Twilight Hunter

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

JACE STOOD FROZEN in a vacuum of his own thoughts as he processed the words Robert had just spoken. His stomach churned.

Robert was his brother?

No, there was no way. He didn’t have any brothers. He had been his parents’ only child.

Jace shook his head. “You’re bluffing—another one of your sick mind games. Are you so desperate that you have to fuck with my head? Be a man and just fight me already.”

Robert wagged his index finger at Jace. “Now, now, don’t throw a hissy fit because you’re no longer the only child, big brother.”

A snarl tore from Jace’s throat before he could stop himself.

Robert took a step toward him. “Don’t try to kid yourself, Jace. You know it’s true. I know you can see the resemblance.”

Jace stepped back. “I don’t give a shit whether we look similar or not, you’re not my damn brother. It’s not possible.” Jace couldn’t hear this. He couldn’t. Not another damn word of it.

Robert made a tsking noise, then sighed. “Explain to me how it’s not possible, brother. How many times did our father stumble home drunk after he’d spent the night fucking countless whores? Tell me. Tell me how many times he tossed your mother aside to sheath himself inside some nameless slu—”

“Shut up!” Jace roared. Was it really true? And if it was, how the hell had Shane missed that bit of information? He fired another round into Robert’s torso.

Robert’s body jerked with the hit, but he didn’t fall. Laughing hysterically, he stared Jace down with the same fucked-up look Tom had always given him. “When our father finally left you, he shacked up with my whore of a mother. But unlike you, dad took me under his wing. He told me all about you. How you were weak, not man enough to follow in his footsteps. But I was stronger. So much stronger.”

He gestured to his chest and pulled his shirt open to show the bullet emerging from his body and the skin healing over, as if to demonstrate his superiority. “He taught me how to kill, how to live. I knew I was a Skinwalker. I knew.”

Jace’s breath caught. “You killed him so you could become a Berserker.”

Robert smiled. “Unfortunately, no. By the time I spirit-walked and learned I needed to kill our father to become a true Berserker, he was long dead. After all that time, can you believe the lucky old bastard died in his sleep? A heart attack from old age. Such a normal, boring way to go, don’t you think? Especially for someone who spent a hundred and fifty years on this earth.”

He flipped his knife around in his hand, admiring the gleam of light on the bloody blade. “I traveled the world for a while, perfecting my technique before I came home again. It started out as nothing but good fun—killing the women here in Rochester. The occasional wolf. But it became so much more than that.”

Robert gazed down at the knife blade. “I realized I could use them to lure you to me. I realized I didn’t need to kill our father to gain my abilities.” He met Jace’s eyes. “I just needed to kill you.”

Before Jace could react, Robert threw his knife. The blade hit Jace’s shoulder, lodging in his flesh. Blood gushed down Jace’s arm. Pain shot through him, and he fell to his knees. His grip weakened and he dropped the gun, which skidded across the floor. The knife must have nicked an artery.

The old man died of a heart attack. His heart stopped. His heart stopped. Jace’s thoughts screamed the truth at him. Robert’s not a Berserker—yet. We’re both Skinwalkers.

He scrambled for the knife. If he could stab it through Robert’s heart, he might have a chance. He ripped the blade from his shoulder and launched himself at the other man. At his brother.

FRANKIE’S HEART STOPPED when she saw Robert throw the knife at Jace.

“No!” she screamed.

Her heart kicked into high gear when the blade lodged in Jace’s shoulder. His blood poured out, but thank goodness the hit hadn’t killed him. She would never forgive herself if he died. Damn it. She was a fool. She couldn’t lose him.

“Frankie,” David said, shaking the bars to get her attention. “This isn’t working. Take this.” He handed her the lock pick he’d been using. “Keep working at it. I need to get to Allsún, get her out of here and hand her over to Shane. She’s losing too much blood. She—”

“David, it’s all right. Robert is busy with Jace. It’s your only chance. Go.”

He threw her a grateful look and said, “When you get out, go to Shane. He’s waiting outside. Don’t try to fight Robert.” Then he left and made his way to Allsún’s side as stealthily as possible, and began working at her handcuffs.

Frankie’s eyes darted to the other side of the room, where Jace was rolling on the ground with Robert, a tangle of punches and kicks. Forcing herself to look away, she shoved the lock pick into the keyhole, feeling around for the tumblers.

Come on. Come on. Come on.

She continued working at the lock. The hell with David’s instructions. She needed to help Jace, She would be damned if she was going to abandon him when he needed her most. Damned if she wouldn’t avenge her parents, herself, Allsún.

There was a thud as Allsún’s shackles opened and she fell to the floor. She tried to get up and toppled into David’s arms. He hoisted her onto his shoulder and ran awkwardly toward the rear exit.

Damn it, Frankie thought. The lock wouldn’t budge.

She kept working frantically, and just as she felt a small shifting as the lock yielded to her efforts, a loud bang echoed through the warehouse as the front doors burst open. Mr. Ice stepped in, followed by Blondie and Jersey. Ice’s cold blue eyes locked onto her.

Shit. Just what they fucking needed.

JACE SLAMMED HIS fist into Robert’s jaw with a disgusting crack. Bone crunched beneath his hand, but he knew it would heal in a matter of minutes. Robert slashed at him with the silver knife, which he’d managed to wrest back. Warm blood covered his body, flowing from multiple wounds on his chest, shoulders and arms. Heat burned through him, rushing to his wounds. He felt the skin knit together and regrow seconds after the wound had been made.

An equal playing field. It all came down to sheer ability.

With a massive shove, Robert pushed Jace off him. Jace fell back onto the floor, and Robert was on him in seconds. He slammed the knife down toward Jace’s chest. Jace grabbed his wrist and struggled to hold back Robert’s arm.

A tingling sensation ignited beneath his skin, and he was faintly aware of the glowing blue markings covering his body and glowing through his clothes. Electricity pumped through him. He felt stronger, faster.

But Robert retaliated, quickly channeling his own energy. Energy that was more practiced, more refined, than Jace’s. The knife shifted down an inch, closer to plunging into his chest.

Fuck. He was going to lose this fight. He couldn’t lose. He couldn’t.

The image of Frankie’s face clouded his mind. If he had one wish, it was to see her gorgeous smile one last time.

He needed to see her. Needed to talk to her. He couldn’t die without telling her he loved her. In an instant Robert was ripped off him and the bloodied knife skidded across the floor as Jace’s fellow hunters attacked the bastard. Damon’s fists collided with Robert’s face in an angry frenzy.

Jace grabbed the knife and jumped to his feet, prepared to fight.

As he lunged forward, a surge of power pumped through Jace’s body. Without warning, he grabbed Robert by the back of his neck and ripped him away from Damon’s fists, then stabbed the knife straight into the fucker’s side.

“Damon, get the girls out!” Jace yelled. He ripped the knife from Robert’s flesh and stabbed him again.

Robert threw a wild punch, his fist slamming backward into Jace’s kneecap, and Jace crumpled to the ground right alongside him. The bastard was indestructible. There was no way he could manage to stab him in the heart. Jace scrambled to his feet, but Robert slammed into him again, pinning him to the ground. His nails dug into Jace’s wrists, and Jace could tell he was channeling all his strength in order to hold him down.

“Just let me kill you, Jace. Give up and I’ll leave your bitch and her friend in peace.”

Jace spat into Robert’s face and snarled. “Not a chance, you murdering motherfucker.”

“Don’t make this harder on yourself than it has to be, Jace. I have you trapped. You have no way out.”

Jace growled. Robert was right. He had him pinned. The other hunters were trying to get Frankie and Allsún out safely. They couldn’t help him before Robert made his move. The bastard could strip him of the knife any time he wanted, and once he did it would be inside Jace’s heart within seconds.

“It’s too bad it had to be this way, brother,” Robert went on patronizingly. “You would have made an excellent Skinwalker if you weren’t such a bleeding heart, so weak.”

Jace ground his teeth together. Weak? No. He was a lot of things: a stubborn, hardheaded smoking asshole who drowned himself in alcohol. But he was not weak. If he had his way, he would rip out Robert’s throat with his...

Jace’s eyes widened. With his teeth. He would rip Robert’s throat out with his teeth.

Robert’s fingers dug into the flesh of Jace’s hand, and Jace felt the knife begin to slip from his grasp. He ignored that and focused on Robert’s disgusting face. He thought of all the women he’d hurt, all the women he would hurt if no one could stop him. He thought of his dickhead of a father, who’d created the monster before him. His inner beast stirred, and he pushed all his energy into his chest, straining beneath Robert’s grip.

In one massive push, Jace lunged forward, his body contorting and shifting as fur sprouted from beneath his skin.

Robert recoiled, the knife in his hand. He raised his arm, but not quickly enough.

Jace’s muzzle collided with Robert’s neck, and he sank his canines into the meaty flesh of Robert’s throat as he ripped through the bastard’s jugular.

Blood spurted from the wound, and Robert’s body convulsed several times, thick red blood pouring from his mouth.

Within seconds Jace’s fur folded in on itself and he lost his shift, but it didn’t matter. He glanced down at his body as the claws retracted back into his hands. His shirt hung off him in shreds. He’d only managed to shift the upper half of his body, but he’d done what he’d needed to.

His eyes shot to Robert, and he realized the fucker still wasn’t dead. He stared at the bloodied mangled mess that he was ashamed to call his brother. Already the skin of Robert’s neck was beginning to knit together.

Grabbing the knife, Jace loomed over the killer and let out a low growl. “Say hi to Dad for me.” He stabbed the blade straight into Robert’s heart, and scarlet arterial blood spurted from Robert’s chest.

In one last attempt to save his own life, Robert reached for Jace, going straight for his neck, but Jace simply twisted the knife. Robert’s body continued to twitch for several moments until finally he fell limp. Jace’s breath caught. Dead. Robert was finally dead.

He let go of the knife and leaned back. The intricate blue designs pulsated on his skin, then quickly faded. Energy trickled out of him as if he were a drained battery. Black dots swam in front of his eyes.

“Jace? Jace!” Frankie cried.

It was the last thing he heard.

FRANKIE THREW HERSELF to Jace’s side and gripped his hand. Her chest heaved as she fought to catch her breath. Sweat beaded on her forehead and chest, and she blinked several times to clear her vision.

“Frankie.” Jace squeezed her hand, his eyes wide. Without warning, he started laughing hysterically. “Frankie, I shifted. I shifted and I killed him.”

Despite the carnage around them, she couldn’t help but smile. He looked at her, and she could see him drinking her in as if she were a tall glass of Bushmills. Her heart thumped in her chest.

A moment of silence passed. There were so many things she wanted to tell him, but she didn’t know how to say them. She inhaled and started as simply as she could. “I was wrong, Jace. Really wrong. I don’t know how I ever could have thought you were involved with Robert. At the time, it just seemed like such an important detail that you were—”

“The same type of creature that killed your parents.”

“Robert killed my parents.” A lump invaded her throat, and she fought to swallow it. She was stupid. How could she have screwed this up? “I’m sorry, Jace. I’m really sorry. I need to...” She couldn’t take this. She started to turn away.

“No.” Jace grabbed her wrist and gently pulled her toward him. “I don’t blame you for feeling that way. I would have been suspicious of me, too. I hunted your kind and took you captive when we first met. I threatened to kill you.”

She stared at the floor. “And I made you lose your job and nearly your life when Robert took me. So we’re even.” She glanced up at him.

He nodded. “I’ll get my job back—I hope. They saw me kill Robert, so I think I redeemed myself. But I want you to know that even if I’m hunting rogues, I won’t lay a hand on any law-abiding member of your pack. You have my word.”

She forced a smile.

Another lull passed between them, one that seemed to stretch for hours...months. She examined his body, and heat boiled through her. Damn, she loved him. And there was no way on earth it could ever work out for them.

She pointed over her shoulder with her thumb as she stood. He quickly followed suit.

“I should help David take care of Allsún, and the other hunters will have a lot of questions for you. Even if we’re enemies now, it’s been nice knowing—”

Jace grabbed her hand again and pulled her toward him. “Wait. Frankie, I have something I need to say.”

JACE HAD NEVER felt more nervous in his life. His stomach flipped as he clutched Frankie’s hand in his, drawing small circles across her tanned skin with his thumb. He inhaled a deep breath. This was it.

He cleared his throat and prepared for the worst while hoping for the best. “Knowing I caused you pain hurts me more than you can imagine. This is the thing, Frankie. I don’t want to be enemies. I have to have you. I want all of you, every inch of you. If this ends right here and now, I don’t know if I’ll ever be capable of caring for anyone again. I know I’m not perfect, not even close. I’m more flawed than anyone I know. I’m uncontrollable, stubborn, hardheaded and proud. I smoke, I swear and I drink like a fish. It takes a brave soul to love me. I don’t know how you ever managed it. I sure as hell couldn’t have.”

He drew her closer to him. “Whether you hate me or not, I want to be with you. I need to be with you. Because I don’t care if you’re a werewolf, I don’t care if you’re packmaster or if you were supposed to be someone else’s, because I want you to be mine. The day I marry you will be the happiest day of my life. If you’ll have me, I want to spend a long and happy life with you.”

Tears clouded her eyes and streamed down her cheeks. He brushed one aside. He hoped they were tears of happiness. He didn’t know if he could stand it if she rejected him. He sighed. “I wanted to let you know that I love you more than the world, and I think you are the most beautiful and intelligent woman I’ve ever had the fortune to know. I adore you, Frankie.”

He wrapped his arms around her waist and pressed her flush against his body before she could protest. Leaning down, he kissed her deep, their tongues intertwining in an erotic dance. Relief washed over him when she didn’t pull away. Instead, she melted against him.

When the kiss finally broke, he held her tight in his arms. “Please don’t continue hating me. I want to spend forever with you. I want to be your destined mate.”

She buried her head in the crook of his neck. The gardenia smell of her hair filled his nose. The scent was intoxicating. He could get drunk just from being near her.

She whispered against him, her words and lips brushing over his neck, “I’d like that.” She ran her hand down his chest, and his body stiffened in response. She pulled back and smiled at him, lighting up the room. “I didn’t mean it when I said I didn’t love you, or when I said I hated you. I do love you, Jace. I’ll always love you. I’ve wanted you ever since we were first together in your apartment. Since then, I haven’t dreamed of anything else, haven’t wanted anyone else. I don’t want to be enemies again, either.”

He snaked his hand down to her lower back and pushed her hips against his. A soft moan escaped her lips. Before she had time to protest, he scooped her up into his arms and held her close.

A grin spread across his face. “Let’s get you cleaned up before I show you the true meaning of Skinwalker.”

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