Whispers of Darkness (The Deadwood Hunter Series) (16 page)

Her shorts were ripped off, his jeans dragged from him in a frenzied rush and as he thrust into her, rough, hard and perfect, she moaned in pleasure. He stilled, looking down at her with eyes filled with love and fire. She sighed, feeling complete at last. “I’ve missed you.”

He move inside of her, hard thrusts that rocked through her whole body. She clung to him, moaned and gasped as her blood was filled with the sensation it had missed, that it craved. With each thrust, with each whispered name and endearment, Lexia’s scars were healed, the guilt, the anger, the sorrow, the hopelessness replaced with love and affection. Lincoln didn’t see her as a Hunter, as a weapon, as a monster. He only saw her, he saw Lexia, and with each ripple of pleasure, with each scream of ecstasy, Lexia realized with Lincoln she could be anyone, she could do anything. Together, anything was possible.

They laid on the bed, a tangle of sweaty limbs and pleasure drugged muscles. The door was still open to the bedroom, having forgotten about privacy in their rush to be one again. Caden walked in, talking, “Hey, I found him... Wow, shit, sorry,” he stammered, turning his back on them.

Lexia laughed, pulling the covers over them. “You’ve seen it all before, Doc.”

“Yep and this is way different.”

“So you found him?” Lincoln interrupted, all business.

“Yeah but he won’t come back... Maybe you can play the alpha card?” Caden replied, still with his back to him.

“I’m no fucking alpha!” Lincoln grumbled.

Lexia climbed from the bed pulling on her T-shirt and swearing at her ripped shorts, “Shit, Linc! Seriously I have hardly any clothes and you rip them.”

Caden walked to the wardrobe door near him. “Here,” he said, throwing clothes behind him.

“Whose are these?” she asked.

“Those are my mother’s. I brought them back from Rapid City, but there are loads of Lola’s clothes in...” he stopped talking as Lincoln’s growl filled the room.

“Lola... As in your mum?” she asked, glaring at Lincoln. “Do you know what? I don’t care! I’ll go to talk to Caleb.” She was so mad. Why was she always left in the dark?

“What? No!” Lincoln gasped, grabbing for her arm.

“Lincoln... You’ve lied to him! He views you as his alpha and you lied to him! Let me go talk to him, he won’t hurt me again and I can take care of myself.”

“Can you? You’re not one hundred percent yet!”

“I’ll put you on your ass in a minute if you don’t let go of me!” She felt the familiar rush through her veins and saw Lincoln’s eyes widen. “Looks like my superpowers are working again.”

“Hey, stop it you two!” Caden snapped. “I’ll go with her.”

“Fine!” Lincoln grumbled, “Why do you two always gang up on me?” he huffed, making both Lexia and Caden laugh.

Lexia paused at the stairs. “When I get back we are going to talk about this house and the reasons behind all your lies.” Lincoln nodded, his sad eyes going to the closed bedroom door no one went in.

Lexia stood at the bottom of the tree looking up at Caleb’s aerie. “I didn’t really think this through did I?” she said, looking at Caden and then glancing at Lincoln pacing by the main house.

“He has a ladder he could drop down,” Caden said.

“Nope, time to show Linc I’m not an invalid.”

“Lex, at least let me give you a boost.”

“Okay,” she sighed. She might be feeling stronger but she wasn’t stupid, she knew she wasn’t back to full strength yet.

Caden laced his fingers together and Lexia placed her foot into his hands. Balancing her hand on the tree trunk she pushed off the floor taking hold of a lower branch and jumped. Both hands clasped around the branch, her fingers digging into the bark and as her arms took the weight of her body she bit back a groan, her shoulder protesting.

A grunt left her mouth as she swung up, her leg swinging over the tree branch. Lexia rested for a second, panting, and watched as Caden let his claws slip through his fingers. He climbed the tree in seconds with the grace only a cat could posses.

“Are you sitting there all day?” he grinned at her from the little veranda in front of Caleb’s home.

“Oh shut up, I used to climb better than you not so long ago.”

“Used to!”

Lexia scowled at him and crawled along the branch. “You know I think I preferred you before you went all macho shifter.”

“Macho shifter?” he laughed.

“Give me a hand will you!” Lexia reached out her hand; Caden had to lean over the railing to reach her.

She took hold of his hand and smiled wickedly at him.

“Oh no you d...” he gasped as she squeezed his hand and pulled.

Caden yelped as he was pulled over the railings. He turned to lights and landed as a leopard. Laughing Lexia scrambled to her feet and over the railings as Caden hissed and growled at her. She opened the door and shut it behind her as the leopard landed back on the railings, his body rammed into the door.

“Serves you... Right! Go... take a walk... little pussy cat!” she said in between fits of giggles.

“What are you doing here?” Caleb growled.

Lexia immediately stopped laughing and held up her hands. “No strangling me, I just came to talk.”

Caleb looked at her and then slumped back into his chair. “Why would you want to talk to me?”

Walking over to him she said, “Well, for starters you owe me some info and I need to tell you what I am.”

“You’re a Hunter!” he spat.

“Easy on the hate... I’m a Hunter, yep, but I was born, not turned.”

He looked up at her then, interest in his eyes.

“So now you want to talk? Well, first things first... You ended up on your ass first, so tell me, why did you call Linc your alpha?”

Dropping his eyes again Caleb sighed, “I was Nathan’s second in command, he was my alpha, Lincoln was born to take his place.”

“So Linc’s parents were the alpha pair? But he was only six.”

“He was, I would have been alpha until he was ready...”

“But everyone left?”

“Yes, as soon as David left, they all followed.”

“David?”

“Lincoln’s grandfather.”

“Oh... But still, us being here doesn’t change the fact there is no pack to command, to protect.”

“No, but there could be.”

“Caleb, Linc can’t be alpha, he doesn’t want it, not yet anyway...” She sighed, dropping her eyes into her lap. “I could see it you know, him at the center, so strong, so loyal, but then he met me... He can never have that with me.”

“Every alpha needs a mate.”

Lexia lifted her head and looked at Caleb. “Yes but they need a good mate, someone who is good, and someone who can look after and protect those around them... I only bring pain to those around me.”

“What makes you say that? I made a mistake when I saw your eyes; anyone who spends time with you can see you’re good, that you love Linc.”

Looking away Lexia’s eyes unfocused as she thought back to the moment she met her mother. “I was born this way but up until recently, I never knew what I was. I never had this strength or eyes that turned gold... One night I was cornered by three vampires, I didn’t know what I was seeing at the time, I just knew they were going to kill me but something happened, something I didn’t understand and I killed them, all three of them ripped to pieces. That’s when I changed, when the gold ring appeared around my eyes, when more things started to seek me out and everyone that came along died at my hands... Until Linc, I never knew what he was at first. He’d come to me as a panther and as a man, all I knew was that I was drawn to him and that I couldn’t kill him, no matter how hard he tried.”

“What?” Caleb gasped.

“You shouldn’t feel bad for what you did Caleb because others have done far worse, but no one has hurt me as much as my mother. Lucy Hunter, the creator of the Hunter gene, my creator. I wasn’t a baby for her to love, I was one of her sick twisted experiments. I was born, but I wasn’t born half Hunter, I’m different, stronger, faster, and I can control the darkness within me... Most of the time.”

Lexia glanced at Caleb to find him intently watching her. “How did you get away? If she’s your mother, why did she not tell you what you are?”

“When I was a baby, my dad ran away with me. He raised me, he’s not even my biological father and he still risked his life to try and save mine.” She swiped at the tears that had started to run down her cheeks. “He’s dead, the Hunters killed him 3 months ago. My whole life has been one big lie, and now my mother wants me back.”

“Well, she can’t have you,” he said, the leopard flashing into his eyes.

Lexia laughed but it was a hollow dead laugh. “What is it with you shifters and your need to protect?”

“It’s who we are Lexia, and Lincoln may not see himself as my alpha but his father was. I would have died to protect Nathan and I’d do the same for Lincoln.”

“You are not joining this fight. I won’t have another person’s life being destroyed because of me.”

“You think I have a life here? Alone, waiting for my pack to come back to me? Living with the ghosts of the past, preserving my alpha’s home as if he is going to be back any minute?”

Lexia stood, angry and frustrated. “None of you see! You all want to save me but you just don’t see! I CAN’T BE SAVED! TO JOIN ME IS TO DIE.”

Lexia yelled in frustration, tension in her every muscle.
Why can’t they just see? Why can’t they see the darkness within me?

“Do you know what my mother said to me when I met her? She called me Maura. When I was born, she called me Maura, and my dad changed my name to Lexia, man’s defender! What a joke, what a cruel, sick, joke. ‘I named you Maura for the darkness you will bring to this world!’ That’s what she said to me.”

She turned to face him, knowing her eyes had turned gold. “This is what I am Caleb, this face, these eyes, the eyes of a Hunter! It doesn’t matter if I call myself Lexia, if I hide behind the name, use it as a mask, it changes nothing. I try, I try so hard to fight what I am but in the end, my mother’s right, I am darkness. I can run from it, but it won’t change the inevitable, everyone I love, every person I touch, I bring them darkness. I don’t mean to, but I do. My dad was murdered because of me, they kidnapped my best friend, and she’s had her whole life turned upside down because of me. Caden has lost his home, his business, and then there is Lincoln, the man I love with every part of me, but it doesn’t matter how much I love him, it changes nothing. I can’t be the mate he really needs. Loving me has condemned him to a life on the run, to a fight he has no hope of winning. His mate has the same blood running through her veins as the people who killed his parents, destroyed his pack and his family. Do you not see now? I’m not good, I’m bad and I’ll only bring you pain and death.”

Caleb was silent for a while, watching Lexia as she trembled with such rage and hatred. Her words were so dark, so self loathing. How could she not see this was not her fault? Everything that had happened to her was beyond her control. She’d suffered such pain at the hands of others and yet she blamed herself.

“I don’t see it Lexia. All I see is a young woman, lost, confused and in need of saving. I don’t see darkness, I see light. I see a girl that has had so many bad things done to her and yet she hasn’t broken. I see strength, I see courage, I see Lexia.”

All the tension drained from her and her shoulders dropped in defeat, sad blue eyes looked at him with unshed tears in them. “You’ll die along with the rest of us then, I can’t see any other way out. I keep trying but I have no idea how to save us.”

She walked away from him and as her hand rested on his door handle he said, “I see the way out.”

She never turned to look at him but her body froze and tensed.

“She needs to die... Lucy needs to die.”

“I suppose she does,” Lexia answered in a dead tone, her head bowed looking down, “but if I kill her, if I kill my own mother... Do you think I can come back from that? The place I’ll have to go to kill her... There is no coming back from that. Lexia will be dead leaving only darkness, only Maura behind.”

She opened the door, light spilling around her. “I never said you had to be the one to kill her.”

He saw the rage wash through her as if it was a visible thing. Lexia turned to look at him, her hands balled into tight fists, her eyes glowing gold.

“What is it with you cats and your eagerness to die?! Welcome to the club, Caleb, you have just signed your death warrant! If it was that easy she’d be dead already. You are a fool if you think this fight will be simple! When she dies... IT WILL BE BY MY HANDS!” she yelled as she stormed out of his house.

Lexia strode out of Caleb’s aerie. She was mad, so mad her whole body was trembling. She just wished they would see the truth; there was no easy way out of this, she could kill her mother but would that really end this fight? She had no doubt her mother was behind every evil act but how did she hide from the government? How did she fund her plans and where did she keep finding more Hunters? She wished the solution were that simple. Even if she never came back from killing her own mother, she’d do it if it meant saving the lives of innocent people, saving the lives of the people she loved.

Lincoln had joined Caden below the aerie and both were asking her what was wrong. No doubt they’d heard her shouting; she was in no mood for their sympathy and pity. In her haste to get away and be alone she leapt over the railings. Her hand landed on the top rail as she pushed her feet up and over. The second the wind whipped up her hair and she began to drop to the floor, she realized her mistake. She was so used to jumping from heights, living with cats as if she was one, but she wasn’t back up to full strength yet and as the ground met her feet she pitched forward face first into the ground, the impact knocking all the air out of her.

“Lexi! Lexia!” Caden and Lincoln gasped at once, rushing to her.

Groaning, Lexia lifted her head from the ground and spit the soil out of her mouth. She felt warm hands help her up and immediately felt the rush of her anger take hold again.

“GET OFF!” she yelled, forcing her worn, bruised body to get up off the floor.

“Lex?” Lincoln said her name in confusion, his hands stretched out to her but not closing the distance.

“Are you hurt, Lexi?” Caden asked.

Lexi... Sweet Lexi.

That name only caused more anger to swirl through her. She turned to Caden, the look on her face making him take a step back, “Am I hurt? I hurt fucking everywhere, Doc!” Her voice was like a dagger.

“Lexi, please calm down, let me help you.”

“Stop with the fucking, Lexi! I’m not sweet, Caden and I don’t need help!” She looked to them both, their faces confused and hurt and it only made her angrier. “When are you both going to work out I’m not worth saving! I’M NOT WORTH DYING FOR!”

A little voice in her head asked her what she was doing. Why was she being so crazy angry? But she couldn’t stop it; the emotions whirling around inside of her were like a physical thing. She could picture them, so dark, churning, and growing, slowly taking over her, encasing her heart, her soul until she was nothing more than blackness and she couldn’t control them. She’d let them take control and now Lexia felt like she was being buried, suffocated with all these dark emotions.

“LOOK AT ME! THIS IS WHAT I AM, I’M NOTHING BUT EVIL!” she shouted, looking straight at Lincoln.

“NO,” he answered, half growl, half command. He stepped towards her and wrapped his arms around her waist. “You are good, nothing but good, and you are mine!”

Lexia screamed in frustration; she felt like she was splitting in two as she fought to take control of her body but the raging storm inside of her didn’t calm before she lashed out, flinging Lincoln away from her.

The second his feet left the ground Lexia gasped as she realized what she had done. She felt like her body didn’t belong to her anymore. Lincoln shifted mid-air but he never righted himself in time and smashed into a tree. Lexia watched horrified as her panther fell to the floor and didn’t get back up. She turned and ran, her body aching now the power had left her, but she didn’t care. She needed to get away from them before she hurt them even more, before she did more unthinkable things.