Dear Reader, please accept my apology for going off on another tangent and beginning a new series that I hope will get as much love as Sweet Sub and The Dark in Your Blue Eyes. Rest assured I am still continuing Gilded in Gold and By Night, My Love but I just needed to get this idea out of my crowded head (that's how The Dark in Your Blue Eyes started too :). The continuation of this story depends on you guys. If you like it, leave comments for me to continue and I will add this to my queue. If you guys would rather I continue with my other series, I will follow suit. For new readers who don't give a damn about my hetero stories and would like me to continue this, I will do so. (Like I said, I love me two guys) Thank you again for putting up with my fickleness and frequent divergence from a single idea. Edited by the lovely AdrianaBelen.
Comment and rate about anything else you guys want me to write about.
Darcy Steele and Io Nuare
*****
He had been told that the kills that came after the first one were always easier. He saw his fellow mercenaries in their teenage years when they had made their first kills become inconsolably sick afterwards. Then they slowly acclimated to taking innocent and not so innocent lives, until it was just another normal day at the facility to be spending hours washing off the blood on their hands and clothes. There were still a few outbursts among themselves when a killing was particularly hard but they would channel their grief properly and get over it. The instructors had said those where the marks of a good killer.
But Darcy Steele was an anomaly. He hadn't blinked the first time he'd take a small bird's life with his bare hands; neither had he blinked when he took a grown man's life. The instructors had whispered about him, in equal measures of awe and fear. Steele had ignored them, climbing his way up the ranks to become a leader of his own team.
He looked with disinterest as his team decimated the small wren of rabbit shifters. He walked nonchalantly in their gore and blood, his tongue hissing out to sense his prey. They still hadn't found the hybrid shifter they were looking for, and none of them had sensed it either.
"We've captured the rest of them, Commander." Blair, a vulture shifter, appeared before him, blood dripping down his mouth. Bits of flesh and fur clung to his chin and cheeks. Steele was pretty sure more than a few of the bunny shifters had lost a limb or two tonight.
"Tasty?" Steele asked with a raised brow.
Blair bared his teeth as he licked away the lingering taste. "More than I care to admit. You know how hard it is to come across bunnies in our line of work and I feel like I haven't had enough."
"You've had enough." Steele's voice warranted no argument and the smirk finally slipped off the other man's face. Though Steele didn't really give a damn about the things he killed, he'd rather that his men weren't distracted from their objective. Plus, they were told to keep them alive.
"Any luck tracking down the unicorn?" Blair asked he walked with Steele. They'd been contacted by the United Paranormal Association to track down and capture a unicorn/rabbit hybrid. Long ago, unicorns had been abundant but human greed had whittled the numbers down until they were the rare creatures many hailed for their mythical abilities today. For the past hundred years, they had mostly been thought to be extinct by now until word had gotten to them of a hybrid unicorn.
History had revealed that unicorns didn't mingle or interbreed with other species, so to hear word of a living unicorn was astounding. It meant that this hybrid could be bred and made to produce an entire line of unicorns. A separate faction of the vampires and a few other creatures had contacted Steele and his team to extract the hybrid. The only reason they had taken the UPA's contract was because they'd offered to pay more.
"No, I can't get a sense of it. Keep looking."
Blair frowned at the dismissal but did as he was told. Steele was the best tracker among their group, so if he couldn't find the hybrid, then the rest of the men didn't have much of a chance either.
Steele walked farther away from his men, ignoring their questions. They knew by now to leave him alone when he didn't answer on the first question. He would have preferred to work alone but there were just some jobs that demanded a group effort. The farther he walked away, the less he felt suffocated by the heavy cloak of despair and blood. It listed away to be replaced by the taste of the untouched forest. It was untainted, almost pure. It tasted of rain and grass and gardenias.
Steele frowned. That smell was too specific. Hissing, he darted out his tongue to catch more of the intoxicating taste and smell. He let his senses guide him through the dark forest, the branches of the trees canopying him from the moonlight. He walked quite a distance from the wren until he happened on a small glen. The trees stood sentient around the small clearing. Steele walked up to the edge of the small pool of water and looked down. An emotionless killer looked back at him.
The smell was stronger here; his finger twitched in anticipation. It was getting closer and closer to him. Steele dared not breathe on the off chance it might scare his prey away. The gentle rushing in the tall grass alerted him to a small creature hopping his way. He was hard pressed not to smile in victory. He waited patiently for it to come up to him.
A soft bundle of silver fur thumped into his booted feet and Steele looked down to see a disgruntled little bunny hybrid with a crystallized horn jutting from its forehead. Its little, pink nose quivered like mad as it sniffed him out. Steele waited for it to screech in fear once it smelled it's bunny brethren's blood on his boots.
To his surprise, the bunny hybrid merely shifted closer, almost hopping on top of his boot. Curious now, Steele bent at the waist and picked the little thing up in his hands. It was so small it fit perfectly on the palm of his hand. The hybrid nosed around on his gloved gland, beginning to nibble on the black leather. Steel felt its sharp little teeth dig into his palm but the leather was too tough for the bunny's teeth to break into.
Finally giving up, it looked up at Steele. Large purple eyes blinked up at him, before trying to scramble up his arm. It squealed as it lost its balance and would have fallen off of him if Steele hadn't quickly caught it up in his other hand. It wiggled in his hold so Steele gently let off the pressure he had on it's scruff. This time, it was more cautious as it inched up his arm. Deciding to help the little bunny, Steele pushed on the bunny's little cotton-tailed behind to have it perch upon his shoulder.
Digging its little paws into the collar of his jacket, the bunny pressed its face into Steele's neck. It actually hummed as it rubbed up and down his cool skin, pressing that lethal little horn along his jugular. As soon as the horn touched his skin, Steele choked as a burning sensation shot from the point of the rabbit's horn through his veins like lightening. Stumbling back, the wide trunk of a tree caught him as he leaned heavily on it, oddly out of breath.
Unaware of the chaos the little bunny was causing in Steele, it continued to rub its soft body against the exposed skin of Steele's neck. Steele quickly pulled the little menace away from him, ignoring its outraged squeal. It balled up its body, its hind paws coming out to scratch at Steele.
"Knock it the fuck off," Steele growled, still trying to recover from whatever the hell the bunny had done to him. He wasn't all that well versed in a unicorn's abilities so the little bunny could have infused him with some kind of poison right now.
Impossibly, the little rabbit managed to glare at him. Steele brought up his hand to rub at the slightly sore spot on his neck, the skin still pulsing with a not unpleasant warmth.
"What'd you do to me?" Steele asked, shaking the bunny a little. It squeaked in protest before a white light shrouded the little thing.
Steele blinked as he found himself holding onto a very naked and pale man by the back of his neck. Human purple eyes gazed up at him, as big as the moon. The man threw himself at Steele, curling into him. Steele's arms hung awkwardly at his side as he was being nuzzled into by the very thing he'd been sent here to kill.
