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

He
threw the upended passenger seats out of his way, uncovering her leather
backpack. Tossing it to her, he continued searching for their sword cases. As
he leaned down, she coughed, trying hard not to stare at the delicious sight
exposed for her viewing.

“Uh,
maybe you should try and find your suitcase while you’re looking for our swords.”

Frowning
at her, he asked, “Why?”

“Umm,
because you’re half-naked, that’s why.” She bit her lip from laughing at his
mortified expression as he took in his attire and looked behind him, seeing his
ass partially exposed.

Cocking his eyebrow at her, he demanded, “When exactly
were you going to inform me of my partial state of undress?”

Slipping the straps of her backpack over her
shoulder, she shrugged. “Couldn’t help myself. Not every day do I get to I see
a half-naked man running around in the woods.” Before he could form an
indignant response, she spotted the small fridge and pointed at it. “Hey, I
found the fridge. Looks intact.” Opening the door, she gagged.

“Dammit, the blood’s useless to us. Gone bad.” She
quickly shut the door and stepped outside to escape the awful smell.

A ways from the plane, she dropped her backpack on
the ground and sat down beside it. Digging around inside it, past plastic
bottles of Holy water, extra clips of silver bullets, she finally found her cellphone
in the inner pocket. Thankfully, it was intact and turned on. No bars for a
signal. Turning it off, she put it back in the bag. She reached in and pulled
out her twin, holstered, modified, silver-inlaid Colts. Laying one on the
ground, she held the other and flipped the snap guard and drew the gun free.
The Colt gleamed in the pale moonlight, the silver cross in the black handgrip
stood out. Checking the clip to make sure it was full, satisfied, she pushed it
back in with a sharp ‘click’ and re-holstered her gun, hooking it to her belt,
at her right hip.

Alex exited the plane with their sword cases. He
must have found his suitcase for he had changed, replacing his burned clothes
for a pair of jeans and another dark dress shirt. She had to smile at his changing
inside the wreckage, obviously not wanting her to see him completely nude. Flashes
of him naked took her surprise. Bits and pieces, as if she’d
had
seen him naked. But she never had, had
she?

Heaving a deep sigh, she watched him walk to her.
The man moved like a dream, graceful and was just as deadly as a predator.
Despite some lingering redness on his face and neck, he was gorgeous again. He
set her sword case down beside her and opened his own. He withdrew the sheathed
broadsword and belted it so it rested between his shoulder blades.

“I couldn’t find my guns.” His jaw clenched,
whitening in his anger.

“Sorry. They were a nice set. Here, you can use
mine for now.” She handed him her other gun.

“Thanks.” He lifted his shirt, exposing his sleek,
muscled stomach as he hooked the clip to his waistband.

Hypnotized at the way his powerful muscles corded
and flexed as he moved, she sighed as he pulled his shirt down. Disgusted with
herself, she asked herself for the thousandth time, why, after all these years,
did she still find the mysterious vampire as sexy and unattainable as the day
they had met?

Moonlight caught on the silver medallion he wore,
the one her mother used to wear. The black wolves seemed life-like, standing
guard the cross between them.
Seven
years ago, Alexander was one of the Damned, second in command to Jarrod, their
former leader. Her uncle. Condemned as a soulless vampire, cursed to wander the
earth until he was put out of his misery by a Slayer, Alex was found to have
been misjudged by his peers when her mother took the medallion and put it in
his hand, proving he was not Damned.

What
she had never shared with anyone, not even Mina, the night Alex learned he had
a soul was the night she looked into his green eyes and felt a spark, a
connection between them so strong, so intense, it stole the heart of a
sixteen-year old girl and gave it to Alexander Walker. In his eyes, she saw
he’d felt it, too.

At
first, she had deluded herself that Alex ignored their attraction because she
was sixteen and he thought he was too old for her. He continued to protect her,
even taught her and Mina how to be Slayers. After she’d turned eighteen, she was
certain Alex would acknowledge their attraction but still he kept his distance.
The day Faeroes and Rathe made her and Mina Slayers, Alex gave them swords he
had commissioned for them. She thought.… Well, she had been wrong again. Instead
of falling in love, she went with Mina and they became profilers, using their
skills as Slayers to help the humans capture killers, natural and unnatural
ones.

When
Faeroes ordered her and Mina to protect England, she decided it was her last
chance to tell Alex how she felt about him and ended up making a complete ass
of herself. Alex did an about face and left her. As if leaving her wasn’t bad
enough, he cut their connection — the blood bond between them. That hurt beyond
anything she had endured trying to tell the stupid man she loved him.

Go figure, plane crashes in the middle of nowhere,
and now they were stuck with each other. How ironic.
Kai took her sword case and flipped the latches, unlocking
it. Grabbing the leather scabbard inside out, she took the worn hilt and pulled
the sword free of its sheath in a steely rasp. A deadlier version of Sting off
of LOTR, its weight and balance made it lethal in battle. Glad it had survived
the crash without damage, she slid the elegant blade back in its scabbard.
Belting it across her shoulder and chest, she slipped her arms through the
leather straps of her backpack and pulled it on. She noticed Alex had his
cellphone out.

“Any
reception?”

Holding
it above his head, he walked around trying to get a signal. “Nope. Not a single
bar. Can I put my phone in your rucksack?”

“Sure.” Kai climbed to her feet and presented her
back to him.

Feeling him open the flap of her backpack, she
closed her eyes, praying for the strength to ignore the potent need to be held
by him, aching to be touched by him, to feel his strong hands caress her. The
tantalizing smell of his expensive cologne mingled with the heat from his body
was intoxicating to her senses.

As he stepped beside her, she asked huskily, “So,
which way do we head to?”

A grim shadow passed over Alex’s somber features,
a wretched, haunted look that took her by surprise. “We head east, to
Magdeburg.”

“Alex?” When he didn’t respond, she placed her
hand on his arm. “Alex, are you okay?” He ignored her question and started walking
down a game trail. Clenching her fists, she resisted the urge to pick up a rock
and chuck it at his back.

Sighing, she followed after him. As the blood she’d
taken coursed through her veins, she began to feel stronger, but not full
strength. She and Alex needed more blood to completely heal, to regain the
incredible strength and power a Borne vampire was capable of. A lot more blood was
needed.

Sweat gather between her shoulder blades,
trickling down her spine. God, it was just as hot in Germany as it was in
England. Freakin muggy heat, too. Thirsty and uncomfortable, she trudged on
after him. There was one diversion from her misery and it was in staring at
Alex’s firm ass, outlined by the tight jeans he wore.

Needing a distraction, she asked, “Alex, have you
been here before?”

“Why do you ask?”

“Because it seems like you know where we’re
going.”

His shoulders stiffened, his entire body went
defensive and coiled in tension. “We crashed in the valley east of Harz
Mountain.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because I once lived not far here.”

“In Magdeburg?”

Alex actually flinched at the name. “Outskirts. My
father had purchased a manor in the country and moved us there from Berlin.”

“When was that?”

“1819.”

“Oh.” Kai wasn’t sure whether to keep asking
questions or just shut up, getting the feeling he did not want to talk about
Magdeburg.

Vivid images,
snapped
like pictures from a camera, flashed before her eyes. Stumbling, she barely
caught herself from falling and leaned against the nearest tree. Closing her
eyes she saw Alex, a younger version of the man she was with. He was laughing,
very different from the reserved man she knew. The image of him bubbled and
melted, as flames crept around the edges of her vision, engulfing him like a
photograph set on fire. Snow, bitter cold, replaced the flames. A frozen river,
wolves were crossing it. Then there was a beautiful, petite blonde. She
couldn’t see her face, only the flash of vivid blue eyes. These images flitted
in and out of focus in her mind’s eye. Suddenly the vision sharpened and there
were two Alexs, standing side by side.

“Kai, what’s wrong?”

Blinking, she tried to focus on his face. “Alex?”

“What happened?”

Able to see him, she asked, “Who is Lisle?”

Alex stared at her with a mixture of fear and
anger. “How do you know about her?”

“I-I just had a vision, about you and a woman with
long, silvery-blonde hair. Blue eyes.”

His head reared back, as if he’d been slapped. “I
thought you couldn’t read minds since the dead man’s blood?”

“I still can’t. I didn’t even sense those humans
back there. And where you are concerned, I’ve
never
been able to read your mind. This … this
is unusual for me, even when I was at full capacity in the mind-reading
department.”

Alex stared at her for a long moment, as if trying
to decipher if she was lying or not. Meeting his skeptic gaze steadily, she
waited for him to say or do something. He jerked back around and started
walking at a faster pace. She rolled her eyes and hurried to catch up to him.

Pretty sure he wasn’t going to answer her question,
Alex surprised her. “Lisle was a woman I knew a long time ago.”

“Oh.” Kai chewed on her lower lip, unsure if she
wanted to know about the beautiful woman and her relationship with Alex. “I’m sorry.
I should have kept my mouth shut. It’s just … I keep having these flashes of
her and snow. Lots of snow. Cold. Brutally cold.” She kept the part of seeing
two of him to herself, not wanting to upset him more.

Some of the tension eased from his shoulders. “The
winter we moved here was the worst the people had endured in years. In fact,
the River Elba had frozen completely over.”

“Wait a minute! Are you English or German?”

Rubbing his neck self-consciously, he replied, “I
am German born.”

“But your English accent is flawless. Why the
deception?” Confused, she realized she knew absolutely nothing about Alexander
Walker.

Alex stopped and stared at his feet before
answering her, “I left Germany in 1944, wanted to leave everything behind,
including my accent and my name.”

“Name? Walker isn’t your real name?”

“No, it is not.”

When he didn’t explain, she was forced to press on
her questions, “Okay, why did you change your name? Were you a Nazi or
something like that?”

A pained, anguished shadow passed over his
refined, handsome face. “Being a Nazi was only one of the evil deeds I’ve
committed in my long life.”
 

“Holy shit! You were a freakin Nazi?” The arched look
he gave her had her asking, “Why did you become a Nazi?”

Walking again, he continued his tale, “After my
father condemned me as Damned, I wandered around Germany, surviving as best as
I could, and met Dietrich Eckhart, a human who was a member of the Occult Thule
Society. We maintained a cordial communications. I was introduced to other
vampires, Borne, Damned, and the Undead, who were eager to serve Hitler and his
cause. In 1933, we were organized into a special force of the Waffen-SS, the
immortal protectors of Adolf Hitler. Also, we, vampires, were quite useful in
keeping soldiers in line and we eliminated those Hitler considered enemies
during his takeover of Germany.”

Flabbergasted Alex was once part of the most evil
regime known to the human world, had even protected Hitler, she couldn’t speak.
Torn by wanting to know more about his Nazi past, years as a profiler made her
backtrack her questioning. The turning point in Alex’s life had happened in
Magdeburg. Whatever took place there had been the catalyst in changing his life
and set him upon the path he was forced to take.

“Why did you move to Magdeburg?”

Glaring at her, he reluctantly replied, “Political
move.”

“Political?”

“Yes. In 1814, Bonaparte was defeated, and it took
several years for Europe to recover and rebuild. 1819, the prince, Karl August
von Hardenburg, who was also the Prussian Prime Minister, ordered my father to
personally aid in the protection of Magdeburg, the jewel and pride of Germany.
You see, Magdeburg was made capital of the new Prussian Province of Saxony and
needed to be strong. We were just the first of the influential families
designated to reestablish the city to new heights of glory.”

“How
old were you when you moved to Magdeburg?”

“Twenty-three.”

“So,
that means you are over two hundred years old, correct?”

Casting
her an amused look, he answered, “Around that, yes.” Alex stopped and faced
her. “Kai, why are you asking these questions about me?”

Shrugging
her shoulders, she answered honestly, “I just want to know more about you.”

His
eyes widened at her admission. Confused, he demanded, “Why? Back in England,
you refused any assistance from me after we left Angel’s dungeons. Why are you
suddenly chatty?”