Hunter's Need (3 page)

He shrugged her off and squared off with the vampire. Once, whenever he used a power display like that, it would show on his face, in his eyes as he pushed his limits. The nosebleeds had stopped more than two years ago, and Ana wondered just how far those limits had expanded. She sure as hell didn’t want to find out
now
, though.

“You little fuck, I’m gonna knock the shit out of you.”

Ana whirled and glared at him. “The hell you will!” She might be a coward, but nobody threatened her baby brother.

He sneered at her. “Get out of my way, bitch.”

From the depths of the room, people started to stir.

“Neal, back off . . . ”

“Come on, man . . . ”

“Backing off sounds like a damn good idea.” Bradley shoved around her, once more planting his skinny butt in front of her, protecting her—damn it,
she
was supposed to protect him. It was her job, one she failed at, miserably.

The swell of psychic energy rose in the room once more and Neal grimaced as it pushed him back once more.

“Want some help?” Brad asked, a vicious smile on his face, one that made him seem far too old. Far too bitter. Far too angry.

Ana shoved between them and Brad deflected his next psychic strike—just like she’d suspected he would. He scowled at her. “Ana, get out of the way.”

Behind her, she heard Neal snarl, sensed his moving—quick. Too quick.

Several things happened at once.

Voices emerged from the hall behind them, deep, angry and full of authority.

The vampire who’d been shooting pool with Duke appeared from the mess of bodies, grabbing Neal as Ana turned. Neal’s hand was only inches away from her, caught in midair. The new vampire stood there, holding Neal’s wrist with apparent ease while the weaker man struggled ineffectively.

“Get the fuck off of me,” Neal snarled.

“No, Dominic, I think you’re good right where you’re at.” The female voice was hard and cold, and Ana felt something inside her shrivel with fear as Kelsey Hughes came storming into the room.

The redhead paused in the door, taking in everything with one quick glance. Her husband Malachi sauntered past her and flicked a look at Neal that had the vampire’s eyes going wide with apprehension. Two other instructors trailed in after him—and Duke.

Planting her hands on her hips, Kelsey demanded, “What in the hell is going on here?”

“Nothing, Ms. Hughes.” Wrapping an arm around Brad, Ana pulled him against her.

Kelsey cocked a brow and glanced from Neal to the siblings. Neal still had his wrist suspended in midair and the vampire—Dominic—stood there still as a statue, like he could hold that position all night and well into morning. “Nothing. I feel several spikes in energy, there’s broken glass, I walk in right as somebody’s coming at you—
from behind
—and you want me to buy that line?”

Blowing out a breath, Ana said, “It’s my fault—Brad came in at a bad time and he—”

“The kid did what nobody else in here had the decency to do.” Dominic cut in. He let go of Neal but before the younger vampire could back away, Dominic got in his face. “You like taking swings at kids and women?”

“That
kid
attacked first,” Neal snapped.

“Yeah, after he came in and found you putting your hands on his sister. Although she’d done made it clear she didn’t want your hands on her.”

Neal’s response was cut off as a low, eerie growl whispered through the room.

Automatically, all eyes followed the sound—

To Duke, standing in the door way and staring at Neal like he’d just found his midnight snack. Kelsey shifted, casually placing her body in between the two men, blocking their view of each other. Her voice calm and cool, she said, “Neal, is that right?”

Neal opened his mouth. Snapped it close. Opened it again.

“Get out.”

“Fine,” he muttered. “Stupid bitch ain’t worth my time anyway.”

A cold smile curled Kelsey lips and she said, “I’m sorry. I wasn’t clear. I don’t mean leave this room. I mean,
get out.
As in out of my school.”

Neal blinked. Looked from Kelsey’s face to Malachi, then at Ana and Brad. “What?”

Kelsey repeated, “Get out.”

“Over that bitch?”

“Nobody, and I mean
nobody
lays a hand on a woman or a child in my school for any fucking reason. Unless of course she was attacking you . . . tell me, Neal, did she attack you? Is that why you touched her?”

“You can’t trust her,” Neal snarled. “You can’t trust her kind—she’ll turn on us. She’s done it once before.” He jerked a chin toward Duke.

Ana’s skin crawled with shame. Automatically, she tightened her arms and Brad reached up, patted her hand.

But nobody was looking at them. Or at Duke. They were staring at the exchange between Kelsey and Neal with fascination. “No, Neal. We can’t trust
your
kind. You’re not one of us . . . and you never were.”

Neal paled. Something flashed through his eyes. “I
am
one of you. I’m here, aren’t I?”

“You were brought here to train—but not to be a Hunter. You were brought here to learn control. Non-mortals can pose a danger—our job is to limit that danger. We do that through teaching, through training.
That
was why you were brought here—never think otherwise.” Kelsey gave him a dismissive look and then turned her back.

Neal jerked away from Dominic and stalked across the room, placing himself in front of Kelsey. “This is fucked up, lady. I didn’t hurt her—hell, I didn’t hurt that little punk, either. I wouldn’t hurt a kid.” He sent Ana and Brad a furious look, one that scalded her and left her almost ill with all the hatred she felt coming from him.

Tearing her eyes away from him, Ana whispered to Brad, “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”

Brad looked like he wanted to argue, then he sighed and shoved a hand through his hair. “Okay. Maybe we can go to get a snack—I’m starving.”

“That sounds like a good idea, Ana,” Kelsey said, an edge to her voice. But when the witch looked at Ana, her gaze was kind, so kind and so gentle and it made Ana feel even more pathetic.

Silence fell as the brother and sister headed for the door. Kelsey lingered in the doorway, watching them with that enigmatic gaze. The witch’s gaze softened as Brad passed by and she reached out, ruffled his hair. “You’re a bottomless pit these days,” she teased.

The lighthearted words did nothing to ease the tension in the room. As they left, Ana breathed a little easier. Every passing step made it easier, every inch of distance helped.

Get away—she had to get away from that anger. Her shields were stronger than they had been a few years ago, but anger was always harder to shield against. Always.

 

 

A
s Ana and Brad disappeared from sight, Kelsey stepped back in the room. Somebody slid the door closed behind her. All around, people were staring at her. Watching with avid, intent interest and making no pretense otherwise.

Some of the people in the room would become Hunters.

Many would not.

Even though they were told when they came to Excelsior that not all would join the Council, not everybody believed it. Kelsey could understand in a way. The older ones that came to them, more often not, were victims of a vampire attack, survivors of a were’s bite. Their entire lives changed, and they had little understanding of why. Time and again, many of them had to leave their old lives behind—their lives, their families. Faced with a long, empty stretch of life, they latched onto anything that might give their new existence meaning.

Being a Hunter had meaning.

But that mind-set crippled them—doing it because it had
meaning
was the last reason to do it.

In more cases than she could recall, Kelsey had seen it happen. In more cases than she could recall, it was the ones who
didn’t
want to be here, the ones who
didn’t
want to be a Hunter that were called to it.

For some fucked-up reason, Kelsey ended up being the one dumped with the responsibility of saying
No. I’m sorry, but no, it can’t be you.
Most of the instructors at the school were perfectly content to let her have that not-so-happy job.

“Are you going to make this harder than it has to be?” she asked, weary.

Neal glared at her. “I’m not making
anything
hard—you’re the one throwing some kind of tantrum because that bitch can’t handle her own problems.”

“The bitch,” Kelsey said, getting more annoyed by the second, “isn’t the problem.”

Neal, stupidly, thought she was referring to Brad.

Rolling his eyes, he said, “I already told you. I wouldn’t hurt a kid. And I wasn’t going to hurt her, either. I just wanted her to get out of the way.”

“But you had your hands on her—that’s what started this, isn’t it? You had your hands on her, touching her, when she didn’t want you touching her.”

It was Duke, of all people, who spoke. Separating himself from the crowd, he stalked toward Neal, his pale gray eyes swirling, the pupils spiking and flaring as he fought the rage inside him.

A rage that made
no
sense to Duke. Even as he prowled around the vampire, struggling against the urge to pounce, there was a saner part of his mind that kept demanding,
What in the hell is your problem
?

Ana wasn’t hurt—nobody would have let it go that far. He didn’t even waste time trying to convince himself that he’d be this pissed no matter who the woman had been. Of course he’d be pissed. Ready to rip a throat out.

Except he knew his reaction wouldn’t be
this
extreme.

Ana—that bastard had put his hands on Ana.

“You put your hands on her—after she made it clear she didn’t want you touching her. But you want us to buy that you wouldn’t hurt her?” he asked quietly, pacing in a tight circle around Neal.

Neal echoed Duke’s movements, keeping the shifter in his sight. Baffled, he said, “You make her sound like some kindergarten teacher, like I was going to grab her, rape her and drain her dry, just for breathing. She’s not some damned innocent. She’s not some helpless victim. She’s not—”

“She’s mortal.” Duke closed the distance between them and reached out. Vamps were quick. Shifters? Quicker. Neal didn’t have time to evade as Duke grabbed him and whirled. Slamming the vamp back into the wall, Duke repeated, “She’s mortal—she’s got psychic gifts, but her power is all in the mind. She’s got no offensive powers, she’s no stronger than some kindergarten teacher. She gets hurt, she’ll take just as long to heal as any other mortal. You cut her, she’ll bleed like any other mortal.”

Neal shoved Duke back, but he was still caught in the grip of that inexplicable rage and he snarled at the younger man, flashing incisors that had already begun to lengthen. His gray eyes swirled and pinwheeled, glowing with ominous warning. Rage—hot, thick and potent, spiraled inside him, straining against his skin, fighting to tear past the confines of his self-control.

Over
her
—

Ana . . .

The man inside him struggled with it, fought to understand it. The animal inside him didn’t
care
.

“Enough.” The word, coolly spoken, just barely managed to penetrate the haze of fury that gripped Duke. Kelsey stepped up and laid a hand on his shoulder.

He knew what she was doing—he felt it, the calm she tried to project into him. Tried and failed. He was too fucking pissed. He had to force his hands to let go, had to force himself to step away. He dragged in a deep breath of air, but it did nothing to clear his head. The air was ripe with the scents of adrenaline, Neal’s anger and the lingering trace of Ana’s fear.

Neal, fangs dropped and his eyes half wild, glared at Duke. “What in the fuck is your problem?”

“Neal, I’m thinking you’re the problem,” Malachi said. “If I were you, I’d shut the bloody hell up.”

The big vampire had been utterly silent until just a moment ago. Now he studied Duke with curious eyes, his head cocked. He had dark blue eyes, and they were usually about as easy to read as a closed book, but right now, they danced with humor.

For some reason, Duke knew the humor was directed at him, but he really didn’t give a damn. “If you’re expecting me to apologize, you’re going to be waiting a good long while.” Then he circled around them and left. At the door, he stopped and looked at Neal. He curled his lip and growled.

Malachi and Kelsey watched as he left. “It gets annoying—how often you are right,” Mal said to his wife.

She just smiled. The smile died, though, as she shifted her gaze to Neal. “I believe it’s best if you left now.”

 

 

“I
T’S for the best, Brad,” Ana said, sighing as she settled down on the bed beside Brad, draping an arm around his shoulders. She’d known the time was coming, but after the debacle with Neal a few weeks earlier, she’d finally admitted it to herself.

It was time to leave. “Look . . . I don’t really belong here, anyway. You know it as well as I do.”

“If you weren’t supposed to be here, they’d make you leave. Just like they made Neal leave.” He shrugged away from her embrace and climbed off the bed to pace the small room that had been her home for the past four years. “I don’t want you to go.”

For once, he sounded more like a kid than the miniature adult that he’d been all of his life.

“I know you don’t,” she said softly. “But . . . ” Her words trailed off and she looked away, licking her lips and trying to figure out how to explain.

She didn’t need to. Even with her shields up, even with his own, her younger brother could read her. His eyes narrowed on her face and reached out, grabbing her shoulder when she would have evaded.

That simple touch was all it took to deepen the connection and she winced as she saw the knowledge flare in his eyes. It was followed quickly by hurt. “You . . . you want to leave,” he whispered. “You want to?”