Raven's Desires (Night Hunters) (24 page)

“Good girl,” Alec said as he walked into the room.

Kristian tugged at the chains when the vampire moved up to his mate and touched her face. Fury went through him.

“Easy, vampire, don’t hurt yourself,” Alec taunted.

“Did I do well?”

“Yes, you did, my young slayer.”

“Thank you. I don’t have to pretend to want him anymore do I?”

Kristian stopped moving. She had pretended to want him? This was all some plot.

Kristian blinked a couple of times staring at her, his heart feeling as if it would break.

“Look at her one last time, Kristian,” Alec said, touching Raven as he did. “You will never see her again. Enjoy your time in prison.

Kristian let the darkness take over him. He couldn’t fight it knowing that his love did not love him anymore.

* * * *

“Kristian man, tell me that you did not do this,” Shane voice woke him from his sleep.

Kristian opened his eyes to see his room was full of people. He made sure he could move before sitting up in the bed.

“Do what?”

“Look around? You drained these girls!”

Kristian looked in his bed, there were two naked girl’s body next to him.

“What? Shane, you know I didn’t do this!”

Arthas walked into the room, his lovely wife following in his footsteps.

“Take him away, trial begins at sunset.”

“What are you talking about? You know damn well I didn’t kill these girls.”

Three vampires surrounded him, gripping him.

“Don’t fight it, Kristian,” Jana said.

Kristian let them men pull him down the stairs and stuff him in a black car with tinted windows.

He looked out as Shane walked onto the porch staring at him as the car drove off.

* * * *

Hours later they had put him in a cell with no windows. He had fallen asleep not believing that this was happening.

The sound of keys in the keyhole woke Kristian from his restless sleep. All night, he dreamed of Raven, his Blood Mate, his life, deceiving him for Alec. A slayer killer. Now, he had nothing to live for. He lost Raven and he knew that he would never get her back. Kristian knew that even his father couldn’t get him out of this now, not that he would bring his family’s power into play. Yes, they were strong and controlled most of the Council but nothing could be done when you were convicted of committing murder, especially human.

“Let’s go Blackburn,” Jasmine Hayes said from the cage door.

Kristian stood from the cot and followed the Dreamwalker out the door.

Jasmine stood at the door that she wanted Kristian to go into. Kristian walked inside the room. Every chair in the room was filled with all types of beings. Some he seen before, some he’d never met. Shane sat in the front row of the guest seat. Arthas walked into the room the moment he made it to the table.

Arthas fumbled through stacks of papers, looking through them carefully.

“Kristian Blackburn, you are brought here today to be sentenced for killing humans…”

“I didn’t kill any humans!” Kristian interrupted. “That fuck, Alec, framed me!”

Arthas looked up from his paperwork.

“Don’t interrupt me again, Blackburn.”

Blackburn? Did he just called him out as if he meant nothing to the Council? All the shit he did for him!

“Now, looking at your paperwork. We will put a hold on your accounts. Myself and the Council will not sentence you to death, but you will spend two-hundred years in Acadia. After that you will return to the Council and try to renew your membership.”

“What the fuck!” Shane jumped up from his seat. “I know Kristian didn’t kill those people, and you know it also.”

“Sit down, Santiago,” Arthas ordered.

“No. No. It’s not right. I know he was upset for losing his mate to Alec but think about it, you know who Raven is. Where is she? Why isn’t she here to protect her mate? You tell me, Arthas.”

Everyone in the room gasped at Shane calling Arthas by his name.

“Say one more word and you will be in a cell with your friend, Santiago.”

Kristian turned around and shook his head at Shane.

“One…More…Word,” Shane said.

“Detain Santiago
—
he will join his friend Kristian in Arcadia for two-hundred years.”

“Fuck you! You know this isn’t right,” Shane screamed.

“Get him out of here. Now!”

Two Dreamwalkers materialized next to Shane. They touched his shoulder and the three of them disappeared into thin-air. Kristian turned back to Arthas, not saying a word. Two hundred years for something he didn’t do was long but if he said a word it could turn into four or even the death penalty.

“Now, thank your friend when you get there, Blackburn. As for Raven, she died last night in a fire at her parent’s home. There were three skeletons found but they were burned so badly they couldn’t be identified.”

Kristian shook his head. He knew that either Arthas was lying or that Alec set the whole plot up, making everyone think that Raven was dead.

“I am sorry for the loss of your mate, but that does not give you the right to kill innocent people. Your sentence has been set. Guards, take him out of here and make sure that Shane knows that when I say quiet I meant it.”

Kristian opened his eyes and looked at Arthas, knowing that he had to connect with Alec or anyone that his mate Raven was connected to. He had to get to his mate, he had to have her in his life. Without her he was nothing.

From this point on, he would have to spend his life connecting to Raven, and he would, no matter what. He would not give up on his love.

Chapter 12

Present…

Alec dropped the suitcase to the dusty floor. Ten years ago today he stood in this very room waiting for his lovely slayer to finish fucking her mate so they could frame him. It had been so lovely
—
Raven had done any and everything to please him since then.

His master spoke to him a week ago and told him to bring her back here. After her episode last night, he had to see if the solution worked as well as before. Kristian had somehow broken through to her. It could be a good thing that he could sense her again. When she died at the hands of his master, Kristian would feel everything.

Now, he only had to get Raven to befriend this witch and warlock. Calvin Norton’s children. They said that Calvin cast a spell to close up a hell dimension five years before and hadn’t been seen since. Calvin’s kids didn’t really know who they were, but he would get them to help him out.

“Why did you bring me back here, Alec?” Raven placed her bag on the dusty table. “It’s all dusty and the vampire smell is still here.”

Alec smiled and framed Raven’s face. She looked the same as she did years ago. No scars on her beautiful face or body, just one mark, the one he wished he could erase, the bite mark on her neck from Kristian. Not very noticeable until you looked closely at her neck. That mark was like a curse. When he even got close to biting her to place his mark there, he would get this sickly feeling over him and could never do it. She never asked or wondered why he shied away from that side of her neck. It wasn’t like he was going to tell her the truth anyhow.

“Don’t worry, my lovely, we have Elisabeth here to clean up.”

Alec looked up as Elisabeth walked into the room. This Shadow Demon had been very helpful, especially the day that they framed Kristian. Her mind was very easy to take over. He’d made her send the text message to Kristian. She followed the plan and had been pleasing him ever since.

“Oh, this place is a mess. I will clean it immediately.”

“Good, good.” Alec turned back to his slayer. “I have a job for you, my lovely.”

Raven gave him a wicked smile, the smile he loved seeing on her.

“What would that be?”

“I need for you to go back to school.”

Raven’s smile melted away from her face. “You need me to go back where?”

“To school.”

“Oh, come on!”

Raven paced in front of him. “Send me to kill something or to beat someone up. Anything but going back to school. I’m damn near thirty years old. Back to school? Seriously?”

Alec wrapped his arm around his whining slayer’s waist. “For me? Just for a while. We have to get our master out of hell. It’s been over fifty years since he last walked on this earth and he’s getting a bit restless.”

Raven took a deep breath and he knew she would agree.

“And once we let him out will you take me back to Paris?”

Alec stared at her.

“You just want to go back to that Paris boy, don’t you?”

Raven purred. “Young and entertaining.”

“Entertaining? You never had sex with him at all.”

Raven shrugged. “No but I enjoyed his company. He kept me from being bored when you were out sleeping with all the Paris sluts.”

“I wasn’t sleeping, I was feeding.”

Alec knew that agreeing to take her back to Paris was a lie. Once Anarisan was brought back to this world, he would use her blood to restore himself.

“I promise. Now get our things up to the room, then go on and get registered in school. Everything you will need is in the bag. I’m going out scouting for the warlock’s and witch’s home.”

Raven pouted.

“What’s wrong?”

“I don’t want to go back to that place.”

Alec smiled at her.

“This is the last thing you have to do before getting him out. We need that witch and warlock to help us. Now go.”

“Alright, I will go.”

“Good, my slayer. If you have to pretend to, well, you know, be a little promiscuous, then you have to.”

“You owe me big time.”

Raven looked at Alec then picked up her bags and headed upstairs to dress for class.

* * * *

Jessica looked up from her books as a female walked into the room. The teacher stopped talking and gawked—yes, Mr. Sears was gawking at the new girl. Who could blame him? She had long very thick black hair. She had on a t-shirt that touched the top of her low rise jeans. She looked very toned. Her skin was the perfect coca color. Smooth looking, soft skin that she would love to touch. Her light brown eyes sparkled mischievously. The woman was beautiful to her.

“Who do we have here?” Mr. Sears read the paper. “Class, this is Raven Nowles.”

Raven. Like the dark bird. That was the perfect name for her.

“And where are you coming from, Ms. Nowles?”

“I just moved from Paris.”

“Oh, so you are from Paris, very nice.”

“Not originally. I lived in Meadville for a while then my…ummmm…a friend took me in once my parents died.”

“I’m so sorry to hear that.”

Raven shrugged. “Hey, it was a while ago. So, where do I sit?”

“Take any empty seat.”

Jessica’s brother leaned over to her as she watched Raven sit in the far right corner of the room. “You can’t have that one, sis. Hell, let the men have a go at some of the nice looking women.”

Jessica laughed. Yes it was true that she enjoyed females as much as males, and she did get more females than her own brother but what could she say, she know what a woman wanted.

“I don’t know. This one looks tasty.”

Raven turned around and looked directly at her. She licked her lips and Jessica swore that her body had caught on fire. Raven then turned around to pay attention to Mr. Sears.

“Looks like she plays in your court.”

“Good. Then I don’t have to try so hard.”

The bell rang only moments after Raven entered the class. Jessica quickly left and came down into the middle courtyard to stop from going after Raven. She didn’t want to seem too desperate and then, she didn’t know if Raven liked females.

Jessica could not stop staring at Raven in class, nor could half of the class. Raven had a presence around her that could draw anyone to her.

Jessica flipped through the book she’d found in her father’s things. It was a diary, so to speak. It had all types of things in it about her father. If she knew right, her father was a powerful warlock. Not just powerful, but very old and from his pictures dated back forty years ago with her mother, she doubted that he was in his nineties then. More like teens, if she had to say.

There were so many things she learned from reading her father’s books. From there being creatures in this world that humans didn’t know about. Vampires, werewolves, demons of all shapes and sizes. This interested Jessica so much. Her brother Joseph never took their father’s books seriously, saying it was just a story he’d been writing, but Jessica didn’t believe that. It had things about their mother inside.

As her father stated, their mother was human, but their father loved her so much that he could not let her go. A miracle happened when their mother got pregnant. Their father shouldn’t have been able to produce a child with anyone other than a witch, but god gave him a special gift. The last chapters of the book stated hunters were after her and her brother. They wanted to find them and find out why they had been born to a human. The last thing her father wrote was he was opening a portal and sending anyone who would harm his family into it. It was dangerous because the portals would open up all over the world and could kill everyone on earth. She knew her father would do anything to protect them.