Etani spent the next several days either in her room or hiding out, when she eventually decided she wanted to meet this infamous man that she had seen in the basement. She quickly enlisted Kai to play lookout while they made their way down there.
He called out that the coast was clear, and she flitted down the stairs and into the sitting room, then across to the second flight of stairs where Kai was waiting, a wide grin on his face at the game of hide and seek they had going on with Jaia.
She didn't want to see the man any time soon, and yet she was desperate to just get a glimpse of him, even if it burned her.
Stepping out into the sub-basement, Etani saw the man was already standing at the glass, his golden eyes on hers and then on Kai as he followed after her.
Approaching the glass slowly, Etani trailed her eyes down his form and then back up, smiling when she found he had done the same thing to her.
"This might be the first time I couldn't immediately tell a species," she said to Kai, breathing in the scent of male, stone, vampire, werewolf and something else that permeated the room.
The man flinched at the sound of her voice, his eyes going wide for an instant before narrowing at her.
Kai looked at her and then at him, disappointed. "No? I had hoped you would know. It's certainly a helpful gift to have."
"Normally it is, but I am getting the sense of werewolf and vampire. It's both and neither." Etani's nose was an inch from the glass, and she was unsure if the glass was interfering with her senses or not.
"You're right, woman," the man said, and she looked up into his face.
His voice was a deep growl that sent shivers down her spine and his head was tilted, looking down at her through the glass.
"So, you can talk," she said as she straightened.
He nodded slowly. "So can you. You were mute a few weeks ago," he said almost accusingly.
"Occupational hazard," she explained.
His heavy brows lifted.
Her eyes trailed over his face, and she noticed that he had a large scar under his left eye, mostly hidden by the muzzle, and he had short but sharply pointed ears partially hidden by his brown-black hair.
"Indeed…" he said slowly, his eyes scanning over her face just as hers had done a moment before.
"Do you have a name?" she asked.
"Hunter,"
"Hunter?"
"Just Hunter."
Frowning slightly, his eyes dropped to her lips and his pupils contracted slightly. It seemed that her magic was working on him just as effectively as everyone else.
"What are you doing in Ayathian?"
"I was hungry when I was passing through."
"Odd coincidence," she said slowly. "That's how they got me, too."
Kai shifted uncomfortably, and they both glanced at him before their eyes returned in the same instant.
"You're a predator," he said, her nodded response seeming to interest him. "Human?"
"Humans taste better than animals, but I'll take what I can get."
"Me too."
"You're a hybrid?"
"Yes; so are you. Vampire and werewolf."
"I didn't know that was possible."
"Neither did my parents, until I came along."
"You were born a hybrid?"
"Yes, just like you."
"I'm Fae."
"You're also a liar."
She couldn't help the hint of a smile that pulled at her lips and his attention dropped to them again. "Half-breed," she said.
"Half-breed what?"
"Fae… and a different kind of Fae."
"Winter and Summer?"
"Something like that."
"You're secretive." He seemed to like that, and she found that she liked that he liked it.
"Cautious," she countered.
"Mysterious."
"Private."
He made a soft murmuring sound in his throat and his eyes went to Kai. "What's with the pup?"
Kai was looking anxious, and Etani looked at him curiously.
"He seems anxious for you. Your pup?" His eyes dragged down her, doubting it.
"In a sense," she said evasively.
He nodded, his eyes going between them. "The twin is not your pup, though."
"No; only Kai."
"How does that work?"
"Magic."
"That's not Fae magic."
"I might be other things."
"What other things?"
"That's not really any of your business." She smirked, and his eyes narrowed on her.
She realised with a shock that she was flirting with the man, and that was why Kai had seemed so anxious. Clearing her throat, she looked away from the man and he laughed softly.
"Prude?" Hunter asked.
"No. Merely wary."
"You're scared," he taunted.
She squinted at him. "Of you? I could eat you for dinner."
"Come in and find out who would be eating who," he purred.
The threat and promise set her heart to racing. "How about you try to get out here? Then we can play."
"Promise?" he whispered.
Taking a moment, Etani looked from him to the glass and back again.
"Yes," she said finally, and he seemed rather pleased by that.
"You're on, woman."
Deciding that she had played verbal tennis with the hybrid for long enough, Etani took a step back from him.
He spoke. "Careful of the twin. He's more savage than you know."
She nodded slightly in thanks and took Kai's offered hand, heading back up the stairs, though she watched him over her shoulder as Hunter's attention went to his glass cage. His growling laugh had her tingling all over.
Stepping out of the stairwell, Kai pushed the door open and smiled at Etani, pulling her inside with him.
The scent of sex hit her like a physical blow, so foreign in that place that she was immediately on alert for something wrong. That scent didn't belong in that place. Or perhaps it did now; it was she who didn't belong.
"Oh, sweet mother no…" Kai whispered, his hand lifting to turn her away, but her eyes had already found them, and instantly rejected the sight.
Jaia's eyes had found hers over the delicate shoulder, dark and angry as he guided the woman, his wife, against him and his arm twisted to show her the faded, though still present words she had written on his arm as though to say 'How's this for a prostitute?'.
"Jaia, what are you doing?!" Kai yelled, but it sounded as though it was coming from a great distance away as Etani's world went red, and then her face went white, and everything swayed when the realisation hit her. He had known they would be coming back up sooner rather than later. He had known she would see and so he had planned it.
She was blushing furiously, rushing to the bathroom to hide. But Jaia was smug, his eyes locked with Etani's before she turned away.
"You knew we were down there!" Kai was yelling. Etani tried not to listen, tried to shut herself down as she had done a hundred times before; but this time it was not going to go silently. Not this.
It was too much for her to handle on top of everything else.
"You despicable bastard!" Kai was screaming now and Jaia was yelling back, trying to deny it all. Etani's foot found the first step out of the basement, but she didn't know where to go. It didn't matter where she went, so long as it wasn't there. She had to escape; to run away and never look back.
"Etani?" Kai's voice reached her. At the sound of her own name, her poise broke and she ran.
His boots were loud on the stairs as Kai followed, and she knew he was as fast as she. Her throat clenched as she saw it again and again in her mind, repeating over and over.
She didn't bother trying to go through the castle; instead, she smashed her way through the window across from the entrance to the basement. Glass stung her feet, but it didn't stop her from making a beeline for the wall that protected the castle from the rest of the city.
He didn't try to waste breath in calling her name, instead he sprinted after her as fast as his body would allow.
Etani had reached the wall when he caught her, his arms going tight around her middle and pulling her back from the wall, leaving bloody marks where her fingers and nails had been ripped free of the stone.
"Stop, please!" he cried as he clung to her, adding his weight to hers to keep her still.
Etani didn't try to fight. Instead, her fingers found his wrist and twisted. He screamed. The snap of the bones breaking echoed around the yard.
Even with the injury, he refused to let her go and someone was calling Kai's name.
"Please, Etani," he whimpered, his body curled around hers, his voice breaking on a sob.
More people were heading their way, and Etani knew she was running out of time. She didn't want to hurt him, but she had to escape. She couldn't be there; not in that place that had moved on without her.
Her fingers curled around his elbow and wrist, his scream terrible in her ear as she snapped it backwards, and he finally released her.
Stepping away from him, she struggled desperately to hold it all in. She couldn't let him see what he had done to her. She had to run before he could see her.
Kai's fingers caught her wrist as she took the first step in her sprint for the gates, and she turned on him. Twisting her arm free, he staggered back from her, clutching his broken arm as terror filled him. She didn't know what it was he saw on her face, but she was free. Just in case, she stepped forward and her foot found his side, throwing him several feet across the grounds. She spun for the gates, but the pain hit her like a punch to the gut, her heart and stomach clenching.
The thought had struck her so hard and fast that she had no idea where it came from, and she dropped to her knees, unable to force her legs to move.
The happy couple showing off their newborn, the redhead beaming up at him and his joy at them both.
Her fingers curled in her hair, nails digging into her scalp as she doubled over her crushed stomach. Tears streamed down her cheeks and there was no sob; but instead, a scream burst out of her throat, the image burning itself into her brain and wriggling deeper, trying to find the part of her that would hurt the most.
Pain ripped across her chest, and she hoped someone had come to kill her, but there was no blackness, only her own pain. Sliding her fingers from her hair, she clutched the front of her dress and wanted nothing more than to reach in through her flesh and remove her heart.
Fingers closed around her wrists, pulling her fingers away from their unconscious dig into her skin, pulling them free of her hair. She looked up to see the pale violet eyes.
Kai was yelling at her, but she could no longer hear him and as he shook her, her eyes moved away from him and found Jaia. He was standing at the top of the stairs, pale and perfect as he held the hand of his terrified wife.
The sight broke Etani, and she looked back to Versalis' scared face. Her gaze dropped to his chest where the gem was singing to her, begging her to take it.
She twisted her wrist free of his grip and her fingers found the gem, a sudden pulse exploding out of her as her magic rushed into her, and the vampire was thrown back, his shirt tearing.
Looking down at the gem, clenched in her fingers, she marvelled at how easy it was to take. She could have taken it at any time.
Voices were screaming as a plan formed in her mind and she turned, her hand lifting to her lips.
Thoughts chased each other around her head. Run, hide, kill them, run, escape, destroy, scream… forget. Forget him, forget what he was, forget why she ever cared about him.
She would go to the fairies, they would make her forget him, and she would never come back.
Biting down on the tip of her finger, Etani looked up to see the demon sprinting for her, his handsome face hard in his realisation that she was leaving, that she had her gem.
Voices were screaming her name from all over, but she had eyes only for the demon, he could follow her where she was going.
She would have to lose him.
Flinging out her hand, her blood flew, and she stepped through the door, leaving Ayathian and everything she had ever cared about behind.