Hunter Betrayed, page 2
part #1 of Wild Hunt Series
Silence stretched. Finally, Rhys released a long, weary breath. No child will free you, Calan. Those unfortunate offspring instinctually fear the ones bred to kill them. We have lost. The sooner you accept that—
I will never accept it, Rhys. Never. Do you understand me? Harsh pants heaved his chest. The nails of his unshackled hand elongated into sharpened tips. He curled his fingers, piercing his palm with the points. The pain helped chase back the rage and allowed him to think. I can’t abandon the vow I made to protect the mortals. I have to believe we will succeed.
Then I too will endure. I won’t abandon you, my brother.
Rhys broke their connection and left Calan alone with only his regret as company. He should’ve reached out to his other siblings to ensure they were still coping, but Rhys’ words bothered him more than he’d like to admit.
Time was running out.
The Huntsmen couldn’t pay the price demanded of them to hold the barrier to hell closed when their minds shut down. As more of his siblings succumbed to madness, the crack had widened and allowed the chaotic aspects of the Underworld to slip out. Only returning the curse to Dahm would mend the damaged barrier, but Calan couldn’t do that while he hung in a prison only a fairy could see or enter.
He had to make another attempt at connecting to one of the half-breeds, but he feared Rhys was right. None of Dahm’s unfortunate children would be brave enough to release the very creature who would destroy them.
* * * * *
Harley Callahan peered through the windshield. No lights shone in her house. She scanned the windows for movement. After a week of late night dates, she considered herself an expert at sneaking out. Sloppiness would get her caught, though. No way would she risk that.
The past seven days had been the best of her life. Today, her eighteenth birthday, would be even better. She was moving out. As soon as she worked up the courage to tell her mom, anyway.
She continued her survey. Deep in the Catskill Mountains of New York, her parents’ secluded three-hundred-acre estate offered walking paths, gardens, a lake and a greenhouse. It was beautiful. It had also essentially acted as her prison. She could count on one hand the number of times she’d left it, but that had changed a couple of months ago when she’d taught herself to drive.
The experiences she’d had since had changed her. No longer the obedient daughter, she hungered. For what, she didn’t know, but she’d find it. It was out there, waiting for her.
Darkness covered the grounds she knew by heart. Nothing unusual grabbed her attention. She opened the car door and listened. Only the sounds of insects and the hoots of owls carried over the quiet of the night. She scanned the windows once more and breathed a sigh of relief. Her mother still slept.
Harley had evaded the woman’s oppressive control again. She grinned at the small victory. Of course, she hadn’t made it back to her room yet. She hoped to leave on good terms, not storm out like her brother Ian had done three years ago. She loved her mom, even if the feeling wasn’t mutual.
She slipped out of her car and took several steps across the lawn before a dull ache spread through her chest. She pressed a balled fist to heart where the hollow feeling she experienced nightly flared, worse than she’d ever endured. She nibbled her lip and considered mentioning it to her mom, but dismissed the idea in the next breath. It’d be pointless. She refused to take her to a doctor.
The familiar anger rose and made the burning sensation worse. Harley breathed through the discomfort and pushed the violent thoughts away. Good girls didn’t act like that and she was good, no matter what her mom said. Besides, soon she’d be on her own. She’d get a job and go to the doctor herself.
She shrugged off the unease and made her way across the lawn. The thin piece of plastic she’d shoved between the sliding glass door and the doorframe still held her escape route open. With her lip caught between her teeth, she pushed the door and squeezed inside.
Heart pounding hard, she waited. Nobody came running or shouted accusations at her.
Thank god.
She tiptoed across the room. The grandfather clock next to her chimed. She jumped, a hand over her mouth to muffle her cry.
“Harley Marie! Where have you been?”
Shit, shit, shit. She turned and came face-to-face with the woman who ruled the house—supermodel, actress and tyrant. Harley flashed a hopefully innocent smile. “Hey, Mom. What are you doing up?”
“Where were you?”
At the livid glare stamped on her mom’s flawless features, Harley groaned. “I went to see Ron.”
“In town?”
As if there was anywhere else to go. Harley nodded, no use denying it.
“How did you get there?”
Here it came. The fight she’d hoped to avoid. “I drove.”
Her mom’s eyes widened. “Drove? You don’t have a license.”
Because Harley hadn’t been allowed to get one.
“No.” She sighed. “I don’t, but I borrowed one of the cars and taught myself.”
Curses fell from her mom’s mouth. She threw her arms up in the air. “You disobeyed me, put that boy and yourself in danger. Why, Harley, why?”
She was so damn sick of the crazy rules only she had to follow. “Why not? I’m eighteen!” Her chest heaved. All the pent-up rage and resentment spilled over. “You keep me locked away in this prison, barely talk to me and when you do it’s to reiterate your stupid rules! I’m sick of them. I’m moving out!”
Her mom—a taller, thinner version of her—stepped closer. “Those stupid rules are the reason you’re still alive! You should thank me, you ungrateful little brat! I could’ve aborted you or given you away, but I didn’t because it wasn’t your fault you were created from that monster who raped me!”
Harley stumbled back. “R-raped you?” Here she’d thought she was an oops from one of her mom’s numerous affairs.
“Yeah, and it’s about time you learned the truth. You’re not hu—”
Breaking glass stopped her words. A hulking man stepped over the shards of the sliding door. Harley’s gaze locked onto him. He wore a black baseball cap, a t-shirt with a screaming skull on it and motorcycle boots.
The burn in her body faded and heat replaced it, not the same kind she’d experienced in Ron’s arms, but it still filled her with the same promise of ecstasy. She stared at the stranger, unable to make sense of her reaction. Something about him struck her as familiar. He intrigued her and repulsed her at the same time. Heart pounding hard, she locked her knees so she wouldn’t go to him.
He wasn’t…right.
The guy faced her. Black pupils swimming in red locked onto hers. He grinned, showing off a mouthful of pointy teeth.
Fear replaced her fascination. She screamed.
Her mom yanked on her hand. “Run, Harley, run!”
She couldn’t. Her body wouldn’t obey her mind.
The man shifted his gaze to her mom and licked his lips. He leapt at her with outstretched, clawed hands.
“Please, baby, r—” Her mom’s words turned into a shriek.
Harley pivoted on her heel and ran. More screams sounded—her little brother’s, the butler’s, her dad’s. She pressed her palms to her ears and kept running. In the front yard, monstrous men prowled—misshapen, hunched and frightening. They all turned at once. Garbled roars added to the pitiful cries spilling out from behind her.
She turned her back on them and fled across the grass toward where she’d left her car parked farther down the driveway. Her lungs squeezed. Muscles burned. Still, she ran. Her mother’s last plea to her urged her forward.
A charley horse contorted her calf. Her pace faltered. The grunts and groans from behind her grew louder, but a gust of wind swept over her back. The cool breeze calmed the burn tightening her muscles and filled her with strength.
She grabbed hold of the power and ran, faster than she ever had. The trees around her blurred. At the butterfly garden, she turned right, caught her toe on a tree root and fell face first toward the ground. She never hit it. Hands at her waist stopped her. She spun, ready to do battle, and came face-to-face with a pair of pale-blue eyes floating without a body.
She screamed.
* * * * *
Calan couldn’t believe his eyes. It was her, the child he’d spied the last time his prison had resided here. Then she’d sat in the middle of a field of white flowers with butterflies perched in her platinum hair and on her arms. More of the small creatures had danced in the air around her.
He’d recognized her for what she was, one of Dahm’s bastard children, but the purity emanating from her soul had shocked him. It still did. She’d retained it along with her life. How he didn’t know, nor did he care at the moment. Her fear demanded his attention.
She shrieked and scrambled backward, using her hands and feet to put distance between them. He reached out to her mind the same way he did with the other Huntsmen whenever they needed him. He didn’t know if it would work, but he had to try something. The female was in danger. He heard the sluaghs in the distance.
Unbelievably, her raucous breaths slowed. He drew more of her fear into him. The trembling in her body eased.
“That’s it. Be calm. I won’t hurt you.”
“Wh-who are y-you? What…” She focused on where his chest should be. He glanced down and saw the ground, not his body or even a ghostly apparition. “What are you? A g-ghost?”
“Not a ghost. I’m alive. I’m just not here.”
He stretched an invisible hand out and touched her cheek. The surprise in connecting with her in a tangible manner nearly pulled him away from her. With mental fingers, he tugged her closer. He wouldn’t lose her.
Not now, not ever.
He slid a hand to her bottom and pressed her body flush to his. The cushion of her breasts stirred his lusts. His erection thickened in response to her nearness. Impossible, or so he would’ve thought.
The half-breed fairy in his arms would one day become his enemy. A child of Dahm, she carried the chaotic taint he’d willingly invited into his body. It should’ve begun to corrupt her, turning her into a monster too. Yet…it hadn’t. Why?
Calan tipped her head back. Her dark-blue eyes captivated him. He skimmed his fingertips over the contours of her angelic face. Possessiveness rose within him and mixed with an intense need to protect her. She was special. He sensed it, but didn’t have time to explore it.
“You need to run. You cannot allow them to steal the goodness you’ve managed to retain.” Because it belonged to him. So too did the female. He would claim both and she would be the one to free him. The rightness of his vow took hold.
A millennium had passed without him finding the one half-breed who would have the courage to free a Huntsman. Nine years ago, when he’d spied her in the midst of flowers, he had. Today, he would ensure she lived to free him, no matter the cost.
Brows pinched, she mimicked the exploration of his face. He saw the confusion in her eyes at not being able to see him. She didn’t voice it. She slid her fingers into his hair and drew him close.
“They want to kill me,” she whispered the words against his neck.
The knowledge angered him. Confined to his cell, he could do little to prevent her death. Helplessness settled over him. So too did desperation.
He could think of only one way to prevent it, by sharing a piece of himself with her. Doing so would give her the strength she needed to escape the creatures who wanted to grow powerful on her Seelie blood.
Of course. That was what made her special. She held both sides of the fairies within her body—the chaotic taint of the Unseelie and the pure goodness of the Seelie.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t offer his body as her cornerstone or his full protection in the ghostly form he held. He needed to touch her. Love her.
He closed his eyes against the surge of lust and buried his face in her silken curls. “Not intentionally. They want your power, but the taint they hold has corrupted them. They’ll feed off you, uncaring that doing so will kill you.” He pressed his lips to her ear. “I will save you, my flower, but you must promise me you won’t let them get a hold of you until I can. You need to live for me.”
She rested her head against his chest. He ran his hands over her back in an effort to remember the details of her body. They didn’t have much longer before he had to let her go.
“I promise, but how can you save me? You’re not really here.”
He grinned against the mound of bouncy blonde curls on her head. The trust in her voice reinforced the rightness of his decision. “Words have power and a vow made cannot be broken. Doing so will damn you. You must remember this.”
She turned her head and captured his gaze. “Okay, but how—”
A roar cut through the night. She clutched him tighter. Time was running out. He cupped her face in his hands. “You will take my knowledge and strength.” Along with a piece of my body. He kept the true gift he offered to himself. He would explain everything to her soon.
He covered her mouth with his and breathed into her, leaving a piece of himself behind and imprinting the information she would need to survive the next few days without him.
She swayed.
He eased back. Unfocused, dilated eyes met him. He ignored his physical demands that urged him to claim her body tonight. Her safety came first.
“You must return to me before the next full moon for me to finish saving you. Do you promise?”
“Yes.”
He breathed a sigh of relief and stepped away from her. “Good, but now you must run.”
She grabbed his hand. “Don’t leave me. I’m scared. I don’t want to be alone.”
“You’ll never be alone again.” He closed his eyes. The enormity of what he’d initiated tonight hitting him. The tainted half-breed daughter of his enemy would soon be his mate, the keeper of his body.
It’s the only way. He would take any risk and offer any sacrifice in order to gain his release from his prison. He needed to capture Dahm and return the curse. But Calan knew there was another reason, one much more personal.He didn’t want her to die. She belonged to him.
More roars and grunts rent the air. Their time was up.
He took several steps back. “Now run.”
She reached for him. He allowed his ghostly body to fade. Her fingers passed through air. “No! Stay with me.”
Can’t. Remember your vow. Do not betray my trust, my flower. I need you.
With that he slammed back into his body and prayed his sacrifice would save them all—the humans, his siblings and her. If she didn’t return to him, the Wild Hunt would never ride again.
Chapter Two
Present Day
Harley tugged her hood up against the chilly October wind and pressed her frame into the slight indentation made by the recessed metal door. Chin tucked, she scanned the narrow road between her apartment building and the bar next to it. The flickering bulb a few feet down from where she stood cast a strobe effect over the darkened alley. The chaotic aspect of it appealed to her darker nature. The fact bothered her, yet she couldn’t deny it, not when the taint she carried flared in response to it.
She ignored the urge to embrace that side of her persona and continued her inspection. Caution and awareness had kept her alive in the face of a lifetime of danger. She refused to take chances. Lives depended on it—hers and those around her.
The dumpster and the discarded stack of cardboard next to it looked no different than they had before she’d made her hurried trek to the corner drugstore. The curtains in the windows above her remained drawn. Music blared from the tenants on the third floor and the lovers on the second level still argued about who should do the dishes. Harley cocked her head and listened for other clues, drawing on her nonhuman side to feed her details.
Rats skittered along the ground and around the overflowing, rancid garbage. The small animals didn’t bother her nor did the cockroaches that infested the shithole building she called home. What did were the monsters she knew walked among the humans, feeding off their fear, pain and deaths. Those were the ones who caused her to wake up screaming in terror and kept her constantly on guard. They wanted her too, but for a different reason. She could give them power, not just sustain their unholy lives. It would make them unstoppable.
Over my dead body. She clenched her jaw.
A shadow loomed at the mouth of the alleyway. She held her breath and tightened her grip on the six-inch blade she held against her thigh. A heartbeat passed before a rattly cough reached her ears along with the drag of her elderly neighbor’s cane over the macadam. A smaller shape joined the looming one inching its way across the entrance. Both shadows danced in the light flickering over the ground, distorting their images until they reflected the hunched shape of a sluagh, the foot soldiers of the fairies.
Not real. It’s not real. Just my fears haunting me.
The words helped alleviate the trembling in her body. Still, she waited for the man and his poodle to continue on their nightly path before easing away from the hidey-hole she’d occupied.
Forty-five minutes, that was all she’d been gone. She normally didn’t wander outside at night, but Bea’s pain medicine had run out. Harley hated to make her wheelchair-bound neighbor wait until the store opened on Monday. Besides, Harley hadn’t lived here long enough for the fairies’ creatures to pick up on her trail. She hoped, at least, and in the morning she was skipping town.
Her brother, Ian, was getting married. He’d begged her to come home, meet his fiancée and sit on his side of the church. The idea of going back to the house where she’d watched her family die chilled her. For Ian, she’d do it. He was all she had left.
One more sweep of the area and she darted toward the front of her building. She hopped the couple of steps, reached for the door and froze with her hand on the tarnished knob. The dark taint living inside her pulsed with life. She glanced over her shoulder and locked gazes with the black eyes of a redcap, a human who’d sold his soul to a fairy in exchange for power and immortality.
