The Claimed (26 page)

“Family issues,” Sammie filled in, giving one comforting pat on her back before releasing her.

“I guess I have a lot of them, don’t I?” she said, striving for a light tone since she knew the issue of family was a sensitive topic with her friend.

“You have a lot of family. Lots of friends now that I think about it,” Sammie said with another shrug. Almost a signature shrug, Victoria finally realized. One that communicated a wide range of things. That it was no sweat. That she didn’t care. Maybe even that she didn’t know of any other way to deal with it and she wasn’t sure if she was going to try.

Sinking down beside her friend, she glanced up at the vestiges of the sunset, admiring the deep purple and navy spreading across the horizon. “You have friends, too.”

“Just you and Jan. Maybe Adam and Bobbie,” Sammie replied, her words chased by that shrug again.

“Why is that?” For years she had known Sammie and wondered. It seemed as good a time as any to ask, especially when the friends in both her human and Hunter worlds were in chaos. Mike was dead and Rafael was different. Catalina was too new to be a friend, although she had always liked the woman. Jan was involved more and more every day in her wedding plans, and Victoria hoped that getting married wouldn’t change everything as it did for so many human women.

When Sammie didn’t answer, she pressed again, needing to understand what made her friend tick. “So why so few friends?”

Sammie sat up and half-faced her. The setting sun cast shadows on her features, highlighting them. Sammie was really beautiful, although she tended to downplay it with tomboy dress and haircuts that sometimes looked as if she had hacked away at the strands herself. As if she didn’t really care what others thought because she wasn’t one of them. Wasn’t part of their world.

When Sammie finally spoke, her voice was husky with emotion. “My family never stayed in one place for very long at first. Especially while my mom was alive.”

“She died when you were young, right?” Victoria asked, wanting to better understand what made Sammie tick.

“I was six or seven. Funny that I can’t even remember anymore, and yet it radically changed our lives.”

Victoria reached out and rested a consoling hand on Sammie’s shoulder. Released a bit of healing power in the hope of helping her friend with her hurt. “How?”

“My father blamed himself. Said that if he had been more careful my mom would be alive, but… She was always so fragile.”

“Was she sick?” Victoria asked, imagining that it might have been cancer or some other illness that had taken Sammie’s mom at so young an age.

Sammie shook her head vehemently and the chin-length bob of irregular-length dark hair shifted violently with the action. When she spoke the words were almost sing-song, as if she were a narrator retelling someone else’s story. “I don’t think so. She just seemed… sad. She
would sit outside for hours, soaking up the sun before coming in to play with me. She almost glowed then and would be so full of life. But then the glow would fade and she would be back outside again. Watching the world pass her by until one day it did.”

Or maybe she had been out there in the world gathering energy, Victoria thought, her attention caught by Sammie’s description of her mom. By the glow that maybe had been more than just a child’s imagination.

Had Sammie’s mother been a Hunter? Was that what gave Sammie the many skills that she had and the tinge of power both she and Christopher had sensed?

She bit back her theory because she couldn’t begin to address that possibility now. Maybe when things were calmer she could feel out Sammie. Maybe even with Sammie’s father there to answer yet more questions about her mother. And if she was a Hybrid, and one with power as she suspected, Victoria had to take steps to protect her friend.

Slipping her arm around Sammie’s shoulder, she returned the comfort her friend had provided earlier. “Just remember that you’re not alone. You have me and Jan.”

At that Sammie chuckled and wagged her head playfully, driving away her sadness. “Jan? Have you seen what she’s thinking about now for the wedding theme?”

Jan had gone through various themes, from punk to southern belles to city chic, over the course of the last few weeks. Their excursion to the bridal salon the other day had only given her friend more ideas for her upcoming nuptials. Victoria was almost afraid to guess what Jan had in mind now.

“Please don’t tell me,” she begged.

“A Highlander wedding complete with bagpipes!”

Victoria poked her friend with an elbow. “I asked you not to tell me,” she kidded, but settled back to hear Sammie’s take on the latest antics of their soon-to-be-married friend. She even allowed herself to wonder what her own wedding might be like if she followed human traditions since Hunter unions usually came with less fanfare.

Possibly like the warring Hatfields and McCoys complete with energy blasts instead of shotguns, especially if her relationship with Christopher developed into something more.

For now, she permitted herself the luxury of relaxing with her friend. There would be time enough for strife later.

C
hristopher waited in the foyer, trying not to seem impatient as he did so. It would give Victoria too much power over him if he appeared overly eager as had happened to men for centuries, whether human or Hunter.

When he opened the door he kept a neutral face, especially given the glare shooting at him from Victoria’s cadre captain.

“Welcome,” he said and motioned for them to enter.

Victoria was about to step inside when her captain gently grasped her shoulder. “Let me go first, Quinchu.”

Christopher tried not to be insulted. If Ryan were in a similar situation, entering an enemy’s den, he would expect the same kind of caution.

“By all means, Captain. If there is anything that makes you uncomfortable—”

“Everything about this place makes me uncomfortable,” he almost snarled, earning a sharp rebuke from Victoria.

“Rafael. We are here as guests.”

The man faced him, grudgingly raised his hand to his chest. “My apologies. The loss of our friend has impaired my judgment.”

Trying to soothe Rafael and get past the moment, Christopher clapped the man’s shoulder. “I am sorry for your loss and I understand. My warrior Jason was a good man also.”

For a moment some other emotion flickered in Rafael’s gaze before it became almost a flat black, dead as a shark’s unfeeling stare. Still he mouthed an apology, equally devoid of emotion. “My sympathies on your loss.”

With that forced platitude smoothing over the moment, Rafael entered Christopher’s compound and waited for Victoria.

Christopher offered her his arm and she looped hers through his. “The ballroom is just down the hall, if you’ll follow me.”

He and Victoria took the lead, Rafael silently trailing them, his hands held loosely at his sides, almost as if he expected to have to use them for defense. At the entrance to the ballroom, Christopher stepped aside and inclined his head, inviting Rafael to check out the room for himself.

Rafael entered and seemed taken aback at first, but his reaction was quickly explained as he said, “Your entire cadre is here.”

After shooting a half-glance at Victoria and catching her pleading gaze, he said, “Would it ease your mind if only my captain remained?”

With a restrained and respectful nod, Rafael said, “It would.”

Entering with Victoria, Rafael hot on their heels, he motioned to Ryan who was standing beside Maya and
Sarah, her appointed companion. At the sight of Rafael, Maya’s eyes lit up like a kid’s in a candy store. He could well imagine that she would consider Victoria’s captain a tasty treat of alpha energy on which to feast.

When Ryan was beside him, he faced the remaining members of his cadre who were in a straight line along one wall of the ballroom. “I apologize for the change in plans, but it seems you will not be able to join us for dinner tonight.”

Understanding the politics of what was happening, they saluted him as Ryan whispered in his ear. “What about Maya?”

“Sarah and Xander. I would appreciate it if you took Maya with you for dinner. Ryan will collect her later.”

Undaunted, Maya sashayed over and laid her hand on Rafael’s chest. “You dismiss me when we have such a handsome guest? Are you perhaps jealous, Christopher?”

Ryan ripped her hand off Victoria’s captain. “Do not play your games here, Maya.”

“She does not bother me,” Rafael said, earning a strangled chuckle from Christopher.

“She does not bother you because she is like a succubus, feeding you all those warm feelings stirring your gut,” Christopher warned.

A predictable flush of color stained Rafael’s face at the realization, but as had happened before, Christopher detected something off in the man. “Have you met before? Possibly at the auction the other night?”

Maya’s silky, sexy laugh spiced the air. “Regrettably not. I would have remembered such a fine specimen,” she said, and once again passed her hand over Rafael’s chest.

Victoria’s captain trembled and stepped back, clearly
affected by her touch, but with a sharp jerk of Christopher’s finger toward his cadre members, they came over and took hold of Maya’s arms.

Maya chuckled and licked her lips. “Even better. A threesome.”

Ryan’s curt command ended her frivolity. “Silence or I will gag you.”

Seemingly aware that Ryan would carry out his threat, she raised her hand and made a motion as if she were locking up her lips. Then without further incident she allowed the two cadre members to escort her out, and behind them, the rest of the warriors filed out, leaving only Victoria and the two captains.

Christopher bowed and gestured in the direction of the table. “Shall we dine?”

Maya’s touch lingered through the meal, infecting Rafael’s brain and body like a plague. Desire warmed his loins, leaving him half-hardened and needing stimulation to release the unwanted sexual tension. In his mind came the message she had sent to him with a surge of energy.

Meet me. Back room to the right. Later tonight
.

Both his desire and her message distracted him from the conversation around the table, but not so much that he couldn’t see what was happening. He couldn’t fail to notice the heated glances Victoria and Christopher shared or the uneasy way his captain, Ryan, stared at them.

Ryan was no more a fan of what was happening than he was. Maybe in time Ryan could dissuade his Añaru much as he hoped to change Victoria’s mind.

As the meal wound down, Christopher and Victoria completed their plans for the day after tomorrow since
in the morning, both clans would be burying their dead. Which meant he had only a day’s respite to stop the insanity that they planned.

Only a day
, he thought as Victoria rose and everyone followed suit. Still painfully aroused, he followed, slightly more slowly, trying to hide the aftereffects of Maya’s touch which earned him an awkward glance from Ryan as Victoria and Christopher walked ahead of them.

At the door, the two shared nothing more than a friendly handshake, as if aware that anything more before their captains would likely cause unrest. Both Christopher and Ryan shook his hand, although it was a guarded action. Neither man really trusted him, but then again, he didn’t much care for them either.

Silently he and Victoria walked to their cars. She had insisted on bringing her own, because she clearly had not wanted him to accompany her home. But now, he had other plans as well, as he had to meet Maya somehow.

As soon as he and Victoria parted, he would double back and find a way to get to the rear of the compound without detection. He had to answer the missive Maya had sent him with her touch.

At her car, Victoria hesitated, examining him carefully. “You still do not believe this is a good thing.”

Rafael couldn’t control the harsh laugh that escaped him. Jerking his hand in the direction of the Shadow compound, he said, “You talk about joining our people with the likes of these Dark Ones. A succubus like Maya. Cannibals who would drain their own—”

“Maya is not truly with them. As for Christopher and his people, they do not feed on other Hunters, or humans, for that matter.”

“For how long, Victoria? Until the pox returns and their bodies are rotting away? Do you think they would hesitate then to feed from you or me or any of our clansmen?”

“I’m sorry, Rafael,” she said, overwhelming sadness in her tone.

“You’re sorry that you are proposing this?” he asked, confused by her apology.

“No. I’m sorry that you cannot see the possibilities that await our people if we make peace with this Shadow clan.”

Without waiting for his reply she slipped into her car and slammed the door, shutting herself away from him.

He stepped back and watched her drive away, his heart aching at what she was forcing him to do. Maybe in time she would be able to see the wisdom of his actions. Maybe even thank him for keeping her from a mistake that would ruin not only her life, but those of all their people.

Maybe even love him one day.