The Claimed by Caridad Piñeiro Page A

own troubled emotions obscured her gathering and she fought them back. Internalizing the powers from the wind and moonlight, she directed them inward. The energies tumbled together with those she had hunted earlier that day, namely the forces of water and the ocean dwellers. Little by little the energies coalesced into a stable ball deep in her center. Restored and balanced, Victoria closed herself off to the world around her.
    It was time to rest her physical being. Hunters might possess unusual vitality deep within, but their exteriors were surprisingly mortal, with all the attendant needs for food, rest, and… sex.
    She cursed as the last thought came to mind. She knew too little about Christopher to be contemplating having sex with him. She forced such naughty ideas away, otherwise she would never rest that night.
    As it was, her mind was a jumble of ideas, from worry about Christopher to upset about Rafael and finally annoyance due to her parents’ assorted demands. But possibly worse than all of those combined, she was due to tryon bridesmaid’s dresses for Jan’s wedding very soon. Not to mention that her friends would want details about her date with Christopher in the morning.
    Those last two thoughts would be enough to keep her awake for the better part of the night.
    Christopher sipped on the glass of wine as he stood on the patch of emerald lawn outside his home office. He had slipped off his shoes and socks, feeling the need to ground himself. As he dug his toes deep into the thick sod, he reached downward, drawing from the forces of the earth and allowing that vitality to slip into him, energizing his life force. Helping him tamp down the unabated desire created by one unique woman.
    Victoria Johnson. The taste of her still lingered on his lips, and he took another sip of wine to try to eliminate that trace of her, but it wasn’t easy. The touch of her incomparable life force also remained alive within him, creating additional wonder and distrust about her.
    Victoria wasn’t human, that much he knew. But if she was a Light Hunter, she had certainly learned how to cloak her power exceptionally well, something he had not encountered before. The Light Hunters in New York City were not as careful about hiding their energy, maybe because in a city of such size, the density of people made it harder to find the Light Ones.
    Out here they would be more visible amongst the humans, their auras bright and shining. That had likely demanded that they learn to hide their life forces more carefully.
    Maybe that was the reason why they had been unable to track down the source of the powerful Light Hunter powerin the area. What if whoever possessed such power was able to totally disguise it from the humans and other nearby Hunters?
    And what if Victoria was a Light Hunter and not just a Hybrid? he asked himself.
    If that was the case, she might know the exact location of that powerful Quinchu.
    Good for his clan, but what did it mean for him personally?
    For centuries the Light and Shadow Hunters had been engaged in a civil war, fighting each other for their continued existence. The Shadows demanded energy to contain the smallpox virus that had infected them when the conquistadores had set foot in the Americas.
    Hundreds of years of war and pestilence thanks to the humans, he thought, anger rising in him until he reminded himself that for the first time in centuries things could be different. The return to the practices of their ancestors, to hunting energy from nature instead of each other and the humans, had helped to contain the pox in his people.
    If he could find the amazing source of Quinchu potency nearby and understand how to gather such immense power from nature, he might forever rid his people of the curse of the virus.
    The tremor of approaching power and squeaky glide of the door alerted him to the presence of another Hunter. Ryan, he recognized from the familiar signature of his life force, but beneath the