Hunter Hunted

by Arthur, Keri

  “Yes, though I used a few favors in the process. You owe me a beer.” He paused and glanced toward reception. “I gather you’ve already talked to the manager?”

  “Her name is Mrs. Allan, and she won’t release the keys without seeing the warrant.”

  “Good on her.”

  He disappeared inside, but came out a few seconds later with keys in hand. Once we’d neared the cabin before it, Aiden motioned us to stop and then continued on alone, his footsteps barely audible as he approached the nearest window. After carefully checking all three, he motioned us forward.

  “I can’t see or scent anyone,” he said softly, “and they’re certainly not keeping the pelts in the cabin.”

  “They’d be stupid if they did,” Jack commented. “This close to the reservation there’s always the risk of a random wolf happening by and smelling the blood, even if it’s not fresh.”

  He stepped up to the door and quickly unlocked it. Aiden pressed his fingers against the door and pushed it open, his nostrils flaring as he drew in the scents of the room.

  “Definitely empty,” he said, and stepped inside.

  Jack and I followed. The room was a basic all-in-one kitchen and living area, and not that large. At the far end was a small hallway, off which were four doors.

  Aiden glanced at me. “Any idea where the bracelets might be?”

  I tightened my grip around the silk bag. The magic burned into my skin, whispering its secrets. “In the end bedroom.”

  “Stay behind me, both of you.”

  He led us across to the hall. The floorboards creaked under our steps and the air was filled with a weird mix of lavender and sweaty man. At least one of the three living here wasn’t a fan of deodorant.

  Aiden opened every door down the hallway, revealing two bedrooms and a combined bathroom and toilet. The last door led into the final bedroom, and it was both the biggest and the tidiest.

  I paused in the doorway, my gaze scanning the room. The magic was now so damn hot that even holding the silk bag by the ties made little difference to the heat I was feeling, and I really had no idea why.

  Probably something to do with the combination of magics, Belle commented. It’s possible that by encasing and then reversing her spell, you’ve created some sort of “spell friction.”

  That makes sense, I said. But what in the hell are you doing following my thoughts? Aren’t you at the club?

  Indeedy, but there’s nothing much happening as yet and I was bored.

  Then you’re not trying hard enough.

  I will when there’s someone more interesting to dance with than married men, she said. It seems I’ve stumbled onto couples’ night, although Maelle assures me it’ll change as the night wears on.

  Maelle came out of her den to greet you?

  I headed across the room and unzipped a canvas travel bag. Inside was an assortment of clothes; some of them were clean, some not.

  Yes. And I had to tell her I don’t swing that way.

  I swallowed my laugh. I hope you let her down gently.

  Oh yeah. I have no intention of ever getting on the wrong side of an old and scary vampire.

  I picked through them but couldn’t feel anything resembling either magic or bracelets. But they had to be here somewhere—if the one in the silk bag got any hotter, it’d erupt into flame.

  They’re not likely to be in an easy to find place, Belle said. These hunters are too cautious to do that.

  “Any luck?” Aiden asked.

  “They’re here somewhere, but my counterspell seems to be rubbing the Ballan witch’s magic the wrong way, and I can’t pinpoint them.”

  “What exactly are we looking for?” Jack asked.

  I undid the silk bag, tipped the bracelet into my hand, and held it up. A faint wisp of smoke was now emanating from it. “Seven or eight bracelets identical to this.”

  “Complete with that smoke trail?” he asked, obviously amused.

  “No.” I glanced at Aiden. “I’d better go deactivate this one otherwise your evidence might get destroyed.”

  He nodded, his attention already on searching a corner of the room. I walked back down to the living room, sat down at the small table, and careful unpicked my spell, until nothing—not even the muted remains of the Ballan witch’s magic—remained.

  The sound of approaching footsteps had me looking toward the half-closed front door. It was pushed fully open and a man appeared.

  He was tall, with dark hair, dark eyes, and a colorful werewolf tat stretching up his left arm.

  It was one of our hunters.

  Chapter Eleven

  “What the fuck—?” His gaze jumped from my face to the bracelet in my hand. Realization dawned, and without another word, he turned and ran.

  “Aiden!”

  I dropped the bracelet on the table and bolted after the hunter. I jumped down the steps and began threading an immobilizing spell around my fingertips, but before I could finish, silver flashed past me—Aiden in wolf form.

  The hunter must have sensed his presence because he suddenly stopped, spun around, and raised his hand.

  In it was a gun.

  Before I could react, I was hit side-on and sent flying. I fell with a grunt, skinning my knees on the concrete as my hands slipped forward on the grass.

  Saw Jack run past.

  Heard gunshots. Two of them. One from the killer, and one from Jack.

  Saw Aiden’s form shimmer as he shifted from wolf to human; there was no blood on him. No sign of a wound.

  The same could not be said of the hunter. Or, in fact, Jack. In shoving me to one side, he’d been clipped by the bullet meant for me. It had torn through his left arm in what looked to be a straight in-and-out wound.

  My gaze went back to the hunter. He was dead. Shot through the heart, from the look of it.

  Aiden swung around, his gaze sweeping me before moving on to Jack. “Thanks for the save, mate.”

  Jack grimaced. “I wasn’t quite fast enough to stop the bastard pulling the trigger—and I certainly didn’t mean to kill him.”

  “Better him than any of us.” I climbed to my feet then bent to study my knees. Thankfully, my jeans had taken the brunt of my fall, which meant my knees had escaped with only a minor amount of lost skin.

  “You need to stop that bleeding, Jack,” Aiden said. “Do you want me to bring down the medical kit from the truck?”

  “No,” Jack said. “I have to go call this in anyway, so I’ll rough bandage it while I’m up there. Just make sure you keep a record of anything you do.”

  “As ever.” He waited until Jack had moved away and glanced at me. “What are the chances of you reading the hunter’s memories? I know you haven’t got your spell stones with you but—”

  “I actually don’t need the stones. They’re more a precautionary measure when there’s some form of magic involved in the death.”

  “So you’ll try?” When I nodded, he added, “Good, because if we can get some idea where the other two are, we might be able to stop this madness today.”

  I walked over, wincing a little as my knees protested. “One of these days I’ll get through an investigation without being injured in some way.”

  “But today is not that day,” he mused.

  I grinned. “I wasn’t aware you’re a Lord of the Rings fan.”

  “I marathon the movies at least once a year.”

  “What about the books?” My gaze went to the younger man, but I had no sense of his ghost and, thanks to the light connection Belle was maintaining, could see that his soul had already risen. I just hoped fate and reincarnation made him pay for his crimes the next time around.

  “I’ve never read the books,” Aiden said.

  “Ranger, that is another outrageous statement which needs to be fixed immediately.”

  “Not going to happen. I have tried, but the language is too ponderous and old-fashioned.”

  I did a wider loop than necessary around the body and stopp
ed at the top of his head. “Trust me, you get used to it after the first hundred pages or so.”

  “I’d rather just watch the movies.” He got out his phone and hit the record button. “Ready when you are.”

  I took a deep breath to center my energy and then sat cross-legged behind the hunter and placed my hands either side of his head. Almost immediately, information and images stirred. “His name is Bryan Browning and he’s been at the pub,” I said. “His brothers weren’t there. He met a woman and left with her.”

  “Address? Description?” Aiden asked.

  I paused and chased down the appropriate memory reel. “She’s working out of a small house just outside Kangaroo Flat.” I gave him the address and then added, “She’s white, has dyed blonde hair, and brown eyes.”

  “A prostitute?”

  “Yes.” I reached deeper. “Hale—the middle brother—has gone back into the reservation to snare their next target. The other brother—” I paused as the information slipped from my grasp. I chased after it, but it kept fragmenting and I had an odd sense of uncertainty. “Either he isn’t sure what the oldest—Shaun—is doing or, for whatever reason, that particular memory is fading faster than the others.”

  “How many trackers do they have in total? Is it only the ten they bought from the witch or is there more? And can you grab any idea where in the reservation Hale has gone?”

  I frowned as I continued to sort through the various memories in an effort to find the right information. It was rather like searching through a library catalog—a very random, ill-organized, and rapidly fading catalog. Bryan obviously wasn’t the one who’d been sleeping in the tidiest of the three bedrooms. After a moment, I found a breakfast memory.

  “They have seven viable trackers left, and one inert. The thread we found on the first victim rendered that one useless.”

  “We found seven in the cabin, so that means Hale has one tracker with him.”

  I dove deeper into the breakfast memory. “Kingstone was discussed, but I can’t be sure whether that’s the next target area.”

  “Do they have more than one vehicle?” Aiden commented. “Because the red one is now in the carport.”

  I tried to find some sort of answer but there were simply too many conflicting images to be sure which was the right one. Bryan, it seemed, was something of a car nut and had a sideline in modding cars for resale.

  “I can’t find that information, sorry.” I removed my fingers and took another deep breath. Weariness pulsed through my brain, but it wasn’t as fierce as it normally was—I guessed because this death, and his memories, were both far fresher than any of the previous times. “That’s really all I can get.”

  “It’s still far more than we had a few minutes ago.” Aiden put his phone away and then squatted beside me. “Are you okay?”

  “Surprisingly, yes.” I’d need food and Panadol, but at least I could still function.

  He studied me through slightly narrowed eyes. “I’m still thinking you shouldn’t drain—”

  “Aiden, as you’ve already said, we need to stop these people before they kill someone else.”

  “Yes, but—”

  “I’m fine.” I reached out and placed my hand over his. “I appreciate your concern but spelling doesn’t take it out of me anywhere near as fiercely as reading the dead.”

  “As long as you’re sure—”

  “And I am.”

  “Then do what you need to do, and I’ll go talk to Jack.” He hooked his hand under my elbow, helped me rise, and then kissed me tenderly. “The minute you start feeling like shit let me know. Kingstone isn’t huge and given we have access to Hale’s clothing, we can hunt him down the old-fashioned way, using scent and sight.”

  My way would be quicker and we both knew it. But I nodded and walked back into the cabin. Once I’d retrieved the bracelets, I sat back down at the table and tipped them out of their evidence bags, carefully sorting through them until I found the strongest resonance. Then, with only the slightest tremor of unease at the thought of performing this sort of magic without the benefit of a protection spell, I unpicked the bracelet’s layers to reveal the controlling thread and wound my reversal spell around it. I also attempted to ease the friction between the two, but only time would tell if I was successful or not.

  My head was pounding by the time I’d finished tying off the spell threads. I pushed to my feet and walked down to the bathroom to see if the men had painkillers stored there. Luck was with me. Once I’d washed down a couple with water, I placed the new tracking bracelet into the silk bag, tucked the tracker Aiden had given me into one evidence bag, shoved all the others back into another, and headed out.

  A screen had been placed around the hunter’s body, and while there were now a few curious onlookers from the other cabins, they were all keeping their distance. Jack was talking to Mrs. Allan and there were two uniformed officers taping off the area.

  “Aiden’s waiting in his truck,” Jack said, as I approached. “Good luck catching the other two.”

  I nodded and held out the evidence bag holding the other bracelets. “Do you want these?”

  He hesitated. “Yes, but don’t you need—”

  “I have what I need.”

  “Good.” He plucked the bag from my fingers. “I’ll need to take a statement from you, but we can do that at a later time, after you’ve gotten the other hunters.”

  I nodded and walked back up to the parking area. Aiden glanced at me as I climbed into the truck and held up a finger to indicate silence.

  “Duke and Mac are on their way to Kingstone,” Tala was saying. “Do you want me to pull Byron in?”

  “Yes,” Aiden replied. “We won’t be able to block all exits out of Kingstone, but if we get the main four, our chances of catching this bastard is pretty good.”

  “It’s going to piss the locals off, boss.”

  “Better that than one of them becoming the next victim.” His voice was grim. “It’ll take us just under thirty minutes to get there.”

  “We should have everything in place by then.”

  “Thanks, Tala.” He signed off then started up the truck and reversed out. Once we were back on the main road, he said, “Did you manage to rejig another bracelet?”

  I pulled the silk bag from my pocket and held it up. Energy crawled across my fingertips, but it was nowhere near as sharp or as fiery as my first tracking spell. “I also kept the one you gave me, but handed the rest to Jack.”

  He nodded. “It’s his jurisdiction, so the evidence at the park is his to collect.”

  “How long have you two known each other?”

  He shrugged. “Ten years? Maybe more? We meet at least once a month to discuss cases and problems over a beer or two.”

  I frowned. “I wouldn’t have thought there’d be many problems shared by both forces.”

  “Criminals—be they wolf or human—tend not to restrict themselves to one particular area, and that means a good working relationship between us all is vital. In fact, ever since we instigated the meetings, the crime rate has gone down in both the reservation and the surrounding towns.” He motioned to the rear seat. “My backpack and a bottle of water are sitting behind us. Take whatever you need.”

  I immediately twisted around and grabbed both—and was pleased to discover several chocolate bars.

  “You’ve restocked,” I said, with a delighted grin.

  “I figured that since I appear to be stuck with you being our unofficial eighth ranger, I might as well fully cater to your needs.”

  “Stuck. Such a lovely term for all the assistance I give you.”

  His grin flashed, belying the seriousness in his eyes. “You know I appreciate your help, but I really wish we didn’t need it.”

  “That’s a wish I share.” I sorted through the various snack bars to see what there was, and finally settled on a couple of Picnics, reasoning that the inclusion of nuts made them a healthier choice than plain chocolate. “So is t
he crime problem more wolves going out of the reservation, or humans coming in?”

  “It tends to be weighted toward humans. While wolves do cause problems out of the res, if they’re caught, they’re held and tried in that region’s court system, not in the reservation.”

  “But major crimes committed inside the reservation are tried in Melbourne anyway, aren’t they?” I said. “And would regular police cells even be able to hold a werewolf?”

  “Not all major crimes are dealt with in Melbourne—it really depends on who the victim or indeed the perpetrator is,” he said. “And most stations close to the reservation’s boundaries now cater for werewolf prisoners.”

  Which was totally sensible—though I rather suspected getting a pissed-off werewolf into said cell in the first place could be rather difficult. But I daresay the authorities had means and methods to do that—and calming spells were certainly easy enough to get and apply.

  Aiden switched on the siren as we swung onto the freeway, the lights sending flashes of color through the gathering darkness. The noise didn’t do a whole lot for my headache, but at least the painkillers I’d taken were keeping it at bay.

  It didn’t take us long to get across to Kingstone. Up ahead, a ranger SUV was parked in the middle of the road, and two figures were visible in the glow of its flashing light.

  Aiden flicked off the lights and siren, and then stopped and wound down the window. “Any luck, Mac?”

  The other wolf leaned in and gave me a polite nod. “Nothing more than locals here so far.”

  Aiden glanced at me. “Is he still here?”

  I wrapped my fingers around the silk bag and listened to the secrets being whispered. “Yes.”

  “Good.” Aiden returned his gaze to Mac. “Keep sharp. Let me know if anyone tries to run the barrier.”

  “Will do.” He tapped the edge of the windowsill and stepped back.

  Aiden drove on. Kingstone’s layout wasn’t that of a typical small country town. Rather than having one main road that ran straight through the center, Kingstone’s main street was T-shaped, which meant there’d been more room to spread out as the town grew. As a consequence of that, many of the grand old buildings had survived rather than being torn down to build bigger and better.