Hunter Hunted Ch 03

Mirage waited, knowing that the buzz of the insanity was coming, that she'd just ruined Hunter's life. She kept her eyes tightly closed, her wrist still pressed against his face.

"Mira?"

His voice, still soft and completely sane had her opening her eyes and staring up at him in shock. "You're not..." She couldn't even finish the question. "You're..."

"No, I'm not," he said, just as shocked as she was. He lifted his hand, his fingers trembling just a bit as he unfastened the hood on her head and pushed it back. "Are you..."

Mirage didn't even flinch. She held completely still when his hand touched her face, his palm cupping her cheek. "I'm touching you," he whispered, his blue eyes shining. "I'm actually touching you."

"How is this possible?" she gasped, turning her face into the strange feeling of heat, of skin against skin. She could smell him, a very masculine, very raw smell that had her breathing quickening. "How can you touch me?"

"I don't know." He shook his head, looking up when Dianna walked up next to them. Her gaze went from his hand to Mira's face.

"I knew it," she crowed. "I just fucking knew it."

"But how?" Hunter couldn't stop touching her, his hand resting against her neck, feeling her pulse pounding under her skin. "How could you have known?" He used his teeth to unclasp his second glove, pulling it off his hand with a sound of aggravation.

"It just made sense." She barely glanced at Beast when the hairy man walked up next to them, his eyes almost popping from his head. He yowled loudly, his hand reaching out to touch Mira as well.

Hunter slapped his hand, knocking him away from her. "I might not be going insane but I really don't think I broke her so that anyone can touch her. Hands off, furry boy."

Mira seemed to come out of her trance. "You won the bet, Hunter. Now if you'll

quit

touching me, I'm going to change clothes and go home. Unless you need me for something else?" she asked Dianna. When the tall beauty shook her head, Mira turned without saying another word and headed into the locker room. She snarled at anyone who even thought to speak to her, quickly changing back into the outfit she'd worn to work and grabbing her pack that held her keys.

She hurried to the door of the locker room just as Dianna came in from the gym. "We should talk about this, Mira." They could both hear the buzz of whispers as the news spread through the room and out into ASP. Mirage would be the most talked about women here tonight.

Mira shook her head, barely glancing back as she left the locker room and headed out toward where she parked her car. She ignored everyone and anyone who tried to speak to her. Her tires squealed as she headed toward the entrance to the parking garage. And then she was out on the streets and heading for home.

She'd bought one of the bigger, ornate houses that graced the outskirts of town and had revamped it to suit her own needs. There was a gate at the end of the driveway and she only stopped long enough to pick up her mail and then entered the code to get inside. She sighed as she sped up the rest of the drive, feeling a bit of satisfaction at seeing her home, the lights shining with warm welcome out the big windows.

She pulled her car into the attached garage, picking up the mail and going into the house. She dropped her pack on the dining room table and then dropped her mail on the small desk in the hall. Climbing the steps, she pulled open her bedroom door and reached into her closet.

The dress was exactly what she'd been looking for. Tiny straps held the diaphanous material to her shoulders, the slim folds emphasizing her slender curves. It was soft, the colors sweetly muted and intimately feminine in every way it could be. She smiled. The dresses were her own little secret, what she wore when she was home alone without having to prove to anyone what a badass she actually could be when she wanted to. They were something she would never admit to or allow anyone of her team to see her dressed in this way.

Mira peeled the white leather off her body, dropping it into a pile on the bedroom floor. In the morning, Beatrice, her housekeeper/keeper, would be in and she would make sure it was cleaned and put back into her closet, ready to wear.

She took the dress and a clean pair of silky lace panties into the bathroom, reaching into the grass enclosed shower stall and turning on the water. When it got warm, she slipped inside, relaxing back against the shower to let the spray beat against her back.

The hot water beat against her muscles and she smiled under the heavy spray. The day had been a long one, the ending had been a bit too shocking to believe. Hunter, the bane of her existence, the man who haunted her nightmares and inhabited her brain when she least expected it, could touch her.

She rinsed out her hair and grabbed a towel, wrapping it around her slim body before grabbing another to dry her hair. Before she left the bathroom, she looked into the mirror. "I know you're there. Talk to me."

The figure that coalesced in the steamy mirror was dressed in flowing, almost transparent white robes. A thin gold chain wrapped around her slender waist. Her hair was held up at the top of her head, the rest pulled through to fall to her shoulders in a waterfall of golden curls. She had beautiful blue eyes that were almost startlingly innocent.

"You know what happened," Mirage said.

"Yes, I saw." Her voice was soft, musical. The words were spoken in a voice that was strangely accented. She reached forward and touched Mira's soft hair. "You should dry this."

"It'll dry on its own. How the hell did he touch me?"

"He's the one."

Mirage stared at her. "The one what?"

The woman smiled and then walked out of the bathroom. "Have I ever told you how much I like what you've done with this house?"

"Aphrodite, if you don't stick with the topic at hand and tell me what the fuck is going on..."

"You're threats don't scare me, Mira. You've always been attracted to Hunter, maybe he's the one to end the curse."

"I've been working with him for five years, there's no way he could possibly be the 'one'. Besides, what's with the maybes? I thought you knew all."

"I know all I'm allowed to see, Mira. I'm not allowed to see it all." Aphrodite picked up the dress that Mira had dropped on the bed, lifting it critically between her hands. "This will be beautiful on you, my darling, but you should wear brighter colors, especially with your hair and eyes."

"I'm at home and I wear this for my own pleasure, no one else's. Now could we get back to Hunter and the fact that he touched me? I've got to know how." Her head shook slowly as the Greek goddess sauntered around her bedroom, touching the little bits of feminine frippery that Mirage bought for herself. There was lace on her curtains and on the thick comforter on her bed.

"You know, Mira, you are a fascinating creature, so many different sides that make up one complicated and thoroughly irritating woman. I can almost understand why Bia did what she did." She held her hands up when Mira gave her a scowl. "I said almost, Mirage. Almost understand. But you've been under her curse for over three thousand years, haven't you wondered when it would end, when she would stop hurting you the way she has?"

"Did you talk her into this? Or is having it be Hunter to be able to touch me another little giggle on her part?" Her scowl was fierce. "Why did it have to be him?"

"Because you desire him, Mira. Admit it. You've wanted Hunter since the first day you met him. What woman wouldn't?"

"What female of any species wouldn't?" Mirage countered. "Even if I wasn't cursed, I'd have held him at arm's lengths. I've seen what he does to females. He can't be serious about any of them."

"No, he hasn't been serious about any of them." Aphrodite stepped closer to the free standing mirror, her hand moving across the surface even as her eyes grew hazy and distant. "But there are reasons for Hunter's actions, reasons he will tell you if you but ask the question. Your future is not set, Mirage. It splinters and changes with each thought that races through your incredibly active mind. With that, I can not help you." She shook her head, moving away from the mirror.

"I thought you'd know, you've always known what I should do before..."

"Perhaps I've done you wrong by directing your actions," she said with a small wave of her long-nailed fingers. "Perhaps this day would have come more quickly if you hadn't listened to my words."

Mirage pressed her fingers against her temples where a headache had begun to pound through her head. She glared at her friend. "Then go."

Aphrodite looked as if she wanted to say something else, but she didn't, turning toward the mirror and disappearing into it.

"Thanks for nothing." Mira grabbed her dress and slid the soft material over her head, pulling her towel off from around her body and then straightening the flared hem. She took her towel into the bathroom and hung it neatly from the towel bar, grabbing the panties she'd left on the counter and pulling them on. She brushed her hair, wincing as a knot caught in her brush. Then she picked up something else that she wore only for herself.

A light, spicy scent wafted through the air and Mirage smiled, setting the bottle down. She twirled, watching the skirt of her dress flare out and then fall, hiding her slim thighs as it did. Grabbing her favored pair of sandals, she slid them on her small feet and headed down the stairs.

It was a vastly different looking Mirage that stepped out the front door of the big house than the one that had walked in. This Mirage looked young, feminine and beautiful, as if stepping out to meet her beau on a date. She smiled, but without that menacing bite that scared so many of the foes she'd faced in her life, in her very long, very violent life.

Half of them would have sworn this was a different woman, one that was sexy and sensual, one they wouldn't mind risking insanity to be able to touch. Her skin was tanned, smooth and soft, a slight sheen of health glistening off of it. Her hair bounced against her shoulders. She wasn't heavily armed, though she was armed. She never left the house without something.

She could hear the traffic of the city racing by her front gate and she shuddered. Humanity had hurt her almost as much as that Greek bitch, Bia, had. She longed for a moment where she might call the bitch out for the hurt she had wrought, not only on Mirage but on her family.

Part of Aphrodite's gift to Mira had been the chance for her to say good-bye to her family. She knew that neither Lineal or Lynette blamed her for the torture they'd been put through. They knew what had happened and both wished her to find what happiness she could.

She'd done her best. Every person she killed was a little wafer thin slice of the hate off of her soul. Even some of the more unusual of her kills recently, the Vampires and renegades of the Were community, the aliens, the creatures that no one really knew where they'd come from, had helped that hurt just a bit more.

"Yeah, another thousand or so years and I'll be Miss Happy," she said with a smug smirk. She shook her head, turning toward the path that she took every night, the path that led to the statues she'd had made many millennia before.

The small clearing quickly opened at her feet and she stepped inside the small Garden of Eden she'd made. The soft lights were left on at all times. Lynette had feared the dark more than anything and even now, Mira couldn't force her to face it. Not when she couldn't be there to calm and to soothe her. Lineal stood next to a cement bench, poised forever in Mirage's favorite stance.

His strong, well shaped legs were a shoulder's width apart, his arms crossed over his wide chest. His head was tipped back and he was laughing as he forever watched their daughter play among the flowers Mirage had planted herself. Even his hair seemed almost real, the locks curling around his strong shoulders. He'd always left it long because he knew she liked it.

She walked toward him now, wishing that his blue eyes would open, that he would see her in this dress and step forward, his eyes showing his admiration. Mira knew her husband and she well knew that if they'd been alone, her dress would now be hanging off one of the flowering bushes scattered throughout the clearing. That she'd be crying out as he gave her the first of many climaxes. He'd been her first and her only. Causing men to go insane was actually a good way to keep a woman faithful.

But she knew those eyes would never open and that she would never feel his heated touch or hear her daughter play and laugh through the flowers. She knew she created this wonderland of a happy family life to keep the insanity from taking her. Mirage knew why she did what she did. But she also knew that she would walk away from this little slice of heaven and be able to pick up her blaster tomorrow, to do the things she had to do for her job because tomorrow night, she'd be back here.

"He touched me, Lineal. He actually touched my skin and the insanity didn't take him. Maybe this is it. Maybe he's the one to break the curse so that I might finally die and join you and Lynette. I've missed you so much, both of you." She sank down on the bench, her hands reaching out to touch the life size statue. "I can't think of anything I want more than to finally be able to leave this horrid existence and be with you again."

She smiled up at him even as he didn't answer. She could still hear his voice in her dreams and as long as she had that, she'd fight to keep her sanity. "I love you, even more now than I did before."

About an hour later, she rose. Tears fell freely from her eyes as she kissed his cool marble cheek and bent to hug her unwieldy daughter. "Until tomorrow," she whispered and then forced herself to turn away. The glow from the clearing lit the path and she easily found her way back to the house. It was only as she walked up the front stairs that she saw she had a visitor.

"What are you doing here?"

"We need to discuss this, Mira. You can't just shrug me off and say what happened didn't affect you."

"God, Hunter, do you always think you have some kind of amazing affect on women? Get over yourself already."

Mira opened the front door but didn't go in, looking down at the driveway and seeing Hunter's motorcycle sitting there. "Why don't you just climb back on that beast and go the fuck away for the next three days. We can talk about it again at work."

Hunter reached out, grabbing her arm. He saw her tense and her eyes closed again as if she waited for whatever would happen next. When nothing did, she blinked open her eyes and glared up at him. "Okay, so you proved it again. Look world! Hunter is touching me! Did you ever think that maybe the reason you don't go mad is because you've never been that sane to begin with?"

"And did you ever wonder if the reason you were cursed was because you're such a bitch!" The words were growled and she knew he'd lost his temper. She could feel it in the pressure of his fingers around her arm. She'd be bruised, but if he didn't watch himself, he'd be bloody.

"Yeah, tell me something I don't know."

When he didn't answer right away, she looked up and into his face, seeing his eyes widen. "What the hell are you wearing, Mira? Is this an actual dress?"

"No, you've gone crazy, Hunter. Now why don't you do what they usually do and go run into a few hundred trees on your way out."

"Where were you? I didn't hear the gate open. You...you walked out of the woods. What the hell is back there?"

"My husband and daughter," she growled. "Not as if it's any of your business. I visit them every night." She felt his fingers loosen and she yanked away from him. "Damn, first man who can touch me and he's already leaving bruises." She smacked his hand away when he tried to exam the marks he'd left. "Just go away, Hunter. You've proved your point. I'm a bitch and I deserved what happened to me. I'm tired and I want to go to bed."

He didn't move but to block her from entering her house. "You know, this is the first time I've ever been here. I had to get the address from Dianna. Don't you want to give me the twenty-five cent tour?"

"For a quarter I'll show you out to your bike and then open the gate so that you can leave. Forget my address, Hunter. I never asked you out here."

"Damn you're prickly," he growled and she could see he was losing his temper. Good, maybe if she pressed him too far he would hop on his bike and get out of her house.

"Keep pushing me and you'll find out just how prickly and I can get."

"Dammit, Mira. I came out here to help you, not piss you off. Why the hell you gotta be this way?"

"Help me how exactly, Hunter. Did you come out here to show off what a fucking stud you are? Did you figure I'd be easy prey after three thousand years of abstinence?" She glanced at his face and felt a bitchy smile cross hers. "That's it, isn't it? You thought you'd come out here and touch me and I'd be so grateful for the wonders of your attention that I'd give you a ride." She shook her head sadly. "I can't really do any riding when you're dressed, Hunter. Get them pants off, boy and let's see what you've got to offer?"

Mirage walked around him, her eyes roaming over ever square inch of taut, tempting body he offered. He wore ancient jeans, worn to white at the stress points. But they followed his skin like butter, showing off the wide, muscled expanse of his legs and that incredible bulge. She couldn't help but glance at it now, wondering as always if that was all his or if he stuffed a pair of tube socks in the front of his jeans.

Under his leather jacket, he had on a wife beater, pure white, making his skin appear incredibly tanned. A gold chain was around his neck, the double bow pendant causing her to smile. She wondered if he knew it was Dianna's sign, if that way why he wore it. But knowing Hunter as she did, she'd almost bet he wore it because he thought he looked studly.

"Did I ever say that was why I was here?" he growled, grabbing her arm to hold her still. "I came out here to talk, to make sure you were all right. Dammit Mira, I'm the first person in three thousand years to actually touch you and you aren't the least bit curious about it?"

"Well, what can I say? Mysteries bore me to tears." She refused to let him know just how upset she actually was or how much she desperately wanted to know what this whole thing meant. Was the curse over? Could she touch anyone now? More importantly, could she die now?

"Then prepared to be bored." He reached behind her and pushed open the front door. Surprise crossed his face as he stared at the beauty of the house before him. This was one of the last things he'd expected out of Mira. It was the country house of a rich doctor or a socialite, not Mira's home. He'd expected a double-wide or one side of a duplex, not this country estate.

This house, the dress she was wearing, it was all a side of Mira he hadn't known existed and suddenly he was almost defensively curious to find out more. He wanted to know this white haired beauty with the tiny mole at the corner of her mouth that he longer to touch. He wanted to discover her wants and wishes, to hear her dreams. He wanted to know how much of this new Mira was really ingrained into her or if this was something new.

Mirage pulled away from him and walked into the beauty of her rose covered living room. Roses were one of her favorite flowers, even as boring and blasé as that sounded. There was something intricately lovely about a rose in full bloom and the scent was mouth watering. She walked to one of the many antiques that she'd refurbished herself, another secret she hid from her team. She had her own workshop out back and spent many relaxing hour there, taking something worn and beaten and changing it into something useful and beautiful. Pulling out a crystal decanter, she lifted it toward Hunter and then poured the amber liquid into two matching tumblers.