The Claimed (15 page)

“Christopher’s father, the true Añaru, wants to bring Christopher to heel, but age has weakened Alexander.”

Which meant that the old man had reached the point where nothing short of immense Quinchu power could restore him, Rafael surmised. “There are only a few who can help,” he said, understanding what she wanted.

“Adam Bruno was promised to us by his human father. He has the strength to restore Alexander and when he does…”

Christopher would be brought back under his father’s thumb or maybe better yet, eliminated as Shadow tradition demanded. There could be only one true Añaru, and such disputes were resolved by deadly means. Either scenario was fine as far as Rafael was concerned. Either resolution would keep Christopher away from Victoria and ensure that she would bond with another Light Hunter. Possibly even with him if she came to understand what he had done for her and the clan.

In addition, Adam’s disappearance might even result in his clan’s returning to their desert home, eliminating their presence in the area which had created both tension and concern amongst many of the Ocean clan members.

Surveying the area around them, Rafael realized there were too many individuals around tonight, both human
and Hunter. They could not risk seizing Bruno now, but the future Desert Quinchu would soon be alone.

“I can lead you to their compound tomorrow, but he and his wife are both strong. He will not be taken easily.”

Maya nodded, understanding. “I will bring help to subdue them.”

Them. Bruno and his pregnant wife. At the thought of the latter, a knot of guilt formed at his center and he quickly said, “Just Bruno or we have no deal. I do not want his wife or her unborn injured.”

Maya examined him for long moments, then nodded slowly. “We will use all possible precautions to keep her from harm.”

After a curt nod of his head, he gave the Shadow woman his e-mail address so they could contact each other. She hurried off, but Rafael hung back, unready to join his clan members. As he left the auditorium, he slipped into the gazebo for solitude and sat down. He told himself he had not just struck a bargain with the devil. That what he was doing was for the good of the clan and Victoria.

Victoria. The way she had looked just a short time ago… She had almost been glowing, literally, like a Hunter who had been well pleased.

That could not happen again, he thought, leaning his elbows on his thighs and wringing his hands. No Light Hunter could bond with a Shadow, the latter being too contaminated by the pox to allow for any lasting union. And even if it were somehow possible, he could not permit it. Too many of their people had been lost to the Shadows for there to ever be peace between the Light Ones and the Darkness.

He pushed off the bench and rose, taking in a deep breath to center himself. When calm and focus had been restored, he exited the gazebo and deliberately walked back toward the auditorium, attentive for signs of any Shadows and untoward behavior.

You could never really trust them, he thought as he entered the hall and resumed his duties, taking up a strategic position by the wings in the front of the hall. Before him the Brunos, Carreras, and all of the Quinchus were visible. Victoria was off to the far side with her friends, chattering as if nothing had occurred, although she seemed distracted.

With a slow perusal of the hall, he noted Christopher and Maya at the back, along with a couple of others he pegged as Shadows. Christopher stood rigidly beside Maya and a reddish-blond-haired man who appeared agitated. He was flanking Maya along with two other men, who by the looks of them were part of Christopher’s cadre, clearly warriors and not too pleased with the woman either.

At an abrupt command from Christopher, the four left the hall with Maya tucked between them, obviously under guard.

Rafael relaxed, confident that if any trouble arose with Christopher tonight he would be able to handle him one on one. Remaining in the shadows, he patiently waited for the auction to be over.

The year’s worth of goodies from the Del Ponte bakery was just too good an offering to pass up. Apparently Christopher wasn’t the only one with the same idea as paddle after paddle jumped up and down until the bidding
had gotten to a point where only two people were left in the running.

Victoria and him.

As their gazes connected across the width of the hall, she smiled with determination and raised her paddle to up the bid, earning good-natured jabs from the two friends beside her and raised eyebrows from her parents.

He didn’t need to win the prize. The environmental organization benefiting from the auction would still be getting a nice donation if Victoria’s bid won. But as the auctioneer said, “Going twice,” the devil inside Christopher made him raise the paddle and quadruple the bid.

“Five thousand dollars.”

The collective gasp that rose from the crowd in the hall confirmed that bid would buy a lot of cannolis.

Stunned immobile for brief seconds, the auctioneer held the gavel in the air and shot a glance at Victoria, but at the shake of her head, he proceeded.

“Going once. Twice.” With a big bang, he said, “Sold to the man in the back for five thousand dollars.”

Loud applause greeted the announcement, but Christopher didn’t linger for the accolades after noting Victoria’s exasperated expression and the ribbing she appeared to be taking from her two friends and another human male nearby. As he walked, he phoned Ryan to make sure he was on his way back after returning Maya to the compound. Ryan confirmed that he would be at the auditorium in a few minutes and Christopher slipped out a back door and to the table where he could pay and collect his prize. With a quick swipe of his credit card, he picked up the gift certificate and was out the door.

His friend was waiting at the curb in Christopher’s
Aston Martin. Ryan looked good behind the wheel and his smile confirmed that it was a treat since he rarely got to drive the luxury car.

“I see you left the Acadia back at the compound,” Christopher said as he slipped into the passenger seat.

“No need for that big guy once I dropped off Maya and her two guards.”

Two guards who had failed their assignment earlier that night. “Did you remind Pete and Simon about the importance of keeping an eye on our little friend?”

Ryan saluted jauntily as he pulled away from the curb. “Suitably dressed down and reminded, sir. Plus I’ll personally see to Maya once we get back,” he teased, but then grew more serious. “Where do you think she went? She seemed a little too cat that ate the canary when she came back into the hall.”

That she had, Christopher thought, recalling the smug smile on his ex’s face along with the leakage of Hunter power he had detected. Light Hunter power. It worried him that maybe Maya had dined on someone when she had slipped away from the guards he had placed on her. After his plea to Victoria that she trust him, such an action would surely work against him.

“You did a reconnaissance of the area before you left?”

“I did. No bodies and no residual traces of any excess energy releases, except in the gazebo. But I suspect you know what that was about,” Ryan said, shooting an uneasy glance in Christopher’s direction.

He arched a brow and with challenging tones asked, “You don’t approve?”

Ryan shrugged. “As your friend, I know how much you want her. I saw it yesterday when you came back
from your date. I felt it in the energy you left behind in the gazebo.”

“What does my cadre captain think?” Christopher pressed, well aware that Ryan was supremely capable of separating the personal from the demands of the clan.

“He thinks this is a mistake. Now that you know she’s a Light Hunter, bonding with her…”

Ryan didn’t need to finish. Christopher knew of Ryan’s anger toward the Light Ones, Ryan having grown up as an orphan due to one of their attacks. And yet his friend was curbing his personal sentiments, a testament to the strength of his loyalty to both Christopher and the clan.

“What if bonding with her was the final step in eliminating the pox? What then?” he pressed, his body still buzzing from the power of her force and yet still apparently free of any of the initial itching or rashes that preceded an outbreak of the virus. Victoria’s power was surprisingly clean, but maybe more important, it had been freely shared. Both could account for the lack of response from any pox remnants lingering in his system.

“Would you bond with her solely for the sake of the clan?” Ryan challenged. He was well aware of how long Christopher had battled doing just that with Maya.

Christopher considered all that he knew so far about Victoria. Her humor and loyalty. The depth of emotion of which she was capable, but whose surface he had only skimmed, much like the breadth of her power. Only a taste of it had been intoxicating, and yet…

“No, I wouldn’t do that to either of us. The strength of a bonding during an Equinox is beyond any imaginable. I spent too much of my early life watching my parents
suffer both together and apart because of that indomitable connection. Plus, I’m not sure I can trust her yet.”

Ryan was silent for long moments, his mind seemingly on the drive toward their oceanfront compound, but then his friend tapped the palms of his hands on the leather-wrapped steering wheel. He seemed to be struggling with his thoughts, but finally said, “So what is your plan for Victoria?”

Christopher chuckled and held up the ceremonial certificate for the Italian bakery. “They say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. Maybe it’s the way to Victoria’s as well or at least to more time in her company so I can adequately explore what is happening.”

His words seemed to do little to appease Ryan.

“What if you don’t like what you discover? What if she’s a threat to our clan?”

Although it brought unexpected pangs of guilt and maybe even sorrow, Christopher had little doubt about what he would be called upon to do if Victoria posed a risk to his people.

“Then I’ll have no choice but to eliminate her.”

C
hristopher’s cadre members were positioned at Maya’s door and the balcony to the compound’s grounds, effectively imprisoning her. She had no doubt Ryan would also return before the end of the night to make sure she was settled and keeping out of trouble.

Not that she minded Ryan’s visits. Of all of them, he was the one who treated her with the least disdain and surprisingly, some measure of respect.

When she had zapped him with a dose of her sexual power last night, he had inevitably responded, even going so far as to share his energy for a bit. Then his damn sense of responsibility had reared its ugly head and he had pulled away, clearly still in the throes of passion, but apologetic. Almost as if he thought he had taken advantage of her somehow with his advances.

Funny, really. It had been she who had been the one taking advantage, savoring a taste of all the gleaming clean power from Ryan’s affinity for the sun. So different
from the dark energies she sucked in from others’ desires or from the puny humans she preyed upon, who barely provided more than a snack unless you drained them.

Maybe Christopher had a point about being able to restore purity to their systems by abstaining from other Hunters and the humans. Maybe a return to the old ways of gathering could turn around the future of their clan.

But even if Christopher was right, Maya wasn’t sure Alexander would ever permit such a thing. It would diminish him in the eyes of his people and considering his current physical state, Maya wasn’t sure their Añaru could survive the kind of cleansing to which Christopher had been subjecting his cadre and her in the last few days. The pox had settled in Alexander’s body quite powerfully and he likely could not handle the withdrawal from feeding.

Alexander was not strong enough to endure the suffering and pangs from the deprivation that she was experiencing. Even now she itched, but not because of the pox. She itched to feed, but both Christopher and Ryan were strong enough to read her aura and know she had violated the rules of the compound.

Ignoring the cramps in her core, which were like the scream of heroin to a junkie, she grabbed hold of her cell phone and dialed Alexander. He needed to know what was happening, including the discovery that Adam Bruno was close enough to grab.

“Maya,” he said, and the very sound of her name on his lips awakened the remnants of his life force within her. They had shared energy so often that even with the distance he could create a curl of need throughout her body.

“My Añaru,” she said, her voice far huskier than she would have preferred.

“I can hear that you miss me,
warmi
,” he said, using the ancient endearment. “Does my son not please you as well as I do?”

“Your son forsook me long ago, Alexander. You know that.”

“Only a fool would not feed from your luscious life force, Maya.” His voice was pitched low, strumming alive the chords of desire in her body.

“Then he is a fool,” she replied, mustering righteous anger in order to restore some control to her needs.

Alexander laughed heartily. “I love your directness, but you did not call merely to complain about your lack of sex.”

“No, I didn’t,” Maya confirmed, and then quickly relayed the details of what had happened that night, explaining about her long-distance encounter with Adam Bruno and the covenant she had made with the Light Hunter cadre captain.