Page 8 of Fated to the Hunters
Yet.
One bothered her more than the others. The black eyes and devious grin made her skin crawl.
The first night she’d snuck down to see them, she’d been haunted by those pitch-black eyes. She hadn’t been able to sleep until she got them out of her head and onto paper. Flipping to an empty page, she focused the strokes of her pencil to recreate the silent one. His hair was dark, the sides of his head shaved, his chestnut eyes held the secret to every one of his emotions. He seemed to be the oldest of the three, but not by much. Maybe his early thirties if she had to guess. His face was clean shaved, and his hands were rough, with blisters and callouses covering them. She wondered if they came from hunting, but hadn’t they said he’d stayed back today to finish up some work? His broad chest and massive arms did lead to the conclusion of him doing manual labour.
Part of her wanted to know everything about them, while another was scared she would only strengthen the bond by doing so. What would life with them be like? Did they have day jobs? Or did they even live together?
Then she wondered how she ended up being mated toall three. It was rare for a wolf to have more than one mate. There had been stories over the generations, but they were nothing more than folklore.
She was about to get up and reach for the phone when she remembered that they were going on a hunt. She shook off the thought, then tossed her sketchbook aside, going in search of a warm drink.
Chapter Five
Ezra
Ezra effortlessly cleared the ten-foot fence, protected by the darkness of night. He now walked towards the mansion where that bastard vampire had been hiding for the past week. They’d cut the power to the villa, creating the perfect cover for them to gain entrance. Losing his patience, Ezra had swallowed a tincture of vampire blood and silver: enough to poison his prey, but not enough to make him sick.
“Sweet Valentine,” he purred. “Or do you go under a different name now?”
Three men came out of the villa guns drawn but Ezra executed them right on the spot. And although all of them now lay lifeless before the entrance, the last one had somehow managed to hit a bullet through Ezra’s shoulder.
“Bitch,” he hissed, popping the capsule of vampire blood stashed in his cheek. The sweet liquid trickled down his throat, healing the wound almost instantly. His preparation in taking the tincture helped as well, but now his mind felt all warm and fuzzy—even as he stepped over the corpses in the entryway.
“Oh, my sweet Valentine!” he cajoled, a deep, booming laugh rumbling his chest.
Ezra choked on his next breath, his feet jolting from the ground. He soared, landing with a sickening crack on the marble staircase. Ribs snapped, and the breath whooshed from his lungs. When his eyes focused again, he couldn’t see his prey anywhere, but Ezra knew that was just a defence tactic, Valentine knew the second he exposed himself, Ezra would fire silver bullets at him.
“Oh, c’mon! Is that all you got?”
Ezra grunted, an invisible force slicing his neck. He fell to his knees, blood spurting from his neck like a pig at slaughter. The last blood capsule popped, but Ezra hit the ground before it could take effect. He choked, eyes threatening to shut. Pain ripped through his body. Then his muscles went slack, his gun slipping from his fingers. Once the fucker thought Ezra was unconscious, he began to feed, sucking the blood and silver from Ezra’s veins. Ezra kept his body lax, tactfully slipping his dagger into his palm. When the moment was right, he snapped his arm back, sinking the dagger into the first piece of Valentine he found. He pressed the button on the hilt, releasing the liquid silver hidden inside.
Then Ezra was flying again, shooting through the air and smashing his hip on a concrete wall.
Fuck!
But he could feel Mateo and Vince by his side. He pried his eyes open. Vince appeared first, cracking a silver-coated arrow across Valentine’s skull. Mateo shattered the bastard’s kneecaps with two more. Without taking his eyes off his target, Vince threw a flask in Ezra’s direction. It hit the ground, a hair out of reach. But Ezra knew that he needed it. He crawled across the floor, snatching the flask and downing the blood in three large gulps.By the time he was back on his feet, the vampire lay unmoving on the ground, an arrow sticking out from between his eyes.
“Worked like a charm,” Ezra chirped, pulling a backpack free of Mateos shoulders.
“You look like shit.” Despite the jab, Mateo’s voice was laced with concern. He thrust another flask into Ezra’s chest. “Drink.”
Though Ezradidenjoy pain, now wasn’t the time. He emptied the flask, his ribs snapping and cracking back into place. Vince had already taken the backpack, lacing a thin silver cord around the vampire’s neck with a beheading device attached to it.
“Time to take a look around.” Ezra turned his back to the duo, grinning over his shoulder at Mateo. “Coming?”
The mansion was big and filled with all kinds of antiques.Expensive ugly shit. In the master bedroom, Ezra found a chest filled to the brim with jewellery. After a moment of peering through the gems, he deemed it worth taking. As he made his way back to his friends, Vince called for them from the library.
Vince stood in front of a bookcase, pressing down on an engraved rose to reveal that it was a secret entrance. Of course, the carpenter in him always caught small details that others would’ve missed.
With a new kind of excitement buzzing through his system, Ezra placed the jewellery chest on the ground and withdrew his weapon. He followed Vince down a dark set of stairs, illuminated by nothing but the small flashlight Vince held. Mateo stayed up top, making sure they couldn’t be caught by surprise.
The two men reached the bottom of the stairs, taking in their surroundings. The room reeked of death, and it didn’t take long to find the source. There was a stone mausoleum in the midst of it.
“Is that what I think it is?”
Vince inspected the dark corners of the room before stepping closer to investigate the grave. It was a simple stone, withno pictures or even an engraving. Vince tossed Ezra a curious glance, then shrugged his shoulders and pushed the lid aside. Once they’d managed to remove the top enough to peek inside, Vince lowered in his light.
“Fuck, that’s disturbing,” Ezra said. “Even for me.”
