Read Hunter's Surrender (2010) for Free Online

back on the shelf. "I'm sorry about your father."
    Rand ran a hand up her arm, his fingers curling around her arm. "He died so I could escape. Zahn was too strong for him. The bastard made me watch as he tortured Dad. Burned him, cut him, ripped his skin off. Even after all of that, my father fought back long enough for me to get away."
    She'd read the report on Brody Wilder's death. "I'm so sorry."
    "The Paladins did nothing."
    "Zahn was the son of one of the oldest court members. His father covered up the killing." Dominique raised a hand and placed it over Rand's. So much boiled behind his eyes. For a second, she saw the boy who'd lost his father. "By the time they found out, Zahn had been killed by another ajna whose wife he'd raped."
    "I was closing in on him. I'd honed my skills and lived and breathed my need to end him." Rand's tone was soaked with his need for revenge. "When I heard he was dead, I decided to stop any other unbalanceds from taking another kid's father."
    And so The Darkness was born.
    The need to comfort was unfamiliar, but so strong Dominique didn't bother to fight it. She wrapped her arms around him.
    He didn't move, didn't say anything. But it didn't matter. She held him--the lonely boy who'd watched his father killed, the hunter who dispensed death and the man who was still so alone.
    His arms moved around her. Tightened.
    "Is this the life your father wanted for you?" she murmured.
    Rand pulled back. "This is the life he trained me for. He said we had a duty as vishuddha to protect the less powerful."
    Dominique glanced at the photo. At the protective arm Brody Wilder kept around his son's thin shoulders.
    "There's more than the darkness, Rand. There's more to life than dancing with death every hour of the night. One look at your father tells me he knew that."
    Rand ran his fingers along her chin, his touch warm. "I have to work hard to remind myself you're a vampire."
    Dominique felt the words like the slash of a knife. It would always be between them.
    Pulling away from him, she swallowed the lump in her throat. "I'm going to bed. Good night."

    The nightmare choked Rand, forcing his head under the murky water of his past.
    He struggled, twisting in his bed. Like he was kicking his way to the surface. The sheets tangled around his body.
    Horrible memories held him down like greedy hands. He was fifteen again and in the dirty basement where his father had died.
    Chains dug into Rand's wrists, but still he fought, blood running down his arms. His father's screams echoed around him. Rand tried not to watch Zahn's evil handiwork, but as blood splattered the walls and his father's screams turned to tortured moans, Rand couldn't look away.
    His father's back was raw, the skin gone. Now Zahn picked up a whip with a wicked cat-o'-nine-tails head.
    Crack. His father jerked. Crack. Crack .
    Rand yanked at his chains. Metal dug all the way to bone but held strong. He was helpless. Useless. He squeezed his eyes closed.
    The screams changed. Higher pitched, feminine. His eyes flew open.
    It was Dominique tied down and fighting against her bonds. Her naked back gleamed, her hair falling over her face like strands of midnight.
    The whip fell, she screamed. A welt scored her flesh, welling with blood.
    "No!" Rand roared.
    The vampire holding the whip turned. Zahn was gone, replaced by a man who looked like he'd stepped out of a dinner party. Except for the blood covering his silk shirt. A cold ruthlessness edged his hawkish face.
    Dark, twisted energy pounded at Rand. This vampire had definitely taken the slippery, dark road of the unbalanced.
    "You can't save her now." Vilein's smile was merciless. "She's mine. Untouched, ready for me to mold."
    Dominique lifted her head, her eyes glazed with tears. The innocence in the violet leaching away to dark realization.
    Rand used all his strength and yanked at the chains. One broke out of the wall. "I'll kill you, Vilein."
    Rand woke. Alone in his darkened bedroom.
    He