The Hunted (52 page)

‘It’s beautiful,’ I murmured, turning again to look at him. He was still watching me intently.

He took a few steps towards me and offered me his hand. I looked down at it for a brief moment before shrugging my shoulders, and closed my hand around his. If he was going to maim me for punching him in the face a moment ago then he probably would have done it already.

He led me to a small concrete shelf that surrounded the central concrete shaft and shrugged free of the leather jacket he was wearing. He placed it down on the dirtied concrete and motioned for me to sit down.

How very debonair of him.

‘So,’ I heard myself saying as he sat down beside me, his thigh resting against mine. All the questions I’d had for him suddenly flew out the back door of my brain the second his body touched mine.

What was I going to say again?

‘Now that we are alone and relaxed,’ he said casually, as he reached up and tucked a lock of hair behind my ears, ‘perhaps we can pick up from where we left off last weekend?’

I swallowed. ‘Umm, okay.’

‘I have so many questions for you, Elena,’ he continued. ‘You make me curious in a way that no person ever has. I hope you don’t mind. I’d like to try to unravel some of the mysteries that have been circling around in my head since we first met.’

I shook my head.

What does it matter if he knows everything about me now, anyway? He already knows the worst of what I am and, after that, I’m still alive.

That’s true, but don’t drop your guard completely, not when you know so little about him. At least he’s doing all the talking.

God, he’s just so … beautiful.

‘How about, to begin with, we just start out slow. I want you to feel like you can trust me, so why don’t we swap, take turns to speak. Does that sound fair?’

I swallowed and remembered I had vocal chords. ‘Sure, but as for trusting you, that could take some time.’

He sighed. ‘And time is what I have plenty of.’

‘So I start first then?’

He nodded. ‘As you wish.’

‘Okay then, tell me where you’ve been for the last week. Why did you never once call me back?’

His face instantly upturned. ‘So you were worried about me?’

I sniffed and looked away. ‘Marginally. But I was mostly pissed because you spent ten minutes telling me to stay inside the car, and then you deserted me and the alpha ended up getting to me anyway.’ I rubbed my neck where the Vânâtor’s teeth had bitten deep only a week ago.

‘I like that you’ve been thinking about me,’ he said calmly, touching a cool finger to my cheek and brushing it across the skin, searing it. ‘It says that not everything is written in stone, and that some things that are destined can be changed.’

‘Okay,’ I said, frowning and shrugging his hand away. ‘Why don’t you stop changing the subject and answer my question. What happened to you?’

He sighed and dropped his hand. ‘The alpha and I got into a serious fight. Unfortunately he came out a little better off than I did. I’m assuming that you and the IMI realise that the alpha has gotten away?’

I nodded.

‘So with that being said, Thomas and I have been doing everything that we can to find him and fix my blunder before he gets time to round up a new pack. For the past week we’ve been following the scent trails between Mackay and Cairns. It doesn’t look like he’s heading back south. There must be something in this town that takes his fancy.’

‘How did he slip you in Mackay anyway?’ I asked. ‘Aren’t you supposed to be stronger and faster than him?’

He grimaced. ‘To some extent, but he caught me off guard. I was too busy listening to you running down the alley, wondering if the second werewolf would hunt you down. The alpha hit me so hard in the side of the face that he knocked me through the side of a building. By the time I pulled myself back together again he was gone and you were screaming.’

‘So you couldn’t trace him once he was finished with me? I wounded him you know. There would have been a trail of blood to follow.’

‘I know,’ he said quietly. ‘But his scent was impossible for me to find when mixing with your own blood riding the wind. It drove me beyond all distraction. I had to get as far away from the area as possible before I did something completely unforgivable.’

‘Unforgivable—as in, drinking my blood?’

He turned away from me and looked out over the horizon. ‘Yes. That’s why I haven’t been in contact since. I thought it would be sensible to put some space between us as long as the scent of your blood was still at the forefront of my mind.’

‘I don’t get it? What makes my blood so appealing? I know you said it’s defect free, but so what? Don’t you vampires drink human synthetic blood anyway? What’s the damn difference?’

‘What’s your favourite food?’

‘What?’

‘Just answer me,’ he said calmly. ‘What’s your favourite food?’

I touched a finger to my chin. ‘Chocolate, especially those ones with the little gold wrappers that have the nut in the middle. They’re the best.’

‘Well imagine there is a room full of candy, cakes, and deserts. Each of them is more delicious than the next. But right in the very centre of that room, on a golden platter, is a slab of the thickest, richest, creamiest milk chocolate that you have ever seen.’ He smiled wryly. ‘And the ones with the little gold wrappers are on top,’ he added.

I nodded. ‘Okay, I’m picturing it.’ I licked my lips.

‘So which piece of food would you choose amongst the millions of other items of similar taste?’

‘The chocolate.’

‘Why?’

I frowned. ‘Because it’s my favourite and because I know it’s going to taste better than everything else in the room.’

He looked at me unblinking. ‘Do you see now?’

‘Are you saying that I’m
your
chocolate?’

He gave me another wry smile. ‘You’re not just
my
chocolate, Elena, but every other vampire’s on the planet. And, judging by the attack last Saturday, probably every werewolf’s as well. No amount of Synth blood will ever satisfy me enough to ignore the call of blood as tantalising as yours.’

I sat silent for a minute and then looked back at him again. ‘How’s your sweet tooth at the moment?’

He threw his head back and laughed. It was deep, masculine, and if it hadn’t have been so warm and inviting I would have packed my bags and left town. ‘I am fine,’ he said. ‘I fed just before I came for you this evening, just in case.’

‘Okay, so now that we have established that my blood is uber tasty, can we just assume that you will keep your fangs in check and never bring up this subject again?’

‘I don’t think it’s wise to just pretend that I’m not dangerous to be around.’

‘Yet you still came for me tonight, knowing that fact.’

He contemplated this, as if it hadn’t occurred to him. ‘You have a point.’

‘I always do. But in this instance,’ I said, looking up into his eyes, ‘why don’t we go with the old adage that ignorance is bliss.’

He chuckled. ‘As you wish.’

We both gazed at each other for the longest time, smiling despite the strain of the subject of conversation, before turning away nervously and laughing. ‘Okay, it’s my turn to ask questions now,’ William said.

‘Okay.’

‘How did you do that before? The only people who can injure me are other vampires, and obviously the werewolves, and you are neither of those things right now.’

I took a breath. I knew this was going to come up eventually, but since he was not part of the IMI, I figured it was safe to tell him. ‘Lucas has a ton of theories floating around inside his head. And after what happened this afternoon, I’m beginning to think that he might be right. I seem to have gotten stronger since drinking the alpha’s blood last week, and now I’m stronger than any normal human being has a right to be.’

‘Is there any particular reason why the two things should be linked? Maybe you’re coming into your abilities early.’

‘Well, the encounter did kind of go beyond the normal realms of physical contact.’

His eyes narrowed in confusion, and then the skin there seemed to tighten. ‘Did it … ?’ He looked down at my stomach.

I followed his gaze. ‘Oh God, no! It’s nothing like that,’ I said, horrified. ‘The Vânâtor didn’t do … that. He bit me. He fed from my blood and then, in turn, I fed from his.’

William’s head practically swivelled right off of his shoulders as he looked back up at me. His eyes held barely concealed horror. ‘You drank vânâtor blood?!’

Why do I keep getting that reaction?

I grimaced and turned away from him. ‘Don’t be so judgemental,
vampire
. I didn’t know I’d been swallowing blood until after The Protectors found me. I was blacking out at the time, and it just … happened.’

At my raised voice his expression softened, and he whispered, ‘How did it happen?’

My lips tightened in a hard line. ‘I wounded him with my knife. The blood from his shoulder injury must have been dripping into my mouth. I can distinctly remember being so very thirsty.’

I looked away when I saw him frown again. ‘I wish I could say that I hated every minute of it, but I didn’t. It was the most delicious thing I’ve ever tasted.’

He leaned in close to me and pressed his nose to the side of my face. I held very still. ‘Haven’t you done this already tonight?’

He took a deep breath, ignoring me. A second later he pulled away, eyeing me with furrowed brows and darkened eyes. ‘You’re exactly the same as before, exactly the same as the first time I met you too. How can that be?’

I shrugged. ‘I was hoping you might know the answer. The IMI already took some of my blood for testing and they found nothing out of the ordinary. They even tested it against my original birth sample but came up empty handed.

I’m trying to keep this all between just Lucas and myself, so I would appreciate it if you kept your mouth shut.’

He nodded.

‘I’m guessing from your silence that this has never happened before?’

‘No. Not even alphas carry the ability to turn humans from a bite. I’m guessing it’s because you are half werewolf—his blood awakened something within you during the exchange. If the same thing had happened between you and a vampire, regardless of your special talents, you would have turned into a vampire.’

‘So there’s really no explanation.’

‘I’m afraid so.’

‘Do you know of anyone else that might have answers?’

He shifted around, ignoring my question. ‘So you haven’t experienced any shifting or tendencies to want to taste human flesh since the exchange?’

I frowned, but understood the necessity of such a question. ‘Not that I’m aware of, but the night is still young.’

Ah, crap, did I just say that out loud? I sound like Hannibal Lecter.

Inwardly, I cursed myself for my inappropriate choice of words. ‘I meant, for the shifting thing. Not the other part.’

He seemed way more amused than he should have been.

‘Okay, my turn to ask questions again,’ I said as I laughed like a bumbling idiot. ‘Let’s start with a few easy ones, questions that have been bugging me for years.’