Hunter's Rise (5 page)

But instead, he was here again.

Here, thinking selfish, dark thoughts and trying not to feel jealous over the fact that Nessa had found that missing piece of her soul. With Dominic, of all people. He never would have expected that one.

As they drew closer, Toronto shoved a hand into his pocket and pulled out a pack of gum. “Sometimes a man just wants to be alone,” he said conversationally.

“And sometimes, you just want to brood, even though it’s not good for you,” Nessa said brightly.

Her voice, crisp with the sounds of England, was altogether too cheerful. But when she hooked her arm through his and slanted a look up at him, he saw the sympathy in her eyes.

“I thought you weren’t going to come back here so often,” she said softly.

“I haven’t.” He blew a bubble almost as big as his face and then popped it, mostly just to annoy her, watching as she made a face at him. “It’s been fifteen years. That’s a pretty good time-out, don’t you think?”

Without waiting for her to respond, he shot Dominic a look. “And look at you, all mated up and happy. It’s a good look for you, kid.”

Dominic just stared at him.

Toronto huffed out an exasperated sigh. “Here I am, trying to be nice to him, even.”

“Yes, you were.” Nessa beamed at him, looking as pleased as if she were a teacher and he’d presented her with an apple on the first day of school.

Was it foolish that it made him feel absurdly proud, even as it embarrassed him? Scowling, he shifted his gaze over to the water. “The two of you… didn’t see that one coming.” Curious, he glanced at Nessa. “How did you know? Was it
like
wham
, some sort of click and you just knew? Did it take longer?”

“Yes… and yes.” She glanced at Dominic and then back at him, a faint smile on her face. “There were all sorts of
clicks
. But it took a while, too. Mostly because I tried to mess things up. But that’s neither here nor there. Why are you here, Tor?”

“Not like I got anything better to do.” He bent over and scooped up a rock, hurled it into the water— it almost made it to the opposite shore before it touched the surface. “Hey, what should I get you for a wedding present? I could always buy you some garlic to keep the vamps away, right?”

Nessa rolled her eyes. Dominic’s response was to reach up, cup his hand over the back of his wife’s neck. “Please tell me we didn’t spend all this time driving up here to deal with this basket case.”

“Well, he is my favorite basket case.” She rose on her toes and pressed a kiss to Dominic’s jaw, lightly patted his chest. “He can’t help it, usually. He could stop being less of an ass sometimes. If he changed completely, he wouldn’t be Toronto, would he?”

“That wouldn’t be a loss,” Dominic muttered.

Toronto sighed and continued to stare out over the rolling black waters before him. The moon was a high, gleaming circle in the sky— it was full— casting its light down on the world, reflecting off the water. It was hypnotic, lovely… he could almost imagine he heard it whispering to him. He should shift… run, let the wolf have his way, but the wolf would want to
run
, and
hunt
.

Toronto was here to search for answers— the wolf didn’t care.

He’d like to pretend the lunar cycle had something to do with his edgy mood, but he could do better than this if he had to.

It had nothing to do with the lunar cycle, nothing to do with the changes the werewolf virus had wreaked on him all those years ago. In short, it was just him. Him being a basket case, an asshole. All of it.

“Nessa, stop worrying about me,” he said softly.

“I can’t.” She moved to stand at his side, nearly as quiet as a vampire herself, quieter than any shifter. He heard her, but didn’t move. When she reached up and rested a hand on his shoulder, he wished he would have, though. “I can’t stop worrying about you, lad. You’re a friend. I worry about my friends. And…”

“And what?” He slanted a look at her, scowling as he saw her eyes darken. He knew that look.

She might not look like the sweet old matron who’d saved his ass all those years ago— and that had been such a deceptive appearance— but damn it, she hadn’t changed that much. That look didn’t mean good things.

But she didn’t answer.

“Damn it, Nessa,” he snapped, his voice edging low and rough.

“You might want to watch how you talk to her, Lassie,” Dominic warned, taking a step in his direction.

“Or what, dead man?” Toronto shot him a derisive look. “You haven’t been without a pulse long enough to take me, and we both know it.”

Dominic smirked. “Well, if push comes to shove, it’s not
me
that you need to worry about it.” He closed a little more distance between them, his eyes flashing in the night. “But that doesn’t mean I’m going to let you talk to her that way.”

“Dom… don’t.” Nessa rested a hand on his chest, staring in Toronto’s direction. “It’s not like I’d let either of you go at it, and that’s another thing you both know. If push did come to shove, I’d have you both on the ground, begging for mercy.”

Dominic covered her hand with his. “I don’t care to listen to Furface talking to you like that.”

“Hmmm. Well, Furface is having a bad night. We all have them, don’t we?”

Toronto hated the sympathy he heard in her voice, hated it enough that he was willing to pick a fight with a witch who damn well
could
put him on the ground, if she so chose. “Yeah, well, instead of standing there talking about me like I’m not here, why don’t the two of you fuck off and let me have my bad night?” He let his wolf show in his eyes as he
flicked his gaze to Dominic before he looked back at Nessa. “I’m sure the two of you are still having a lot of fun tearing up the sheets and all that jazz. Leave me the hell alone, old woman.”

The scent of anger lit the air around them— Dominic’s. Dominic was pretty strong for a vamp less than two decades old, but he was still young. He couldn’t handle Toronto.

Nessa, though, Nessa would leave his head ringing. That would stop any pitying talk. Except, of course, she knew exactly what he was after.

“Don’t even think of it, wolf.” Nessa’s voice, cool and sharp with warning, wouldn’t have been enough to get through to him.

Right then, he was so desperate to get them both away from him, to stop that infuriating pity,
nothing
would get through to him. But when he tried to take a step forward, he found he couldn’t and there was an unseen, warning
hand
around his neck.

Witches. Strong ones were a pain in the ass. They manipulated the elements the same way others could flip a light switch, and the stronger they were, the easier it was to manipulate said elements. Nessa was the strongest witch alive.

“Fuck, Nes—”

That was all he got out before she tightened her grasp. “Do stop, Tor, my dear,” she said, sighing. “You’re pissing Dom off and trust me, while it would be great fun to watch the two of you wrestle around like buffoons, that’s not why I’m here.”

She peered at him, her big blue eyes narrowing. “So, if I let you go, are you going to behave yourself? As best as you know how, at least?”

He glared at her.

The unseen “hand” around his neck tightened and he tried to suck in a desperate breath of air. Damn it, she hadn’t gone and forgotten he still needed to
breathe
, had she? Black dots started to dance in front of his eyes.

“Toronto, you have always been so bloody stubborn.” The hand loosened, and he sagged, sucking in desperate draughts of air.

“And you were always so damned determined to mother me.” He shoved his hair back and glared at her. His throat ached, damn it. “Mother me and then do crazy shit like fucking trying to
strangle
me. What in the hell do you want, Nessa?”

“Oh, do be quiet.” Nessa shot Dominic a warning look. “Really, Toronto. If I’d wanted to strangle you, there would be no
try
to it, and you well know it.”

With the blood still roaring in his ears, Toronto struggled to hold on to his control, but every second made it harder. The wolf inside him started to stretch, rolling around inside his skin.
Out
… the wolf whispered.
Let me out… let me run. Let me hunt…

“What do you
want
?” he snarled.

Something about the way she stared at him made the wolf still. Toronto’s blood ran cold and his heart shuddered inside his chest. “Darkness… you know it’s part of us all, don’t you, Toronto?” Nessa eased away from Dominic to stand at Toronto’s side, staring out over the river.

“All of us?” He tried to force himself to smile. “You don’t have a lick of darkness in you, old woman.”

A faint smile curled her lips. “You know, it’s terribly amusing to hear that from you, when
I
look younger than
you
now.” Then she slanted a look up at him. The look in her eyes was… awful.

Something he’d never thought to see from her, something he never
wanted
to see from her. Something too close to a monster peered at him from her lovely blue eyes and he watched, with his heart racing, as that darkness leeched away, replaced by a grim, bleak sadness. “We all have darkness, Toronto. Mine is a burden I’ll have to bear for all my days, I fear. You…” She closed her eyes. “Your darkest days are in your past, Toronto. Let them stay there. Leave it alone.”

“You know more than you’ve told me,” he said, and it wasn’t the first time he’d said it. Closing his eyes, he thought,
Will she tell me this time?
But he already knew the answer. “When are you going to tell me?”

“Leave it alone,” she said again, her voice gentle.

Leave it alone?
If only it was as easy as that. He wished he could—

Something raced along his spine.

It was faint, but unmistakable.

Sighing, he opened his eyes and slanted a look at Nessa. She felt it, too. He could tell just by looking at her. She stood with her head cocked and a frown on her face. “Hardly what we need right now,” she murmured, absently toying with the end of one braid.

“What?”

Dominic, it seemed, was too young to feel it. Turning away from the river, Toronto said, “Call is going out. We need to batten down the hatches.”

“Batten down the hatches?” Dominic lifted a brow.

Nessa moved to him and hooked an arm through his. “There’s going to be a need for us soon.”

“Us… us, who?”

She answered, but Toronto tuned it out. His mind was focusing on the fact that he needed to go back to Memphis. But that wasn’t where he wanted to be.

Or where he belonged. Of course, he didn’t know
where
he belonged. Actually, that wasn’t true.

He didn’t belong anywhere, and he hadn’t for quite some time.

“L

Toronto should have known that coming back in the daylight wouldn’t prevent the Master from going for his throat.

Plastering a blank expression on his face, he paused on the steps and glanced over to the office. It wasn’t even close to dusk, maybe four in the afternoon. But Rafe was a Master vampire, and he wasn’t a weak one, either— that came with some perks. Sometimes those perks involved being able to rise well before sunset. Didn’t mean he’d be able to go for a tan or anything, but he wasn’t a slave to the rising and setting of the sun, either.

Which meant Toronto had to face him.

He shoved his hands in the back pockets of his jeans. “Hey. Sorry I took off.” There. Did that cover it?

“Sorry.” Rafe stroked a thumb down his jaw and nodded. With deceptive laziness, he sauntered out of the darkness of his office into the brightly lit hallway. Sunlight fell through the window to dance across his face as he crossed to the stairs. Rafe didn’t so much as flinch.

“You’re sorry. You disappear, leave one of the younger Hunters alone after a bad fight and you’re sorry.”