Grace Goodwin - The Virgins - Complete Boxed Set

This time I had something to lose.

Fear for her tightened my chest as I activated my Hunter’s Cloak and faded from sight, my armor making me invisible to the naked eye and to most sensors. I suspected Neron wore one as well, which heightened my eagerness to find him.

The hunt. This was what I was born to do. This was what I’d come to Earth for. With our cloaks, the game became one of hunter and prey, a true test of the senses. Skill versus skill. Sounds. Scents. Instinct. There was no visual of the enemy.

Were it not for the Earth woman Neron held hostage, I would be confident in my ability to defeat him. But she would be my weakness in this battle and Neron knew it. That was what the bastard wanted, an uneven balance—the only way he could possibly win. But he wouldn’t. Fuck, no.

This mystery woman, I expected she would most likely resemble my sister, simply because Neron would enjoy torturing me with memories of my sister’s corpse. It would be just like him.

I approached the cabin in complete silence, my own cloak making me blend in with the surroundings. Neron claimed he was holding the woman inside the home made of logs. According to the map, it stood on a rise on the side of a steep ravine. Unfortunately, there was but one route to it from this direction and Neron knew I was coming.

A quick scan of the cabin revealed two bodies moving inside the structure, their heat signatures bright red and orange on my retinal monitor. One body was large and clearly masculine, his bulk as big as my own with massive shoulders and thick legs. The other, the female he’d taken, sat at a table with her hands together on her lap. I imagined she was tied up, bound at her wrists and ankles and unable to move quickly. At the worst, Neron would have bound her to the chair itself so she could not move at all.

When I was a short distance from the front door, Neron opened it and stepped forward as if he could sense my presence. I froze in place, knowing he would be unable to see me with his eyes. But, like me, he was from Everis, a hunter born, and I was not surprised at his seemingly unnatural awareness of my presence.

He appeared to wear no armor, still dressed as a human man. He held an ion blaster at arm’s length, the end pointed toward the woman seated inside the house. His gaze, however, was on the beautiful landscape, the setting sun, but he did not see it. He was, I was sure, searching for me.

“I know you’re here, Maddox,” he called, his voice carrying across the still air. “I can feel you.”

I did not answer, but remained still, not wanting to make the slightest sound. Long hours of practice served me well as I calmed my breathing to a nearly imperceptible shift of air in and out of my lungs and slowed my heartbeat to a quiet, steady rhythm. Were I to get closer, he might hear it, for I suspected his senses were as finely tuned as my own. We’d grown together, trained together.

He sighed, the sound an overly dramatic attempt to anger me, but I was no first-time hunter controlled by adrenaline and rage. I was old enough to know when to move, and when to wait.

“Maddox, either show yourself or I’ll kill her. One shot, right through the heart.” He fired once through the door behind him, his weapon angled down, solely to prove his veracity. The woman inside screamed in fear. I was relieved by the sound, for it meant she was conscious and, perhaps, able to escape if I could draw Neron’s attention from her.

But not for long. Neron would not hesitate to kill her if that would force me to reveal myself. He was a sick fuck and I had to relent to that. Reluctantly, I flicked my eye within my internal retinal display to the visual control center and deactivated the armor’s cloaking mechanism. The shifting colors of my body armor solidified to a mottled mixture that matched the soil and plants nearest me. I was camouflaged now, not cloaked. With the armor on, his weapon would have little effect should he shoot me, but his retinal monitor would immediately sense my presence.

“Let her go. I’m the one you want.” I took a step closer.

Neron smiled and nodded as he caught sight of me, gloating. “There you are, and just in time. Elizabeth was beginning to bore me.”

“What do you want, Neron?” I studied my enemy. As boys, he’d always been slightly larger than I, but now, after months of hard labor in Incar’s mines, he was monstrous, his shoulders wider than I remembered. He wore human clothing, brown pants and a plain shirt, but his dull hair, once golden, was now the color of an old man’s teeth, stained by years of drinking thick black bark tea. His features had always been sharp, a predator’s face, but now his cheeks were slightly sunken, his nearly black eyes bulged a bit farther out of their sockets and his lips were pale and thin. He looked hardened, meaner than I remembered, and more dangerous.

He let me look my fill. When my gaze finally returned to his, he spoke.

“I want what every man wants. Vengeance.” He turned to look over his shoulder and crooked his finger. “Come here. Now.”

Moments later a woman hesitantly stepped through the doorway. Her eyes darted about, searching, then settled on me. They were wide with fear. She was a tall woman, of above average height for an Earth female. While Cassie would only come to Neron’s shoulder, this woman didn’t have to tilt her head back much to meet Neron’s dark stare. She was statuesque, her long arms and legs elegant but strong. She carried herself with a fierceness I’d rarely seen in a woman. Long, dark red hair had been pulled into a simple braid that fell to between her shoulder blades. Even from here I could see the fire in her soft brown eyes. She had a handful of freckles across her nose; they stood out in sharp contrast to the rest of her pale skin.

Her physique was bountiful, not dainty. Her figure was lush, ample breasts, rounded hips beneath her dark blue dress. Her hair had partially fallen from the braid. It showed rough handling, and blood oozed from a cut at her swollen lower lip. Other than that, she had no marks upon her. I just had to hope he had not forced himself upon her or caused her injuries indiscernible to the eye.

Her hands were bound in front of her with a strip of leather. Instead of letting them hang down before her, she held them pressed against her abdomen, rubbing them together as if they were causing her pain. I saw no blood on her dress or hands, no wincing or hints of pain on her face. Only fear since Neron had always enjoyed breaking a woman’s mind before he broke their body. It appeared she was already aware of that truth.

When he pointed to the ground beside him, she lifted her chin in silent defiance yet moved the few feet to stand where he bid. She did not simper or cry; she was very brave. He shoved her forward, a hand none too gently between her shoulder blades, forcing her to precede him to the rail just outside the cabin used for hitching a horse. The woman stumbled and he grabbed her roughly by the arm, hauling her up once more. As her head rose she looked straight at me and I did not see terror in her eyes. I saw rage.

“Let her go,” I repeated.

Neron forced the woman to her knees, his ion blaster pressed to her temple, and tied her to the rail as if she were a dog at his feet. He remained there as he returned his attention to me, but a sick smile tilted the corner of his mouth. He was in his element. He enjoyed taunting this woman, taunting me.

“Remove your armor, Mad, and let’s settle this the old way.”

“You wish to fight me without weapons?” I longed to race across the short distance and end him. I would survive that choice, but the human woman would not. Rage boiled to the surface and I gritted my teeth to prevent saying something stupid. Neron hadn’t called me Mad in years, not since we were boys running around his father’s opulent home chasing girls and trouble with equal interest. When we’d had an argument to settle, we would resolve it with wild fists, then, when older and better trained, hand-to-hand combat.