Heart Blade: Blade Hunt Chronicles Book One

by Juliana Spink Mills

  “Del?” It was Ash’s voice. “Del!”

  He ran upstairs at the same time that she pushed the air vent cover and emerged, shivering from fear and adrenaline. He raced over to her and helped her up. Without saying a word, he scooped her into a hug. His shoulders were sunshine-warm. She hugged him back, almost crying in relief.

  “Come on,” he said, his voice as hard as his father’s had been. “We have to go.”

  He led her outside and around the corner. Del looked back at Lea Street in all its abandoned glory and tugged her hand free. “Ash, stop. This is a bad idea. You dad’s out here, cruising the neighborhood looking for me. He said that Shade threatened your life. This is stupid. Let me go, I’ll find my own way.”

  “No.” He looked stubborn and determined, and Del’s heart sang a little louder. “I won’t let them push us around like that. My dad, Shade. The Court.” He was walking so fast that Del had to put on a burst of demon speed to keep up with his long legs.

  “Ash, think. Your dad will be back. Any minute now, he could turn down this street. He’s only doing this for you, you know. He doesn’t want you hurt, or killed. I don’t want you killed.”

  “Well, I don’t want you killed, either. Really? What’s the option here? We need to get you out of Hartford.”

  She skidded to a halt, forcing him to stop. “If you get me out of Hartford, will you leave me and return? Promise me?” She searched his eyes.

  Finally he relented and nodded. “Okay. Once I know you’re safe. Now come on, we have to go.”

  “Fine! You are so stubborn.”

  “I get it from my dad.” He grinned, and once again Del’s heart lurched.

  They turned another corner and he stopped in front of an old truck, rusted with age. He pulled out a set of keys and unlocked the door. “Get in.” They both climbed in, stuffing Del’s bag into the space between the seats and the rear window. Ash started the truck and pulled out into the street.

  “It belongs to the sentinels,” he explained. “I’m considering this a loan.”

  Del eyed the age-speckled dashboard dubiously. “You can drive this thing?”

  “Sure. I drive my dad’s truck. It’s not that different.” They reached a main road and swung into the flow of traffic. “Jordan takes this truck all the time. Never been caught yet. Let’s hope we’re as lucky.”

  Del frowned at his cousin’s name. “How did your dad find out I was at the shop? Was it Jordan?”

  Anger washed over Ash’s face. “Of course it was Jordan. Who else? And he stood there and laughed as my dad yelled at me…”

  Del caught a certain smugness in his voice. “Ash, what have you done?”

  “Nothing he didn’t deserve. Hey, don’t look at me like that! I just punched him. He’ll get over it. Maybe he’ll learn not to be a jerk.”

  “Huh. Then you wonder why your father is in such a hurry to get rid of me.” She ticked off on her fingers as she talked. “Deceiving your dad, punching your cousin, sneaking me out, stealing the truck.”

  “Did you want me to just leave you there and let my dad ship you off to Boston?” His grip tightened around the steering wheel, and Del noticed the knuckles on his right hand were grazed. She rested her hand on his arm briefly, and she knew she hadn’t imagined his shiver at her touch.

  “No. Of course not.” She removed her hand and set it demurely in her lap. “Ash? Thanks.”

  They drove out of the city and into smaller towns with clapboard houses and tidy lawns. Then they picked up a highway.

  “Where are we going?” she asked, breaking the quiet.

  “Not Toronto.” He glanced over at her. “Jordan knows you want to go there. I don’t know how much he’s told my dad, or how much my dad will tell the pack, but I don’t think you’re safe in Toronto. Not right now, anyway. So I’m taking you to a place where you can lay low for a few days until we figure something out.”

  He overtook a truck and pulled back into the middle lane. “One of my high school teachers has a cabin way out in the woods. He took a bunch of us there in June for a fishing trip. A kind of end-of-year thing to wrap up his biology class. He’s out there all summer, but he’ll be in town now — the teaching staff always start back a few days before the students.”

  “We’re breaking in?”

  “No, of course not. I know where he keeps the spare key.”

  “Are you certain your dad won’t think of this place?”

  Ash shrugged. “Why would he? He’s never been there. Actually, I got the idea from Jordan.”

  “Of course you did,” said Del.

  “We both saw where the spare key was hidden, and he joked that it would be a great place to sneak off to.” Ash reddened. “You know, with a girl. He won’t remember, though. It was just Jordan being Jordan.” He hesitated a moment. “Nah, I’m sure he won’t remember.”

  They left the highway eventually and took a number of back roads that grew smaller and smaller, until at last Ash turned up a bumpy gravel lane. The truck bounced along what was essentially a glorified dirt track until they reached a driveway. Now they really were driving up a dirt track, with lines of weeds separating the beaten tire trails.

  The woods were deep and wild here, and it felt like they were the only two people in the world. Del loved it. She rolled down the window and inhaled the woodsy scent of bark and leaf mold. After a couple of turns, they reached their destination: a small, rustic cabin near the banks of a river. There were no other houses in sight, no sign of anyone in the gathering dusk. They really were all alone.

  Ash parked the truck out of sight at the back of the cabin, in a wooden lean-to. He ran his hand around the eaves of the lean-to until he drew out a key with a triumphant grin. “I was afraid he’d moved it.”

  They stepped through a cozy wooden kitchen to a large open room with a table and benches in one corner and a sitting area with a fireplace on the other side. Above, she could see what looked like a sleeping loft. Double glass doors that took up most of the far wall led out to a deck with a view of the river through the trees.

  Ash dumped his bag on the floor and lit the camping lantern hanging from a hook over the table. There was a faint hiss, and a warm glow filled the cabin. “No electricity,” he explained. “Though he does have a solar-powered shower outside. And there’s a propane stove.”

  Over the woods, a thin sickle moon was rising as the last threads of daylight disappeared from the sky. Ash shifted from one foot to the other. “So, what do you think?” he asked, a flash of uncertainty rippling across his face.

  Del smiled. “I think it’s perfect.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Rose

  Rose sat on the doorstep listening to the sounds of the night. The clearing by the kitchen door was the only bare patch of ground in the woods that wrapped Dan’s cabin in a green embrace. Stars filled the sky above, more than she’d ever seen in her life. She supposed that as a city girl she should be afraid of the dense trees around them, but instead she felt only a fierce sense of homecoming. The scent of sap sang in her veins, and the black whispering woods called out, joyfully inviting her to hear them, join them.

  There was a low purr of engine as Dan’s rental car came down the track that led to the road. He turned in to the clearing with a crunch of gravel, headlights off and navigating only by the dim running lights for discretion. She got up, stretching, and went to help him unload his purchases.

  Dan clambered out, rumpled and casual in jeans and hiking boots, with a cap that said “Pete’s Tackle and Bait” pulled low over his forehead. “Rose, you’re supposed to stay inside while I’m out.” He didn’t sound angry, just frustrated and maybe a little resigned, so Rose shrugged.

  “The night was too beautiful to be indoors. I’ve been trapped inside all my life, Dan. I just wanted to be outside for a while.”

  “Trapped inside.” He snorted, amused, as he opened the back and handed her a couple of grocery bags. “Just how old were you when you first star
ted sneaking out of the abbey?”

  “Eleven. But that’s not the point. It wasn’t the same in the city. Knowing that, however far I walked, eventually I had to go back and pretend, and be one of them again.”

  “Them?”

  “The other kids living at the abbey. The other students at the abbey school. The monks. The nuns.” Humans, she thought, though she left it unsaid. She wasn’t human, she was preternatural, and now so much made sense. The nagging feeling that there had to be more to it all, that she didn’t fit in. That she wasn’t supposed to fit in.

  Dan looked troubled, so she put him at ease. “They weren’t mean to me. Everyone was perfectly civil. Well, almost everyone. Kids can be real dickheads to each other. Um, sorry. Jerks, I mean. What I mean is, it was fine, and that’s why I kept returning whenever I got out. It just wasn’t home. It wasn’t me.”

  She dumped the grocery bags inside and heard Dan slam the car shut, temporarily silencing the crickets. He walked in, deposited another load of bags on the floor, and then locked the cabin securely.

  They unpacked the groceries, made sandwiches, and carried their plates over to the table. The cabin was small, with one wall taken up by a compact kitchen, a bathroom, and storage shelving tucked behind a sliding door. The storage shelves held everything from canned goods and first aid supplies to weapons and emergency flares. Dan hadn’t let her touch the weapons.

  The rest of the cabin had two bunk beds, one on either side with the top bunk pulled up and strapped against the wall. A square table sat between them, so the bottom bunks did triple duty as living room, dining room and bedroom.

  There were no windows in the cabin, apart from a couple of long, narrow slits along the far wall. And these had bars across them, and metal shutters that could be pulled down and bolted into place. The whole thing was like a bunker, but instead of feeling safe, Rose just felt restless and stifled.

  She took a bite of her sandwich as she tried to gauge Dan’s mood. Receptive, she decided. She swallowed her mouthful. “So, when are you going to remove the rest of my wards?” She itched to know what she really was. Ever since Dan had removed part of the protective warding that shut her off from her nature, she’d felt as though her vision of the world had shifted, and now she was struggling to see. Like that time she’d dilated her pupils for an eye test; for a while, everything had been slightly out of focus and just beyond reach.

  He looked uncomfortable. “I’d rather wait for Alex to get here. He’s much stronger than I am, and if your preternatural abilities were to surge out of control in any sort of way, it’s better for him to be here.”

  She considered this for a moment, disappointed. Dan resolutely turned back to his meal, and Rose recognized all the signs of a discussion that was going nowhere. She changed the subject. “Alex. Brother Alexander, as he was introduced to me. He’s really a monk?”

  “Oh yes. Not his whole life, though. Just since the late 1800s.”

  “So he is preternatural. But what is he?”

  “He’s a vampire. Bloodborn, they call themselves.”

  “Oh.” She tried to remember the stuff she’d learned so far. “Red aura, right? Immortal. Very strong. Fast healers. Almost impossible to kill, except by decapitation or severe mutilation.”

  Dan looked pleased. “Nice work!” He glanced at the book she’d left on the table. “How are you getting on with that?”

  “Okay.” It was written by someone named Cavendish, and she’d nicknamed it Covenant for Dummies. It was actually quite interesting, but she wasn’t going to tell him that. “I have a lot to catch up with.”

  He pushed his empty plate away and leaned back. “How far did you get?”

  “I skimmed though a lot of it. I’ve been reading about the main groups of preternaturals, the ones who have Court representation. Barons and Baronesses, right? Though I don’t get why there are so few of them.”

  “There were many more at Court, initially. Pixies, goblins… a whole list of Barons. But a lot of those groups are tiny now. The goblins, for instance, have almost died out, and the ones that remain are only part goblin, like Marla. Not all preternaturals are like the sentinels.”

  She frowned, confused. “What do you mean?”

  “Sentinel blood doesn’t ‘dilute’ over time, no matter how often they intermarry with humans or even with other preternaturals. It’s an angelic gift. It runs true, parent to child.”

  “Well, that’s nice for them,” she said, sarcastic. “So preternaturals are dying out?”

  “Not all, no. But certainly some have remained stronger than others. That’s why the Court is now made up only of demons, witches, vampires, sentinels, and werewolves. Other preternatural groups hand over representation to one of the ruling Barons. For instance, the demons’ Baroness represents the trolls.”

  “Trolls. Seriously?” Rose shook her head as she reached for the book, searching for the page that listed the main traits of preternaturals. First on the list were demons. “Lilac aura. Immortal. Very fast. Almost impossible to kill. The best way is to stab them—” She stopped reading to look at Dan, mouth twisted in disgust.

  “Through their demon eye, yes. Not very pleasant.”

  “Ugh.” She turned back to the book, trying not to picture it. “Okay, this is the bit I was looking for. Witches. You said my father was a witch. A seer.” Her heart beat a little faster. If her father had been a witch, she might be a witch.

  “Green aura,” she said, her voice deadly serious now. This was her legacy. “Mortal, normal human lifespan,” she read. “No physical advantages. Spell-casting runs in families, with the offspring inheriting a talent for healing spells, energy magic, or other forms of manifestation. However, not every child inherits the ability for magic.” Her voice had hushed almost to a murmur on the last words. Was she a witch? Would she be able to do magic? Her fingers found the hole in her jeans and she tugged at it, ripping it further.

  Dan’s gaze was gentle, as if he sensed the turmoil within her heart. “Not long now, Rose. Soon we’ll see the color of your aura. Green, like your father’s. Or blue,” he said quietly.

  “Blue,” she replied, just as softly, a finger tracing the short paragraph in the book. “Werewolves. Mortal, though they have a slightly expanded lifespan. Great agility and endurance. Good sense of direction—” Her voice broke off at the last. She’d been wandering the streets of New York at night since she was eleven years old and she never, ever got lost. She could climb walls that to other people were sheer as a cliff face.

  “I’m a werewolf, aren’t I,” she whispered, eyes wide. She gripped the edge of the table so hard her fingers ached. “I don’t want to be a werewolf.”

  “We don’t know what you are. But if you’re a wolf, so be it. Your mother was a werewolf, and a fine one too. It’s not like the movies, you know? Werewolves don’t go into a mad frenzy at the full moon and run around biting people. They’re not allergic to silver, either.” He pointed at the silver studs she wore in her ears. “That’s just a convenient myth the weres themselves put about. Tell the humans that werewolves can’t abide silver, and then wear a whole load of it and no one suspects. Not that humans ever suspect, anyway. Ninety-nine percent of them are oblivious to preternaturals.”

  “The other one percent?” she asked.

  “Dead, or under Guild protection,” he replied with a grimace.

  Silence fell. Not an awkward, heavy one, but the sort of quiet when one person is leaving the other alone to think. Rose was afraid to break it, but she had a question, one that had been burning her up inside since that first night on the road with Dan. She took a deep breath, gathering courage.

  “Are you going to tell me how my parents died?” she asked.

  “Do you think you’re ready?”

  “No. But I need to know.” Her heart beat loudly in her chest. She forced herself to let go of the table edge, but she couldn’t stop her fingers from twisting together where they lay, one hand pressed hard into the other
.

  He sighed. “Very well.” There was a moment’s pause as he visibly gathered himself, and Rose saw his mouth tighten as though he was in pain.

  “Rose, your parents were two of my best friends. They left their own kind to join the Guild because they believed in what we do. They believed in protecting those who cannot protect themselves from the injustices of Covenant law. Your mother was your age when she left her family and sought us out. An idealist, through and through. Your father joined us a few years later, after one of his coven members was killed in a lawful Hunt by one of the Midwestern demon packs.”

  He smiled at some unseen memory, his grizzled face softening. “It was love at first sight. They were made for each other, and they quickly became one of our greatest assets: a two-person team who moved as one. They were fast, efficient, and got things done quickly and quietly. Ana and Jon, Jon and Ana. She was his whole world, and he the sun she revolved around.

  “After many years, Ana finally became pregnant. Weres don’t breed easily, so you were their small miracle, a symbol of their love for each other. But when you were almost due, Jon had a vision that they’d been marked for death. He moved his wife to a safe house, a compound in Arizona.”

  He stopped talking. His eyes were distant and full of pain, as though he were back in the past, seeing things he wished he’d never see again. Rose hated to hurt him like this, but she had to know.

  “Dan? What happened?”

  “Running, hiding: it didn’t change anything. They found us. I’d driven down with them to help Jon settle Ana and set up everything they needed for your arrival. She went into labor as the pack arrived. The East Coast pack, Shade Raven’s Hunt.”

  “Shade. The one who’s trying to take me?”

  “The same one.” A pause, the silence heavy with the unmistakable weight of grief. Dan had returned from whatever private hell he was visiting, and he leaned across the table, reaching for her twisting hands. “Rose, they killed your father out in the courtyard. Your mother pressed you into my arms. ‘Go,’ she told me. ‘Run, take her far away from here.’ And then she transformed fully and threw herself at the demons who had killed her husband. She held them off on her own until I escaped with you. And by the time I could return with backup, she was gone. Dead. Both of them.”