Hunter Betrayed, page 12
part #1 of Wild Hunt Series
He set her on her feet and strode across the room. On the table where a bowl of luscious strawberries sat, he picked up a pitcher of water and a napkin. He returned to her and dropped to his knees. He wet the cloth and gently wiped the evidence of their loving away. Her heart flipped over. No man had ever taken such care with her body. Tears welled. She bit her lip and focused on what Calan was doing to her, not the emotion threatening to consume her.
He tugged up her pants and stepped away. She followed his movements as he dressed in modern clothes he pulled from a closet. The sight of his hard body in jeans and tight black tee reignited the sparks of arousal. He looked damn good in the clothes he shouldn’t own. She considered asking him about it, but compared to everything else she’d experienced over the years, his magical wardrobe didn’t concern her as much as the thoughts flying through her head.
For the first time in her life, she wondered if she really could find happiness. She didn’t know if it was possible, but she was determined to find out.
She lifted her hand. One black circle shone against her pale skin. The other still hadn’t formed. Only the innermost arc showed. Her love. She had to declare her love.
She smiled and curled her hand to hold the sign of Calan’s commitment close. She’d give him her love. Soon, very soon. Then she’d get to keep her ghost man for…eternity. Her eyes widened at the realization of what that meant. He said she couldn’t kill herself. She’d matured. She would live forever.
She lifted her gaze to Calan’s wide back and tight ass. Her core clenched.
With Calan. Yeah, she liked that idea. Liked it a lot.
Chapter Twelve
Calan took his time getting dressed. For one, he enjoyed Harley’s heated gaze on his ass every time he bent over. The main reason, however, stemmed from guilt. He took a few moments visiting each of his siblings, even the ones who’d long since stopped speaking. Gods, it felt wrong to leave them behind. Necessary, though.
He was the only one who didn’t bear the curse. Because I forced it onto my siblings.
Remorse choked him over his actions as it had every day of his imprisonment. He hung his head.
Why do you delay?
Calan paused with his fingers around the laces of his boot. He drew Rhys’ image close. I don’t want to leave you.
No lies, brother. You feel guilty because of the pleasure you’ve found in your fairy lover’s arms. Rhys focused narrowed eyes on him. The displeasure in them was clear.
Calan held his brother’s stare without responding. He refused to argue with Rhys about Harley. There was no point. She was Calan’s choice.
Finally, Rhys shook his head. You’ve told the others about your mate?
Calan closed his dual-ringed eyes. I can’t exactly hide it.
You’ve made a horrible mistake. Rhys waited until Calan met his gaze. The female is not worthy of you. She’ll cling to you and use you, not sacrifice and be the mate the leader of the Hunt needs to remain honorable.
Harley stepped in behind him and slipped her arms around his waist, pulling his attention from Rhys. She rubbed her cheek against Calan’s spine and the tension in his muscles eased. “Are you okay? You’ve been staring at your shoes for several minutes.”
He pulled her around and lifted her. She automatically linked her arms and legs around him. He kissed her deeply until the desire only she could stir in him flared.
He broke their lip lock and met Rhys’ eyes, the image of him held inside his mind. She will be. At Rhys’ sigh, Calan laid his cheek over her curls. She is.
For all our sakes, I hope so, my brother. Go now. We will endure until you return.
He let the connection to Rhys’ mind break. The loss of him hit Calan with another wave of guilt. Once he stepped out of his prison, he wouldn’t be able to connect with him. Without Calan to keep his siblings connected, each Huntsman would suffer alone.
Harley skimmed her hands over his back, once more redirecting his thoughts to her. Her touch soothed him. He greedily took the comfort she offered even though it shamed him to do so. His siblings had no one to offer the same to them, no one to even talk to.
“We’ll free them, Calan.”
He turned his head and his flower’s sultry eyes came into view. “I will free them once I transfer the curse back to Dahm. I don’t want you anywhere near that bastard.”
“Now that I’m mated to you, Dahm will come after me, won’t he? To hurt you through me.”
Calan cracked his jaw. What worried him was why Dahm had allowed her to reach fairy adulthood. When the Unseelie Court had been at its strongest, he’d imprisoned any of his brethren who could’ve taken his position from him. Harley’s maturity made her his equal. He should’ve ensured her death. He hadn’t and Calan couldn’t come up with any plausible reason why.
Calan pushed the worry aside for the moment. He had to focus on capturing Dahm, not trying to understand the unstable male’s thought process.
“Yes, but I am with you, a part of you. You can communicate with me, anytime, anywhere. I won’t let him touch you.”
She grinned. “And you’ll race to my side on your ghostly steed?”
He chuckled. “Yes, Harley. I will come. Nothing would stop me.”
The teasing smile on her face faded. “And if he gets to me first?”
“You can’t die, Harley.”
“But he can tempt me, can’t he? Make me angry enough so I give into the rage and invite more chaos inside.” She touched her chest, right over the worst damage on her aura. “You didn’t heal me completely, did you? Because I still feel the taint. It’s just calm now.”
He focused on his mate’s stricken face and didn’t know what to say.
“Dammit, Calan, tell me the truth.”
He sighed. “No, I didn’t heal you. I can’t. I can only be your shield and your strength.”
She shook her head and slipped out of his arms. “And I’ll take you down with me if I fall, won’t I?”
“You’re not alone in this fight, my mate. I am with you always. Together we will endure.” He grasped her hand, stopping her from turning away from him. “You promised to live for me. That includes holding onto your honor. Now more than ever you need to remember your vow.”
She raised her chin. “I will keep my promise to you, but—”
He kissed her before she could tag on any qualifier. Her renewed oath eased his anxiety. He would trust his mate and help her exactly as he’d promised to do. He didn’t care if she clung to his strength or used it to maintain her purity. As long as he could hold her in his arms, nothing else mattered.
He pulled away from her sweet lips with a jerk, but not because he wanted to. The day was slipping away. Each one that passed without finding Dahm was one more his siblings had to suffer.
“Come, Harley,” he tugged her with him, “I want to meet your brother before I begin my hunt for Dahm.”
“I’d like that.” She flashed him a smile.
He returned it and hoped it reached his eyes, but guilt was a nasty thing. Then again, so was using your only mate as bait. Dahm would come for her whether Calan wanted Harley near him or not. When Dahm did, Calan would be waiting. He pushed the thought aside along with the anxiety it brought. He’d protect her, but in war all available weapons had to be used.
Eyes focused on the path ahead, he led his mate out of his living tomb. He looked forward to the day it sealed for all time along with the damaged barrier. Soon. By the gods, soon his hell would be but a memory.
He stopped at the entrance, released her hand and plucked the blade from the shelf where it had sat for a thousand years. Worthless to him, Dahm had left it within Calan’s view as a reminder of his failure. Calan was grateful.
He lifted his wrist to his mouth and bit. Harley gasped, but he ignored her distress and allowed his blood to drip onto the blade. Each drop sizzled and popped. Sparks danced along the length. He murmured the ancient words given to him by the Triad, the triple-faceted god that ruled over all, and reactivated the curse. It had lain dormant after Calan had forced his siblings to bear it.
The dagger vibrated in his grasp for a moment before stilling. He nodded. It was done. He took Harley’s hand. Energy danced up his arm, across his chest and down to the hand linked with hers.
“What is that?”
He stared at the blade a moment. No more jolts came from it. “The dagger Dahm used to curse to the Huntsmen.”
She stepped in front of him. Intelligent blue eyes focused on him. “You have to transfer it back to him.”
“Yes, the punishment handed down from the highest gods was designed for the fairies. The Huntsmen have only been a substitute. They were never meant to bear the weight of it. My siblings have been slowly losing their minds. As they do, the crack over the gateway to hell widens. Soon, it’ll open completely and the Underworld and the human realm will merge.”
She swallowed hard and stepped out of his way. He glanced at her and considered asking the reason for her inquiry but let the urge go. She showed no signs of distress.
The weaving path to his cell consisted of low ceilings, tight corridors and crumbling walls. He took in the destruction and quickened his pace, forcing Harley into a jog. The evidence of deterioration matched what he’d felt while he’d hung from his chains. He didn’t have much time to find Dahm.
He stopped at the main door and stared at the beam barely holding the roof up. It sagged under the weight of the earth above.
He shifted his gaze to Harley and pointed to the ceiling. “Is that how it looked when you arrived?” She nodded, her brows turned down. He wanted to yell at her for endangering herself or maybe hold her tight, grateful that she had. He settled for grabbing her shoulders. “Yet you came inside?”
“You needed me.” She shrugged out of his grip. “Now let’s go. We’re wasting time.”
He couldn’t stop the small smile at her bravery. Calan ran his fingers down her spine, grasped her hand and stepped outside.
The diluted sun scattered an array of light across the walls of the sinkhole. Life had sprouted where none had been. Small trees, bushes and bunches of flowers pushed through a bed of thick grass. He skimmed his hand over the leaves of the closest shrub and acknowledged the gift from the nature spirits in the face of the dark mist weaving its way around their legs.
Harley swatted at the vapor. The gray fingers tugged at her pants, stretched in hungry tendrils along her limbs and lifted her hair. With a weary sigh, she dropped her hands and trudged along with him.
The sight bothered him, but he didn’t comment on how the pure chaos weaved around her in a tempting caress and steered clear of him. Wherever he stepped the fog skidded away. He swung her into his arms, saving her from the teasing licks that sought a way into her damaged aura.
She buried her face against his chest. “Thank you, Calan. It didn’t bother me outside the hole.”
“It’s not evil, not on purpose. It comes from the same well of chaos Dahm had tapped into to steal his power. My prison,” he glanced over his shoulder, “borders the fairy realm which is close to the outer rims of the first plane of hell. As the barrier between the realms weakens, elements of the Underworld slip free.”
Her eyes widened. She flicked her gaze from his face to the upper lip of the hole and back. “It’s getting out.”
He watched as wisps sneaked through the illusionary sky. “Yes.” He sighed. “It is.”
She gripped his shirt. “I’m guessing that’s not a good thing.” Her shaky voice broke on the last word.
He climbed the natural staircase of earth and stone steps. “It’s not. With every earthquake or volcanic eruption, elements are released. It’s part of the natural cycle, disastrous and deadly, yet normal and as necessary as the sun rising each day.”
“And as the crack over the gateway widens, the chaos has begun to rush out.”
He nodded. “Among other things.”
She stared at him expectantly. He gave a small shake of his head, not wanting to discuss all the horrors of his home but unwilling to dismiss her silent question. “Sins, disease, nothing good.”
“Oh, god,” she breathed.
“Do you see why it so imperative I find Dahm?”
“And why the Huntsmen accepted the curse in the first place.” She brushed her lips over his cheek. “I do see, Calan. Thank you.”
Not once had anyone thanked the Huntsmen for their dedication or sacrifices. He closed his eyes and held the two words close. He would share them with his siblings once he could speak to them again.
“What happens after you stab Dahm?”
Her question yanked him back out of the euphoria and dropped him into their stark existence. “The deterioration of barrier will halt, my siblings will be released and the Hunt will resume.”
“But the evils he’s released will still threaten the world?”
Gods, he dreaded seeing how much the chaos and sins had affected the humans. When he’d first taken up the Hunt, they’d been simple farmers, hunters, wanderers. They’d evolved over the ages, mostly under the influence of the sins, especially greed and gluttony. But now? From the images he’d taken from Harley, the world had become a much different place, one where deviant behaviors thrived—exactly as Dahm had wanted. Calan pushed the thought away and focused on answering Harley.
“Yes, the world will continue to suffer, but it will heal. The Huntsmen will make sure of it.”
He slid his hand to her bottom. A slight push helped Harley over the rim of the sinkhole onto the grass above. She extended a hand to him. He didn’t need it, but took it anyway, warmed by her offer. One knee over the lip, he swung his other foot up and pushed to his feet.
A sonic boom shook the world.
The ground beneath him undulated. The heaving knocked him off balance. He tipped, the earth crumbling under his foot.
“Calan!”
With small hands digging into his waistband, she stopped his tumble into the hole behind him. A tug pulled him forward, right on top of her. Her breath rushed out with his dead weight on top hers. He pushed to his knees and pressed her small frame to his chest with an arm around her waist. He scrambled away from the crumbling edge as another wave rocked the world.
Dropping to the ground, he curled his body around hers and waited out the unnatural earthquake. The last of the trembling eased. He shoved away and rushed back to the edge to survey the damage.
The entryway remained open. The beam visible in the entrance sagged, but not much more than it had. The destruction, however, showed in the sloping banks leading to it. Heaved earth and boulders filled much of the space. The natural staircase formed from flat rocks and thin trees no longer offered easy access. A dangerous path of sharp rocks led the way and a steady stream of gray mist escaped from between the cracked ground.
Harley rested her trembling hands on his back. “What happened?”
He reached back and locked her body to his with an arm around her waist. “I don’t know.” But he suspected it had to do with either him walking out of his prison or taking the blade with him.
He’d upset the balance.
By the gods, what had his departure done to his siblings?
She yanked on his waistband, redirecting his thoughts. He had to trust in Rhys, Tegan and the others to endure.
Calan backed up with his mate. A few hundred feet away, he stopped dead in his tracks. The mark of the Hunt on his chest tingled and the knowledge Riesa fed him chilled him.
His beloved hound had failed him.
Chapter Thirteen
Ian is alive. Harley repeated the words over and over. It didn’t ease her anxiety. Something had happened to him.
She pressed the SUV’s gas pedal to the floor. It didn’t accelerate quickly, but the engine hummed on the straight road doing seventy. She eased her foot off the gas for the worst of the winding drive down the mountain. “Are you sure he’s—”
Calan rested his hand on her thigh. “Yes. Ian is alive.”
She risked a peek at him. “He’s suffered, hasn’t he?”
No answer. That in itself was one. Not wanting to argue, she focused on driving. The scenic mountain road spilled out onto a busy two-lane highway. She merged with traffic and fell into the slower pattern that kept her from Ian.
“This is taking too long.” She cut him an irritated look.
“Would you rather risk the humans seeing my horse when it’s not necessary?”
No, she wouldn’t. “Can’t you cloak us or something?”
His weary sigh added to her anxiety. “The power of the Hunt is limited to darkness. Some abilities I can still call upon during the day. That is not one of them.”
“You told me you didn’t sense any redcaps or sluaghs close. I believed you. It was the only reason I spent the night with you.”
He jerked his hand back. She regretted her words but didn’t retract them. She hurt, dammit. Ian was everything to her and she’d endangered him so she could fuck the man of her dreams. If Calan hadn’t been curled around her body all night, he might’ve caught Raul.
“I told you the truth. My hounds didn’t smell the taint of darkness anywhere. They’ve been hunting by my side from the moment I matured.”
“It is possible they’d forgotten—”
“No.”
She peered at him. The stony look matched the punctuated word. Dammit, if Calan would give her answers, she’d get them on her own. She hit the button on her phone to speed dial Ian. It rang once.
Trevor’s voice filled the car. “Hello?”
Thank goodness. She’d gotten his voicemail every time she’d called this morning. “It’s me. What happened?”
“Hell, that’s what happened.”
“What are you talking about?”
Someone yelled for him. She couldn’t make out who from the muffled sound. “Look, Harley, I don’t have time to talk. Just get out to Cynthia’s place. Now.”
The line went dead.
“What did your dog say?” She’d asked him several times already. Only growls had answered her, but she couldn’t help asking again.
