The Claimed (3 page)

Rafael smiled at her friendly query. “I guess that depends on what you’re doing,” he teased, obviously trying to lighten her mood.

“I’m heading to the Convention Center to meet Sammie and Jan for some roller derby action. Want to join me?”

“Do you think that the sight of a number of strong, beautiful women battling each other would interest me?” he said, but his dark eyes glittered with amusement.

“Yes,” she answered, deadpan.

He grinned and offered her his arm. “Then who am I to challenge my Quinchu?”

Victoria glanced back at the house where her parents and her clan elders were still gathered. “Sometimes I don’t feel like much of a Quinchu.”

Rafael snorted in surprise. “You are far more powerful than your parents and are our most effective warrior. Your parents and elders are lucky that you respect their wishes.”

She dipped her head to acknowledge his belief in her, but still it rankled that she could not do more to help her people or choose her own course. “How much longer do we follow the old ways while our clan languishes? While our people grow weaker by the day?”

With a sheepish shrug, Rafael replied, “Until you know the moment is right for change, I guess.”

It was a guess, all right. At twenty-six the upcoming end of her first triad would bring about her mating time—the Equinox. If she chose the right mate with whom to bond, it would bring even greater power to herself and her people.

But Victoria didn’t want to wait that long to lead. Especially not when she saw the people of her clan suffering. The pox that had contaminated the Shadows had left many of the Light Hunters unable to gather and retain energy. That made them reliant on her parents, her, and some of the other elders to sustain their life forces.

She wanted to strengthen her people. Provide them a way to secure sustenance on their own, including forging bonds with the humans. Especially those hybrid humans who possessed a touch of Hunter power deep within them. Contrary to what her parents and elders believed, Victoria thought such interactions could be part of the answer to their issues.

Which reminded her of the promise she had made to her friends for that night. Glancing up at her cadre captain, she said, “Let’s go. Sammie and Jan will be waiting.”

With a nod, Rafael followed almost dutifully, although she thought of him more as a brother than as a cadre captain. They had been raised together since they were children and she had counted on his honor and obedient nature since he had become her captain in their teens.

That nature made him a good captain and friend, she thought as they slipped into her car for the drive to Asbury Park and the meeting with her friends.

The Convention Center in Asbury Park was hopping with a wide assortment of patrons. Elementary school and tween-aged girls dressed in the colors of the local roller girl team hopped and danced along the sidelines, cheering for their favorite skaters as they looped around the flat oval delineated on the floor. Young couples, both hetero and gay, were out for a night of fun, as well as retired folk seeking inexpensive entertainment.

Her friend Sammie was one of the skaters speeding around the oval, nimbly threading through the sea of fellow skaters. Her skills and athletic ability far surpassed those of the other women on the flat track, making her a very popular skater, judging from the cheers every time her name was mentioned as the commentator reported on the action.

Victoria was equally impressed as Sammie elbowed her way past much larger opponents. When Sammie feinted around one, her friend seemed to become a blur of light that zipped past the hulking blocker to rack up points for the home team.

Victoria closed her eyes to refocus, just to make sure she had really seen that almost inhuman blur, but by then Sammie had cleared the last obstacle, which brought an end to that jam.

Gracefully Sammie skated over to where Victoria sat with Rafael, Jan, and Jan’s fiancé, Josh. When Jan hadn’t been busy bursting eardrums with screams in support of Sammie, she had been blathering about all the things she had to do now that she and Josh were engaged.

Unfortunately, some of those things included having Victoria and Sammie try on dresses, help pick flowers, and do an assortment of other chores that had never occurred to Victoria. In Hunter circles, unions were accomplished with much more simplicity. However, it was difficult not to get caught up in the infectiousness of Jan’s almost manic planning. Even harder not to imagine what it might be like to be able to marry for love and not because of obligation.

Luckily Sammie’s arrival on the floor directly below their row put a hold on Jan’s wedding talk. At least temporarily.

“How’d I do?” her friend asked with a broad grin as she ripped off her brightly colored helmet and ruffled her short-cropped cocoa-colored hair. It was damp from her exertions and a slight sheen of sweat glowed on Sammie’s skin.

“You were amazing,” Victoria answered with a playful lilt in her voice. In truth, Sammie always amazed her. There was a vibrant energy around her friend that was extraordinary for a human. Victoria had wondered often if there wasn’t some Hunter in her friend, given Sammie’s strength, intelligence, and athleticism. She hoped that in
time she’d be able to confirm that and if so, include Sammie in the plans for her Hunter clan.

“Truly interesting,” Rafael responded, clearly bemused by Sammie and her enthusiasm.

His comment deepened the exercise-induced flush on her friend’s cheeks. “Thanks, Rafael. I’m glad you enjoyed it.”

The loud tweet of a whistle and the shout of her name ripped Sammie away from them and back to the skating oval. As she roller-skated away, her powerful legs propelling her into action, Victoria leaned over and whispered to Rafael. “See. Not all humans are puny and weak.”

“Just most,” he mumbled beneath his breath as he scrutinized the individuals gathered around the convention hall, seemingly bemused by their activities.

“So you wouldn’t be interested in a date with Sammie? I could arrange it, you know.”

That seemed to pique his interest for a moment, until he asked, “You can command her as well?”

Victoria elbowed her captain playfully. “Come on, Rafael. You know better, or has it been so long since you’ve mingled with humans that you’ve forgotten?”

Hurt blossomed across his features and he dipped his head down, avoiding her gaze as she tried to decipher his expression. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”

“I am your captain, Victoria. You are my one and only responsibility and even though you may not always see me…”

He was always there. That she found his protectiveness kind of stalkerish worried her that maybe she was becoming too human, as her parents had warned. There was nothing unusual about Rafael being vigilant. Since
his affinity was the wind, he could waft a bit of his power along a strong current to observe all in its path.

But being her captain didn’t mean that he had to sacrifice his personal life on her account. With a friendly pat on his rock-hard thigh, she said, “Think about it. I don’t doubt that Sammie would be pleased to go out with you. What woman wouldn’t?”

A flush worked across his cheeks at the compliment and once again he averted his gaze and said, “As you wish, Quinchu.”

Rolling her eyes at his stubbornness, she returned her attention to the track and to Jan, who was back to blathering about the wedding and how grateful she was that Sammie was quitting the roller derby, because she had been worried Sammie would have bruises in all the wedding photos.

Chuckling, Victoria kidded, “It’s always about you, Jan.” That prompted a guffaw from Jan’s fiancé, Josh, who in turn got a hard elbow in retaliation.

With a defiant sniff with her nose in the air, Jan shot back, “You’re just jealous that you don’t have a boyfriend.”

Victoria shrugged, unfazed by Jan’s comment, although maybe there was just the tiniest scintilla of truth in the statement.

It would be nice to have a boyfriend, especially one that
she
had picked. One that she could grow to love and bond with emotionally before her Equinox eliminated that possibility. Once her Equinox was upon her, energy would call to the most potent energy. Many an unfortunate bond had been forged that was all about the power and nothing else. Such matings were often weak due to the lack of an emotional union.

She wanted more than such a loveless coupling.

A gentle nudge from Jan was followed by a remorseful, “You know I was teasing you, right?”

“I know,” she said, wrapping her arm around her friend’s shoulders and giving her a hug, which Jan returned.

With that simple exchange, all was right for the moment.

Victoria returned her attention to the jam, but something caught her eye at ground level. Two men sauntered in from the entrance, potent alpha energy oozing from every pore.

One was as bright and rosy as the sun, while the other…

Dark as midnight. Tall and lean, he had hair as black as coal and fathomless eyes. A very powerful pull of energy came from him, although he lacked any discernible aura.

Rafael leaned close and tracked her gaze. With a sidelong glance, she noted his annoyance and the angry burst of his energy registered before he controlled it. “Do you sense trouble, Quinchu?”

Definitely trouble, but not in the way he suspected, she thought as the handsome man at ground level looked her way. A shiver traveled through her, one of desire, as their gazes locked, but then a roar went up from the crowd.

Everyone turned their attention to the player down on the track, writhing with pain. Her teammates gathered around her while a trainer worked on her. A shoving match soon ensued between some of the women on the local team and the blocker from the visitors who had caused the injury.

Fists were about to fly when Sammie stepped into
the fray and laid a hand on each of the women, giving them just a fleeting glance while she spoke to them in low tones. The women immediately backed down and after the injured player was helped off the track, action resumed.

Once again Victoria wondered about Sammie and her origins, but then she looked back to where she had seen the man.

He was gone.

Victoria opened her Hunter senses, searching for that very enticing alpha strength she had perceived earlier. No remnant remained of that vitality, creating unexpected disappointment.

Another cheer from the crowd pulled her attention back to the oval track. Sammie was at it again, dodging and weaving her way past blockers. Racking up points for the home team to the delight of the crowd and Jan, who released an ear-splitting whistle as the jam ended.

From beside her, Rafael grumbled, “Humans.”

Victoria smiled and teased her captain. “Aren’t they great?”

“No,” he replied.

Victoria nudged him playfully and returned her attention to the floor of the Convention Center, but the handsome man, whoever he might have been, was destined to remain a mystery.

T
he alarm sounded in the calm of morning, but Victoria was already awake. The pull and push of the tide had registered against her Hunter senses, leisurely lulling her from wickedly sexy dreams involving Mr. Dark and Dangerous from the night before.

She was definitely too caught up in the spillover romantic energy from Jan’s ceaseless wedding planning. How else to explain the deliciously naughty thoughts about a total stranger? But those slightly erotic nighttime adventures had eaten away at her sleep time.

Rolling over, she smacked the clock into silence, wishing she could sneak in just a few more minutes of rest. She had been out with Rafael and her friends until nearly two in the morning, enjoying a late-night dinner and a few drinks. That, coupled with her fantasies, meant that she had only slept for a few hours, which would not be enough to sustain her today.

Rising, she ambled onto the balcony off her bedroom
and to its edge, drinking in the views of the Shark River, inlet, and ocean. The energy of the tide pulling toward the shore and the reviving rays of the sun just creeping over the horizon caressed her life force. A slight morning chill sat in the air and low-lying gloom hugged the shore, but the fog would dissipate with the rising of the sun. Closing her eyes, she raised her face and stretched out her arms, gathering energy from those first flares of sunlight as her people had been doing for millennia. She experienced the slow seepage of power through her body, driving away some of the tiredness from the long night.

Once she dealt with her morning obligations at the shop and made it through Salvatore Bruno’s funeral, she would paddle off in a kayak to a deserted stretch of beach on one of the smaller islands. Tucked into the waterways of the estuaries, it was there that she could most effectively recharge her life forces with a nice long soak.

Returning to her bedroom, she quickly washed and dressed. In the kitchen she fixed a large mug of coffee and then went down another flight of stairs to her water sports business. It was barely five, but as promised, a sleepy-eyed Sammie and Jan were already waiting at the entrance to the shop.

Their loyalty warmed her insides, and, smiling, she popped open the door. “Good morning.”

A grumpy Jan, whose eyes were barely open, said, “What’s so good about being up at this ungodly hour?”