His gaze moved toward the syringe and he felt his heart stop. The liquid was silvery, like liquid mercury mixed with a milky white substance he was familiar with. Again, Hunter darted forward and tried to slap the syringe out of his hand and roared when his hand passed through without resistance.
Hunter froze in fear, something he hadn’t felt in years, maybe never, as it rushed through him and he turned to see Nerissa struggle with all her effort to break the restraints.
“No. No. No, no, no, no.”
Dr. Steven’s dismissed the nurse with a wave of his hand and he didn’t see the glare of hatred directed at him, before she sauntered out the door without looking back. When the door click closed, he leaned over Nerissa with a wicked smile on his ugly face.
Hunter rolled his eyes when the man continued speaking. He loved to hear himself talk.
“Do you know what this is, Nerissa? No? We’ll it’s a mutated cancer drug that will attack your cells added to vampire venom.”
Dr. Steven’s paused for effect, but continued after a moment.
“Did you know a shifter will die if infected by vampire venom? But I’m sure any pain the venom causes will take a backseat to the drug running through your system. You’ll want to kill me and anyone you can get your hands on. You won’t be able to control your rage, and before long, you’ll end up killing yourself.”
Hunter’s body thrummed with anger. But the more he roared and paced, the more the surrounding images became distorted and blurry. He forced himself to relax and with horror; he stood still as he watched Dr. Steven’s take a perverse pleasure in sticking the needle into her vein and pushing poison into her system.
A tear dropped onto his hand, and then another. He wiped at them, but the more he tried, the more poured from his eyes. But he gasped in shock when Nerissa threw her head back and screamed the moment the concoction hit her bloodstream.
He couldn’t believe his eyes when the liquid became visible in her veins as it spread throughout her body. Her skin crackled and grew whiter. As if they dropped her body into a vat of liquid nitrogen. When the doctor moved to touch her, he flinched back as if something burned him. She was freezing from the inside, out.
Soon, her eyes rolled back in her head and she fell, limp, on the table. He almost screamed until he caught the rise and fall of her chest as she breathed. The world faded around the edges, but before the room disappeared, a loud explosion from outside the room shook the computer and jostled Nerissa on the table. She jolted back into consciousness and the room came back into focus.
Nerissa turned and looked toward her left, to where he was standing, but her eyes didn’t see him. As Hunter turned, his eyes widened as he caught his own form, dressed in black fatigues, pause by the window outside of the room. His past self pressed his hand to the glass and closed his eyes.
The memories of that exact moment slammed into focus. They were there to rescue the trapped immortals. It was the first time Reaper met Ara. Hunter realized that he sensed something in the room and despite his instincts screaming to check why, he let Ax drag him in the same direction the others had gone.
He wanted to yell out, to kick the shit out of Ax for dragging him away from the room. Fuck, he wanted to punch himself for walking away. A sudden thought had him turning, hoping Nerissa didn’t see him, but when he glanced at her, his heart tightened as she stared right through him and her eyes tracked him as he and Ax walked out of sight.
Fuck. That’s why she freaked out at the tactical gear.
She spotted him and the others on the worst day of her life, and they left her there.
He understood he was in her memory. His urge to apologize would have to wait until they were back in the real world.
Hunter somewhat relaxed when he realized his physical body was with Nerissa in the real world where he saw her alive and healthy. But in this moment, he wanted to take her pain away.
Moving his gaze back to the injection point, not even a minute since the drug’s introduction, he watched how her body reacted to the poison spreading through her. There was a mist coming from her skin, similar to dry ice as the deadly cocktail passed through her veins.
When he had cupped her face back in the real world, he thought her skin was cold because of the weather. Now he knew better.
His mouth dropped open, and he goggled as her hair turned white and her eyes drained of color. A split second later, silver filled her irises and brightened. The glow from the injection faded and only then did Nerissa relax back onto the table with a sigh.
Her eyes searched the room and confusion rushed through him when she smiled. Not understanding her reaction, he took a quick glance around and Dr. Steven’s had disappeared. Nerissa tested the bonds and with a small tug, she broke the arm restraints and when she sat up; she did the same with the leather straps around her legs.
As she stepped off the table, Hunter blinked as the room grew fuzzy. When he opened his eyes, he was back in the mountains, kneeling in front of Nerissa in the snow.
“I didn’t know I could draw you into my memory. I hate thinking about it, even four years after it happened.”
“Nerissa… that’s a—”
“No. Neri. It’s only Neri.”
Her voice seemed weak and when he looked into her eyes, the tears he found there almost broke him.
“I’m so sorry for passing by and not finding you in the room when I had the chance. Instead of following my instincts, I allowed you to go through everything alone.”
Neri shook her head before she said, “I don’t understand.”
“I’m a black panther shifter and you, Neri, are my destined mate.”
Her beautiful eyes widened a split second before they rolled back and she fell against his chest, limp.
Well, fuck. That information could have waited until she knew me better.
“What happened?” Kane asked.
Hunter lifted Neri’s cool body into his arms and cradled her against his chest. He turned to see Kane and Drew looking at him with concern, their eyes darting to Neri and then back to him.
“She drew me into her memory of her creation. She’s a shifter, but Dr. Stevens injected her with the bioweapon mixed with vampire venom, both of which should have killed her. Her skin is cold to the touch, her hair and eyes changed color. Although her smell is both, the shifter scent stands out more.”
“Oh, that’s why. I was wondering why she didn’t smell like you or me.”
“Touch her hand. She’s much cooler than you are.”
Both Drew and Kane reached for her hands and their eyes widened as they felt the temperature difference.
“What does this mean? I mean…”
Hunter’s thoughts clouded as he couldn’t come up with an explanation as he stared at the woman who was the center of his life. “I have no clue, but we should head back and have Liv check her out to see if she’s healthy.”
CHAPTER TWO
NERI
Neri wondered why the scents surrounding her were different and despite her mind going into panic mode, she tried to catch her breath.
Calm the fuck down, Neri. You are fine. You are not vulnerable anymore. If you need to, you can fight.
As she repeated the words in her head, she calmed herself enough to think.
Every morning she woke to brewed coffee and the distinctive scents of the varieties of wood she worked with during the previous day. They always kept her calm whenever she awoke from the inevitable dreams.
But now, the scents were unfamiliar. And because she had, by choice, kept her interactions with others at a minimum, she couldn’t distinguish scents whether they were human or immortal.
She inhaled and when she still didn’t identify them; she used her other senses. There were footsteps, several strides, but they weren’t an immediate danger to her so she ignored them and tried to tell if anyone was in the room with her.
Neri heard fabric brush together and then scented the panther shifter. Dr. Stevens’ was right
; she was a failure as a shifter if she couldn’t detect someone in the same room as her.
But something inside her chest tingled knowing he, Hunter, was near. She wasn’t sure she believed him when he called her his mate, but there was a lot about immortals she didn’t understand. And because she didn’t sense a threat, she opened her eyes.
Silver eyes similar to the ones she saw in the mirror every morning widened in front of her face and Neri’s body flooded with danger warnings. Before she realized she had moved, she found her back pressed in the corner of a room. A fucking glass room. Her eyes darted around, looking for an exit.
“Where did she… Oh?”
When her eyes glanced back to where she had been, she blinked as she took in the smallest woman she’d ever seen. She had to be around five foot even, but her curly brown hair that surrounded her seemed bigger than her actual body.
The woman didn’t seem to take offense that Neri had disappeared after opening her eyes because she held her hands out, palms up, as if she wanted to reassure her she wasn’t a danger.
I’ve never seen so many curls on anyone before. And they looked so soft.
Neri shook her head at such inane thoughts that kept circling around how tiny this woman was. The smile looked genuine and Neri relaxed, until someone walked into her peripheral view and she jolted backward, almost hitting her head on the glass behind her.
She blinked again and Hunter came into view. His hand prevented her from smacking her head against the thick glass. And that brought thoughts of her being trapped and scared they might use her for another fucking science experiment. She freaked out again.
Hunter’s mouth turned down in confusion and before he opened his mouth to speak, she beat him to it.
“Let me the fuck out of here. Now,” she growled.
Neri was hyperventilating. She hated being trapped, even in a house. It’s why she had built her house and her workshop with huge bay windows that allowed her to gaze out onto the mountainside whenever she needed to breathe.
For a long time, years even, she wasn’t able to sleep inside. Every time she smelled the damp earth or heard the birds in the trees, she understood she was free. But now, she was in a glass enclosure with no exit, and all her senses flooded her body, telling her to get out.
Hunter moved to touch her, and she slapped his hand away. “If you don’t open a door in the next five seconds, I will destroy everything in this room. Everything.”
The door hissed open. Without waiting, she darted past the others who were standing around and up the stairs and out the first door that looked like it led outside. She had passed them so fast she didn’t see their faces. Before she blinked, she found herself outside.
She might be a failure at everything else, but she was fast.
Neri stopped by a tall pine and placed her hand on the rough bark, allowing the bark to dig into her skin and ground herself. She took deep breaths, trying to get her heartbeat back to a normal rhythm and her breathing to slow. She centered herself enough to regain her senses, and after a few minutes, she breathed without taking big, gulping breaths.
Every time panic flooded her system without warning, her thoughts and reason scattered and her body forgot everything but flight. She had tried meditation and immersion therapy, but there were so many unknowns in life she hadn’t been able to tame her first reaction.
When her mind calmed, she blinked open her eyes and froze as she took in the huge mansion in front of her eyes, but it was the group of men and women in front of her that made her freeze.
Hunter stepped toward her, and she relaxed a fraction. But at the first sign of attack, she would run without Hunter.
Despite her recurring thoughts, something about Hunter called to her. Neri leaned toward him and breathed him in. After a few moments; she lay her head on his solid chest.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for you to feel trapped in Liv’s lab.”
Neri shook her head, dismissing his apology. “Even after four years, everything logical flees. I panic and run although part of me knows there isn’t any danger. The weird thing is, adrenaline floods my body because of danger, but my thoughts seize and I can’t push rational thoughts to the forefront.”
Hunter chucked. “You’re fucking fast, too. I’ve never seen another immortal move that fast. If you hadn’t stopped when you did, I wouldn’t have caught you.”
“It’s the one thing I can do.”
“No!”
Hunter’s declaration had her looking into his eyes for an explanation.
“Just like every human is different, so is every immortal. Because you can’t shift, or whatever bullshit Dr. Stevens filled your head with, doesn’t come into play. He experimented on you for money and prestige, and trust me, he didn’t care whether you shifted. And when I catch up to him, I will rip his limbs off one by one until he dies.”
Neri smiled. She burrowed deeper into Hunter’s chest, sighing as his arms wrapped around her.
“How were you able to get into my memory?”
“I don’t understand it, but I’m sure you pulled me in. It’s new and none of the others had ever heard of it, but it’s because we’re mates.”
“You said before, but what does that mean?”
“The simple explanation is that we belong together. You are essential to my life.”
Something about his words rang true and did a lot to reassure her she’d made the right decision to trust him.
“I’m will not pressure you into a relationship, but I want to learn everything I can about you and tell you about me, so you can make up your own mind.”
Although his words rang as truthful, Neri noticed he still had the same look he did when he first looked her in the eyes. Confusion, yet tenderness.
“Why do you sound unsure? You look like you want to run away from me but touch me at the same time.”
“Shifters and vampires, or at least from the legends we rely on, can’t become mates.”
Neri’s brow drew down. She was a shifter. Although she never shifted before. She also never craved blood, she ate regular food, and never survived without coffee, so she didn’t understand his belief she was a vampire.
“I’m not sure I am. I don’t drink blood, I don’t even crave a rare steak.”
Instead of answering her, he looked behind his shoulder and Neri remembered their audience she’d forgotten about the moment Hunter came into focus.
“Kai, Liv, Thomas, Isaac, Kane, Seth, and Aubrey, can you step forward?”
Neri sensed movement, but Hunter spoke. She fixed her attention on him.
“Liv is an immunologist. I spoke to her while you slept in the lab and we’ve concluded you are the first shifter vampire hybrid in existence.”
“How?”
“Dr. Stevens and Dr. Ames created a bioweapon based on Liv’s cancer research. She based her research on cell manipulation. That bioweapon, the milky substance in the syringe, caused rage in another immortal. Which explains why he restrained you when he administered it. But it was the vampire venom I worried about. From what we all understood, once vampire venom enters a shifter’s bloodstream, and vice versa, the venom should have been deadly.”
Neri grew more confused at his words. He expected her to die, although he’d been in her memory, and she hadn’t. And the way the others looked, they didn’t understand why she hadn’t either.
“I watched as the transformation as it took place and it looked almost as painful as regular transitions between mates.
“It surprised me because the venom looked as though it mixed with the bioweapon in a way that froze your blood and allowed the venom to make its way into your body and somehow mutated your cells enough it accepted the intrusion.”
Neri remembered every moment. “Burning is all I remember. I wasn’t cold, it was as if my blood was on fire.”
“That’s what it was like for me, but I was burning up.” A beautiful brunette who stood with her back against a massive man said.
“That’s Ara. She’s a wolf shifter along with her mate, Reaper.”
“Same here.” Another woman with curly brown hair and piercing multicolored eyes said.
“That’s Frost. Her husband, Xander, is the white-haired man next to her.”
By that time, the other vampires were standing behind Hunter.
“You’ve met Liv—”
Neri stiffened when the tiny vampire wrapped her arms around Neri. It surprised her when she hugged Liv back. She was a warm bundle of energy and she smiled at Neri.
“Hi.”
Liv laughed and then reached her arm behind her. The most deadly looking man Neri had ever seen stepped up and all her instincts screamed at her to run. “This is my husband, Kai. He would never hurt you. I promise.”
Still wary and keeping her body in place, she nodded at Kai. He returned the gesture, and it helped Neri relax when he wrapped an arm around Liv’s waist and pulled her close.
The next were Thomas and Isaac, Kane, and then Seth and Aubrey, the sweetest couple out of them all.
As she met each of the vampires, she realized that none of them had white hair like hers. She noticed Xander did, but he was a shifter, and another, quiet man had the same shock of hair as she did. But since he stood back, she assumed he was a shifter.
After Seth and Aubrey hugged her in welcome, she realized their body temperature was warmer than hers. They weren’t hot to the touch, like the shifters, but they were warmer than she was.
“Why am I so cold compared to everyone else?”
Liv cleared her throat and Neri turned her attention toward her.
“Once you left Standard, did you go into a homicidal rage anytime during the months and years after? Have you tried to kill any humans?”
Neri laughed. She doubled over and held her stomach as the innocuous question came from an innocent-looking vampire who she would describe as bubbly.
“Fuck, no. I avoided everyone.”
“Have you ever craved blood? Do you even have fangs?”
Neri shook her head and opened her mouth, pulling back her lips for inspection. Liv, who must have trusted her, pulled one of her lips back to view her teeth and hummed.
Hunter (A Dark Assassins Novel Book Five) Page 2