My breath caught in my throat, and I closed my eyes again, giving in to the sensation.
Her voice was soft and seductive. “If I put you in my mouth, you think you’ll be able to last long enough to get inside me?”
That was when I felt the barrel of the gun pressing into my skin.
I opened my eyes, and Amy had planted it against my stomach.
My stupid erection was behind it, pushing my boxers out from the gap where she’d unzipped my jeans.
She dragged the gun up my torso. It was a tiny revolver, something that would be easy to hide, even in her skimpy outfit.
“On second thought,” she said, “Maybe you can put me in your mouth.” She pushed the barrel of the gun against my bottom lip.
My heart thudded in my chest. This was pretty much the worst, most screwed-up moment of my life.
Why was I still hard? Should my dick have decided to deflate now that she was trying to kill me?
“You work for Imri?” I said, my voice hoarse. It was hard to talk around the gun against my lips.
“Who’s Imri?” she said. She leaned close. “I sensed you when you walked in. I dabble in a little bit of witchcraft. Started out as a silly hobby, but I’ve gotten more and more into it over the years. And you… you’re bad news. Everyone in the covens has heard about you. You’re a power sucker. You’re prophesied to take all the magic away, but I’m not going to let you do that.”
So, she was a free agent.
If she wasn’t lying, which she could be.
But it made sense. This kind of thing wasn’t Imri’s style. He was never this subtle. Imri relied on numbers. Whenever he figured out where we were hiding, he sent a lot of guys after us, guns blazing. So, I believed that this had all been her idea, that she was simply trying to rid the world of me and my nasty magic-absorbing abilities.
She eased the hammer back on the revolver, cocking it. “Sorry about this, Hunter. You really did seem sweet.”
I punched her in the stomach.
She stumbled backwards, and the gun went off.
I ducked sideways, my cheek hitting the plush couch.
Before she could recover, I dove for her.
We went down on the ground, me on top, her small body trapped underneath mine.
She struggled, but I was stronger.
I pinned her wrists above her head, squeezing until she let go of the gun.
“You fucker,” she spat at me.
I picked up the revolver. “Your mouth after all,” I growled. And then I jammed the barrel between her lips and pulled the trigger.
I scrambled to my feet, still covering her with the gun.
She lay there, sprawled on the ground, her eyes glaring lifelessly at the mirrored ceiling. There was a pool of blood gathering behind her head.
The door burst open.
I raised the gun, tensing myself to fire again.
But it was Chance. He took in the scene. “Jesus, Hunter.”
“She was trying to kill me,” I said. “I didn’t have a choice.”
He sighed. “Fuck.”
I rolled my head on my shoulders, lowering the gun. “Do me a favor, man. Don’t try to get me laid.”
“Sorry.” He eyed her. Then he looked up at me and coughed. “Uh, dude. Your zipper.”
Shit.
* * *
Chance rested on the shovel. “You know I can never go back to that club ever again.”
We were out in the woods somewhere. Amy’s body was buried under layers and layers of dirt, which the two of us had shoveled out of the ground and then on top of her.
I patted the mound of soil with the back of my own shovel. “It’s sleazy to be sleeping with strippers, anyway.”
He snorted. “Maybe.” He lifted his shovel and did his own patting. “I guess I think of it like an itch that needs to be scratched, right? You gotta take care of it somehow.”
“No,” I said.
“Look, you can’t let one bad experience with a prostitute trying to kill you sour you on the entire process.”
I laughed. “You’re kidding, right?”
He shrugged. “I think the grave’s about as good as it’s going to get.”
I hoisted the shovel over my shoulder. “So now we take her car back to the parking lot outside the club?”
“Nah, we’re not going back there.” He started walking through the woods. “We’ll ditch it somewhere else.”
I went after him. “I’m serious, Chance, I don’t want that. I don’t want to have sex with a stranger. I don’t want to get that close to anyone I’m not sure is safe.”
“All right, all right,” he said. “You got a point.”
“So you won’t ever do that again?”
“What about the girl you brought home from school?”
“I wasn’t going to… you know, screw her or something. She’s just a girl I met. She’s not…” I sighed. “I don’t want to talk about her.” Somehow, I didn’t like associating Paige with this part of my life—the killing people and getting rid of their bodies part.
Chance stopped walking. He set down his shovel. “Hunter, none of this is fair to you.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I mean, I get pissed off about how it’s not fair to me sometimes. But it’s a lot less fair to you. I guess I didn’t fully realized what it’s like for random people to be wanting to kill you all the time.”
I shrugged. “Whatever. I’m used to it.”
“You sure you’re not traumatized?”
“What? Because the first woman who ever touched my dick tried to blow my head off? I’ll live.”
He laughed a little, but he was shaking his head. “I’m serious, man. I didn’t mean to give you a complex.”
I started walking again. “I don’t have a complex.”
He caught up with me. “So, she was working alone, right?”
“I think so,” I said. “I mean, if she hadn’t been, then wouldn’t she have had back-up of some kind?”
“Yeah, we haven’t seen anyone else,” said Chance. “You know, as long as the threat’s taken care of, maybe we don’t have to tell Dad and Zaza about this, huh?”
I raised my eyebrows. “You just don’t want to tell them you took me a to a strip club.”
“Hell, no,” he said. “Zaza would flip her lid. You are her precious baby. She wouldn’t want you corrupted like that.”
I rolled my eyes. “Man, how come you don’t call her mom anymore?”
“She’s not my mom.”
“Yeah, I know, and Jason’s not my dad, but he’s the closest thing I’ve got, so…”
“You know, you don’t remember your dad,” said Chance. “I remember my mom. So… it’s just, it’s different.”
I was quiet for a minute. Our feet made crunching noises as we walked through the woods. “They never talk about my dad.” I paused. “Or your mom either.”
“They don’t spend a lot of time talking about anyone who’s dead,” said Chance. “I think it’s easier for them. It’s like once people are gone, they just move on. Right before you were born, a lot of people died.”
That made me feel sort of guilty. It was a constant in my life. People were always sacrificing so that I could be safe. My dad—my real dad—had gotten himself killed so that my mom could get away. And Chance couldn’t have a normal life because if he left us, he’d be in danger. Sometimes, it got to me. I didn’t want the responsibility.
“Right,” I said. “Before Nancy put that cloaking spell on my power or whatever.” I stopped walking, remembering something.
Chance looked back at me. “What?”
“Something Amy said. She said that she sensed me. Should she be able to do that?”
“I don’t know,” said Chance.
I furrowed my brow, feeling a little bit of fear tickle the back of my neck. Wasn’t the cloaking spell working anymore?
“Amy works there, though,” said Chance. “I mean, she did before y
ou killed her. I saw her there a bunch of times. It’s not like she tracked you across the country or something.”
“No, she said she sensed me when I walked in,” I said. “So, I guess she didn’t know about me until I came into the club.”
“Shit,” said Chance. “We are going to have to tell the parents, aren’t we?”
I started to walk again. “No, you know what? Let’s not. I don’t feel like moving again.”
He chuckled. “You sure? What if something bad’s going on with you?”
“Something bad is always going on with me.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
~hunter~
I was having another one of the dreams. This time, the GNR song was “November Rain.”
In my dream, I was standing outside at night. It was raining, like it had been in the last dream, but there wasn’t any thunder and lightning this time. This time, it was a steady, pounding rain, pelting my skin like icy needles. I was out in the woods somewhere. There was a gazebo-looking thing, shining bright and white in the darkness.
I took off at a run for it. It was the only shelter from the rain.
Inside the gazebo, everything was lit up.
Paige was inside.
She was wearing a white dress, like last time.
But it wasn’t the same white dress.
This dress was a lot different.
It still had a long flowing train, but it was lacking a lot fabric in the upper area.
My gaze flitted over her face and settled on her cleavage.
She giggled. “Oh my god, you are totally checking me out.”
I looked up at her. “Uh…”
“Were you checking me out when you met me at school? Because I couldn’t tell.”
I sputtered. How was it that I was tongue-tied around her even when I was dreaming?
She walked away from me, over to the edge of the gazebo and peered out into the night. “Have you dreamed about this place before?”
“No,” I said. “When I dreamed about you before, we weren’t here.”
“I have.” She looked slyly over her shoulder. “In my dream, we weren’t wearing clothes.”
I cleared my throat and turned away from her. What the fuck was up with that? I walked over to the other side of the gazebo.
It was quiet except for the fact that Slash’s guitar solo was wailing in the background.
“I’m not trying to… have sex with you,” I said. “Why does everybody keep acting like I’m doing that?”
“Everybody?” Her voice floated over to me.
So, it was only Chance, but whatever.
“It was a dream, Hunter. I can’t control what I dream about.”
I turned around.
She was facing me.
“Listen, Paige, you can’t really… be around me, you know? It’s not safe.”
She raised her eyebrows. “I thought you weren’t even trying to hook up with me.”
“It’s not me,” I said. “I’m not the thing that’s not safe.”
“So, what is?”
I shook my head. “It’s hard to explain.”
Something moved outside of the gazebo.
She turned, pointing. “What is that?”
I moved closer to her to look.
Outside, in the rain, there was a person rushing by us. A knife was in his hand. He ran, screaming at the top of his lungs.
Then I realized that there were others like the man. A whole mass of people, all brandishing weapons and running.
Paige backed away from the railing.
She collided with me. “Oh,” she said. “I’m sorry.”
And then she was in my arms, like she belonged there, like she fit there.
I skimmed my fingers over her waist, over the white fabric of her dress.
She looked up at me slowly, her lips slightly parted.
It seemed as natural as breathing to bend my lips to hers.
I was going to kiss her.
I was inches away—
But I woke up, sweaty in my bed, the voice of Axl Rose thrumming in my head, You’re not the only one.
* * *
~azazel~
I looked Chance up and down. He was yawning, and he was actually wearing pajamas. “Good morning,” I said.
“Morning,” he said.
“You went to sleep before dawn?”
He glowered at me. “You don’t have to be sarcastic about it. What’s for breakfast?”
“Cereal.” I pointed to the boxes on the counter. “Actually, where’s your brother? I need to talk to both of you.”
“Cereal?” He arched an eyebrow. “This is very unlike you, Zaza.”
I ignored him, went back the hall, and banged on Hunter’s door. “Hunter! You awake?”
No answer. He’d turned off his alarm again. Or slept through it. Whatever.
I went in to wake him up.
It took another ten minutes to get everyone in the kitchen, but when I did, we were all sitting together at the kitchen table, which hadn’t happened in a while. All of us at once? For breakfast? It was a small miracle.
I couldn’t help but drink in the moment while it was happening. I loved my boys. I loved Jason. I loved my family. There was something really wonderful about all being together in one place for a meal.
“Your dad and I want to talk to you guys,” I said.
“And this is different than usual how?” said Hunter.
“What did I do?” said Chance.
I sighed.
Jason poured milk over his cereal. “We’ve got a line on Imri. That news story you pointed out to us, Chance, it’s a big deal. Your mom and I think that we might be able to launch an infiltration mission, and, if we play our cards right, we’ll take Imri down for good.”
Hunter set down his spoon. “Wait, is that even possible?”
I glanced at Jason. “We think it might be. We’ve never tried it before, because our priority has always been you two.”
“But you two are a lot more grown up than we might give you credit,” said Jason.
“You think?” said Chance.
“Anyway,” I said. “It means that you two would be alone.”
Jason gave Chance a hard look. “You’d need to look out for him. You can’t go running off all night while we’re gone.”
Chance’s eyes were big. “You guys are leaving? Leaving us by ourselves?”
“Not for that long,” I said.
“You’ve never done that,” said Chance. He looked at Hunter. “They’ve never done that.”
“This shouldn’t take longer than a week, tops,” said Jason. “And we’d be in communication by phone, of course, so if anything went wrong…”
“We’d be back in a heartbeat,” I finished.
Hunter and Chance were grinning at each other in a way I didn’t like.
“What are you two so happy about?” I asked.
They both went back to their cereal.
“Nothing,” said Hunter, shoveling it into his mouth.
Jason chuckled softly. “Yeah, okay, well, don’t have a party, right?”
* * *
“Zaza?”
I was in my room, packing. I looked up to see Chance in the doorway. Hunter was already off at school. “What’s up?”
He stepped into the room. “Uh, I feel like I should tell you something.”
“What?”
He scratched the back of his neck. “Well, Hunter would kill me if he knew I told you, but, if you guys are going away, well, maybe you should know. It’s probably nothing, and I told him to let it go, but after Dad made that crack about parties, well, it got me thinking, and, I don’t know. I think I should tell you.”
“Tell me what?” He had me worried now.
“Hunter brought a girl home.”
I didn’t say anything for a minute, trying to let that sink in. “A girl?”
“Yeah, from school. She was little and blond and pretty. I tried to talk to him and tell
him it was a bad idea. Not only because having friends is just one more way to be vulnerable, but because of her. She could get hurt. But I didn’t really get the impression that he was really listening to me.”
“A girl?” I was like a broken record. (I mean, I thought I was. I’d never actually heard a broken record.) This wasn’t something I had ever prepared myself for. I suppose I should have. Hunter was the same age as I’d been when I met Jason—a little older, in fact. It was totally natural for him to be interested in girls, but, thus far, he’d never…
“Her name’s Paige,” said Chance.
I looked down at my half-packed bag. I looked back at Chance. “I’ll talk to him.”
He nodded. “Okay.” He turned and started out of the room.
“Chance?”
He turned, raising his eyebrows.
“How come you never brought a girl home?”
“Me?” He pointed at himself, surprised.
I nodded.
“I, um, never saw a girl that I wanted to drag into my life. The last thing I think when I see a pretty girl is that I’d like to see her body all bloody and ruined and dead.”
“Yeah,” I said. “Well, I’m glad about that. One thing you didn’t inherit from your father.”
He knitted his brows together. “What?”
“Nothing,” I said. “Look, if we manage this thing with Imri, it might mean that things could change. Imri and his people are the biggest threat against Hunter, and if they were out of the way, we’d be safer. You could… move out if you wanted.”
He cocked his head. “You want rid of me?”
“No,” I said. “I never want rid of you, you know that. I only thought that maybe it’s… difficult for you living like this. Like a kid. You’re not a kid anymore.”
He laughed. “Zaza, I haven’t been a kid since I was seven years old.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
~hunter~
Paige was slurping on a thick malted milkshake in the diner.
I had ordered some fries, but I wasn’t really eating them. I was mostly watching Paige. She made me nervous. My heart pounded. I got vaguely sweaty. I didn’t like any of it.
“I didn’t think you were going to come,” she said. “You were late.”
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