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~~~***~~~
He'd reopened the wound the last time he went on walkabout and he wasn't sure what hurt worse, actually getting stabbed or closing the wound again.
The television was playing an old black and white movie--they were his favorite, but he couldn't concentrate. His body ached and he was sweating even as he shivered with cold. They'd restrained him this time, to keep him from wandering off. From following the chanted cadence that made him, among other things, hungry and a little hard. He hadn't told them about the noise in his head. He wasn't that crazy. His thoughts sometimes drifted toward Drake, and if the man hadn't been the King of all Vampires, Hannibal would have found him very attractive. That was a lie and he knew it, his fever induced delusions just giving him visions of things he wanted and it didn't matter that Drake was a vampire.
The wound itched, sending a burning pain through his muscles. His head ached but Anna was afraid to give him more pain meds than she already had; especially with the unexplained state he was in. Everything was beginning to feel like it was on fire. His blood felt like it was boiling, his teeth and eyes burned and then, like a switch being flipped, it stopped and he found himself huddled in a back corner of a room on one of the lower decks. His wrists felt swollen and he had no doubt that they would show marks of having fought the restraints, and if he was down here, then he had obviously won.
Hannibal had no idea of the time, or even the day. The whispering in his head was back though; a language he knew but couldn't fully understand. The same male voice from the day Drake had attacked him speaking it, no, chanting it softly. It made him feel things he hoped he had forgotten. It made him feel things that he wanted to be real; more so than his fever induced visions had.
"I knew you smelled familiar," a voice just above a whisper said into the darkness. "The moment my hand wrapped around your very lovely throat."
But it wasn't darkness Hannibal discovered as he slowly opened his eyes. "Shit," he said and he wasn't sure if it was because the King of all Vampires was standing within arm's reach or because he could once again see in the dark.
"What have you done?" Hannibal asked, looking down at his wrists in time to see the last marks of the restraints disappear. He knew the wound in his shoulder would likely be healing as quickly as well.
"Do you think your people were the first to believe they had a cure?" Drake answered, moving in closer.
Hannibal stood his ground, not that he really could have backed up as he was already using the wall just to stand. He breathed in and out, there was something different about how he was feeling and he couldn't put his finger on it, but he did know he was hungry; and not for food.
A light swept across the room and then a voice sing-songed, "I found you, I found you." Zoe giggled that little girl laugh and started forward into the room.
"No," he whispered and he didn't know if that was for Drake to stay away or for himself to stay back. Probably both.
Drake faded into the darkness as Hannibal slid down the wall. "Zoe, honey," he said, ignoring the way her heart beat, ignoring the way her blood moved through her veins. It seemed the vampire hearing had returned as well, but he was more than his impulses and needs. He had been before--during his first time as a vampire--and that had always riled Danica. "Tell your mom I'll be up in a moment. We don't need her coming all the way down here for me, okay?"
Zoe tilted her head and gave him a look that said she wasn't sure he'd make it up the stairs. He wasn't either, to be honest, but the Doc didn't deserve to have to make the trip and while she could navigate just about anywhere, Hannibal knew the old metal staircases in this area of the ship, with their slightly higher and narrower steps, gave her problems. Plus, there was Drake, here on a vampire hunter ship, just lurking about as if he belonged.
"Please," he said, when he heard Zoe jumping up the stairs to some made-up song.
"Contrary to what your myths say about me," Drake said, squatting down to be eye level with Hannibal, and Hannibal hadn't even seen the man move. "I don't eat children."
"The baby," Hannibal accused.
"A test of your half-breed," Drake answered him, before moving his hand to pull Hannibal's shirt away from the wound he had caused. The skin was still red and inflamed. "One he almost did not pass. He has given in to the bloodlust at least once."
Hannibal didn't know what to think about that last comment but this close he couldn't help but smell Drake--his scent, his blood. He wanted more and that thought froze him where the comment about Blade had not. He wanted more, not a taste because he'd already had that. A single drop into his wound and it was all but healed. A single swallow and his old vampire senses had returned. "Why?" he asked and he wasn't sure what he was really asking.
"You were dying."
"Why?"
Drake didn't answer him this time, just pulled him to his feet and led him up the two flights of stairs and into the labs where Sommerfield was working.
"Mommy!"
The alarm was sounding before Hannibal could say anything to stop it. Anna had always been able to tell who was around her. Her lack of vision had improved her hearing but Hannibal knew the Doc also possessed a sixth sense that she didn't talk about and the others didn't know about. She grabbed her daughter and shoved Zoe behind her and held her cane in a defensive grip.
Dex and Hedges entered the room with guns out. They didn't stand a chance. One moment they were alive and the next they were dead. Dex losing his blood as well as his life. Hannibal stared, Drake wasn't human. The man standing in front of him looked to be made of stone or bone. His lower jaw could split in half and his fangs were all very sharp.
The Vampire King wasn't what any of them thought. His ears were ringing and the alarms weren't helping. He shut them off just as Zoe dodged around her mother and said, "The Nome King."
"Zoe!"
"It's okay, Anna," Hannibal said. "Nothing is going to happen to you or Zoe. I promise." God, he hoped he could keep that promise.
Drake began walking towards Anna. "Stop," he said, not begging but demanding; maybe even ordering. The Vampire King glanced at him and there was a pull to let it go. To let the whole world fade away, but he fought it and stared back at Drake. "I offer an exchange," Hannibal said. "Their lives and I will freely go with you."
Drake raised an eyebrow and Anna shouted for him to stop.
"I know that means something to you; where it does not to the Talos, or many other vampires, for that matter. I will freely leave here with you of my own accord. No pull, no vampire tricks. On my own two feet, assuming I can actually walk that far without falling down." The last was said with a hint of pain as muscles cramped and he felt like his insides wanted out.
"Hannibal?" Anna asked, worriedly.
~~~***~~~
This Hannibal King had been coming with him no matter what. If the child was brought with them the Talos woman would use her as a pawn and still kill her in front of this human hunter who had dared to mock her and turn away from the gift she had forced upon him. Hannibal would beg for the child's life, but not his own; Drake knew this. Even now this hunter fought against the re-emergence but still freely offered himself in exchange for the woman and child.
The vampires of this age had much to learn; and those who didn't would soon burn.
Hannibal was quietly repeating the same thing over and over again and it was clear that the humans couldn't hear it and on closer inspection Hannibal's lips weren't moving. So the hunter could hear his chant and it seemed could communicate that way as well, even if he was unaware of it. Drake found that interesting because it meant somewhere back in the hunter's lineage there had been Family.
"Can't lose her mother," Drake heard Hannibal repeat again.
Drake turned back to the woman. A mother and it seemed more of one to Hannibal than the female who had birthed him was. A debt, he understood the hunter's need to protect the two females now.
He made a decision; he'd discuss it with his hunter later. "Your cure is not a cure. It's a," Drake searched for a word, "a restraint. Only hiding what is within until it is given a chance to take hold again."
The sound of Hannibal dropping to his knees and expelling the contents of his stomach had Drake turning back to the man that so intrigued him. The hunter's breathing was becoming more labored and pain was now clearly evident on the younger man's face as he struggled to stand again. Strength and power laid within and Drake wanted to watch it unfurl.
"Blood?" the human woman asked. "When they taste blood again."
"Yes."
"Vampire blood only?"
"No."
"And if I took your blood?" she asked, inquisitively. "Could it be used to stop the change?"
Drake turned back to look at the woman. Her daughter still looking at him as if he were a puzzle and not running from the monster his appearance was often called. He took the woman's hand, she flinched and he waited. When she didn't try to move he glided it over his face and then his arm before leaving her hand to rest above his wrist as he changed forms, knowing she would be able to feel the skin and bone move.
"You're not human," she stated, removing her hand.
"Not as you define them today," he answered, walking away from the two females and back towards Hannibal who had fallen to his knees again. The hunter's brown eyes were now blood red and his incisors had grown to sharp points and yet he still fought
"And Hannibal?" the mother asked.
"Dying," he replied. "He fights the changes that one drink of my blood has caused. He would succeed if it had been human blood, maybe even vampire. But what it would make him, I know not."
"But you're not just a vampire," the mother argued just as her daughter asked, "Why is Hannibal sick, mommy?"
Drake squatted down next to the hunter. "Your brother will be fine, child. He has made a vow and I shall hold him to it as he shall hold me to my side of it." He put his arm in front of Hannibal's mouth. "Drink," he ordered.
Hannibal took his arm but pushed it away. "I can't go back to what I was before," Hannibal gasped out, briefly curling inward as his body shook. "I will go with you. I offered my life for theirs."
"Oh, my beautiful hunter," Drake said, putting his arm back in front of Hannibal's mouth before slicing his own vein open with the tip of a fingernail from the other hand. "You will be so much more than before."
Hannibal's tongue wet his lips and his nostrils flared ever so slightly as the smell of his blood touched the air. Drake felt the hunter trying to resist but Hannibal had been his since the moment he had touched him in that office. He slid to his knees as Hannibal's tongue finally swiped at the blood on his arm. Seconds later, Hannibal's fangs bit into his arm and Drake let out a small moan. It had been a very long time since he had allowed anyone to drink his blood but none had ever felt like this.
It was perfect and his body wanted more. Wanted to taste the hunter again and not only his blood. He cradled Hannibal to his chest, his hand running through the hunter's hair as Hannibal's body let go of the fight and turned to embrace the challenge of his second change.
He heard the tapping of the mother's cane as she moved toward them. "Hannibal?"
"His body must repair itself," Drake answered, leaning down to swipe his tongue against Hannibal's lips that were still wet with his blood. This changed many of his future plans. His awakening at the hands of the Talos woman had angered him. Angered him to see what his people had become. Angered him to see them so weak, so lost. One thing he had decided, the moment he'd set eyes on his hunter, he was no longer set to help Danica Talos with her plans.
"If I were to," the mother started, but stopped before finishing. Drake didn't know if it was because she didn't know what question to ask or if she feared the answer to her question.
Drake gently laid Hannibal's body flat on the ground. "Your cure would have no effect on him now. And be warned," he offered, watching as the little girl moved to sit next to Hannibal, unafraid. "There have been many attempts at removing the vampire's bite but those who survived the cure often bred halflings. Trapped in two worlds, neither wanting to accept them. Many turn into what you might call continual killers because they enjoy the fear they are able to produce in both worlds. Others have talents that were coveted but feared."
"Blade?"
"He has tasted blood and liked it," Drake acknowledged. "I can smell the impurities in his blood. Smell the coming madness leaking from his pores. He uses that device to block certain impulses but..."
"It's failing," the mother nodded, as if she had already been preparing for that particular event. "I know."
Drake stood, and moved faster than a human could track. He grabbed the woman and forced her head back. "I will not hurt you," he said, his voice a whisper in her ear as he turned her head a little to the right. "I will not break that vow but I owe you a debt now, as I'm taking your son with me when I leave. And I always pay my debts in blood."
The mother screamed out in pain and the child's cry was loud, but neither woke his hunter. Not even the movement of Drake picking him up and transporting him to a new location did that.
~~~***~~~
He'd had sex with the Vampire King. He'd had lots of sex with Drake. There had been blood--at least two exchanges. Oh, and then he used his fangs to...so three. At least in the first round, before they'd gone out to feed.
Untangling himself from the sheets and Drake, he paced back and forth between his side of the bed and the window. Hannibal rubbed at his face with his hands trying to clear the images. No beard, he pondered that for a moment before remembering he'd removed the facial hair--blood and beards did not make for a fun time afterwards. He thought about grabbing clothes but after what they had done modesty was the least of his concerns. No, his major issue right now was that he wanted to do it all again and again.
Hannibal glanced over at the bed, his escape having left him an almost uninterrupted view of Drake's human-looking body. He turned from the view before he gave into his carnal thoughts of delight. His fangs lengthened at the mere thought of sinking them into Drake's flesh again.
He'd had sex before with both women and men but nothing had ever prepared him for what he and Drake had done to each other. He wasn't sure which form he liked Drake in the best either. He figured he would just have to give them both several more tries before possibly answering that question.
The clock beside the bed read just after two in the afternoon. In less than a day his life had been turned inside out and upside down but surprisingly he was okay with that. Deep within him he knew this was exactly where he was meant to be. He supposed he might actually owe Danica a thank you, right before he killed her.
He drew open the curtain, the sun momentarily blinding him. No burning, no ash, just bright warmth across his body. His heart still beat, ever so slowly but it beat nonetheless. His skin was still warm and not the cold of vampire; nor would it lose its sunkissed color for the paleness of death.
He was a vampire, but he wasn't. He was something different. Hannibal glanced down at his hand. Making a fist and holding it for a second before uncurling his fingers to watch the ripple under his skin move, changing his skin color only slightly as it hardened to something akin to bone. The tips of his fingers were razor sharp and he knew those could be, not retracted, but blunted. He wiggled his fingers and his hand return to normal.
Hannibal knew Drake wasn't telling him something important about their exit from the ship. He would get it out of his, he guessed Drake was his lover, his king, and something more. They really needed to have a serious conversation about everything that had and would happen. Hannibal was never one to not ask questions or to not need answers. He wasn't always obvious about it but knowledge really was power and this time he'd let instincts he'd normally have ignored pull him toward the Vampire King. It had, and still did feel right but that didn't mean Drake wasn't giving him the answers he wanted.
He was stronger and faster than the first time around. His senses were just more. It was the only way he could explain it. Last night, Hannibal had just known the man was lying. The man's blood had been warm, tasting of pepper, spice and smoke--like a good barbecue smokehouse would smell. He'd been sloppy with the man, leaving his body in the alley to be found. Hannibal knew better, knew the hunters would recognize the cause of death. Admittedly the bite mark did not resemble a normal vampire bite. Then again, the man had been a rapist, and Hannibal had been so very hungry.
The woman in the night club an hour later had been all chocolate ice cream and cinnamon, he liked the taste of sex over fear much better. He'd left her alive. The only thing she would remember about him was her arousal and the two climaxes she'd had as he drank from her neck. That was the only thing his next two meals would remember as well.
Incubus, whispered through his mind, and it fit. He'd enjoyed the experience as long as his hands didn't wander too far down the person's body; well, he would have enjoyed that as well if he hadn't thought it would end with the person dying a fear-filled death. Drake, he had found out, was the jealous type--the very jealous--and while it might be fun to tease, he wasn't going to risk someone's life who didn't deserve it. Drake enjoyed the taste of fear, even from those he left alive.
His last snack, just before dawn, had been a vampire. Whatever he truly was now, he had two food sources which gave him more options. The vampire had tasted of salted caramel. Sweet and salty at the same time and that had always been one of Hannibal's favorite snacks.
Broken out of his thoughts by the strong unhuman arms that wrapped around his midsection, Hannibal relaxed back into Drake's hold. He moaned seconds later as one of Drake's hands slid down his body and stroked him into hardness. He lifted his left arm and reached behind him to bring Drake's mouth to his neck. Drake bit and Hannibal gave himself over to both sensations.
~~~***~~~
He had seen his hunter's memories of his time with Danica Talos. There was only hatred there and the need to see her turned to ash. He would give his Hannibal what he wanted so the tarnish of the hate could be removed.
Hannibal moved out of his embrace to straddle his stomach. If Hannibal moved back several inches it would have been quite pleasing but the expression on his mate's face was one of business and not lust or desire; even if they were both nude and skin to skin. It made Drake's fingers itch just wanting to touch Hannibal again.
"I want, no need, answers," Hannibal told him.
His lover's hands rested on his own thighs instead of somewhere on Drake's person much to Drake's regret. It had the desired effect of reinforcing the fact that this conversation was important to his mate.
"What am I?" Hannibal asked, then tilted his head. "That was a broad question," he admitted. "What am I to you besides someone you've taken to bed half a dozen times in the last twenty-four hours? What am I? Because I'm not a vampire. There used to be a, maybe chanting in the back of my mind, after I first saw you but it's gone. It fucked with my spider-sense. Am I incubus? And most importantly," and with this question, Hannibal poked him in the chest. "What happened to the Sommerfields?"
Drake understood almost everything, but one, what he guessed, modern day reference. "Spider-sense?"
"Sommerfields?" Hannibal countered, poking him again.
Drake lightly grabbed the offending digit and brought Hannibal's hand to his lips. "Your mother and sister are safe and no vampire will bother them; this I promise."
"The only way that would be true is if you turned them or killed them."
Drake shifted in the bed, bringing Hannibal with him as he moved to sit with his back against the headboard of the bed. This was not a talk to have to lying down. Even if the new position made him want to thrust up into his consort's body.
"I have made them Family."
Hannibal's reaction was not what he was expecting, but it did provide the proof that Hannibal's own ancestry included Family and that his consort would be his equal. He felt Hannibal's claws dig into his skin, felt blood well up in the wounds, and had just enough time to move before his lover attempted to strike him again.
"Familiars," Hannibal spat the word at him like it was a curse. "You made a child a blood slave? How does that protect her?"
Drake changed his form and caught Hannibal before his lover could lash out again. His harder skin made it more difficult for Hannibal to damage him but not impossible. "No, my love," he said, whispering into Hannibal's ear. "I made them my Family. Time has eroded away the original meaning. How did you know to make a deal for your life that would be honored and not know that...?"
Hannibal struggled in his grasp, his lover's form a mix of the beast and his human. It protected areas that needed the extra shielding and provided weapons that did not need to be carried. Drake had never embraced a lover enough to make him or her his consort. Never found one to be his equal or his hunter until Hannibal. The changes made his mate look striking--dangerously so. It also made Drake hungry to have his mate in this form arching underneath him.
His lover turned in his embrace. "Explain it to me before I throw you out the window."
Drake laughed softly and leaned in to kiss his consort on his mouth. "A drop of my blood leaves a mark to warn others away. Unless your mother or sister wish it," he began.
"They aren't," Hannibal interrupted.
"They are," he answered, silencing Hannibal with another kiss and bringing their bodies back to resting against one another. "Unless they wish otherwise, they will always appear to a vampire's senses as undesirable as either a partner or food."
"Side effects of this marking?"
"Your mother already had a well developed sixth sense. It will be stronger now, so will your sister's growing ability. They will not change as you have. No others will become like you."
Hannibal relaxed against him. "You are still hiding something from me about one of them."
Drake smirked slightly. "Perhaps," he agreed. "But it is not an unkind truth and it will be something you will have to see for yourself."
"Fine," Hannibal settled. "Spider-sense is another term for sixth sense. It's what warns me of things. I don't always listen to it and sometimes it gets me into trouble too."
This time Drake laughed. That explained much about his mate. "You might be what your fiction authors call an incubus as you like to bring desire and sexual satisfaction to your food. You prefer its taste to other emotions, but all vampires can grant emotional responses for their food."
Hannibal made a face. "Donors. Not food, okay."
"Patrons," Drake countered. "In my age they were patrons. They gave us what we needed to survive and in return we provided for them--home, land for crops, and protection."
"That's how you became King," Hannibal concluded and for now Drake let that comment be. He was King long before that, but to the humans his lover was correct. Though he demanded loyalty and had slaughtered many in millennia past Drake did not think that method would work now.
Hannibal lifted his hands and settled them first on his shoulders. "What am I to you?" Hannibal asked him, lifting his hands to Drake's face so he could lightly hold it in place.
"My consort, my hunter, my lover, my mate."
~~~***~~~
His thoughts were interrupted by a pounding knock on the door and the whiny voice of Danica Talos demanding Drake's attendance. He felt his skin shift, felt his nails lengthening and removed his hands from Drake's face so as to do him no harm.
"You are my king?" Hannibal asked, attention on the door, not realizing he had done so without speaking.
"You are my mate, first and foremost," Drake responded which had Hannibal turning from the door to look at Drake. It was then that Hannibal realized his spider-sense had wider applications than he had known.
"I am their king. You will come first," Drake finished.
"I want her dead," Hannibal admitted. "I want Jarko and his pets to burn. I want her to watch as her brother ceases to exist. I want her nest gone. I want her ashes fluttering around the room like thousands of fireflies."
It was the first time Hannibal had ever revealed what he wanted to anyone but Sommerfield. He hated the Talos Clan with every fiber of his being, but they were Drake's subjects and Hannibal was worried that he'd asked for too much.
Drake's laugh was dark and dangerous sounding. It tickled across Hannibal's senses and skin like something he would enjoy rolling around. The smile on Drake's face changed from malicious to lecherous as Hannibal found himself backed into the wall.
"You heard that last bit didn't you?" Hannibal asked. "I will need to work on keeping my thoughts to myself."
His answer came when Drake plundered his mouth, while one of his hands guided Hannibal's leg to wrap around Drake's hip. He quickly found himself filled. Moaning in pleasure as Drake rapidly and repeatedly thrust into him. He felt Drake's form change between one thrust and the next.
"Maybe I'll only keep some thoughts to myself," he said, his fangs lengthening into longer and sharper points so they could penetrate the tougher hide of Drake's true form. This man was his. His lover, his mate.
His view was blocked by his lover's body when the door banged opened. "I said," he heard Danica yell. "I want you downst..." she cut off middle word.
Any other time he would have found that funny, but not right then. He'd been so close to climax and then Drake had stopped. He tried to urge Drake on and Drake did move just enough to pull a whimpering, needy moan from him.
"Finish with your human whore," Danica sniffed as if she was above what they were doing and Drake was no more than a dog to be called. "Then you can explain where you have been. I didn't waste the money and time to dig you up so you could fuck your way though the next month."
Drake turned to growl at Danica, his jaw and mouth splitting open in warning. Danica made a noise and backed out of the room. Hannibal tried not to laugh and his almost giggle turned into a long sighing moan as Drake started moving again. His climax ripped through him as Drake said, "We will burn them down tonight."
Burning them down was as exhilarating as Hannibal had hoped. Watching Danica rant that Drake's new toy was Hannibal King was more entertaining than any comedy movie he had seen recently. But watching her beg for her brother's life after Jarko's ashes had flitted about the air still red from the heat of death had been everything he wanted. Her fear was brilliant.
"Stop him," she begged of Drake. "You are the Vampire King! You let your whore destroy us!"
Drake's claws ripped through Danica's cheek, taking skin and bone while missing the eye. "Your clan burns as a mating gift for he is my consort and my mate. He will deliver my judgment as my hunter. You are nothing but dirt to be walked upon."
Danica's screech was almost deafening.
Hannibal rolled his shoulders, his other form coming out only so he could see the look of surprise on her face. "You thought your King nothing more than a dog," Hannibal said, his claws at Asher's throat which had Danica stopping her tantrum. "But here you are the last two vampires of the Talos Clan. I turned them all to cinder and ash because you pissed me off, and my mate wants to keep me deliciously happy."
He drew a small line of blood and while holding Asher in place with one hand, leaned forward to taste the kneeling man's blood. It tasted of tiredness and the hope that death would finally bring him the peace he had once sought. Hannibal wasn't one to deny people their dreams so he granted Asher his. Hot ash drifted to the ground as Asher ceased to exist.
"Then there was one," he said, walking over to Danica. "But don't worry," he added. "Soon there will be none."
~~~***~~~
Now that Hannibal had his revenge on the Talos Clan the city only held one thing his mate held dear--his family. With the Talos fortune now his, he had plans for the future of his people and this city would not do. He needed somewhere less glass and metal to rule from.
He had watched Hannibal move through the Talos computer system until he found a large brick home described as a mansion. The pictures and description said it would suit his purposes quite nicely. It had the open feel he wanted and plenty of room for Hannibal's mother and sister. It would be the perfect place to reinvent the vampire nation. The Talos Clan didn't know what they had awakened but soon there would only be ash where a good portion of the vampire population lived.
The human hunters would soon be out of a job. They had come aboard the barge to find the half-breed holding Anna Sommerfield by the neck and the female hunter, Abigail, holding Zoe.
"Nome King!" the little girl had shouted then waved as soon as she had seen him.
"Abby?" Hannibal asked. "What's going on here?"
When Anna made a pained sound as Blade tightened his hold around her throat, his mate changed and moved. Easily breaking Blade's hold on his mother while causing her no more pain, Blade's body was tossed across the room.
Blade tried to charge but Hannibal batted him away while he checked on his mother.
"You're okay," Hannibal said, looking down at Anna's face and then gasping. "I see," he added, looking over his shoulder toward Drake.
"So do I," Anna agreed, her eyes clear where they had once been slightly cloudy. "I believe it's time to break my ties here."
Hannibal dropped to his knees in front of the woman and laid his head on her stomach. "Please come with us."
"I think it is time I meet my son's mate," she agreed.
Blade chose that moment to take on Hannibal again. Hannibal turned, taking the half-breed's sword in his hand and snapping the blade at the pommel before bringing the other sharpened edge up and around. Blade's head rolled from his shoulder, and several seconds later burst into flames. The half-breed had truthfully never stood a chance. Drake had planned on destroying the tainted half-breed himself before leaving this city, but he no longer needed to worry about Blade as his mate had taken care of the problem for them both.
He had been correct with his assumption that the half-breed had been continuously sampling blood in conjunction with his inhaler. It explained the growing taint that had oozed from the hunter.
Drake smiled at his mate before walking up to the female hunter who was moving her weapon back and forth between him and his mate. He took the weapon and tossed it way before removing the hunter's arm from around Zoe and scooping the little girl into his arms.
"I guess you’re my bother now too," she said, laying her head on his shoulder.
"Yes, little one," he agreed. "And soon we will leave this city for somewhere better."
"Hannibal?!"
Hannibal turned to the female hunter. "Abby," he said, "we're leaving. Don't try to follow right now. I'll call."
"He's killed..."
"He's mine," Hannibal said, moving to stand in front of the hunter. "I protect what's mine, Abigail. You endangered my family. Was Anna a threat to you because she can now see? Did you think her blindness gave you power over her?"
"I," the hunter started.
Hannibal waved her off. "The Talos Clan is no more. I danced through their ashes tonight and I'll do it again to anyone who threatens my mate, my family, or my King, do you understand?"
"I."
"Yes or no, Abby, do you understand?" he asked again.
"Yes."
Hannibal's form changed back to human and he smiled. "Good. We'll be in touch," he added. "Maybe."
~~~***~~~
Hannibal did dance through the ashes of several more clans before the rest fell into line. Their King had returned and this time with his mate. Everything was different. The King's rule was law, and punishment for not following was death at the hands of his hunter.
"It all changed," Hannibal admitted, "when you touched my neck."
~end~