It was her.

The realization had hit me like a freight train, and I still couldn’t wrap my mind around it.

It was her.

Four years I’d spent searching for her, trying to find the hunter who had awakened the hunger inside me, and now she was here.

In my castle.

Standing right in front of me.

Something had woken me from my slumber, and then I’d found that hauntingly familiar scent through the castle. Dim and faint, but it was there.

It was her.

The open window in the hallway was easy enough to skirt around, to avoid the lethal daylight it let stream in, and it was worth the danger of coming close to the light.

Because she was here.

Vaguely, I was aware that we were standing beside the body of one of her kills, and that she was the hunter who had been tormenting my people. Every muscle in my body screamed at me to grab her.

And not to kill her.

To crush her against me and teach her whom she belonged to.

I shook my head, frowning, forcing myself to focus on what was actually going on.

I had to let go of the side that wanted her and shift into the mindset of the King who needed to protect his people. I should be enraged, not attracted.

She lifted her hand from the dead vampire and turned to leave, freezing when her eyes locked on me.

I heard her heartbeat speed up, and I smiled.

She was afraid of me.

That was good, because I was going to kill her.

Wasn’t I?

The idea of that...somehow felt unnatural. Like I’d be killing a part of myself if I did it.

She’s been killing your people. You have to do this.

She sank into a crouch, her eyes narrowing with the promise of death in them.

I glanced again at the fabric on her wrist, confirming once again that it was her, though I had no need to.

I knew her scent.

“Hello again, little hunter,” I said, my voice a husky murmur.

Damn her for bringing out that side of me.

Her eyes widened—she hadn’t realized I’d recognized her?

No matter.

I launched myself through the air without another moment of hesitation, grabbed her about the waist and fisted a hand in her hair, then dragged her back against me.

“How did you do it?” I whispered, keeping my voice low so as not to attract the attention of the others.

I didn’t want anyone else involved in this. Not yet.

She was mine.

That had never been more evident than in this moment, when she twisted in my grasp and her ass brushed against the full erection in my pants.

She gasped, yanking her head around to force me to let go of her hair so she could glare at me.

I averted my eyes for a moment, temporarily ashamed of the reaction.

It wasn’t right that she could distract me like this when I should only care about killing her.

Then I forced myself to move on, get over it, and brought my eyes back to her brown ones.

“How have you been getting in and out of this castle?”

She didn’t respond, choosing instead to hammer her elbow into my gut, driving the air from my lungs, and slammed her heel onto my instep.

I lurched backwards, instinct repelling me from the attacking force, then yanked her against me again.

I wrapped one thick arm around her neck, then grabbed a wrist, quickly followed by the other one, and pinned them behind her.

Between our bodies.

“I’m not done questioning you. You’re going to answer me, and then I’m going to kill you. It’s just a matter of how you’re going to die.”

Her breath came quickly, and her heart beat fast in her chest, but she didn’t respond.

Her silence only served to infuriate me.

“How have you been killing them?”

Her only response was to chuckle, a low, throaty sound that went straight to my dick.

I fought back a groan, restraining myself from the temptation to pull her closer and bring those soft curves against me.

She belongs to you.

The knowledge hammered against my mind, an incessant battering that I couldn’t ignore.

She was a ruthless, cold-blooded killer, and yet I found that I didn’t particularly care about that, as insane as that was.

“Answer me!”

Instead, she rolled her hips back, bringing her ass fully against my hips, and drove the air out of me for an entirely different reason this time. She shifted again, brushing her hips back and forth, teasing me.

“You’re playing with fire, little hunter,” I murmured, leaning my forehead against the back of her head.

Still, she moved against me, and damn if it didn’t do exactly as she intended.

My breath came in ragged gasps as I fought to control myself—and my hold on her weakened.

She spun out of my arms and faced me again in a crouch, a mischievous light twinkling in her eyes.

She was enjoying this, the little devil.

Under any other circumstances—if we had found each other out in the city again, where the onus wouldn’t be on me to bring her to justice—I would have enjoyed it too.

I wanted to toy with her as she was with me, to remind her that her body was mine to bend to my will. To remind her that I’d stolen her control from her just as she was doing to me now. To remind her that she wasn’t the only one who could rain down hell.

But I couldn’t do any of that. I couldn’t engage in this game and then let her slip away into the night.

She would die for her crimes, as much as that would pain me.

I’d have to let go of the hunter who had haunted my dreams for so long.

I lunged for her again, driving my fist into her gut and carrying my weight into her, slamming her against the wall. My thighs caged hers, and my body pressed tight against her.

My fangs descended, an immediate reaction to the thrill of the fight and the presence of this damned woman.

I have to do this. I have to rip her throat out. I have to kill her.

Although I told myself that, something stayed my hand.

She glared at me, silently daring me to get on with it.

To end this battle, to claim my victory.

How did she not understand?

I knew she felt the connection between us. That much had been evident that night on the rooftop, though it did wound my pride that she’d run from me at the end of it.

She had to know how horrid it was that it had come to this.

But it was always going to come to this. I saw that now.

She was a hunter, and I was a vampire.

We came from two entirely different worlds, and there was no reconciling that.

“Why did you do this?” I asked, the pain I felt now evident in my voice. “Why did you have to be this?”

She still didn’t answer me.

Why? Why wouldn’t she speak?

I closed my eyes, shook my head, then looked back at her.

So, this was how it was going to end.

I bent my head so that my mouth was mere inches from her throat and scraped my teeth against the skin there.

A shiver went through her, and a moan escaped her lips.

My body reacted as any male’s would. I wouldn’t have thought it was possible, but my body hardened even more.

Gods, did I want her. I craved her.

I will never enjoy her.

The pain that lanced through me at that thought was too great.

Just one taste.

I forced my fangs to retract, and instead pressed a soft kiss to her throat.

No one would know that I’d hesitated.

She whimpered, and I brushed her skin with my teeth, then captured her flesh and sucked on it.

Her breasts pressed against my chest with every breath she took, and a tortured sound came from her.

“Please...”

The first word she’d spoken.

I eased my hold on her, wrapped an arm around her waist and palmed her sex with the other.

If I had just one moment with her, I was damned well going to enjoy it.

She writhed against my hand, her breath coming in small pants, and mewled.

I chuckled against her neck, then went on brushing light kisses against her skin.

“You belong to me,” I said. “You’ll always belong to me.”

“Yes.” The word came out on a soft breath.

I growled, capturing her skin with my teeth again. The urge to mark her, claim her, was too great. I worried at her skin, sucking and biting, and continued to torment her with my hand.

The sounds that escaped her were ones I would treasure forever—sounds that I had forced her to make.

I abandoned her sex for a moment, slipping my hand up and under the shirt that dared to keep her skin from me.

She reacted by wrapping a leg around my waist, shifting her hips, and bringing her sex to bear with my cock.

My breath left me in one great whoosh, and I froze.

She ground herself against me, and I lost all rational thought.

Claim her.

The blood beating in my ears deafened me to everything other than that intrinsic need to take what was mine.

I gathered my control back, inch by inch, until I was myself again.

She stilled, as if she sensed the change in me.

I pulled back from her, locking eyes with her again.

Her expression shifted. The dulled look of pleasure drained away, replaced by fierce determination.

She shook her head. “I won’t let you do this.”

Now that I could think, it occurred to me that her voice was...familiar.

And not just because I’d met her once before.

What…

Pain lanced through my head. I opened my mouth to let out a tortured scream, but no sound came out. I stumbled away from her, dropped to my knees on the floor and clutched at my head.

The pain was impossible, all-consuming. I couldn’t get a thought to form in my head. Couldn’t think through the haze of pain.

What was this?

No, no...

I looked up at her and saw the conflicted look on her face.

“I’m sorry,” she said, and the sound of her voice temporarily cut through the pain. “But it has to be this way.”

She lifted her hand and formed it into a fist, and the pain heightened.

Just before I lost consciousness, I realized what was happening.

She was a blood mage.