I know my sister’s reputation, although few are foolish enough to even allude to it in front of me. Our mother died when Rose was only three, and I often wonder if Rose would be different now if she had lived. Rose’s adolescence was uneventful, but the loss of Matt caused a change I couldn’t have predicted. She’s become increasingly reckless with her decisions, unemotional and manipulative. Qualities that make a good hunter, but not ones I’d want my sister to possess.
Before our relationship crumbled entirely, we’d come to a compromise. Her bodyguard would accompany her everywhere to ensure her safety, especially in the presence of the men she chooses to become acquainted with. This in exchange for her prioritising academic success. Rose is a smart young woman, she just lacked a female role model– until she met Niamh. And for the past four years, she’s lived up to her side of the bargain. Bloody typical she’d pick tonight to publicly throw her rebellion in my face.
The door to the private dining room opens and two of Vincenzo’s hard men enter, dragging a third between them.
‘Ah,’ Vincenzo says. ‘Your gift.’
‘I don’t understand,’ I say, looking at Vittoria. ‘I’ve never seen this man before.’
‘You haven’t, but your sister certainly has,’ she practically crows, grinning dangerously.
One of the men pulls a phone out of his pocket and holds it in front of the man’s bloodied face to unlock it. He taps on it briefly then hands it to me.
If what Alec just said was enough for me to choke him, what I see on this guy’s phone is enough to murder him several times. Or torture him for weeks.
‘Not just me you have issues with, then, Hunter,’ Carruth jibes. ‘Good to know.’
I barely hear him, but I do turn the screen away from the rest of the room because anyone who sees those photos of my sister isn’t going to be seeing anything else as long as they damn well live.
‘Did she let you take these?’
I can almost see what’s left of his brain working, trying to decide whether I’ll hurt him less if he says she consented or not. But then I swipe to the next photo and it’s clear that there was absolutely no consent given or received.
I grab his head, bring my knee up to meet his face and glory in the feel of teeth and bone breaking. He falls to his knees, and I let him go, waiting as he spits out blood.
‘I’m sorry,’ he mumbles, though his broken jaw. ‘I didn’t know… didn’t know she was your sister.’
‘You shouldn’t be fucking doing that to anyone,’ I yell, wishing I was on bare ground rather than inside. There’s only so much power I can draw from dead wood and inside a building with a steel frame.
I’m not keen on him being shackled, it’s unsporting– like shooting fish in a barrel. In other circumstances, this would have been a good opportunity to remind the other Kennards who I am and what I’m capable of. But there’s nowhere for this guy to run and it’s not the same without the chase, without the hunt.
And then, as I begin to feel the Huntsman’s power build inside me, Vittoria moves towards him. I just catch a single glint of a knife before she steps back and I watch the last breath gurgle out of his sliced throat. Blood soaks the carpet at our feet as we watch the man die.
‘Sorry, darling. Couldn’t resist. You were taking so long and… well, maybe it’s a girl thing, to get so… upset when a man does something like that. I just couldn’t stop myself.’ She presses herself tight against me. ‘Besides, it’s so… exciting when a hunt is interrupted. You always need to find another outlet for all that energy. And I may as well use it to my advantage.’
I say nothing, simply glare into her eyes as I try to get my instincts under control. If the others weren’t here, maybe I would take her up on her offer but I can’t. She smiles at me and I see triumph in it, as if she thinks she’s bested me but it’s not a situation that I’ll let go unchallenged for long. I step away from her and drop into my seat.
‘To later,’ I say lifting my glass from the table and draining it as Vittoria smirks back at me.
With his body discarded on the floor, our party returns to their seats to continue the celebrations, as if nothing ever happened. But the power of the hunt still heats my blood, and my resentment at Vittoria taking away my kill grows as I force myself not to think about Rose and Niamh alone in the club.
Chapter3
Niamh
As we dance, I notice three guys watching us from the bar. They’re smartly dressed and about our age. Rose smiles at them.
‘Come on!’ she yells over the music, dragging me closer to them before the music changes and one of my favourite songs comes on. I love to dance. Rose smiles at someone over my shoulder and I jump when hands land on my hips and I twist around to see the tallest of the three behind me.
‘Sorry,’ he says, immediately removing his hands and holding them up, palms towards me. ‘I thought you’d realised I was there?’
Aye, right.‘With my back to you? Hardly.’ But okay, he let me go and is apologising. It’s worth giving him the benefit of the doubt. Plus, he’s cute. He’s not darkly handsome like Cillian Hunter, but at least this guy seems to want me. And he can smile.
‘Your friend smiled at us,’ the guy says, still trying to apologise, ‘and she seems to want to dance. I thought you would, too.’
I look over at Rose, who has her arms wrapped around the neck of one of his friends already, while the other is grinding against her back, keeping her body trapped between them.
‘Rose is way too drunk to know what she’s doing tonight.’ I don’t know why I’m saying that to this guy– hoping he’ll tell his friends so they don’t get their expectations too high, maybe? Rose is a lot less uptight about sex and the number of sexual partners she has than I am, but she’s too drunk to consent right now and she’s not leaving my sight with any guy who I’m not sure understands that fully.
