The Hunter

by Jessica Gunn

  “Just one more thing,” Rachel said as Amanda approached, pot of coffee in hand.

  “Yeah?” I asked.

  She looked to me, determination shining in her eyes. “Ask that Fire Circle guy if I can train and hunt demons with you. For Riley.”

  “What about your job?” I asked her. She’d started a photo-journalism position right after college.

  Rachel shrugged. “With what they’re paying me, I’m sure this Fire Circle can cough up more than that. Besides, I think finding Riley is my job now, too.”

  Chapter 16

  Three months later…

  I stood amongst three rows of five recruits, Hunters brought into the Fire Circle for training with me five months ago. Incense and smoke filled the air, wafting from golden containers strewn throughout the great hall on the first floor of Fire Circle Headquarters. The wooden banisters had been draped with fire-red banners that flew with the Fire Circle’s symbol on them in gold.

  A dais stood at the front of the hall adorned with two tables of knives. Jaffrin stood there at the front with his second-in-command, an older man beyond Jaffrin’s years, at his side. Behind the rows of Hunters waiting to be initiated into the Fire Circle stood every other Hunter who could attend. Every available member of the Fire Circle. Including Rachel, who would graduate initiation in two months herself.

  Jaffrin took center stage and raised his hands, quieting the room’s chatter. “Today we welcome fifteen new Hunters into the Fire Circle. They take the sacred oath to protect not only our city and our Circle, but all of humanity from the Empire of Darkness.”

  A small but serious applause filled the room, then Jaffrin began calling us up one at a time. My heart raced after each of us knelt before him and spoke the oath before being given our own Fire Circle knife, the symbol of a Hunter.

  “Ben Hallen,” Jaffrin said.

  I walked forward on sure feet despite the sweat trickling down the back of my neck and my heart pounding in my ears. This was it. This was everything I’d worked since Sandra had kicked me out.

  I knelt before Jaffrin and said, “I pledge to fight the Darkness, keeping true the tenets of the Hunter Circles: protect the innocent, fight with bravery, and never leave a Hunter or innocent to the clutches of Darkness. I pledge my life before my fear and my blood before retreat. My body and my life belong to the Fire Circle.”

  Jaffrin’s mouth twisted into a small, proud smile as he reached to the table and retrieved one of the knives. He gestured for me to stand and I did. “You are now a Hunter of the Fire Circle. Be true, Ben Hallen.”

  He handed me the knife, a steel blade with a red marble handle. A fire had been carved on it in gold, imbued with magik to make it look as though the fire were dancing in the light.

  I returned to my spot in the lines and waited for the others to give their oaths and receive their knives. When the ritual was complete, Jaffrin returned to the center of the dais and addressed the hall.

  “The initiation is now complete. Please welcome your new brethren,” he said.

  The room erupted into cheers and applause. Jaffrin let it carry on for a few moments before he raised his hands once more.

  “These Hunters will be added to teams at the start of next week,” he said, glancing over each of us with the expression of a proud parent on graduation day. “All with the exception of two.”

  Wait, what?

  I looked over at my fellow initiates, and everyone’s expression said no one had any idea what he was talking about. Had we all gone through the oath rites for nothing?

  “Two of those standing before you will be awarded their own teams,” Jaffrin continued. “Initiates who most express initiative and cunning, power and the determination to see Darkness extinguished, are traditionally awarded the position of team leader and are given the ability to pick their own team. Today, that reward goes to Cassie Demont and Ben Hallen.”

  My stomach dropped as I met eyes with Cassie, one of the other initiates. She shrugged, grinning, and together we were brought in front of the hall.

  My own team. He’d given me my own team. When I’d explained to Jaffrin about how I’d gone off on my own, he’d been furious and put me almost back to the beginning of my training period. But I’d worked hard in that time, and the past three months had been dedicated to proving my new singular focus in life: fighting demons to find Riley.

  The determination must have paid off. Still, I didn’t feel like I’d deserved it. Not after all the lies and shadows I’d wandered through to get here.

  I looked up at Jaffrin, questioning his decision.

  He leaned down toward my ear as people continued cheering and said, “You deserve this, Ben. I don’t make this decision lightly. Truth is, I knew you’d be a leader the moment I met you. You will find your son, and you will deal painful blows to Darkness’s empire while you do. I believe in you.”

  Calm washed over me with his words. In some ways, I guess I’d always been a leader. A quarterback. The oldest of my cousins. Father to my son. Back then, everyone believed in me and because of that, I believed in myself.

  But today, I was just a Hunter. Today, only Rachel and Jaffrin believed in me anymore. I didn’t even have faith in my own abilities. But in three months, I’d progressed so far, I had to believe that Jaffrin was right.

  And so I would.

  I would become the leader of my team, and together we’d fight Darkness. We’d find Lady Azar and we’d rescue my son.

  Today, that mission started with me becoming a Fire Circle Hunter.

  Thank you for reading!

  Ben’s search for Riley continues in The Hunted, Book One of my Hunter Circles Series, out now!

  To keep up to date on Ben’s story, join my newsletter. You’ll receive all the news and cover reveals first, as well as exclusive bonus content.

  The Hunted: Hunter Circles Series Book One

  Bound by duty. Marked by fate.

  I’m Krystin Blackwood, and I’ve only ever been good at one thing: killing demons of Darkness.

  But at twenty-four, I’m about to face my toughest challenge yet: shifting from working alone to joining a team of three other Hunters. Newbie Hunters. They don’t know their magik, they barely know their place in the world, and when they find out the secrets I’ve been carrying, they’ll definitely decide it’s safer if they don’t know me.

  But unfortunately for them—and me—Darkness has other plans. Lady Azar, Darkness’s heir, stole my new team leader’s son two years ago. Now, she and her lackeys are rallying to exchange Ben’s son for me because of the power I wield. I’m one-half of a prophecy to save an ancient city the Powers of Good lost centuries ago. And if I fail or die before that happens, the destruction of that city will be felt across all planes of existence.

  If we can’t find Ben’s son before All Hallows’ Eve and somehow save him without putting my life at risk, that existential explosion will absolutely happen. But it’ll be nothing compared to the destruction wrought if Lady Azar changes Ben’s son into a demon… and her minion.

  Because the only thing more dangerous than me with a blade is a father’s wrath.

  Start the Hunter Circles Series with Book One: The Hunted today!

  A Sneak Peek of The Hunted, Book One of the Hunter Circles Series

  The Hunted - Chapter One

  KRYSTIN

  I ran through South Boston as the sounds and grunts of a demon fight split the chilly night air. I couldn’t tell from here how many demons or Hunters were involved, only that, given the location in Jaffrin’s text, it was probably my future demon-hunting team. I rounded the corner of an alleyway, using the team’s loud shouts and grunts to guide me. They were exactly where Jaffrin, Leader of the Fire Circle and my boss, said they’d be. And if they kept this up, they’d alert the entire neighborhood to the monsters that thrive in the night. Damn newbies.

  Heat flooded the air around me as a crackling whispered millimeters from my ear. I froze. A deafening snap rippled throu
gh me to the bone. I backpedaled, narrowly missing the strike of lightning cracking in front of me, straight out of the alleyway and onto the main road.

  “Son of a bitch,” I hissed.

  Any closer and I’d be dead. Any other time of night and dozens of people might have been walking by, knowing nothing about what dangers lay literally around the corner. Demons—humans with tainted, dark magik that had twisted their bodies and minds—were real, and most people didn’t know. And no one here would have had any idea—not until the very moment lightning struck. Demons from Darkness’s Empire. All those normal people thought that the world they lived in was free of preternatural creatures. Boy, would they be surprised.

  What had I agreed to? Damn you, Jaffrin. He’d held off on giving me the freedom of being on a team for years in favor of living under his and my mother’s control. And when he’d finally let me off the hook, he’d given me new Hunters?

  I hurried around the corner on sure feet, pushing off the old, cobbled streets of South Boston and into a cornered-off alleyway. There, between townhomes and apartment buildings, I found three Fire Circle Hunters fighting one demon. Just the one.

  Are you freaking kidding me?

  If I’d had the time, I would have rolled my eyes. But my feet had already moved—for once, faster than my mouth. Three giant strides and one leap had me flying through the air, wrapping my arm around the demon’s neck. I piggybacked him, grabbing on to his jacket, and tugged backward with all the strength I had.

  “Hey, there,” I said as we tumbled to the ground, a mess of flailing limbs, my vice grip on his neck. I wouldn’t let go. Not now, not ever. The demon looked like a normal guy: human, with light hair, fair skin, and jacked-up muscles. But the similarities ended there. His deep burgundy eyes and a shadowy aura gave him away.

  I knew better. The stronger the aura, the stronger the demon. And this guy’s aura surged like a storm cloud right before a tornado—dark, tinged green, and swirling with dark lightning crackling around his body in tendrils.

  Okay. So maybe one teensy demon did pose somewhat of a threat to these newbies. They probably didn’t even know what they’d walked in on—not everyone could see auras. Even still, they’d enabled me to find them and the fight from blocks away.

  My gaze flitted up to the second and third floors of the surrounding brick townhomes and small apartment buildings. Not a single light shone behind curtains but that didn’t assure me even in the slightest that we hadn’t been discovered.

  Still, it appeared we’d gotten lucky. Maybe.

  That was when my gaze found the body lying against the nearby dumpster, half-slumped with a mouth full of blood that dripped down her chin. A recent kill. A mutilated one. My heart froze as I followed tears in the flesh of her naked torso up across her neck to her mouth where… Oh, god. Had her tongue been ripped out? It was like she’d been flayed open, starting with her mouth. The demons I knew didn’t tend to get quite so ritualistic about their killings.

  “Hey, watch out!” one of the Hunters shouted.

  I glanced their way, barely having time to register the comment before the demon seized my moment of distraction to try wrestling free from my hold. I slammed him into the pavement with the force of my telekinesis until his knees ground down to the bone. He screamed and dug his dirt-encrusted fingernails into my arm. I yanked down on his neck, hoping for a quick break, but the demon was stronger than me.

  “I didn’t do it,” the demon said as he writhed. “Th-That wasn’t me!” Still, he flailed, fighting me regardless of whatever that confession meant.

  Despite the leg I tried to get around his middle, the demon managed to throw me over his shoulder. My lower back and ass hit the pavement first, hard enough to knock the wind out of me. I blinked, trying to clear the dancing black spots on the edges of my vision, and groaned. Pain thrummed up my spine as my gaze met the demon’s.

  “Shit,” another Hunter hissed. The sound of water rushing filtered across the space.

  A small wave roared through the air from the Hunter’s hand and doused the demon’s head, turning into a helmet of drowning. The demon’s shoulders shook in what I assumed was panic, but he lifted his fingers and moved them in small circles, removing the water from around his head. And laughed.

  Oh, fantastic. A strong demon with water-elemental magik to boot. It was almost like cheating that all demons had some sort of magik. But then I remembered the hell they went through to become demons in the first place, and a part of me, an extremely miniscule part, almost felt bad for them.

  The demon grinned, toothy and evil, as saliva dripped from the corner of his dark mouth, and threw his head back in a cackle. “How many Hunters are needed to take down little old me?” His words sing-sung through the air on the wisps of a faintly European accent. It was as if soundtrack music was the only thing missing from this wannabe musical tragedy of a scene.

  A thick rope made up of a glowing white substance whipped out and pulled around the demon’s neck and middle. A man stormed out of the darkness beyond the fight, a fistful of lightning in his hand, and he drove it into the demon. His skin sizzled and bubbled on contact, and the demon fell back, writhing—but not before grabbing a hidden knife and throwing it at the Hunter.

  The man ducked out of the way, leaving me as the only target. I snatched the knife out of the air, flipped the blade, and drove it into the demon’s heart. The small portion of visible skin at the top of the demon’s shirt turned an ashen shade of grey and dried out before he fell to the ground. The three other Hunters backed up, giving me space for what came next.

  I straightened, backing away from the demon’s body as I dug around my back pocket for my box of matches. Cedo. The magik in the cedo matches transmuted the residual magik from the demon and burned the body. It could also obviously be used on me, a witch and a Hunter, or any other being with magik. Darkness’s Empire just happened to enjoy… less savory methods of body disposal.

  After striking the match against my jeans, I threw it onto the body and prayed for a quick burn. And that no eyes still watched us from any of the apartments on either side of the alleyway. Not like there was any other choice. Dragging a dead body out of here wouldn’t be any less conspicuous, and I wasn’t sure what we’d do about the victim of the demon’s attack.

  Purple flames leapt up the demon’s body on contact, burning the body completely within thirty seconds. He’d been sweating, so the magik in his system poured from him in heaps. This demon had been strong, stronger than the normal breed around here, which meant I hadn’t exactly given a fair appraisal of my soon-to-be team.

  I glanced them over. Each member of my new team was also around their mid-twenties. The woman looked a bit younger and had blonde hair, blue eyes, and the feel of powerful magik rippling off her. An elemental magik user. Her elemental magik crossed the distance between us and caressed my skin, seeking out its magikal other half to my ether-based powers. Two parts of the same original whole, they were. Eons ago. Before the Split, and before the Empire of Darkness had risen from it.

  The tallest of the two men, another blond with the same facial features as the woman—maybe they were siblings—glared at me with such frostbite cold that my skin actually chilled over. Like something super-hot being chilled immediately, then crumbling.

  No. Not hot. A lightning strike.

  My gaze flitted down to the lightning gathering in his hand. “You might want to cool that before we give these residents even more of a show.”

  The man’s jaw worked so hard, the grinding reached my ears.

  “Who are you?” the third Hunter, another guy, asked. His long, black hair swept into his eyes with a gust of wind that passed down the alley. “How’d you take him down alone? And what’s up with that body?” He shuddered. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  “Alone?” The first man spun fast on his teammate. “Are you serious? We were right here.” Who the hell does she think she is?

  Whoa. I clamped down on
my telepathy. It’d been quiet for years, but no one had ever been loud enough to break through my control like that. This guy was capital-P pissed.

  Oops.

  “Yeah,” said the woman. “And failing.” She mumbled something under her breath that sounded a whole lot like, “Again.”

  They weren’t horrible at demon-fighting. Just very clearly new. Which, for their age, was a bit weird. Then again, everyone had started late compared to me. My mother had me training at age thirteen, eleven years ago. Eleven years of fighting demons and the size of the dent I’d made in their ranks was pathetic. But every autumn they added more. Every solstice. They didn’t call it the Empire of Darkness for giggles.

  I turned to the body lying against the nearest dumpster. The body wouldn’t dispose of itself, and I had little idea what to do about it. So I threw a cedo match onto her body, too. Instead of burning up magik she didn’t have, the flames danced around and began to eat away at her flesh and remaining clothes.

  Good enough. But then I paused for a moment, longer than I should have. Did she have a family? Would they miss her? Or was it better she stayed missing, so her family didn’t have to face the horrible manner of her death?

  “You’re our fourth, aren’t you?” Guy Number Two said, interrupting my thoughts. “I’m Nate.” He stepped forward and extended a hand.

  Huh. Awfully trusting. I could have been a demon wearing contacts to disguise my burgundy eyes. I might have stolen this Fire Circle knife I carried. I’d gone undercover enough as a demon to know how easy faking it was.

  I shook his hand anyway, giving him the benefit of the doubt. Just this once. “I’m Krystin, and yes, I am. Jaffrin said I could find you around here. Sorry it took me a bit to arrive.”