Hunter Betrayed (3 page)

She grabbed hold of the power and ran, faster than she ever
had. The trees around her blurred. At the butterfly garden, she turned right,
caught her toe on a tree root and fell face first toward the ground. She never
hit it. Hands at her waist stopped her. She spun, ready to do battle, and came
face-to-face with a pair of pale-blue eyes floating without a body.

She screamed.

* * * * *

Calan couldn’t believe his eyes. It was her, the child he’d
spied the last time his prison had resided here. Then she’d sat in the middle
of a field of white flowers with butterflies perched in her platinum hair and
on her arms. More of the small creatures had danced in the air around her.

He’d recognized her for what she was, one of Dahm’s bastard
children, but the purity emanating from her soul had shocked him. It still did.
She’d retained it along with her life. How he didn’t know, nor did he care at
the moment. Her fear demanded his attention.

She shrieked and scrambled backward, using her hands and
feet to put distance between them. He reached out to her mind the same way he
did with the other Huntsmen whenever they needed him. He didn’t know if it
would work, but he had to try something. The female was in danger. He heard the
sluaghs in the distance.

Unbelievably, her raucous breaths slowed. He drew more of
her fear into him. The trembling in her body eased.

“That’s it. Be calm. I won’t hurt you.”

“Wh-who are y-you? What…” She focused on where his chest
should be. He glanced down and saw the ground, not his body or even a ghostly
apparition. “What are you? A g-ghost?”

“Not a ghost. I’m alive. I’m just not here.”

He stretched an invisible hand out and touched her cheek.
The surprise in connecting with her in a tangible manner nearly pulled him away
from her. With mental fingers, he tugged her closer. He wouldn’t lose her.

Not now, not ever.

He slid a hand to her bottom and pressed her body flush to
his. The cushion of her breasts stirred his lusts. His erection thickened in
response to her nearness. Impossible, or so he would’ve thought.

The half-breed fairy in his arms would one day become his
enemy. A child of Dahm, she carried the chaotic taint he’d willingly invited
into his body. It should’ve begun to corrupt her, turning her into a monster
too. Yet…it hadn’t. Why?

Calan tipped her head back. Her dark-blue eyes captivated
him. He skimmed his fingertips over the contours of her angelic face.
Possessiveness rose within him and mixed with an intense need to protect her.
She was special. He sensed it, but didn’t have time to explore it.

“You need to run. You cannot allow them to steal the
goodness you’ve managed to retain.” Because it belonged to him. So too did the
female. He would claim both and she would be the one to free him. The rightness
of his vow took hold.

A millennium had passed without him finding the one
half-breed who would have the courage to free a Huntsman. Nine years ago, when
he’d spied her in the midst of flowers, he had. Today, he would ensure she
lived to free him, no matter the cost.

Brows pinched, she mimicked the exploration of his face. He
saw the confusion in her eyes at not being able to see him. She didn’t voice
it. She slid her fingers into his hair and drew him close.

“They want to kill me,” she whispered the words against his
neck.

The knowledge angered him. Confined to his cell, he could do
little to prevent her death. Helplessness settled over him. So too did
desperation.

He could think of only one way to prevent it, by sharing a
piece of himself with her. Doing so would give her the strength she needed to
escape the creatures who wanted to grow powerful on her Seelie blood.

Of course.
That was what made her special. She held
both sides of the fairies within her body—the chaotic taint of the Unseelie and
the pure goodness of the Seelie.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t offer his body as her cornerstone
or his full protection in the ghostly form he held. He needed to touch her.
Love her.

He closed his eyes against the surge of lust and buried his
face in her silken curls. “Not intentionally. They want your power, but the
taint they hold has corrupted them. They’ll feed off you, uncaring that doing
so will kill you.” He pressed his lips to her ear. “I will save you, my flower,
but you must promise me you won’t let them get a hold of you until I can. You
need to live for me.”

She rested her head against his chest. He ran his hands over
her back in an effort to remember the details of her body. They didn’t have
much longer before he had to let her go.

“I promise, but how can you save me? You’re not really here.”

He grinned against the mound of bouncy blonde curls on her
head. The trust in her voice reinforced the rightness of his decision. “Words
have power and a vow made cannot be broken. Doing so will damn you. You must
remember this.”

She turned her head and captured his gaze. “Okay, but how—”

A roar cut through the night. She clutched him tighter. Time
was running out. He cupped her face in his hands. “You will take my knowledge
and strength.”
Along with a piece of my body.
He kept the true gift he
offered to himself. He would explain everything to her soon.

He covered her mouth with his and breathed into her, leaving
a piece of himself behind and imprinting the information she would need to
survive the next few days without him.

She swayed.

He eased back. Unfocused, dilated eyes met him. He ignored
his physical demands that urged him to claim her body tonight. Her safety came
first.

“You must return to me before the next full moon for me to
finish saving you. Do you promise?”

“Yes.”

He breathed a sigh of relief and stepped away from her.
“Good, but now you must run.”

She grabbed his hand. “Don’t leave me. I’m scared. I don’t
want to be alone.”

“You’ll never be alone again.” He closed his eyes. The
enormity of what he’d initiated tonight hitting him. The tainted half-breed
daughter of his enemy would soon be his mate, the keeper of his body.

It’s the only way.
He would take any risk and offer
any sacrifice in order to gain his release from his prison. He needed to
capture Dahm and return the curse. But Calan knew there was another reason, one
much more personal.He didn’t want her to die. She belonged to him.

More roars and grunts rent the air. Their time was up.

He took several steps back. “Now run.”

She reached for him. He allowed his ghostly body to fade.
Her fingers passed through air. “No! Stay with me.”

Can’t. Remember your vow. Do not betray my trust, my
flower. I need you.

With that he slammed back into his body and prayed his
sacrifice would save them all—the humans, his siblings and her. If she didn’t
return to him, the Wild Hunt would never ride again.

Present Day

Harley tugged her hood up against the chilly October wind
and pressed her frame into the slight indentation made by the recessed metal
door. Chin tucked, she scanned the narrow road between her apartment building
and the bar next to it. The flickering bulb a few feet down from where she
stood cast a strobe effect over the darkened alley. The chaotic aspect of it
appealed to her darker nature. The fact bothered her, yet she couldn’t deny it,
not when the taint she carried flared in response to it.

She ignored the urge to embrace that side of her persona and
continued her inspection. Caution and awareness had kept her alive in the face
of a lifetime of danger. She refused to take chances. Lives depended on it—hers
and those around her.

The dumpster and the discarded stack of cardboard next to it
looked no different than they had before she’d made her hurried trek to the
corner drugstore. The curtains in the windows above her remained drawn. Music
blared from the tenants on the third floor and the lovers on the second level
still argued about who should do the dishes. Harley cocked her head and
listened for other clues, drawing on her nonhuman side to feed her details.

Rats skittered along the ground and around the overflowing,
rancid garbage. The small animals didn’t bother her nor did the cockroaches
that infested the shithole building she called home. What did were the monsters
she knew walked among the humans, feeding off their fear, pain and deaths.
Those were the ones who caused her to wake up screaming in terror and kept her
constantly on guard. They wanted her too, but for a different reason. She could
give them power, not just sustain their unholy lives. It would make them
unstoppable.

Over my dead body.
She clenched her jaw.

A shadow loomed at the mouth of the alleyway. She held her
breath and tightened her grip on the six-inch blade she held against her thigh.
A heartbeat passed before a rattly cough reached her ears along with the drag
of her elderly neighbor’s cane over the macadam. A smaller shape joined the
looming one inching its way across the entrance. Both shadows danced in the
light flickering over the ground, distorting their images until they reflected
the hunched shape of a sluagh, the foot soldiers of the fairies.

Not real. It’s not real. Just my fears haunting me.

The words helped alleviate the trembling in her body. Still,
she waited for the man and his poodle to continue on their nightly path before
easing away from the hidey-hole she’d occupied.

Forty-five minutes, that was all she’d been gone. She
normally didn’t wander outside at night, but Bea’s pain medicine had run out.
Harley hated to make her wheelchair-bound neighbor wait until the store opened
on Monday. Besides, Harley hadn’t lived here long enough for the fairies’
creatures to pick up on her trail. She hoped, at least, and in the morning she
was skipping town.

Her brother, Ian, was getting married. He’d begged her to
come home, meet his fiancée and sit on his side of the church. The idea of
going back to the house where she’d watched her family die chilled her. For
Ian, she’d do it. He was all she had left.

One more sweep of the area and she darted toward the front
of her building. She hopped the couple of steps, reached for the door and froze
with her hand on the tarnished knob. The dark taint living inside her pulsed
with life. She glanced over her shoulder and locked gazes with the black eyes
of a redcap, a human who’d sold his soul to a fairy in exchange for power and
immortality.

Good-looking and tall with a linebacker’s build, Raul
could’ve passed for any number of twentysomethings wandering the town. She knew
what he was, however, just as he recognized her. No amount of glamour could
trick either of them, not when they carried the same stain on their souls.

A black baseball cap infused with fairy magic hid the
blood-soaked cloth he had wrapped around his skull, the mark of his tie to the
Unseelie Court. From the flush of his skin, he’d recently soaked the gauze-like
material with the life force of his latest victim.

A smile tugged at his mouth. He leaned his big body against
the lamppost and slipped his thumbs in his front pockets. His nonchalant stance
quickened her breath. She faced him and twisted her hand to reveal the obsidian
blade she carried.

He slid his gaze down the front of her body to focus on the
dagger. Laughter shook his chest. She fought the trembling in her hand at his
dismissal of the only weapon that would kill him and waited for him to make a
move.

They’d acted this scene out for years, yet only once in all
that time had he ever captured her. Most of their encounters mimicked a cat and
mouse game where he’d always let her get away. One day he wouldn’t. She knew it
in her soul. Her time was running out, in more ways than one.

He shifted his attention from her face to the window above
her. His grin widened into a sneer that showed off a mouthful of pointy,
razor-sharp teeth. Her heart skipped a beat before pounding wildly.

No, please no.

Not needing the confirmation but unable to stop herself, she
inhaled and caught the stench of death seeping out from under the door behind
her. A tremor racked her frame. No hiding it this time. Raul’s uncontained
amusement in response to her shaking drowned out the sounds spilling from the
bar next door.

Hatred grew and stirred the taint she carried. The desire to
give into it warred with the knowledge that doing so was exactly what Raul
wanted. Each time she embraced her rage, it opened her up to the chaotic power
of the world around her and fed the living evil attached to her soul. The dark
stain grew, ate away at her insides and sickened her. It was slowly turning her
into a monster.

But not today. I won’t let it happen.

She locked her knees and met his mocking gaze with a
derisive one of her own. Minutes passed while she held herself in check, but a
scream from somewhere inside her apartment building broke their silent battle.

Raul winked at her and ambled away as if he didn’t have a
care in the world. No chase. She didn’t know if she should be glad with the
turn of events or wary. She tracked his lumbering frame until he turned the
corner.

Hand still tightened around the knob, she twisted it and
flung the door open. The small entryway split into a narrow stairwell and an
equally cramped hallway. She rushed up the stairs, following the anguished
cries. More screams added to the mix. She skidded around the corner and pushed
against the shoulder of the college kid from the floor above. He stumbled into
the wall with her shove but flung out an arm, stopping her from getting past
him.

“Stay back, Harley.” He swallowed hard. “Ms. Erville was
murdered. Bastard freaking mutilated her. It’s not something you want to see.”

She nodded in acknowledgement of his warning, but scooted
under his arm and ran the last few feet. The open door revealed a sight she’d
seen too many times over her life. Her gut rolled. She choked on the bile
burning her esophagus. No matter how many times she’d seen Raul’s handiwork, it
always affected her the same way. At least the taint she carried didn’t respond
to murder. If she had found the torture of an invalid invigorating, she
would’ve cut her own throat years ago.

She cupped her hand over her mouth to block out the worst of
the stench and swept her gaze over the scene. Blood coated everything. The
walls, ceiling and furniture were dotted in red, but most of the liquid soaked
the tan carpet around the tipped wheelchair. Harley forced her gaze from the
dark stain spreading out from the chair to the body slumped over the armrest.

Bea’s tongue-less mouth hung open and the pinkie of her
right hand was gone. A gash cut across her thick throat while more slashes
decorated her arms and legs. Eyes wide, she stared vacantly, but Harley felt
the weight of her empty gaze. The accusation in it cut at her, left her with
yet another sin to carry and another memory to haunt her dreams. She accepted
it, exactly as she had the last time she’d seen a similar corpse and the one
before that. Each and every murder Raul committed was her fault.

He followed and tormented her by killing those close to
her—friends, neighbors, people who’d said hello to her.

She hated the fact that she endangered everyone around her,
hated the bastards who sought her and hated herself. She’d welcome death, but
she couldn’t embrace it.

Words had power and she’d promised to live, no matter what.

* * * * *

“Wake up, lady.”

Someone shook her. Harley stifled a scream and automatically
reached for her blade. She froze with her fingers wrapped around the hilt and
blinked hard against the bright sun. Confused brown eyes focused on her.
Awareness returned.
The cabbie.
She slid the dagger back into her boot.

“Hey, sorry to startle you, but we’re here.”

“Yes, yes, thank you.” She glanced out the window. The
Callahan estate loomed before her, the place where her living hell had begun
and the one she’d avoided for nine years.

She glanced away before the sight of the mansion sent her
into a panic attack. In an effort to delay the inevitable, she adjusted the
beanie she wore, shoving the strands of her hair that had slipped free back
under the knit fabric. More spilled out. She cursed, yanked the cap off and
dropped it in her lap. With trembling hands she twisted the length of her hair
and carefully stretched the hat over her piled tresses, hiding the platinum
curls that always drew looks from men and women alike. She clutched her
backpack and slipped out of the cab.

Her gaze drifted to the house. Memories pushed at her, ones
she wanted to keep buried.

“No.” She shook her head to dislodge them.
Coming here
was a mistake.

She turned to get back into the cab. It peeled away, kicking
dust in her face. She choked on the gritty air and faced the empty mansion.

“Guess I’m staying.”

She made her way to the entrance. For a long moment, she
stood there, contemplating how long it would take to walk back down the
mountain.

“Dammit, stop being a coward. You promised Ian you’d come to
the wedding. Suck it up.”

She slipped the key into the lock. The click resounded in
her ears and a screech accompanied her push of the heavy oak door. Dust and
stale air whooshed around her. She blinked rapidly to clear her blurry vision
and swept her gaze over the entryway. Empty. She let her nonhuman senses flare.
Only the sounds of scurrying mice reached her ears. A sigh escaped. She
shuffled inside and headed toward the living room. If she didn’t sit soon,
she’d collapse.

The chiming of the grandfather clock stopped her. The memories
she’d hoped to keep buried rushed back with the clang, ding, clang of the
pendulum. She squeezed her eyelids shut and fought them, but they came anyway.

A slideshow of monsters and death flashed through her mind.
The screams of her family mixed with the roars and grunts of the sluaghs who’d
killed them. Overshadowing it all was the one image that still haunted her—the
blue eyes of her ghost man.

Harley tugged at her hair. “No, dammit, no!”

She didn’t want to think about him. He stirred too many
emotions within her—longing, fear, anger. He’d saved her but the promise he’d
coerced from her had destroyed her life and her sanity. She couldn’t let him
go. It was as if she still carried a piece of him.

“You’re alive.”

The low, gravelly voice of her ghost man caressed her as
tangibly as it had all those years ago. She dropped her hands and popped her
eyelids open. Hovering inches away were the eyes she’d seen in her dreams every
night since.

“Oh, god.” She scrambled back and tripped over her bag,
landing on her ass.

“Be calm. You’re safe.”

Peace settled over her as if he’d taken her anxiety away
with those words. Still, she inched away from those disembodied eyes. Caution
had kept her alive in the face of a lifetime of evil. It didn’t matter if she’d
felt as if she’d known him for ages. She’d learned early on, nothing was as it
seemed. Those with the ability to use glamour could create illusions out of
thin air.

She settled on bent legs and studied the apparition for a
clue as to whether he was a figment of her imagination or not. The oval
surrounding the spectral display showed tan skin, ridiculously long lashes and
dark eyebrows. Her pulse kicked up but not in fear. Desire fueled it. It was
the same reaction she always had when she conjured his eyes—peace and arousal.
She ignored the moisture pooling low and focused on the man she’d never thought
she’d see again, not outside of her dreams at least.

“You.” She swallowed hard. “It’s you.”

“Yes. It is.” A long moment passed where they held each
other’s gazes. Finally, he released a shaky breath she felt skim over her
cheek. She pressed her palm to the sensitive skin to hold the warmth close.
“You never returned to me.”

She’d tried. Raul had stopped her. She’d escaped a near rape
at his hands by stabbing him but afterward she hadn’t been quite…right. It was
as if his touch had dirtied her.

She wrapped her arms tight around her chest and pushed the
memory away. “I ran just like you told me to.”

“I also told you to come back. You promised you would.”

Guilt choked her for breaking her vow too. She looked away.
“Yes, I did.”

The featherlight stroke of his fingertips along her cheek
quickened her breaths. Her body reacted to the simple caress as if he’d touched
her intimately. Her breasts pebbled and warmth pooled low.

“No matter. I’m glad you finally did. I need your help.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You remember all the knowledge I shared with you, correct?”