Authors: J L Taft
Huntress (13 page)
“Eve!” Fiona cried. “Help me get him inside.”
Eve snapped out of it and helped her pull him from the car.
The two of them got him across the yard as his head lolled and his legs barely
held him up.
The door was open when they got to it and Eve directed her
to a bedroom down the hall. They dropped him on the bed and he started
thrashing again.
“Fiona!” he screamed out and she dropped to his side.
“I’m here, Trent. It will be over soon. Just hold on, baby,”
she crooned to him.
His eyes opened, unfocused and panicky. She felt the tears
slide down her cheeks and she wished she knew what to expect. He couldn’t die.
Not after all they had been through tonight. He couldn’t leave her.
She stayed by his side, washing the blood from him and
removing his shirt. Sometime in the wee hours of the morning his body went cold
and his breath stilled.
Eve came in and, her heart broken, said, “What have you
done?”
“What I had to,” she answered her. But she suddenly wasn’t
so sure.
He was dying and what was left might not be the same man who
had been there the day before.
Fate it seemed always had the last word.
Trent woke in his childhood bed and tried to piece together
what had happened. He felt different. Something was wrong. He sucked in a
breath and could smell everything and he realized he hadn’t been breathing
before that. He could smell Fiona.
Was he dead?
He sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed. He
glanced around him and saw her slumped in a chair beside his bed.
The sun was just setting out the window and he stood and
stretched, wondering how long he had been here.
He ran a hand down his face and paused, feeling with both
hands. His scars were gone.
Stepping to the mirror, he jerked back in surprise. A
stranger looked back at him.
His face was smooth. The angry-red, puckered skin was gone.
He looked almost like the man he had been long ago. Except for his eyes. They
were red instead of green and as he stared at them it all came back to him.
Fiona. The vamp biting him. He was now one of the monsters
Fiona hunted.
Unexpectedly he felt as if someone had lit his throat on
fire. It was dry and he was so thirsty. He gulped down the glass of water
sitting on the stand by the bed. It didn’t help. Actually it made it worse. The
pain caught him off guard and he stumbled, crashing into a bookshelf behind
him.
Fiona woke with a start and jumped from her chair.
“Trent?” she asked as he straightened.
“Hey,” he croaked. He didn’t know what was going on but he
could sense Fiona’s heart beating in her chest. He could smell her breath. He
could hear everything, even the birds miles away with the window closed.
Putting a hand on his chest, he felt for his own heartbeat.
There wasn’t one. Raising his gaze to Fiona’s he suddenly knew what she had
done to save his life.
Fiona watched as Trent put everything together in his mind.
When his hand went to his chest, feeling for a heartbeat, she knew he had
figured it out.
Doubts assailed her. What if he didn’t want this life? What
if he resented her for what had happened?
But there was no going back now. What was done was done and
they couldn’t change it. He straightened and came toward her, his eyes glowing
red, and she mourned the loss of his green gaze.
He caught her up in his arms, his strength bruising her
where his fingers gripped her. She stared up into his eyes and shivered when
she saw his new fangs elongated from between his lips.
“I’m a vamp,” he growled down at her.
“I know,” she answered quietly.
“Then what are you doing here, Fiona?” he asked.
He released her suddenly and she stumbled. His hands balled
into fists and he smashed them both into the wooden dresser against the wall.
It splintered and broke into a million pieces, scattering all over the room.
Fiona ducked her head just as several pieces flew toward
her. The door to the bedroom slammed open and Eve was standing there, her eyes
big with surprise.
Trent turned and glared at his grandmother.
“Leave us,” he told her in a low voice.
“Trent…”
“Leave us!” he bellowed.
Fiona pleaded with her eyes for Eve to leave. She turned on
her heel and disappeared.
Trent faced her then.
“Well, Fiona, you got what you wanted,” he said as he sat
heavily on the bed.
“What do you mean?” she asked, wanting to go to him but
afraid of how he would respond.
“You wanted me out of your life. I’m a vamp and you’re a
hunter. I guess that ends what little of a relationship we had.”
This wasn’t what she expected. She had pushed him away
because she didn’t want him to end up dead. But that danger was past. He was
dead but he wasn’t. He was stronger now and didn’t have the mortality that had
held her back.
She wanted him in her life and she suddenly realized it
didn’t matter what he was. Even if he was a vamp they were still connected. The
last three weeks had been so miserable without him.
She had to try to make him understand.
“Trent,” she said as she knelt on the floor in front of him.
“All I could see was the blood, your blood, spilling onto the ground and I
realized that nothing else matters but us.”
“What are you saying, Fiona?”
“I don’t want to live without you, Trent. I love you.”
She didn’t know how else to explain it to him. All she knew
was that she couldn’t lose him now.
He stared down at her silently. Slowly he reached for her
hand and laced their fingers.
“It doesn’t matter to you what I am now?”
“I only wanted to keep you away because I knew you would get
hurt.”
He smiled down at her.
“That doesn’t seem to be an issue anymore,” she told him.
His mouth descended on hers and she met him halfway. The
kiss was potent and his fangs grazed her lips. His fingers tangled in her hair
and pulled her closer. She moaned into his mouth and her nipples tingled with
want.
Abruptly he pushed her away and stood.
“My throat is on fire,” he said as he rubbed it, trying to
ease the pain.
She knew what she had to do. Locking the door to his room,
she pushed his desk in front of it. She didn’t know how this would go and she
didn’t want Eve to barge in and end up hurt.
“You need to feed, Trent.”
Sitting on the bed, she took her shirt off and held her hand
out to him.
He shook his head. “I can’t, what if I hurt you or I can’t
stop?”
“You won’t hurt me.”
“I’m glad you have faith because I don’t.” But he came and
sat down beside her.
She moved her hair to the side and exposed her neck to him.
He growled and moved in closer, running his nose along her collarbone.
“You smell so amazing,” he grumbled.
His tongue snaked out and ran a long line from her
collarbone to her ear. She shivered and goose bumps broke out along her arms.
Without warning his fangs sank into her neck. There was a
sharp sting of pain and then bliss as he began to suck. The warm rivulets of
blood ran down her shoulder and she sagged against him.
He made low, contented noises in the back of his throat as
he drank from her. She felt each suck like a thrust of his cock in her pussy and
she suddenly knew why the women preyed on by vamps never screamed.
She gripped his arms and her nails sank in as she came hard,
a groan ripping from her throat. Her body went limp and he caught her in his
arms before she could slide boneless to the floor.
He lifted his head from her neck and she knew he had taken a
little more than he should have. She was suddenly so tired.
“Lick it closed,” she whispered before her eyes drifted shut
and sleep took over.
Fiona woke hours later, groggy and disoriented. Opening her
eyes, she stared up into the red gaze of Trent. He had his arms around her and
was cradling her gently in his lap.
Moonlight streamed in through the one window. She smiled up
at him and laid her hand on his cheek.
“Your scars are gone,” she whispered as she ran her fingers
over the newly smooth skin.
“Are you sure you didn’t tell me you love me just because of
my pretty face?” he asked with a smile.
“Actually I’m going to miss them. They were a part of you
and I love all of you.”
He smiled down at her and she felt that same flash of
white-hot desire she always had with him. Nothing had changed between them.
“Are you okay?” he asked. “I didn’t hurt you?”
“No, I’m fine.”
“Good,” he said as he laid her down on the bed and came down
on top of her. Her clothes disappeared as he ripped them off her. He moved away
for a brief second and then was on her again, both of them naked.
He kissed her deep and hard, his tongue invading her mouth.
She let him take, knowing he needed her, needed to know he could still feel the
same way.
He wedged his hips between her legs and when he wasn’t
satisfied with that, used his hands to spread her farther.
Giving her no time to adjust herself, he thrust home deep
inside her. They no longer had to worry about an unwanted pregnancy, so there
wasn’t any barrier between them. Her body arched and he groaned low above her.
“I was worried it wouldn’t be the same, but it’s even better
than I remember,” he said close to her ear.
“Mmmmm,” was all she could get out.
He began to move. Thrusting long and deep, he picked up the
pace and drove her to the edge of exploding with a few well-placed plunges.
Leaning down, he sucked one hard, peaked breast into his
mouth. When she felt the twin pricks of his fangs she came hard around his
cock.
He bellowed and she felt his seed coat her walls deep
inside. He held firm within her as she clamped and released around him.
When he finally pulled out he smiled down at her.
As she smiled back up at him she felt for the first time
that everything was falling into place and she was going to be able to keep the
man of her dreams by her side, forever.
J L Taft believes that variety is the spice of life. The
love of a good man is irreplaceable and that determination will get you anywhere
you want to go.
She lives in upstate New York with her husband, daughter and
two dogs. She has a large extended family that provides her with a constant
source of amusement and inspiration.
She spends her days glued to her laptop with her head in the
clouds. When she isn’t writing she can be found reading, gardening, listening
to Trans-Siberian Orchestra and enjoying great Finger Lakes wine.
J L welcomes comments from readers. You can find her website
and email addresses on her
author
bio page
at
www.ellorascave.com
.
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Wolf
Off Leash
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Ellora’s Cave Publishing
Huntress
ISBN 9781419991158
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Huntress Copyright © 2014 J L Taft
Edited by Beverly Horne
Cover design by Fiona Jayde
Cover photography by Shutterstock/90974285/Anetlanda
Electronic book publication March 2014
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