Raven's Desires (Night Hunters) (20 page)

“Damn mouse.”

Raven noticed something red on the tree in front of her. She walked over to inspect closer.

“Blood?”

There was blood smeared all over the bottom of the tree. She looked around carefully, trying not to miss anything.

Raven jumped when something hit her on the head. She placed her hand on top of her head and felt wetness. She calmed herself by telling herself it had to be water. When Raven took her hand down, her eyes widened as she looked at her fingers covered in blood. She looked up to see a guy hanging from the tree by his feet. His throat had been torn out. Raven moved back as the eyes of the dead men seem to follow her. His body swung lightly in the breeze. His mouth was open, his eyes wide in fear. This man had seen his killer
—
she was sure of it.

“Looky what we have here,” a dark voice made Raven turn around. “A lost slayer.”

Raven trembled a little as the man walked towards her. The man was tall like Kristian. His green eyes stared at her. He had dark red hair and very light skin tone. She didn’t know what he was, but she felt that he was not there to chit chat with her.

“I’m not lost,” Raven said then sent out a mental call to Kristian.

“Tsk tsk. Don’t do that.”

“Do what?”

“You know what I’m talking about. Sending a mental call to your boyfriend. He’s distracted at the moment.”

“Distracted?”

“Yes. He has a couple of my pack to deal with. They were the distraction so I could come to you.”

“What do you want?” Raven asked, hoping to delay whatever he was going to do. She doubted that Kristian received the call from her.

“No time for talk, slayer. You have a meeting with my boss.”

“Wha…”

Raven didn’t get the words out before the man growled. He leaped and in mid-air transformed from human to a light brown werewolf. Raven waited until the last moment then moved to her right. The wolf’s claw bit into her arm cutting her.

“Shit.”

Raven grabbed her arm and ran back towards Kristian’s home. As she ran she heard the snarl of the wolf, felt him right behind her, his large body pounding the ground, closer and closer it got to her. Raven knew she wouldn’t be able to out run him. Turning quickly she backhanded the wolf, its teeth cutting into her hand.

“Fuck me!”

Raven watched the beast fly back and land on a tree hard. It whimpered like a dog before turning back into a naked man. Raven held her hand, hoping to stop the bleeding. The man groaned and licked the blood from his mouth.

“Careful, slayer,” he said as he stood. “You don’t want me to get addicted to you.

The man charged again transforming back to the wolf. This time Raven would not run. She caught the wolf by the paws and slung him around, tossing him into another tree.

“Come on you bastard, that’s all you have?”

The wolf stood, shaking the daze from his head. His green eyes glowed brightly as he snarled. He held his head up and howled to the skies.

Raven walked in a circle with the wolf, waiting for him to jump at her. This time she planned on snapping his god damn neck. He had hurt her hand and her arm
—
that was all he would get out of her.

“What the fuck are you waiting on?”

Raven turned around when the sound of breaking limbs and footsteps made it to her. Three more wolfs made their way up to her. Their eyes glowed deadly.

“Oh, that’s what you were waiting on. Fucking coward.”

The one wolf that had been chasing her snarled.

“Just know I’m not in the mood tonight.”

Raven walked backwards until her back pressed up against a tree. The wolf snarled and the others around her did also. As a black one leaped towards her, Raven jumped, grasping the tree limb over her head. The wolf connected head first with the tree. It slid to the ground, out cold.

“One down.”

Raven dropped to the ground. She stood straight as the other two leaped at her. She ducked the first one’s strike as it swung at her. The second wolf she grabbed by the neck mid-air and with unknown force she snapped its neck. The wolf cried out as she dropped it to the ground.

The impact on her back made Raven go flying to the ground. She groaned as she rolled from her stomach onto her back. When her eyes opened she saw a wolf in air getting ready to land on her. She rolled over. The wolf hit the ground beside her, but its teeth snapped too close to her face, making her roll over again and again.

Maneuvering herself, she was able to turn and catch the wolf’s neck between her legs, snapping its neck from the force.

“Enough.”

The first wolf’s voice made her stand quickly. Raven had just a moment to look at the two naked bodies before staring back at the man. The first one she’d killed was a female with black hair, and the one that lay beside her was a man with long light brown hair.

The third wolf stood. It wobbled a little before moving over towards the other guy.

“You killed two of my family. There will be a debt to pay.”

The guy snarled and quickly transformed. He turned away from her and ran off in another direction. The other wolf followed suit.

Raven didn’t know why the guy had run off until Shane and Kristian stopped beside her.

“Cowards,” Shane said.

Raven looked at both men covered in blood, their clothes torn.

“Are you guys okay?”

Raven looked down at herself and saw she didn’t look nearly as bad as they did.

“Yea, are you?” Kristian asked.

“Yeah, I killed two of them.”

“What?” both men said in unison.

“You both sound surprised.”

“We are. It’s not an everyday thing to hear someone killed a werewolf in a pack. Damn, Kristian, this girl is good.”

“Yes she is.” He lifted her hand. “You are hurt. Did he bite you?”

“No. I backhanded him and his teeth cut me.”

Kristian looked over to Shane who was turning over the wolves.

“That could be bad,” Kristian said, then turned back to her. “He has tasted your blood now. I hope he has will power
—
if not, we will have to kill him.”

“Oh, shit,” Shane said.

“What?” Kristian asked, releasing her hand.

“You know who this is?” Shane asked.

Raven walked up to the dead female.

“This is Ian’s Sanders sister, Cheryl. You are telling me that Raven took out an eighty-nine year old wolf without breaking a sweat?”

“Looks that way,” Kristian said.

“Well she was attacking me along with her other friends.”

“We know, Raven,” Kristian said then turned to her. “Problem is, some of the wolves in this town and other beings are in truce mode. Once Ian finds out that his sister is dead and by the hands of a slayer, this could be very bad.”

“Very, very bad,” Shane elaborated

“Let’s go” Kristian said.

“Wait,” Raven interrupted. “There’s a man somewhere hanging upside down. He’s dead. I saw the blood on the tree and then I spotted the man. We have to find out who he is.”

“We will, but we need to go get cleaned up. Your job is to protect. We have people who clean up.”

“What about what the man said to me?”

“Means nothing right at this moment. You keep it in mind and we will talk about it later.”

Raven was going to protest but let Kristian pull her away from the scene.

* * * *

Raven took the latex glove from her hand. Kristian suggested she shower with it to keep her bandage dry. She wiped the fog from the mirror and looked at herself. She didn’t have any marks on her face, but her hand and armwas another story. Raven looked at her hand as she moved it. It didn’t hurt as bad as she thought it would. The cut was deep enough to make anyone run to the hospital. She’d suggested it to Kristian but he told her that she wouldn’t need to go to one.

She made sure to secure her towel around her firmly before picking at the bandage on her hand. She needed to change it since the glove didn’t keep out the water like she’d hoped. She unravelled it slowly. Raven expected to see an open wound, but surprisingly there was just a red mark on the back of it. She turned her hand over then back again.

“Wow. That’s healed super quick.”

She pulled the bandage away from her arm. The same thing on her arm, just a red line where the claw marks were.

Raven tossed the bandages in the trash and decided to go get dressed. She went over to the bed to look for her suitcase. She knew she had left it here when she went to go workout with Kristian. She was going to put her things up when she came back.

Raven jumped when the door opened and Kristian walked inside wearing a robe.

“Hi…um…where are my clothes?”

“Oh, Elisabeth put them up. She put most in the first drawers here and the rest are hung up in the closet.”

“Oh man, I could have done that. I didn’t mean to leave them here. I—”

“Don’t worry Raven. It’s no problem at all.”

Raven sat down on the bed. “I just don’t want to be a pest, is all.”

“You are not a pest.”

Raven opened and closed her hand.

“I see the wound healed already.”

Raven looked up into his eyes. They were the nice golden color instead of his natural baby blue.

“Yeah, I was going to change it, but when I saw it had healed I didn’t see a need to.”

Kristian sat on the bed beside her.

“What’s wrong? I feel you’re stressing about something.”

“I never…never killed anyone before, and it’s eating me up inside. Looking down at those bodies keeps replaying in my mind.”

Kristian touched her face, turning her to look at him. His warm hand made her shiver.

“You did not kill a human
—
those were werewolves set out to kill you.”

“I know but they looked so…so human.”

“That’s where your slayer part has to come in. You can’t look at any being and think because they look human they are. Some beings were never human. Some just take the shape of one. So never think about that. You are a slayer. You can close it up in your mind.”

Raven stood from the bed to lean against the dresser. “I can’t just turn it off. It’s there in my mind, flashing over and over again.”

Kristian stood from the bed, went over to the door, and locked. He turned to her again.

“You have to think of a box, place the pictures in that box and lock them there forever. Never to be seen again.” Kristian walked towards her. “Now close your eyes.”

Raven did.

“Now picture a box in your mind. Now take the images of those bodies, place them in that box, turn the key and throw it away. Now you have that box, what to do with it? Think of your hand circling the box, holding it. Now picture yourself throwing it away, far away from you. The box, the emotions, everything is now gone.”

Raven pictured everything Kristian was saying. It took several moments for her to open her eyes to see Kristian standing in front of her.

“Feel better?”

“Yes,” she breathed out.

Kristian had a look in his eyes that she couldn’t describe at that moment. His eyes were blue again, shining brightly. They were mesmerizing to look into. She seemed to be drowning in his eyes.

Kristian moved until his body touched hers, one hand around her waist, the other one in her hair. He pulled her to him until their lips touched. Kristian pressed his lips to hers, kissing her softly, gently. All the while the hand in her hair massaged her scalp. He bit her lip, making her jump before pressing his lips back to hers. Kristian wasn’t demanding like before, he was teasing her.

Raven moaned when he pressed his hard body against hers. He seemed so big next to her, so strong. When she moaned he slid his tongue inside her mouth. His taste exploded on her tongue. She never thought that kissing anyone could be so amazing. Every cell in her body came to life just from his kiss. Kristian kissed her deeply, pressing deeper into her mouth with his tongue. The earth around them seemed to stand still. Nothing mattered at this moment, nothing but her and Kristian. Raven wrapped her arms around his shoulders, holding on to the tidal wave of emotions pouring into her.

Kristian broke off the kiss. He kissed her lips again before leaving a hot trail down the side of her face to the bite mark on her neck.

“I want you to bear my mark for all eternity. I want everyone to know you belong to me.”

His words made her stomach clench. When his fangs penetrated his mark again, Raven’s body stiffened. Her brain shut down. Nothing could feel this good as having Kristian’s fangs in her. When he withdrew them, she groaned at the loss.

“Careful, love, I don’t want to take too much. I want you strong for me.”

Kristian removed his hands from her hair and waist. As he kissed down her neck, his hands worked on the knot she had in the towel. It only took seconds before the cold wind touched her body. Kristian lifted her and set her on the dresser, on the towel.