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“Princess?” Hunter shook his head, baffled by my outburst.

“It’s okay,” the Master said. His fingers grew tighter around Marie and I took in every flex of his fingers.

I bared my fangs, eyeing him as I began to pace in front of the couple. “It is not okay,” I exploded. None of this is the way it should be. And
you
,” I said, pointing and yelling. “You … traitor! You … betrayed me. You…” I had no idea what I was accusing him of, but I couldn’t stop.

A gasp came from Marie and the pain was evident, even if I sensed she wasn’t sure what I meant either.

“I beg your pardon?” The Master’s own anger shone through and a man stepped closer to Marie taking her a few steps back as his arm eased her in the vampire’s direction.

“Marko?” she whispered.

“Marko,” I burst out. “Yes. Marko, that’s your name. You’re a traitor! You lie.” More, I paced, sidestepping Hunter as he reached for me.

“I apologize. It’s clear the Princess isn’t well right now.” Hunter lunged and grabbed ahold of me. He threw me a furious glance, squeezing me tight. The look brought my claws down even more. Thoughts were gone and the threat he made evident sent me tapping into the one thing that would kill me in a room full of vampires more powerful that myself. But I didn’t care. I knew I meant for something different than this.

Heat bubbled inside of my stomach as I kept Hunter’s stare.

“Release me.”

“Or what?” He did, but moved in closer, forcing me to take a step back with some invisible shield. Repeated steps bought me further away from Marko and I couldn’t stand it. I wasn’t done getting my point across. He’d lied to me. About what, I couldn’t remember, but maybe if I could continue it would come back.

“Get out of my way.”

“No … I don’t think so. You need to feed and rest. I’m going to make you better.”

There was a hunger in his fixated gaze that I didn’t like. I knew he meant for me to feed from him, but I couldn’t. Not because his blood didn’t call to me, it did, but this wasn’t over. It couldn’t end like this. If Hunter got me in the room, he might never let me come out again. Not while Marko was here.

“Wait,” I breathed out. “Just.” I lunged to the side, not able to make it past the wall, but I could see the Master still staring in my direction. My mind searched through the fog, desperate for something to come. I’d been enraged at the betrayal I had felt, but now that I was going to be separated, I couldn’t imagine being away from him. “Don’t let him lock me away,” I begged Marko. “Please. Help me. Marie!” I yelled, turning to her and slamming my hands against the wall. Suddenly, anything was better than being alone with Hunter. He was stronger than me. I couldn’t forget that.

“Marko?” Confusion filled the female vampire’s expression and I could see she was just as torn as he appeared to be.

“To the room,” Hunter said, his voice growing angrier.

“Take me home. I want to go home! Please.”

“You are home.” Hunter was suddenly through the wall and grabbing my arm. He spoke to the others. “Feed. I’ll return as soon as I can.” As he pulled me toward a tunnel not far away, I couldn’t stop looking back at the two vampires who seemed to make my heart hurt. They stared, but they didn’t move forward.

Darkness engulfed me and no matter how hard I pulled to break the hold, I couldn’t. Even the heat within my core wasn’t reachable, when it should have been.

A door opened at Hunter’s push and he spun us into the room, shutting the barrier. I was pulled to the bed so fast and slammed against it that he was on me before I could turn to try to scramble away.

“I’m disappointed in you, Princess, but I can’t blame you, entirely. This is a shock for you. I shouldn’t have allowed you out so soon. Let me put you at ease.”

“No.” My body try to struggle free, but he was pinning me with more than his weight. From the neck down, I couldn’t move. The invisible force kept me unable from defending myself.

Hunter’s actions became slower. He lifted his hands from my wrists, tracing his fingers up my forearms before reaching my shoulders. When they got to my neck, he angled my face away. Warm aim came out in a rush over my ear and he rocked his body against mine. “The way you make me feel … I can’t explain it. I want you as much as I long to hurt you. Why do you think that is? Do you feel that way too?”

I did, but I couldn’t answer.

“Perhaps time will show us what way we’ll lean more toward. Or maybe, we’ll stay in this limbo. Love and hate. It could make for an interesting bonding.”

One of his hands lowered and he pulled up my dress, running his hand higher on my thigh. Another rock of his hips had a moan leaving my mouth, but it wasn’t entirely from pleasure. I felt on the edge of bursting into tears. This wasn’t right. I couldn’t get over that. I was so lost and confused.

Fire exploded in my neck and my mouth flew open at the pain from his brutal bite. Fangs embedded in my neck and his venom pushed thickly into my system. Pain warped into pleasure, but for the life of me I couldn’t stop the tears that raced over the bridge of my nose. I wanted to be mad. I wanted to kill him for feeding from me without my permission. But it was beyond that.

Vibrations hummed in my throat from his continuous sounds. Over and over he tugged at my vein greedily, grinding his hard cock along my pussy. When his hand moved from my hip to his pants, my panicked gasps grew louder.

“No. No.”

The weak denials were ignored as he broke from my throat. Blood was smeared over his chin and Hunter was drunk on my essence. He didn’t appear to even see me as he ripped at his clothes in a fevered state. When he was nude, he threw up my dress, burying his face between my legs. Still, I couldn’t move. I couldn’t fight. Why was this familiar? Why did I feel like he and I had been here before?

Pressure from the tip of his tongue pushed into my entrance and I cried out, conflicted on the ecstasy that my body forced me to feel. Hunter’s eyes shot up to mine and he pushed deeper, using his fingers to rub over my clit as he tried to slow his impatience. But he couldn’t. I could see his fight and it was evident in how fast he was trying to build me up. The sad thing was, it was working. I was losing myself in the hunger he was displaying.

“Hunter?”

“That’s right. Let yourself go.” He sucked against the side of one of my folds, moving up to apply the same pleasure to the sensitive nub he was torturing with his touch. He dipped down, thrusting back into my channel before I knew he couldn’t take it anymore. Hunter’s broad shoulders lifted and he crawled on top of me, rubbing his long length over my slit. When the tip nudged into my entrance, I somehow managed to move my head back and forth, but not from my own doing. He was the one allowing the freedom.

“Fuck,” he moaned, inching himself inside of me. He lowered, trying to brush his lips over mine, but I couldn’t get accustomed to how it felt. To it being
him
. “This is right,” he said, lowly. “It was always supposed to be this way.”

A cry began to leave my mouth, fading out as I sucked in air at the depth he reached.

“No.”
The word repeated over and over as I clawed through the fog that refused to let me make sense of what was happening. More I looked into his face, pulling the strings of my memories until I was sure they would snap. Blurry images flickered, not making sense, and I held to one. One that turned my blood cold. Hunter, looming over me. There was pain, so much so that I knew it was killing me. “Off,” I managed.

“Never.” His lips pressed into mine and I bit against the full flesh, feeling blood gush into my mouth as the skin tore at my jerk. A laugh filled my head making me freeze.

“If you wanted to taste me, all you had to do was say so.” Hunter’s arm rose and he sliced his fang over the skin. The wound was forced into my mouth and once again my head was trapped. As his lip healed before my eyes, all I could do was scream. Even as he drowned me in his blood, he continued to use his nail to keep the wound deep.

Weight over my mouth made my jaw ache while he continued to thrust. My choking had his arm pulling back and a smile came to his face as he let his arm drag over my face, covering me more in the crimson substance. I could feel is coat my cheek as warmth overflowed from my mouth. More flashes blinded me, but not of Hunter … of Marko. He’d forced his blood on me before. I could see his determined face so clearly. He loved me, wanted me, as much as he seemed to be out of his mind in that moment. And I wasn’t a vampire, but human. Yes. None of this was as it seemed.

The panic that swirled within had my powers so incredibly hot that I screamed through the pain. I had to release it or surely it would burn me from the inside out.

Louder the laughter surrounded me and Hunter’s blurry body went in and out as I pushed back into a dark void somewhere within me. I didn’t want to be there anymore. I couldn’t.

Screams were still leaving me as my body jolted through a weird popping sensation. I was sucked down a tunnel so fast that it didn’t make sense as I fell into my body and instinctually kicked back. The chair I was sitting in rocked and I threw myself forward to stop myself from tumbling back. Aetas’ outraged glare met me the moment I settled and somehow I knew I’d done something wrong. Something I shouldn’t have been able to do.

The memories of his
test
came back and all I manage was to shake at the fury that I felt. Sickness flooded me and I could still taste and smell Hunter’s blood in my mouth and nose.

“He is us, you … and me.
Sayer.
You’re going to turn him. You’re going to try to have him take my place.”

Aetas didn’t answer, but with the silence, he didn’t have to. 

Chapter 19

Marko

Loud sirens filled the background not far from the gates of Fort Hood. The smile on my face couldn’t have stretched any wider as I strolled the streets of the military housing. After Aetas refused to allow me admittance into Headquarters by making it impossible for me to find, rage sent me on the path to destruction. The group of vampires I got together was enough to overwhelm the tunnels of the small town. The massacre I orchestrated was no doubt just finding its way to officials, but I didn’t get the result I wanted. Hunter hadn’t been present and for that, he’d pay even worse.

My claws embedded even more into the scalp of the head I held and I slowed at seeing Hunter’s silhouette step from the front door, onto the porch. Concern masked his features and he pulled a white shirt over his head as he stared toward the large, protective wall across the field. My arm reared back and I launched the head right at him. I was only two houses down, but at my movement, his head snapped in my direction. It gave him just enough time to catch the dark shape that was crashing into his chest.

I didn’t wait for him to process what was happening. I was already running, flying across the grass right in his direction. A sound tore from his mouth and his hands jerked back, dropping the head. Recognition of his roommate, his friend, registered for only a moment before his eyes shot up to mine and he stumbled back, racing for the front door. He was fast. So fast, that I still couldn’t believe that he was breaking past the threshold just as I was stepping onto the cement square pad of the porch.

“Hunter!” Electrical heat surged the length of my limbs and I expelled the sensation, not even shielding my face as it burst from me. Glass blew from the windows and screen door. The shockwave from the impact was like a rubber band effect and my ears popped as I began to pace. I needed inside, or him to come outside. The repercussions didn’t matter. Nothing did but ending this once and for all. I knew I had to be careful. He could very well kill me, but my status wouldn’t let me believe he was good enough to succeed.

Fragments of brick broke off toward me as the loud pops of a gun exploded through the air. Pieces hit my shoulder, tearing through the long sleeve white shirt I wore. It was already untucked and half way unbuttoned. I was mess, not only in appearance from relishing in killing the handful of soldiers, but also in my frame of mind. I longed for the blood of my mate and who better to get a taste of it than from shredding Hunter’s throat. It’d be the closest I would ever get to her until she returned. Regardless that I’d taken her over, it would still be close enough.

“Have you learned nothing?” I roared, stepping closer. My voice was almost inaudible it was so deep. My vampire was taking me over completely and there wasn’t a single part of me that wanted to stop my monster. I’d blow this house straight from the foundation if it meant getting to Hunter.

“Come out, here. Fight me, human. Show me what you’re made of. Let me taste you.” I bared my fangs, racing forward to crash into the invisible barrier that protected the house. More shots rang out and my body jerked at the force of the bullets. Clinking echoed on the ground as the flattened pieces of metals oozed from the surface of my skin, bouncing at my feet.

“You want me, motherfucker?” A whiz broke through the air and Hunter appeared around the edge of the wall just as a stake flew in my direction. My reflex flared and I reached out, plucking the wood from the air as it went to the right of my shoulder. Smoke poured from my hand and the burn was excruciating. It only fed the anger as I snapped the length in half and let it fall to the ground. Hunter’s eyes narrowed, determined, as he pulled the trigger of the bow again …. and again.

The wood fell inches in front of my feet as it hit my own protected wall. A laugh poured from my mouth and I reached deep inside to the core of my powers. The house began to rattle until I had it shaking violently around him.

“Come out, or else you’ll be buried in what remains of this place. Your choice.”

Sirens still cried out in the distance, but new ones were coming closer. They were from the base. If I didn’t hurry, I’d have more to deal with than Axis. Sure, I wanted to get Aetas’ attention, but not because of what I was doing. We had laws, ones I was already breaking by using my powers so openly. Our leader would have every right to lock me away until he saw fit, and that was the last thing I needed.

“You always were a coward,” I yelled, jolting the house even harder. “Come out!”

“Fuck you! You’ll see me soon enough, on my terms. Not yours.”

Hunter held out to the wall for stability and my head jerked around in time to see a car hauling ass around the turn. “I’ll be waiting … and watching you. You’ll have to leave here at some point. When you do, I will find you. And I will kill you.”

“She lives,” Hunter exploded. “I saw Tessa. She lives.”

The shaking stopped in my shock. “How do you know that?” His silence had me yelling louder.  “How do you know that?”

“Him,” he mouthed, almost silently. “He showed me. I’ll kill you all. I’ll kill her, again!”

I crashed into the wall with every ounce of my strength trying to claw my way through. “I’ll end your life first. I promise you that.”

Tires squealed in the background and I threw up my personal protectant, turning invisible. Hunter’s jaw clenched, but he didn’t move closer. He knew I was still here, regardless whether or not he could see me. It was the military police I didn’t want to deal with.

“I am going to put one of those stakes through your heart for what you did to Johnson,” Hunter said in a lower voice. “You watch and see. I’ll take care of you, then Tessa, then Aetas. That’s his name, isn’t it? That’s what Tessa called him. I’ll find all of you and I’ll end this once and for all.”

If it wasn’t for Tessa being alive, I would have leveled the house. With her, I had something to live for, but if she were truly dead, I would have let Aetas kill me over what I’d have to do to kill Hunter. No one threatened the woman I loved and got away with it. Especially after what he did. He would try again, this I knew for fact. But Hunter
would
pay. If I had to stay until just before sunrise, I’d stalk his every move until I had my chance.

I stepped out of the way as the police officer gripped his gun and stopped short of Johnson’s head.

“Moretti, what the fuck is going on? Someone was here. I saw him.” There was a fear in the officer’s tone as he looked at Hunter.

“Vampire,” he said through clenched teeth. “That
vampire
is a Master and he’s still here. You just can’t see him. Please,” he paused. “Rios, come inside. But only you,” he said louder. “No one else is allowed past this door.”

My lids lowered in anger as the man rushed passed me, into the house. He looked over his shoulder, clearly shaking, and it took everything I had not to attack. The smell of his fear fed the creature in me and made him even more impatient for blood. Two more cars pulled up as the men stood in the doorway.

“Johnson was leading the men tonight. I’m afraid something very bad has happened underground. You need to make some calls and get some soldiers in those tunnels. Not civilian cops,
soldiers
. I also need you to…” he paused looking in the vicinity of my direction. When he lowered and whispered something in the man’s ear, I clenched my fists. My heart was racing so fast and hard that I couldn’t hear shit. I saw nothing but Hunter’s throat. I was going to tear it to shreds and bathe in his blood.

Two other soldiers walked toward the door and my fingers twitched as Hunter relayed the story to them too. Their anger and emotional status was evident. One soldier wiped continuous tears as he stared at Johnson’s head. More people were arriving but I didn’t move as they began closing the roads off. Their unease at my presence had many looking around. Watching the area with caution and they needed to. The more time that went by the harder it was to restrain myself.

A tug on my insides had my eyes closing. It was a call. One from Marie. I could feel her vampire in need. It made me even more enraged. I didn’t want to leave to see what she needed. If Hunter came out of that house, I wanted to destroy him. I couldn’t do that if I wasn’t here. Instead, I used my powers as leader to push into her mind. It wasn’t what a leader should do. I should have been present in the city I ran, but I couldn’t think of something more important than destroying the threat that would surely arrive in my own tunnels if I didn’t stop it now.

“What is it, Marie?”

There was a hesitant surprise before she answered.
“Humans. They’ve pushed past the west entrance. Twenty of so of them. And they were equipped with those holy water stakes. We took care of them, but there were more that escaped. We lost four of our kind and two slaves.”
An internal cry sounded.
“It’s starting. I dreamed this. I told you in the meeting it wouldn’t be long.”

“Fuck!”
I paced the small distance of the porch, glaring at Hunter.
“I’ll be there soon. Have Anastasia and Beatrice stay close to where they got in. Get Bufar to put up a wall preventing any more from entering. I’ll be there shortly.”

I cut off the connection, watching one of the soldiers jerk to a standstill not a few feet away. He spun around in a circle, scanning the surroundings in a panic.

“Sergeant? I don’t like this.” Although he addressed another soldier next to him, I could tell he was just speaking out of apprehension. Sweat was dripping down his face while he continued to survey the area.

“Just keep your eyes open,” the man whispered. “I don’t fucking like this either. I can’t stand that these bastards can hide so openly. It’s not right.”

Hunter was gone now, deeper in the house as I turned my attention back to my prey. Would he come out again while it was dark? I didn’t think so. Even if he did, he’d be prepared, right along with the other men flocking around him. Time. I might have had plenty of it, but I didn’t feel that way. My impatience wanted to nip this in the bud
now
.

I forced myself to take a step back. Each foot further away made each one harder to accept. My eyes scanned the structure of the house, and I wasn’t able to stop myself from what I knew I needed to do. I couldn’t leave so easily. And maybe I’d get lucky. Besides, it wasn’t like anyone could see me right now. They couldn’t blame me if they didn’t have evidence.

A smile pulled the corner of my lips and I closed my eyes letting the fire within build. At the ground shaking beneath my feet, my lids opened. I let the heat explode from me in a blistering gust. Bricks, wood, more glass all burst into thick debris, spinning in slow motion before me. Off in the distance, yells broke through the haze in my mind, but I couldn’t stop watching the beauty of my devastation.

Pieces flew through the air as the front of the home cratered in, blowing back at the invisible wave of force. Already I was walking closer, right through the ruin. Waiting ... praying.

What I did didn’t put a dent in what I could have done, but it was enough to get my point across. Just not enough to draw Hunter out. Dazed, he pushed rubble off, crawling out from a partially broken bookcase. Heavy pants left him and where I thought I’d pick up fear, there was nothing but wrath. Even though I wasn’t visible, he seemed to look right at my face.

“Come on. Step off of that foundation.”
I moved to the yard, ready, already in stance to attack if he felt brave enough. A groan at his feet didn’t break the focus he seemed to have on me as he followed my movements.

“Get ready, Marko. You want a war, I’ll give you a fucking war! You don’t stand a chance against what I have planned for your city. You think your powers will save you, but I have something stronger on my side. It’s called Faith. Something you’ll never have. God wouldn’t have let me live if he didn’t plan for me to beat you. And I will. Your life is in my hands and it’s only a matter of time before I take it. So stay here for the rest of the night if you wish, but remember one thing. This is two-sided. You have to sleep at some point, and when you do, I’ll be the one to wake you.”

I dropped my shield, baring my fangs. My hand rose as I let his threat sink in. “I look forward to killing you. Before I leave, tonight…” Pain slammed through my limbs as I let my powers once against leave me in a heated rush. The wave sent Hunter’s body flying back. Again, I unleashed, and again, watching the house buckle and collapse in a large cloud of dust. Shots rang from the far side and I turned, glaring at one of the soldiers as a bullet burned into my arm unexpectedly.  I turned invisible, racing in his direction as he continued to pull the trigger, missing me. When my body slammed into his, his back hit the ground hard, breaking through a foot of the earth. I didn’t wait. Couldn’t see through the haze of my need to kill. My fangs buried in the side of his neck and I sucked against his vein, greedily, teasing myself before I jerked up and snapped his neck. My eyes scanned the neighborhood and I was done being restrained by rules.

These humans were going to see that they couldn’t cross a vampire and get away with it. I’d abolish them all. It was what we were meant for. No one stood a chance. This wasn’t a fairytale where vampires came out and coexisted with humans. That would
never
happen. They were food—our life source. With the way things were going in every country, the world was already starting to see the truth.
War
… yes. We were ready.