Page 64 of Hunted
“No,” I rasped, staggering backward, registering the punctures at Yukio’s throat, still leaking a fine stream of his magic-rich blood.I could taste the faint hint of peppermint and fae magic on my tongue.“No, no, no—”
Yukio’s expression twisted with pain, but not fear.He didn’t move to defend himself.He just looked at me like he was studying something he didn’t understand.Something pitiful and broken.
“I didn’t—” I began, then stopped, breath hitching.I dropped to my knees on the rich carpet, fingers twitching.“I didn’t mean to.I wasn’t—I thought with the curse breaker nearby...”
“You stopped,” Yukio said softly.His rich voice was hoarse, maybe from pain, maybe from anger.It was hard to tell with him.“I sensed it, the moment your will won out over the bitch in your head.”
My shoulders shook.He hadn’t fought back.Not that I could recall much, but I was completely unharmed.And Yukio was a highly-trained assassin with fae magic and the yuki-onna ability to turn my blood to ice in my veins, to freeze me from the inside out.If he’d fought me, I’d know it.But there was no blade—ice or otherwise—stuck through my heart right now.Why?
“Hit me,” I demanded, my defeated voice rising to a near shout.“Throw your magic at me.Stab me through my evil heart.Dosomething!”
“No.”Yukio’s voice dripped disdain as he pushed himself up straight, still leaning against the wall.He was still bleeding slowly, his scent filling my senses and making it hard to think straight.Even now, the hunger was there, clawing at my willpower, demanding we feast on the abundance of beautiful, frosty power before us.
“Please,” I begged.I dropped my head until it nearly touched the ground, bowing as one did when pleading for a life in the naga court.“You have to.Look what I’ve done?I can’t—if I don’t pay for it, how can I—” How could I live with myself?
“You don’t get to decide whether or not you deserve punishment.”Yukio’s words were clipped.Not angry.Just...weary.Done with me and all the problems I caused.“Get up, moron.I’m not going to give you some fucking benediction.”
I choked on a sob.
He sighed, pushing off from the wall.A surge of his chilly magic made me look up again, as he stuck a hand through the hole in his shirt andfrozethe wound on his torso to temporarily halt the bleeding.A dark part of me observed that his magic would have been really handy back in the vampire menagerie, where it wasn’t uncommon for a pet to die of blood loss thanks to an overzealous monster like me.
Footsteps echoed behind me.Then a sharp flash of power.Sanka.
Thank all the Gods and Goddesses.Sanka was Yukio’s lover.He would defend Yukio with a vengeance.Butwhyhad Yukio let me attack him in the first place?He barely tolerated me even when I was human.I knew he loathed me now that I was a vampire.Surely he’d welcome the excuse to execute me.Why hadn’t he fought back?
Yukio met my stare and arched one black brow as if he knew exactly what I was thinking.“Killing you might seem convenient, but it would cause more problems than it would solve,” he said, his sharp blue gaze intense.Something in his manner shifted, and I had the strange feeling that he saw more than either of us wanted him to.That maybe he knew how far into the darkness I sometimes went.Maybe he knew how much time I’d spent trying to get around Acacia’s orders and kill myself, just to end this ordeal.
“Keep fighting, idiot.Don’t let her win,” he whispered, as if afraid someone might overhear his irritated pep-talk.Then his lips curled in disgust.“I don’t want to put up with all the grieving nonsense that would occur if everyone who loves you—which is this whole damned court—loses their minds over your death.”
His intense stare lingered, and I couldn’t look away.Was Yukio...attempting to encourage me?To protect me from myself?
Sanka reached us then, his heavy footsteps sliding to a halt as he took in the two of us.“Damn it.”Rather than attending to Yukio first, the way I expected him to, the big sorcerer crouched beside me and pressed something cold and burning to my chest.The pendant the curse breaker had given me.
I only now realized it was missing.Acacia must have found a way to convince me to take it off.It pulsed against my skin now—once, twice—and Acacia’s lingering presence vanished from my awareness.She was still there, I knew, but shoved far into the periphery.For now.
I whimpered involuntarily.I wanted her gone, but the echoing silence she left behind ached.And it made my hunger flare up, urging me to fill the void my maker left behind.Sanka smelled so good.Like power and fiery demon-laced sorcerer blood.I wanted nothing more than to sink my fangs into his warm brown skin and drink.I resisted the need, used every scrap of my own vampire magic that I could access to turn off the hunger and block Acacia out as thoroughly as I could.
It was too much.The warring factions inside me burned, trying to tear me apart from the inside.
Blood surged up the back of my throat, and I retched violently, curling in on myself as I coughed up thick crimson.Not Yukio’s magical blue blood.This was my own.The backlash from attempting to resist Acacia, and my own vampiric nature.
“Shit,” Sanka said, catching me before I face-planted.
My eyes fluttered open.“She’s gone.”
“Temporarily,” Sanka said.“The curse breaker warned this isn’t a permanent fix.Like a band aid over a bullet wound.”
I stared at the ceiling.“I can’t keep doing this.Youall can’t keep doing this.”
Yukio crouched, gripping his injured side.“If it means that bitch doesn’t win,” he said evenly, “we’ll do whatever it takes.It’s only until the Cold Moon, a couple of weeks now, and the squatter will finish breaking your curse.Now get the fuck up, vampire.We’ve got shit to do.”
Nodding, I pushed myself to my feet and followed them to the workroom, where I got cleaned up at the industrial sink and took a seat on a stool in the corner like a chastised child.
A short time later, we sat in silence while the others trickled in, called by their leader, or by some sixth sense that let them know there was trouble.My head throbbed as I watched the others move about, guilt and determination coming and going in waves.Yukio was right.I couldn’t let Acacia win.She had stolen enough of my life away when I was her servant at the menagerie.She didn’t get to keep taking from me,ortorturing Sadavir and the others through me.And yet...the hopelessness and guilt were overwhelming.
Yukio sat on a matching stool across the room, shirtless, while Ruya healed him with her delicious golden power and her soft touch.The pixie seemed unconcerned about my attempt to eat him—or eviscerate him.But Ruya...the way her whole demeanor had shut down when she arrived and went to assess Yukio....She had, somehow, forgiven me for hurting Cicely.For nearly killing him.But how many more times could she forgive me for endangering the people she loved?Was this it?Did she hate me now?
She should.
