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“Purchased?”
Natalia nods. “My father was a drug addict, my mother a whore. Both more concerned with money than their daughter. I was getting ready to move. I’d gotten a scholarship and was going to make a better life for myself.” She swallows hard and clenches her hands together. Her pain—it seeps into the air around us and breaks my heart for the young, hopeful girl she must have been.
“They fucking sold you?” Cole demands.
“They did. Not even sure for how much. I never wanted to know. Anyway, the council brought me to their headquarters in Prague, where I met Anthony and the majority of my team.”
“Why you?”
She glances at Rainey. “Excuse me?”
“Did they take you for a reason? Or was it a matter of convenience?”
“Rainey!” Delaney scolds.
Natalia chuckles. “It’s okay. The homicide detective in her is searching for the links. I appreciate that. As for your question, I was sought out because I am from a dormant hunter line.”
“Dormant? I’ve never heard of that.”
She nods to Elijah. “The council told me that likely because of my family’s spectacular lineage of being drug addicts, the magic went dormant at some point. They wanted to find out if they could activate it.”
“I’m assuming they did.” Fearghas moves further into the room, stopping just beside me and crossing his arms.
“See, the whole thing started rather interestingly. I wanted out, after all. I didn’t care how, and while I wanted to go to college, to be a social worker, actually—” The ghost of a smile passes over her red lips. “This was still another exit, so I took it. And when they told me that I was from a hunter line, that they were witches, warlocks, and vampires, I thought they were off their rockers. Then, they showed me.”
The glimmer in her eyes shows a brief glimpse of the enamored teen she likely was when they showcased their power. After all, a supernatural world hidden beneath the sense of the humans…it would be fascinating to a human teen. Especially one who’d lived such a shit existence. Who doesn’t want to believe in a bit of magic?
“I was excited to become something more than the daughter of a drug addict and a whore, so I agreed to let them test me. It started out simple enough. They threw me into high-adrenaline situations, watched me get my ass beat a few times by Anthony, here.” She gestures up at him, and he smiles down at her. “When that didn’t work, though, they took more of a Dr. Frankenstein approach. I’ll spare you most of the gritty details, but what finally worked was completely draining me of my blood.”
“They didwhat?” Delaney presses her hand to her belly and steps forward. Cole moves alongside her as she pales, likely ready to catch her should she fall.
“They had a witch stand by and keep my heart beating as they drained me and then replaced my blood with that of those possessing active hunter genes. From what I understand, they took it from multiple unwilling donors.”
Anthony twitches, briefly. “You were one of the donors,” I say, and he nods.
“And the blood of everyone out there. They’d been experimenting on them, too—pushing them to limits no one should ever be pushed to. They froze them, thawed them out, beat them, had them attacked by deadwalkers, nightshades…anything else they could throw their way. And it wasn’t just them. Witches, shifters, vampires—they were testing them all.”
Delaney gasps and covers her mouth with both hands.
Fearghas steps to her other side, he and Cole her shields.
“And I thought these fuckers couldn’t get any worse,” Rainey growls, shaking her head, though tears prick the corners of her eyes.
“We were the lucky few who got out.” She turns to me. “Because of Big Daddy Walsh.”
My father’s expression betrays no emotion. Though, I’m not surprised. He’s apparently damn good at hiding his feelings. “What do you mean?”
“He toured the facility about fifteen years ago, though I found out later the tour was a ruse, since he’d gotten word of what the council was doing to us. He killed a councilman and set us free. We took out a good portion of the Immortal Council that day since they were the only ones on site. Odette was the only one who got away.”
“That bitch is going to burn,” Rainey snarls.
Natalia grins at her. “You’re damn right, hunter. And I’m here because I want to make sure that’s exactly what happens.”
I shift my stance.
“What happened to the other supernaturals?” Delaney questions. “The witches, shifters, vampires—”
“The ones who weren’t too far gone scattered. We were the only ones who stayed together, though we offered the others safe haven. Ever since, we’ve been hunting Odette. Her popping up here is the first time she’s been exposed since that day.”
I turn back to my father. “Do they know it was you?”
“They do,” he replies, looking at me for the first time since Nat showed up.
And there it is. The piece I didn’t realize I’d been missing. I glance to Tarnley—to Rainey, Delaney, Cole, Elijah, Fearghas, Ridley—their faces all reflect the same understanding.
Odette’s not only here for a power grab.
She’s here for me.
