Hunter's Promise

by Billi Jean

  “Where it all began,” Hunter mused then laughed. “And I thought I was evil. You all really are running the show, aren’t you? You’ve got the little immortal bands thinking they are catching on, but really, you’re just trying out your wings aren’t you? Impressive,” Hunter murmured.

  The Vampires smiled clearly buying she was a spy, and possibly that she worked for the devil. In their books, he guessed that meant she was clearly evil.

  “I had heard you were smart,” the woman commented. “And that you deliver, except once,” she added, scanning Hunter’s face. “We all make mistakes when we are young. I see you paid for yours.”

  “Yes,” Hunter said aggressively. “But with mine, I gained immortality, baby, immortality,” she said again, as if she’d let herself be taken to hell just to gain that.

  The Vampire narrowed her eyes thoughtfully, or perhaps she was scoping Hunter out to see if that were true.

  She and the other two men talked again in their language, but it sounded like both men, who he thought were older, were urging her to something. She wasn’t arguing, he thought, but after a few minutes of that, Hunter sighed, impatient as heck, and the chatter stopped.

  “My apologies. We were discussing how soon we would be returning home. If you can find Balrick and bring him here, we are due to meet our transport in two days’ time.”

  “Two days,” Hunter muttered, glancing at him. “What do you think?” she asked, talking to him for the first time since the shit had begun. “Balrick might be there. If so, we subdue him and return here.”

  “It’s doable,” he offered, assessing the three Vampires.

  “If he says it’s doable, that means it’s done,” Hunter said.

  Charisa seemed impressed. “You bring me Balrick, and I might be able to triple that bank account, if you’re still counted as a friend to the Immortal Council.”

  Hunter shrugged. “Triple, huh?” Hunter said as if considering the offer. She grinned at him. “What do you think, feel like checking that out?”

  “For triple the price? Anytime,” he said.

  All the Vampires chuckled again, one hell of a happy bunch, in his opinion.

  Hunter held out her hand so that her scar showed. “I think you can say we’re interested. I’ll see you in two days. When I do, we can talk, Charisa. But I have to warn you, it might be a higher price than that.”

  Charisa gave a little bow of her head again and they shook hands.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  “Oh my fucking god,” Hunter swore, shaking her hands out then rubbing her arms with them. “That was—”

  “Amazing.” Kincaid captured her hands in his. It was cold out, but they were far enough along the logging road that she wasn’t worried they’d be overheard. He put her mittens on her hands and grinned at her. “You were so fucking believable, but I almost pissed myself when you used your name. Woman, you have balls.”

  “No.” She pulled him closer by his parka and kissed him soundly. “I don’t.”

  “Is this quickie time?”

  She smiled but shook her head. “No way. It’s snowing, but if it were, you would so have to make it good for me as a reward for that performance.”

  “You damn well earned an Oscar.”

  “I almost peed myself,” she admitted, then danced around the trail. “But oh my god that felt good. She was a freak,” she said, pausing to see if he agreed. At his nod, she exhaled and settled down. She winced once and gripped her stomach.

  “You okay? Settle down with the bouncing around,” he grumbled.

  “I’m good, so are we really going to Balrick’s?”

  He blinked and shook his head. “Hell, of course we are. You just found out a ton of information. I’ll send Jack a quick text, but we investigate this house he had first thing.”

  She exhaled, relieved he hadn’t said they’d have to get a team here. She didn’t think a team would work with her. In fact, she knew that. Torment had pretty much cleared that up.

  “Right, without Balrick, it’s going to be hard.”

  Rick chuckled, and after a minute, she did too, thoroughly enjoying his dirty mind. “Okay, that sounded bad, but if we had him…”

  “Can’t one of your people do something to look like him?” He sounded distracted, and no wonder. He was fiddling with his gloves to use his phone. She took his gloves and he bent, surprising her with a kiss on the cheek. “Thanks.”

  He’d trusted her down there. She had worried he wouldn’t, and would say something, or do something to alert the Vampires, but he’d played right along.

  Why? Why did he trust her so much? Even she would have worried over someone who had done what she had, then acted like she just had. Was it the spying on her? She’d had no idea he’d been watching her since London. That was odd, but…not creepy. Maybe it was this feeling she had, kind of as if he was familiar, or as if she’d always worked with him.

  She was a loner. That was true. Trouble had come over once in a while and Tabithia, with Aeros—she suspected, because they worried over her. She thought she’d worked well with Vik, but she’d always been different.

  Her gifts were more like using nature than truly spelling. She could gate, and she could sense others, more now since working with Moon, but…she wasn’t what she’d think of as a true witch. Sorcha could call on storms, heal people—do anything with her magic. Same with Trouble, and so on.

  She couldn’t. She’d tried. She’d memorized every spell Trouble and Sorcha had given her, but nothing—or almost nothing—helped. So working alone had always been…better. Plus, the more alone she was, the less she could spy, and the less she could hurt someone. She’d endured enough beatings because of it, but managed to convince Koko they didn’t trust her, not yet, she’d always said. It had worked, to a point.

  “Okay, done, now, why no answer? Was my question that ridiculous?”

  “What? Oh, no,” she offered, tugging her mind off why Rick Kincaid seemed to be making a place for himself inside her heart and by her side. He had, too. She glanced at him and a rush of confusing emotions tackled her.

  “So, someone could impersonate him, right?” Rick asked.

  “I don’t know. I mean…we could ask. I think a glamour might do it, but I’m not sure if Vampires have a sense of smell that would… You know, see right through that?”

  “Ah, so they can detect people by smell? Like a Lykae?”

  “I’m pretty sure that’s in their skill set, some more than others, is my guess.”

  Rick walked up. He was on her bad side, so she couldn’t see him on her peripheral, but he often did that, she thought because he knew she was weaker on that side. He slung an arm over her shoulders, much like he’d said he’d do when they went shopping together, and sighed.

  “It’s been an eventful week, huh? But we’re getting closer,” he added. “I say check it out, see what we find, then think of what else to do.”

  “And if we find nothing?”

  He tightened his arm so she was pulled closer and kissed her forehead. “Well, we don’t often find nothing,” he reminded her. “Let’s head out. We’ll eat something there at least. I’m hungry, so I know you are.”

  “I am a little, but, uh, you want to eat something at Balrick’s? What if it’s gross?”

  “Then we go get some Thai, okay, Sparky?” He let her go and slung his pack off and pulled down a zipper and gave her a granola bar. “Here, that will keep your stomach from growling while we walk.”

  He took out a few more and opened one, handing it to her, and took back the first. Such a gentleman. Then he took half his in one bite and waved at the trail.

  She smiled and broke off some of hers and nibbled it.

  “You really are something,” she muttered.

  “Yeah?” he mumbled around another bite. “Those Vampires were a shock, huh? Maybe our theory is right-on, after all. They seemed to think they were in charge of Balrick.” He took off without a sign of worry.

  �
��What do you think?” she asked, keeping up with him only because he shortened his steps. “Do you think he was running the show—or were they?”

  He scratched his jaw, then noticed she still had his gloves and took them back, pocketing them.

  “I think,” he said around another mouthful, “there’s more going on than we know. Let’s concentrate on what we do know. For certain Balrick was on the team He was high up, so high he thought he was running the show. But he got tortured by a demon, for something, maybe simply the Agni-Moon thing. We don’t know. Then your team arrived—”

  “He was tied up still, uh, you know, in a room.”

  “Right.” He sipped his water then offered her some. She took it and waited. Rick scratched his jaw again. He did that a lot, maybe when he was thinking, like now. “So, everyone was gone then, or you think someone on the team would know.”

  “Yes.”

  “So, the place was empty except for a few phantoms, and of course the big bad wolf daddy. The fight broke out, you destroyed the computers on the only level you knew about and everyone left quick-like. Done deal. Only Balrick ended back there, and down in L.A. running a new lab where they were testing out serums. They were also working on eliminating immortals—or they had an elimination list of immortals. You were on there, too.”

  Startled, she asked, “I was?”

  “Yep, but it might have been an old list, and prior to him learning you were working with the dark side. So, that means what? Balrick was high up, just ran into something higher? Satan? And let’s not forget the Vampires working with him, under him, with his lovely Vampire bride.” He took a big bite of granola bar and chewed, squinting at the mountains as he chewed quickly.

  “So, if this Vampire”—he jerked a thumb back the way they had come—“is telling the truth, all that was a big show and they are the ones running this…and love the red-eyed monster mistakes Balrick created.”

  “Right, she seemed irritated by the changelings, proud of the bigger, uglier beasts.”

  “Right, I agree.”

  He’d summed everything up, and outlined what they still didn’t know pretty neatly, too.

  “So if we want to see if the Vampires did start this creepy changeling idea, we need Balrick to do it.”

  “That’s about it. Any ideas on solving that?”

  She kicked at the snow. “I kinda think they would sniff out an imposter.”

  They walked in silence for a few minutes, the mission and the possible answers close, but without Balrick, they were stuck. They might be able to bargain with something else, but she wasn’t as hopeful of being let on board.

  “So we go back in force and capture someone that will talk.”

  “Do you think they would? Talk?” she asked, considering that angle.

  “I’ve seen Torque’s investigation techniques. I think they’d talk.”

  “When were you—oh, never mind. I keep forgetting I was in hell.”

  “Damn,” Kincaid whispered and stopped her. She followed his gaze and exhaled. Balrick’s place lay across a ravine from them. It was a cabin-mansion, not some rustic one-room shack in the woods. And it was there clear as day, which meant he didn’t use magic to hide it.

  “They used a spell to hide the compound. Why not one out here?”

  Kincaid didn’t answer. He was scanning the area, then back the way they had come and over the low hills and mountains farther in the distance.

  “This is one valley over from where we followed those red-eyed creatures and ran into Tweedledee and Tweedledum.”

  She didn’t ask how he knew. She trusted he did, and that was that. “So, that means…”

  “The Vampire said something about being picked up, right? Two days? We followed that trail, which has to be the pickup location, and we ran into Larisa and her boy toy. The chances of her not being involved and Demetry alongside her, are growing slim, Hunter.”

  “I still don’t think Demetry is in on it, but you’re right, it’s looking worse.”

  Rick seemed to accept that and moved on. “We have location and time on our side.”

  Hunter froze, realizing what he was saying. “Right, we do. Well, two days, which she meant nights, because she’s a Vampire, right? And a night here is pretty long.”

  “We can estimate, Sparky. Don’t look so glum. This is a good thing.”

  “Maybe, but maybe that house is as big as the compound and underground it’s full of people doing who knows what.”

  “Nah, if that were the case, those Vampires would be here. No way have they not searched here for him.”

  “What? Why send us then?” she demanded, but it fit.

  “Because we’re going to track him from here,” he said. “Or they think we will. Either way, they’ve already checked this place out. It’s deserted.”

  “Your gut?” she asked, still uneasy.

  “My gut, and we’re going to be careful, even if I’m right, when we check it out.”

  She was just about to say of course, when he caught her in his arms and kissed her.

  “What was that for?” she asked when he put her down. He didn’t let her go, but kept her by a grip on her butt close to his warmth.

  “You know, sometimes it doesn’t have to be for a reason other than I wanted to and couldn’t resist a moment more,” he murmured. He pressed her lower body closer and bent to kiss her again.

  She pulled her mittens off and removed his hat so she could feel his silky hair. He picked her up and she gripped his bristled jaw as he meshed their lips together for a fast kiss. The hard wedge of his erection lodged against her pussy didn’t surprise her at all. Neither did the instant ache or the slickness preparing her for Little Rickie’s possession. She boldly rubbed against him, mimicking what she wanted—him.

  Rick seemed just as on board with that idea. He was so demanding, in fact, she gasped when he shoved her against a tree and began showing how to really rub together. The seam of her cargo pants pressed against her clit, making her insane for more. He gave it to her in a slow erotic grind of his hard-on.

  She broke the kiss and gasped.

  Rick took that as encouragement to stroke one hand down her butt, touching a place along her bottom that shot unexpected sensations through her. She hung there, holding her breath as a pending orgasm built with each of his slow drives and heavy, panting breaths against her neck. He tightened his grip on her butt. With a shocked cry, she burst into climax, tightening down on emptiness, but spinning so high she saw bursts of color.

  “Oh, baby, you are so damn beautiful,” Rick whispered, then took hold of her mouth as if he was a vampire, ready for his first snack of the day. Her toes curled in her boots.

  The sound of his passion-rough voice thrilled her body and soul. Her climax dipped enough for her to breathe properly, but still tingled all over her inner thighs and pussy. She thought her legs had even jerked from the pleasure.

  Blinking, she dragged Rick by the hair to her mouth and kissed him with all the emotions tumbling inside her head and heart. Tears broke free, but she kissed him deeper and rubbed her pelvis against his erection until his grip grew so tight it almost hurt. With a muffled groan he dropped her and, still retaining her mouth, fumbled with the zipper of his pants.

  She broke the kiss and went to her knees.

  “Hunter!”

  His erect cock was wet with pre-cum, but she didn’t take the time to admire the view. It was too intense, and she knew if she did, he’d stop her, so she slipped him inside her mouth before he could and she tried to manage his size. The head was perfect and she sucked softly, memorizing every second. She tightened her hands on the rest, or attempted to, and stroked along the velvety smooth column.

  “Sweetheart, holy shit.”

  With only the salty, hot end in her mouth, he exploded, coming in warm, musky jets with such a loud groan. She pressed more inside and swallowed as quickly as she could. It wasn’t easy, but he had a grip on her hair that begged her not to stop, even i
f he did sound as if he was dying. At the same time, she carefully stroked the thick stalk, too, so he was taken care of as well as he took care of her.

  “Hunter,” he gasped and stilled her hands, groaning heavily and filling her again with another burst of his release.

  She swallowed and sucked back along what she’d managed to fit, addicted to the hot, stiff feel of him. His cock was grooved, giving her plenty to explore with her tongue. She sucked him back in and ignored his muffled protests because his thighs trembled and his grip on her hair tightened. Each in and out she learned more of what he liked, but no matter how hard she tried, there was only so much she could fit. She settled for slipping him free and kissing every thick, glorious inch of him, especially the burn mark.

  “Damn, damn, damn,” he repeated, then shocked her, when she kissed his scrotum, by hauling her up by her upper arms and kissing her. He had to taste his release, but it didn’t seem to bother him. As he shoved her cargos down and positioned her with her bare ass to his hips, it seemed to turn him on. “Fucked. You’re so fucked, baby.”

  With that promising statement, he bent her over the low pine branch near them, and with one nudge of his big cock, found her entrance, pushing inside with a hard lunge. It was insane how good it was. She lifted her butt higher, wanting him in all the way.

  Rick took the hint, and on his retreat, gripped her waist tighter so he could thrust every inch of his cock forward. As soon as he had himself deep, he leaned over and shoved his hands up her parka and under her shirt to push her bra out of his way and cup her bare breasts.

  Oh, yes, she loved that. He must have dropped his pants because she felt his bare hips and legs. Each time their bodies hit, he squeezed her breasts in his calloused hands. If that wasn’t enough to kill her, he began to tug on her nipples with such precise pressure she gasped in shock as the pleasure hit a whole new level. Every time she did, he breathed in her ear how sexy she was and encouraged her to come with each perfect drive of his hips.