Hunter's Promise

by Billi Jean

  “Yes, most I would say six, but to be safe, let’s say an hour.”

  “Good girl, so, can you gate once more?” he asked, stroking up and down her small arms. She was cold. They’d taken her jacket off.

  “Yes,” she agreed reluctantly. “But to where?”

  “We’re taking him to the Immortal Council, baby, the Immortal Council.”

  She pulled away and scowled at him—not the reaction he wanted—then shook her head.

  “No way. I am not going near that place.”

  Not exactly a shocker, but he wasn’t taking no for an answer. Not when he saw so many things falling into place.

  He pulled out his stubborn. No one had ever beaten him when he did. Hunter wasn’t about to. Well, remembering the shopping trip, she had, but if they did this right, not only would he get a chance at finding his men and the cure, he’d have Hunter, too.

  Something changed in Rick’s posture. His expression hardened, and when it did, she wanted to back away from the determination she saw there.

  Doesn’t he know that taking Balrick in would ruin it all?

  She’d never be able to use Balrick to find out if what that Vampire had said was true or not. Never be able to end all this changeling horror if she couldn’t. It wasn’t a chance she wanted to blow. But neither, she could tell, was she going to be able to grab it.

  “We go. That’s the end of the discussion.”

  “I’ll get my things,” she offered, stopping instantly when he touched her arm.

  “Hunter, don’t worry. I’ll explain it all to them. We’ll make this work. Trust me,” he said.

  But she did trust him. He was trying to protect her, but he was still not able to understand that no one trusted her. No one. If they brought Balrick in, everyone would wonder how she—a one-time groupie for Satan—had stumbled upon a dead man. In hell, they’d imagine. Then they’d doubt everything they laid out about the Vampires and the three who were waiting for her.

  Rick Kincaid knew more in some ways than anyone else would ever know about her, but that clouded his judgment. She hoped it meant he cared about her, as in, maybe he loved her like she loved him. But right now, he refused to understand that, people would never see her as anything other than someone they couldn’t trust just because he said so.

  “This is too big now, Sparky. It has to be this way.”

  She hardened her resolve, but refused to lie to him. “Just gotta get my things, and maybe wash this,” she said, gesturing to her head.

  “I can help with that—”

  “I got it. It’s not painful, and I need you to tie Balrick up, okay?” she said, already walking down the hall. A plan formed, and as much as she didn’t like it, she knew it was the right thing, really the only thing she could do. She wasn’t chancing Rick’s life, not again. If he died… She shut that thought off and sucked back the tears she felt rising to the top. For him, she had to do this. For him. His men and him.

  He always said his gut led him. She understood that, because only once had she not listened to her gut—when she signed a deal with a man she didn’t know to save a person she should have known had never felt anything but hatred for her.

  Right now her gut said to keep Rick safe, which meant she had to do the rest of this on her own. His men were out there. Something was telling her they were, and if that was so, well, whatever she had to endure to get them back on two legs, so be it.

  “You ready?” he called. “I’ve got the computer and Balrick is set-up.”

  “Yep, just finishing up,” she said, gathering her strength. When she walked in the kitchen, he looked over and her heart sank. He was so handsome. How had he gone from annoying hot guy, to someone she wanted to hug every time she saw him? She didn’t know, but she didn’t resist the urge now, and even though she sensed she surprised him, she hugged him tightly around his lean waist. “I want this to work.”

  “It will,” he murmured, caressing her back so gently it made her throat hurt. “Your head okay?”

  She met his eyes. She’d penned him a note, for when he woke, but she knew he might not get it right off. His blue eyes were so gorgeous. They were like chips of sky.

  “I am glad you were with me on this, that I got a chance to know you,” she added, in a rush. “I hope this all works out and your men are free. Maybe after, we can see about that walk on the beach, and we can do that thing you do so well.”

  But not today or anytime soon.

  Before he could open his mouth, she shot him with a current of electricity just hard enough to knock him out. He groaned and she held him, practically falling down with the full load of his bigger body. She managed to ease him to the floor, but not as gently as she wanted. His head hit with a dull thud. She rushed to get a pillow from the untouched bedroom nearest the kitchen, raced back, and gently lifted him so she could ease the pillow under his head. Done, she kissed him quickly on the forehead.

  She put his gun by his hand and formed a gate, shoving first one then the other big Lykae through, and shut it. They’d never get back to Alaska from Bangkok, so they were as good as gone.

  Balrick was still out. She’d hoped he would be, but now she needed him awake.

  “All right.” She took a breath, and with her power, created a collar made of blue sparks and wove it around his neck, adding a leash she attached to her wrist. As soon as it was solid, she formed another gate and hit Balrick with a snap of electricity that woke him up.

  He groaned then stiffened and their eyes met.

  “Time to pay your dues. You owe me,” she said, making sure her voice didn’t quiver.

  “I don’t owe you a thing,” he snarled and tried to come at her. She tightened her control and he tried to rip her collar off. When he couldn’t, he stopped and lowered his arms to his sides. She let the electricity ease down to a burn on his throat to remind him of what would be waiting if he fought her again. “What do you want?”

  “I want you to be my guide,” she said. “My ticket in. Charisa is willing to show me all you’ve been up to, and all I have to bring her is your head.”

  Balrick snarled. “Those Vampire weaklings have no idea what they have begun—none at all.”

  “No? Well, I want to find out for myself. And you”—she pulled on the leash—“are going to give me that. Now,” she added, and with her free hand formed a gate, even as it felt as if her heart was being torn out. This was the harder road, the more difficult choice, but she couldn’t give up, not and save her friends.

  Misery crept up, making her wish she could call this off and go with Rick. Go the easy way, even though she knew it would never work. It wouldn’t work because once they took Balrick in, no one would trust her. She was a traitor, a liar and not someone to trust to bring a mission together like this. Only one man trusted her. One man.

  She widened her gate to the compound.

  Maybe Rick will never trust me again, but at least he will be safe. At least I am doing the right thing from the beginning for once and not only at the end.

  With that thought firmly in mind, she took the step down the right path and put herself in danger to save her friends and the man she’d fallen in love with.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Kincaid woke with a snap. It wasn’t a lazy, oh, it’s morning and look, Little Rickie is pissed from the lack of women morning either.

  “Hunter!” Damn that woman for being so fucking amazing. She’d gotten one over on him. He’d fallen hook, line and sinker for the little witch. Literally. And now, he glanced around the empty room and sprang to his feet, noticing a note and pillow when he did. He picked up the note and groaned. “Hunter.”

  You really need to think more like an Immortal. No one trusts me. They won’t for a very long time, Rick. You do. I know you do. I owe you more than I can ever say for that—and for everything. I’ll see this through and maybe even save Balrick for them, too. But I will find your men, and I will discover if this Vampire link is true. I’d begun to hope for mo
re, you know? But don’t we all?

  Yours, Hunter.

  He swallowed hard.

  Yours. Was she his? He folded the note and pocketed it, noticing his hands were shaking when he did.

  “Hunter, baby, hell. This is hell.” He scanned the room, confused at first to see all the Lykae gone. She must not have trusted them with him and sent them off. That meant…she used more power. What had she said? She needed a nap.

  Aubrey.

  He needed his phone. He raced to the kitchen and spotted it on the counter. He had several missed calls from Gray, but he ignored those and dialed Aubrey. She answered on what felt like the hundredth ring but was probably the third.

  “Aye? This is Aubrey,” she said, sounding as if she was half asleep.

  “Aubrey. Hunter’s gone. Come to…me. Shit, where am I?” he shouted then heard Aubrey through the line.

  “I can come to you.”

  “Good, good,” he repeated, thinking about Hunter’s note. She was right, damn it. She was right. I should have trusted her. “We have to go to her. Or I do. You need to take me.”

  “Slow down,” Aubrey said, but he heard her rustling and hoped and prayed that meant she was on her way. “Hunter is gone?”

  “Yes, get here now—”

  “Aye, I’m here.”

  He spun around and there Aubrey was, hair a mess, blinking, but dressed in a sweater and jeans. She rubbed her eyes.

  “How did you lose her?” she demanded.

  “I didn’t. She left me. We have to go.” He checked his watch. Nineteen minutes. He’d been out fifteen. She’d hit him softly.

  “Where are we?” Aubrey asked, but walked over and met his eyes steadily.

  “We found out things about the changelings. She took Balrick to trade him for more information. This is his house.”

  Aubrey gapped at him. “Balrick? But he’s dead!”

  “Not as dead as we thought,” he growled.

  “Oh, Hunter,” she murmured. “She always gives too much, does too much for everyone.”

  “Except herself,” he muttered. That was going to change, even if he had to tie her down. “Can you get us there?”

  “Aye, I can, but first”—she tipped her head to the side and scrunched her nose at him—“you’ve…” She paused and touched his forehead. “Something is different about you, Kincaid.”

  His heart raced and he worried suddenly that the bite had changed him.

  As suddenly as she had frowned, she smiled. “You’ve learned a few manners, I think.”

  “Aubrey, if I wasn’t such a gentleman, you’d be spanked right now. Can you get us there?”

  “Better,” she said, laughing lightly at his threat. Damn women. “I’ll take you right to her.”

  He exhaled, only then realizing he’d been holding his breath. “Good. Good. Do it and I’ll let you scold me for the next ten years on my manners. Just get me to her. She needs me,” he muttered, “even if she doesn’t realize it.”

  Aubrey gave him a wide-eyed stare.

  What could he say? “It’s been a long week.”

  “Aye, well, it’s been longer than a week, and from what I could learn, maybe she needs you more than you or she can know. Come, let’s go to her.”

  “You can’t stay. Just drop me nearby but not inside with her. I have to get to her on my own.”

  “Cannae you simply call her—”

  He cut her off with a hand on her arm and turned, Sauer up and ready.

  Markee walked in the room.

  “Fuck, man, I almost shot you!”

  The wolf hardly seemed impressed. “Yeah, why is that? What happened here?” he demanded, seeing the blood on the floor and the bullet holes in the walls. “Fuck, where is Hunter?”

  “How do you know of this place?” He kept his gun up.

  “I followed your tracks from the compound to here. What is this place?” he asked, clearly either lying his ass off or he was that good. He brushed the snow off his hair and shoulders, giving the room and the blood more attention than Kincaid.

  “This is your da’s home. He’s alive, and Hunter has him.”

  Markee’s full attention landed on Aubrey, then on him.

  “And you didn’t know? Is that what I’m supposed to believe?” Kincaid began.

  “Kincaid! Markee. Now is no’ the time.”

  “Where is Hunter?” Markee snarled.

  “She took your dad in to trade him for some information on the Vampire changeling connection—after your dad tried to kill her,” Kincaid added.

  “What the hell are you talking about? Balrick is dead.”

  “He’s not dead. He’s alive. I don’t know how. I don’t really care, do you?” Kincaid asked, pissed off and in a rush. “He was here, bashed Hunter in the head and tried to take her somewhere. She and I managed to subdue him and his two henchmen. She knocked me out and took your dad to see if she couldn’t trick the Vampires into revealing where all this changeling shit began.”

  “How do you know she wasn’t in on it from the start?”

  “Because I’m not a dumbass like you,” Kincaid shouted, getting right in Markee’s face. “I saw what your dad did at that compound. I watched it on film. He worked with a Vampire to change a human guy from a man to a monster. A monster they let eat—while he was still a man or something—a defenseless woman. I watched that. Hunter couldn’t stomach it, and I barely could.”

  “Oh, Danu,” Aubrey breathed. “Markee, please, you need to calm down,” she added, getting in the way in Kincaid’s opinion.

  “Aubrey, step back,” he ordered.

  “I willnae, and dinnae speak to me like that, Kincaid. Now, we were leaving, Markee. Why donnae you go report—”

  “Aubrey, with all due respect, I am not going to report a thing. If Balrick is up there, I’m going with the human.” Markee crossed his arms.

  The human. “Like hell. Your dad is gone, man, gone insane. The things he’s—”

  “Not to save him. To make him pay for his crimes, Kincaid,” Markee said. “There is much more going on than saving your men or freeing the changelings.”

  Kincaid waited, but Markee didn’t say more. “And? What else?”

  “I can’t discuss it, but we play it this way. You were separated from her when I attacked, but you captured me. You’ll have to hope—”

  “Hold the fucking phone, who asked you for help? We have this, wolfman. So, you really can go kiss my—”

  “You don’t have this!” Markee seethed, clearly willing to go toe-to-toe.

  “Kincaid, I believe Markee is right.”

  Rick settled her with a deep frown. She didn’t budge. If he trusted her, which he did, he’d have to let the wolf go along.

  “It’s your ass,” he finally muttered. “My number one concern is Hunter.”

  “Noted.” Markee looked pissed off, but didn’t say more.

  “Aubrey can gate us in but she can’t stay,” Kincaid cautioned.

  “Then you have to get me to them on your own. I suggest you knock me out, but I don’t think you can.”

  Oh, but I’d like to.

  “Right,” Kincaid grunted and glanced at Aubrey.

  She shrugged. “I can knock him out.” The way she said it made him grin. It sounded as if she would like to.

  Markee scowled at her.

  “If you need knocked out, no’ because I wish to, you ken?”

  Oh, yeah, she wants to. No one messed with Aubrey’s friends. The comment about Hunter hadn’t gone unnoticed after all.

  “Fine, she can.” Markee narrowed his eyes at Aubrey. “Just long enough for him to drag me there. I’ll fake it after. So half hour? Hour?”

  “Is no’ like you’re a berry tart I’m baking. I cannae make it exact.” She sniffed, but he could sense she was thinking about something. “I will form a doorway to the woods, near the compound. You should hurry and call her as soon as you are there. What if she—?”

  “She’ll pick up. I’l
l make sure of it. If not, I know the way in.” Kincaid pulled out his phone and dialed her. It rang, and as it did, Aubrey motioned to the wall and her scrollwork tattoos glowed, forming circles at her brow and wrist. A slice of white, lit by the gray of the moon, filled the wall, and snow blew inside Hunter’s living room.

  “Yeah?” Hunter answered, sounding curt.

  “Sweet Jesus, you’re such a brat—”

  “I didn’t think you’d call!” she whispered fiercely.

  “Well, duh. I have Markee. Where should we meet? He’s down. It was easy, so now they have father and son, remember?”

  Hunter, worth her weight in gold, caught on. “Right. Bring him in. I’ll meet you at the door we came in. Is he out?”

  “Yep, probably will be for the same time it took Joey,” he added, hoping she knew that meant they had a half hour before he was hauling her ass out of here.

  “Meet me in ten. Don’t be late. I hate waiting,” she added in a firm tone. She had an audience again. Did that mean things were good or things were bad?

  She disconnected before he could find out.

  She’s alive. She’s alive. He’d have her by his side in less than ten minutes. Alive.

  “She needs you now, Kincaid. You have to hurry. This is much more than just her and you. Time is essential,” Aubrey said.

  “Right.” He wasn’t sure what she meant, but it was better sometimes to just go with it. “Aubrey,” he called. “Hunter. She’s immortal, right?”

  “Aye, I believe so. Why do you ask?”

  “She got shot,” he said, worrying it out. “And stabbed by Larisa.”

  Markee stiffened. “Larisa? A Russian wolf? I thought you were—”

  “Aye, and? She is fine now?” Aubrey asked.

  “No. Hell no.” He thought of how worried he was over making love to her. “Larisa knifed her, and that’s still hurting her. She slept a hell of a long time, but she isn’t…you know, healed like these guys.” He pointed to Markee.

  Markee and Aubrey exchanged a glance.

  “What?” he demanded.

  “Well,” Aubrey said, worrying her hair. “She seemed immortal, but she may heal slower, you ken?”