Huntress Clan Saga Complete Series Boxed Set: Books 1-6

by Jamie Davis

  “Pull up a chair,” the Huntress called to her best friend.

  Taylor smiled and walked over, the ghostly form of Miranda the witch drifting across the floor behind her.

  “How’d the training go this morning?” Taylor asked as she sat down.

  “Fine, I guess,” Quinn replied. She didn’t think it had gone that well.

  “She’s being modest,” Naomi said with more excitement than Quinn expected from her. “She unlocked a new skill, and without using the VR system. I think that is a breakthrough.”

  “That’s great,” Taylor said. “That means I can dismantle some of the rig I made and make some tweaks I’ve been meaning to add. Miranda and I have been discussing the unique Hunter spells we found in the Life Tome. We think we can use them to enhance your experience inside the VR system and maybe juice up your stamina score. You’d be able to hold more at one time.”

  Clark snapped his fingers. “That’s exactly what we need. How long will it take?”

  “It depends on how much I need to tweak it as it installs. The question is, can I start now, or do we have to wait?”

  “This is probably a good time to do it,” Quinn said. “Things have been quiet for the first month or so since we took care of Handon’s vampires and cultists. What do you think?” She turned to Clark.

  The old Hunter shrugged. “Things have settled down in the city for the most part. There are some disappearances on the south side of town I’ve been keeping an eye on, but I suppose we can take a chance and shut it down for a few days.”

  Taylor smiled. “Excellent. I’ll start in on it later today. We have a few more things in the Tome to investigate before we begin the rebuild.”

  Naomi said, “If you’re going through the Clan spells and rituals, I might be able to help. I still want to see if there’s a way to make up for all the training Quinn missed growing up. She’s doing very well, but there are giant holes in her knowledge and abilities.”

  The statement irked Quinn. “I’ll remind everyone you both just said I did very well this morning.”

  “It’s like you’re working with a half-empty toolbox,” Naomi said. “If you had all the things you were missing, you’d find it much easier to complete all the additional training we want to do with you.”

  “You and Clark had all that growing up,” Quinn said. “You act like you’re doing all this blind sometimes.”

  Clark shook his head. “I was just an initiate when the purges happened. There was a lot I had to teach myself. It took me years, and I still can’t do all the things I’d like, not like a Master Hunter used to be able to do.”

  “And I lost touch with the magical Hunter enhancements when I was turned into a vampire,” Naomi added. “I kept my martial skills and enhanced strength and speed. My vampire side even adds to that side of things, but I can’t use most of the Hunter skills I learned growing up.”

  “And the two of you complain about how I’m doing,” Quinn said under her breath. She shook her head, letting out a wry chuckle. “It figures.”

  “That’s not fair, Quinn,” Miranda chastised. “You’re better than that. Both of them are doing the best they can. On top of that, they’re the only resource we have. You should be grateful you can access any of their knowledge.”

  Quinn didn’t feel like apologizing, although she knew that was what the ghost wanted. No one here understood the pressure the training and everyone’s expectations put on her. Three times now, when everything went into the crapper, she’d been the one to bail them all out. Couldn’t they give her a break and try to see it from her side?

  Taylor came to Quinn’s rescue like she’d done so many times when stress started to overwhelm her. “Hey, did you all order already? I’m starving. Should I track down Juni?”

  Clark took the hint and nodded. “We did. I’ll go get her. Do you need a menu?”

  “No.” Taylor shook her head. “Tell her I’ll have the pizza burger and a side of Old Bay fries.”

  After Clark left to find Juni, Taylor glanced at Quinn and smiled. Quinn nodded and mouthed, “Thank you.”

  Miranda shifted gears and started talking to Naomi about old Baltimore landmarks from years ago, including some sort of concert club called Hammerjack’s. Quinn had never heard of it, but from the animated way the two talked about it, it must’ve been quite the hot spot.

  Happy to be out from under the spotlight of the conversation, Quinn sat back and listened to the others chatter about random things for the rest of lunch.

  Chapter Three

  Taylor sat down behind the desk in the makeshift office Paddy had set up for her in one of his storerooms. The light in there sucked and it smelled slightly sour, but the room wasn’t all bad. She had power and plenty of room, and she was able to tap directly into one of the cable company’s data lines, so she had super-fast internet. The conduit ran through the tunnel outside.

  Miranda floated over to the opposite side of the desk and assumed a sitting position so she was at Taylor’s level. “Where were we?” she asked, pointing at the computer screens.

  Taylor tapped the touchpad, lighting up the triple monitors arrayed next to her. The displays filled with color scans of the pages of the ancient Hunter book they’d stolen and copied. It was in Latin, but Taylor had used an app from a friend to translate the flowing handwritten script into English. The translation for each page hovered in a window superimposed over each page.

  She pointed to the left-hand screen. “I’m intrigued by the description of this spell.”

  Miranda leaned over and scanned the screen while Taylor scrolled through the script.

  “See, it’s some sort of enhancement spell used on Hunter children as they trained to imprint certain skills and abilities on them. I don’t see why this couldn’t be used to do something similar with Quinn in the VR system. This part refers to magical power, doesn’t it?”

  Miranda shook her head. “That spell borders on dark magic. I wouldn’t cast it on anyone, especially not a child. This would be like playing with a person’s genetic sequence without knowing exactly what the effects would be.”

  “But it’s clear in the description it was used all the time on younglings in training,” Taylor said. Her finger traced the section of the text that said as much. “It must’ve worked, or they wouldn’t have used it.”

  “Oh, I’m sure it works…most of the time. What about the times it didn’t take or had an unintentional side effect? This spell could just as easily manifest in a skill not unlike the life-draining effect of a demon or a ghoul. That wouldn’t meet the Hunter code.”

  “You think that happened?”

  “I think it happened often enough that we would have heard about it unless they did something with the failures.”

  “Wait,” Taylor said. “You think they killed the Hunter children who didn’t react to the spell as expected? That’s awful.”

  Miranda nodded. “The Hunter clans kept apart from the others in the supernatural community, but there’ve always been rumors about the harshness of their training methods and of trainees who died in the process of becoming Hunters. This is probably an example of how that could happen. I’d be willing to bet it’s not the only spell of the sort we’re going to find.”

  “I was hoping this could be a way to help Quinn catch up to where Clark and Naomi think she should be. I don’t think they see the effect her frequent failures have on her competitive nature. She doesn’t have an ounce of quit in her. She won’t stop pushing herself until she completes a task or a training session.”

  Miranda nodded. “I’ve seen it. Clark has, too. He’s mentioned it to me on more than one occasion. The problem might be that he sees it as a positive thing.”

  Taylor snorted and rolled her eyes. “He would.”

  “He’s not entirely wrong, Taylor. What she’s learning to do, to be, isn’t easy. You’d all have been dead, like me, long ago if she wasn’t like that. I just hope he tempers his methods with an eye toward letting her
have a win from time to time. She can’t always have a breakthrough like she had today.”

  “I can’t tell whose side you’re on.”

  “Quinn’s, ours. The whole clan’s, I guess.” Miranda spread her arms wide. “Dealing with the energy and magic, the supernatural creatures, all of this, it isn’t easy or for the faint at heart. The same is true for those who learn to be mages. Not everyone makes it through the process.”

  “People die?” Taylor asked. “I seem to have adapted well enough.”

  “You had more aptitude than most, and you had the supplemental strength of your werewolf side to help you manage the stress on your body from handling the raw energy. Think of it like this: harnessing magical energy is like wiring a live high-voltage circuit to a transformer without any safety gear. It’s possible to do it without electrocuting yourself, but one mistake, one tiny slip, and you’re dead.”

  Taylor blanched. “Why didn’t you tell me that when you taught me to cast the spells for the VR system interface?”

  “Because you were already trying to teach yourself. That was far more dangerous. You wouldn’t have stopped, even if I had told you. All it would’ve done was to make you nervous and self-conscious. You didn’t need the distraction while you were mastering the process. We didn’t have the time to take things slowly.”

  “Gee, thanks,” Taylor said. She smiled as she thought about it. “You’re right, though. I’m a little like Quinn in that regard. I get tunnel vision when I’m working on a project and miss the possible consequences.”

  Taylor turned back to the screen. “Let’s put this one aside for a while and see what else might be helpful. Quinn needs us to find a win for her.”

  The two of them dug in and started going through the list of spells and rituals Taylor had made that might be useful. It took them the rest of the day, but they boiled it all down to three potential additions. One would enable Quinn to see magical energy in the world and maybe store it in some way. She might even be able to manipulate it for simple spells.

  Another might give her limited healing abilities. Quinn would be able to channel health energy, either to help others with their injuries or to regenerate injuries of her own. She had already used direct energy from ley lines to recharge her Huntress powers and stamina. This would let her channel the magic around her and her reserves, transforming it into healing energy for another person. There was mention in the Tome that Hunters in the past could do that.

  The final option Miranda and Taylor discovered was the riskiest of the three because of the dark magic it employed. The two of them had argued about it for some time before Miranda relented and admitted it was worth taking the chance. It wasn’t really a spell. It was a ritual that merged the dark magic used in demonic possession with Quinn’s Huntress powers.

  If it was successful, she should be able to detect demons who were close by, including those humans possessed by demonic souls as demon-kinder. It might even allow Quinn to see dark magical energy around her and enable detection of traps or detection spells cast by her opponents.

  The risk was substantial, however, so they decided to leave it for last. Miranda believed if they messed up the ritual for that one, it would make her more susceptible to demonic magic and influence, not more resistant.

  When they were finished, Taylor smiled and said, “I think we can get started on the first upgrade tomorrow.”

  “So soon?” Miranda asked. “Don’t you want to study the spells and practice first?”

  Taylor shrugged. “I don’t think so. I can already recite the necessary parts of the spell that won’t be coded into the system. It’ll require more time to take apart the VR system components and make the adjustments needed to upgrade things. We found that cache of the new VirSync equipment in one of O’Malley’s storerooms. I want to swap them out for the parts I built from scratch. Those are the weak points in our setup.

  “How long will it be down if you do that? You told Clark two days. Any longer, and we might need it,” Miranda said.

  “Two days should be right, especially if we leave off that last upgrade. Between us, we’ve already mastered how to get the VR system working with our gear. This is just adding improvements and professionally designed equipment to what we already have.”

  Miranda nodded. “Fair enough. I’ll be here first thing in the morning so we can get started fresh. I’m a little tired right now. I’ve been manifesting in the corporeal world a lot over the last week. I need to take the night off.”

  “You’ve been able to stay longer each time, though. That’s an improvement.”

  “It is, but it also makes it so I need more downtime in between. Don’t worry. Tonight should be enough rest. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  Taylor nodded as Miranda faded from view. She stared at the space where the ghost had hovered moments before. Taylor wondered if the witch was still here and just unable to be seen or to speak. That would be creepy unless she went somewhere else when she faded out. Taylor made a mental note to ask her ghostly friend next time she saw her.

  Realizing she’d grown tired, too, Taylor shut down her systems and locked her screens before heading out of her storeroom-office. The door had a lock that Taylor used, but she had no idea how many others had a key beside Paddy and her. Best to make sure her systems were secured from random hacking in case someone got inside.

  Humming to herself, Taylor headed back down the passage toward the rear entrance to the bar. The others would probably already be there ordering dinner. She was starving and needed meat to feed her wolf side.

  Chapter Four

  Two days later, Quinn flopped down on her bed, letting out a long sigh at finally getting to rest her weary muscles. For the last forty-eight hours, Clark had left the training regimen to Naomi while he made his rounds in the city to check on the supernatural community. He didn’t say why, only that there were some potential trouble spots he wanted to look in on.

  Quinn had hoped Taylor would have finished her VR system upgrades today. She could’ve used it as an excuse for a break from the non-stop practice bouts and exercises Naomi ran for her. Quinn hated to admit it, but the vampire made Clark’s brand of harsh training methods look like nursery school playtime by comparison.

  Quinn rolled over to stare at the ceiling. She groaned as her muscles protested the move. “Ugh, I wish Taylor wasn’t tied up with the VR rig. I could use someone to talk to right now.”

  She caught a bit of movement out of the corner of her eye, but when she turned to see what it was, all she saw was a stack of her laundry topped with the football-sized dragon egg she’d ended up with after their foiled raid on Princess Aurora’s compound over a month before.

  Swinging her legs over the side of the bed and sitting up, Quinn reached out and lifted the polished green egg from the pile of folded clothes and set it in her lap. It was always a bit warmer than the ambient temperature, and sometimes she swore she could detect an occasional faint tremor or vibration from within when holding it.

  “You have it easy, my little friend. You get to just hang out and do nothing all day. No one expects anything from you.”

  Quinn stared down at the egg and laughed. “Fine, don’t say anything. I see how you are.”

  She set the egg down on her pillow and got up to gather some underwear and a nightshirt for after her shower. The hot water splashing on her aching muscles and bruises would make everything better.

  Quinn glanced over her shoulder as she headed for her bedroom door. “Coming?” She said to the egg on her pillow. “The steamy heat might feel good.”

  The best thing about their move to O’Malley’s was that everyone got their own apartment in the two buildings situated above the underground club and passages. Quinn’s was next to Taylor’s in the converted row home adjacent to the club’s alley entrance.

  Hitting the bathroom, she took a long shower. She’d swung the door shut but not latched and the space filled with steam, fogging up the mirror and creating a warm
cloud across the top half of the bathroom.

  Sliding the shower curtain back, Quinn grabbed her towel and stepped out as she started to dry off. She took a step toward the fogged mirror over the sink and stubbed her toe on something, cursing aloud.

  “Dammit, what the…”

  Quinn stopped as she stared down at the tile floor. The dragon egg rocked in place from when she’d kicked it by accident. How had it gotten in?

  She glanced up and saw the bathroom door was now ajar.

  Someone was inside her apartment.

  Wrapping the towel around her torso and tucking in the end to hold it in place, Quinn calculated the distance to the kitchen counter where she’d left her shoulder holster rig and her Bowie knife.

  If an intruder waited in the hallway outside, they’d likely catch up with her before she could dash out and get to her weapon. Of course, she wasn’t completely helpless. Calling up her stamina in the HUD, she saw the bar had filled up some since she’d depleted it in her earlier training sessions.

  Drawing on the small amount she’d recovered, Quinn boosted her speed and strength and yanked the door open. With a bound, expecting to be tackled from behind at any moment, she darted down the hallway for the kitchen.

  Her towel came loose and dropped to the floor as she ran. She was stark naked when she grabbed at the hilt of her Bowie and spun around to face her attacker.

  There was no one there.

  Quinn glanced down self-consciously but didn’t try to cover up. Instead, she carefully scanned the living room and hallway leading back to her bedroom and bathroom. The apartment was empty.

  She took three steps back toward the hallway and scooped up her towel, wrapping it around her while she tried to keep her eyes on the hallway back to her bedroom. That had to be where the intruder had hidden, probably to catch her unaware when she left the bathroom to get dressed.

  But why move the egg?

  “Look, I don’t know who you are, but you’re about to find out you snuck into the wrong girl’s apartment. I suggest you announce yourself and come out with your hands up.”