The Claimed (17 page)

Christopher joined him at the balcony doors and urged his case. “More reason to join with the Light Ones. There are two clans here with at least half a dozen powerful Quinchus to discourage any attacks on our people.”

“Join with the Light Hunters? What makes you think that they would want anything to do with us?” Ryan said with a snort.

“Victoria makes me think it. We share an affinity and…” Christopher jammed his hands in his pockets and blew out a sigh. “We connected.”

Ryan faced his friend, shaking his head. “Connected? As in—”

“The Equinox, Ry. I’ve been battling it for years, but when I touched Victoria… I lost control and now I can’t keep it back any longer.”

“Fuck, Christopher. This can’t be happening,” his friend said, and began pacing back and forth across the room, muttering beneath his breath until he whirled to face Christopher again.

“I didn’t realize it had gone that far. What do you plan on doing?” Ryan asked, his voice calmer, although doubt colored his tone.

“I plan on convincing Victoria to bond with me,” he said to ease Ryan’s distress, although he had his own worries. It wasn’t just Victoria’s energy with which he had connected. He liked her, the woman. More than once since last night he had imagined what it might be like to be able to have a real relationship with her. One based on respect and trust.

Ryan peered at him, eyes narrowed as he pondered his statement. “For centuries our two peoples have been at war. What makes you think she will toss aside all that history to join with you?”

While his friend had a point, Christopher sensed that both he and Victoria had at least one thing in common. “Victoria wants what’s best for her clan. I think in time she’ll realize that with our two clans combined, both will be stronger. Better.”

And yet, he had to admit to another reason for wanting Victoria to bond with him.

He hoped that she would grow to care for him, but he kept that to himself as he and Ryan resumed their meal.

M
aya peered through the glass of the balcony doors. One of Ryan’s guards was positioned along the exterior wall of the gardens, and another stood in the hall outside her room.

It wasn’t that she didn’t think she could get past them so she could meet Alexander’s men. She was more powerful than either of the guards and could take them out with one blast. But that would make it impossible for her to remain here with Christopher’s people and she was not fool enough to risk that. At least not yet.

Too many things were still uncertain, especially with Alexander’s power weakening so quickly. She needed to be on the winning side no matter what, so she had to be circumspect in whatever she did.

Which meant she had to find some other way to get out of her room in order to meet Alexander’s men and take them to Adam Bruno.

Thanks to Rafael she knew the location of the Desert
clan compound, just a couple of miles down the beach from Christopher’s home. Rafael had also indicated that Bruno and his wife would be visiting his Quinchu parents tonight. Despite the presence of their intense power, Maya hoped they could get to Bruno while he was vulnerable. Maybe even grab his pregnant wife as well despite her promises to the contrary. What did she care what Rafael would think? He was not about to admit that he had been the one to betray a fellow Light Hunter.

First she had to get out of this room, she thought, pacing like a caged animal.

A knock came at the door.

“Come in,” she called out and Ryan entered.

Sweet, sexy Ryan. Her mouth watered at the thought of his tasty energy. She controlled the rush of need created by his virile presence and released her own life force, well aware that he was susceptible to her charms.

Sashaying over to where he stood, she put on her sexiest pout and ran her hand down the center of his impressive chest, directing a bit of her sexual energy into him as she did so. The shudder that racked his body communicated to her that it had been effective.

Ryan covered her hand with his big one and gently eased it away. “Do not play your games with me, Maya.”

She moistened her lips and his gaze fixed on her mouth. “What else do I have, Ryan? You’ve made me a prisoner here with nothing to do except…”

Maya lowered her voice to a husky purr, reached up and stroked her hands along his broad chest, excited by the widening of his pupils and the step he took toward her. He laid his hand at her waist and against her belly came the brush of his massive erection.

“Until we can trust you, I have no choice. I
want
to trust you,” he said, and surprisingly, Maya believed that he really meant it.

Taken aback, she dropped her hands and took a step away from him, ending her little ploy. “What would it take for you to believe me?”

“Where did you go last night? Who did you meet?” he asked, striding to the small desk in the room and rummaging around its surface, obviously searching for something.

She had an idea what it was and went to her nightstand, removed her cell phone, and held it up. “Are you looking for this?”

Ryan stalked over and snagged the phone. Opening it, he read the number there and said, “You called Alexander again last night.”

“He is my Añaru and he hasn’t been well. I wanted to see how he was doing,” she said, and hoped he would not pick up on the lie.

Ryan snapped the phone shut and eased it into his jeans pocket. Leaning close to her, until his warm clean breath spilled against her face, he said, “Christopher is your Añaru now. The quicker you acknowledge that and prove your allegiance, the faster you will earn your freedom.”

“I love Christopher. I want to be his mate,” she said, which was only partially true.

Ryan clearly sensed the lie in her answer this time. “You love only power and yourself. One day the emptiness inside you will swallow you whole if you do not change your ways.”

Turning away, he stalked to the door, but Maya called
out, “As long as I’m a prisoner here, can I least get some wine to help me numb the boredom?”

Ryan glanced at the dry bar tucked alongside a far alcove in the room where the empty decanter sat on the surface. Looking back over his shoulder at her, he said, “I’ll send one of the maids with a bottle.”

“Thank you,” she said to nothingness as he hurried out the door.

Not that it mattered. He had given her the opening she needed. Positioning herself by the entrance, she waited for the maid, one of the humans the Shadows kept in their service. The young woman had barely walked through the door when Maya was upon her, one arm encircling the woman’s waist while she kept her silent with a hand on her mouth. The girl’s fear sent a wave of adrenaline through her body, charging her nerves with electrical energy.

Fear was not her affinity, but Maya wouldn’t question a gift of power in any form. Emitting tiny pulses of her energy, she quieted the girl before freeing her hunting power. Thin tendrils of bright silver formed around Maya’s wrists and spread to her hands. She focused her mind, pointed them toward the human’s aura, and sank deep into the woman’s life force.

Desire awoke in Maya as she sucked in the maid’s vitality, but Maya needed the woman alive. When she had drained enough for her plan, she raised her hands and cupped the woman’s skull, sending a sharp electrical surge through her brain.

The woman’s body went limp and she dropped to the ground. Her muscles spasmed and convulsed as the Shadow energy short-circuited the synapses in her brain. Maya waited until the woman calmed and then dragged
her out of the line of sight of both the balcony and bedroom doors.

Shutting off the lights in the room plunged it into partial darkness as dusk slowly descended.

Alexander’s men might already be here and she could not keep them waiting.

Standing off to one side, she closed her eyes and summoned the woman’s vigor. As luck would have it, they were of a like size and height, making the transformation that much smoother, but not without some pain.

She bit back a moan as bone, muscle, and sinew shifted, assuming the shape of the other woman. Skin tingled and her scalp almost felt as if it were burning as the darkness of her hair faded to the blondeness of the maid’s.

Maya was sweating and nearly lightheaded as with a final pop of bone, she was fully morphed. Staggering to a nearby mirror, she stared at herself and a fresh-faced teenager stared back, wearing the maid’s simple black T-shirt and khakis which she had also copied during her transformation. She could not risk detection by having to waste time with a change of clothes.

Grabbing the empty bottle of wine and the tray on which it sat, she headed out the bedroom door. The guard snapped a quick look at her, eyes slitted as he perused her. Seemingly satisfied, he allowed her to pass down the hall. She hurried away, pleased her plan was working so well and that she would be able to meet up with Alexander’s men.

It was a beautiful night with temperatures in the low seventies and a clean sea breeze that brought an occasional chill. The absence of a moon secreted her in the night’s
darkness and allowed her amazing views of an assortment of constellations in the night sky.

With Light Hunter discussions concluded, Victoria sat in an Adirondack chair on the narrow expanse of lawn that opened up beyond her onto the beach. Her cadre member Mike stood about ten feet away, vigilant for any signs of trouble. Along the slight breeze she sensed tendrils of Rafael’s vigilant life force.

He had been at the meeting of all the Desert and Ocean clans earlier, but had left toward the end of the discussion. She had assumed he was reconnoitering the grounds to make sure nothing was amiss, and the wash of his energy along the slight winds confirmed to her that he was at work, likely along the beachfront. For the moment, she could just kick back and allow herself to imagine the world of possibilities. Christopher. A truce. Possibly a romance. Maybe even a normal life with a husband she could love.

She’d had a taste of the latter this afternoon when she had accompanied Sammie and Jan to the local bridal shop. In a whir of silk, satin, and taffeta, Victoria had tried on one gown after another as Jan had attempted to decide which bridesmaid’s dresses would look best on her two friends. None of them had seemed to please her, and the search would continue, but there had been no doubting Jan’s choice for a wedding gown.

The combination of cream satin with the modest V neckline paired with a fine floral lace coverlet was stunning on her tall and slender friend. The matching floral brocade over the train and hem of the gown would have been fit for a princess. It was the look in Jan’s eyes, however, that had truly made the gown come alive.

There had been no doubting the love there. Love that had only a small part to do with the dress and more to do with Josh, her fiancé.

Victoria leaned back in the chair and glanced up at the myriad stars, imagining lying beneath them with a loved one. Sharing a kiss or more beneath the glittering night sky. It brought to mind her plans for later that night and had her contemplating whether she was crazy for considering another meeting with Christopher.

There was definitely attraction there. Hunter synergy. Man-woman desire. But love like her friend Jan had?

While she hoped for that, only time would tell if Christopher could bring such joy into her heart.

She was about to rise to go inside and call him when the hackles along the back of her neck jerked to attention.

Shadows
, she thought, and came to her feet in a defensive stance. She searched the area around her for the source of the disturbance, but only caught a faint whiff of Rafael’s energy once more, making her wonder why her cadre captain was still away from the compound. She had expected him to return well before now.

From the edge of the lawn, Mike suddenly raced in her direction, small balls of energy in the palms of his hands. Victoria likewise armed herself as in the distance, the murky glow of several auras, at least three Victoria thought, became visible.

“No, wait,” she said, afraid that it might be Christopher or some of his people. But just to be on the safe side, she called forth her own affinity and focused on a spot about ten feet from the unidentified Shadows. With a surge of her power, she commanded the molecules of water present in the air and surface to merge. Focusing on the sand
beyond the edge of the lawn, she directed the moisture there, creating a line of quicksand as a protective barrier.

But as one of the three Shadows moved forward, there was no question that they were not here for a friendly visit and were ready to fight. Small orbs of power glimmered in their palms while streams of silver, blue, and red light twined around their wrists and arms like angry vines, building yet more energy for battle.

“Go inside and warn the others,” Victoria instructed, but Mike held his ground beside her.

The first mortar of energy landed barely a foot before them, almost like a warning shot, and maybe it was.

“Give us Adam Bruno and the rest of you may go,” one of the Shadows called out.

Adam was likely long gone now that the meeting was over, but just in case he was still in the house, Victoria once again commanded Mike to leave. “You must go and make sure the Quinchus are safe,” she whispered. Adam and the other Quinchus had too much power for them to fall into the hands of Shadows.