The Claimed (5 page)

What surprised her were the varying strengths of the auras the human family members possessed. The fields of power hinted at long-ago Hunter origins, especially in the
woman who stood in black beside Adam. Her fingers were laced tightly with his as she pressed to Adam’s side, offering comfort. The Hunter power there could not be denied, Victoria thought. It radiated powerfully from his wife and melded with Adam’s huge and amazingly intense life force, enveloping them in a field of visible energy.

Grief had likely weakened Adam’s control, and as a Hybrid, the woman was still possibly learning how to shield her aura and keep it private. Victoria hoped that the humans present would not be able to see the energy vibrating around them, filled with shivering tendrils of silver and blue that gave testament to their grief.

Victoria scanned the crowd while the priest intoned his final blessing at the grave. The power was definitely visible to the other Hunters gathered nearby, but not to the humans, who seemed oblivious, their attention focused on the priest. In precaution, Victoria carefully identified the auras of those gathered, searching for any signs of tainted Shadow power, but luckily there were none.

Thankful for that at least, she hung back as the funeral attendees paid their last respects at the casket and then to Adam and his family.
His family
, she thought, gazing at his new wife and her relatives once more. Noting the profound emotion apparent in all of them, Victoria took special notice of Adam and Bobbie. The love was almost palpable, creating an ache in the middle of her chest.

How she wished that one day she would find someone filled with such love. Someone who would be by her side to help her lead her clan to a better life.

There were few people left by the graveside when she finally approached, biding her turn until she stood before Adam. She had met him on only a few occasions
since he had been restored to his Desert clan. His power was like none she had ever experienced and would help him protect his people from attacks by the Shadows in their quest for energy to maintain their contaminated bodies.

But what struck her more strongly was the way he gazed at his wife.
Such love and care
, Victoria thought, experiencing that yearning once again.

Her parents, who had already paid their respects and departed, would be sorely frustrated if they continued to think that Adam’s bonding with his human was inconsequential. Nothing but death would part these two, and as Adam shifted his hand and lightly rubbed it across his wife’s stomach, it hit her like a punch to the gut.

His Hybrid wife was pregnant. Adam’s Equinox had come and their mating was now complete in ways no Hunter traditions could usurp.

As Victoria stood before them, she held out her hand and said, “I’m sorry about your loss, Adam. I know you cared for him deeply.”

Adam’s emerald eyes were shadowed, haunted by what had happened, and yet they lightened a bit as his wife replied, “Thank you for coming, Victoria. I can imagine that the past few weeks haven’t been easy for you either.”

Victoria smiled at his wife, because even in those brief moments they had shared, Victoria had come to like Bobbie Carrera. She was strong and no-nonsense. Level-headed and compassionate. Loyal. What was there not to like? she thought, and shook Bobbie’s hand.

“If there is anything that you need, you know you can count on me, Bobbie,” Victoria said and meant it. Her parents might be spoiling to break up this union, but she was all in favor of true love.

After all, she hoped to find some of her own one day.

With a last good-bye and consoling handshakes with the other Carrera family members, she walked back toward her car. Sammie was leaning against the bumper of the Jeep, watching her approach.

“Was he the one?” Sammie asked, sensing her upset, but misinterpreting the reason for it.

Victoria shook her head and peered back over her shoulder to where only Adam and Bobbie remained by the casket. “You know how family can be. They always hoped something would happen between us.”

With a diffident shrug, Sammie replied, “Actually I don’t know about family. Dad and I were always pretty much alone.”

Victoria had suspected as much from what she knew of her friend. Even now Sammie kept to herself, for the most part. When she wasn’t hanging out with her and Jan, she usually occupied her time by running several different businesses and doing secret hacking stuff for people she would not mention.

“Well, now you have me and Jan,” Victoria said and linked her arm through her friend’s.

Sammie nodded and squeezed Victoria’s arm reassuringly. “I’m headed back to the T-shirt shop. How about you?”

“It’s a light afternoon. Some parasailers that Mike will handle and one kayak tour for me. Then I’m going to go pack a snack and go for a long paddle. Want to come with?”

“Maybe another day. I’ve got tons of orders to fill,” Sammie replied and with a hug, walked away to her vintage World War II Willys Jeep. She somehow kept
the classic in working order, which was evidence of her friend’s ingenuity and skill with anything mechanical or electrical.

Once again it made Victoria wonder about Sammie’s unique abilities, but she drove those thoughts back. She had other things to consider, like whether her parents were going to continue to push for a bonding with Adam Bruno.

She had no intention of allowing them to do so, especially since the fruit of Adam’s Equinox had clearly taken root. Any mating between them now would be second best. If she could make her parents realize that, maybe they would let her choose her own mate so that when her Equinox arrived, she could bind with the right someone.

The first hurdle, convincing her parents, would be difficult.

But the second obstacle would be even harder: finding a suitable mate.

She had delayed that hunt for a long time because of the uncertainty of the situation with the Desert clan’s missing heir. Now it could not wait any longer. She was approaching her first triad, and at any moment her Equinox might emerge, seeking a path to compatible and powerful energy in order to ensure the continuation of the Light Ones.

Even though her biological clock was ticking, Victoria would not let that alone determine her fate. She wanted a partner for the future. Someone who would share her joys and her sorrows and help to lead her people. But more important, someone she could love.

Christopher and Ryan rowed in unison, the strong pull of their arms driving the skiff through the waters, spewing
sprays of seawater up and over the bow of the boat. They stroked efficiently, arms moving rhythmically until they neared the deserted beachfront of the island located in one of Jersey’s inland waterways. On such a beautiful day, it made no sense to rush and use their Hunter speed to reach the island. Besides, the physical exertion was welcome, working their muscles and strengthening the physical forms holding the Hunter core of energy.

They slowed their strokes as they neared the shore and then stopped at the first nudge of resistance when the flat bottom of the skiff hit sand. Their momentum drove them forward until the friction of sand against the bottom of the boat halted their progress.

Ryan jumped overboard first into the knee-high water, stabilizing the boat until after Christopher had stowed their oars and joined him. Together they easily beached the seventeen-foot skiff, a replica of those that had been used along the Jersey Shore since the late 1800s.

From the moment Christopher entered the water he experienced the life energies swirling in the blessed liquid of Mother Ocean. So much life beneath the surface for him to sample, but also a perfect way for him to coexist with his Equinox. The intense demand and growth of energy that came at the height of a Hunter’s power and fertility had been with him for close to a year. He had balanced the need to bond in a variety of ways, including using the ocean around him as both a source of power and an energy sink.

Ryan laid out a blanket and called out to him when he noted that Christopher lingered in the water. “Are you heading right in?”

“I am. And you?”

Ryan smiled boyishly, spreading his arms and raising his face to the sun. “I’m already in my environment.”

True, Christopher realized. Ryan’s ability to store and use the power of the sun allowed him to gather very potent energy regularly, making his affinity much more formidable and lethal than that of other Shadow Hunters.

“I’ll be back,” Christopher advised and grabbed the floating red and white scuba diving flag he would toss out over where he hunted. It provided an explanation for the extreme amount of time he spent below the surface.

He swam out until he was in about thirty feet of water, released the diving flag, and then sank below the surface. As luck would have it, a small school of brown-green weakfish were spawning along the estuary floor. With a gush of energy, he formed a vortex and directed it downward. It acted like a vacuum cleaner, sucking up a large fish and bringing it up to his grasp through the swirling tunnel of water.

Two feet of angry fish squirmed and flailed in his hands until he sucked in a bit of its life force and it weakened. Focusing his gathering, he took only a smidgen of the fish’s vitality within him. He needed the weakfish’s energy to partially shapeshift so he could stay below the surface long enough to do the exchange needed to rein in the demands of his Equinox.

He forced the fish’s life force through his body, and his power drained while he directed it toward his throat. He gritted his teeth and battled the pain as his skin tore open and the muscles beneath the surface reformed, developing gills. Blood vessels rerouted themselves to those new organs, creating an avenue for the oxygen to flow from the gills throughout his body. He grew lightheaded for
a moment, but then the outpouring of oxygen flooded through his gills and revitalized him.

With the skill of a surgeon, he dissected a piece of the power he had absorbed and directed it to his eyes. He created a thin membrane with the life force to protect them against the salt water.

Satisfied with the adaptations to his eyes and lungs, Christopher stopped his shapeshifting. He released the fish and expelled as much air as he could from his lungs. With nothing to keep him buoyant, he easily drifted down to the sandy bottom, scattering the swarm of fish when he settled in the midst of their school. Crossing his legs, he assumed a traditional Lotus position and opened his eyes. Looking around, he savored the sights around him.

The bright sunlight streamed downward in muted lines through the clear waters, which shimmered and moved with the sway of the ocean. When he remained motionless, the weakfish returned, swimming around him, bumping him every now and then as they came close to check him out.

Along the rough pockets of sand and rocks near the shore, sea grass and patches of seaweed provided protection for other species. Smaller fish swam in and out of the waving sea grass, while a few feet away, a lobster picked an ungainly path across the floor of the ocean. On the surfaces of the rocks, huge colonies of mussels filtered the water for food and grew so plentiful the rocks appeared black.

Now and again Christopher heard the distant calls of dolphin pods and experienced the vibrations from an assortment of motor engines and the thump of speeding vehicles pounding against the surface of the water. Jet Skis, probably.

Christopher ignored the intrusions of the humans, fixating instead on the peace of nature and the potential in the water. From the minute energies in the plankton to the physical movement of the tide and currents, Christopher had everything he needed to restore his life forces. But he also had something even more important: a sink where he could balance the ever-demanding power of his Equinox, which was seeking a strong Hunter life force with which to unite.

Visualizing the forces within him, he let them flood through every fiber of muscle and tendon to the tips of his extremities. His toes and fingers tingled and the sexually-charged power created by his Equinox filled his sex, reawakening the painful state in which he’d been earlier that morning.

Rising, he wiggled his toes until he was firmly grounded in the sand. Using the water surrounding him and the numerous minerals in the sand, he allowed some of his energy to course outward from his body, while also taking in some of the vitality from the sea around him. The give and take of power, like the ebb and flow of the tide, slowly restored balance to his system and contained the demands of his Equinox.

When his core was stabilized, Christopher shut down the circuit and was about to surface when the angry drone from man-made engines beat against his ears. The sound was followed by a solid and rather nasty
thunk
, whose vibrations carried across the waters.

He quickly pivoted toward the direction of the disturbance.

A boat rocked at the surface while a smaller object bobbed nearby—one of the Jet Skis he had detected earlier.
Within seconds a growing pool of crimson drifted across the water from a swimmer floating on the surface.

Blood.

A human, and badly wounded judging from the blood trail he was leaving. The swimmer slowly submerged beneath the surface in a slick of bloody water.

Christopher was about to jump into action when out of nowhere a gleaming whirlpool of water emerged. Stunned into inactivity, he watched the swirling waters encircle the wounded swimmer and in a surge, propel him back to the surface.