The Dark-Hunters (226 page)

Bryani released her as they left the room behind.

Bride followed her out of the hut only to find herself in the middle of what appeared to be a green valley with mountains rising up around them. It was lovely, albeit rather cold for her taste.

How she had gotten here, she had no idea. This wasn’t New Orleans, which was where she’d been five minutes ago.

Even odder, everyone around her was dressed in ancient clothing and spoke a language she couldn’t even begin to understand.

And every person near them paused to stare as they walked past. Silence settled instantly. Eerily. The women at the makeshift well. Those who were carrying baskets and chatting. Even the children stopped playing.

But it was the men who captured Bride’s attention, especially since every one of them stopped and turned to stare at her as if she were their target or prey.

She realized that with the exception of the demon, every person in this village was literally a gorgeous, stunning specimen of human physiology. This was definitely a dream or delusion of some kind.

Not even Chippendales had this much bodacious muscle. And never mind the women. They were the epitome of why Bride refused to buy fashion magazines. If she didn’t know better, she’d think she’d fallen down the rabbit hole of Hollywood extras.

Bride followed Bryani into a large wooden building that reminded her of something out of a low-budget King Arthur movie. Made of wattle and daub, it was spartan inside except for the large fire blazing in the center of the hall, surrounded by long tables and wooden benches. Something that looked like dried weeds and herbs were scattered over the earthen floor.

As soon as Bride entered, she found herself surrounded by gorgeous men, some of whom actually sniffed her.

“Excuse me?” she said, brushing them away. “This is my fantasy and I’d rather you not do that.”

A tall blond man cocked his head in a way that reminded her of a canine. He directed a cutting glare at Bryani. “Why would you bring a Katagari whore here?”

Bryani pulled Bride away from the men and put herself between them. “She is not a whore. She’s a terrified human female who doesn’t understand what has happened to her. She thinks herself mad.”

The blond man laughed. “I think we should send her back to her mate the way the Katagaria send our mates back to us.” He took a step toward them.

Bryani pulled the sword off her back and angled it at him. “Don’t make me slay you, Arnulf. I brought her here for protection.”

“Then you made a mistake.”

Bryani was aghast. “We are
human.
”

“Aye,” he agreed, sliding a dangerous smirk toward Bride. “And I quest for vengeance same as you, my princess. My mate lies dead from their abuse of her. I say we return it upon their females tenfold.”

As the men started forward, a howl rang out.

Everyone froze.

Bride turned to see the door behind her open. An old man stepped through it. His hair was white and he wore a beard that reminded her of an old ZZ Top video. By his side was a large brown timber wolf.

Like Bryani, half of the old man’s face was covered with an eerie green tattoo. “What goes here?”

“We beseech moral restitution,” Arnulf said. “Your daughter has brought a Katagari mate into our pack.
We
want her.”

The old man raked a censoring gaze over Bride, then looked to Bryani.

“I had to, Father,” Bryani said as she lowered her sword. “There was no other way.”

The old man ordered the others to leave them.

The men did so reluctantly. But before they left, some howled like animals. Others looked back with expressions that promised they intended to renew this discussion.

For the first time, Bride was scared. Something wasn’t right about this “fantasy.”

If she didn’t know better, she’d swear it was real. But it couldn’t be.

Could it?

Once they were alone, the old man led them toward the farthest table in the room; it stood high on a dais. Two chairs that looked like large, hand-carved thrones capped with wolfheads stood behind the table. “What are you thinking, Bry?” he asked her escort.

“I wanted to protect her, Father. Is that not what a Sentinel does? Are we not to protect the world from the Katagaria animals?”

He looked aggravated by her words. “But
she
is mated to one.”

“They have not joined themselves. She is only marked. If we keep her here until the mark is gone, then she will be free of him.”

The old man shook his head while his wolf came over to sniff at Bride.

Bride stared at it, wondering if it would stay a wolf or become something else.

“Why not just kill her mate?” the old man asked.

Bryani looked away.

The old man let out a tired breath. “I told you to kill them centuries ago, daughter.”

Anger flared in her eyes. “I tried to kill him, remember? He grew too strong.”

The old man made a disgusted sound in the back of his throat. “She is yours to guard. I will rally the others, and this time when he comes to us, we will finish what was started.”

Bryani nodded, then motioned for Bride to follow her. She led her past the thrones, down a narrow corridor in back that led to a set of rooms off the hall.

The place was spartan for the most part, but it did have some interesting comforts, such as a large, padded bed and furs, and twenty-first-century novels.

Bride picked up Kinley MacGregor’s
A Dark Champion
and laughed. Oh yeah, good dream here. “Could you please conjure me a Coke?” she asked Bryani. “I’m feeling the need for one.”

“Nay, I cannot. That would require my going forward in time to retrieve one and my powers for that were taken from me.” Her tone was angry and bitter. “It is why I had to conjure the demon to fetch you.”

“Who took your powers?”

“My mate.” Bryani spat the words. “He stole much from me, but have no fear. His son will not violate you. I will see to it.”

Bride returned the book to the small stack on the nightstand. “You know, none of that makes a bit of sense to me.”

Bryani put her hands on her hips as she faced her. “Then how about this? The so-called man who took you, Vane, is a wolf I was forced against my will to give birth to over four hundred years ago. And if I could, I would kill him for you.”

“Excuse me?”

Bryani ignored her as she explained herself. “Like many women, when I was young, I was stupid. On my first venture out with my Sentinel patrol to hunt the Katagaria wolves, I was captured by our enemies, who thought it would be great fun to take turns raping me.”

Bride felt sick from hearing Bryani’s story. A wave of sympathetic ache consumed her.

This poor woman. She couldn’t imagine anything worse.

And she was Vane’s mother …

Her lips curled, Bryani shook her head. “But the Fates are often cruel and I, like you, found myself mated to one of those animals who had hurt me. Vane’s father kept me captive for weeks as he abused me more, trying to make me accept him as my mate. They can’t, you know. Acceptance is strictly in our hands. Not theirs.”

This couldn’t be real. No. Bride was dreaming, though why she was dreaming this, she had no idea. “You don’t look like Vane.”

Pure, unadulterated hatred glowed in Bryani’s hazel eyes. “He looks like his filthy father.”

Bride frowned as she remembered Fury saying that to her. Ah, her mind was replaying it in her delusion. Made sense.

Sort of.

But why would she make up so tragic a tale? Bride had never been the kind of person to wish ill on anyone, least of all Vane’s mother.

Could this be real?

Was that possible?

Bride moved toward the blond woman and took her hands in hers to study her palms. “You don’t have a mark.”

“Nay. If the mating isn’t consummated within three weeks, the mark fades and we as women are free to go our own way. The men are left impotent for the duration of our lives.”

Bride frowned up at her. Bryani was really tall. “You left his father impotent?”

An evil glint came into Bryani’s hazel-green eyes. “I left him more than that. Once my children were born, I took my three human children and left my three puppies with him, then gelded the bastard for what he’d done to me. I’m sure not a day passes where he doesn’t wish he’d killed me when he had the chance.”

Bride cringed at the thought. “Why am I dreaming this?” she asked. “I don’t understand this nightmare.”

Bryani shook her head. “This is real, Bride. I know in the human world things such as what I describe don’t happen. But you must believe me. There are things that reside alongside you in the everyday world that you never realize are there.”

One second Bryani was standing in front of Bride and in the next, the woman was a huge white timber wolf that bore a terrifying resemblance to her adopted pet.

Bride staggered back.

No, this wasn’t real. This wasn’t.

“I want to go home,” she said out loud. “I have to wake up. Please, God, let me wake up!”

*   *   *

Vane pulled out of his trance as he realized where his mate was.

Bride was in his mother’s homeland. A place where he had sworn to never return. He’d only been there once. Long ago when he had bartered with Acheron Parthenopaeus to help him find his birth mother.

To this day, Vane didn’t know why he’d wanted to find her. Maybe it was all the years of living with a father who hated him and he wanted to see if there was any chance his mother might tolerate him.

Or maybe because he had become human, he thought she might accept him.

Instead, she had tried to kill him.

“I curse the day I bore you.”

Her words still resonated deep inside him and now she had struck the final blow. She had set loose a demon to take his mate. No Were-Hunter could remove a human from their time period without the human’s permission. Only demons and gods were exempt from that rule.

But why? Why would his mother have taken Bride back to Dark Age Britain? He didn’t trust his mother. Her hatred of him and his father was too great.

Vane trusted no humans.

No, Bride was his responsibility, and the last thing she needed was to be left alone with an Arcadian pack in the past where he’d been born.

He would have to go and claim her and bring her back to her home.

Only this time, he didn’t have any backup. He was going in alone.

He only hoped that he survived the encounter. Otherwise, Bride just might find herself trapped in the past for eternity.

Chapter 9

As the hours ticked by slowly while Bride was confined to her tiny room, she learned one thing.

This wasn’t a dream.

She didn’t know how it was real, but she had no choice except to come to terms with the fact that this wasn’t the asylum episode of
Buffy,
or a delusion. All of these people were real and they had the worst-tasting food she’d ever tried to eat.

No wonder they were all so damned skinny.

Her tray of barely touched food was set on the nightstand with the books. Bride paced the room while listening to the people in the hall debate what they should do to her.

This was getting scarier by the minute.

Suddenly she sensed a movement behind her. Bride spun around to find a man standing there who reminded her of Vane. He had the same multicolored dark hair and green eyes, and his face was eerily similar. Clean shaven, he wore his hair longer than Vane and was dressed in ancient leather and mail armor pieces. Like Bryani, he had a sword strapped to his back.

He watched her in a manner that was definitely reminiscent of a wild animal examining its prey.

“Who are you?” she asked him.

He didn’t speak. Instead, he moved closer so that he could take her hand into his and look at her marked palm. Hatred blazed in his eyes.

Before she could blink, she found herself somehow taken from her room into the center of the hall where the angriest group of people on the planet were found. She felt like the only hot rock in a nest of vipers.

Their loud voices increased tenfold in volume when she appeared.

“Dare!” The shout rang out from the old man. “Why have you brought her here?”

The Vane lookalike cast a malevolent look at Bride. “I call for a
timoria
against her mate.”

Agreement echoed from the crowd.

“Nay,” Bryani said as she pushed her way through the crowd to reach them.

“What’s the matter, Mother?” Dare asked as he turned toward Bryani. “Have your feelings for the animals who prey upon us changed?”

“You know better.”

“Then let us give back to them what they have given to us.”

Bryani pulled her sword on her son. “I took a Sentinel’s oath to protect—”

“A Katagari whore?” Dare asked, interrupting her. He pushed Bride toward Bryani. “She reeks of their scent. I say we settle this once and for all.”

A cheer rang out.

Bride shook with terror.

“Father?” Bryani said to the old man. “Is this the way it’s to be?”

The old man took his time scanning the crowd before he faced his daughter. “You should have consulted me before you brought her here, Bryani. You seek protection for our enemies when there is not a family among us who hasn’t been torn apart by the Katagaria. Gods of Olympus, look what they have done to our own family. I have lost your mother’s sanity and all my children save you to them. You barely returned from their clutches and then only because you managed to fight them off. Now you beg clemency for one of them? Have they driven you completely mad, too, daughter?”

He passed a less than sympathetic gaze to Bride. “We shall put the
timoria
to a vote. Who among you says aye?”

The roar was so loud that Bride had to cover her ears.

“Who says nay?”

“I do,” Bryani said, but she was a lone voice in the crowd.

The old man gripped his staff and took a deep breath. “It is decided, then. Prepare the human for the
timoria.
”

Bride had a really bad feeling the
timoria
wasn’t a good thing, especially when three women came forward to drag her off.