Hunter's Edge

Chapter Nine

Note from author: My apologies for the delay in posting this. I've been sick for the past couple of weeks and haven't had the energy to do much of anything.

Broken Souls

Rafe sighed, shoved a hand through his hair and wished he'd sent Toronto after the kid.

Kel stopped dead in his tracks and turned around to glare at Rafe. It was a moonless night and under the trees the darkness was thick and weighted, but they both saw the other fine.

"If I tell you that I'll feed before I head back tonight, will you leave me the hell alone?" Kel demanded, his voice harsh with aggravation.

A familiar light gleamed in the younger vamp's eyes, but Rafe wasn't about to give Kel the fight he was so desperately looking for. "No. You want me off your ass, you'll just shut the hell up and find somebody. After you feed, I'll leave you alone."

Eyes narrowed down to slits, Kel said, "I can handle this on my own."

Rafe snorted. "Sure you can. But you aren't. You never do. So tonight, I'll make sure you do. And if I have to do this on a regular basis with you, fine. Until you get it in your head that you can't ignore the hunger like this, I'll just play babysitter."

The kid was looking for a fight. Even though he was weak from hunger, Kel was in the mood to brawl. Par for the course. Happened regularly enough that everybody in the enclave knew the signs. For some, they took them as a signal to give Kel a wide berth until he'd either fed or got the fight he was looking for.

And the others had no problem giving Kel that fight.

Better one of their own than having Kel look outside the enclave for a fight. When that happened, the cleanup got messy. He never went after people who couldn't handle a pissed, heartbroken vampire, which meant he either went on the Hunt or searched out their own kind.

He'd picked plenty of fights that he would have lost, and lost in a big, rather final way, if he hadn't had others watching out for him.

But Rafe was getting tired of making his Hunters play babysitter when Kel got into one of his moods. He was tired of doing it himself, and he was tired of dealing with the cleanup end when Kel's inner rage took control. This shit seriously needed to stop.

Kel took a step forward, his chin angling up. Rafe was tempted to just plant a punch right there, nip this mess before it started. But until Kel fed, he'd be hanging onto control by a thread. Could be that punching him would just delay the mess. Sure as hell wouldn't prevent it.

"What you going to do, spoon-feed me or something?" Kel gave him an obnoxious smirk.

"If I have to." Rafe looked at Kel, focused—watched as the younger vamp's pale features contorted in a grimace, a muscle jerking near his temple as he fought Rafe's control.

Wasn't too pleasant for Rafe, either, but Kel had to get a grip on reality. Had to accept his life for what it was. If he kept fighting it, it was going to kill him.

Of course, maybe that was what he wanted.

He maintained control over Kel's mind for long, tense moments, forcing the younger vamp into a submissive silence that probably rubbed him raw. Self-disgust tangled with the need to do whatever was necessary to protect his territory, his Hunters.

Including protecting Kel from himself.

Slowly, he released the control and watched grimly as Kel staggered away, swearing at Rafe in a ragged voice.