his chest in my favorite position.
“I love you with everything that is within me, Ivy. You make me whole. After a millennia of being alone, never wanting more than what I already had, I found you. I found someone that fills me up in my very soul and heart.”
His hand took mine, his thumb stroking over the gorgeous ring on my finger. He brought our clasped hands down my body to where we were joined together, his cock slowly sliding in and out of me. His thickness stretching me deliciously.
“This, us together, we will have this for the rest of eternity, my Hunter, and it is only made better by our love.” Our clasped hands slid up slowly over my clit, which he gave a gentle pinch to, making me gasp and writhe, and continued sliding up before coming to rest over my lower abdomen. “One day we will have children together, my Hunter. Because there is no doubt in my mind that you are my one true mate.”