Addict (Hunter #2)(7)

“I was the one who told you that, and it’s still true,” the fertility god said, looking me over carefully. “The vampire is a good match for you. I’m rather surprised the two of you managed to stay away from each other. The pull between a trainer and a Hunter is very strong. An academic is as likely to get obsessed with a Hunter as he is with a companion.”

“He said it was up to me.” Marcus had waited for me to make the first move.

The god receded, and Quinn made the transition almost imperceptible. “Well, it’s for the best, I suppose. Know that your boyfriend is welcome. Anything he needs, let me know. I can find him a job if he wants one.”

“As long as he passes your vetting process,” I said with no small amount of bitterness.

The unbelievably gorgeous faery stared at me across the table with a concerned look on his face. “You don’t like me much, do you?”

“You haven’t given me a reason to like you, Mr. Quinn.” I finished the first steak and went to work on the second. “Let’s see, you’ve manipulated me. You’ve used me to further your own plots. You put me in a cage.”

“That was Daniel’s idea,” Quinn interrupted. “I’m not afraid of you.”

“Well, I’m not exactly afraid of her, Dev.” A deep Texas drawl filled the room and I looked up to see the King of all Vampire striding across the dining room. Big and broad, with an impossibly muscular frame, sandy-blond hair, and all-American good looks, Daniel Donovan oozed authority. It was just my luck that the king was a daywalker. I’d been hoping to avoid him until later, much later. “I think I can handle her, but she could hurt you. She could hurt Z and she could hurt our children if she wanted to.”

I flushed and set my fork down. The bad cop had definitely shown up. Donovan strode across the room in his jeans and black T-shirt. He was casual, but there was no denying his magnetism. The faery was gorgeous, but Donovan screamed power. His demeanor answered one of my questions. The king still considered me some form of dangerous animal.

“I couldn’t hurt them if I was in Italy,” I said flatly. “Perhaps you should have left me there, Your Highness. I can get back on a plane this afternoon if you like.”

The king leaned against the edge of the table and glared down at me. Arms crossed over his powerful chest, I could tell he was still pissed off. “Do you have any idea the chaos that stunt of yours caused? Your uncle has been my faithful servant for over ten damn years. You walk in and now I have to question his loyalties. Did you really think I would let you get away with it?”

“Daniel, what are you doing?” Quinn stood up as four big, burly werewolves walked in. I recognized one of them as Trent, the queen’s guard. He was carrying handcuffs and leg shackles. He approached me, a grim look on his face.

“You going to fight me, sweetheart?” Trent popped the cuffs open.

I put out my hands. “Nope.”

His hands covered mine and he was far gentler with those cuffs than I would have expected.

It didn’t matter that Trent was a thoughtful jailor. I felt the need to fight. The need to run as fast and far as I could flared inside me. Rage began to build. It started in my gut and threatened to spark like a wildfire. The wolf inside me started beating on her cage. She wanted out. She wanted to fight.

This had been Donovan’s plan all along. I wondered why he hadn’t come to Venice and arrested me there. Anywhere I ran he would find me. I had two choices. I could let my beast out and they would kill me, but not before I’d killed a bunch of them, or I could stay calm and let them take me to my cell. The cell at least offered tomorrow. I fiercely brought down my mental walls. The last thing I needed was to scare the hell out of Marcus. He would know what had happened to me soon enough.

“Did you hear me?” the king was asking.

“Yes,” I replied, the world already receding at the periphery of my vision. In this place, I could think calmly. This was a place unavailable to the wolf. We shared a soul, but I was in charge, and I pushed her out of my calm oasis.

Trent was securing the shackles and he did the oddest thing. He leaned over and I heard him whispering in my ear. “You can do this, Kelsey. You can beat this.”

I wasn’t sure what he meant. I couldn’t beat anything. I wasn’t allowed to fight at all.

“I’m putting you in a cell,” the king enunciated. “I’m going to chain you up and leave you there because you can’t be trusted. You’re an animal and you proved it by running away. Hell, you proved it in that arena.”

“All right.” I heard myself respond and I felt the chains snapping on, but my mind was already elsewhere. It was all a part of Marcus’s training. He’d taught me I was stronger than my instincts and that sometimes the true fight wasn’t about violence. I let myself relax and focus on something good. I could tune out negative forces in this moment by focusing on something positive from my past. I wasn’t an animal no matter what Daniel Donovan claimed, and he couldn’t turn me into one.

Vaguely, I heard Donovan continue to rage at me as I was hauled up, but I could feel the cool of the Italian night on my skin. It was six weeks earlier and I was back in Venice. It was the night I decided to become Marcus’s lover.



They fought over who got night number four in the rotation. I always knew which night it was because the girls fought over who got to feed the master. At first I thought it was funny that a group of grown women were fighting over who got bitten that night. Lately, it was irritating. Night four, it seemed, was about how long Marcus could hold out before he gave in to the urge and had sex with whoever happened to be his meal for the night.