14. Asher
Fourteen
Asher
Memories that are not my own swirl through my dreams. Emotions war through stages of grief I don’t rightly understand.
My own hurts and desires though seem to push against the flow. Push to soothe and comfort the deep aching sadness that surrounds my very being.
Shaking.
The world is shaking me away from my eternal mission to end her sadness. To protect her from all that seeks to rip us apart.
A roar crashes through my skull, the sound as loud as an erupting volcano.
My body surges upward, every muscle tense and ready for whatever is coming to destroy my soul.
My eyes though only see my children surrounding me, no threat beyond my own making.
Andrei is the first to move towards me, his steps slow but deliberate. “Calm, Father, there’s no danger here.”
Looking around, I can feel my fangs bared, my hands ready to shred any threats.
I must look like a half-starved, bloodcrazed fiend. It’s in all their eyes… they’re waiting to see if I’ve gone feral.
Gone into the insanity that comes before death.
Checking the window, I see that light still shines behind the curtains, but I have no sense of how much time has passed.
“What happened?” I rasp out, my throat raw from the emotions I vocalized. “Why am I awake?”
“With all your thrashing around, I’m surprised you didn’t wake up before Raphael touched you,” Matthias says with a grunt. “You’ve been in a fevered state for the last six hours, Asher.”
“Yes, you’ve quite ruined my plans of protecting my new family,” Ambrose singsongs as he begins to do a circle around the room. His arms rigidly moving in some farce of a dance.
Side-eyeing Ambrose, I grunt to Raphael, “What’s happened?”
If I step away from the torturous dreams that plagued my sleep for long enough, perhaps I’ll forget the fear I felt ripping at my core. She fears me as much as she longs for me, and it kills me to think she might reject me. Just the possibility of it is too much to bear.
“One of Dav’s men called,” Raphael says, and crosses his arms across his chest. “They found a hunter approaching Chloe’s home.”
A hunter?
Here in this city?
Coincidences are all too often not a coincidence, they’re a plan. Finding a hunter in this city at this moment in time?
Not impossible, but it smells like something connected to me. To Chloe.
“Where’s the hunter at?” I ask.
“On the way here.” Raphael moves to the window, opening the curtains enough to show the light of day.
Moving to the window with him, I look out and see that the sun is in its last hour before dusk.
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Matthias asks from behind me.
Raphael nods his head. “I want to know the same.”
“Because if I did,” I say and look to all my children, “you would have treated me with a child’s touch. There’s nothing to be done for my situation. The only thing that will stop this cancer is her .”
Even now I feel her in my body, swirling around in doubt and pain, lust and longing…
“We deserved to know, Asher,” Raphael says before he punches my shoulder.
“I know,” I say, and smirk at him. “Consider it a father trying to protect his sons.”
“How old are we?” Matthias asks before laughing. “You may be older than me in vampire years, but I’m still your elder in human.”
I chuckle. “By three fucking years, asshole. That doesn’t make you older than me.”
“And in my day that would be an entire lifetime,” Matthias retorts, punching my other shoulder.
Raphael says, “If I’m not mistaken, they approach. We should help them invest in quieter SUVs.”
Nodding my head, I watch a big, rumbling SUV drive into the parking lot.
Stealth is definitely not a priority for the pack.
Two large men climb out of the vehicle, dragging a third with them. The third man is taller than the other two, but has thick chains wrapped around his arms and legs. His head is covered with a black sack, but it doesn’t stop him from trying to headbutt the men around him as he struggles to get free.
“The hunter, I presume,” I say.
A fourth man climbs out of the back. He walks up to the man that’s struggling and punches him in the gut.
“Who’s the fourth?” I ask.
“Dav,” Raphael answers, “or at least I’m willing to bet it is.”
“I need a shower, a shave, and her ,” I growl out.
Fuck this nasty city. Fuck its Order infestation.
Nikolaos will pay dearly for every single fucking transgression he’s impeded me with.
This hunter, they’re all alike , I think as I watch him get dragged to our room.
Big, sleek muscles, and more than likely has blond hair and blue eyes. Deadly in their art, but in the end, they all die the same. Screaming for their god to protect them from my ‘evil’.
Raphael opens the door when the newcomers reach the room. Thankfully they’ve gagged the hunter. I cannot deal with loud caterwauling right now, as Matthias would put it.
“ Oh , I see we have a new dance partner…” Ambrose giggles at the raging man that’s brought into the room.
What the fuck?
Every single eye turns to Ambrose.
Even the bagged head moves as if to look at him.
There’s a long, pregnant pause, everyone trying and failing to find the power dynamic here.
“Oh, okay…” one of the guys holding the hunter says, shooting a leery look at Ambrose.
Reaching up with both hands, I rub my face for a few seconds. I can feel the creeped-out vibes coming off every single person.
Fuck, this is not how I planned to meet my future counterpart in this city.
Walking over to the man who’s not handling the prisoner, I reach out my hand. “I believe you’re Dav?”
“That’s me,” he says, his eyes flitting from me to Ambrose as he takes my hand.
“Asher,” I say, and give him a firm shake.
From the way he shakes my hand, I like him already. It’s firm, no fish hand with him, and no power games. I can feel the respect he’s earned from his men and the respect for me.
I pull my hand back. “I want to thank you personally for assisting us.”
He smiles. “Thank you as well, from me and the pack.”
Good, this isn’t about personal gain. This is for him and his family.
Dav is a large man, maybe an inch shorter than me, with a barrel chest and thick legs. If I didn’t smell the wolf deep within him, I’d mistake him for a bear shifter. His thick beard and long hair makes him look much older than he probably is. If he’s as young and as powerful as I suspect, he’ll be perfect for the future.
“We’ll need a proper sit-down,” I say to him, “but now is not a good time. We need to get answers from the hunter before we act tonight.”
Dav grins through his beard. “No problem here. Long as you keep that fucker Nikolaos off our backs, we’re happy.”
“We can do that.” I motion to my men. “The rest of the coven will be coming to the city over the next few weeks. If you need any of us for your issues outside of Nikolaos, don’t hesitate.”
“I appreciate that. This city and the surrounding areas used to be big enough for the two packs, but over the last ten years, it’s changing,” he says, and while I can sense he would like to say more, I know he’s not ready yet.
More and more this city is becoming a mystery to me. Something beyond what we’ve seen so far…
It’s like there’s a dark current flowing beneath us.
I offer out my hand again. “We’re here now, and if I have my way, it’ll be the two of us at the top of the food chain.”
Grabbing my hand and giving it a shake, Dav says, “Mind the hunter, something’s off about him. I don’t know what it is, but I can feel it in my bones.”
When I pull my hand back and nod, he pulls a cellphone out of his pocket. “We also found this on him. Nothing else. No wallet, no keys. Only the phone and the bag of his trade.”
I can smell it too. Something is off, but what?
“When you’re asking him questions, make sure you pull up his shirt,” Dav says, then nods to his men.
Once the pack is gone, my men move the hunter to a chair. Securing him with duct tape and chains.
When I nod my head at Raphael, he rips the hood off the man.
Gagged with an old gym sock, the hunter blinks his eyes up at me.
Sweat gleams across his forehead and a weird smell oozes out of his pores. He smells of… something…
Something that churns my stomach.
“Cut his shirt off,” I say to Matthias as I continue to look at the silent hunter.
His eyes are full of rage, like a madness has set in. The veins in his arms bulge as he tries to break free from the chains that bind him. Is it insanity? Religious zealotry? Could his devotion cause him to smell so foul?
Matthias gags. “What the fuck did he do? Ingest a can of fart spray?”
Looking at the others, I ask, “Do you smell him?”
Ambrose stops dancing long enough to say, “He smells of anthrax gone wrong. He is a poor substitute for any meal. He has eaten something very, very naughty.”
When the hunter’s shirt comes off, I stare at the tattoo on his chest. “Aw, you have your club’s little symbol. How vogue and unique. Not that it will serve as any sort of protection, mind you.”
My words may be glib, but that symbol reminds me of the hospital, the blood loss, and the senseless death of Chloe’s mother.
Grabbing one of the knives from the hunter’s bag, I slash it twice across his chest. Blood weeps instantly from his wounds, and it’s like whatever he’s been consuming oozes out of him.
It’s her !
It’s Chloe’s very essence.
This close to him, I can smell the perversion of his blood.
Her essence and his intermingling.
“What the fuck?” Raphael gasps as he backs away from the vile abomination.
“He’s ingested her blood,” I whisper in terror.
Andrei retches. “He’s a fucking human.”
A shrill ring blasts through the room and the hunter’s cellphone vibrates across the table I set it on.
The hunter’s eyes widen in terror for only a moment, but it’s long enough for me to know that the phone is a weakness.
I allow the call to go to voicemail.
The hunter may have been trained by the Order to be firm and stoic, but it’s not hard for me to notice the way his body sags slightly in relief.
Smirking through my rage—he’s tasted my beloved, he’s tasted my fated fucking mate—I look at him and pick up the phone.
As I suspected, it rings again from the same number.
I accept the call and remain silent.
“Isaac, where are you?” Chloe asks.
The relief I feel at hearing her voice is so all-encompassing I almost miss her repeating his name.
“Chloe, you have no idea how much I’ve missed you,” I say into the phone.
I hear the shocked gasp of her breath escaping her lungs.
Looking out the window, the sun is setting quickly in the east.
I grin.
It’s time to go.