Heart of the Hunter

by Alex Foster

  "I’d kill for a shower."

  Dakota eyed a cleaning lady using a maintenance key to enter a nearby room. "Be careful what you wish for, sweetie. You just might have to."

  Reina stopped walking. "You think Kane might be here? Or that other man?"

  "Honestly, probably not. Callie is more important to Nicholas right now than ganking me; he’ll wait until after he has what he needs from her just to try and hurt me. He should be on Dixon’s trail by now, not ours." Dakota didn’t slow and Reina had to hurry to keep up.

  "So this sense I’m being watched is just fruitless paranoia?"

  "I’m a mildly delusional fuck up," she said matter of factly. "I am not the correct person to ask about the right and wrong amounts of paranoia."

  The suite was just as they left it yesterday, their bags tucked in a corner of the sitting room, and couch made up in a small bed for Dakota. It felt deceptive somehow, like all of the bad things were just a dream and she was about to wake up in this safe little room to find all was right with the world.

  Dakota stood with her in the doorway, lost in her own thoughts. Idly Reina wondered if she was missing the same feeling from her one night with them here. If she was, Dakota didn’t stay reflective for long; she snapped her fingers impatiently and took up guard position in the entrance way. "Get your stuff."

  Reina hurried inside and started packing their bags. Not bothering with her usual system of organization, she just threw clothes into open duffels. The idea of a shower still sounded like a good idea, but Dakota was tapping her foot and kept scanning the parking lot beyond the windows. Like Callie the night before she didn't stray far from the curtains. Without realizing it she was mirroring the other channeler.

  Reaching into a side pocket of her bag, Reina found her phone. In a rush of elation she checked it only to find a blank screen. "Battery’s dead."

  "Leave it out. We’ll charge it in the car."

  Reina threw it back in the side pocket because she didn’t think she remembered a car charger when she left the apartment. "Would you like a change of clothes?"

  Dakota looked up. "What?"

  Reina pointed at Callie’s bag. "Some of her stuff might fit you." Like a spaz she couldn’t help but glance up and down Dakota’s body.

  "I’m not wearing her clothes."

  "She wouldn’t mi—"

  "She would and I’m not. Jesus fucking Christ."

  Reina removed a fresh outfit from her duffel and walked to the bathroom. Closing the door she quickly began stripping. Giving the shower a longing glance, she turned her back on it and began getting dressed. Her skin and hair felt sandy and uncomfortable. Using her index finger she swished some toothpaste around her mouth, rinsed, and considered her reflection in the mirror for a long moment. Wetting her hands she combed her fingers back through her hair.

  Clad in clean jeans and a Northwestern sweatshirt, Reina stepped out of the bathroom and stuffed her dirty clothes into the duffel’s unused pocket and zipped it up. Dakota still stood by the door, and now had Callie’s bag resting at her feet.

  Reina tossed the keycard on the coffee table and sighed. "I’m ready."

  ✽✽✽

  "Your lucky day," Dakota said. "You get to pick."

  Reina grimaced. "Isn’t there a better way? I feel funny about this."

  Bags thrown over their shoulders, the two women walked through the parking lot. "We’ll ditch it once we meet up with Dixon," Dakota said. "Police will find it and return it to the rightful owner. Victimless crime."

  "Or they catch us before we get two miles and I go to prison."

  "Nah, don’t worry. They like tall girls in the pen, but I’ll make you my little bitch and keep you safe." Dakota stopped in front of a newer model sport coupe. Her reflection in the tinted windows smiled wickedly. "I like this one."

  "That’s a sweet offer, thank you." Reina glanced around and didn’t see anyone. What if this was one of those trap cars like they used on Dateline to catch thieves?

  Dakota flexed her hands. "Stand back and don’t touch the metal until I say to." A red-white glow appeared around her hands as she tightened them into fists. She closed her eyes and dropped her weight back on one foot. Her entire body was tense and primed for a fight.

  She flinched once and Reina heard the doors unlock with a snap.

  The lights around her hands died as she relaxed again. Dakota opened the door and cocked an eyebrow. "You take shotgun, little bitch. I’m driving."

  Two quick shocks to a set of wires underneath the steering column later and the engine was revving. Five minutes after that Reina’s bags sat on the narrow backseat and they were speeding up the road with both windows open.

  Dakota glanced in the rearview mirror and gave the sport engine a little more gas. While Reina wasn’t crazy about riding in a speeding stolen car, she had to admit it felt good to be moving quickly again. After walking everywhere this morning it felt almost intoxicating to see street signs fly past in a blink.

  "Give me your phone."

  Reina’s hair whipped around her face and stuck to the corners of her mouth. "I forgot my charger at home."

  "Doesn’t matter. Let me see it."

  Unbuckling her seatbelt long enough to reach back and pull the phone from its side pocket, Reina complied. "I think we’ll have to find a payphone or something."

  Dakota smiled and accepted the mobile. Keeping one hand on the wheel, she set the cell on her lap and popped the back cover off. Removing the battery she held it up and inspected it. Reina watched fascinated as the mage pinched the battery’s two connector pins between her thumb and forefinger. Sparks jumped from her fingers and danced just underneath her nails.

  Dakota seemed to silently count beats in her head and then pulled her fingers back. Power now gone from her skin, she put the battery back in and snapped the cover on. She tossed the phone over. "Try it now."

  Reina could feel heat bleeding from the battery through the casing. She touched the on switch and the phone happily lit up and showed five voicemail alerts and a full charge. "That’s incredible!"

  Using the master control on the driver side door, Dakota put the windows up and nodded at her. "Call your girlfriend and find out where Dixon wants us all to meet. He'll fall back on the usual protocols."

  Reina touched the callback button but didn’t press it, clearing the screen instead. She stared at Dakota. "Does it … hurt when you do that?"

  "What? No." She gave a lopsided grin. "Line up a few dozen depleted car batteries and make me quick charge them and it might sting a little, but a thing like that, no. Greater chance it would just explode in my hand if I gave it too much juice."

  Reina remembered Callie telling her that the Circle abused the abilities of their hunters, weaponizing them. "Did The Circle make you do that with batteries?"

  "I don’t remember," she said quickly. "Hey, do you want to navigate or not? Because I need a direction here."

  Reina nodded and looked down at her phone. Desire to talk to Callie again swelled up in her chest. She started to type in the number.

  "Magic doesn’t hurt as long as I'm properly grounded. Physically, mentally, emotionally," Dakota said, not looking away from the road. "It feels good most of the time, like that buzz you get after a great screw but cranked up several times.

  "It is nice of you to ask, but really you can save it. I get enough pity from your girlfriend."

  "Callie doesn’t pity you." Reina hesitated. "Well maybe a little but not in a bad way. She cares about you."

  Dakota laughed. "Yeah."

  "She helps you whenever you ask ... She gave you a ride to the airport."

  The mage shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "Like I said, Doe Eyes, that didn't mean anything. It was just another night under the stars."

  That’s why you are trying so hard to be better, because it doesn't mean anything, Reina thought. And why she still looks out for you. Instead she said, "I know Callie pretty well and it means something to her."r />
  Dakota didn’t say anything in reply and just increased the car’s speed.

  Chapter Nine

  The meet up point was a small waffle house across the street from a cheap motel.

  Dakota swung their borrowed car through the parking lot and into a space next to Dixon’s sedan. She glanced in the rearview mirror looking for … something she didn’t quite know what.

  Most of their hour long trip had passed in silence. A headache still pressed against the back of her eyes making them feel like they were going to pop out at any moment and a dull ache had settled over her entire body. Her messed up night spent in the water and then crammed into that boat had caught up with her. And then there was the thing with Reina ... In fact just dwelling on the entire evening was enough to make her want to write the whole thing off as just another one of her many nightmares.

  Mostly she felt confused and … angry. If forced to admit it out loud, Dakota didn’t really know how to describe the emotion but anger was one she knew and had the most experience with so she went with that. The feeling prickled along her skin when she watched Reina text Callie every other minute of their road trip. It wasn’t embarrassment — a childhood and adolescence spent under strict Circle tutelage had rid her of that emotion — and she wasn’t capable of feeling guilt so she didn’t know what to call it.

  Anger it was then.

  She moved to pop the door but Reina stopped her with a hand on her arm. Big brown eyes deserving of her name blinked at Dakota.

  She’s worried I’m going to tell, Dakota thought. I could cause trouble with Callie now.

  It made that tingling over her skin feel just a little worse when she realized she liked the idea of being able to do just that.

  "Dakota…"—here it comes—"…thank you." Reina leaned in and kissed her on the cheek. Lingering long enough for Dakota to feel her lips curve upward in a small smile against her skin. The hell?

  "Yeah, well, right back at ya. I don’t do gratitude very well so could we just go inside?"

  The smile inexplicably increased and she nodded. "I suppose I should buy you breakfast — I did get your pants off last night." With that she opened the passenger side door and was gone before Dakota could fully process that.

  She swore heatedly to the empty car before following. If her head didn’t hurt and if things didn’t feel so messed up she would have laughed at that. Or she probably would have said it first. It was pretty funny, if confusing.

  Sparks danced over her hands as Dakota ran her thumbs over her fingertips, counting them silently to herself before starting over. The dull ache faded slightly with that familiar repetitive action.

  Her usual swagger was back in place even if she didn’t feel fully sure of herself by the time she walked into the waffle house. The smell of frying sausage and overly sweet syrup reminded her that she hadn’t eaten since her breakfast-lunch yesterday. Her stomach clenched painfully when she spotted Dixon and Callie.

  They had taken a booth in the rear of the diner with a clear view of the door and parking lot beyond. Callie was on her feet and racing toward them the instant she saw Reina. Dakota was surprised to see Dixon even looked relieved. The blonde and brunette met at the halfway point and became a tangle of limbs as they sloppily grappled at each other.

  Dakota sidestepped around them and didn’t bother watching the Hallmark movie style reunion. She grabbed a chair from an unoccupied table as she passed and dragged it along the floor to Dixon’s booth. Not paying any attention to him standing to greet her, Dakota swung the chair around and straddled it with her arms crossed over the back.

  "That had better be caffeinated, Dixon," she said reaching for Callie’s coffee cup.

  "Are you hurt?"

  It was full strength, thankfully, and still hot enough that she didn’t have to worry about backwash. She touched the dried blood matting her hair. "Nah, I’m fine. Looks worse than it is really. A little lather, rinse, repeat and I’ll be good as new all over again."

  Dixon had ordered, and half finished, some sort of omelet and hashbrowns while Callie had an untouched stack of pancakes. Dakota began picking food off each plate.

  The restaurant was mercifully empty save for just a few people spread out over several tables and two waitresses leaning against the front counter, looking bored. One started for Dixon’s booth when she caught sight of Dakota, but he waved her off.

  In the center of the room Callie and Reina had moved to an unoccupied table, close enough to whisper things to each other and kiss. Dakota glared at them, feeling the back of her neck tingle. Her headache felt worse; the sooner this little adventure ended the better.

  Dixon was looking at her looking at his daughter. No wonder her head hurt. "What?" she demanded. "Food on my face?"

  Dixon shook his head. "Ezekiel Homes is in Trenton," he said. "He’s expecting me later today."

  "Jensen?"

  "She’ll be there too."

  Dakota snorted and dipped a bite of toast in the syrup over the pancakes. "Figures. I ask her to do me a solid and get a big fat no. Uncle Dixon asks and she can’t help fast enough."

  "I don’t think she’s doing it for me."

  She dipped a forkful of omelet next. "Well, I know it isn’t for me. Jensen and I haven’t exactly bonded over shoe shopping and cute boys."

  Behind them Callie laughed at something Reina had said and her laughter carried through the waffle house. Her head really hurt.

  "So when do we leave?"

  "I’m leaving right away," Dixon said.

  Dakota paused, fork halfway to her mouth. "You gotta be fucking kidding me."

  "Ezekiel already rented several rooms in the motel across the street." He pulled an old fashion key on a chain from his shirt pocket and slid it over to her. "Different identities for each one, none of which link back to us."

  Dakota eyed him carefully. There was something in his tone she didn’t like. "So you think we’ll be invisible to Kane?"

  "No," he said flatly. "In fact I’m reasonably sure I’m talking to part of him right now. He’s in your head isn’t he, Dakota? That was how he knew about Callie’s power and where to find her. Kane knows everything you know."

  Dakota set the fork slowly down and leaned back. Something deep inside wanted to call her power right there and fight back but she suppressed that impulse. "How did you figure it out?"

  "Ezekiel did actually. It seems he was covering Callie’s trail from the second he told you where she really was. He put out false leads trying to buy you time to get her safe, and to hopefully trace Nicholas’ location if he took the bait.

  "But he never did. Those ghosts weren’t even touched. He went right to your location."

  Dakota didn’t look away from his unblinking gaze. "I’m not working for him, Dixon. He’s in my head sometimes, he talks to me, taunts me, but I’m going to kill him for it. I came here to help Callie and Doe Eyes and to warn you. All I originally was going to do was make sure they were safe, you were on the scene, and then I was going to disappear."

  She pushed the plates away and stood. "In fact that’s what I’m going to do now. Forget Trenton. Forget Ezekiel. Take the wonder twins and keep them away from me. I’m going after Kane on my own."

  "Dakota, sit down." It was the voice of a father, not a consular, that stopped her and made it obey instantly. "I know all that, too."

  "You do?"

  "I was thinking about the ambush on the dock, when the attack happened. What did you do?"

  Baffled, she shrugged. "I took a shot at him. Missed."

  "You fired over him, lighting him against the swirling sand, and gave me the shot. If I were half a second quicker it would have worked. We would have wounded him instead of you having to lay down a sheet of power and probably killing him."

  "So you think because of that I’m working for him?"

  "No. If that were the case you would have shot me and removed me from the equation. Nicholas would have had Callie then and there." He looked at Cal
lie and then back to her, keeping his voice measured. "So I asked Ezekiel something. Turns out since your return he couldn’t find any signs you had killed anyone, not a single one even in self defense."

  Dakota shifted uncomfortably. "Been a dry year."

  "You were a Circle hunter, an assassin, and never cashed in on any of the contracts The Circle put out after Callie exposed them. You could have quite easily with your skills. Collected a bounty to live off of for a while before the group fell apart."

  "I’m not a team player. Is there a point anywhere around here?"

  "The point is I’m going to Trenton and you are going to stay here to keep an eye on the girls while I’m gone."

  "Just like that? All is forgiven? Not afraid there’s going to be another attack or that I’m going to go all Jack Torrance and Overlook on them?"

  "Let's just say you have a couple of strong advocates in your corner." Dixon stood and threw money on the table to cover the bill and tip. "There probably is going to be another attack if we don't hurry — for all I know Nicholas is sitting at this table with us listening in. Which is why I’m telling Dakota Clark that I’m coming back with information we need to stop him. And that I’m trusting her to keep doing what she has been doing — and if there is another attack before I return I know she’ll do what she’s been trained to do.

  "What her father and master would have wanted her to do in order to protect my daughter. No matter what sort of impairment against killing she might be feeling."

  Dixon left her then, letting the full weight of responsibility settle on her shoulders. Dakota looked at the half eaten food; she wasn’t hungry any longer.

  ✽✽✽

  John Holman woke up.

  Nicholas was aware of the thoughts and memories of his shell’s previous host stirring. It was an annoyance but not really troublesome. It was just a ghost of the self that used to exist. An echo, nothing more.

  He ignored it and focused on the outside world around Holman. Programmed to operate without Nicholas’ hand guiding him, Desmond worked on the van while Holman looked on.