Page 22 of Immortal Hunter
Around the side of the house, she found an open window on the top floor. Taking off at a run, she bunched her thighs and jumped, catching the bottom of the sill and swinging her entire body into the room.
“I knew you’d come.” A small slip of a woman, no older than twenty, stood in the corner dressed in a simple white dress, her long brown hair falling past her shoulders, and her feet bare.
“Who are you?” Kára recognized the girl from the gathering, but Vesper hadn’t seen fit to introduce them. “And why were you waiting for me?”
The witch brushed past her, shut the window, and pulled a heavy drapery over the glass. “My name is Celia. Follow me, and I’ll explain everything.”
Can no one get to the point in under a minute?Kára clenched her jaw hard enough to make her cheeks ache, but followed Celia into a closet, through a false wall in the back, and down a set of stairs. She kept her hands loose at her sides, ready to pull her weapons in a heartbeat.
Drawing a rune on a well-worn door, Celia breathed a sigh of relief when the lock disengaged. “This is a sacred space. Vesper doesn’t come down here. Nor does Brue.”
“Brue?” Kára rubbed her arms as the room’s chill seeped through her jacket. “Celia, I need answers. Vesper spelled my mate so he would forget me. She intended to sever our bond, but she did much more than that. He remembers nothing of me, his time as a Hunter, or his training.”
“I know.” Celia gestured to a pallet of blankets. “You will be safe here until dark.” She produced a cable and plug from the pocket of her dress. “For your phone. You will need to charge it, yes?”
Snatching the charger from the young witch, Kára bared her fangs. “Tell me what is going on. Now.” Already, the urge to sleep pressed down on her. Soon, she wouldn’t be able to keep her eyes open. Down here, trapped in the coven’s basement, she was vulnerable.
“Sit, and I will explain.” Celia sank down with her back against the wall, pulled her knees up to her chest, and wrapped her arms around herself. “Vesper means well. She truly does. She is bound to honor the treaty between the Coven in New Orleans, the Hunters, and the and the Byrne Vampire Clan. She intended to protect your mate.”
“Well, she failed. Epically.”
“She did not. The draught was tampered with. Brue enchanted it with dark magic.” Celia met Kára’s gaze, and no deception lingered in the dark brown depths of the witch’s eyes. “We have wards and runes protecting this house and all the land surrounding it. But we also have cameras.” The corners of the witch’s lips curved upwards in a small smile. “I caught Brue in Vesper’s room two days ago. When you came to us earlier tonight, I started to put the pieces together.”
Kára eased down onto the pallet and stretched out with her head cupped in her hand. Her eyelids felt like they weighed ten kilos each. “And?” she said on a yawn.
“Brue is working with your sire. She started experimenting with dark magic many years ago, and it has finally consumed her.”
Chapter Eleven
Ewan
Dinnae fash.
Why had Kára said that to him? Trapped by the silver cuffs around his wrists, bound to the wall for so long, he didn’t think he could stand on his own, and bleeding from a dozen different wounds, Ewan could do nothingbutworry—when he could stay conscious.
“Ewan, I came for you. Only you.”
He knew her voice. Somewhere deep down inside, he knewher.Knew every inch of her body.
What had Hagen said? He’d tortured Kára for months. His dreams. Ewan had seen Kára chained down. Naked. Deep wounds across her back. The tips of his fingers, which had been numb for half a day or more, started to tingle as he remembered running his hands over her cool skin.
Every time he tried to lick his split, bloody lip, he grimaced at the harsh tang of blood coating his tongue, but as he let his eyes close, he rememberedhertaste. Like a spring morning on the Isle of Skye when the mists rose from the water and the sun broke through the clouds.
Sun. He’d have to give up the sun. Why?
His hand over her heart. Feeling the strong, steady beat. Her lips wrapped around his cock. Fangs piercing his neck as he thrust deep and felt her entire body pulse around him.
“Ewan! More!”
“Aye, mo ghràdh. Everythin’.”
As if someone had flipped a switch, his memories came flooding back, and along with them, the pain of having his mate, his love, his very heart ripped away. She was out there somewhere, and in a few hours, she’d sacrifice herself to save him.
“Kára!” Ewan moaned with what little strength he had left. “I remember, luv.” He’d run from her. He’d taken the draught the witch had given him. All of this…washisfault. If he’d stayed in her bed, if he’d mated her, they’d be safe. The deep, mournful wail started in his chest and echoed around the dungeon. He knew her heart. Her fears. How she suffered with the memories of what her sire had made her do.
But there was more. His past. His training. Ewan was a Hunter. He’d been taught for almost twenty years to evade, escape, and kill. He’d find a way out of this. Forcing his head up, he squinted at the manacles around his wrists. The locking mechanism didn’t look complicated. But with nothing he could use to pick them, and so little sensation in his fingers, that wasn’t an option.
And what of the crossbow pointed at his heart? Narrowing his gaze, he focused on the various mechanisms that held the weapon in place. There was only a single arrow—a limitation he might be able to work with. Could he trigger it on his own? Maneuver his body so it would not kill him?
