by Sarra Cannon
Inhaling a steadying breath, letting it out, and pulling in another, Aislinn thanked the tree for shielding her, shouldered her rucksack, and loped to the lake. Her wolf paddled in slow circles, wearing an annoyed expression.
“Come on. Let’s get moving while we can.” She smiled at him. He looked like a large drowned rat.
Rune made the shore far faster than she expected. The second he hauled his body out of the water, he stalked over to her and shook himself, spraying her with droplets. “You will never order me away from you again when there is danger.”
“I’m glad you listened,” she retorted. “Don’t you see? This was better than having to fight. Neither one of us are hurt—”
“We must be equal partners.” He growled low in the back of his throat, hackles at half-mast. “The bond means I obey you, whether or not it’s what I want. I loved Marta, but she forced her will on me. In the end, it meant her death.”
She looked at Rune and extended compassion through their bond, hoping it would soothe his obvious pain. “I didn’t know. Truly. Remember, I’m not trained as a Hunter.” She sank a tentative hand into his wet ruff. “When there is little time to discuss strategy, what would you have us do?”
“I had a plan—” he began and then snapped off the next words so hard, his teeth clacked together.
“It may well have worked.” She stroked his head and shoulders. Water squeaked beneath her fingers. “Rune, we are newly met. It’ll take time for me to discover your strengths, and for you to appreciate mine.”
“I am sorry.” He really did look contrite. “Wanting you to do my bidding was not any different than you ordering me about.” He nuzzled her side.
Except you’re bound to obey me. Wish I’d known that…
The tang of magic zinged through the air. Rune’s tail swished. Aislinn sent power in a protective arc over them both.
“Sister Hunter!” a decidedly masculine voice boomed from behind them. With barely a rustle, a tall blond man stepped out of a thick pine grove. The biggest raven she’d ever seen rode on his shoulder, its curved beak open in greeting.
Chapter 6
Aislinn took him in as he strode toward them. He moved with an understated grace that hinted at barely suppressed power. A tattered corduroy jacket hung off impossibly broad shoulders. It was open, showing a well-muscled chest covered with golden hair that glistened in the sun. The day wasn’t really all that warm. She wondered why he wasn’t wearing more. A flat, hard stomach disappeared into faded dungarees that hugged narrow hips. His hair had been hacked off to shoulder length. She supposed it helped keep the bird’s claws from tangling in it. Bright blue eyes gleamed at her. He was smiling, and it made the corners of his eyes crinkle into happy little creases. A scraggly beard covered cheeks and chin. He had very straight, white teeth nested in a square jaw.
What a gorgeous man.
“I’m Fionn.” He extended a hand. “This is Nevermore.” He glanced at the raven.
“That is not my name, and you know it.” The raven sounded pissed. She trained beady, avian eyes at Aislinn. “My true name is Bella.”
Realizing she’d been gawking, Aislinn took Fionn’s hand, gave it a firm shake, and pulled hers back. She felt color stain her cheeks and hoped it wasn’t too noticeable. “I am Aislinn, and this is Rune.”
Wolf and raven stared at one another. Something passed between them, but she wasn’t quite sure what. With a little hop, the bird fluttered from Fionn’s shoulder to land atop Rune. More of the silent energy flowed.
Aislinn furled her eyebrows. “Are they talking?”
Fionn drew back a pace and stared hard at her. Feeling him gather power, she held up both hands, palms facing outward. “Until a couple days ago, I thought I was Mage and Seeker,” she explained. “I was, ah, on my way somewhere at the Old Ones’ behest when the wolf chose me. I tried to tell him I was no Hunter, but he insisted.” She shrugged. “I know it sounds odd, but my talents are still developing.”
“You speak true, though it makes little sense.” Fionn’s words sounded grudging. He kept a respectable distance between them and eyed her, as if she were a powder keg about to blow.
A corner of her mouth quirked upward. “How do you suppose it makes me feel? Part of me still misses being a teenager with parents in our house in Salt Lake. It took a while to get used to the magic I was supposed to have. To find out I have more—” she rolled her eyes “—is deucedly unnerving.”
“You look older than that.”
“Lost my dewy-eyed youth, huh?” She snorted. “It’s because I am older now. Twenty-two.”
“Youngster. I’m thirty.”
“So you had some sort of established life before—”
“Stop.” He raised a hand and trained his gaze on her. It spoke a warning, as clearly as if words had passed his lips.
She understood. One of the unwritten rules was never talking about the past. “Sorry.” She shifted gears. “You didn’t answer my question. About Rune and Bella.”
“Bond animals have their own network. If they don’t know one another, they will know others who know someone in the other’s circle. They’re comparing notes. And complaining about their bondmates. Though I’ve never gotten Bella to actually admit that.” He laughed, and she felt the tension bleed out of him.
“Do you Hunt alone? Or are there others like, ah, us nearby?” When she stumbled over the us, Aislinn realized she still didn’t see herself as a Hunter.
An awkward silence hovered before he answered. “For now, I Hunt alone.” Moving alongside her, he draped an arm over her shoulders. “Come sit with me. We can share conversation, food—and perhaps other things as well over time.”
She slipped out from under his arm. Her flush from earlier had to be back in full force on her suddenly overheated face. “Now wait a minute,” she sputtered. “You’re being pretty presumptuous—”
He shook his head and laughed. “No mas. I thought you might like to learn about your Hunter skills. That’s all.” He resettled his arm companionably around her shoulders.
The heat from his body felt comforting. His fingertips caressed her, light as butterfly wings. She felt need in him with a sharp, desperate edge to it, sexual, yet more than that, too. Questions bubbled, but she didn’t ask any of them. All the humans who were left lived with loneliness. She thought about Travis and what he’d said about taking comfort when it was offered. Good advice, she realized, walking next to Fionn. Against her better judgment, she let herself enjoy the feel of his body where it brushed against hers.
They passed Rune and Bella. The animals were so deep in conversation that neither acknowledged their human. Fionn made a chirping noise, but the raven cawed so disapprovingly he looked cowed.
“What was that all about?” Aislinn asked, curious.
“I asked her to come with me, and she told me to piss off.”
“Hmph. Are all bond animals temperamental?”
They reached a sheltered cove a hundred yards down the lakeshore. He gestured for her to sit. “Only strong-minded animals seek the Hunter bond. So the answer to your question is probably yes. Bella’s been my only bondmate. She’s certainly volatile, and the reason—” He broke off, looking uncomfortable.
Reason for what? Aislinn thought about Travis’s civet. The cat had seemed somewhat retiring, maybe because she’d never been included in conversations with it. Lots to learn here.
Aspens grew thickly next to the shoreline, their leafless branches twining together. Sand and marsh grasses formed a rough beach. The two of them sat with their backs leaning against a sun-warmed rock. After his earlier familiarity, Fionn kept his hands to himself. She’d liked it when he touched her, but didn’t know how to ask him to do it again without him taking it wrong.
He pulled some dried meat out of a pocket and handed it to her, along with a few withered blackberries. He hadn’t said anything after his last words, but his sharp-boned face had reddened. Perhaps he wasn’t used to taking comfort e
ither. She smiled wryly at the thought. Everyone was lonely. And afraid. The person you started to care about might die soon. It was easier to keep that door shut and not care at all.
“You look about fifteen when you do that.”
“Do what?” She met his gaze. His eyes were the most incredible shade of blue, with long, dark lashes.
“Smile.”
I’d do just about anything to be fifteen again, before all this started. “Thanks.”
“Do you want to know about the Hunter magic?”
She nodded eagerly. “Yes, everything, but do you think we’re safe here? Right before you showed up, we diverted a flock of bats that had obviously been turned by the dark.”
He quirked an eyebrow. “Really? I thought they were on our side.”
Aislinn considered that and then realized she’d moved beyond expecting any species was immune to corruption. “Better not to have assumptions. False confidence means dead.”
He’d been leaning toward her and drew away, an odd look on his face. “You could freeze the tits off a boar, lady. If you think I’m wrong, there are kinder ways to tell me.”
Like a flash flood rising out of nowhere, anger ripped through her. She leapt to her feet and paced in an attempt to contain her rage. How could he be so naïve? Apparently, the last three years had been a hell of a lot better for him than they’d been for her, if he still expected kind. She recognized jealousy, and it made her feel ill. Aislinn tried to keep her mouth shut, but failed miserably.
She rounded on him and placed her hands on her hips. “Kind? Who the fuck is kind anymore? Or gentle. Or considerate.” She pounded a fist into her other hand for emphasis. “What world do you live in? There are no friends. No place is safe. And just in case you hadn’t noticed, no one is kind anymore.”
Because she couldn’t stand there, looking at the incredulity—and something else, was it hurt?—in his eyes, she took off at a dead run back toward Rune and Bella. What’s wrong with me? Have I been by myself for so long that I can’t even have a conversation with someone else if they don’t see the world just like I do?
Yeah, it’s a whole lot easier to screw ’em and move on.
Arms closed around her. She’d been so lost in herself that she hadn’t heard him come up behind her. He held her against him. She felt his heart thud against her shoulders. Heard him breathing into her tangled hair. “Aislinn, Aislinn. Don’t run from me. Please. You carry so much pain, you remind me of a cactus. All spines. What happened to the human parts?”
“They died a long time ago.” To her horror, she wanted to cry. Wanted the relief of tears. Her eyes stung, but tears refused to come.
“Ssssh.” He held her easily with one arm. The other hand smoothed her hair. “Ssssh.”
She leaned into the hand cupping her head. If the only way I can feel anymore is sex, I know how to do that. Twisting in his arms, she pressed herself against him and turned her face up for a kiss. His lips covered hers, and he tightened his arms around her. Their kiss deepened until it was the only thing in the world. He drank her in, and she smelled the musk of his arousal. Her nipples hardened into peaks where they pressed against him, and a low, frantic moan escaped her.
She insinuated a hand between them to grasp him, but he pulled back. His breath came fast, and color was high on his face. “No.” He shook his head. “Not yet. We’d just be using each other. Besides—”
All she could think about was wanting him inside her. She’d felt him straining against her, hard and ready. Glancing at the bulge tenting the front of his jeans, she saw that he still was. Squirming, she pressed her thighs together and ran her tongue over lips swollen from their kiss. It wouldn’t take much to bring her over the edge. She locked her gaze on his, too proud to beg, but willing him to want her.
With a sound midway between a moan and a sigh, he pulled her back against him and shoved a leg between hers. He closed his arms tight around her body and held her, raining kisses down her face and neck. She came almost the minute she touched him, shuddering with release.
Wanting to return the favor, she reached for him again, but he caught her hand. “I can wait,” he murmured. “I want to get to know you.” A crooked smile lit his face. “Besides, we have to figure out how to get along out of bed first.”
Is that how it’s done?
She’d been so young when the world turned to shit, her only experiences with sex had been furtive groping in the back seat with her boyfriend. Sex since then had been quick and impersonal. Needs filled without any emotional baggage attached. She found herself smiling back. “If we’re going to do that, we need to find some way to talk about who we are.”
He looked sheepish and reached a hand to rearrange himself. “So we do.”
Feeling unaccountably shy—after all, he’d just brought her to orgasm—Aislinn bit her lip and said, “Maybe for starters, neutral ground would be teaching me about being a Hunter.”
He laughed. Joy lit his features with a warm glow. She liked the way he laughed. It made tiny crease lines around his eyes, and the merry sound made it seem the world was still normal. His blue eyes glowed in the morning light. “That is how we started.”
“And look how we finished.” She giggled and then realized with a shock that she sounded like a girl again. “Do you think it’s safe for us to stay here?”
“Oh, right. The fucking bats. They’re what got you into such a temper.”
“Well?” She met his gaze and raised a questioning brow.
“We’d probably be safer at my place. It’s warded.”
“Or mine,” she countered and then thought about the logistics of getting there and decided his was probably a better idea.
“Mine’s much closer.”
“It would almost have to be,” she said.
He shot her a thousand-watt grin and took her hand. “Let’s round up the animals. It’s only about a ten-minute walk.”
— —
He took her to a cunningly constructed dugout that looked just like the neighboring hillside. She had to close her eyes and let him lead with his magic to get inside. His home was surprisingly spacious. It consisted of a cooking space, a living area, and an alcove where he’d piled pine boughs and blankets. Books sat on rough shelves, away from the dirt floor. Though a mage light obligingly followed him once they were inside, lanterns hung from hooks, too.
“Recapping, because the Old Ones knew humans would take time to become adept at flushing out the dark, they gave us animal companions. Their sharper senses, coupled with our intelligence, made for a good team. Together, we hunt the enemy, flush them out, and work with the other gifted to kill them.”
“You are not smarter than I am.” Bella squawked, flapping over to where they sat.
“It’s not polite to eavesdrop.” He smiled fondly and ruffled her feathered head.
“What’s eavesdrop? It sounds dirty.”
“It means listening to conversations you’re not a part of,” he informed her.
“We are part of all conversations that include our human.” Rune jumped into the fray and padded over to stand next to Aislinn.
“See.” Bella pointed a wing at Fionn. “I’m not the only one who thinks that way. If you weren’t such a loner—”
Fionn jumped to his feet, knocking a book off the table they’d been seated at. “Silence,” he thundered and thudded his fist down on the table.
“She was not right for you,” Bella said sweetly. “I merely encouraged her to move on. And her bond animal was simply impossible.”
Aislinn’s ears pricked. So there had been a lover, or maybe a wife, but the bird hadn’t liked her. “Do bond animals have a say in such things?” she asked, glancing from Fionn to the bird.
“Of course we do,” Rune answered. “We see these things more clearly sometimes.”
“I didn’t ask you,” she told the wolf. Aislinn shifted her attention to Fionn. “Maybe you could tell me what happened.”
“Later,” he snapp
ed, jaw tight. A small muscle twitched beneath one eye.
Aislinn understood he was still angry. Angry enough to throttle his bird. Glad I’m not the only one who gets out of control.
“So, uh, how long have you lived here?” she asked, trying for a neutral topic.
“Since the beginning.”
“Before that?”
He blew out a tense-sounding breath, sucked down air, and exhaled again.
Sensing he was too tightly wound to sit back down, she got to her feet. “How about if we go hunting? It’s about time for supper, and I’m hungry.” And it’s okay by me if we put off the “I’ll show you mine if you’ll show me yours” conversation. Makes me just as uncomfortable as it makes you.
“Good idea.” He slammed a hand over her eyes and ushered them out of his house. She felt his magic at work. Once they were outside, he chanted, resetting the wards to render his dwelling invisible. The familiar tasks seemed to relax him.
Looks like the animals aren’t the only temperamental ones. She chuckled inwardly. What a pack of oddballs they were. “How about rabbits and greens?” she suggested a shade too brightly.
“Ever eaten marmot?”
“Yeah, I like them, too.”
“We’ll get the meat,” Rune volunteered.
“Excellent.” Bella’s wings pumped air. “Two each,” she called back. Apparently feeling challenged, Rune took off at a lope and disappeared into thick timber.
“I’m surprised she left us alone,” Fionn commented dryly.
Seems like a good lead-in. Maybe if I keep quiet, he’ll tell me more. She followed him back toward the lake, plucking edible greens she recognized along the way. By the time they reached the water’s edge, her hands were already full.