Hunter Forsaken (Wild Hunt #2) (9 page)

“Maybe, but why else would your newest lover be facing banishment at Arawn’s hands like Bjorn did? And if Arawn learns his mate cheated on him, do you really think he’ll let the shame go, especially when her bastard child is tied to him?”

Silence stretched. Tegan held Zeph’s gaze without blinking. Ian didn’t need either of them to fill in the blanks. Arawn would kick Ian’s ass out of his group of Hunters in a heartbeat. No questions asked.

“Our father has always acted on his instincts first,” Zeph went on. “You do remember bleeding at his hands, don’t you? Because I do. Hell, I almost didn’t make it to maturity. Weak. That’s what he’d called me, not fit to live. I was his pretty boy, not the extension of his hand in battle.” Zeph chuckled. “But I showed him, didn’t I? I survived that fucking prison when many of his other beloved children didn’t.”

“I remember our father’s temper well, but his actions taught us discipline, obedience and—”

“His actions? He couldn’t control his rage that’s—”

“Right or wrong, he taught us unity.” Tegan stepped closer. “When one of us floundered, we guided our sibling back. When one of us crumbled under the weight of our position, we supported our despondent brother or sister. He made us one. Stronger together than apart. Do you deny it?”

“Yeah, he did such a good fucking job that half of our siblings are lost to madness and another despises us.”

Tegan rested her hand against his cheek. Her voice softened. “And who fights for them? Who reaches out to them with words of comfort and hope?”

Zeph turned his head. Tegan tipped it back. They held each other’s gaze for a long moment. Finally, Zeph sighed.

“We do. Arawn does. We are his beloved children.” He snorted. “Or should I say his damned children, unwanted by everyone besides him.”

With that, he turned and walked away.

Tegan watched him until he slipped out the front door before facing Ian. A deep breath, and she visibly put herself back together. She motioned toward the kitchen. “Let’s go see what your friend has to say.”

“I think Zeph is right. I’m the key to healing you.” He took her hand and pressed his thumb to her unmarked palm. “I’m going to earn your love and your trust.”

She sighed and held up her other hand, the one with the jagged line. “I fucked you knowing full well you could’ve mated me. If that’s not trust, I don’t know what is.”

“But do you love me?”

She held his gaze for what could’ve been forever. Finally, she shrugged. “Honestly, I don’t know what love is. Romantic love, that is. I thought I did once. I was wrong.”

He couldn’t believe he was going to say this, but he wasn’t stupid. She’d probably fucked dozens, maybe hundreds of guys. He’d be foolish not to think she hadn’t loved before. “Were you wrong?”

Her brows pinched. “Wrong about loving Bjorn? Absolutely.”

“Or was it that Bjorn was in the wrong? Did he lie about loving you?”

Her expression closed off. She shoved past him.

He spun her back into his arms. “Answer me.”

“He lied about many things, loving me being one of them.”

“Well, then you don’t—”

“Stop.” She stood on her tiptoes and tugged at his shoulders. He took the hint and bent so they were eye to eye. “He made me out to be a fool. No man will ever do so again, whether I love him or not.”

She pushed away from him and walked toward the kitchen. The door banged shut, but he didn’t follow. He pivoted and strode in the direction Zeph had gone. Trevor would have to wait. Ian had to find out what the faceless Bjorn had done to break Tegan’s heart. If Ian didn’t, he’d never be able to heal her. He would too. Failure wasn’t an option. Because one thing was for certain, she might wear the curse’s mark, but it was his too.

And life without Tegan would be Ian’s hell.

Chapter Eleven

Ian cleared the tree line. He spotted Zeph and Rhys stretched out on the grass near the lake. Ian glanced from the two Huntsmen to the still waters where he and Harley had played years ago. It was hard to believe that while they’d had fun swimming, the Huntsmen had been suffering mere feet from them.

He was grateful his baby sister had been strong enough to meet the Triad’s challenge, for all their sakes. She’d given Ian a chance at life with his dream lover, the one he knew he would’ve died without.

Maybe he was being a bit melodramatic, but he didn’t think so. Living without Tegan had been slowly driving him insane. He honestly didn’t know how long he would’ve lasted, especially if he’d actually married Cynthia. He shrugged off the thought. It hadn’t happened. The future was the only thing that concerned him. He refused to screw up his chance at happiness.

He strode forward.

Rhys didn’t acknowledge him, but Zeph turned his head. “Did she abandon you already?”

Ian squatted a couple of feet away. Zeph’s question stirred three years’ worth of frustration. Ian wasn’t going to admit he still worried she would leave him. He leveled the other Hunter a hard look. “What did he do to her?”

“By
he
, do you mean Bjorn?”

“Don’t play with me, Zeph. I’m in no mood.”

Zeph pushed up, propping his upper body on his bent arms, and stared at the spot where the sinkhole had marked the entrance into the Huntsmen’s prison. “He used her for sex and a chance at immortality. Fucker didn’t count on dear old Dad sifting through his mind when he joined the Hunt and uncovering all his lies.”

Ian remembered the disturbing sensation of the Lord of the Underworld rifling through his thoughts. He’d felt violated by the intimate invasion, but he hadn’t cared. He’d wanted a chance to ride. The opportunity to kill even one of the fairies’ creatures was too damn much of a temptation to resist.

“Instead of eternal life”—Zeph glanced at him—“Bjorn found death and endless suffering. Bastard deserved everything he got.”

“So that’s how he hurt her?” Somehow it didn’t ring true in Ian’s mind. There had to be more to the story.

“No.” Rhys turned cold eyes on Ian. “It was the number of women he had scattered across the countryside in quaint little homes his rich family provided for his multitude of bastard children.”

“And the damnation he found stemmed from a lifetime of lies and dozens of murders,” Zeph added.

Well, shit. “She didn’t know.”

Rhys folded his hands behind his head and closed his eyes once more. “No, and in the years they were lovers, he went home on several visits. Each time, he left one of his lovers heavy with child.”

Ian pushed to his feet. “Thanks for the insight, man. I owe you.”

“Where are you going?” Zeph asked.

“To prove to her I’ll be faithful.”

Zeph snorted. “How are you going to do that?”

By mating her. Only problem was how to get her to agree. “Don’t worry. I have my ways.” And they all involved getting her naked.

* * * * *

Tegan fought the urge to lash out at Trevor, but the human’s question pissed her off.

“Well? Are you the woman who ruined Ian’s life?” Trevor repeated.

She spun and faced him. “It’s none of your business.”

“You’re right, it’s not.” Trevor leaned against the stainless steel fridge, arms crossed. “Doesn’t mean I’ll back off. That’s what friends do for each other.”

Time to direct the conversation away from her relationship with Ian. She snatched Allie’s picture from one of the open folders on the kitchen table. Blonde, blue eyes, with the face of an angel. The human female was pretty. More than pretty, actually. She matched the ideal woman of the modern world—slender legs that went on forever and a tiny waist. She also looked sheltered and completely innocent, as if she’d never experienced a single tragedy in her life. All the things Tegan wasn’t.

She dropped her picture and met Trevor’s eyes. “Allie is probably already lost, you know.”

“We have to—”

The door opened, and Ian walked in. Her first instinct was to demand where he’d gone. She bit back the words. She had no reason to question him.

Trevor scowled. “It’s about time you showed up. Where were you?”

“I ran into Rhys.” Ian’s heated, lust-filled gaze caught hers. “Sorry to make you wait, angel.”

The warmth in his voice quickened her pulse. She dropped her gaze to the table. Allie’s pretty face stared up at her, the sight a reminder that Tegan was about as far from Heaven as she could get. Hell was her home. Happiness had no place there. Neither did love. Arawn had tried to hold on to it by mating Minerva, but she’d left him alone more often than not. Minerva could visit Heaven while Arawn was tied to his realm.

And she’d cheated on him at least once while gone. No way would anyone in Hell be foolish enough to touch her.

Ian was proof of her infidelity, and if his father was one of the Archangels, it would explain why he’d been able to visit Tegan. Dream-walking was one of their gifts. Of course, there was still the question of how Minerva had conceived a babe. Only mated couples could reproduce… Except, Arawn had given up the chance of having children with Minerva in order to break that rule when he fathered the Huntsmen. Tegan had learned of her sire’s sacrifice to the Triad on one of her trips to the Haven with Minerva.

Tegan groaned and shoved the thoughts away. She could hypothesize all she wanted about why and how Ian’s soul got placed in a human body. Only Minerva knew the truth. Well, the Triad would too. The deity knew everything. Unfortunately, Tegan couldn’t access the heavens to ask them. As a child of Arawn, she was banned from the realm.

She flipped Allie’s picture over, unable to look at her sweet expression any longer. She was the type of female an angel’s child belonged with, not one who could turn into a beast from Hell.

“I was explaining to your friend that Allie is probably already lost. It’s true that time moves slower there, but over a week has passed. She would’ve gotten hungry, and the fairy realm is…well…” She tried to put what she knew of the place into a concept they’d understand. “It’s filled with living magic much like what fueled the curse we suffered under.”

Ian leaned forward. “It’ll cause her pain.”

She bit her lip and debated how to answer him. Truth, or something to ease their minds? One peek into Ian’s hazel eyes and she knew a lie would be impossible. “Not directly. It feeds off its inhabitants, causing illusions and even breathing life into your worst fears or desires and making them real. The longer a non-fairy is there, the worse it gets. It’ll tempt her with food, wine, lovers. Whatever it thinks she wants.”

“Why?” Trevor asked.

She met first Trevor’s gaze then Ian’s. “It doesn’t exist unless it has people to give it life. The fairies controlled it when they lived there. They bent it to their will and harnessed it to create magnificent cities and abundant riches, but it’s been dormant for over a millennium. It’s hungry and won’t want to lose Allie.”

“Or anyone else who goes in after her,” Ian finished her thought.

“Exactly.” She nodded. “Harley should be resistant, but I can’t guarantee it. She still doesn’t know how to wield the power she has.”

Ian crossed his arms over his chest. “No. I am not risking Harley’s life or her sanity. She’s been through too much.”

She closed the file folder and matched Ian’s pose, arms crossed under her breasts. “Then Allie’s lost, and we’re wasting our time.”

“I think I found another way.” Trevor dug through the folders and pulled out several sheets of computer paper. “I did some research. There are stories about saving humans who’ve fallen into a fairy ring. If the lost person can be coaxed into the circle in the fairy realm, Harley might be able to pull her out without entering it.”

She ripped the paper out of his hand and read the source. On a groan, she tossed it at him. “An Internet search? That’s what you’re basing your research on?”

Trevor shrugged. “There’s a grain of truth in every legend and myth. The key is to pick it out from the garbage.”

Ian snatched the paper and read. “Is there any way to confirm it?”

“Arawn would know.” She sighed. “I’ll ask him.”

Ian grabbed her hand. “You don’t have to go back to Hell to do that, do you?”

“I can let him know I want to talk to him through one of the hounds or horses, but yes, I need to go back to speak with him.”
And pray he doesn’t suspect I’m hiding anything about us.

He stepped around the counter and drew her against him. She considered refusing him, but she didn’t care what the other human thought. He’d already seen them locked in passion.

She linked her hands around Ian’s waist. The thick length of his erection pushed into her belly. Shivers of awareness skipped through her. She splayed her hands on his back and drew him closer. Not even an hour had passed, and she wanted him again.

“Hurry back, angel.” Ian brushed her hair away from her ear with his chin. “I need you more than you can imagine.”

Her breathing quickened. She nodded. No words would form.

“Come to my room as soon as you return.” He kissed her neck. “Okay, love?”

She slid her hands over his tight ass. She couldn’t wait to feel him push his length into her. That first moment of becoming one with a lover had always thrilled her. Knowing it was Ian who had control over her pleasure made it better.

“Yes, I’ll come.”

“I know you will, every damn time I command you to.”

He took her mouth in a slow kiss, the kind she’d learned to anticipate from him. Her muscles loosened. Only Ian’s hold on her waist stopped her from crumbling to the ground. She didn’t know how long they kissed, minutes maybe, but Trevor finally cleared his throat and brought her back to reality.

Ian broke their kiss but held her trapped in his gaze. A faint glow emanated from his hazel eyes.
Beautiful.
He ensnared her. The sound of Trevor shuffling papers reached her ears. Still she couldn’t break Ian’s focused stare.

“I’ve pulled all the files I could on the redcaps we’ve been watching,” Trevor said.

Ian squeezed his eyes shut. The trance he’d cast over her broke. “Any luck finding recent activity close to here?”

“Yeah, Craig.”

Ian whipped his head to look at Trevor. “Fuck, really?”

She glanced between the two men. “You know the redcap’s name?”

The human redcaps were the leaders of the fairies’ army of sluaghs, walking corpses who’d terrorized the humans for millennia. Eliminating the leaders was essential. Without them, sluaghs would be no more than harmless husks.

Ian took the folder and focused on the printout. “A few of them. Craig is Raul’s brother, well, one of them.” He met her gaze. “Raul was one of quadruplets. I’ve tracked their string of serial killings back to the seventies.”

Raul, the redcap who’d tormented Harley for years, had shot her a little over a week ago and stolen her blood. Redcaps shared in the immortality of their fairy master through a blood-soaked cap they wore. He’d used Harley’s blood to break his bond to Dar and tie himself to her, but had also taken enough blood to do the same for three additional redcaps.

His brothers.

Tegan groaned. “If Craig is wearing the cloth soaked in Harley’s blood, he’ll be invisible to the Hunt.” As Harley was because of her bond with Calan. She was tied to his soul and not considered a threat. Neither would anyone linked to her be viewed as dangerous.

Ian nodded. “My guess is all his brothers are.”

Along with the sluaghs linked to them.

Tegan’s chest tightened on a surge of anger. The Huntsmen couldn’t protect mankind if they couldn’t sense the danger to them. It was the reason the Wild Hunt had been so successful.

She shoved the emotion aside before rage could consume her. It would do no good. They’d have to rely on other means to defeat their enemies. She wouldn’t accept failure.

“Craig’s last kill was in New York City.” Trevor once more dug through his folders. He opened one and spread a series of victims’ pictures over the kitchen table. All women, all with their hearts cut out and placed on top of their chests.

Tegan curled her fists. The urge to find the redcap and dig
his
blackened heart out with her claws seized her. Protecting humans was her purpose, a core aspect of her being she couldn’t change. She’d failed the nameless women displayed in the police shots.

Trevor pointed to a photo of a young redhead. “This was his last victim. Craig had dated the girl for close to a month. There were sightings of them all over the city. The girl had told her coworkers her boyfriend had asked her to move in. Next day, she’s found on her doorstep.” He paused to crack his knuckles before curling his fingers into fists. “They call him the Heartbreaker.”

“How long ago did he kill her?” Ian asked.

“Three days.” Trevor glanced at her. “Craig enjoys toying with the cops. He’ll leave clues and mess with their heads, creating illusions. He’s even managed to pin his murders on innocent people. Actually, they’re calling this woman’s death a copycat killing since the man they’d labeled as the Heartbreaker has been in jail for years.”

“Great.” Ian gathered the papers and shoved them into the manila folder. “Get in touch with our contacts down there and see what they’ve got on the boyfriend.”

“Already did. They said they’d contact me soon.”

Tegan glanced between the two men, amazed by how well they worked together, as if anticipating the other’s needs. It reminded her of how the Huntsmen interacted. She peered at Trevor and couldn’t help but wonder if he too had what it took to become a rider. She filed the thought away. She’d mention it to Calan when she saw him next. The Huntsmen had always deferred the decision of adding to the legion to him.

“And what good will that do?” She focused on Trevor. “You said he likes to mislead the cops.”

Trevor took the folders from Ian and slid them into his backpack. “He does that by creating an identity and giving them someone to hunt. He’ll have assumed the life of a missing person who resembles him, thereby giving him a family whom he often visits and a job to support him.”