Angel Hunter- Redemption Book 2 Read online

  He’d even been present a week ago when she’d met another man. It still bit.

  The man had bumped into her and she’d spilled coffee on his shirt. Devlin wasn’t sure if that bump was accidental or not. The man ended up buying her another cup and they sat in the coffee shop window talking for the next hour. Each second she sat with the stranger ripped another piece of his heart out of his chest. Like a masochist, he refused to leave and had continued to watch the couple. He kept telling himself her meeting someone, someone who didn’t kill for a living, was for the best. Like hell!

  He just needed to sleep with her and give them both peace. Once, that’s all he needed to do, sleep with her once. But no, she didn’t want him. She’d rather have some clumsy fucker, but the guy had rubbed him the wrong way.

  Just something off about him, but Devlin had never actually seen his face. The guy had worn dark shades but his profile showed he might have those strong perfect features like a soulless. Since he’d seen them together during the day, he didn’t think the guy was one though. Most soulless preferred the night because the light of day caused them pain. Still, it had been late afternoon so the sun wasn’t that high. Some soulless can stand a little sun. Devlin wasn’t going to ignore his instincts, even if they were born of jealousy.

  Yet, Devlin had been the one to save her life tonight and she clung to him. He buried his face in her hair and her spicy apple scent enveloped him; a fragrance as close to heaven as he’d ever be. Holding her in his arms for the first time only emphasized how well they would fit together. Perfectly. Her curves fitted into him perfectly, like a missing puzzle piece and he would do anything to hold her again, and not just in comfort. Perhaps, it was time for him to step out of the shadows with her. No more cyber flirting, although she’d put a stop to that a long time ago. They needed to deal face to face.

  “You didn’t have to follow me, but thank you,” she said again.

  Devlin rubbed one hand up and down her back to soothe her, until finally she stopped shaking. She didn’t try to pull away from him again, instead she held on to him tighter. Like she didn’t want to let him go.

  He wished.

  The top of her head only came to his shoulder. Such a little thing, he always thought if he held her too close, like this, at six one and hundred ninety-seven pounds, he’d crush her. He didn’t.

  Evangeline raised her heart shaped face to look at him. Her cranberry tinted lips set in her caramel colored skin enticed him to crush them against his mouth. As she met his gaze, he found himself leaning into those beautiful cool amber eyes. Overwhelmed by their depths, he pressed their bodies together even harder. Footsteps crushing against the asphalt had him spinning around, blade raised to put himself between her and any danger. He recognized his returning hunters and relaxed his stance.

  “Sorry, Dev,” Jason said the taller of the two hunters. “He got away.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Devlin responded, as he stepped forward and patted Jason on his shoulder. “I’m sure we’ll run into him again.”

  His men smiled. Tony the younger of the two had followed him down from Canada where he’d led a group. When he’d called and told the other hunters back home in Canada he wouldn’t be returning anytime soon, he turned the operation over to his first in command. Tony volunteered to come help him clean up LA. The group of hunters here in LA were in disarray as their leader, Chris had turned traitor. Selling out his own people to the soulless while helping them when they tried to kill Samuel, Thalya, and a few other hunters in LA. Chris had become even more wanted than the soulless when he’d turned against his own people.

  Chris had set up Samuel and when the soulless had failed to kill him, Chris had tried to kill Samuel himself. Now, the man had become the hunted, the first human hunter in their long history. Every legitimate hunter in the world was out to get Chris’ head, and he hid some place in LA, feeding some of his own people to the soulless. Two hunters had been killed there in the last few months because of the traitor.

  Devlin was convinced Chris was protected by soulless and a handful of misguided hunters. At least at first, those who Chris managed to somehow convince Samuel was the one working with the soulless. The bastard played up Samuel’s part soulless heritage to those who didn’t really know him well. Painting Samuel as the enemy and not to be trusted. Lies, all lies. The ones who followed Chris ended up as prey for the soulless, and now with the recent hunter deaths all knew it. But Chris had gone off the deep end and Devlin suspected he allowed the soulless to feed off him, ensuring his madness and hatred against Samuel continued. The last time anyone had seen the man, Devlin had been told he looked at least twenty years younger.

  “Why don’t you guys call it a night,” he said to his men. “I’ll see that Evangeline here gets home.”

  “Later,” the men said together.

  “Night, ma’am,” Tony said, while the other nodded in her direction.

  She smiled at them both. “Good night, gentlemen, and thank you.”

  They watched the men walk off into the night. When they were out of sight, Devlin stared up at the sky. Hard to see many stars in LA, and tonight was no different. Unlike the skies over British Colombia, Canada, where he used to live. Yet, when he turned to the woman beside him, somehow not having stars over his head didn’t seem like a big deal at all. Nor the fact he knew he wouldn’t be returning to Canada anytime soon if ever.

  “Come on,” he said, taking the short sword from her and returning it to the sheath peeking out from the collar at her nape. “I’ll go home with you and take a look at that arm.”

  Eva sighed. “I’m fine, Dev. Really, it’s just a scratch and you know I heal fast. You’ve spent enough time now reading about the Chroniclers to know this.”

  All true. Ever since Samuel and Thalya got married and had been granted access to some of the Chronicles, Devlin had been allowed to read them too. As part soulless, some of the information pertained to him. There were references to his grandparents he enjoyed reading about. Plus, Eva’s aunt Wilhelmina, Willy as he liked to call her, was one of the seven Chroniclers who recorded their deeds and kept the records in the U.S. She interviewed him about his own life and abilities, even though as a hunter, he’d already had a small part in their records. After they found out more about his unique heritage, he now had a full page. There were gaps in their records.

  Because he’d been so well hidden, they had been unaware his mother had survived the massacre of his grandparents. He grinned at Eva’s exasperation with him. That could be good or bad, he wasn’t quite sure which yet. “Doesn’t matter,” he said, returning his attention to the woman never far from his thoughts. “I know he cut you and I’ll help clean you up; now let’s go so I can take a look at the wound.”

  She turned to face him. “Thank you for helping me tonight, and for at least making an attempt not to kill that soulless.”

  He raised one eyebrow at her. “So you acknowledge I did try.”

  She sighed. “Yes, yes you did.”

  They had been friends once, perhaps they could have been more than friends, maybe, maybe they still could. He had to try. From the beginning, he realized Eva was the kind of woman that came around once in a lifetime, even a very long one. He held out his hand to her, testing her to see if she would take it. When she didn’t hesitate and entwined their fingers, his chest expanded, the skin around his bones relaxed, and he felt like he just might fly. Instead, he smiled at her and walked in the direction of her car.

  Chapter Two

  The soulless, Scott, made sure those hunters hadn’t followed him from the parking lot. He made his way back to the house of the one they called leader now, or as much a leader as the soulless had, Michael. For now, it suited Scott to let him believe he led, but Scott had been the one Abel had entrusted with a secret. Abel tended to have plans within plans.

  Scott knocked on the door and that asshole human Chris opened it in his boxers, a wet stain at the front of them. Scott sniffed the
semen as well as the desperation eating at the man, and got a nice little emotional buzz off him. If the other hunters could only see Chris now, nothing more than Michael’s bitch. He was useful—for now.

  Ever since Abel disappeared, Michael led them, though he wasn’t really an Olden like Abel, one of the oldest among them. Still, Michael had been around longer than the rest of them. Even if he didn’t have Abel’s powers, he had strength enough to gather the soulless to him and continue to search for Abel, as well as the lost scroll. Abel must have known he could have been taken and put steps in place for some of his plans to continue without him. Bringing the soulless to work together against the humans. But he’d also given Scott another task.

  Scott ran two elongated fingernails down the side of Chris’ neck drawing blood and licked it as he stepped by him, feeding a bit of his hunger. “You taste good tonight, Chris,” he said.

  The man smiled at him and shut the door. Chris would do anything to please Michael and to stay younger, even betraying the hunters he himself had trained. All in the hopes that one day, Michael would take him as a lover. He was crazed over it. Never going to happen. Michael only used the stupid human. They all did. Feeding off his lust and hate for the hunters. One in particular, he seemed to hate most of all.

  Like some of their kind, Michael fed off lust, other people’s for him. Having actual intercourse only killed it for Michael or could actually kill the human. They needed Chris alive. So Michael, a master manipulator at taking people to the edge, got his emotional high and fed off Chris’s lust, encouraged it. Michael also made sure Chris’s hatred of the master hunter, fucking Samuel, never abated.

  A little blood continued to drip down the side of Chris’ neck from the two tiny pin pricks where Scott had nicked him. Bastard didn’t even bother to wipe it off. At least he looked younger than he had when he’d first shown up. Michael feeding from him and giving him a slight taste of his own blood had the side effect of taking away some of the human’s aging. Chris was no better than an addict, worse off in fact. He could never be weaned off Michael’s blood. If he took too much at one feeding, it could kill Chris. If he stopped, the effect worked in reverse, Chris would age three times as fast.

  For now, the man looked to be in his mid-twenties. None of his hunters would recognize him now. The two Chris had taken down the other night on Scott’s command hadn’t. It had been Chris who lured the men to their slaughter, men who once followed him.

  Scott grinned again, and when Chris tried to move by him, he flashed his fangs knowing it pissed Chris off. “When was the last time you took a bath, man? It’s a good thing your stink don’t bother me none.” He chuckled for effect as he shoved past Chris farther into the room.

  Two other soulless sat in the room on the couch staring at a vampire movie on television, tossing popcorn at the screen. Michael sat in a wide leather armchair, long dark hair lay over his wide shoulders, the tips of it resting on his chest. While his hair appeared black, it was actually a very dark red. Scott understood why Chris wanted him, most humans did. In fact, all the soulless were beautiful, it was part of their allure. Great beauty encased in pure evil.

  Michael wore his red shirt hanging loose but buttoned except for the first two. Most of them wore loose clothing so they could also carry their swords hidden on their bodies, but the leather pants hugging his legs were unzipped. One booted foot rested on the floor and the other leg lay over one of the chair arms. He made no effort to hide the healthy bulge in his pants. The man had a big dick and was full. Scott licked his lips to taste the lust in the air in anticipation of the show, knowing Chris would once again be disappointed and Scott could feed off his pain. Since he was run off by the damn hunters, Scott was starving.

  “What happened?” Michael asked by way of greeting.

  Scott plopped down on the ottoman near him. “That Devlin guy showed up, with friends.”

  “You the only one who survive?”

  Scott nodded his head, his nut-brown chin length hair swaying back and forth. “Hell yeah! Once I saw which way things were going down, I got the hell outta there. That Devlin is strong. He took out Chester with one stroke.”

  “Hmm. What about the woman? Evangeline. Were any of you able to take her blood?”

  They’d actually been sent to bring her back to Michael. She was one of the tasks Abel had assigned to Michael, to find and enthrall one of the Chroniclers then kill her.

  “No, Devlin stopped it. He must have been following her.”

  “Probably for the same reasons we are,” Michael said. “She’s a Chronicler. She might be able to lead us to the lost scroll or at least take us to one who knows how to find it. Doesn’t matter, you didn’t take blood, which would have helped to call her to us. So we do this another way. I’m getting closer to her. I will see her again tomorrow.”

  “Master,” Chris said sitting on the floor near Michael’s foot. “I don’t think the hunters really understand the significance of the missing scrolls, nor do I think they’re actively looking for them.”

  Michael glanced at Chris. “Very good, ass. You just might be right.”

  Scott watched Chris grin like a lunatic at the praise. For a human, he supposed Chris with his cut jaw line and blond looks was handsome, but the man no longer owned himself.

  “Master,” Chris said again. “Since I’ve pleased you…” He paused his breath coming in pants, his mouth opened wide, he stuck out his tongue and licked around his lips, his gaze riveted to Michael’s cock. “I want to try again.”

  Like a king favoring a subject, Michael inclined his head.

  Chris had gone way past the point where he no longer cared about location or who watched his denigration. His obsession with Michael was complete. The soulless owned him. He raised trembling hands to Michael’s muscular thigh and as soon as he touched him, Michael’s bulge disappeared.

  Michael shoved him away before he could try to touch him again.

  Scott and the others in the room inhaled, taking in Chris’s dejection.

  Chris stayed curled up in a ball on the floor and began to cry.

  His pain and disappointment fed the hollow space that should have housed Scott’s soul. Scott’s fangs ached; he glanced at Michael for permission first. Only after Michael nodded did Scott bend over Chris and sink his fangs into his neck. The rush of emotion had him moaning, soaking it up like a sponge, Scott forgot himself, drawing more, uncaring as the man’s heartbeat slowed. Suddenly, a force yanked him away from Chris’s neck and flung him across the room.

  “Enough,” Michael roared. “If you cannot control yourself around my pet, then go find someone you won’t have to pull back from. A few hours are left before sunrise. Until either the scrolls or Abel are found we still have need of Chris.” He lifted his head to glance at the other soulless on the couch who’d turned around in time to see Scott crash against a wall.

  “Okay,” Scott said standing up, knowing he would lose in any direct fight with Michael. Who was older and stronger than he was, but it wouldn’t always be that way. He glanced at the other men in the room. “You two want to go hunting with me?”

  The other soulless got up and without a backward glance, all three men strolled out the door.

  Michael, left alone with an unconscious Chris on the floor, looked down at the man. “Pathetic.” He turned off the light in the room and left him as he lay. Chris needed sleep to regain the strength Scott had taken and would remain this way until tomorrow once the sun set. Michael walked down the hall, past several closed doors until he came to his room at the end. They’d managed to get a five-bedroom single story house in Pasadena, a place where people minded their own business. All the windows had shutters placed on the inside, so no light came through, making it a safe place for them to rest. He didn’t need to hunt tonight. Chris’s lust filled him nicely. Unlike other soulless who fed off hatred and violence, like Abel, his need was lust. And playing with his prey made the lust stronger. He’d be quite sated until the
next night.

  His dark room smoothed him, an after effect from his stolen emotion, but he preferred it that way. Even though he could stand the early morning and afternoon sun for a short time, he abhorred sunlight, so the windows in his room had also been shuttered. He’d chosen golden silk sheets for the bed in his room. While he may be soulless, without emotion, he still had good taste.

  Drawing back the sheets, he stripped himself of all clothing before climbing under them. When he woke next, he would meet with Evangeline. She already found him attractive; he would build on her lust until she knelt at his feet beside Chris. But she was strong. He thought if his men could weaken her by taking some of her blood, he’d be able to do the rest. Since that didn’t work, he’d continue with outright seduction. Now her, he might actually fuck, after she found him the Chronicles. However, actual intercourse with him had possible nasty side effects, he could literally fuck his prey to death. But she possessed some strengths that humans didn’t have, she could sustain him, so for her he’d try not to. He closed his eyes and ceased to exist until sunset.

  Chapter Three

  Evangeline walked with Devlin back to her car, he didn’t give her much of a choice, just as she hadn’t given him one all those months ago. She felt reluctant to spend any more time with him than necessary. He thought she hated him, and she used that knowledge to keep him away from her. In truth, she didn’t hate the man, she hated what he did. Since she couldn’t separate the two, she separated herself from him.

  His beliefs pertaining to the soulless, that they deserved death, were against everything she believed in. She had been right to end their relationship. They couldn’t be friends or even the something more she’d once foolishly dreamed about. At least, before she found out he was a hunter.

  “You sure you’re okay?” he asked again.

  “I’m fine.”

  Too bad, the feel of his hand still enclosed in hers gave lie to any reluctance to want more from him. Besides, even if she’d said no, he would have just followed her home anyway. After all, the hunters and the Chroniclers were now allies—of sorts. She still wasn’t sure if that decision had been wise, but in the end, she’d agreed with her aunts. The times were changing and the Chroniclers had to change with it. Because in this war, they too, would be judged by their inaction, as well as their actions. She, unlike her predecessors, lived by rules yet to be written. Things had changed for them all when a hunter and soulless united. She was the first of a new approach to hunter and soulless relations. They could no longer remain on the sidelines. Much as some of her aunts were against her reaching out to the soulless to offer them a different way. While she was marked to lead the next generation, she wasn’t the only one so marked in such a way.