Heart of the Hunted (Infernal Hearts Book 1) Read online

  Whatever the reason, Natalia wasn't about to complain. At the end of the day, as long as he kept his word and didn't kill her, then she couldn't give a shit about the whys. That was all that really mattered, after all. She couldn't find her way back to Amberly and Donovan if she was dead. So, unless she found a way to escape, she was going to have to take his word for it that she wasn't going to die.

  "Are you hungry?" he suddenly asked out of the blue.

  "What?" she asked, unsure if she heard right.

  "Do you want something to eat?" he asked.

  "Urm..."

  "It's a simple yes or no answer," he said. "You're either hungry or you're not, so which is it?"

  "Yes, I'm hungry," she said.

  Her stomach rumbled and her mouth watered at the thought of food. Because she had been too worried to eat more than a couple of bites since she arrived at the bunker, she was absolutely starving now.

  "Do you have anything in that bag of yours?” he asked, pointing at her satchel. “Or do you need me to catch something?"

  Natalia looked down at her satchel trying to remember if she put any food in it before they left, but unfortunately she hadn't. Natalia hadn’t been thinking about food when she grabbed her stuff. It didn’t help having a Demon watching her every move.

  "Urm, I don't have anything left in there to eat," she told him. "And it's a satchel, not a bag."

  "I stand corrected," he said. "Now, do you have a preference on what to eat? Or will anything do?"

  "It depends, what do you mean by anything," she said, looking at him suspiciously.

  "Rabbit?" he asked.

  "Yeah, I suppose that'll do," she nodded.

  "Good. Come with me," he said, waving for her to follow.

  It wasn't as if she had a choice in the matter, she knew Taredd wouldn’t let her stay behind because she could use that time to escape. So she couldn't stay behind even if she wanted to.

  "Fine, if you insist," she said sarcastically as she followed him.

  "Do you know how to catch a rabbit?" he asked.

  "I can't say that I do," she said honestly.

  In fact, Natalia didn't have clue how to catch anything. She’d never needed to know because she was always able to scavenge what she needed from the monsters.

  "What do you know how to catch?" he asked.

  "Nothing." She could have lied, but was there really any point?

  His head snapped in her direction as he asked: "Really?"

  "Yes, really,” she said. “I've never needed to catch anything."

  "So, what do you eat then?" he asked.

  "Whatever we can scavenge," she said, shrugging her shoulder.

  "Really?” he asked in disbelief. “So, you don't hunt your own food?"

  "Nope."

  "Where do you scavenge your food from then?" he asked.

  Natalia wasn't sure how much to tell him. She didn't want it getting out to the monsters that they stole their food from them. If they found out the truth, then it wouldn't be so easy for her kind to steal from them anymore. Not that it was easy anyway.

  "We just find what we can, wherever we can,,” she told him instead of going into too much detail.

  "I'm impressed you've made it this long then," he told her.

  "Why?"

  "Because that can't be an easy way to live," he said, shaking his head. "Not knowing where or when your next meal is coming? It must be hard."

  "Life is hard," she said.

  "But it doesn't have to be."

  "For you, maybe. But have you forgotten who you're talking to?" she asked. "Since the day I was born life has been hard, it's nothing new to me. You may have had a better life, but not all of us are born with the same privileges as you. Some of us are born into a world that wants to ruthlessly hunt you down and kill you."

  "I'm sorry," he said, surprising her.

  "For what?" she asked, confused by his empathy.

  "I'm sorry you had such a hard life."

  "You say 'had' as if it's all in the past,” she pointed out. "Nothing is in the past, it's still very much the present for me."

  Thankfully, Taredd didn't say anything more about it after that. Instead, he set about making a trap, staying to the side out of her way so she could watch what he was doing. He was teaching her how to catch her own food, and she appreciated him doing that for her.

  Natalia didn't ask him any questions, she just watched silently, taking in every detail she could. If she made it through… whatever this was they were doing together… alive and then managed to find Amberly, Donovan, and the rest of the group, she swore she was going to teach all of them how to do this as well.

  Then they wouldn't need to reply on stealing from the monsters so much. They wouldn't have to risk their lives every time they needed to find food by getting so close to the monsters that were hunting them. It would mean that children wouldn't have their parents taken from them too soon, and parents wouldn't have their children taken from them either.

  Once the trap was set, Taredd moved her away, saying it was better to leave it for a few hours before returning to see what they had caught.

  "This will do," he told her when they came to a small clearing among the trees.

  "This will do for what?" she asked, concerned she wasn’t going to like the answer.

  But he surprised her again by saying: "You said you needed a lot of sleep, so we'll camp here for tonight. Is that okay?"

  Natalia looked around at the small clearing. It was already pitch-black outside when they had left the bunker, so she couldn't see the area very well, but it appeared to be okay. She still didn't know why they couldn't have just stayed in the bunker. They hadn't even travelled that far away from it either, so what gives?

  "I thought you wanted to travel all night, wasn't that why we left the bunker?" she asked, confused.

  "That was going to be the plan, until you said about sleeping every night and zombies," he said, with that irresistible smile of his on his face.

  "Okay, so why did we leave the bunker then?" she asked. "There was plenty of beds there that we could have slept on."

  "It was a hole in the ground," he stated as if that was a good enough answer.

  "Yeah, with comfy beds," she countered.

  "But it was still a hole in the ground."

  "Yeah, I know," she agreed. "But it doesn't matter how many times you say that, it still has beds."

  "I'm sorry, but no," he said with a disgusted look on his face. "I don't know how the fuck you ever stayed in one of those places. I couldn't wait to get out of the place before I even stepped foot in there."

  "You get used to it," she told him.

  "I agree, a bed would be nice, but not if it means sleeping underground," he said adamantly.

  "You know, for a Demon, you really are fussy," she told him.

  "And you know many Demons, do you?" he asked with a raised brow.

  "Okay, you have me there,” she admitted. “Apart from you, thankfully, I don't know any."

  "You say thankfully as if it's a good thing," he said.

  "Seriously? How do you keep forgetting who you're talking to?" she asked. "So, yes, I am very thankful."

  "I'm sorry," he told her.

  "Why do you keep apologizing to me as well?” she asked. “I'm the bloody captive, for fuck sake."

  Taredd didn't reply. In fact, he didn't say another word at all, and neither did she.

  Grateful for the silence, it gave Natalia time to think over the time they have spent together so far. The more time she was spending with him, the more he confused the hell out of her.

  She could understand why he wouldn't want to stay in a hole in the ground, but the bunker wasn't just a hole. It was where she had spent her entire life. Moving from place to place, it was always the same sort of accommodation. It was always a bunker buried deep beneath the ground.

  It was the safest place for her kind. It wasn't that they hadn't tried to live elsewhere, because they had. E
very time they did stay anywhere other than the bunkers, they had risked being caught. Even when they had no choice but to stop for the night as they moved between places, they couldn't let their guard down. One person had to be on watch at all times just in case they were spotted by the monsters.

  But then, she didn't expect a Demon to understand any of that. It wasn't like they were hunted down and killed for no reason.

  "Why do you kill my kind?" she suddenly blurted out.

  Natalia hadn’t intended to ask him that, but now it was out she really wanted to know the answer.

  "What?" he asked.

  "You heard me," she said. "Why do you hunt my kind? What have we ever done to deserve to be hunted down and murdered?"

  Taredd just looked at her. If she didn't know better, she would say he was at a loss for words. Maybe he didn't want to upset her again? But that couldn't be right, why would it matter to him if she was upset or not? There must be some reason though, otherwise he wouldn't be staying silent right now. She already knew he killed her kind, so why wouldn't he tell her the reasons why he did it?

  Instead of answering her question, he said: "Come on, let’s go and check on the trap."

  Before she could say another word, he stood up and started walking away. Climbing to her feet, she raced after him. Natalia knew she should be running the other way, especially since he didn't look back to see if she was still with him or not. But she had to admit, she was intrigued to see if the trap worked.

  It was exciting to think she might have caught her first ever meal. Well, technically it was Taredd that would have caught it, but still, she had been there as well.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Taredd

  It seemed that no matter how hard he tried not to, he was continuously putting his foot in it with Natalia. He would understand if he did actually keep forgetting that she was a Human, but he didn't, so he couldn't use it as an excuse. He just didn't appear to be able to think before he spoke while he was around her.

  Taredd was coming to the conclusion that it was Natalia herself. She was the reason he wasn’t himself at the moment. Maybe she was part Witch and had cast a spell on him.

  That could explain why she didn't act anything at all like the other Humans he had come across so far. It was the only explanation he could come up with as to why he was acting so out of sorts.

  The sooner they reach the others, the better. If she had such a strong effect on him in the short amount of time they have been together, then Taredd dreaded to think what it would be like if he spent an extended period of time with her.

  It was a shame she needed to sleep every night, because if they didn't have to stop so often, then they could have caught up with Arun and Dain a hell of a lot sooner. As it was, they were going to be lucky if they caught up with them within a week.

  At this rate, it was going to be closer to two weeks, if not more. To top it all, she wasn't the fastest at walking either, which really wasn't helping. Even now he had to slow his pace so she could keep up with him.

  Taredd hoped that when she was finally asleep, he could put some space between them physically. If whatever it was that was wrong with him had anything to do with being in close proximity to her, then putting some space between them might be all that was needed for him to pull himself back together.

  But first, he needed to be certain that she was fast asleep, otherwise she might take his absence as the perfect opportunity to escape. Hopefully he could at least get his shit together enough for them to reach Arun and Dain.

  Taredd didn't know what was going to happen after that. He promised Natalia that she wouldn’t die, but if he let her go, someone else might come along and finish her off. If that happened, he would have broken his promise.

  The thought of someone killing her angered Taredd more than he expected, and definitely more than it should have. Not willing to look too deeply at why he had that reaction towards the thought of her death just yet, so he filed it away to look at later.

  Mentally he shook his head to clear his thoughts and knelt down next to the trap to untangle the rabbit it caught.

  "Have we caught something?" Natalia asked as she walked up behind him.

  Even though Taredd told her to follow him, he’d completely forgotten to check if she actually was or not. To be honest, he was surprised to see she hadn't taken the opportunity to do a runner on him, but not as surprised as he was in the fact that she was actually taking an interest in what he was doing.

  "Yes, we caught a rabbit," he told her.

  "Wow, that was a lot quicker and easier than I thought it would be," she said. "I thought it might take all night before anything was caught."

  "It depends where you set the traps. If you look..." he said, pointing at the ground around the trap. "... you can see the tracks are well worn, which indicates that it's used often, so it's the best place to set the trap."

  He didn't know if Natalia could see what he was talking about. It was probably too dark for her to see the tracks, but she nodded her head all the same.

  "I'll remember that for the future if..." she trailed off.

  Taredd could tell she was about to say 'if I live long enough' at the end, but she didn't. So, for once, he managed to keep his mouth shut, instead of putting his foot in it like he was prone to do with her.

  It amazed Taredd how he had gone from wanting to hunt down and kill every last Human being, to wanting one of them to live in the space of a few hours. And not just any one, but this one... Natalia. He didn't want to think what he was going to be like after spending a couple of days alone with her.

  Once the rabbit was untangled and the trap cleared away, he picked the animal up by the ears and carried it back to the camp. Taredd collected large sticks and logs along the way, while Natalia picked up twigs.

  Dumping the sticks and logs in a pile in the middle of the clearing, Taredd hung the rabbit from a tree while he set about starting the fire. As soon as it was going, Taredd grabbed the rabbit again to skin and gut it before placing it over the fire. Before long, the animal was roasting nicely over the open flames.

  Taredd sat back and relaxed, watching the flames dance as he waited for the meat to cook. The entire time he had been working, Natalia hadn't once taken her eyes off him. She watched intently as he prepared the animal and got the fire going.

  Taredd assumed this was the first time she’d seen an animal be skinned, especially since she admitted she normally scavenged for food instead of catching her own. It didn't bother him that she watched him so closely. In fact, he rather liked the idea that he was teaching her something useful, something she could do for herself in the future.

  He wanted to ask her more about how she scavenged food, but he didn't think she would appreciate more questions thrown her way. Not that she hadn't thrown her fair share of questions his way, but still, she didn't keep putting her foot in it like he did. Not only that, but he had a feeling he already knew the answer anyway.

  Natalia hadn't spoken a word since they collected the animal from the trap. Every time he had peeked back at her while they were walking, to see if she was still with him, she had looked deep in thought. Even when she watched him work, she was deep in thought. He could tell that she had a lot on her mind, and it had nothing to do with what he had been doing.

  So, instead of disturbing her with unnecessary questions, he sat quietly watching the flames. Consumed by a myriad of thoughts and feelings all of his own, he tried to make sense of them as they swirled around inside him.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Natalia

  Natalia was amazed at how fast Taredd had skinned and prepared the rabbit. It was the same with the fire as well., In a matter of minutes it was a roaring fire, warming her and shedding some light on the area.

  Natalia wasn't complaining. No, she was more than grateful for his speed because she was absolutely starving, plus it was so cold she was finding it hard not to shiver.

  So, if it meant she could warm up, ev
en just a little bit, and fill her stomach to stop it from rumbling, then she definitely wasn't complaining. Natalia would have preferred it if he had gone a little slower though, so that she could see what he was doing, but she got the gist of it anyway.

  If it had been left for her to do, then she would probably still be trying to figure it out. Natalia knew how to get a fire going, but it still took her at least twice as long as it had taken Taredd.

  It was mesmerizing watching him work, especially once the fire was going and she could actually see what he was doing clearly. Luckily for her, Taredd had waited until he had the fire going before he started to skin the rabbit, otherwise she would still have no clue what to do with one.

  What Natalia hadn't been expecting though, was for the rabbit to taste so good once it was finally cooked. When she had told him earlier that she didn't mind what he caught for dinner, she didn't want to mention to him that she's never tried rabbit before. At least, not that she had known about anyway.

  As soon as she took the first bite she instantly knew she’d never eaten it before. Nothing she’d eaten had ever tasted so good, it almost melted in her mouth.

  Natalia was definitely going to be eating it again. Especially since she knew how to catch it for herself now. It meant she wouldn't have to rely on scavenging so much. It was a lot nicer, and a hell of a lot safer, than scavenging from the monsters all the time.

  If only she had known sooner how easy it was to catch the furry little creatures, she would have done it years ago. It would have saved so many lives over the years... maybe even her mother’s.

  That was all in the past now, Natalia couldn't do anything to change the past, but maybe she could change the future if she survived long enough.

  Natalia tried her hardest not to look back, there was nothing but heartache and pain to be had from dwelling on things she couldn't change. So instead, she concentrated on the future instead, or at least tried to.

  "Do you like it?" Taredd asked her out of the blue.

  Natalia had been so caught up in her thoughts that she jumped when he spoke.