Hunter Hunted

by Arthur, Keri

  I glanced at him. “You ran here?”

  “Yes. I would have wasted too many minutes getting the truck out. It was much faster to run, given how close you are to the station.”

  I smiled and tucked my arm through his. “Anyone would think you were worried about me.”

  “I don’t think I’ve been that scared about anyone since we found Katie’s note and realized what was about to happen.”

  It was a statement that warmed me deep inside—and that was very dangerous. “You sure it wasn’t the possibility of losing your brownie supplier that you were actually worried about?”

  He glanced down at me, amusement creasing the corners of his bright eyes even if the rest of his expression was serious. “Anyone with any brains can see I much prefer you over the brownies. For a start, it’s impossible to seduce a brownie in the shower—they just fall to pieces.”

  “It’s very possible I’ll fall to pieces if the seduction is done right.”

  “Is that a challenge? Because I’m very up for such things.”

  I let my gaze slide down his length. “So I can see.”

  He laughed. “Challenge accepted then.”

  It didn’t take us long to get to the ranger station and collect his truck. Once he was on the A300 and heading toward Argyle, he said, “Got a call from Eli this afternoon.”

  Oh shit, I thought, suddenly remembering I hadn’t told him of our adventure last night.

  “What did he want?”

  “To know if the new witch from the HIC was going to arrive on time this evening. Said he was anxious to try out the improvised tracking system he’d created last night.” He glanced at me. “I don’t suppose you know anything about that, do you?”

  I grimaced. “If I say yes, are you going to be mad?”

  “Probably.”

  “Will shower sex make it better?”

  A smile twitched his lips. “Probably.”

  “Then yes, I do. I was there last night when he created it.” I hesitated. “In fact, the whole thing was actually my idea even though I didn’t have the knowledge or power to pull it off.”

  “So this tracker is what, exactly?”

  I hesitated again. “It’s basically the lingering threads of the heretic’s energy that have been forced into a container—or in this case, a small plastic toy pod—which can then be used with the appropriate spell to track down the owner of said energy.”

  “I’m guessing that all means you broke into Abby Jones’s place?” His voice was an odd mix of annoyance and resignation.

  “I’m afraid we did.”

  He shook his head. “You should have called me. One of these days, your side ventures are going to get you into deep trouble.”

  “I can get into deep trouble without them—this afternoon was proof of that.” I shifted in the seat to study him. “What time is the HIC witch coming in?”

  “Should be here somewhere between five thirty and six, depending on the evening traffic,” he said. “Why?”

  I glanced at my watch and saw that it was already close to five-thirty. Trepidation stirred once again, although as usual, I had no real idea why.

  “Eli said last night that they might try and hunt the heretic down as soon as the other witch got here.”

  “I gather from your tone that you don’t think that’s a good idea.”

  “No.” I glanced across the fields of endless gold and noticed dark clouds were now gathering on the horizon. I hoped it wasn’t an omen. “Tonight’s moon is waxing gibbous and, aside from the full moon, it’s one of the most powerful.”

  “If the heretic intended to use the moon’s power to enhance his spell, why wouldn’t he wait one more day for the full moon?”

  “Because if he is after control of the wellspring, then he wouldn’t risk the full moon. Not when a gibbous will supply him close to the same amount of power.” I met Aiden’s gaze. “Besides, it’s the night the wolves run free, isn’t it? Given the wellspring is within the O’Connor compound, the chances of discovery would be far greater.”

  “That’s true,” he said. “I might contact my dad when we get home, and ask him to set up extra patrols tonight.”

  “Solo patrols could be dangerous given who we’re dealing with. It might be better if there’re two wolves in each patrol unit—it’ll give one of them a chance to get a warning off before the heretic spells or kills them.”

  “Wouldn’t he be able to spell two people as easily as one?”

  “Yes, but the greater the number you have to deal with, the longer the spell takes.” It might only be a matter of seconds, but when those being attacked were werewolves, that could be all the time needed.

  Unless, of course, the heretic set whatever dark spirit he was in league with onto them.

  Another shiver ran through me. I fervently hoped a dark spirit wasn’t that indefinable something the bit of me that suffered prophetic dreams was worried about.

  “I’ll warn my father.” He glanced at me again, eyes narrowed slightly. “That’s not all that you’re worried about though, is it?”

  I shrugged. “It may be nothing more than an overly active worry gene.”

  He snorted softly. “Given everything that has happened over the last month or so, I’m thinking you’ve a right to worry.”

  I smiled. “That is an undeniable fact. And I am probably worrying for no reason—the HIC wouldn’t have sent anyone inexperienced. Not after Chester’s death.”

  “That’s probably the only certainty in this entire situation.” He reached across the bench and squeezed my thigh. “How about you stop worrying about other people’s problems, and just relax for a change?”

  If the heretic escaped the hunt tonight and somehow got to the wellspring, it was going to be everyone’s problem. But I kept that comment inside and placed my hand on top of his. “So what does this cossetting you speak of entail? Aside from shower sex?”

  He grinned. “How does a home-cooked meal of steak and chips, followed by a store-bought chocolate and honeycomb cheesecake—which isn’t as amazing as the ones you and Belle make, but comes close—sound?”

  “Anything I don’t have to cook sounds amazing.”

  “Good.”

  We continued on in comfortable silence, but the closer we got to Argyle, the more I kept looking at the clock, and the deeper the sense that something was about to go wrong became.

  But we reached his house without incident. The clouds I’d noticed earlier were now skittering across the sky and the threat of rain hung heavily in the air. The wind had sharpened dramatically, and the nearby lake was choppy and uneasy. Which matched my mood.

  Aiden opened the door and ushered me inside. After tossing his coat and my overnight bag onto the nearby sofa, he said, “So, what would you prefer first? Food or shower?”

  “Would you be terribly upset if I said food?”

  “Anticipation will only heighten the end experience,” he said cheerfully.

  Only if the end experience wasn’t interrupted by whatever it was I feared. I followed him down to the kitchen, slung my handbag over the back of a bar chair, and then sat down.

  “Drink?” He pulled out a couple of glasses. “I have wine, bubbly, whiskey—”

  “I’d better stick with whiskey. Mixing drinks is never a good idea for me.”

  He moved across to the alcohol rack and pulled a bottle of Sullivan’s Cove—a Tasmanian whiskey that had recently been voted one of Australia’s top ten whiskeys by a number of wine merchants. I had a bottle tucked away for when the Glenfiddich ran out.

  He poured two generous glasses and then got onto the business of cooking. There was, I discovered, something very sexy about a man in the kitchen.

  He served up the meal and then sat beside me. Conversation flowed easily and ranged from music we loved to books and then on to movies. The cheesecake was served with coffee and both were absolutely divine.

  I sighed in contentment as I scooped up the last chunk of honeycomb. “
Thank you. I feel so much better now.”

  “No more portents of doom happening, then?”

  I wrinkled my nose. “They’re being held back by the weight of cheesecake.”

  He laughed softly but any reply was halted as his phone rang sharply.

  “If that’s work, there will be words said.” He stalked down to the other end of the room and retrieved his phone from his coat pocket, glancing at it before he answered it. “Tala? What in the hell has happened now?”

  He listened for several minutes, his expression getting darker. My heart sank and the trepidation I’d felt earlier broke free from the cheesecake and began pounding through my system.

  “We’ll be there in thirty,” Aiden said eventually. “Secure the scene but don’t go inside until we get there.”

  “What’s happened?” I grabbed my handbag and hurried toward him.

  “It seems those instincts of yours were right.” He opened the front door and then hit the truck’s remote. The lights flashed brightly as the door slammed shut behind us. “There’s been an almighty battle at Ashworth’s place. Half the house has apparently fallen down. There’s strange puffs of purple smoke swirling above the remains of the building and what appears to be lightning intermittently erupting from it.”

  “What about Ashworth, Eli, and the new HIC witch?”

  “No sign of any of them as yet, and no one is going inside that building until we know it’s both magically and structurally safe to do so.”

  “But they might be inside and in need of urgent medical attention—”

  “They probably are, but I won’t risk the lives of any of my people until it’s declared safe.”

  “If the heretic witch is responsible for that magic, it may well be beyond my capacity to contain it.”

  “Then let’s hope for the sake of the three men that’s not the case.”

  He opened the door, ushered me inside, and then ran around to the driver side. Once he’d reversed out of the driveway, he hit the lights and sirens and then accelerated along the quiet street and out onto the main road. This time, he wasn’t being thoughtful when it came to the neighbors.

  The journey back to Castle Rock was a tense one. I really, really hoped Ashworth and Eli were both okay, but Aiden had been getting constant updates from his crew and there’d been no mention of either of them. Hope, it seemed, might be futile.

  Aiden swung into Ashworth’s street then hit the brakes hard, forcing the truck into a sideways sliding stop. The street had been blocked off by a number of ranger SUVs as well as blue-and-white tape, and the nearby houses had obviously been evacuated, because people milled about on the pavement on either side of the road.

  I climbed out of the truck and followed Aiden across to the tape. Mac gave me a nod and then said, “Nothing has changed, boss, though the stabs of lightning appeared to have stopped.”

  “No sign of movement from inside?”

  “Nothing we can see. They could be buried, though.”

  “Anyone get close enough to scent anything?”

  “Tala tried but the lightning lashed out at her.”

  “That sounds like a spell more than magic gone wild,” I commented.

  “We’ll need to find out one way or another before we risk going in there,” Mac said.

  Aiden glanced at me. “Will you need any equipment from the café?”

  “I won’t know until I see what’s actually happened and what sort of magic we’re dealing with.”

  “Then let’s do that first.”

  He ducked under the tape and strode down the street. I hurried after him, my gaze on the purplish glow emanating from up ahead. I couldn’t see the actual building as yet because there were vehicles, rangers, and paramedics all clustered around the house this side of it.

  We wove our way through them and approached Tala, who was standing, arms crossed in front of the glowing building.

  “What the fuck is that light?” she asked, without looking at us.

  “Magic. Or the remains of it,” I said.

  I stopped beside Aiden and studied the building. It had once been a modern replica of a Victorian-style two-story house, but most of the roof and a good portion of the first floor had collapsed into the ground floor. The purplish glow seeping from the building was the magical equivalent to a radiation cloud, and suggested there’d been an almighty battle. Even from where I was standing, that cloud felt fierce and dirty.

  I rubbed my arms and wondered two things—where the fuck had our heretic witch gotten the strength to conjure up such a spell, and how the fuck was I going to deal with it? I had to—there was really no other choice but me if the men inside were to have any hope.

  If they were still inside, that is.

  Though there was no sense of a dark spirit being involved in this calamity, that didn’t mean anything. For all I knew, the purple glow was a barrier hiding all manner of things, including dark spirits.

  Aiden’s phone rang, the sharp sound making me jump. He tugged it out of his pocket then answered it with a quick, “What’s up, Mac?”

  He listened for a few seconds and then said, “Let her in.”

  “Problem?” I asked.

  “Indeed.” His voice was dry. “And I’d appreciate you informing Belle to stop threatening to turn my people into toads when they’re simply doing their jobs and following orders.”

  “And you can kindly inform your people not to get in my way when my witch is in need of help,” she said, as she strode toward us.

  She’d obviously stopped at the café to change, because she was now wearing jeans, a singlet top, and runners. She also had our backpack slung over one shoulder.

  “Belle, what the fuck are you doing here?” My voice was a mix of annoyance and relief. “You’re supposed to be in Melbourne.”

  “And I was. But I could hardly stay there given the vague premonitions of doom that kept rolling down the line. I grabbed a cab and hightailed it back here as soon as I could—and it cost a goddamn fortune, let me tell you.” She grimaced. “Raphael, I’m afraid, may never forgive me.”

  I rubbed my eyes. “I’m sorry—I thought I had my thoughts locked down.”

  “That’s always going to be a hard task given the strength of our connection and the force of your fears.” She stopped beside me and studied the building. “That feels really nasty.”

  “Yes, and I’d like to know how he found the strength given he’d still be recovering from the soul transference.”

  “You’re talking about someone who uses the blood of others to strengthen his spells. He wouldn’t have to use his own damn strength.” She paused. “Have we located the three witches yet?”

  I did not want to even think about whose blood might have gone into that spell. “No, and we probably won’t be able to until we deal with that barrier.”

  “I’m not sure that if even we did combine strength we’d be able to do that.”

  “No.” I hesitated as energy stirred around me. Not the dark energy, but wild. And once again, the source was the old wellspring rather than the new. “We could try a simple containment spell—if it succeeds, we might be able to push it far enough away from the building to get inside and see if the men are alive.”

  Belle’s expression was dubious. “Aside from the fact that stuff feels volatile, the building itself doesn’t look safe.”

  “We’ve people at the rear of the building,” Tala said. “There’s a small portion of the house unaffected, and it’s the one spot the purple glow isn’t emanating from.”

  “Can we get around there?” Aiden asked, before I could.

  Tala nodded. “It’s safe to go through the yards of the neighbors on either side—the purple glow isn’t reaching that far.”

  Aiden glanced at the two of us. “Follow me.”

  We moved swiftly down the sideway of the old single-story weatherboard house to the right of Ashworth’s place, clambered over the fence, and then walked across to where Byron was standing.
>
  “Still no sign or sound of movement,” he commented.

  I studied the intact portion of the building; magic that wasn’t purple or foul in feel encircled that entire area and relief surged.

  “At least one of them is definitely alive and conscious,” I commented, “because that section of the building is being protected by magic that doesn’t belong to the heretic. He’s also left an entry point into the magically protected area around the rear door.”

  “Meaning it’d be safe to go in?” Bryon asked.

  “Not without us dealing with the other stuff first.”

  The wild magic stirred around me again. I frowned, reached out, and felt it settle on my fingers. Felt the surge of power both within it and me. For whatever damn reason, it appeared my connection to the force of this land was growing.

  Belle sucked in a breath, and I glanced at her sharply. “What?”

  “I can feel it—feel the wild magic. It’s a distant storm surge, but more powerful.”

  “Is it affecting you in any way?”

  “No.” Her gaze moved to the building. “You know, while neither of us has the power to contain whatever that haze is, if you enhanced our spell with the wild magic, it might be a different story.”

  “I’m not sure that’s safe or possible—”

  “Ladies,” Aiden cut in. “Whatever you’re going to do, it needs to be done quickly, before the strength of whoever is protecting that end of the building gives out and the whole lot comes down on top of them.”

  My gaze went to the purple haze pulsating above the ruined section. Even though we weren’t standing within attacking range, I could nevertheless feel the force—the strength—behind the spell. Belle was right—even if we combined our magic, we more than likely didn’t have the strength to contain or destroy whatever that spell was. And that left us with very little choice in the matter. But using the wild magic in any capacity was still damned dangerous.

  I glanced up at her. “Did you throw your spell stones into the pack as well as mine?” When she nodded, I added, “Let’s do a weave protection circle around the entire building. I’ll go clockwise, you go anti. If anything goes wrong, it should at least contain the magic.”