The Hunted (79 page)

My tongue lolled to the side and I screwed my face up. ‘Ugh, enough with that already. I accept that you’re going to be my stalker, I’m not agreeing to pet names as well. Not unless you like being called … Willy.’

He cringed, and giving me a steady, almost stony glare, he said, ‘You will not call me,’ and here he swallowed and shuddered, ‘Willy.’

I giggled. ‘Then lay off the
love
stuff. It’s far too much for an emotional cripple like me.’

‘As you wish.’ He didn’t wait for an answer before he pulled me against him and crushed his lips against mine.

My head swirled with desire, and my hands couldn’t help but reach up and entwine themselves in the thicket of short dark hair at his neck, pulling him closer and inhaling every part of him. His lips moved with expertise and purpose, and it was all I could do not to surrender myself to him completely.

When he kissed me that way, it was very difficult to even remember my name, let alone the reasons why I had decided this was a bad idea. Yet through the heat of our embrace and the fire dancing across our lips, I couldn’t shake the overwhelming feeling that I was forgetting something very vital.

Hang on a second …

As if reading my thoughts, he pulled away slowly and smiled at me with self-satisfaction, leaving me slightly breathless and very, very frustrated. ‘I thought you were holding out on me?’ he whispered against my lips before nuzzling the side of my neck with his cold nose.

Crap, there goes my leverage.

My eyes narrowed as I pulled his face back up and looked into his slightly muddied eyes. I frowned as his grin widened. ‘Do you really want to pursue this?’

He chuckled lightly and shook his head, running his hand down my back and pulling me hard against him. ‘I want to pursue you very much,’ he murmured seductively against my lips as he pressed his mouth against mine again, taking possession of me, hungry. I could taste the sense of victory on his tongue.

I couldn’t resist. Not when he was loving me like that.

Smug bastard. He knew it too.

So he could have tonight. He could taste my mouth and dream about a world of love and all things la-dee-dah, but tomorrow was a different story. Tomorrow I would make sure that my head was clear of his essence, of any lingering desire I may have felt when his hands had stroked my body. I would let him have a few hours to convince me that he had possession over my heart and soul.

Tonight, they were both unknowingly his. But tomorrow … well, that was an entirely different story.

EPILOGUE:

ONE MONTH LATER

R
oshan stepped closer to the glass, his own, borrowed reflection staring back at him as his eyes probed the darkness beyond. He watched the girl as she made a song and dance of saying goodbye to her family.

She wrapped her arms around the youngest male and squeezed him tight, before briefly embracing the two adults who he assumed were her parents. It was hard to say one way or the other given that none of them looked anything like her. They were average, but she was beautiful. Underneath that tightly knit sweater and skin-tight pants, he saw her long, slim legs, dark chocolate coloured hair and skin that was as smooth as silk itself. Roshan could not see her eyes from this distance, yet he had a feeling they’d be as beautiful as the rest of her. No wonder John had taken a fancy to her. She was sublime.

Elena.

John had told him much about this strange girl who was human, yet born to be a Vampire. Even more inexplicably still, she had also been blessed with the blood of his own kind. According to his alpha brother, she could possess a cure that would remove their genetic disadvantages as immortals. Her blood held the possibility of changing their vulnerabilities into strengths, and thus she was vitally important to
his
future.

Roshan watched her carefully as she pulled back from the three, her eyes darting towards the darkness for the briefest of moments before settling back on the youngest male. She gave him a half-hearted smile.

Roshan glanced into the darkness too, mimicking her movements. What could have possibly piqued her interest across the darkened tarmac?

Awareness prickled Roshan’s skin and his teeth lengthened involuntarily. He wasn’t the only immortal here tonight. He could smell the other’s scent. It was slight, but enough for Roshan to pinpoint its source. He wondered if his enemy could smell him too. It was more than likely.

He could see the Vampire clearly now, his glittering green eyes watching her carefully from the cover of darkness, arms crossed in front of his chest.

How touching.

John had been right. The Vampire was quite clearly enamoured with her. His watchful gaze and the cautious readiness of his stance suggested that he would stop at nothing to protect this girl. His past actions had proven that fact. This one persistent vampire had hunted down and decimated the London pack with relative ease. He would not be easy to defeat.

Roshan straightened his coat and tried to keep his temper in check. He wanted to break through this plate glass window and rip out that vampire’s throat. The pleasure he would derive from that experience alone was limitless. It had killed one of his closest brothers, and he wanted his revenge.

Not now.

He calmed himself, stretching his neck and cracking his human knuckles to ease some of the tension in his borrowed body. There were much bigger matters to contend with and revenge was a dish best served cold. The fate of the Vânâtors was now resting in his hands and he couldn’t let his temper get in the way of his plans.

There was too much at stake.

Roshan stepped forward again and looked down at Elena embracing the younger blonde human. Surprisingly, he felt a stab of jealousy that this one, lone human was touching her. Ridiculous considering he’d only just laid eyes on the girl two days ago, but still, she was more than he had expected. Roshan’s entire wolf soul yearned to lose itself in her and, at the very same time, sample some of that delicious tasting blood that John had spoken so ardently about. He could almost picture how pure her scent would taste on his tongue and how her soft creamy flesh would feel underneath his lips and fangs.

It was a pity he wasn’t going to get a chance to revel in his desires any longer than the next ten minutes. He had checked the flight plan for her imminent departure. The plane belonged to the Institute of Magical Intervention. She had a one-way ticket to Bucharest, and once she was in the safety of the Protector’s headquarters there would be no way he could get to her unless every vânâtor still alive banded together and stormed the facility. He still hadn’t decided if that was an option or not yet. He hated The Protectors so much he’d seriously considered sacrificing himself just to spill some of their blood, but common sense had warred within him. The influence of the IMI extended far.

Romania was the Vânâtor’s birth place, but they had been pushed out of the cities and forced into the Carpathian Mountains where many still hid today. Others had spread out to other continents and countries. The only one not inhabitable was Italy—it was crawling with vampires. The leader of their people, the one they called Lucius, made sure his cities were locked up tighter than Fort Knox. It was suicide for a vânâtor to stray willingly into either region, and though he wanted Elena badly, he wasn’t sure if he was willing to risk the safety of all the packs just to feel her against his skin, and taste her in his mouth.

Roshan cursed. He should have taken her earlier. He dared not risk it now given that she was surrounded by the magical ones as well as the Vampire. He did not doubt that he could defeat it himself, but did not like his chances with the others there. He needed to be patient. Bigger things were in the works, things that could guarantee him exactly what he wanted.

He looked down as Elena picked up her backpack and slung it over one of her slender shoulders. She took one more moment to stare off into the darkness before she waved goodbye to her family and headed for the plane.

A man in a tidy uniform with decorated lapels stepped closer to the stairs and helped her into the plane, taking her back pack from her. His hands inadvertently brushed hers.

Roshan growled.

She turned and waved goodbye a final time before the uniformed man ushered her up the stairs, and securing the door behind her.

Roshan swallowed the lump of rage in his throat, fighting the urge to pound his fists into the concrete pillar next to him until they were bloodied, bruised, and broken. The man sitting only a few feet away from him looked like an excellent target. Better yet—he could drag him outside, take his fill and then rip the guy to pieces.

He sighed wistfully as the man stood up a second later, along with a multitude of other people that also looked good enough to eat, before heading over to the nearest gate to wait for boarding to begin.

Pity.

Roshan glanced back out the window again and watched as the aeroplane finished reversing up and then steered out onto the tarmac.

He glanced across at the Vampire again and stepped back in surprise. It was looking directly at him, an angry and vicious-looking snarl spreading across its entire face. Roshan could practically feel the hostility, even from this distance, and his own hackles rose up in response.

It was time to go.

He glanced back one more time as Elena’s plane began to taxi down the runway, and then cursed himself silently again for leaving the matter until too late. He should have come over a week ago when he realised that something had happened to John. It was too late now.

He would have to head home again, gather his alpha brothers and figure out a way to capture the girl that would not involve such a costly showdown.

When he glanced out the window again the three Protectors were looking straight up at him, blank expressions spread across their faces. They must have known that he was there. But the part that troubled him most was that the Vampire was now gone.

Definitely time to get going.

He abruptly spun around and disappeared into the massive crowds of unsuspecting people that were oblivious to the wolf stalking amongst them. Roshan could almost taste all of their warm, searing flesh and blood in his mouth. Their mingled scents filled his nose with longing, with hunger, their veins pulsing with excitement and energy.

He licked his lips but repressed his urges for now, distancing himself as quickly as possible from the scent that was now familiar above all others—that Vampire’s. He needed to get back to Paris before he did something that he might regret.

One thing was for certain though. The time for the rule of the Vân
â
tors was drawing close. And more than anything, he was looking forward to the day when his brothers would finally be on equal footing with the Vampires, the day that they no longer had to hide in the shadows to defend what should be rightfully theirs.

The day when they were no longer … the hunted.

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