Undeniable (Undeniable series) (11 page)

Gemma

Well the first round of games came and Riley didn’t do as well as he had hoped. He never made me feel bad for it and I didn’t until his ‘fans’ started to come up to me blaming me for his performance. It’s bad enough that I’ve felt weird all day, as if I lost something dear to me. When I close my eyes and just listen I can almost hear it. Beau is all I can think of and I find myself constantly dialing the number nine but never pressing the send button. Something is wrong, but I don’t understand it.

No one could really see the first round of the games although I know that it had to do more with the mind than anything else. Also no one really knows the score and I realize I really hate the games. Word of mouth is that Thaddeus was probably ahead, which is kind of surprising to me.

“Maybe if he
didn’t have an ice queen dragging him down he would have won,” an older male shifter said loud enough for me to hear in the cafeteria. Riley’s hand tensed for a moment before he took another bite of his meal. That was probably one of the nicer things someone had said thus far. I was hoping for a moment that maybe the worst of the comments were over, then it happened.

“Maybe if she wasn’t such a dick tease
,” another man next to him snickered and Riley shot out of his seat next to me. I had begged him not to do or say anything. That they were just upset and would get over it, but he had reached his breaking point.

“What did you
fucking say?” Riley roars getting the attention of everyone, not good.

“Riley
,” I say as sweetly as I can reaching for his arm, which he coldly shakes off.

He is
face to face with the man now showing no sign of backing down unlike the other man. “Say it again,” he encourages with such power everyone in the room feels its effects.

“Please stop Riley
, it’s okay,” I whispered because that was as loud as the words could get out.

He never
looks over at me just continues to stare down the man who was now on his knees almost wetting himself. “It’s not okay!” He yells and the power coming off him is too much as my body forces me down to my knees as well. I can’t even look up towards him anymore. My body won’t allow it and for the first time ever in my life I’m submitting to another person. I’ve submitted before but not like this not with this much force. It was getting to the point that it was hard to breathe.

“Stop
,” I barely even get the word past my lips and this time I can see his feet turn towards me.

“Fuck
,” he says and I can feel this power easing off him releasing everyone from his anger.

I
gasp for air as my hands hit the cold concrete floor. I feel Riley lift me off the ground. My eyes look around the room noticing how everyone is panting for air as we exit. I feel as if I worked out all day and I’m drained of all energy. My face falls onto his hard chest, but soon I’m removed from his arms and onto my bed.

He kneels down
next to my bed taking my hand into his as he mumbles how sorry he is over and over again. With each minute that passes the more restored I feel. Looking over to him I notice he isn’t looking at me but just at our connected hands and I want to say something but I don’t. What could I say at a moment like this when I know that I’m just at fault for all of this. Guilt and I don’t really get along very well. To be honest I’ve never had to really feel guilty for anything before in my life, well at least not at this level.

Since I’ve come back
from England, Riley and I have been acting more like great friends then what everyone else thinks. He hasn’t even tried to push me into anything, which is good since I don’t really need that added to the growing list.

“I thought I was ready for this, but now I know why no one my age joins the games
,” he pauses entwining our hands and looking up to me. “I thought I knew more then I really did. Thought I was so wise and ahead of the games.” He laughs a malicious laugh. “I thought I was so perfect that I could rectify others mistakes. Fix what was wrong with them before it became my problem, but what I was doing was just denying that I have problems that I need to fix.” As he says it like everything is coming together for him. “I have problems,” he lets the words sound out and then soak back in.  

I want to say something to him
, but the look on his face says he needs this moment for himself. “I let my pride take over letting it disguise my own problems.” He looks so exposed for the first time. It’s as if he has finally let his walls down to let me see what was beyond and what is beyond is surprising.

Before I can
do or say anything his scorching lips are on mine. Kissing and touching his way all over my body. Hurriedly getting off his knees he is on top of my body within a second. Part of me wants to give him this, a moment he seemed so desperate to have.

His hands roam my body and I have to bit
e my lip.
Stop,
I repeat over and over in my head but the words don’t come out. For a moment I forget how skilled he is when I suddenly realize how we are positioned. My legs are spread as wide as my uniform will allow and our hips are pushed so intimately together allowing me to feel his need for me. He purposely grinds our hips together as his eyes glaze over with lust. The way he is grabbing me is leaving bruises in its wake.

My thoughts get louder
, shouting at me to stop this as it reaches its threshold. “Stop,” I say as loud as my thoughts and he freezes in place. “I can’t,” I say turning my face away to not see his reaction. When he still doesn’t move I add, “I’m sorry.”

After a moment he leans back
, but not completely off me. He breathes out hard like he is annoyed and I can feel my temper beginning to rise. “Gemma I know that right now wasn’t really the time to push this, but you are a grown woman, you’re not fifteen,” he says almost mockingly and I jerk the rest of my body away from him.

How dare he say that.
I bring my knees up to my chest closing my body off from his view. I’ve let my personal guilt block my judgment and now I’m paying for it. “Get out,” I order not looking at him.

“Gemma I didn’t mean it like that
,” he moves closer to me as I back away as far as I can from him. “I’m sorry, it’s just all the stress is getting to me and when they said things about you I just lost it. I’m sorry.” He pleads using his circumstances as an excuse.

“You don’t think that I’m stressed. It’s not you who they are trashing and giving hateful looks to all day
,” I say not as heated as I thought it would come out to be. “Everyone hates me and… I believe what they call me,” I say a little ashamed to say it out loud. It’s true how I feel about that. When they call me a tease, rude, opportunist, who is only using people to get power. Before Beau reentered my life I thought of Riley as the closest I could get to any sort of power. I mean there was other things to add as well. He is smart, funny, strong, dependable, and he found a way to get under my skin.

When he doesn’t say anything to me exposing myself I feel even wors
e. He must believe it as well. Looking up into his brown eyes I’m surprised again by him. It’s hard to tell but he’s looking at me like I just did something amazing then it turns to anger. “I will challenge anyone who dares even breathe in your direction and if they think about spreading lies about you, I will kill them on the spot.” He growls letting his hands fist into my sheets.

“You
can’t do that Riley,” I say. “I need you to focus on the games and nothing else.” I say as encouraging as I can.

His hands ease a little
, but he still has a death grip onto my bed. “It’s all lies,” he says sympathetically. I drop my gaze from him understanding what he’s talking about. “They are just upset with me and instead of taking it out on me they are going after you,” he moves closer to me holding me to him. Lifting my chin up to see him, he grins down at me. “At the next game I will end their doubts of me and you will be seen as the goddess who did it for me. No one will think wrongly of you ever again and when I’m pack master,” he pauses for a moment. “We will do so many great things together.” He says proudly and I want to tell him that it will be him to do those things not me, but I don’t.

“How much longer do we have to wait here?” Marcus groans as we wait for our new mission project to get out of class. That’s right she’s a high school student and we are stalking her, from a respectable distance.

“If you ask that again I’m going to hurt you
.” I growl out for the tenth time this hour.  “Maybe if you stopped staring at all the underage girls we would be getting somewhere,” I add.

“Hey
, not all of them are underage and I’m not doing anything wrong. I’m doing my job,” he defense himself.

I roll my eyes knowing I’m going to go nowhere in this argument. I never really noticed before how many blondes there could be in on
e high school. Obviously ninety percent of them dye their hair making our job just that much harder. The bell rings again and the students disappear into their assigned classrooms. “We are never going to find her this way.” I rumble tossing the binoculars into the dash board.

“I do have an idea if you want to hear it
.” Marcus teases and I know it will be something that we are not supposed to do.

“What do you have in mind
,” I give up.

“One of us takes a tour of the school
.”

“How would we get away with s
omething like that?” I ask interested.

“Say we are applying for a position as a teacher. In their newspaper they are hiring for a math teacher
,” he says grabbing the newspaper from behind his seat and my jaw drops.

“Who are you and where is my brother
.” I ask joking, but I’m beyond impressed.

He smiles as if I have given a great gift and it kind of saddens me. Have I never made him feel that way before?

“Marcus I know I don’t say this often enough but I’m so proud of you. Like really proud and I know that our parents would have been so proud of the man you have become.” I say meaning every word.

He looks at me for a moment letting my words fully sink in. “Thanks
,” he says wanting to say more, but a sudden movement at the school has caught both of our attention.

“There she is
,” I say noticing that her senses are up. As it is all of our windows are up keeping our scent in the vehicle we are in now. I don’t really understand why a hunter would allow their child to go to a public school. I mean I know that they can blend in better with the humans. Hunters have the same scent as humans, but they have tale tale signs that give them away if you are looking for them.

We watch her as she exits the building label
ed E and crosses the street to the parking lot. With a supernatural grace she enters a neon pink Lexus and I hear Marcus curse. “I told them we needed a fast car,” he says wrapping his hands tighter around the steering wheel. I don’t really know or care about cars, hell I don’t even know how to drive. Not that they didn’t want me to learn. They were actually surprised when I declined to take more training classes. Marcus rubs it in my face a few times that he knows how to drive and it makes me kind of want to learn.

Gripping the ‘oh shit’ handles for my life
as I force my eyes to stay in contact with the neon pink eye sore. “Way to keep a low profile.” I mock not even looking over to see the sour look I know he’s giving me.

“I wouldn’t have to drive like this if that little shit didn’t take off like a bat o
ut of hell. Do you think she knows she was being watched?” Marcus ask taking a hard turn. His question has me watching the driver more closely. Her unnaturally striking green eyes are everywhere but on the road. Our eyes meet telling me everything I need to know.

“She knows.” I say watching her again. “Stop
,” I say low at first then panic sets in sending chills. “Stop! We need to get out of here.” I look over to Marcus to get his attention.

“We can’t stop
,” he says keeping on her tail. “There no way she could-” A black suburban hits us on my side of the car, tossing our car effortlessly into the ditch. The door crushes my right leg keeping me from moving. Quickly Marcus kicks open his door then reaches over to me.

“Go Marcus
,” I order and his eyes comes down to my leg but it’s too late.

“Get on the ground
.” A hunter yells at Marcus, who drops to the ground. There’s no way to fight our way out of this situation. I can’t count them all but I can easily see twenty armed hunters. My car door is ripped off the hinges and I’m pulled to the ground.

“Get her up
,” another man orders pointing at me. Chancing a glance at my leg all I can really see is my jeans ripped and covered in blood on my upper thigh. It doesn’t really hurt right now because of all the commotion around me, but it’s going to hurt like a bitch here in a moment. 

A hunter comes over to me lifting me off the ground and flinging me over to my brother. Marcus allows me to lean onto him as we are rushed into an awaiting van.

Inside the van is nothing but a caged off area for the drivers. I was hoping I could find something in the van, even a nail could have maybe helped me.

Marcus sit
s next to me examining my now throbbing leg. I whence when he tears my jeans open even farther to inspect the damage. ‘
What do you think?’
I connect with Marcus because I don’t want the others to hear us speaking to each other.

‘It’s going to take a few hours, but it will be good.’
He says bringing his blood covered hands back into his lap. I look out the windshield for any clues to where we might be headed, but soon give up. Everything looks the same and I’m a little stressed at the moment.

What I think at the moment is that we were set up. How I don’t know. Why I don’t know, but it was a trap. I know that because we are still alive and that only happens when it’s a trap. We have been trapped once before but we usually have backup just in case. I’ve never be
en brought to a hunter leader before or maybe I have, I only know what a few of them look like. Tristan Salvador is the one I know by heart. He is the leader and one of the most violent ones I’ve ever heard of. Every once in a while we receive a new photo of him to update the ones we have. His eyes remind me so much of the girl we were following. A vivid green that goes well with his dark brown hair. We know all of his basic information like that he is forty-five years old and his tactics are more than barbaric, but we can never capture him.

The sky has been dark for hours before we are forced out of the van. Deep down I was really hoping that someone would come for us, but nothing
has happened. My leg is mostly healed and I only have a slight limp as we are taken to a large business office. The doors open showing an elegant and modern entryway, but that soon passes as we are led down a set of stairs. I can feel my leg starting to bleed again.

Two large doors are opened on both sides allowing thirty plus hunter
s and ourselves easy access to walk through. The decor of this area is completely different from what we just walked through. It has a dark throne room look going for it and I automatically notice the malicious man sitting on a chair made for the gods.

Tristan
Salvador, the man we have been after is sitting right in front of us. His eyes stay on us as we make our way over to him and are pushed down onto our knees. Those unnaturally green eyes are full of hate, but also seem very pleased at the moment.

I never break eye contact with him, showing him that I don’t fear him. It only makes a cruel smile snake it way
upon his lips. “At last we meet,” he says and his voice demands attention. I don’t know if he does that on purpose or if he just naturally sounds that way. “I have heard some very interesting things about you two.” He says as if we should be pleased to have gotten his attention. “The wonder twins, the thorn in my side, and now my kindred.” He muses and I don’t understand. “Oh!” He laughs a bizarre laugh. “They don’t know that there father is a hunter. How delightful,” he pauses. “I wonder what it must feel like to be you right now. To know you killed your own people, maybe even your family, even your father perhaps.”

“You’re a liar!” Marcus spits out and I really wish he wouldn’t have said anything.

Tristan makes a tisking noise with his mouth as he moves closer to us. “Then we will have to find out for a fact wont we?” He says thinking for a moment and then he smiles devilishly. “Gifts, I have brought you each a gift.” He says waving his arm. The blonde vampire from our first mission comes over to Tristan. For the first time I notice that I’m in a room filled with every type of supernatural.

‘Marcus have you noticed our company?’
I ask him.

I feel him tense next to me as soon as he notices my same conclusion.
‘Shit Gemma! Why are they all here? It doesn’t make sense.’
I don’t know what to say back to that and my attention is brought back to the vampire in front of us.

He smiles down at me as he talks to Tristan, who nods for him to do what he needs to do.
I’m lifted to my feet as the vampire comes to me first. “It’s been awhile. You have grown up to be a beauty.” He says lowering himself to his knees before me, then ever so slowly runs his tongue over the fresh blood on my leg. Bile hits the back of my throat at the groans he make as his hands wrap around my thigh bringing me closer to him. A thunderous yell vibrates off the walls and every one freezes in place. Turning to the sound I see Beau collared and shackled to the wall in plain view. Our eyes meet and I can see all the pain within those eyes.

His mouth moves up my body
bring my attention back to the blonde in front of me. I pull against the arms holding me firmly in place and it only seems to encourage him on. Pulling back he looks me in the eyes before he whispers in my ear, “I can see why there is such a fuss about you and I intend to explore it.” With a small kiss to the spot beneath my ear he bring his lips farther down my neck. His lips are warm with my blood as he pauses a moment before he sinks his teeth into my neck. 

“I didn’t forget about you either Marcus
,” Tristan says waving Shiloh over. The look he gives is one of pure disgust as he brings out his blade trying to obtain a reaction from either of us. More than anything I want to yell and fight when Shiloh brings his blade straight to Marcus neck, but I keep still. Seeing how that doesn’t make either of us react he shoves the blade straight into Marcus left thigh. The blonde vampire smells Marcus’s blood then moves to him removing the blade as he drinks the blood that spills out of Marcus. Bending Shiloh grabs the bloody blade from the ground and moves over to me. Bringing the blade to my neck the only reaction he gets is from Beau.

I’m lifted from the ground
by my shoulders and placed in front of Beau. He is angrier then I have ever seen him. “Don’t fucking touch her!” He yells pulling on his chains that don’t even bend at his strength.

“Oh
, do you mean like this.” Shiloh says innocently bringing the blade up to my neck again but this time cuts small superficial wounds along my neck. I keep as still as I can not wanting to lose more blood then I already have. My body is already fighting to keep me up let alone trying to stop all the bleeding.

“I will kill you!” Beau screams. I look up at him when the blade is removed from my neck begging him with my eyes to remain silent.

“Is that so?” Shiloh says with a little huff. “I really do find it hilarious when the captive tells the free such unreachable goals. You see, you have no authority here. I’m allowed to do anything I want to do to her…with her,” he grins when Beau growls. “It’s such a waste that you didn’t even get to be intimate with her.” Shiloh brings Beau to his breaking point when he has my hands tied and suspended in the air as his own hands roam from my hips to my breast. Standing behind me he cups each of my breast as he licks at the dry blood at my neck.

“That is enough.
” Tristan orders and Shiloh automatically drops his hands backing away. I sigh in relief as Beau stops pulling so hard against his restraints. Looking back up to him he is already scanning me over. Blood is sluggishly seeping from beneath both his wrist and neck. His overall apparent health is very poor. The color of his skin was already light, but now is taking on a more grey tone and his normally tranquil eyes are so dark they could pass for black. I want to make all of this go away and for him to be well again.

“Get them out of here.” Tristan orders as if he is already bored with us.
Again I’m lifted onto my feet and removed out of the room with Marcus. I can’t help it and look back at Beau even though I hate seeing him this way. The weeks we have been apart have been difficult and every night he was in my dreams, with me.

Lucky for us we don’t have to
drag ourselves far and are soon pushed into a room. The white walls are so bright they almost hurt my eyes. There are two small cots that are attached to the door and a small toilet near the other end. The door slams behind us and I make it over to the bed dropping myself lethargically onto it. Marcus does the same to the bed on the other side. “Do you think it’s true?” He ask and I know he’s talking about our father.