Hunter Hunted Ch 07

Shadow stared between the two of his agents, watching as Mira looked down and away from his intent gaze. "Yes, I can see that," he said sagely, chuckling to himself as Mira blushed red. "Okay, get this mess cleaned up, take the prisoners down to the tombs and Mage, wipe their memories." He nodded at the four women who still huddled together under blankets.

"Lady Melody is going to need more than her memory wiped," Mira said. She showed Shadow the bite marks. "He's poisoned her."

"We'll get her in detox as quick as we can, Mira. She should be fine in a couple of days." Kit touched one of the bites, watching as Melody flinched. "She goes first," she called to Lelia. "Make sure she doesn't try to bite anyone until we get her taken care of."

Lelia reached down, helping Melody to her feet and to the door. "You'll be fine, Sweetie. Just stay calm."

"Did you get a good look at them?" Shadow asked.

"I ran into them last night, well at least two of them. The Vampire that took Lady Melody and the man who was behind the whole thing. Myler Baer-Braxton. He's as pretentious as his name, Shadow. I made a fool of him at this bar and I think he was trying to get his evens with me." Mirage rolled the edge of her shirt under her hands nervously. "I know where to find them, Shadow. I want to be in on this, I have to be."

Shadow studied her face. "Both you and Hunter are going to the med floor at ASP before you do anything else. After you're checked out, come find me and we'll figure out what we're going to do next. I want a clean bill from the doctors and then we'll talk, Mira, not before."

"Shadow," she began to argue and then watched his back as he just walked away from her. "How does Callie put up with this shit," she complained softly.

"She loves him. You'd be surprised what two people in love will deal with, Mira." Hunter reached out and tipped her chin up, staring into her pretty eyes. "Come on, let's just do what he wants and get it over with."

"You're almost as bad as he is," Mirage growled, jerking her chin out of his hand. "What is with you and all the touchy feely stuff?"

"Touchy, feely stuff? Damn Mira, can you be anymore prickly?" He dropped his hand and turned away, walking down behind the women and muttering his complaints to the world. "Nothing will make you happy."

"Try keeping your hands to yourself and I'll be ecstatic," she grumbled back.

"Okay children, don't make me turn this car around," Kit said, her voice almost as long suffering as the look she gave Mira. "Can't you two play nice?"

"Why should I? He always starts it."

"I'm going to finish it," Kit growled. She almost turned on Drake when he walked up behind her.

"She started it, Mom," he said with a whine in his voice.

"Tinman, you are on my team. Behave or I'm going to find you a cornfield and then douse you with water to see if we can make your rust."

"Going to send out a crazy chick in a blue gingham dress as well?"

Drake, behave before she really gives it to you,

Mage whispered into his head. He was heading for the door, knowing he would be called upon to take care of the girls' memories of this morning.

"Did I ever tell you how creepy that is?" Tinman said, staring over at Mage. The empath just smiled, the smug look giving him an even creepier look.

Kit waved them all out to the SUV. She sighed and looked at Shadow. "I just can't figure out how you conned me into running a team. It's like a permanent babysitting job."

"Now you know how I feel," Shadow said with a laugh. "If it weren't for Callie, I'd have quit a long time ago and gone into some kind of private practice."

"Callie loves you, Shadow. I don't think she'd be unhappy with anything you did."

"Maybe not unhappy, but now that we have babies on the way, I won't do anything that might cause her even the least bit of grief. Leaving ASP will have to wait until later." He reached for the cell phone on his belt when it went off, turning away from Kit to answer it.

She headed out the door as well, knowing that Shadow would lock up before he left to go out to his own vehicle. Her team was already in the truck. They would head back to ASP and then go out later to find the man Mirage had pissed off.

* * * *

Mirage sat staring at Hunter who sat on the cot next to hers. He was holding an ice pack to the bump on his head. "I don't know why you bother, there's nothing in there to hurt."

Hunter glanced at the nurse who was taking his blood pressure. "Can't you feel the love?"

The girl, no more than twenty-two, giggled at Hunter's joke, her breasts jiggling under the tight nurse's uniform she was wearing. The dress was short, stopping some three inches above her knees. It also zipped up the front and the zipper seemed to like to worm its way down, which the nurse didn't always fix right away. She exposed a lot of creamy white skin and shadowed cleavage as she fawned over Hunter.

"See?" He growled at Mirage, deciding never to tell her annoying he found the nurse and her obnoxious giggle as well as the flamboyant way she seemed to flaunt her body. "Some people find me funny."

"Looking, maybe," Mira said with a scowl. "Where's the doctor?" Her words were clipped and demanded that they be paid attention to, sending the little blonde nurse running out of the cubicle and out looking for the doctor.

"Did you have to frighten her like that?" Hunter snapped.

"Oh, are you afraid that you're going to miss out in getting laid?"

"You know, Mira, you can be a real bitch sometimes." He dropped the ice pack onto the cot and got up, walking toward her. "I'd think you were jealous if you could ever be accused of having a real emotion."

"I have a lot of real emotions," Mira snarled, standing to face him. She poked him in the chest as he stepped even closer. "Listen, Hunter, if you want to flex your manly muscles for the blonde dingbat, you go right ahead. But don't think you're going to do it when you're making fun of me. I've about had enough today. I saved your fucking life today. Show some gratitude."

"Gratitude?" Hunter seemed almost too angry to speak. "How many times have I pulled your ass out of the fire when you were diving off that damn frying pan? Don't even bother trying to figure out how many. It's way more times then you have fingers and toes."

"Prick," Mira growled, pushing him back and away from her.

Hunter seemed to rebound off an invisible wall, coming back quickly. He reached out and pushed her back, his eyes widening as she hit the cot and then fell to the floor, his tee-shirt that she was still wearing catching against the cot and dragging up and over her breasts. A growl shook him and he reached down for her, now completely out of control of his actions.

Hunter dragged her to her feet, grabbing one of her hands. He yanked at the button of his jeans then pulled down the zipper, pushing her hand into his pants. "I have one," he snarled, wrapping her hand around his stiffening shaft. "I don't need yours."

"What the fuck are you doing? You've got me confused for that little blonde tart with a giggle like nails on a chalkboard." She tried to shake off his hand but she'd pushed him too far and he wasn't letting go. He held onto her hand, curving it around his cock, moving it as if he were going to use it to jack himself off. It pissed her off even more and she took a step forward, arching her back to push her breasts against his chest.

Hunter moaned, more than out of control. She was driving him stark raving mad. He'd worked with her for five years and never once had he guessed that just the touch of her hand would have him aching. Wrapping one arm around her waist, he lifted her easily, dumping her back on the gurney. He followed her down, forcing her to her back, lying between her parted thighs. His lips touched her face, his mouth dragging over her cheek to nip at her lips.

She fought him for a moment, her hands pushing at his chest. Then when he took her mouth, she gave in, her lips curling into his, holding him captive. Her hands flattened against his chest and she let them slide up until she held him against her, refusing to let go.

Her tongue pushed at his lips and he quickly parted them, letting her explore all she wanted. He pushed his hand under her tee shirt, rubbing against her flat stomach and over her ribs. She held her breath until she felt his hand cup her breasts. Then it all rushed out in one big sigh. "We can't do this," she said, punctuating each word with a kiss. "It's wrong."

"How?" he panted. "It feels to right."

"No," she argued but she wrapped her legs around his hips, rubbing her groin against the hard ridge of his cock. "I'm married."

Hunter lifted his head, his eyes meeting hers. "No, you're not. You've been single for thousands of years, Mira. It's time to get over that."

"Get over it? I watched my little girl be burnt alive. I watched as my husband's flesh was ripped off his bones. You think I can just get over that?"

"I think you've used that and your curse to keep yourself from growing close to anyone. You live in that fancy house hidden behind huge gates that keep you locked in and others locked out. If you go out, it's too Vampire bars or hidey holes where you won't have to face any real emotions. You've been touchless for so long, you're scared to death that I might be someone you could actually fall for."

Her head was shaking long before he got to the last sentence. "You know nothing about me. You can't know what it's been like for me. You don't know anything but what your little head thinks." She pushed at him, forcing him off of her. "Don't touch me again."

He got up, fastening his jeans with angry jerks. "Trust me, I won't. I might end up with fucking frost bite."

He stomped toward the door, growling as the nurse came back in. Walking past her, he pushed open the door violently, hearing it slam against the wall. It wasn't near as cathartic as he'd thought it would be, so he growled, walking out and leaving her there to face the curious nurse on her own.

* * * *

Shadow was sitting in his office, a smile on his usually grim face. "I really wanted to go to that with you, baby. You're all healthy?"

"Very healthy," Callie said, having just come back from the doctor who'd taken care of her prenatal needs. She hadn't decided if she wanted to go to him when she finally started labor or if she wanted to go to the Medical floor at ASP. "They are doing gymnastics, Brian."

He laughed. "Did he give you any ideas how much longer?"

"I think you're almost more anxious than I am," Callie laughed. "But the doctor said that I have about three weeks left." She sighed. "I love these four but I miss working. I miss Angel and Marcus. But mostly, I miss you."

"I'll be home in a few hours, gorgeous. If it hadn't been for that call out, I'd have been home already, you know that."

"You haven't even asked what they are."

"Well, I kind of figured that they were pups."

"Brian, you know what I mean."

He laughed. "Yeah, so are you going to tell me or do I have to guess?"

"Now I'm curious, what would you guess?"

Shadow leaned his head back, the chair tipping just a bit. He kicked his feet up on his desk, careful to keep his boots off the files that were sitting there waiting for his attention. "Honestly. I thought three girls, one boy."

"Try the other way around," Callie laughed. "Now that we know, we should start working on names."

"Three boys, one girl? Well, at least I'll have some help whipping the boys that'll be sniffing around her. We can work on it when I get home. I promise, love. Only a couple more hours to try and get some of this paperwork off my desk. I'll call you before I leave."

"I love you, Brian." Her voice was full of emotion as she spoke the words and he could almost feel what she was feeling.

"I love you, Callie Anne." He said his good-byes and then hung up the phone, just in time to hear the knock on his office door. "Come in."

Mirage pushed open the door and stood in front of Shadow's desk, waiting for him to offer her a chair before she sat. "I have an address where we can find him, Shadow."

"Who, Mira?"

"Myler Baer-Braxton. The man who was responsible for that mess at Hunter's today."

"Ahh, that reminds me. Why were you at Hunter's today, Mirage?"

"I lost a bet." She shut her mouth, not willing to say anymore unless he specifically asked.

"A bet?" Shadow's eyebrows rose. "What kind of bet?"

"Hunter and I had a bet on who would win at the mats. He won."

"He won? What did he win?"

"I was supposed to come over and clean his apartment this morning."

"Okay, so let me guess, you hired those ladies to clean to piss Hunter off."

"Well, no, not really, sir." She could feel the blush starting on her cheeks and she cursed her fair skin. "I hired them to fulfill my part of the bet."

"Agent Mirage," he snapped, watching as her back straightened automatically. "I am not an idiot. I have worked with Marcus and Angel long enough to see when two of my agents are attracted to each other and when they are fighting it. You hired those women to piss Hunter off. It backfired on you."

"Yes sir," she said, not bothering to argue with him. Shadow would think what he would think even if he was amazingly wrong. "I want to find them sir, to bring them to justice for what they did to Lady Melody."

"So where is he?"

"I have an address of the bar where I ran afoul of him last night, sir. I also have an address to Braxton's home."

Shadow nodded. "Fine. Lady Melody is waiting for her detox. I'm going down to supervise the use of the shell. You'll come with me and then you can take Hunter with you and Kit's team. I don't want you walking into any of those places without backup."

"Yes sir." She shuddered delicately, thinking of the shell that Shadow was talking about. It looked like a big conch shell with the same creamy colors and deep pink on the inside. But what lived in the shell was something completely different all together.

There were two ways to detox a Vampire's victim and the shell was the better of the two ways. The other way dealt with blood letting until the victim was almost dead and then giving a transfusion. It was harder on humans and wasn't used unless the shell didn't work. Mira had never seen the shell not work. It gave her the creeps, the shell with its dark pink tentacles. Just the thought of those tentacles entering her body, living in her veins, cleaning her blood made her almost sick.

She followed Shadow out of his office and into the elevator. Then she walked into the Medical unit again, cringing as she saw the blonde nurse. Shadow went right to a small wall safe, pressing his thumb against the biometric reader. Then he pressed in a code to the number pad and spun the wheel that would open the heavy metal door. Reaching in, he pulled out a metal box that was locked on three sides and put it under his arm.

Something thumped in the box and Mira flinched. Just the thought of what was in that box gave her the creeps and she almost asked Shadow if she could skip this part. But it wasn't in her to neglect her duty, so she stiffened her chin and followed him into one of the curtained cubicles.

Lady Melody lay on the gurney, her eyes closed, a blanket pulled up and around her shoulders. Her eyes fluttered when Shadow pulled the curtain back, but they didn't open. It was almost as if what had happened had taken too much out of her, which it probably had. The bites alone could have caused her to bleed to death. She'd been lucky though she probably didn't feel that way now.

Shadow sat the box down on a metal tray and then went to the wall phone and dialed a number. He spoke to the doctor, letting her know that he was ready and had brought the shell. Doctor Kayla Gibbs, another Were, was on duty.

"She'll be right down; she's just finishing up with Hunter."

Mira nodded and then hooked the small metal stool with her foot, drawing it over to her. She sank down on the stool, watching as Shadow got out the tools he would need to keep the shell from hurting Lady Melody.

When Doctor Gibbs walked into the room followed by Hunter, Mira flinched even more. She nodded at the doctor hoping she wouldn't say anything about her just getting up and walking out in front of Shadow.

Kayla glanced her way, but didn't say a word. Instead, she stood next to the metal tray, twirling the small locks on the case until they were all unlocked. Then she pulled on the special gloves that were used to handle the shell with.

Opening the case, she quickly reached in and pulled it out with one hand, her other going to Lady Melody's shoulder, shaking her gently. "This is going to feel a bit strange," she warned, holding the shell right above the bite on her neck. It was the deepest and most life threatening of her wounds.

Mira stood, watching as the tentacles began to curl out of the shell opening until it seemed as if there were a hundred of them, all reaching for Lady Melody. She cringed a bit when the tentacles found the bite and began to sink into Melody's wound.

Melody grunted and then her eyes opened and she looked around the cubicle, seeing the doctor holding the shell and the tentacles coming out of it. "No...Don't."

Mira stood at the woman's feet, making sure her hands were shielded from actually touching her skin, her fingers wrapping around each limb to help hold her still.

"It will be over soon," Kayla said. "Just hold still a few moments longer."

Hunter held down her arms, holding on persistently as Lady Melody tried to shake him off. He even managed to ignore the tentacles that brushed over his skin. But they didn't want him. They wanted the tainted blood. Kayla let the shell go when it pushed right up against the wound. She kept talking to Melody, trying to calm her, to stop the struggling that the woman was doing.

Melody's skin lost its grayish cast. It was slow going because this Vampire had been brutal. There were many bites and a lot of poison in the woman's body to be sucked out. "Almost done," Kayla said calmly.

Two seconds later and Melody began to scream. She thrashed on the small gurney, doing everything in her power to get away from Hunter and Mirage. Her hands came up to claw at her neck and she tried to thrust the shell away, but it held on to her.

"Hunter, pull it out!"

Shadow grabbed her other arm and Hunter grabbed hold of the shell, hissing as the heat of it burned his fingers. But he held on, pulling it slowly out of her, trying to ignore the tentacles that whipped out and around the four of them.

Melody calmed when the shell was finally out of her body, her eyes closing, her breathing becoming more regular. Hunter turned toward the metal box, thrusting the shell inside, his hands gathering the tentacles, and pushing them in as well as Mira tried to close the box. Between the two of them, they finally got the thing inside and closed.

"What the hell was that?" Mirage almost yelled, freaked out by the shell and its actions.

"I've never seen it behave like this before," Doctor Gibbs said. She twirled the combinations on the locks and handed the box to Shadow.

"It could have been something in the Vampire's poison that did that. I'd have to take samples of the shell and of Melody's blood."

"Do that, Doctor. You two come with me." Shadow headed out the door of the med unit, Hunter and Mirage following behind him.

* * * *

As always, I'm curious to hear what you think. This is definitely the last version of this I am going to write. Enjoy!