Born In Blood (Born Hunter Book 1) (16 page)

He immediately gave her what she wanted in torturously slow movements that drove her mad.

"Faster. Harder," she demanded.

Aiden drove in and out of her at a relentless pace. His movements became frenzied as the same pressure that built within him built within her, causing her muscles to contract around him. It was all he needed to take him over the edge and her with him.

Twenty-Five

C
ara sat cross-legged on the bed staring down at her phone. Upon returning to Aiden's island she called Reiya who had yet to call her back. She did not have any new updates to give her since her visits to the Viceroy's residences had all yielded the same results. Absolutely none. But she called anyway because she knew Reiya would panic if she did not hear from her.  She found it odd that her over protective obsessively paranoid friend had not called her back. Cara dialed Reiya's number again. The phone rang in an endless loop. A moment before the voicemail would have picked up it stopped. The line was connected but Reiya's voice did not come through. Cara heard heavy breathing mixed with static.

"Hello?" She said uneasily into the phone.   

 "Hello Hunter," a deep voice responded. Cara immediately knew something was not right. Her heart beat erratically in her chest as hysteria bubbled within it. She took a deep breath forcing it back down. Mentally falling apart would do her no good.
                  "Where. Is. Reiya?"
                   "Safe for now, but she won't be for long. You have twenty-four hours to get to your family's beach house in St. Lucia. If you do not show up, what we did to your father will look like child's play compared to what we will do to the Director," the voice on the other end promised.
                   "What do you want with me?" Cara knew she would not get a straightforward answer. Still, she had to ask. He might slip up and say something to help her figure out where Reiya was.
                   "Ask your vampire." The phone disconnected.
                   "Where is Aiden?" Cara cornered the butler in the hallway.
                   "He is in a meeting."
                   "Where?" She demanded. She did not have time for cryptic vampire bullshit. She had to try very hard to keep her cool and restrain herself from flaying the vampire's skin from his body.
                   He must have seen his imminent torture in her eyes because he quickly added, "His Grace is in his office on the first floor."
                   The  group of vampires looked toward her with varying expressions as she stormed into Aiden's office, closed the gap between them, and drew her hand across his face. The sound of her hand connecting with his flesh reverberated around the room. Dorian simmered with barely contained outrage, Rafe seethed with offense, and Asad schooled his expression into a blank mask.
                   "You bastard! " She shouted at him. "You have been dragging me all over fucking South America pretending like you did not already have the answers I am looking for when you not only knew who killed my father but why. And now they have Reiya. Tell me the entire truth about the wolves now," She demanded.
                   "Leave us," he said to his circle without ever taking his eyes from Cara.
                   "Your Grace..."
                   "Now!" He roared cutting off Dorian's objection.
                   The trio obeyed even though Aiden knew they would not go very far. They did not trust the hunter and would intervene even against his direct order and the threat of reprimand if they thought she posed a danger.
                   "Speak. Now. Or I swear I will carve out your heart."
                   Aiden cursed. It was time to have a conversation he could no longer delay. If he refused her, she would very well attempt to take his heart and his Circle would attempt to take hers. In turn, he would have to kill them for lifting a hand against her. He did not want to have to kill his Circle.
                   "I gathered intel confirming the wolves were behind both your father's murder and the viceroys' before arriving in Manhattan. They used to be a species that thrived as greatly as vampires and the humans. Vampire relations with them have always been tenuous throughout history. When my father took the throne from his predecessor relations between vampires and wolves turned downright hostile. My father loathes them and had them hunted to near extinction. The few that survived have been hiding in secrecy. They have since rebuilt their numbers and want to come out of hiding but to do that they need you. The reason my father was able to annihilate them is because they are forced to turn at the full moon. When they are forced to turn they become mindless beasts that can be easily hunted down by us. Their leader claims he was told of an ancient blood ritual by their wolf God in his dreams that would free them from the confinements of the new moon. It requires the blood of a descendent of a born hunter, humans who are born with superhuman strength and reflexes for the specific purpose of hunting those beings that are not. Born hunters were never abundant but they became even more rare when the wolves died out. They mysteriously declined in number along with them. The gene became recessive in the human population. Your father was the first human to have a dominant copy of the gene in a millennium. It's why the wolves killed him. They thought his blood would be their salvation. But nothing happened when they performed the blood ritual. Their leader claims the wolf God came to him again in a dream and told him that the blood ritual did not work because the gene also has to be activated through the killing of either one of my kind or theirs. Cara, you have a dominant copy of the gene just as your father did and you've killed more than enough of your share of vampires."
                   By the time Aiden finished Cara looked at him with a mixture of horror and disbelief. "How do you know all of this?"
                  "My father had a lone wolf tracked and captured. He was outraged when he found out a handful of them still exist. He unfortunately died from the torture he was subjected to before he could reveal their hiding place but he did reveal their plan to return to power."
                   "So what part was I to play in this? I imagine you meant to cut the issue off at its head by killing me that night in the alley but you did not. What? Did an even better plan stall your hand? You thought to dangle me out on a line as bait while you stayed close by and waited for them to bite."  The betrayal and hurt that shone in her eyes beside her rage struck Aiden like a steel blade to the chest.
                   He did not bother with an apology. There was nothing he could say that would vindicate his actions.
                   "Congratulations,
Your Grace
. Your plan worked out perfectly. I need to be in St. Lucia in twenty-four hours to hand myself over to the wolves to save the only family I have left. Advise whomever you need to that I will need a ride off this goddamned island. You will have your wolves shortly after the next sunset."
                   Aiden lost it. The mere thought of Cara within reach of the wolves made him want to rip someone's head off. "I don't care about the damned wolves anymore!" He shouted back at her. "I care about you and you are not walking into the trap they have set."
                   Cara's eyes glittered with rage.  "I am going," she told him in a deadly tone.
                   "No you are not," Aiden snarled at her. He let his power radiate off him in lethal waves. It clawed at Cara's consciousness. Told her it was in the midst of a monster and the only way to survive it was to lie down and play dead.
Ha!
If the Dark Prince thought she would be cowed by his little display of force he was in for a surprise. Instead of backing away in retreat Cara advanced on him in an intentional display of non-submission.
                   "It was your plan all along. You never gave a shit about me being able to track the wolves. You probably even already knew the scent trails were long dead. I was bait to draw the wolves out under a situation you controlled. She is my best friend. I am going.“
                   "No you are not.” Aiden’s eyes were ablaze in golden flames.
                  “I’m not one of your vampires. You can’t force me not to.”
                  “You want a bet,” were the last words Cara heard before the power radiating from Aiden snapped out at her like an electrically charged whip. Pain exploded through her skull. She fought against it with every ounce of strength she possessed. Cara managed to stave off the darkness for a mere fraction of seconds before it overtook her.

     "She's right you know," Rafe said as he re-entered the office with Dorian and Asad behind him. "We planned to draw the wolves out by dangling her in front of their noses. It's the reason you've been running all over South America with her
trying to track
the wolves. Why not let the hunter walk into their trap? It would lead us straight to them. We have been unable to track them thus far. They were smart enough not to leave a trail behind when they killed the Viceroys in their calculated attacks to let us know they were amassing power."

Rafe's argument was sound but it pissed Aiden off nonetheless. He closed his hand around his throat then flung him into the wall behind them. The member of his Circle crumpled to the floor along with plaster and debris from his office wall. Rafe smartly stayed on the ground. Aiden knelt beside him and punched his fist into his chest cavity, bones buckled and snapped beneath the force of the blow. He closed his hand around Rafe's beating heart. "You are a member of my Circle and your loyalty is what spares your life. But if you ever overstep where Cara is concerned again, I will rip your heart from your chest," he warned him.

Aiden turned to the remaining two members of his Circle standing behind them. Their faces carefully smoothed into neutral expressions.

Dorian bowed his head in deference to show he meant no disrespect by the words he spoke next. "If we do not use the hunter as bait, My Liege, how do we root out the wolves and eliminate the threat they pose? None of our efforts to find them have been successful."

 "We don't necessarily have to eliminate them to neutralize the threat. They cannot return to power without completing the blood ritual and they can't complete it without Cara. If they want her, they will have to come through me to get her."

Dorian started to say something else but Aiden was past the point of hearing it. Before he could give voice to his thoughts he turned on his heels and left the room. It was for the best. His temper was running hot at the moment and the mere thought of Cara giving herself up to the wolves, even if he and his Circle were in place to intervene, made all rational thought on his part fly out the window. If one of them mentioned him letting Cara walk into the trap the wolves set for her again, he might be find himself with one less member of his Circle. They had earned the right to question his decisions and even interject their own opinions about issues that affected them all. They had all literally shed blood for him in the past and would not hesitate to give up their life for his just as he would if the situation were reversed. Their loyalty was unwavering. But Cara was off limits. What he did and did not do where she was concerned was not up for discussion.

Asad followed Aiden out of his office. "May I speak freely My Liege?"

 Aiden turned to face him. "You have never needed permission to do so, but be warned Asad, choose your words carefully. I am not in a rational frame of mind at the moment."   

 "I am aware, Your Grace, and you may very well impale me on the front lawn for what I am about to say next but you are my friend as well as my Liege and I would be remiss as a friend if I did not say this."    

"Say what?" Aiden growled.

 "The hunter, I think you love her and I think she loves you back. Think about what you would do if it were one of us in the position her friend is in. You would sacrifice everything, even yourself to save us. She has already lost one person she loves to the wolves, if she loses another she will never forgive you. Are you prepared for that consequence?"    

"If it means she stays out of danger, yes I am." The hunter had carved out a place for herself in Aiden's heart. Now that she was in his life, he could not imagine an eternity without her but he would deal if it meant she stayed safe and alive. He lost one woman he loved to the wolves long ago and he would be damned if he lost another. Still, if he truly loved her could he really stand by and allow her heart to re-break into a thousand pieces and probably her already fragile psyche along with it? Asad was right. Cara had yet to recover from losing her father. Losing her friend would tear the scab off of a deep wound that had never healed. There was only one answer to the question he asked himself if he loved her. He did not want Cara walking into a literal wolves den. He growled in frustration then punched his fist through the wall beside him. "Fuck!" He yelled out loud.     

I am going to murder that self-serving ass as soon as I see him
was the first thought Cara had when she came out of the darkness. How dare he invade her mind and force actions on her against her will?  She did not have to look far. She turned her head to see Aiden sitting in a chair beside her bed. It was actually his bed she lay in she realized with a confused startle.

"You bastard!" She hissed at him. "Twenty-four hours better not have passed while you hijacked my consciousness or I swear will disembowel."

 He looked at her long and hard then crushed his lips to hers and Gods damn it she kissed him back.
What the hell was wrong with her?
She should be pushing him away not pulling him closer. He lied to her and used her and then invaded her mind when she did not automatically concede to his will. The thought of Reiya in the wolves clutches and abused or worse dead snapped her out of her madness. She put her hands between them to push him away but his hands closed around her wrists in a steel grip.