Chapter 9
Marcus
Everything ached. The hunters hadn't just knocked me out, but they had taken great pleasure in beating me within an inch of my immortal life.
Footsteps fell on the stairs leading to God knew where, pulling my attention away from the pain. Two sets of them. One of them male, the other...female? They were lighter, almost hesitant.
It wasn't that I was surprised to see a female hunter. I'd been knocked out by one. I just didn't expect one to come to taunt me. Since I'd arrived at this new base, only men had come down to check on me, spit on me, and sometimes wave their bloody wrists in front of me as they laughed. No women though.
Except now.
"We keep it chained up, but not sedated," a gruff voice explained to the female. It. I had been downgraded from a fearsome monster to an it. Oh, if the other knights could see me now.
"Is that safe?" the woman asked, my head too fuzzy with hunger to pick her voice apart.
"It's too weak to break the chains. We haven't fed it since it was captured, and apparently they haven't been eating regularly either. Which was a bonus on our part. Made our job easier." The man chuckled and the woman grunted. "This one doesn't have any special powers, so you don't have to worry about it putting you in its thrall."
I almost laughed. So that's why they hadn't sent females. They thought I was like Wynn or Drake who could ensnare others with a single look. Sadly for them, they had their intel wrong. It didn’t matter if they were male or female. Their powers didn't discriminate. Unfortunately, none of that helped me right now.
"Don't get too close, it's still dangerous. But then you'd know that, huh?" The male laughed as the woman stepped forward. She crouched down before me and beneath the oily scent of the male there was another smell, a sweeter fragrance. Why was it so familiar? It was almost like...like...strawberries and coffee grounds. The revelation made my eyes snap open.
Big, light brown eyes stared down at me with a mixture of horror and sadness. I jolted up, ignoring the pain in my limbs and head. Piper. What the hell was she doing here? My eyes skimmed over her outfit, the daggers at her hips. She had gone undercover.
Had this been Antoine's idea? Had he sent her to save me? No. He'd never put her in danger that way and Piper had the audacity to think up such a plan on her own. I almost laughed. If Antoine didn't know yet, he would be beyond pissed when he found out. I didn't want to be Piper when Antoine got his hands on her.
"What are you smiling at, bloodsucker?" The man scowled, stepping closer to Piper. "She smells good, doesn't she? But you can't have her." The male’s hand clamped down on her shoulder, but she didn't lift her gaze from me.
My hackles raised over his hand on her. She didn’t belong to him either. A low growl rumbled from the back of my throat and I didn't know how I had the energy, but I yanked on my chains, jerking forward and glaring at the male hunter.
"Watch it." The male hunter tried to pull her away, but Piper shook her head, not budging an inch.
"I'm fine. He won't hurt me." The sound of her voice was like heavenly bells in my ears.
"I know you're used to being in the middle of the vamps, but it doesn't mean you can be reckless." He urged her once more to back away.
Piper stared at me with pain in her eyes. Was that for me? Then, with a watery smile, she pushed up off her thighs and stood. Her face changed instantly. The empathy and sadness there shifted into a hardened mask. I'd never seen Piper put on a face so fast. She'd always been open and honest. It caused an ache in my chest for this gorgeous woman to have been damaged in such a way because of us.
It was because of us. From the moment Piper had walked into our house, she had damned herself. She'd been attacked, kidnapped, and now forced to be someone she wasn't all for the sake of being involved with us. I wished she would have never come to work for us, then maybe she wouldn't be putting herself in such danger. Especially not for me. I wasn't worth it. I'd already been damned from the moment Boris changed me. He should have killed me that first night. Saved us all the trouble.
My eyes followed her as she walked up the stairs behind the male hunter, not allowing him to shield her from me. Five steps up, she paused and turned to look behind her. The agony in her gaze pulled at me, but I couldn't let her risk her safety. I flicked my head toward the stairs, insisting that she go. With a tight jaw, she did as she was told—a first. The others wouldn't believe me when I told them. If I got to tell them. At this rate, I wasn't sure I'd make it to the next night, let alone to see my brothers again. As I sagged against the wall, I let Piper's face hover in my mind as my eyes grew heavy with exhaustion. At least I got to see Piper's face one more time.
I woke from the slam of a door above. Multiple booted feet pounded down the stairs. I cracked my eyes open, counting the hunters as they lined up around me. At least six of them. Each of them wore a menacing look on their face. It was a far cry from Piper's empathetic gaze.
In some ways, I was thankful for it. Hating them and the fight for survival was almost better than the ache in my chest from watching her see me this way. It wasn't anything I would wish upon anyone else. However, for whatever reason she was here, and I couldn't stop her from seeing it. I could, however, keep the sadistic bastards before me from getting my brothers.
"Oh, you're back," I rasped, my mouth and throat dry, the lack of blood making it hard to speak. "I was beginning to worry."
"Shut up, vampire." The head of this group of hunters kicked a booted foot out and hit me in the chest. Pain splintered from the impact. Had I been human, that one kick would have broken a rib or something. Unfortunately for me, I was made of sturdier stuff. I'd have to push them further to get them to do what I wanted.
I gathered my strength and forced a smile to my lips. "P-Pussy."
A few of the hunters chuckled, causing their leader to turn red with rage. Fists swung as he pounded into me. Hitting my face over and over again. My fangs ached to feed, my mouth watering at the taste of my own blood. The hunter continued to wail on me, breaking my nose at one point, and my eyes began to swell. I thought I might actually have gotten what I wanted, but before the hunter could really lay into me, one of the others pulled him back.
"Hold up, Huss. The boss wants him alive to question him. If you kill him now, we lose any chance of finding the others."
"Don't you think I know that?" Huss, I assumed, snarled. The room dimmed, my eyes too swollen to see clearly. "It's immortal. It won't die from a little beating." Huss paused and then asked in a low voice, "Or would you rather take its place?"
The man swallowed thickly, and stuttered out, "N-No. No, sir."