Born In Blood (Born Hunter Book 1) (17 page)

 "I am sorry," his eyes bored into hers. "I will not insult you with excuses or attempts to explain away my choices but I am sorry. You've only been out for an hour. The plane is fueled and ready to go. I only ask of you two things."

Cara remained silent as she eyed him suspiciously. The Prince of Darkness did not apologize to anyone. Ever.

"One, allow me, Asad, Dorian and Rafe to accompany you. The wolves will be able to scent us if we get within ten miles of the beach house. They will not complete the blood ritual there. They will take you to wherever they have been hiding out. I have drank your blood so I can track you once they do."

"And two?”

"I need you to stay alive until I get there. To ensure that you will need to drink my blood. While it is in your system, it will confer a degree of my healing abilities onto you."

"Reiya is the priority not me. If we do this together, you do not make a move until she is out of harm's way. Understood?”

 It took every fiber of his being not to protest. Asking him to stand down if she was in danger was asking him to go against his basic male instinct to protect his mate and annihilate anyone who meant her harm. There was no denying it any longer. Cara might not accept it yet, or ever for that matter, but that is what she was. His soul had become entwined with hers and not being around her was complete agony. He craved her as much as he loved her. His very existence had come to be centered on protecting her and making her happy. After they dealt with the wolves he would chase away the shadows of her past for good and make her see that by his side is where she belonged. He was too selfish to give her any other choice. He would not spend an eternity without her.

"Agreed," he finally conceded. He brought his wrist to his lips and punctured two neat holes on the inside of it. "Drink Cara," he said bringing his wrist to her lips. When they closed around his flesh he bit back a moan. Images of her full lips closing around a very different part of his anatomy played through his mind. The act of giving or receiving blood was inherently carnal. Aiden fought himself for control. He wanted to climb into bed with Cara and drive into her until she shouted his name to the heavens.

Cara became acutely aware of the slow burn whose flames were being fueled inside her belly. As she pulled the blood from Aiden’s veins the burn raged into an all encompassing fire. It ignited her from the inside out and made her burn with unabashed desire. She lifted her head from his wrist and fisted her hands around his shirt. She wildly kissed him with lips still wet with blood then pulled him onto the bed on top of her. She tore at his clothes as he tore at hers. All pretenses of civility were forgotten. He thrust into Cara in one strong, powerful motion. She wrapped her legs around him and scored her nails down his back as he drove in and out of her core. He continued to pump in and out of her as she crushed his head to her neck, imploring him to penetrate her there just as he was at her core. When his incisors broke the flesh, Cara cried out in ecstasy.  With each tug at her vein, wave after wave of an orgasm rocked through her. It was as if there was an invisible thread running from her neck to her core that radiated fire to the rest of her body. The pull at her neck, the merciless thrust in her core, the twin sensations short-circuited all rational thought. She never wanted it to end. It was heaven and hell wrapped in one. She kept his head crushed to her neck and his waist encased between her tights. She rocked into him, silently urging him on. She did not care if he drained every last drop of blood from her body. She would willingly forfeit her life and revel in her death if this was how it ended. Her muscles clenched around him as one final climax wracked her body. Aiden shuddered as hers pulled his own orgasm from him. He rolled off of her and collapsed on the bed beside her. He pulled her into his arms, kissed her fiercely, and then sighed. 

 “It is time for us to go,” he told her even though getting out bed and flying her into danger was the last thing he wanted to do.

Twenty-Six

             
C
ara stood on a private beach in St. Lucia looking up at her family’s vacation home. Fifteen years of neglect left the once resplendent home, a shell of its former self. The windows sported boards instead of pristine white shutters while the sides of the sloped roof sagged in on themselves. The house’s external coat of paint now cracked and chipped in an endless montage of ruin. Its vibrant yellow hue had faded to pale beige. The partially decayed wooden steps creaked as Cara walked up to a Victorian-style wraparound porch that threatened to cave in on itself. The crumbling home stood as a physical manifestation of the shattered pieces her family splintered into after her father’s death. Without warning the memory that was the cause of her nightmares bombarded her waking conscious.

             
A 10-year-old girl wondered out of her beach house in search of her father while her mother still slept. She’d woken up feeling immensely better that morning. Her father had seemed so worried for her the night before that she wanted to make sure he knew. He left in the middle of the night to fetch a fever-reducer but she did not remember him ever returning from the drugstore to give it to her. The little girl knew exactly where to find her father. On the south side of the house, relaxing in the hammock and reading the morning news after a pre-dawn run on the beach’s sandy shores. It was his before-breakfast routine and he never deviated from it. The first feeling she had that something was wrong was when she found the hammock empty. The next feeling came when she called out to her father and deafening silence greeted her in return.

              She stood on the wraparound porch scanning the beach for signs of her father when she saw it. The silhouette of a man’s body just at the shoreline. The man lying out on the beach was her daddy and something was horribly wrong with him. A rational part of her mind whispered to her that the scene awaiting her was not for a little girl to see. It told her to turn around, go back into the house, and wake up her mom. But her legs moved on their own accord and carried her towards the shoreline. When she reached her father the first thing she saw were his eyes. The light was gone from his honey-golden gaze that was always full of joy and passion. His eyes were devoid of all life, yet remained wide open, frozen in a state of stunned horror that was now focused up at his daughter. The next thing she saw was a gaping hole where his trachea used to be. Large, ugly, and jagged. It looked like something had torn into her father and yanked his throat out. The little girl did not scream. She did not yell. She did not shout for help. She knelt in the sand and gently cradled her father’s head into her arms. Her soft, helpless sobs played on an endless loop. Her mother was a heavy and late sleeper when they were on vacation and their beach house lay on a secluded section of the island that was off limits to the public. When her mother finally found her it took her and two detectives to pry the little girl away from her dad.

              Cara’s father’s killer inflicted the same wounds in Cara that he did in her father that day. Only his were physical and hers were psychological, though no less debilitating. Ever since that fateful morning Cara walked around with the same gaping, endless, hollow hole inside of her that was torn into her father’s throat. It manifested itself in an endless cycle of guilt, rage, and grief that she could never break free from. It was a hollow emptiness that she could never seem to fill.

              Something burrowing into her neck followed by a numbing sensation flooding her nerves broke her free of the waking nightmare. She tried to turn around to face the threat, but her limbs would not obey her commands. Her legs melted beneath her and she collapsed on the porch.

              “Don’t worry. The paralyzing effect of the serum are not permanent,” The bastard who the deep voice from phone belonged to assured her. He picked her up and threw her over his shoulder.

              Cara’s mind shrieked at her limbs to fight, but they hung useless in the air.

              “It is a side effect to what I really need it to do. Purge the vampire’s blood from your veins so he cannot track you. I cannot have him interfering with my plans.”

              Cara’s heart beat wildly. Not only was she paralyzed and could not defend herself, Aiden could not track her either. She tried to force her arms and legs to obey her, but they would not fucking listen.

Twenty-Seven

                   
"Y
ou're no better than Aiden," Cara said to her friend who the wolves had supposedly kidnapped and were holding hostage. Imagine her surprise when that same friend was moving freely about the wolves’ hidden compound and was the one to escort her to a cell on its subterranean level. "At least he hasn't been lying to me for years, pretending as if he cared."
                   Reiya actually had the audacity to appear wounded. "Cara I swear it is not like that. It was but it is not anymore. Reyes and I were born to a human mother. Normally hybrids get a dominant copy of the wolf gene but we did not. It leaves us unable to change into wolf form at all. We would have been executed when we turned of age if not for the reason that the pack leader saw a need for us. Our defect allows us to pass as human. The pack has watched you since your father's death to see what path your life would take. They dumped his body outside your beach house in a calculated move to spur you into taking up the cause of a hunter. It is what you were born to do. You only needed a push in the right direction. When you enrolled in the Division, Reyes and I were ordered to do the same. We were supposed to get close to you so that when the time came the wolves could easily get to you and use you. Please understand Cara that Godrell is my Alpha. I physically am unable to obey a direct command from him and even if I find some loophole or way to do so, it will result in my death. He would see it as a betrayal and kill Reyes to just to make me suffer even more."

Cara actually did understand. Still it did not lessen the sting she felt. First Aiden, now Reiya and Reyes. She did not have anyone left. Everybody she thought had become her new family were all strategically in her life to use her. "Whatever Reiya. I get it. I would tell you this ends your involvement in my life but what would be the point. It will be over before sunrise anyway. They will probably dump my body I will wash up on the beach the same as my father." She laughed bitterly then turned away from the woman she thought was her best friend. She walked to the opposite end of her cell making it clear she was done talking to her.

"Godrell is coming to retrieve you for the ritual soon. He forbade me from directly interfering but he never said anything about indirect interference."

Cara heard the sound of steel clanking against the bars as it passed through them before softly hitting the floor. When she turned around 2 razor sharp blades small enough for her to hide on her person gleamed on the cement floor. "He will kill you for helping me." Cara did not want to care. She shouldn't have cared, but she did.

 "I know.”

 "What about Reyes?"
                   " I notified the Division of the threat the wolves posed days ago. Headquarters is locked down with Reyes inside of it. He is safe. The wolves do not have enough resources to take on the vampires and the Division at the same time."

"Why aren't you with him?" Cara had gotten the call from Godrell only hours ago. If the Division was in lockdown he should not have been able to get to her.
                  "Godrell was coming for you with or without me. I figured if it was with me, I might be able to help." Reiya pointedly looked at the knives. "I know this doesn't make us even and I don't expect you to forgive me, but at least one of us should make it out of this alive. Reyes and I were dead the moment he no longer had a use for us."

 "Damn it, Reiya!" She may have been pissed at her but she did not want her to die either.
                   "I have to go before someone gets suspicious. Godrell should be down soon to retrieve you for the ritual. The knives are silver. The myths got it wrong about the vampires but they were spot on about the wolves. It is poisonous if you knick him anywhere and deadly if you pierce his heart." She smiled feebly at Cara. "I guess I'm the one who lacks a sense of self-preservation. If you never forgive me, please forgive Reyes. He won't have anyone left after I'm gone."
                   "Reiya..." Cara started to protest but she cut her off.
                  "It is already done Cair." When she turned to leave they both fought back the moisture pooling in their eyes.
                  "I forgive you," Cara quietly said to her back.  Reiya's steps faltered enough that Cara knew she heard her.
                   Godrell unlocked her cell and stepped inside. The smug jackass let the automatic locking bars slam shut behind him.
                   "You sure you want to lock yourself inside with me?" Cara drawled from the position she'd taken up at the far corner of the cell. She casually leaned against the wall behind her as if the Alpha leader of the wolves was of no threat to her. She wanted to provoke him into charging her. The split second it would take him to cross the space between them was all she needed to brandish the short knives now hidden on her body and let one loose on a trajectory for his heart. She didn't think she could take him hand to hand. The bastard was too strong and he would easily out muscle her.
                   "You say that as if there is something for me to be afraid of in here." He crossed his arms over his broad chest and flexed the bulging muscles beneath.
                   "So that's how Viktor hunted you all into extinction? All brawn and no brains."
                   His jaw ticked in response to the nerve she struck. "I am going to enjoy bleeding every last drop of blood from your body. I don't have to kill you for the blood ritual to work, you know. Just like I did not have to kill your father. It only requires the spilt blood of a born hunter, not their death. But I am going to kill you anyway as I did him. I killed him
after
the ritual did not work."
                   "Why?" She had to know.
                   "To set you on the path I needed you to follow. You were born with the instinct to hunt monsters. If you believed one to be responsible for the traumatic death of your father, those instincts would naturally kick in. You cannot tell me you simply woke up one day at seventeen and decided to be a hunter. Your mind was probably screaming at you to hunt down the monsters responsible for your father's death from the moment you found his mutilated body on the beach. I bet it eventually evolved into a compulsive need, even an obsession, until you found your self on the Division's doorstep applying for intake training. I guess your father's death is your fault."
                   Her darkest thought spoken aloud was as painful a physical blow as it was a psychological one. She wanted to crumple to the floor in an emotional heap as much as she wanted to double over in agony. She would not permit herself to do either of those things in front of her father's murderer.
                   Godrell pressed on when she remained silent. "Your death will not be quick. You will writhe in agony and beg me for your life. Only then will I butcher you and dump your body for your vampire to find. I owe his father the same mercy he showed my mate. Viktor's bitch died nearly a millennium ago, so you know what they say. The sins of the father become the sins of the son." Grief at the memory of his mate clouded Godrell's eyes and Cara would bet his better judgment too.

She capitalized on the moment. "So that is what this is all about? You probably don't care if the wolves return to power or not. You're trying to avenge the death of a wife you were too weak and pathetic to protect."
                   Godrell exploded in a berserker rage. He charged toward Cara intent on spilling her blood before he even dragged her to the ritual site. She grabbed for a silver knife and launched
it at his heart. He jerked his body to the left at the last possible second. "Reiya was already dead, but she is going to pay for this before she goes to her grave," Godrell spat as he yanked the blade from his chest. He tackled her sending her head bashing into the cement behind her. She grabbed for the second knife but her world faded to black before she closed her hand around its hilt.
                   When Cara regained consciousness her hands were nailed to a cross in the middle of the woods. At least hundred wolves in human form knelt around her and chanted in an ancient language alongside their Alpha who stood on a makeshift alter beside her. Pain the likes of which she had never felt before radiated outward from her impaled palms and along the length of her arms. Her blood flowed in a river of crimson down her sides, soaking into the earth beneath her. When Godrell saw she was awake, the bastard jabbed the same knife she'd thrown at him deep into her side. He sadistically smiled at her at as he pushed down on the blade and opened up a vertical gash down the length of her torso. She gritted her teeth against the pain as darkness threatened to overtake her again. She fought to remain conscious.  As more of her blood poured into the earth a barely visible force of power collected above the wolves. Their chanting grew louder imbuing the power with life. It converged on them seeming to permeate their very souls as it burrowed into their chests. It cracked like a whip against the air and forced the waxing gibbous in the sky into a full moon. A collective shudder passed through the wolves but they remained in their human form. The ritual was complete, but true to his word Godrell shifted his human hand into the heavily clawed paw of a beast. He shoved it into Cara's abdomen, destroying vital organs as he shredded and ripped his way through her belly. This time she willingly let the pain take her under.
                   Cara found herself back in her cell. In a twisted fate of déjà vu Godrell walked inside and let the bars slam shut behind him. He stalked toward her. She tried to uncurl from her fetal position and stand but was too weak to accomplish the task. Her blood stained the cement around her. She looked down at her abdomen and saw that someone had bandaged her wounds to keep her from bleeding out. No doubt it was so Godrell could torture her a little longer before she died.
If that's his aim, he better get on with it
, Cara weakly thought to herself. She could feel her life force slipping away with every ragged breath she took. Her eyes misted over. Not because she was afraid of dying, she had embraced her death the day her father embraced his, but because of regret over what she did not do before she died. She found her father's murderer but he would kill her not the other way around as she always intended.

Oddly, that driving force behind her actions and decisions for so long was the least of her regrets while she lay in a ball on the cold floor with death knocking at her door. What she regretted the most and what made her now want to wail to whatever God was listening that she needed more time was that she never verbalized to Aiden what she felt for him. She never told him she loved him and that he'd snaked his way into her heart. She would never get to make love to him in earnest, free of emotional restraints and choking fears. She'd spent half a lifetime in grief and ready to die because of it. Now that she was, all she wanted to do was spend the remainder of her life in love with the vampire who had stolen her heart. A single tear escaped, staining the length of her cheek. She shut her eyes and solemnly embraced her fate as Godrell's boot came down to grind into her windpipe.

It never delivered the crushing blow. The sound of metal being torn from its hinges grated in Cara's ears and then a split second later she heard a body being slammed against the wall behind her. She opened her eyes to see Aiden tearing into Godrell's chest with his bare hands. He closed his hand around the wolves beating heart.
                   "I'm not like you Vampire. Snatching my heart out won't work unless there is silver involved," Godrell smirked at him.
                   "I know," Aiden growled then yanked his heart from his chest. "But I bet it hurts like a bitch and I plan to keep you alive for a long  time." His eyes blazed pure gold as he closed his bloody hand around the wolf's windpipe and crushed it beneath his fingers before ripping it from his body as well. "I bet that hurt like a bitch too. I won't be using silver on you anytime soon. I will repay you ten fold for every pain you inflicted on Cara. When I am done with you an eternity in hell with the devil himself will seem like paradise in comparison.”

He turned Godrell over to Dorian and Rafe as they entered the cell. "Restrain him!" He barked out as he rushed to Cara's side. He gently cradled her in his arms. He would berate himself for the rest of eternity for allowing this to happen to her.
               Cara saw the familiar guilt in his eyes and whispered up at him, "Don't. Blame. Yourself."
                   He placed a finger over her lips to quiet her. "Conserve your strength," he said nestling her head in his lap.
                   She feebly shook . "I'm dying. I love you...should've...said it… sooner...." She winced through the words. Every breath she took was more painful than the next. She felt as if her insides were engulfed in flames.
                   "No, Cara. You will not die. I will not allow it." It was supposed to be a command but it came out as a desperate plea.
                   "You can't always get your way, Your Darkness." The pain finally receded. The flames extinguished themselves and were replaced by cold numbness. She smiled into Aiden's emerald eyes for a final time. They were the perfect image to take with her in death.