Hunter, page 8
part #1 of Hunted Shifters Legacy Series
Celine eyed her back, surprised to find there was another female in the house. The timer to the oven dinged, and she broke the contact and began removing two trays and placing them on the counter.
“Good morning. I’ve made some food. I hope it’s okay. The pancakes are still warm, and there’s some chocolate ganache for them. Also some jam. I also made some bread and cookies, if you’re interested…”
Dumbfounded silence filled the space, making her nervous. It was the woman who stepped closer first, taking in the sight hungrily.
“This is for us?”
“Well, for everyone who lives here. Dig in.”
At that, the woman beamed, blue eyes sparkling. She held out a hand.
“You must be the famous Celine Peach. Hi. I’m Jessamine Turner. Jessa for short.”
“Jessa,” Celine repeated, taking the hand and shaking it. It was firm, almost dominant. “Yes, I’m Celine. I didn’t realize there were other females here.”
At that, Jessa smirked. “Well, I’m hardly one sometimes, but yes, we do have another female here: Edmund’s sister, though she’s not here at the moment.”
“Thank God for that,” the other man muttered, sitting on the kitchen counter stool. He nodded at Celine in acknowledgement. “Oliver Fitzpatrick. Ovie.”
“Irish?” she couldn’t help asking.
He shot her a look. “The accent gave it away?”
“Kind of. And the last name.”
Levi was the last to come closer, observing her instead of the food. There was a question in his gaze, brown eyes probing. “You didn’t have to cook for us. Was the food not to your liking?”
“The food was shit, Levi,” Jessa stated, taking in a forkful of cut pancakes. Her eyes practically rolled over her head. “God, this is amazing. Are you planning to cook for us while you’re here?”
“Jessa…” Levi called out in warning.
“If I’m not busy, and as much as I can. If not, I can cook ahead, and you can heat things in the oven. I know a lot about pre-cooking good meals.”
“Fantastic,” Jessa exclaimed. “This is fantastic.”
Celine bit back a grin, feeling her nerves disappear as she watched them eat with gusto. Even Ovie, who’d been quiet the whole time, was digging into the pancakes before he was smashing the bread. Levi was the last one to do so, eyes widening when he finally tasted the cookies. He glanced at her.
“This is great, but you didn’t have to.”
“I want to,” she replied stubbornly. “I want to make it up to you guys. Help out as much as I can. If I’m staying here, it’s not for free.”
“Fair exchange,” Jessa agreed. “You know, I thought you’d be such a diva when I heard about your arrival here. I guess I was wrong.”
“We only have one diva here,” Ovie muttered.
Jessa nodded. “True. We don’t need another.”
That implied Edmund’s sister was one, and it only made Celine’s curiosity spike. But she didn’t ask, listening to them instead as she took care of the dirty plates. Their topics were random, volleying from light to serious ones before they latched on to one that had her ears perking up.
“So how long is Hunter going to be gone?”
“I don’t know,” Levi replied, shrugging. “But the boss asked the guards to tighten security, and I think he asked Ovie to keep on standby.”
“We always tighten security,” Jessa pointed out. “So I guess that’s our agenda for the day?”
“For the whole week, most likely.”
There was some muttering, followed by the woman complaining that there wasn’t a lot to do around there—followed by Ovie pointing out that was for the best. Celine deduced the guards were Levi and Jessa, along with someone else named Mulborough, and Ovie and Hunter were the main men outside. There was also someone called St. Charles. Then there was Edmund and his sister, whose name no one mentioned. That rounded them up to eight if one didn’t count any outside contacts they had.
Definitely a small clan, making it clearer and clearer why they were close, and why they sometimes squabbled like siblings. It almost made the breakfast scene normal, if one didn’t attribute the fact that these so-called siblings had muscles for days, bodies of warriors, and obviously headstrong personalities.
It also made it clear why they were venturing outside despite the risks, as there was no way to earn there and keep up with their financial needs. They mentioned the stock market, some random business earnings.
She wondered if Hunter was doing that earning now, and she wondered if he was doing alright. A memory of his wounds blazed in mind—of the way she got distracted and almost slipped her hand under his towel, and how he violently reacted to it. The rest was a blur, but she was pretty sure she found him in her bed sometime during the night, with a pillow stuck in between them. In her sleepy state, it had occurred to her that she'd wanted to get closer to him and feel the warmth radiating off his hard body.
She’d woken up alone in bed, with Sidney already awake and Max playing with the kid. Hunter gone.
The conversation surrounding her died down, making her aware something had occurred while she’d been too preoccupied with her thoughts. Jarred back to the present, she gaped at the three as they stood up almost simultaneously.
“Sorry,” Jessa said, beaming. “I’d help out with the dishes, but we’ve just been called.”
“Oh. Do you have telepathy or something?” Celine blurted out.
Three heads turned to stare at her incredulously before Levi shook his head. Jessa smirked.
“No, no, we have technology,” the woman replied, holding up a hand. Celine finally noticed the device she had there: a phone so small, it looked like a beeper. But it was definitely a phone.
“Thanks for the food,” Levi said, tone warm. “We appreciate it.”
“Definitely,” Jessa agreed.
Ovie didn’t say a word, but he did nod to show he felt the same. His mind was already elsewhere, it seemed.
When they left, Celine dealt with the aftermath, amused to see that they’d consumed nearly half of everything—and that was saying something, considering she cooked a lot. She arranged the rest in the pantry, storing them properly, with little notes to indicate which was which. She washed more plates, swept the floors until the kitchen was almost as good as new.
Done, she took a new plate with her and piled it with the food, intending to take it to Max. She was just arranging the cookies on one side of the plate when she heard scurrying near the kitchen door. Celine looked up, ready to welcome the newcomer.
She froze.
The creature didn’t walk like the others did but crawled up the wall instead…stopping at a corner just between wall and ceiling. A small creature, almost like a child. It was damaging the paint was the first thought that crossed her mind, before she deemed it ridiculous and ordered herself to focus on other matters.
Like how the creature’s red eyes were fixed on her, gazing with recognition.
Like how the creature’s sharp nails had dug harder on the wall, bracing for a long leap.
Probably towards where she was standing.
Dread filled her stomach, but it didn’t blank her mind. She knew she wouldn’t reach the kitchen door, even if she ran. She also knew any aggressive movement would only trigger the creature more. She’d seen how fast they moved—had witnessed it when their kind had attacked her and Max, then Hunter and Ovie, on the streets just last night.
God, this was giving her flashbacks, and those flashbacks were starting to make her panic. She needed to think.
She needed to do something.
Only one thing came to mind, particularly when the creature’s body started tightening. The scream was halfway through her throat before she stilled, realizing one thing: its red eyes no longer on her, but on the plate she was holding.
Without thinking, she moved, setting the plate down and pushing it forward. The creature coiled, jumped—
Celine ducked, hiding behind the kitchen counter just as a force slammed on it. She braced her fists, waiting for the creature to scramble towards her.
Except it didn’t.
It made sounds: gulping sounds, chewing sounds, the ravenous hunger practically vibrating in its throat. Heart pounding in her chest, but severely flabbergasted, she decided she couldn’t very well stay here and slowly took a peek, hoping to find the creature facing the other direction so she could crawl out of there.
Red eyes met hers, and the creature paused from its eating—eating off the plate she had earlier in hand. Then it resumed its course, ignoring her as it went for the bread, tearing to bits before swallowing the pieces in. Stunned, Celine stood up, backing away.
The creature kept ignoring her.
A suspicion formed in mind, one that had her reaching out for the cookies she'd stocked in a storage box. She slowly opened it, slowly pushed it forward…stilled, when the fanged mouth sniffed, terrifyingly close to her hand.
The creature ignored her hand and began taking the cookies, then discarded the storage box with a crash on the floor. Fascinated, she could only watch, reeling from the obvious fact that this one didn’t want her blood.
It wanted the food she cooked.
And it didn’t just look like a child. It was a child.
Too preoccupied with her observations, it took Celine a second too late to realize there were footsteps pounding through the front door. The shouts jarred her, and the low, dangerous growls made her hair stand on end. She looked up in time to see nails turn to claws, with Ovie taking the lead and already braced. He had a spear in hand, and she had no doubt that spear would catch the small creature—vampire—straight in the chest.
Something inside her snapped, a protest she didn’t even know she had as she stepped forward—stepped in front of the creature, protecting it with her body. Instinct drove her to remain in place against the threat of three deadly shifters, and that same instinct had her bracing herself for attacks on both ends.
The creature behind her hissed but didn’t hurt her. As expected, the explosion came first from the front, as Jessa elbowed Ovie aside and scowled at her.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
In response—and perhaps because she was crazy—Celine lifted her chin.
“I’m defending a child.”
Chapter 11
When Hunter stepped inside the kitchen, three things caught his sight at once: his fellow shifters spreading out by the doorway, each one poised to attack, the vampire captured on top of the kitchen counter, braced for that attack and to return it.
Celine in between the two forces of strength, expression fiercely determined and meeting the shifters head-on.
The shifters, not the vampire.
It stunned him. He stepped forward, just catching the end of the argument as Jessa told her she was crazy and Celine…
“Look, do I have a speck of blood or injury on me? I don’t, do I?” she reasoned out, voice clipped and edged with tension. “The vampire’s hungry.”
“And it’s going to tear you to pieces!” Jessa snapped.
“No, it’s not.”
Unable to take the constant back-and-forth anymore, Hunter finally stepped forward.
“Celine.”
Her head moved, turning to him. Those eyes widened as they took him in. He supposed his dirty clothes attributed to that. Then her gaze softened, a reaction he hadn’t expected at all.
And one that had whatever he’d been trying to forget last night coming back, like a punch in the gut.
“Hunter,” was her reply, just as soft as her look at first. Then they both hardened, and her shoulders straightened. “I’m sorry, but I’m not allowing them to kill it. I know you captured it because…because of what happened last night.”
Hunter nodded. “You’re right, I did.” And a hell of a time it was, trying to sneak past an abandoned building full of sleeping vampires with that one in tow. The captured one had struggled, but he understood it was more out of fear than anything.
That fear had sustained the creature, allowing it to be wily in finding the right timing to get out of Hunter’s grasp.
He looked at it now—a child, something he only realized halfway through his escape. Probably no older than Max. The same fear was visible in those red eyes, hidden behind a false bravado. It was out of its element, probably still too young to get a full appreciation of the taste of blood, as some vampires were inclined to take time. But it had its nails close to Celine’s back, and if she didn’t move…
“Don’t hurt me.”
Whatever other thoughts he had in mind turned blank instantly, and every growl in the room halted. The words were said in a rough, almost broken tone, as if the voice hadn’t been used in a long time. Celine turned in astonishment.
“You can speak?”
The creature nodded, wary.
“How old are you?” she asked.
The creature shrugged.
Hunter stepped forward, ignoring his comrades' stunned faces. “How long have you been a vampire?”
The creature’s chin tilted, a petulant expression that was almost human. A boy, shrugging again.
A sinking suspicion came, but he decided not to voice it. Instead, he eyed Ovie, who was nodding subtly in his direction.
They both moved forward at the same time, careful and slow. The vampire noticed and hissed.
“We won’t hurt you,” Hunter said in response. “But you’ll hurt the lady if you don’t let us take you and interrogate you. If you come quietly with us, we won’t hurt you. We’ll just ask questions…just like Max.” The last one was directed at Celine, and he watched as understanding dawned on her face.
Finally, reluctantly, she stepped aside, quietly walking towards the cupboards. The vampire’s eyes turned to her as she took out a storage box, opened it…showed a couple of cookie pieces.
In an instant, the vampire had snatched the box and was greedily hugging the item against its—no, his—chest.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” Ovie rumbled.
Levi and Jessa were too shocked to speak, but they did brace themselves as Hunter and Ovie stepped forward. The vampire braced, too…but one look at Celine’s encouraging nod had that guard lowering, had the vampire allowing them to take him finally.
They led him out of the kitchen, where Hunter heard Jessa’s last words to Celine.
“You some kind of kid whisperer or something?”
Celine had no response as everyone else followed Hunter, Ovie, and the vampire.
* * *
Ovie handled the interrogation, as usual, though nothing much came out of it as the vampire repeated the same words of, “Don’t hurt me,” cluing them in that those were probably just a few of the words this creature knew. When the vampire became tired, Ovie decided to take a break and come back later, while the guards returned to their mansion tasks.
Hunter took a long shower before wandering to the kitchen, where he found a plate of food reserved for him with a note to eat up. So he did, pleasantly surprised at how good everything tasted despite no longer being warm.
When he was done, he wandered to the guest bedrooms, finding Max’s empty and immediately hearing noises inside Celine’s. The partially open door revealed Sidney making cooing sounds as Max play-tickled her. Celine had freshened up and showered, and she was watching the two with a smile that lit her face up.
He should announce his presence, but…Hunter watched them first, the joy in the room almost palpable and the first pure one he’d seen in this place in a long time. It was refreshing, to find this kind of joy in the midst of their experience.
It was fascinating, and watching them became watching just the woman: observing the way she tilted her head when she listened, watching as she contained her amusement when Max said something silly. It was when she was laughing at something the kid said that her head slightly turned, spotting Hunter. He straightened when she caught his gaze, the laugh freezing before she straightened, too.
“Hey,” she said in greeting, studying his face. “You look better than you did earlier.”
“Hmm. So do you.”
“Hey!” Max greeted, an extra cheer as he placed Sidney on the bed and hopped off it. “I heard about all the excitement.”
“There’s nothing exciting about it,” Hunter muttered. “The vampire almost escaped, almost attacked Celine.”
“It…no, he didn’t attack me at all,” Celine countered, shaking her head. “He just wanted food.”
“I wish I could say the same about all vampires.” Max sighed. “They’re mean asses.”
Hunter’s mouth quirked. “Listen to the kid. He knows what he’s talking about.”
She rolled her eyes, then continued studying him. “How is he?”
“In prison, but not tortured,” he clarified, just in case she got the wrong idea. “He doesn’t speak much, so we’re letting him rest for now. We can’t release him, Celine. Not yet.”
More like not ever, but that was still to be determined. He expected her to protest. Instead, she nodded her head.
“I know,” she said gently. “I get that now.” A pause. “You’ve been out all night hunting them, haven’t you?”
“Pretty much. I went dark."
"Dark?"
"Didn't bring anything. No communication with anyone. I checked on your remaining neighbors, by the way, and they’re fine.”
“Oh. Hunter, thank you.”
His chest very nearly puffed out, and he inwardly scolded himself. “We needed information about the vampires, too, whether they were related to the daywalkers or not. Sometimes they do work together.”
“The daywalkers didn’t want to kill me,” she pointed out.
Hunter shrugged. “After what they’ve been put through, they might’ve changed their minds.”
“Oh.”
The reality of that sobered her up, and he found that he didn’t like the sadness etched on her face. Now he felt like a fool for bringing it up when she’d been so happy earlier. He cleared his throat, waiting for her to get out of her thoughts first.
