Wulf's Redemption (Borne Vampires Book 3) (2 page)

At dawn, on the day of their third birthday,
Ulrich stormed into their nursery ranting how it was time for his sons to
become proper vampyres. He dragged them to a chamber below the Berlin manor they
resided. The floor was loose dirt, not cement. Ulrich waved his hand and the
dirt parted into a deep grave. Tossing them into it, he ordered the dirt to
cover them. In those awful, frightening minutes suffocating, Aldric took his
hands in his and they employed Mata’s teachings and shut down their bodies. Her
lessons had saved their lives that terrible dawn.

Twenty years had passed and still the bastard
brought pain and suffering upon them daily. He and his brother swiftly learned
not to show their hatred, posturing before their peers the perfect image of
dedicated sons to the Iron Wolf and their impassive mother. Unfortunately, his
recent indiscretion could bring upon him Ulrich’s wrath, if Lisle should make
good her threat.

As much as he hated to speak to his father,
perhaps he should discuss with him about Lisle. He quickly dismissed the
thought. Confident the locals only cared about the recent generous donations his
father had given to the Lord Mayor and the Church, to aid in the mortals
surviving the hard winter hit the city and villages. They would not readily put
stock in the jealous ranting of a jilted wife, even if her husband was the
local magistrate.

Besides
,
he reasoned,
her anger will fade once she
becomes involved with the preparations of the Winter Festival, commencing in
three weeks.
Amongst the revelry,
Lisle will find another lover and move on.

The week-long merrymaking event was tradition,
created to break the the long, severe winter and ease the harsh toll it placed upon
the mortals. Added to the Winter Festival was the Winter Ball his parents
planned to host at Wulf Manor. According to Mathilda, their mother, it would
prove a splendid event extended to the nobility who named Magdeburg home. His
unease should have lifted and been replaced with eagerness about the upcoming
celebrations. It increased when a howl broke past the jingle of leathers and
clasps and sent a chill rippling through his soul. It differed from those he’d
heard earlier … unnatural and hungry.

In the earliest hours before dawn, the first child
disappeared.

Chapter Three

Alex is hurt!

Her heart jumpstarted, Kai instinctively drew air
into her dormant lungs. Instead of clean air, she sucked in clumps of dirt. Choking,
she ‘willed’ the dirt covering her to explode upward and off her. Sitting up
and coughing, she spit out what she’d inhaled. Wiping the dirt out of her eyes,
she sat there, confused by the sight of trees,
very
big trees, surrounding her. The fading
full moon peaked through the canopy of branches, casting its silvery light on
the forest floor.

Why was she buried and not in the coffin she went
into at dawn, on the plane? Where was Alex?

Launching out of the grave, she heard a soft moan
from the grave she’d vacated. Turning around, she saw it wasn’t a grave, but a
small crater made in the ground. In it lay Alex lay and he looked as if he’d
been torched. His face was unrecognizable, skin red and blackened
.
Hair singed and
patchy, as if he’d been caught in a fiery blast. The dark dress shirt and pants
he wore bore huge burn hole, exposing raw blisters on his chest, stomach, and
legs.

“Oh, shit! Alex?” She dropped into the grave and knelt
beside him, gently placed her hand on his shoulder. “Alex, can you hear me?” She
tried to connection with him mentally, encountering only darkness. Crap, her
abilities were still offline.

“Dammit.” Kai laid her ear on his chest and sighed
in relief as she heard his heart beating, slow and steady.

Why hadn’t he completely healed? Gazing upon his
damaged face and body, she realized he had managed to heal some of the damage
done to him. God, what’d he look like when he buried her and him?

Debating on whether to cover him or try to wake
him, she had her answer when his eyes flew open and he grabbed hold her wrist.
A snarl parted his cracked lips, exposing razor sharp fangs.

“Alex, it’s me — Kai. Please,” she gasped as he
tightened his grip, grinding her flesh into her bones. “Stop, you’re hurting
me!”

Blazing green eyes focused on her, widening in
recognition. Releasing her, he leapt out of the grave, placing distance between
them. She followed him, rubbing her bruised wrist.

“What happened to you? Where’s the plane?”

Grimacing, he leaned against a tree and replied
hoarsely, “Sunlight.”

“Sunlight?” she repeated, dumbfounded. “Why were
you out in the sun?”

He stretched out his blackened fingers, wincing as
the Slayer ring he wore broke free the burned flesh. “Our plane was crashing.
It was either burn in the wreckage or face the sun. I jumped out the plane with
you in my arms.” The way he said it, as if it were merely a simple choice, she
could only stare at him in disbelief.

“We … we were out in full sunlight?”

“Check out your clothes.”

Kai looked down at herself and saw the blotchy
burns to her black tee-shirt and jeans. Touching her hair, rough and crackling,
she lifted long her braid and saw her russet-brown hair was singed. Checking
her left hand, she sighed in relief. She still had her Slayer’s ring on.
 

“Alex, how did we survive?”

“We’re alive, that’s all that matters,” he replied
gruffly.

“Okay, can you tell me why the plane went down?”

“Rockets hit it.”

“You’re kidding, right?” At his silence, she drew
the silver cross Anya had given her out from under her shirt and gripped it in
her hand, feeling it digging into her flesh. “Great. Think it was ordered by
Angel?”

“Undoubtedly.” Alex walked stiffly around,
grimacing with each step.

“Where are we?”

Giving her an arched look, he replied cryptically,
“The woods.”

“Seriously. Where are we? England?”

“Dan told me we’re about thirty miles west of Magdeburg,
Germany before he was sucked out of the plane.”

“So,” she looked around her, “here we are, stuck
in the middle of the wilderness, you’re injured, and me two day’s recovered being
poisoned with dead man’s blood, and there’s no fresh blood to be found. Son-of-a….”
she stopped when she saw him close his eyes and knew he was in agony. “Alex,
you need to return to ground. I can search for a donor and bring them back for
you to feed on.”

“Try to locate a human mentally first. It’ll save
energy that way.”

“Okay.” Casting out, she searched for humans. Silence
only greeted her. Not a single whisper, no emotional waves — nothing. “I-I
can’t find anyone. That doesn’t mean someone isn’t out there,” she said lamely,
worried at her inability to connect with a human.

He waved her off. “As you said, we’re in middle of
nowhere. No humans. No blood. Our best bet is to find the plane. There’s blood
stored in the fridge, and we need our weapons, in case those who brought our
plane down come looking for us, to make certain we are dead.” Pain radiated off
him and it made her want to comfort her, knowing he would never allow it.
Reluctant, she followed as he walked stiffly down what appeared to be a game trail.
“The plane crashed this way.”

“Alex, are you sure you should push it? I-I am
worried for you.”

He said over his shoulder, “Don’t. It looks worse
than it feels.”

Not convinced, she followed him. Unsure how he was
even still alive after facing the sun, had shielded her, protected her from
frying, too. Alex had always protected her and her mother, but he’d never been
placed in a situation where he could have died for her. Unsure how to feel
about that, she tried again to reach out mentally to anyone — vampire and human
and again found nothing.

Frightened by the strange quiet in her head, never
in her twenty-three years having known what it was like not hearing others’
thoughts until now. She had to recover and not just for her and Alex to
survive. To read minds was essential in her line of work, hunting human killers
and the Damned. If the damage done to her was permanent.… She shied away the
frightening possibility. One consoling thought made her feel better. Angel
would get her just reward when Sin and Mina caught up with her. Sin would not
stop hunting her, not until he had her staked out in the sun and crispy fry the
bitch from ever harming another human or Borne again.

Looking around her, she focused on the major
problem at hand. She and Alex were in serious trouble if they couldn’t find a
human. In the movies and books written about vampires, they always had them
feeding on rats or birds, animals. Truth was a vampire could only feed on human
blood or another vampire and that option was just a temporary fix to hold off
hunger. Anything else made a vampire deathly ill. Worst part, a vampire could only
survive for a couple of days without feeding. An injured one especially needed
blood to heal, and Alex needed blood now!

Alex stumbled; she caught his arm and steadied
him. “Rest, Alex. I’m gonna climb up to the top of this tree and locate our
plane. If it’s close, I can fly us there.”

He nodded weakly and sat down on the ground, using
the tree she planned to climb to rest against. “Be careful. Our enemy might be
searching for the plane and us, as well.”

“I will.” She leapt up to the first branch and
started climbing to the top of the thirty foot pine tree. Hope of finding a
town nearby went right out the window. Even with vampire vision, she couldn’t
locate any lights, no farmhouses or homesteads. Literally, they were lost in
the middle of nowhere. At least finding the plane was easy. A blackened trail
of burned grass and debris led directly to the jet’s main body, roughly a mile
away. Visually searching for the humans Alex worried would be hunting them, she
found no one. She bit back her disappointment and shoved away from the tree,
and dropped to land on her feet next to Alex.

Kneeling
down beside Alex, she grimly told him, “Bad news. No sign of humans. Good news
is the plane is a mile from us.”

“We
can make it.” He struggled to his feet. Taking his arm, she slipped under it
and helped him stand. He stood a full foot taller than her, and she wasn’t short
by any means. Alex tried to step away from her, forced to stop when she refused
to let go of his arm.

“Alexander
Walker, stubborn pride will only add to your injuries. Together, we can make it
to the plane.”

“Fine,”
he said through clenched teeth. “I will accept your aid.”

“Like
you have a choice there, buddy.” She grinned at the glare he shot her.

Shouldering
his weight as Alex leaned heavily against her, her hands met with bare flesh
that miraculously wasn’t burned. His skin cool and clammy to the touch, she
worried how much more he could endure. Somehow, he kept walking. Ten minutes
later and his entire body trembled. Sweat dripped down his brow, between his
shoulders, his breathing was harsh and shallow. She wasn’t doing any better. Her
strength waning as hunger hounded her unbearably. Thirst made her mouth dry and
acrid. Her tongue felt like it was clued to the roof of her mouth.

“Alex,
hold on.” She pulled him to a halt. “At this pace, it’ll take us all night to
get to the plane. I have to fly us there.”

“Can
you?” he wheezed out. “You are not as strong as you usually are.”

Her
chin jutted out in stubborn determination. “I can get us there. Trust me.”

A
faint smile lifted the corner of his mouth, his lips once sculptured and fine,
were cracked and bleeding. “The indomitable, Miss Kai Jordan. You never give
in, especially when you feel you’ve been challenged.”

Glaring at him, she gently wrapped her arms around
his waist, careful not to hurt him more. She felt his arms tightened around her
as he laid his cheek on the top of her head. Surprised he was holding her, she
concentrated every ounce of strength she could summon and flew them upward.
Pushing her powers past their already weakened limits, she aimed for the downed
plane. As she neared it, she made to land. Unexpectedly, her strength gave out,
and they literally dropped out of the sky. Alex grabbed her and slowed their
descent till their feet touched ground. He collapsed, taking her down with him.
Panting and white as a sheet, he offered her an apologetic grimace before he
fell back on the grass, his chest heaving.

“Alex,” Kai made to help him sit up, her vision
blurred and she felt sick. Hand braced on the ground, she supported herself
from collapsing beside him.

“Kai,” Alex struggled to pull himself upright, “I’ll
go on and check if the blood survived the crash.”

“No,” she shook her head, placing a restraining
hand on his shoulder. “I’ll go. You rest.”

Shoving to her feet, she chanted softly to herself,
“I can do this. I can do this,” as she made her way to the crumpled, twisted
body of the once sleek jet.

Putting a steadying hand on the ragged edge where the
main body once connected to the cockpit, mindful of the cables and razor-sharp
metal, Kai paused. Her senses went on high alert. Despite her weakened state,
the Slayer in her refused to be. The chattering in the forest went silent. Creatures
of the night held their breath, waiting.

Waiting for what?

She turned to Alex, who placed a silencing finger
to his lips. Jerking his head to the plane, he glared at her to obey when she
hesitated. Loathe leaving him in such a vulnerable state, she reluctantly
slipped inside and hid. Heavy footsteps stomping in the brush broke the unnerving
silence.

How the hell had she missed the humans?

“I know it crashed somewhere around here,” a man
growled. No accent. An American.

“What about the vampires?” another man asked
nervously. American, too.

“We torched the plane during daylight, remember?
They’re dust,” the first one replied confidently.

What were American vampire hunters doing in
Germany?

She could smell their sweat, heard the rapid
beating of their fragile hearts, pumping blood through their veins. Blood. Her
fangs dropped. Ravenous for their blood, needing it, starving for it, she
closed her eyes, praying for the strength not to go rabid on them.

“Told ya, Mouse, we’d find the plane!”
 

“What the hell is so damn important on it that we
had to hike in here to get it?” Mouse demanded.

“Harklee
wants the Slayers’ swords.”

“Shit,
really? For some damn swords we’re sweating our asses off? Uh, hey, Mike, hurry
and find them swords. I got a bad feel—” Kai leapt onto his back, sinking her
fangs deep into the soft flesh of his throat. Screaming, he batted at her head,
trying to get her off him.

“Hold
on, Mouse, I’m coming!” Mike charged at her. Alex grabbed his ponytail, jerked
him back into his arms and bit down into Mike’s neck.

She
drained Mouse in matter of seconds, barely able to stop before the human’s
heart faltered and slowed in his imminent death. Letting him drop to the ground,
she saw Alex had finished feeding, too. The burns on his face smoothed to faint
red marks, his lips completely healed, once again sensual and freakin kissable.
Her eyes stayed there, wondering for the millionth time what it would feel like
to be kissed by Alexander Walker. Forcing her gaze away from the delectable
mouth of his, she stared at the now dead men. Her brow furrowed at what they’d
said.

“Alex,
why does the name Harklee sound familiar?

“You
don’t remember Harklee?” She shook her head. “He’s the hunter Julius, former leader
of the Borne, had made a pact with, to kill Rathe and his brothers.”

“Man,
I thought he was dead. What brought him out of hiding and hunting us?”

“If
we see him, we’ll ask. Right now, we’ve got bigger problems to deal with when
these two fail to check in and their companions come to investigate why. Let’s
find our weapons and the blood, then we’ll leave.” Alex went inside the plane,
she followed him.