Darkwind Hunters I: Enigma
Kase J. Reed
Published by Purple Sword Publications, LLC at Smashwords
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters, and events are fictitious in every regard. Any similarities to actual events and persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. Any trademarks, service marks, product names, or named features are assumed to be the property of their respective owners, and are used only for reference. There is no implied endorsement if any of these terms are used.
Darkwind Hunters I: Enigma
Copyright © 2009 Kase J. Reed. All rights reserved worldwide.
Cover Art Designed By Dawné Dominique
Edited By D. Thomas-Jerlo
Dedicated to the friends and family who've encouraged me to keep writing.
CHAPTER ONE
Talon Blackstone crouched on the snow-covered hill and watched the battle below his vantage. The young woman he spotted earlier fought off the four men who’d ambushed her. She was quite good, but it wouldn’t be long before fatigue set in. He was in need of a good meal, and the warmth of the five bodies below beckoned.
With calmness he’d learned in his half century as a vampire, he made his way toward the battle. The double blades the woman bore flashed in the moonlight. One of the men cried out and fell to the frozen ground.
As he approached, Talon watched an attacker rush her, driving his dagger deep into her left shoulder. She cried out and backed away, stumbling over a rock. Landing with a muffled groan, she kicked the man in the balls and sent him howling.
Talon, silent as a wraith, stepped up behind one, who shouted and made vulgar gestures. With a lightning strike, he twisted the man’s neck and let him fall to the ground. He moved on to the next, taking him the same way. The leather-clad female fought like a cornered wildcat, and within moments, she ran the last man through with his own dagger.
She lay there panting. The erratic beating of her heart pounded in his ears. Her scent of blood, sweat, and lavender intoxicated him. The thought of finishing his meal with the sweet taste of her flooded his mind, but there was something about her…perhaps the strong will to survive that made him turn abruptly and gather one of the limp men to him. Piercing the skin near the jugular, he drank the warm, thick liquid before doing the same with the others as she watched, unmoving, silent.
When done he wiped the remnants of his meal from his mouth and turned to her. He stooped beside her, but she struggled to scuffle away. Blood shone dark just below her collarbone. “Lord Fenton sent me a female this time.” He grimaced. “Does he now run out of men who are brave enough to hunt vampires?”
Her nostrils flared with telltale fear, but no such thing shone in her eyes. “I’m merely a messenger,” she mumbled between clenched teeth.
That silken voice held the tremble of a lie, but he sensed it wasn’t to cover that she was a Hunter. He’d smelled that fact half a mile away. “A messenger who knows how to fight must be valuable indeed.” Chuckling, he stood and held out a hand to her. She hesitated and grasped the offered appendage. He tugged her to her feet, playing along with the game she apparently started. “Is this why these men attacked you? Do you carry something important?”
“I don’t know why these curs came upon me. I’m trying to get to Silvermoon. Nothing I carry is so important I should be ambushed.” She dusted herself off and grabbed her weapons.
He sensed confusion, but something dark lay concealed in this woman, something that intrigued the hell out of him. “It’s late. Perhaps you should bed down at my home. We can care for that wound and you can get a good night’s sleep.” For now, she was no threat to him. He’d taken the liberty to secure a gentle hold on her mind, sensing that if he tried a stronger bond, she’d fight it.
“I should really travel on. I—”
“Surely, it won’t hurt you to have a good night’s sleep?”
“I don’t consort with vampires; you could bite me, take my blood and my message may never make it to its destination.” She downcast her eyes.
What reason does a Hunter have to lie about who they are? He laughed. “Suit yourself.” Without another word, he turned and headed back up the hill.
Moonlight glowed off the snow-encrusted ground as he topped the ridge above his estate. The lone keep stood sentinel in the center of a walled ring, where his trusty wolf pack patrolled the area with their keen instincts. He sensed the woman stumbling up behind him, her hand reaching for his shoulder before she crumbled to the ground. He scooped her into his arms and carried her to his home.
Inon met him at the front entrance with a lantern. His servant always seemed to have an uncanny ability to know whenever he arrived.
“My lord, you said you’d not bring another here.” He swept a scrutinizing glance over the unconscious woman.
“I know what I said.” Talon gritted his teeth. “Turn down the bed in the main suite and bring me something to stitch this wound.”
The servant scuttled up the wide circular staircase and out of sight. Talon followed several steps behind.
After flipping the linens back, Inon busied himself lighting the lamps in the room before scurrying out. After laying the Hunter across the huge bed, Talon turned to the fireplace and snapped his fingers. With just a spark, red-orange flames burst into being. Then he returned his attention to the bed, his gaze running along the woman’s slim body. The padded pants and coat of her leather armor allowed easy movement, but not a lot of protection. The jacket would have to come off in order to stitch the wound in her shoulder, but first, he tugged the soft doeskin boots from her feet. Her face was peaceful and her mind unaware at what he was doing.
His servant hurried back into the room with the items he’d requested. “Please give me some privacy, Inon. It’s bad enough I must disrobe the lady, but I’m quite certain she wouldn’t want an audience.” The man bowed and backed from the room.
Now alone, Talon unlaced the woman’s coat, slid it off her shoulders, and dropped it on the floor. The material of her white cotton shirt stuck to the wound. He peeled it loose and made closer inspection to assure that no fibers remained. After tearing the fabric open, he revealed well-defined muscular arms and a tight, flat belly. Her breasts, however, were bound in a strip of cotton cloth. A smirk curled the corners of his mouth. Now, doesn’t this make you all the more enticing, my little morsel.
The sweet scent of blood appealed to him like an after dinner brandy or an exquisite confection. He licked his lips and resisted the urge to taste. Threading the needle, he passed it through the flame of a candle on the bedside table. With nimble fingers, he stitched the gash closed. He’d make certain this scar was small and delicate, unlike the one below her ribs. His fingers caressed over its rough surface. Someone had hurt her badly. Beneath his touch, her heartbeat was steady, her breathing calm. Her cheeks were ruddy from the cold and her dark lashes matched beautiful, mahogany red hair that she’d bound in a long leather strip.
Fenton wouldn’t like it if I turned his pretty little vampire hunter into one of my own. I’m still paying for my last indiscretion, but the thought is a sweet one. Barely brushing his fingers over her skin, he leaned down and drew in a deep breath. But it’s been so long since I smelled the scent of a woman. And this one…something in her smelled familiar. With a gentle nudge of his mind, he entered hers and frowned. What he saw confused him. Images flashed through his head of her riding out the gates of Darkwind City with a group of men in pursuit. Hunters chasing one of their own? Why? A sudden change in scenery and a suite of rooms as luxurious as any he’d ever seen stood before him, but they seemed wrong somehow. The sensation was akin to claustrophobia mixed with fear and…anger? Locked in? Lord Fenton keeps his Hunters captive now? He caught a glimpse of the answer he sought, but she shifted under his scrutiny, and he had to withdraw lest she awaken.
He studied her before standing. Night was fading into the wee hours of predawn, and it was time for him to seek the darkness of his own chamber. He strolled downstairs into the main hall of the keep. It was a large, bare room consisting of a bench and some hooks for visitors’ coats, visitors who never came. A large tapestry depicting his family’s coat of arms hung from the rafters, but he barely gave it a second look.
He found Inon in the kitchen eating a breakfast of porridge and bread. The man’s gray eyes met his own.
“Don’t look at me that way, Inon. There were four of them against her. I fully intended on having them all for dinner. Damned if I know why I saved her.” He shook his head. “She smelled so sweet. Like her blood was the nectar of the gods. But I couldn’t do it.” He ran fingers through his hair in frustration. “I had to bring her here and at least care for her wounds.” He paced around the table and halted. He thought he’d placed the bond on her mind, but standing there, he wondered if it were the other way around. “Make sure to set the wolves back to their duty, Inon. If the girl wakes, give her what she needs, but she’s not to leave. I must sleep. I can feel the pull of my slumber.”
“Yes, my lord. If she tries to leave?”
He shrugged. “The wolves will keep her within the walls.”
Inon bowed as Talon made his way to a door behind the staircase and down into the dim glow of a chamber beneath the keep. A small bed sat against the one wall and a writing desk against the other. He slumped onto the cot without bothering to undress.
The young woman upstairs haunted his thoughts. Why would Fenton keep a Hunter locked up and in such an elaborate set of rooms? He’d felt the imposing press of stone in her mind. Why had he brought her here? A nagging sense that he’d missed something important left him restless. He still worried on the hidden secret as vampiric sleep took him.
CHAPTER TWO
Startled out of the nightmare, Logan sat up, casting a swift glance around. Not my room, not my bed. She sucked in a deep breath and let it out, calming every screaming nerve. Not the prison in Fenton's castle, either. A shuddering sigh of relief escaped her. The vampire from last night saved her a lot of trouble, and he’d made it possible for her to escape her father’s clutches. A feeling of familiarity washed over her as she remembered staring into those glittering sapphire blue eyes before he helped her to her feet.
She was used to vampires; she hunted them, even loved some of them, and knew them better than her father ever had. One and only one vampire occupied his mind and that was Lord Talon Blackstone, his archenemy, and the bloodsucking creature he’d created her to kill. That’s not going to happen now, Father. I’m done hunting vampires.
Throwing the covers back, she swung her legs over the edge. She still wore her pants, but not her belt and dual half-moon blades. The chill air brushed across the naked skin of her shoulders. Only the cotton cloth she wrapped her breasts in to keep them from getting in the way during battle covered her from the waist up.
Someone, perhaps the stranger from last night, had stitched the wound on her shoulder. She ran fingers across the thread. Delicate work, as if he took great care. She sighed. He’s a vampire and he stitches me up instead of feeding from me? Thank the Gods for small favors.
Standing from the bed, she nearly tripped over her coat, boots, and ruined shirt. She held the white garment up. Blood splotched the once pristine fabric, and now it was ripped down the front as well. She tossed it aside, donned her coat and laced it tight. Spotting the belt and blades on a chair in the corner, she placed them close to her body. She pulled her boots on before heading for the door.
She appreciated her host’s generosity, but remaining here would be deadly for both of them. Slipping out onto the landing, she surveyed her surroundings. She stood above a circular main hall of a tower keep where several rooms branched from the circumference. A tapestry hung from one of the ceiling beams displaying a coat of arms that depicted a huge black wolf with two crossed swords over the middle, emblazoned on a blood red background. The Blackstone family crest! Her heart stopped. Gods, I run from Father to avoid killing another vampire and what do I do? I run smack dab into the one he wants dead the most. The fates must hate me.
No one stirred and no sound disturbed the vast silence as she descended the narrow spiraling staircase. With luck, she’d reach the door and be free before anyone noticed her absence. She made it to the entrance and slipped outside. The crisp, chill air of a winter’s morning bit at her. She shivered, pulling her coat tighter. As she trotted down the stairs, she saw no other human in sight. However, as she took several steps away from the building, a giant, ebon wolf loped into her line of sight. Her heart lurched in panic and she swallowed hard. I can do this.
Logan took a deep breath and let it out, a plume of steam escaping from between her lips. Closing her eyes, she prayed she hadn’t lost her touch. With careful, calculated movements, she walked slowly toward the growling beast. When she neared, he snarled and bared his teeth. She lifted her hand to him, palm upward. “Greetings, my friend. I wish to ask your help.” Using her unusual ability to calm and speak to animals, she sent loving energy to him. “I must leave. It’s not safe for your master.” Canine cinnamon eyes met hers as he pressed his muzzle against the hand she held out. Logan let out the breath she was holding and allowed herself a small smile. It worked! It’s been so long.
Clasping her fingers into the black fur of her new friend, she walked beside him to the gate. Other wolves, all tawny and silver, allowed her passage. She walked beside the huge alpha male for nearly a mile before she released her grip. “Thank you, my friend. You can go back now.” She ran her hand over his head and turned to continue her journey alone.
At dusk, she stopped at a grove of trees off the road. In an imperfect circle, they towered over the small clearing. It looked like a good place to make camp and it appeared that many agreed. A ring of stones lay in the center of the small glade and several chunks of tree trunk surrounded it. Though her supplies were long gone, she always carried flint and tinder with her.
When a fire blazed beside her, she leaned against a log, fighting the lingering aches from the battle that throbbed over her body, but the agony in her shoulder was far worse. I’ll just close my eyes for a few minutes.
* * * *
As Talon made his way up the steps from his room, a nagging feeling tickled his senses. When he entered the open hall, he realized what disturbed him. The hunter! Her essence lingered in his mind, but from a distance rather than anywhere in the keep.
He scaled the circular staircase and burst into the room where he’d left her. The bed lay empty, the sheets crumpled, her essence still permeating the air. He snatched the torn shirt from the floor, pressing it to his face. The enticing scent of her blood and sweat sent him reeling. Why did she run? She could have killed me here as I slept. Have my pets destroyed her? Burning bile rushed into his mouth.
Anger and confusion rising, he stormed from the room and took the stairs down into the hall two at a time. A vampire hunter who doesn’t want to kill vampires? Is it possible?
“Inon!” Fire burned in his veins. He curled his hands into fists and paced the circular area. His manservant rushed in, his face flushed.
“My lord?” He gave a hasty bow.
“Did you set the wolves to guard?” Talon’s nostrils flared and he clenched his teeth. The wrong answer would have dire consequences.
“Of course, my lord. Why?” The manservant’s face showed bewilderment. He held a ladle in his hand and a towel in the other. Thick gravy dripped from the utensil onto the stone floor.
“The lady, do you know where she is?” He stared hard at Inon, raising his eyebrows as he waited for an answer.
“My lord?” A frown creased the servant’s face as he glanced up the stairs. “Is she not still in her room? I’ve not heard the wolves. She’s got to be—”
Talon pounded a fist against the palm of his other hand “No! She’s not there. I just checked. Are you certain the wolves haven’t…?” She’s gone out of the keep and gotten herself eaten. Damn woman! He stormed out the door and into the fading daylight. The sun had dipped below the horizon, casting the murk of twilight to cover the land. He strode across the courtyard toward the gate, leaving Inon to stare after him. Her fading scent was here. As he approached Ulfur, Logan’s scent grew stronger.