Hunting Julian Read online

  Ariel curled a lip in derision so obvious and so harsh that, for the first time, Asia took note that her ears were…weird. The lobes were actually pointed, or rather came to a point. They seemed just as soft as anyone’s, as the gems she wore through them made them wobble a little when fury shook her entire frame.

  Then she seemed to stop, her emotional display calming considerably as a smile ripped through half her mouth. Asia couldn’t call it a friendly expression.

  “The door is just behind you,” she invited in an almost silky tone.

  Asia wasn’t an idiot. Had the girl denied her access or barred her aggressively, she would have wanted out more than anything, but this nicety in the aftermath of such a bold flare of hostility made her hesitate as she looked over her shoulder. The door was like the door to a vault, the hard, gunmetal gray steel locked with a central wheel. Like a pressure door on a submarine, when the wheel turned it sent bolts sliding into the steel frame around it that had been securely riveted, woven, and wholly integrated into the materials of the walls.

  The wheel lock was on the inside.

  A strange thing if someone was trying to keep prisoners in. Ominous if they were trying to keep others or help out. The feel of being in a carefully, if oddly, constructed fort began to settle over her. But here was the question. Would the door open?

  It meant turning her back on Ariel, but the other woman had tossed the knife in the basin with the rest of the dishes and gone back to her angry, sniffly process of ignoring Asia’s presence.

  “What the hell,” she muttered with a shrug. She wasn’t going to fall for the old “don’t step over this line!” command some kidnapping monster laid out for her. She owed it not only to herself to get the heck out of there, but she owed it to Kenya. He might have been lying about her being alive and nearby just to get her to comply, but she needed to believe that he hadn’t.

  Asia crossed to the door in just a few strides, grabbed the wheel, and turned hard. The bolts retracted sharply, the vibration pounding up her arms through the metal she touched. She was actually surprised it hadn’t been locked. Not one to look at a gift horse like a dentist, she yanked the door open and immediately rushed outside.

  She half expected Julian to be there waiting to stop her, but she had hoped to get a few useful screams out to draw attention or something.

  Well, Julian wasn’t there…

  But she sure did scream.

  Chapter 5

  Understandable, considering she had expected to run out onto a porch or a lawn, not into dead, cold open space. The ledge outside of the door was no more than a stride wide and there were no railings. She plummeted over the edge and screamed. Things flashed by her, but she was locked in panic that kept her from thinking. The fall seemed to last forever, but she knew it would end any instant.

  It did.

  She hit something flexible and soft that creaked and stretched like elastic as it flexed to decelerate her, rather than stopping her all at once.

  “Hold on to the net!”

  The instruction rang clear enough through her rattled mind and she grabbed hard for the fibrous webbing around her. Good thing, too, because it began to retract with alarming speed and if she hadn’t been holding on she would have been flung free of it. It took a minute or two, but the nauseating bounce of the elastic net finally came to a stop and she lay on it, her heart racing madly with more emotions than she wanted to be feeling just then. Just ever, she amended. She would happily live the rest of her life never feeling this way again. Scared. Glad to be alive. Terrified over what she was mixed up in. And for the first time, she began to feel like she was in a situation where she was out of her depth enough that she might not be strong enough to protect herself, never mind her kid sister. That, above all else, was the worst feeling Asia had ever known in her life.

  “Asia! Zini, are you all right?” The rushing, breathless fear in Julian’s voice so matched what she was feeling that she couldn’t help but look in his direction. She opened her eyes for the first time since her impact and saw she was, indeed, in some kind of huge net that was made of the same stuff his house was made of, except where that was hard, this sprang and flexed. It was just strange enough for her to begin to feel her convictions about what was happening to her crack a little. She saw Julian kneeling on a nearby ledge, reaching a supplicating hand toward her in a combination of wanting to reach something too far away and to keep her calm all at once.

  “It’s okay, Asia. The net will hold,” he assured her rapidly. “Just move to me and don’t—”

  Look down.

  She realized that was where he was going when she looked down through the wide squares of the netted web and saw nothing but clouds. Granted, they were strangely beautiful clouds, but it came down to the fact that they looked quite insignificant should she keep falling. They would not catch her, as the net had. At first she didn’t question that they were magenta and burgundy in color. It was just like at sunset or sunrise. Only, after a moment, Asia realized she could feel the sun on her back somewhere above her.

  Adding perspective to just how far away the clouds were from her was a pair of snow white, sheer cliffs that were way off to the sides on her right and left. She knew it couldn’t be snow, however, because the wind that sang and howled through the enormous gorge was too warm. But more important than all of that was the sinking understanding that it was a free fall into total oblivion for at least a mile. She couldn’t tell exactly. There was no ground under her. If the net had not been there…

  Asia swallowed and was suddenly grateful she hadn’t eaten. She closed her eyes as the urge to vomit rode over her for a long, hard moment. She began to shake, simply giving in to the fact that she had every right to be scared halfway to hell. After all, she had almost fallen straight to hell and beyond.

  “Asia, look at me.”

  She’d never thought she’d be so grateful to hear the calm, rich smoothness of Julian Sawyer’s tone of voice. Like so much about him, it was innately sexy and compelling, but right then it was strong and familiar in a situation that, she was beginning to realize, was as unfamiliar and as alien as it got.

  She looked at him and tried not to think that he was rather far away. She focused instead on the position he was in as he knelt on a ledge where parts of the net had been secured.

  “Listen, zini. These nets are strong and secure and are designed to hold the weight of a person or an animal.” Since Asia had begun to realize that the way he hesitated, thinking before he spoke, was a rich clue to when he was omitting important information, she couldn’t help the chuckle that erupted nervously from her chest.

  “A person. An animal,” she noted the distinction, her hands clutching the net all the harder. She knew by the grim set of his mouth that she’d hit it on the head. His nod was superfluous.

  “Yeah. For a woman of your weight and size, it isn’t a problem, okay? But I can’t come get you. You can crawl or, better yet, roll slowly over this way. It is important that you don’t test the elasticity of the net too much. It is designed to break away if something struggles within it long enough.”

  “What the fuck kind of a safety net is this?” she demanded with a gasping of instantly fearful breaths as she was unable to help looking back down into burgundy-clouded oblivion.

  “It has its purposes,” he assured her, the amusement lacing his voice pissing her off enough to push through her paralytic fear of the moment.

  Asia reached out to her side, secured a hand around the net, and rolled just as she might do across the dojo mats until her opposite hand could come around and grab new net.

  Asia couldn’t possibly have known how thickly Julian’s heart was lodged in his throat as he watched her bravely begin to come toward him. When he had heard her scream and looked up to see her streaking through the sky toward a fifty-fifty chance at death, he’d thought there wouldn’t ever be a plane of existence capable of containing the energy of sheer terror that had gripped him. He had used that
lash of violent fear to guide her fall as best he could away from ramps, buildings, and bridges that would have broken her to bits had she begun to hit and bounce off them. He risked much by doing so, and by taking her to the nets. Intended to catch children or domesticated animals, they were strong enough and resilient enough to catch a lighter adult. However, as he had mentioned, anything beyond that made the nets break away.

  She did not yet realize that there were men and beasts in this plane that made the design necessary. Everything about the way they lived was designed to protect them from those dangers around them. Julian realized he had made a terrible mistake by not being straight and blunt with her about that. He should have stayed and shown her. He had thought she would be safe with Ariel there, but clearly he had been wrong. He hoped Ariel was not hurt. Asia had proven herself a resourceful fighter. Enough that she might outmatch his more domesticated Companion. He had not considered that she might harm an innocent woman in her need to be free. He had rather hoped that speaking with Ariel might have actually calmed her and made his story more believable until he could show her the truth for himself.

  “Excellent,” he praised her softly as she moved surely and securely, never releasing the netting from both hands at once. Julian tried not to think of how far she still was from him, his heart racing to think any harsh movement might make the net snap away. The men on the planking beside him had all reached out to hold the netting near its moorings, just in case it loosened. The net would need to be replaced with a fresh one after this, but that was all right so long as it served its purpose now.

  “She’s a brave one,” Shade commented from his right side where he gripped the netting. “Most freeze the first time this happens.”

  “She did freeze,” Kine drawled from his left. “She just recovered quickly. He’s right. She’s gutsy. A little reckless by the looks of it, but she’s got balls.”

  “You’re in some serious trouble,” Shade said.

  “I was aware of that the moment I saw her,” Julian informed them levelly. “Then there is a whole part where she thinks I am a psychopathic murderer. She tried to kick my ass because she thinks her sister was one of my victims.”

  Kine barked out a laugh at that. “I’ve always loved that phrase. Humans use the best phraseology sometimes. Clearly your ass remains unkicked, but has her opinion of you improved?”

  “I doubt it. I think she was trying to escape my evil clutches just now.”

  “Good God. If you’re evil and a psychopath, then she’s going to positively hate Kine,” Shade mused.

  “Or better yet, Daedalus.” Kine chuckled.

  “Will you both keep your voices down,” Julian said. “I have enough work ahead of me without her overhearing my degenerate friends.”

  Shade glanced over Julian’s head to look at Kine. “He must be talking about you,” he remarked.

  “Clearly,” Kine said.

  Julian ignored the byplay and focused on the appearance of icy blue eyes only a few yards away now. She paused a moment to catch her breath. Not because there was any real exertion involved, but because she appreciated how much danger she was in. At least she believed him that much. Then again, he thought as he looked down at the bottomless gorge, she hadn’t had much choice when presented with such empirical proof. She was lying on her back, her little silver dress wound snug and tight to her body from her rolling progress. He was all too aware of how her skirt had ridden up over her rather delectable backside, revealing the bare shape of her ass in the form-hugging thong every time she rolled to her belly. Considering the multitude of men around him that were appreciating the view, he was having a difficult time keeping a cap on his anger and jealousy and focusing instead on getting her safely in his grasp.

  For the moment he watched as her expression changed from tension to one of total, unabashed awe. He looked up and realized she had probably just appreciated the view of all that was above her for the very first time. He tried to imagine what it must be like, from her perspective, to see an entire colony strung between the two sides of the cliffs. Since she had hit nets at the very bottom level, all nineteen other levels were stretched across above her. The colony itself was several miles long along the gorge, but when it grew, it grew downward. Each level had many ramps, bridges, and grades leading up to the next in strategic places. The clover-shaped houses with their conical roofs and basements on each leaf had to seem very strange to her. He could tell exactly when she began to appreciate how deadly and dangerous the fall from his top-level home had been. She looked at him when the crisscrossing bridges and roads above her made her realize just how impossible it had been that she hadn’t hit any of them; that she hadn’t been skewered by any one of the numerous pointed roofs, most of which were tipped with iron spikes.

  “I know,” he said in a low, calm voice. “I will explain everything to you when you are safe.” He curved his fingers to beckon her closer. “It’s just a little way now.”

  By now she was also noticing the crowds of men who stood along the edges of the walkways watching this drama slowly unfold. She was sharp and clever, and he knew it wouldn’t take long for her to realize…

  “Where are the women?”

  She gripped the net until her knuckles turned white and Julian could see her pulse pounding in her throat as she swallowed back her panic in order to demand an answer from him. Had she been one of them, she would have felt the ripple of uneasy and bitter emotional energy that echoed through every male in earshot of the query.

  Then again, had she been one of them, she wouldn’t have needed to ask the question.

  “They are usually safe indoors at this time of day,” Julian said meaningfully, giving her a look that said she should have been safe inside as well.

  “Oh, like that domesticated little bitch who tried to kill me just now?” she asked sharply, the accusation lashing through Julian like a whip of poisonous fire.

  “She did what?” he thundered, suddenly surging up to his full height. Almost simultaneously, Kine and Shade reached out to take hold of his wrists. It was a reminder for him to keep his emotions under control. If he let his energy lash out, it could endanger her in her still precarious position. What he wanted more than anything was to grab her out of that deathtrap and hold her so tightly to himself she wouldn’t be able to breathe for a week. Then he wanted to find Ariel and kill her.

  “Easy,” Kine warned softly as rage tremored through him. Julian felt both men quickly absorbing the energy he was giving off, but it wouldn’t be long before they would be glutted, especially with such powerful surges as these.

  “Asia, come to me,” he commanded her in a hard, barely civil voice. “I will have you safe right now.” Right now. Not a moment to waste or spare. There was no brooking disagreement with him, and as obstinate and independent as she was, she must have sensed there was an even greater danger to defying this command than there was below her and the net. She rolled a few more times until he could grab on to Kine with one hand and reach to pluck her free of danger with the other. He swung her onto her feet on the planking, and all of the men released their hold on the netting and stood up.

  Julian could feel them all around him. Their envy, lust, and jealousy almost overpowered him. He knew they did not want or mean to feel this way, but he also realized just how stunning his prize was and how lucky he was to have found something so rare; something most of them would never have the pleasure of knowing or even coming close to in their lifetime.

  Julian ignored her stiff resistance to his touch and held her very tightly against his body. He very carefully kept himself in check from feeling the heat and awareness that wanted to rush over him just because she was close to him again. This would only cruelly provoke those surrounding them.

  “Asia,” he said carefully, “this is my village and these are my kin. Like in your world it means family, although here it is more about spiritual kinship than blood or physical relationships. My kin will always be easy to identify by the
black mark of the spearhead just here.” He touched his wrist where it had been burned black by a hot spear point as a child. The accidental scar had somehow, long ago, become a symbol of kinship and loyalty as man after man of their colony had taken spears to their skin in a show of solidarity. It had started with his best friend Lucien, who had done it to solidify his friendship with him after Julian had suffered through a great betrayal, and it had caught with the entire village after that. Now it was a ceremonial rite of acceptance into the community. You did not belong unless you carried the mark of the kin. “My kin will always aid you and guide you from danger. Once you believe you can trust me, you may believe you can trust them as well.”

  Asia looked around warily at the throng of men, and Julian didn’t blame her. She was rather like a favorite dessert on a cart that everyone hungered for, but was disappointed to find out it was already reserved for someone else. On the plus side, the wall of male energy around her made her actually burrow more willingly against him. Anchoring her to his side, he forwent any introductions beyond that, hoping his friends would understand as he moved forward and pushed through the crowd. They left the worst of it when they left the lowest tier and climbed the curved ramp to the next. Julian couldn’t help the impulse he had to lock a hand possessively around her far hip, pressing his forearm against her backside in an attempt to keep the lower levels from staring at her ass as she rose higher above them in that tiny little dress.

  Asia shot him a look, but didn’t say anything. She was actually very grim and quiet as she slowly took each step with him through the wending, curving levels of the village that literally hung in midair.

  “God, this place should have rails at least,” she said hollowly.

  “There are reasons for that. We have a very good sense of balance. I can tell you do as well. Most of the paths are wide enough for two to walk safely side by side as we are doing.”