EVERY PART OF MY BODY aches for Hunter. The longer the time stretches out that we haven’t seen each other, the worse it gets.
Swallowing, I swipe the back of my hand across my forehead. I have been sweating all day, and the cold shivers began about an hour ago. The hole inside my chest gnaws desperately, my bond seeking its other half.
I have no idea how much time has passed, but the sun has replaced the moon, blanketing me into darkness twice now. Since my sister visited me when I first woke up here, no one has come by, except for Cora who dragged Alex out of here, refusing to meet my eyes as she did.
My hands ache from the bruises on them from banging on the door, and my throat raw from screaming. I have no idea what has happened to Alex, or what is going on outside this room. It’s eerily silent, which makes me even more anxious.
At some point during the night I must have passed out from sheer exhaustion, and when I wake, there is a small amount of food on a plate next to a glass of water on the bedside table. It concerns me that someone has been in here while I slept, but that seems to be the least of my worries right now. Laying on my side, my mind wanders to Hunter, replaying every word, every touch. When I close my eyes, I can convince myself he is right here, caressing my skin, kissing my hair. It makes the ache almost bearable. Key word: Almost.
Tears spill forth at the thought of anything happening to him. Not knowing is driving me insane.
The door bangs open, and I startle with a gasp, wiping the tears from my cheeks as I reel to a seated position. A shiver rolls down my spine when black eyes blink back at me. A sinister smirk curves his lips. Despite never having seen this man before, I know without a doubt that he is Hunter’s brother. The resemblance is uncanny.
He is tall and thick with muscle. The same smooth, unblemished skin. The same midnight black hair and piercing eyes that seem to stare straight through me. His have a darker, menacing look to them, but similar, nonetheless. Dressed in all-black, he looks villainous. The way he stares down at me, like he is a predator, has my heart skyrocketing. Chills break out over me, and I grip the sheet to stop my hands shaking.
‘Kian,’ I say, my voice hoarse from not having spoken for so long.
‘I see my reputation precedes me,’ he says, strolling into the room with confident strides, the small space filling uncomfortably with his presence. ‘You are Raya. The girl attached to my brother.’
I grimace at that. The words sound dirty from his mouth.
‘I guess that’s one way of saying it.’
Lowering to my level, his soulless eyes stare into mine. Trying my best to hold my chin high, I resist the urge to reel back in repulse – and fear – not wanting to give him the satisfaction of getting a reaction from me.
‘Interesting,’ he murmurs, assessing my eyes. My skin crawls having him this close to me. ‘I’m very curious about this bond you have forced on him.’
‘I didn’t force anything,’ I hiss through clenched teeth, glowering at him.
The corner of his mouth twitches. ‘I see.’
‘What do you want with me?’
‘Well,’ Kian replies, pushing back, thankfully increasing the distance between us. I take a deep, gasping breath, not realising I’d been holding it. ‘It’s simple, really. I am going to conduct a little experiment.’
Everything inside me hollows. ‘What?’
‘You see,’ Kian continues, looking down at his hands as he twists the black rings he is wearing. It looks so similar to mine that I balk at the sight of it. ‘I want to see if this bond can strengthen the power of a vampire beyond its usual capacity.’
Anger surges through my body at the thought of any sort of experiment happening to Hunter. Heat flares across my skin and I swallow the lump in my throat, forcing myself to exhale heavily through my nose and remain as calm as possible.
‘How are you planning to do that?’ I ask, my voice dropping lower than I intended, giving away the anger and fear coursing through me.
‘I’ve starved him. He is weak now, and worse off, being parted from you,’ Kian says, as if we are simply discussing the weather. ‘When a vampire is older than another, the eldest one can overpower the younger. I’m curious to see if this bond can change that.’
Ice drips through my veins, making me feel nauseous. ‘And if you are proven correct?’
‘Then I will learn how to create more bonded vampires, of course.’ He grins wickedly, clapping his hands together. ‘It would be handy having bonded vampires at my disposal. To serve and protect me.’
‘You’re insane.’
‘Insanely clever, cunning, and handsome.’ He winks, and my stomach clenches. ‘Come now, let’s get this show on the road.’
Grinding my molars, I stay where I am. Kian’s grin widens. Moving faster than my mind can comprehend, he yanks me to my feet.
‘When I ask you to do something, you do it,’ he snarls, making my arm ache from his hold on it.
‘I don’t take orders from you,’ I spit, fury reigning through me in an angry torrent.
Sinking his fingers so deeply into my flesh that he most definitely is leaving bruises, he drags me closer to him. So close that the tips of our noses graze, and I recoil back as far as he allows me to.
‘I thought you were a smart girl.’ He sneers, fangs sliding out in a quick, fluid snap. ‘I guess not.’
My scream splinters the air when his fangs drive into my arm. Pain pulses through me, making my knees knock together. This is nothing like the tender bites exchanged between Hunter and I. This is a form of pain I have never endured, not even when that vampire almost killed me.
‘Kian!’ a voice snaps and I force my rolling eyes to focus on my sister’s concerned, pale face.
Kian abruptly releases me, and I collapse to the ground. My sister’s hand twitches, as if she is fighting against herself not to come to me.
Kian smiles, my blood smeared messily over his lips. ‘I just wanted a taste.’ Sliding his tongue around his mouth, he removes the remainder of my blood from his skin. ‘This is the first part of the test. Let’s see if he can get himself out of his cell. He would have felt that pain.’
My sister’s eyes are wide as she stares down at me. Placing my hand over the gaping wound, I press hard into it, trying to ease the blood, already feeling a little woozy.
Kian squats to the ground. He reaches for my arm. Flinching, I crawl backward, but his punishing hold halts my movements.
‘Do you remember this?’ he asks, ignoring the mess he created on my arm, instead pointing to the soft half-crescent moon that scars my skin.
‘No,’ I force out, my voice loaded with the emotion I’m refusing to let release. I don’t want him to see how much pain I’m in. Heat pulses around the bite, shooting bullets of throbbing aches through the rest of my body.
‘After I killed your mother,’ Kian says calmly, as if those words aren’t picking at the stitches on my heart. They are already holding on by a thread, one harsh pull and I fear it will split open, crushing me when it does. ‘I fed on you. I laid my mark on you – you were my intended victim – but a police officer arriving ruined the moment. Too many witnesses arrived too quickly. It’s a shame, really. It was almost cinematic, the car wreck. So much chaos.’ He smiles, a sick, twisted one that makes my insides roil. ‘It was truly beautiful. The smell of death was . . .’ he trails off. ‘Heavenly.’
‘You’re a psycho,’ I seethe, chest heaving, refusing to let myself indulge in the traumatic memories he is wanting me to relive.
‘A psycho your sister traded you and your mother for.’
The silence is thick and heavy in the room. Cora’s face crumples, her eyes pleading at me to understand. I can’t think of that right now, not when every part of my body is screaming for Hunter.
Kian chuckles darkly. It’s deep and harrowing, giving off the same feeling as when you listen to nails claw down a chalkboard.
‘Get up,’ Kian says, not even glancing at me as he moves toward the door.
Rushing over to me, Cora scoops me up in her arms since my legs fail to do as I command them to. She gets me to my feet, and I weakly push her away. It feels like pushing a cement wall, and she doesn’t budge. Releasing me, she steps back, and I almost fall when she isn’t there to hold me up.
‘Don’t let him get to you,’ she whispers.
‘I’m not stupid,’ I snap at her.
Sighing, she brushes her dark hair back from her eyes. She gestures to the door. ‘After you.’
Holding my arm securely to my chest, I walk out into the hallway and follow Kian, quickly realising there is no other way to go about things. He leads us out to a living room. My heart skips a beat when I see Cas sitting at the table, flicking through a magazine. He glances up at me, offering a wave.
‘Cas?’ I whisper. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘Didn’t you know?’ Kian smirks, smile lines flickering around his mouth, making him look so much like Hunter in that moment. ‘We are old friends, Cas and I.’
‘Oh my God . . .’ My voice is barely audible. ‘You sold us out.’
Cas’s face is completely stoic as he nods, eyes moving back to the magazine in his hands. ‘Guilty.’
‘Where is Alex?’ I ask in horror, staring around the room. I gasp when I see him, sitting in the corner, blood splattered across his shirt. He is pale and sweaty, leaning against the wall as if it is the only thing holding him upright. My hands fly over my mouth as tears blur my vision.
This is bad. Really fucking bad.
‘He really is delicious.’ Cas smiles, noticing my horrified expression.
Goosebumps pepper across my skin at the cruelty in his eyes. I don’t recognise the man in front of me.
There’s a loud clattering followed by a few grunts and thumps. Kian and Cas exchange a knowing glance.
‘That answers that question,’ Kian says.
Cas makes a hum of agreement just as a door I didn’t even realise was there splinters open, pieces of wood scattering across the floor. My bond sings hot in my chest, showering me with strength and warmth, making me instantly forget about the pain radiating in my arm. Hunter’s eyes lock onto mine. Chains hang from his wrists and his shirt is torn, hanging off him in strips of fabric, barely covering his chest.
He is in front of me as quickly as he entered the room. His hands cup my face and the immense rush of comfort and joy that tidal waves through my body is so overwhelming that my legs buckle.
Sweeping me up, he presses his forehead to mine, kissing my cheeks, my nose, my jaw, and finally, landing on my lips, eliciting a moan from me as the taste of him erupts in my mouth like an explosion. Warmth and home, wrapped up in one delicate taste. I don’t care that anyone else is here right now, at this moment, it is only him.
‘How strong was he to get out of that cell?’ Cas asks in a low voice, and I reluctantly blink back to reality.
‘Very strong,’ Kian answers.
‘How is it possible he broke through the barrier?’
‘It’s not,’ he says, eyes locked on Hunter and I.
The high of having him so close to me runs strong through my veins, but my thoughts and head begin to clear as adrenaline courses through me, reminding me of the dire situation we have ourselves in.
‘Fratello,’ Kian greets him, and we look over to where he is hovering beside Cas. He flashes his fangs. ‘Good to see you made it.’
Turning, Hunter inspects my arm with an eerie calm. His cool fingers shoot tingles through me. The wound heals over before I even realise that he had moved, and I taste his blood on my tongue. He has always been fast, but he has never moved with the speed and precision like he had just now. Turning, he faces the other vampires in the room.
‘Who touched her?’ His voice is deep and laced with a threat that is felt in the room like a palpable thing, completely unrecognisable from his usual voice. A low growl emits from him, making the air around us vibrate.
After a moment of silence, Hunter half-turns to me.
‘Who did this to you?’
My eyes lift, meeting the endless pits of Kian’s. For a moment, something flickers in his gaze, making me wonder if he feels afraid at this moment. Hunter has obviously outweighed incredible odds to be standing in front of me right now and the storm in his eyes indicates his wrath is about to be released.
‘Kian,’ I whisper.
Hunter is across the room before I realised he had moved. Blood spurts across the floor as he savagely takes a chunk out of his brother’s arm in an attempt to mirror the mangled bite he left on my arm. The wall crumbles as Kian flies into it. Cas dives out of the way, rolling across the floor, ending up near a dazed Alex.
Kian fights back, sending horrific sounding punches against Hunter. The two fall to the ground in a blur of motion, swinging and growling as they bite, punch, kick, and spit at each other.
Backing up, my body trembles as I watch them fight hard, fast, and brutally, destroying furniture as they go.
Cas shoots forward, snaking his arms underneath Hunter’s armpits, jerking him backwards. A snapping of bones crackles in the air and I scream when I see Hunter’s rib tear through his skin, poking between the skimpy bits of fabric loosely hanging off him.
‘Help him!’ I scream at Cora, who is standing there in frozen shock.
Kian hammers his fists into Hunter, getting decent shots now that he has Cas restraining him.
A blur of motion catches my attention and someone I don’t recognise materialises out of thin air, yanking Hunter out of Cas’s hold, tossing him across the room. The vampire glances back at me for a moment before levelling his gaze on Kian.
‘Who the fuck are you?’ Kian hisses, black eyes narrowed into slits as he glares at the stranger.
‘Dante,’ the vampire growls, his jaw clenched. Dante’s dark skin has the smooth, marble texture of all vampires and midnight hair and eyes, similar to Kian’s. Dark tattoos run down his arms in lines that disappear underneath the sleeves of his shirt. ‘You remember me?’
With startling clarity, I remember seeing his face ever-so-briefly at the hotel. Someone was watching us, and it was him.
‘Should I?’ Kian’s dark brow arches.
‘You murdered my wife and daughter.’
The room grows silent as every pair of eyes turn to Kian. He straightens, staring unflinchingly back to Dante, lifting his chin.
‘I’ve killed a lot of people. You might need to be more specific.’
Goosebumps scatter across my skin at the coldness in his tone. The temperature in the room seems to have dropped a few degrees as Dante’s fists curl at his sides, his chest starting to rise and fall at a rapid pace.
‘St Kilda beach.’
The cocky smirk painted on Kian’s face slips. He tilts his head, studying Dante for a moment. Closing his eyes briefly, he nods, a soft breath of laughter leaving him.
‘Ah, yes. The family who decided to go for a midnight swim.’ Kian’s smile makes my insides curl. ‘Your wife. She tasted divine. But you know who tasted even better?’ Running his tongue across the tips of his fangs, he smirks wickedly. ‘The blood of your virgin daughter.’
The hoarse scream that tears from Dante sends chills over me. He launches himself at Kian, their bodies connecting with the force of two trucks colliding. The house staggers and I stumble over my feet to stay upright.
‘So, you turned?’ Kian pants between throwing punches and ducking from Dante’s wild swings. ‘And you’ve been hunting me.’
‘To beat a monster, you must become one,’ Dante replies through gritted teeth, slamming Kian hard on the ground, the tiles beneath his head shattering.
Dante’s fist dislodges Kian’s jaw, blood spraying across the cracked tiles. Kian lets out a deep laugh as he rolls out from under him, jumping back to his feet.
‘She tasted so good,’ he whispers, licking his lips. ‘So fucking good, Dante.’
The pain in Dante’s eyes is unbearable to witness as he howls, throwing a punch so violently at Kian that his skin splits open, and his collar bone protrudes from his skin. My stomach roils when the bone resets itself and his head snaps back into his normal position.
Cas moves silently as he lifts the glass coffee table, swinging it at the back of Dante’s head. The metal bangs into his head, the glass raining over him as he takes the hit with a grunt, collapsing to his knees.
Kian dismisses Dante the moment he sees him collapse, moving toward Hunter who is still trying to reset his ribs back into position. Blood streams down his skin as he shifts and twists, re-aligning his spine. It seems to be taking him longer to heal than normal as he is so weak, and desperate for a feed.
Cas and Kian move together as if in a choreographed dance. Cas’s hands slither around Hunter, holding him in place, as Kian plunges his hand into his chest. I feel the moment his hands enclose around my bonded’s heart because it feels like he has hold of my own. Like an iron fist has reached down my throat and clutched my own heart with the kind of pressure that has me shaking.
‘You are meant to be his friend!’ I scream at Cas, white-hot anger flowing through me mixed with a strong dose of panic. I’m so fucking weak. There is nothing I can do right now to help him.
‘Cora!’ I shout at her. ‘Help me!’
‘No,’ Kian snaps at her when she takes a step toward them. Immediately, she stills. I can’t even fucking looking at her right now.
Spinning, I sprint toward the kitchen and grab a handful of knives. Launching myself at Cas’s back, I slam all three knives into his back. He grunts and hisses in pain, letting go of Hunter enough that he can shove Kian back, forcing him to release his hold.
Cas suddenly flings his arm out, backhanding me. The hit feels as brutal as a car. I fly backward, landing in a painful scrawl on the ground, the air leaving my lungs. Everything throbs in pain.
Suddenly, as if gaining an extra ounce of strength, Hunter spins, headbutting Cas so harshly, his nose crunches. Hunter dives for one of the knives I dropped, lashing out and splitting Cas’s face from ear to ear. Cas shrieks, recoiling back, howling in pain as he grips his face, the knives still sunk deep into his flesh. Hunter’s hand snakes out, and twists Cas’s neck. Cas drops to the ground as if his body weighs nothing.
A hand wraps around my neck. I stare at those dark and soulless eyes – I never saw him move.
‘Hello, Raya,’ Kian says smoothly, smiling menacingly down at me. ‘Goodbye, Raya.’
His fingers circle around my throat, crushing my windpipe with an abominable snap.