Fanged Desire (Leyore Coven #3)

Chapter 8

Kinsley

They had come out of nowhere, and I had no idea what they wanted.

My heart pounded in my chest, my breath coming in ragged gasps as I struggled against the man gripping my forearm. He yanked it, hard, twisting it up behind my back. Pain shot up my shoulder but I set my jaw, hissing a scream through my teeth.

My heels skidded against the asphalt of the parking lot as I tried to plant my feet, aiming a kick at the nearest guy’s shin. I missed by inches, and his laugh, low and mocking, grated in my ears.

"Hold still, sweetheart," the guy gripping me sneered, tightening his hold on my wrist. "We were told to teach you a lesson."

My mind raced, fear and strategy warding against the rising panic. I noticed odd details, the cuffs on my captor’s sleeves, the stubble on another, an odd charm dangling from the neck of the man in front of me.

My instincts told me to keep fighting, to claw my way out, but I was outnumbered and unarmed. Panic tore at my chest, and I felt the cold edge of helplessness creep in. I had been in tight spots before, but this... this was different. My mind flashed to Penelope, the same sickening feeling of being hunted.

And then, out of nowhere, a blur of movement cut through the shadows.

The guy in front of me barely had time to turn before something grabbed him, yanking him clean off his feet like he weighed nothing. I gasped as the man hit the side of a car with a sickening crack. He crumpled, unconscious before he even hit the ground, and the car alarm began to blare a screeching symphony.

The other men jerked back, startled by the sudden appearance of this dark, lethal force. I blinked in shock, my captor’s hold on me loosening just long enough to stumble free. My eyes darted to the newcomer, breath catching in my throat.

A woman, lithe and tall and radiating righteous fury.

Hunter.

But this wasn’t the composed, casual Hunter I had come to know. This was something else. Something fierce. And from the look in her eye, something deadly.

The men surrounding me hesitated, clearly taken aback, but not for long.

"Who the hell are you?" one of them spat, his hand darting to his waistband where the glint of a knife appeared. He lunged forward, but Hunter sidestepped with impossible speed, catching his arm mid-strike.

I watched, wide-eyed and terrified, as she twisted the man’s arm, wrenching it through impossible angles until his shoulder popped with a sound that was anything but healthy. The guy howled and the knife slipped from his fingers. Without missing a beat, Hunter shoved the man to the ground, bringing her heel down on his ruined shoulder for good measure.

Before I could blink she was right in front of me, shielding me from the remaining assailants who stepped closer, glowering at the both of us like they hadn’t picked this fight to begin with.

“ Back off ,” Hunter spat, voice dripping with venom.

One man incomprehensibly froze, his will seemingly folding like paper. A few of the surrounding men hesitated too, arms dropping to their sides like they were caught in a stupor. But others – those with similar charms – tightened their fists and came at her, barreling over at full force.

Another guy lunged with a knife, slashing at her midsection, but Hunter was faster. She dodged the weapon like it was the easiest thing in the world, and kicked the guy squarely in the chest, sending him flying backward. Another came at her from behind, but she ducked, elbowing him hard in the ribs before sweeping his legs out from under him.

How did she…? I backed away, pressing myself to the chain link fence and holding on for dear life as I watched the scene unfold before me. My mind reeled. Hunter was fast – faster than any normal human should be. And strong. The way she moved, the way she fought... it was inhuman.

The others weren’t backing down, though. They swarmed her, three of them rushing at once, shouting in a language I’d never heard before. But Hunter was a blur of motion. She grabbed one by the collar, lifting him off his feet and slamming him into a van with a crack so loud it made me flinch.

One of the guys had pulled another charm from his pocket, a kind of hand-made talisman from what I could catch, and Hunter’s eyes flickered with recognition. He tried to hold it up as if to ward her off, his face twisted in a sneer.

“Stay back, freak,” the guy spat, but Hunter only smirked. In a flash, she tore the charm from his grasp and crushed it in her fist.

Without the charm, the man’s defiance crumbled. He stumbled back, his eyes wide with fear as Hunter stalked toward him.

“You’re done,” she hissed, voice sharp as a blade. He collapsed, unconscious, a dull thud on the pavement.

The fight was brutal – and quick. Over in a matter of minutes.

When the last man was finally down, groaning in pain but somehow still breathing, Hunter crouched over him, ripping another strange charm from his neck.

My heart was lodged firmly in my throat, my body still coiled with tension.

What the fuck just happened?

I looked at the scattered bodies of the men who had jumped me, all of them downed, most of them unconscious. And Hunter, standing tall, her chest heaving slightly, her eyes wild with something unmistakably dark.

I stood by in mute observation as she crouched over each man, one by one. She took her time, removing their necklaces and charms, and murmuring over them in some strange ritual. One guy seemed to have caught her attention and she knelt on her haunches at his side, gripping his chin and tilting his lolling head to look into his eyes.

My brain struggled to make sense of it. Had she just tried to... command them? Some of the men had seemed ready to flee, others hadn’t moved at all. And the way she fought – no weapons, no backup. Just raw strength and incomprehensible speed.

My gaze flicked back to Hunter as she got to her feet, stepping over the sprawled man and striding toward me.

“Let’s go.”

She didn’t give me a chance to respond, grabbing my wrist and guiding me through the minefield of groaning bodies.

“Wait, I – how did you…” I started, still shaken.

“We can’t stay here,” Hunter muttered. Her grip was gentle but insistent, guiding me toward a sleek car parked just around the corner. “It’s too dangerous. You need to leave before they wake up.”

“I can’t just leave.” I resisted for a moment, glancing back at the club. “They’ll know I’m gone – ”

“You can and you will,” Hunter cut in sharply, unlocking the car door and pulling it open for me. “Ethan will cover for you. You’re not going back in there, not after what just happened.”

The authority in her voice startled me into silence and I slumped into the passenger seat, all adrenaline surging out of my body at once. I felt deflated, too exhausted to put up a fight.

I fished out my phone with shaky fingers as Hunter slid into the driver’s seat and started the engine. It took multiple tries, but I managed to type out a message to Ethan. He was good at spinning stories, he could tell the manager I felt sick and had to leave early.

The silence in the vehicle was heavy as we pulled out onto the street. Hunter kept her eyes on the road, her jaw clenched. I could feel her gaze flicker toward me every few moments, but she stayed silent, waiting for me to speak first. She had just saved my life, no question about it, but the way she had done it – the effortless brutality – left me rattled.

The pounding in my head grew louder, blood rushing in my ears. Somewhere in the far corners of my mind, a part of me recognized that I was teetering on the edge of a panic attack. I tried to slow my breathing, focusing on the sound of the engine, the texture of the leather seat, and the wobbling glow of the headlights on the road ahead.

“Who the hell were those guys?” I said it in an exhale, breaking the silence. I needed something to focus on, a problem to solve. Anything to quiet the racket in my head.

Hunter didn’t answer right away. Her knuckles whitened on the steering wheel, eyes locked on the road.

“Doesn’t matter,” she muttered, her voice low and bristling with barely contained fury. “They’re not coming after you again.”

I swallowed, heart still racing. I felt like I should be asking more questions, but part of me was too shaken to push. I had to regain my composure, to remind myself that I wasn’t the helpless woman those men had thought I was. I stared ahead, listless in my seat as I wrestled internally with my raging emotions.

After what felt like an eternity and two seconds all at once, Hunter pulled the car over to the curb and cut the engine. I could feel her eyes on me, and I slowly turned to look at her. She studied me for a long moment, gaze traveling from my trembling hands to what I assumed was my very pale face.

“You okay?” she asked, her voice soft for the first time that night. The harsh edge was gone, replaced by something almost gentle.

My breath hitched as I met her gaze. I wanted to say I was fine, that I could handle it. But I wasn’t. Not after this. The weight of it all – the attack, Penelope, the fact that I might have been found out – suddenly felt crushing.

“I don’t know,” I whispered, voice trembling uncontrollably. "I just – I have to go back."

Hunter’s lips pressed into a hard line, disbelief in her expression. "Back? You can’t be serious."

I sucked in a breath, my hands balling into fists in my lap. "I can’t afford to lose my job at the club. It’s… it’s important."

"Important?" Hunter repeated, her voice heavy with skepticism. "Kinsley, you just got jumped. There are plenty of other clubs that would kill to have you. You don’t have to stay there – hell, you shouldn’t stay there."

"It’s not that simple!" My voice was shrill, boarding on hysteria, and I struggled to reel it in. Hunter's brow furrowed, concern laced with frustration etched across her face, but I pushed on. "I need that job, Hunter. It’s not just about dancing. It’s about – it’s about Penelope."

It slipped out then, a bitter truth I had tried so hard to hide. I could see the confusion flicker across Hunter’s face.

"Okay. Who’s Penelope?" she asked, her voice low and careful.

I exhaled a shaky breath, feeling the dam I’d so carefully built finally overflowing. "Penelope is my sister.”

The confession felt raw and vulnerable. I hated it, but there was no point in pretending I was anything other than devastated. The attack had hammered home what I’d known all along. I was out of my depth, and alone, facing impossible odds, chasing after a ghost.

I sucked in a ragged breath as the tears began to fall, trying in vain to wipe them away and only succeeding in smudging my makeup.

“I’m not just a dancer,” I sobbed, hiding in my hair as Hunter’s eyes widened at my outburst. “Hell, my name’s not even Kinsley.”

Hunter’s brow furrowed and she waited, her gaze locked onto my face.

"My name is Addison. I’m a doctor, or… I was, before all of this.” My voice shook as the words rattled out, guttering to a halt at the end. “Before Penelope disappeared.”

Hunter’s expression shifted, her eyes narrowing slightly as she tried to process the sudden shift.

"Addison…" she repeated softly, testing the name out as though it would help her understand. "You’re a doctor?"

I nodded, throat tightening as the words began to spill out. "I didn’t start dancing because I wanted to. I started because Penelope disappeared from the club – that club, Micere. I had to do something, so I – " I swallowed hard, fingers trembling as I gripped my knees. "Ethan and I, we’ve been searching for her, I’ve been working at the club because it’s the only lead I have."

Hunter was silent, her face unreadable as I continued.

"The police gave up. They said there was no evidence of foul play, no signs of a struggle, nothing. But I know something happened to her. I just–"

I stopped, choking on the words, too many emotions bubbling to the surface. I hadn't let myself cry about Penelope in so long, hadn’t let myself feel the full weight of my failure.

"I don’t know what to do anymore," I whispered. “I thought if I could just get close enough, if I could keep working at that club, maybe I’d find a clue. Something, anything that would lead me to her. When those guys showed up, I thought maybe I’d been caught out – got too close to the truth…"

I stopped again, breath hitching. Fresh tears welled in my eyes and I turned away, small and ashamed next to a stranger. Strong, composed, self-sufficient Addison Moore was falling apart. But I was so, so tired of handling this alone.

Beside me, Hunter was quiet for a long moment. I half expected her to kick me out of her car and speed away, never to return.

And then, without a word, she reached out and pulled me into her arms.

I stiffened at first, startled by the sudden closeness, but she was warm and all-encompassing, gentle like I could shatter in her hands, and I felt something inside me crack.

My breaths came in shallow, uneven bursts. I was always so guarded, so in control, but here – now – I couldn’t hold it together any more.

The facade crumbled, and Hunter held on until her shirt was soaked through with my tears.