The Claimed (2 page)

And there it was. A transfer of power without a single ion of energy being lost.

Christopher glanced at Ryan and realized that Maya stood beside his friend as well. Both Ryan and Maya assumed positions before him, and as the others had done, they saluted him and repeated the vow.

Christopher swiftly moved from one Hunter to the other, shaking their hands and bestowing a touch of his greater vitality, acknowledging the trust they had placed in him as well as their sacrifice. When he was done, he stepped before them once again. With a regal nod of his head, he said, “Let us leave the past. Our future awaits.”

Christopher’s one hope was that the future would be peaceful, but knowing his father, that was highly unlikely.

V
ictoria Johnson stared at her two friends as they leaned on the counter in her shop.

“Why can’t you come with?” Janet playfully whined as Victoria finished tallying the day’s receipts so she could deposit them at the bank.

“I already told you why, Jan,” Victoria said, ignoring the roll of her friend’s eyes at her continued refusal.

Her other friend, Samantha Cunningham, jumped into the fray as well. “It’s my last night as the jammer for the roller derby team. Why would you want to miss that? Not to mention that Jan’s time as a single girl will soon come to an end.”

With a tired sigh, Victoria collected the assorted checks and cash she had taken from the register and stuffed them into the bank deposit envelope. The assistant manager who normally handled the business end of things for her shop had been out today, forcing Victoria to deal with the scheduling, sales, and rentals. Normally
she would not have to deal with such things, which allowed her to focus on the kayak lessons and tours. The rest of the staff was responsible for the surf rentals and classes as well as the parasailing excursions along the beachfront.

“Sammie and Jan,” she began, amusement in her voice. “I have to finish cleaning and prepping the equipment for tomorrow. Then I have to drop this off at the bank. And then my mom and dad expect me home for a big family meeting.”

Sammie and Jan shared a conspiratorial look before Sammie blurted out, “You sure have a lot of big family meetings.”

“I have a big family,” Victoria replied patiently, aware that even despite their many years of friendship, her two human friends had no clue just how expansive her “family” was and why it demanded so much of her time.

As the daughter of the Ocean clan Quinchus, Victoria was next in line to lead her Light Hunter people. Worse yet, she was getting to an age where her Equinox—her mating time—was nearly upon her. That meant the added stress of her high-ranking parents trying to arrange for a proper mate from amongst the clans in the area. Especially since the man to whom she had been promised at birth had broken his pledge to bond with her.

Jan jerked her thumb in the direction of the pile of life vests, kayaks and assorted water equipment strewn around the open work space at one corner of the shop. “How about we come over early tomorrow morning to help you straighten up? That should give you some time to hang with us tonight.”

“My first kayak tour is at six a.m. That means you’d need to be here—”

“How does five o’clock sound?” Sammie jumped in. “With the three of us working, we can have this place ready in no time.”

Victoria glanced from Sammie to Jan and noted the determination in their features. She knew they only wanted the best for her and in truth, heading down to the Convention Center for a night of just hanging with her friends sounded like heaven. Normal, something for which she yearned way too much.

“I love you guys. You know that, right?” She reached across the counter to embrace them before pulling away, a little misty-eyed. “I’ll meet Jan at the front door by eight. Is that good?”

Sammie reached into her back pocket and pulled out complimentary tickets, which she handed to Jan. “Perfect. Maybe after we’re done we can grab a bite and drink at McLoone’s?”

“Sounds perfect.” Victoria hugged them again. The energy from their bodies was warm against hers, charged as it was with their affection, but she held back from absorbing any of it.

Unlike the Shadows, the Light Hunters didn’t feed from humans, for a number of reasons, including avoiding detection. Her Ocean clan camouflaged their energies and affinities so as to appear as human as possible. It was a safeguard against discovery not only by the humans, but also by the Shadow Hunters in the area, who would gladly feast on them in order to contain the pox that ravaged their bodies when their energies ran low.

Satisfied with the plan to which Victoria had agreed,
her friends walked her to her silver Jeep Liberty and waited until she was locked inside with the day’s receipts before heading out in their own cars.

Victoria made the drive to the bank in no time and returned to her parents’ impressive home along the Shark River in Avon-by-the-Sea, just a half mile or so from the water sports rental and tour business she owned along the inlet and nearby Jersey Shore. Victoria lived above her shop in a two-story, loft-like space that afforded her marvelous views of the river and, on a clear day, the Atlantic from her third-floor balcony.

For a Hunter whose affinity was water, it was a perfect location. Victoria never had to go far to be able to balance herself and recharge her power from the natural energies of the river and ocean around her.

As she parked, Victoria noted the half a dozen or so cars gathered in front of her parents’ home and recognized not only those of her parents’ cadre members, but also that of her cadre captain, Rafael Guerrero. That her parents had felt it necessary to include him meant there might be trouble brewing with either another clan of Light Ones in the area or worse, some Shadow Hunters.

Rumor had it that several Dark Ones had been spotted in the area over the last couple of months, which always presented a risk. It had been many years since they had lost one of their people to an attack from the Shadows, but other Light Hunter clans had not been so lucky.

She rang the bell at her parents’ door and glanced up at the security camera. A second later the magnetic lock on the door disengaged to allow her entry. As Victoria pushed through, she was immediately greeted by her cadre captain.

“Quinchu,” Rafael said, dipping his head and bringing his closed right fist to his chest to honor her.

“That’s not necessary, Rafael,” she said, laying her hand on his and urging it downward. She was uneasy with forced deference, maybe because she preferred the casual ways of the humans around them.

He leaned in her direction and even though she was nearly six feet tall, Rafael towered over her with his massive frame. He was darkly handsome, and she had always wondered why he had not found a mate from amongst the many willing women in their clan. Bringing his mouth close to the shell of her ear, he whispered, “There is trouble.”

His statement confirmed what she had feared.

“Shadow or Light?” she asked while peering straight ahead to the living room where her parents, the senior members of their cadre, and some clan elders were gathered. From the dour faces on one and all, it was big trouble.

“Both,” he said.

With a nod, she strode ahead, Rafael following behind respectfully. Victoria knew she could count on him for anything, including sacrificing himself to protect her. He had been her cadre captain since they had both been teens and was like a brother to her. Her parents had chosen him from the many possible candidates in the clan because of his obedient and honorable nature.

The remaining six members of her cadre had also been with her for over a decade and they were all close friends, although Victoria did not demand that they constantly be at her beck and call as other Quinchus did.

When Victoria entered the living room, her parents’ cadre members and the clan elders rose and saluted her. She uncomfortably acknowledged their veneration with
a dip of her head and then pushed forward to where her parents held court. As the high priest and priestess of the Ocean Light Ones, they made every decision that affected the continuation of the clan, including with whom Victoria should mate. That process had become a constant source of friction lately.

Bowing her head, she saluted her parents. “Quinchus. You asked me to attend tonight.”

Her mother and father rose almost as one and took turns hugging her before returning to their comfortable wing chairs. While the space and its appointments lacked the trappings of European throne rooms, there was no doubt about the power the Quinchus wielded, Victoria thought as she stepped to the side, every person in the room focusing on her parents.

“We have received word from the Desert clan Quinchus that Adam Bruno’s father—his human one—has passed. The funeral will be held tomorrow. Please spread the word that the members of our clan should be in attendance if at all possible,” her father declared.

Considering that the human had stolen Adam from his Hunter parents, Victoria wondered why the Light Ones in the area would honor him in such a fashion. But as she met her father’s shrewd gaze, she realized the attendance of their clan members was not about honor.

It was about intimidation.

“Adam Bruno has chosen his mate, father. A show of force will not change that,” she said, unable to fathom why her parents continued to hope for the impossible.

“Kikin,” he began, using Adam’s Hunter name, “has too many ties to the humans.”

She sensed the condemnation in his words, so
reminiscent of his feelings toward her mortal friends. Because of that, she came to Adam’s defense. “He was raised by his human father. It’s only natural that he would have affection for the man.”

“A man who stole him from his true parents. Light Hunter Quinchus,” her mother reminded, clearly on board with her husband’s sentiments.

Before Victoria could respond, her father continued. “With this first connection to the human world severed, it may weaken the bonds to his human mate.”

There was just one problem with her parents’ continued determination to see her mated to Adam: Victoria had no desire to enter into an arranged marriage. She wanted love and affection and passion. She wanted the kind of relationship she saw with her friend Jan and her fiancé, not some loveless joining.

“Adam’s Equinox has arrived and the bond to his mate has been forged. That tie is more powerful than any that we know,” she reminded her father. If he wanted to go all Hunter on her, then she would remind him of just what that entailed in their world.

A flush of bright red swept over his cheeks at her challenge and his emerald aura became visible as his irritation grew. Brilliant shards of silver and gold swirled around him and he was about to lash out at Victoria when her mother laid her hand on his arm. The glow of her cerulean aura emerged when she used her energy to soothe her spouse. “Jonathan, calm yourself.”

Then her mother faced Victoria and in a soft tone, which was nevertheless as hard as tempered steel, she said, “Human bonds with the Light Ones are never strong, Victoria. That was not meant to be the way of our people.”

No, it wasn’t, Victoria acknowledged. For millennia the Hunters had lived in peaceful isolation, away from the humans. It was contact with the humans that had forever changed the course of her people with the introduction of the smallpox virus. That human contamination had created the Shadows and robbed many Light Hunters of the ability to gather energy. Thanks to those changes their Hunter race had been condemned to centuries of civil war and deprivation.

But not all humans were weak and not all humans created trouble for her people. Her friendships with Sammie and Jan were proof of the strong bonds that could be forged. Victoria was certain that being less insular was a way to expand possibilities for her Light Hunter clan, including introducing new life energies into their diminishing numbers. When the time came for her to rule, she hoped to make her clan more open to such human-Hunter ties.

She suspected Adam Bruno had found such vitality with the human mate he had chosen.

“Every day our numbers grow smaller. Our powers diminish. Why will you not consider that it is time to change course? To explore new ways to sustain our people?”

“Silence,” her father warned quietly, although his aura displayed the true extent of his anger, growing ever larger and brighter, the silver and gold filaments of energy beginning to escape the edges of his life force.

Aware that her parents would not be swayed, but also certain that she would not be cowed by her father’s display of power, Victoria released her control over her own aura. The brilliant aqua blue was thicker and larger than
her father’s, flecked with many more tendrils of silver and cerulean, a testament to her greater abilities to gather energy. A low murmur arose from those in the room as they noted her very visible show of force and defiance.

Despite her display, Victoria was not yet ready to usurp her parents’ leadership. Reining in her energy field, she nevertheless picked her chin up in challenge. “If that is all. I will see you at the funeral tomorrow.”

Without waiting for their reply, she turned and marched for the door, Rafael obediently following. Outside they paused by their cars, her cadre captain waiting for instructions.

“What are you doing tonight?” she asked, leaning against the fender of her serviceable Jeep. The back storage area of the vehicle was filled with objects from the human life she had adopted, much like the car. Hunters had no need of such transportation since they were able to skip across the energy in the cosmos, but they normally held back from doing so in order to protect their true identities.