by Billi Jean
“Damn right you didn’t,” Kincaid snapped.
Hunter gasped. “Rick!”
“But you will. Now, did you find out something from the keypad?” he asked Hunter. Her mouth fell open. “He should have known you’d never hurt someone on purpose or allow it without a damn good reason. Now, why scare the duo off with the sexy show? What’d you find?”
Markee grunted.
She blinked and snapped, “You’re such a smart—”
“I’m waiting,” he reminded her, tipping her mouth shut with a finger under her chin.
“They are getting their orders from a witch,” she said with a pretty harsh frown.
“What?” he asked, even though he knew that was stupid. “How do you know? Did you hear something?”
“Better,” she practically sang. “I do have skills, big boy. I saw a video. This place really is wired. Every room is videoed, or at least, so many it’s nearly impossible to figure out which aren’t. But not impossible for me, since, yeah, this room, is not,” she said with a great deal of joy in that statement.
This was Hunter at her best. She practically glittered with happiness, like a diamond. She was as sharp as one, too.
“So they can’t hear us—or see us.” Markee broke the ropes around him as if they were tissue paper. He stood and stretched his neck from left to right. “How many times did you drop me?”
“For your information, I didn’t, but you’re heavy enough that I should have,” Kincaid muttered. “A witch. More, please,” he urged Hunter.
“I don’t have more. Charisa was hovering over a bowl. It’s a common means of communicating if you don’t want to be overheard.” She nodded to his cell phone. “I saw one very… I mean, very ancient witch”—she shuddered—“like old school old, and heard her say to bring me and Balrick in.”
“Not me? And not Markee?”
Hunter frowned pretty adorably but finally shook her head. “No, that could be because you’re too unimportant to her, which is great news, or…”
“Because they want you, and they want Balrick, but we’re disposable.”
“Isn’t that what she just said?” Markee asked.
Hunter grumbled something and went back to the console. “Neither of you are disposable. I also found out something much more important. There’s a room on the lowest level, Rick.” She reached for him, even though he was walking to her. She grabbed his shirt and shook it. “Why didn’t we check these rooms? Each monitor?”
“Hunter,” he sighed. “We were doing a job that should have been done by a much bigger team. We missed shit. It happens. Now, what did you find?”
She took that in and winced, but when he urged her with a hand she said, “The lowest level has an enormous room. It’s filled with changelings in cages. I know they’re changelings because they are smaller, and no…you know, red eyes.”
She brought an image into view.
“Damn,” Markee whispered. “Just how big is that room?”
“I have the floor plan here.” She displayed the architectural schematics for the entire room on the screen. The room was big, very big, and it also housed over a hundred, if not more, changelings.
“Hunter, in case you didn’t realize this, you rock my world.” He wanted to hug her so badly his arms ached.
She laughed, startled-like, then shocked him again by hugging him tightly, only pulling away after a solid minute. When she did let go, she ducked her head right after and fiddled with her shirt.
Embarrassed?
He wasn’t. He kissed her before she could stop him—if she would have. “Keep that up and we’re going to have Markee leaving.”
Markee snorted. “Be serious. What’s the plan?”
“Are you here for your dad?” Hunter asked after a moment of worrying her lip.
“I told you I was here for you,” Markee growled.
“Hey, watch the tone, man. She needs some reassurance after everyone pinned her on the wrong side.” He anchored his arm over her shoulder and kept it there.
Hunter stiffened and said, “I was on the—”
“You were never on the wrong side, girl. Now, I say we keep this charade going until we can—”
“No, that witch was…scary. If they send—”
“They?” he asked.
“I agree,” Markee said on top of him, then quickly added, “Ah, sorry. Go ahead, Hunter, they?” Kincaid gave him a hard frown.
“I think that evil witch has to be head of a coven. Not all covens are…like the Jade,” Hunter added.
“Right. And?” He had an idea that was just out of reach, something tugging at him he couldn’t bring into focus.
“Well, Jade is powerful, right?” she clarified.
He and Markee exchanged a glance. “Yeah, and?” Kincaid said.
“That means there are equally powerful…not-so-nice covens.”
He snorted. Markee frowned harder.
Kincaid made a decision.
“We can’t stay here.” If there was a coven out there that wanted Hunter and was as powerful as Trouble’s and evil… They weren’t getting within a mile of Hunter. “Where was the witch from? Did you catch that, Sparky?”
Hunter licked her lips and winced, glancing to the door. “New England area, I think.”
Markee walked to the door and shook his head. “Still nothing, but they’re not far.”
Not once had he asked about his dad. Kincaid gave him some points for that, but still didn’t like how he’d treated Hunter. He’d heard all about the confrontation with Hunter at a club, and again in the Immortal Council. He’d even watched the tapes and wanted to kill both Markee and Torment for how they’d yelled at her. But this was now, and Markee was trying.
Hunter still wore an unhappy expression.
“How did you know she was in New England? Red Sox playing in the distance? Patriots?”
Hunter shook her head. “No, once when I was a child, my family—”
“Those people were never your family,” he corrected. He was or would be. Waking without her next to him had made that a solid fact. He wasn’t doing it again.
“Hold on to her,”Jack had said. He was and planned on not letting go.
“Uh, okay, so I was taken to someone’s house. It wasn’t far from ours. I think less than an hour. It was old, very old, and I had to wait in a room, alone, for hours while they talked or something,” she said vaguely.
“And that house was…where this ancient witch is now?”
“In a room. I passed it when we were leaving, I remember.”
“How long ago was this?” Markee asked.
“I was…maybe five.”
“And you remember it?” Kincaid asked, not able to wrap his mind around that one.
“There was a portrait on the wall of a woman dressed in black in a garden, two children at her side, sitting on a bench.”
“Okay, so maybe it’s the same—”
“The bench was made of men—bloody, suffering men on their hands and knees—under the beautiful woman and her two children.”
Silence settled over them until Markee whispered, “Damn, that is not right.”
“Right. Your childhood sucked, but at least it gave us you. Now.” He formed a plan as he went. There were no coincidences in life. That coven had been instrumental in her kidnapping, and in her becoming evil—or in attempting to make her evil. His bet was they’d killed her real mom and taken Hunter. Or done worse things to her mom then taken Hunter. No way on Earth were they touching her again. “We go. Now would be good. Gate us.”
“Kincaid, your sympathy sucks,” Markee growled.
“I don’t need sympathy,” Hunter snapped. “Rick, we can’t leave.”
“Oh, yes we can. Markee, go find your dad.”
“Kincaid, Balrick is many things now, but he is not my father. That man died long ago.”
Kincaid shared a glance with Hunter. They didn’t have time for this, but Markee was relaxed, that meant the Vampires
still weren’t around.
“He was once a good man?” Hunter asked Markee gently.
“No,” Markee muttered. “I can’t remember a day he was ever a good man, Hunter, but he wasn’t evil, like this,” he said. Kincaid assumed he meant the way his dad was now. “Just no’ right in the head,” he added with a dry sense of humor Kincaid thought appropriate, given the situation.
Hunter sighed heavily. “Rick, we can’t gate out of here. We need those changelings and I thought we were taking the Vampire.”
“Shit,” he muttered. How did I forget that in this mess? “Where are the Vampires?”
She walked over to the console again, and Markee shook his head. “Still not close.”
Hunter gasped and jumped back from the wall unit.
“What?” he demanded, pulling his rifle to the ready.
She rubbed a hand over her face and shot him a grin. “They’re busy.”
“Busy?” Markee repeated.
Kincaid laughed as soon as Hunter’s cheeks flushed pink. “Damn, I didn’t know you put on that much of a show,” he muttered. “They’re doing the horizontal—”
“Rick,” Hunter grumbled, but rushed over to grab his arm. “We should go, get those changelings and try to get out of here.”
“While they’re busy?” he asked. “How long are they going to be…busy?”
“Well, they seemed to be just warming up… All three of them.”
Markee shot them both an incredulous stare then whispered, “Fucking Vampires.”
“Right,” Kincaid said with a pat on Hunter’s cute butt as she caught the double meaning. “Let’s go. If we see any red-eyed creatures, run. Absolutely zero injuries,” he added firmly.
She smirked. “I think I got that the first million times,” she whispered. Louder she said, “I think they cleared those creatures all up, but yes, let’s go—”
“What about Balrick?” Kincaid stopped her. “Can you wake him up?”
“Yep.”
“Wait, is that safe? I can carry him,” Markee said. “But he will slow us down.”
“We don’t have time for this. No one lasts that long,” she grumbled, not seeming to realize what she’d said. “You need both hands free, in case we do meet someone. Rick can’t carry him and we can’t leave him behind.” Hunter nibbled her lip and exhaled. “I can gate him to the Council.”
Shit. There were too many variables and not enough information, which was a deadly combination. His gut said they were running out of time.
“Since we’re not playing along, let’s bring in the reinforcements. Just Aubrey and Gray, all right?” he said, as soon as Hunter stiffened.
“It makes sense, plus Jaxon’s flooding my phone with texts, so best call him in, too,” Markee tacked on.
She startled at that, but there wasn’t a chance they could handle a man the size of Balrick fighting them while they crept down to free some changelings.
“Okay,” she said quietly.
He didn’t wait for more.
He called in Gray. A quick text explaining what he wanted with a nod to Markee to do the same, and the plan was in motion. His gut said it was the right move, but his heart was going nuts. Once again, he was taking her down there, into danger. No doubt about it.
This might be it, though. This might be the break they needed, but it was one he wished he had more than ten seconds to decide on.
Twenty seconds to the dot later and Aubrey was there like a breath of fresh air, Gray at her back. He gave Aubrey props. She didn’t speak. She simply walked over and hugged Hunter tightly.
“You’ve done verra well,” Aubrey whispered. “You’ve even taught him some manners.”
“That’s a bit low,” Kincaid muttered.
“About fucking time,” Jaxon growled, then seemed to see he was in more company than just Markee’s and stalled out. “Hunter, hotshot, you are one hard girl to keep out of trouble. I hope this human can handle the job.”
“Hunter!” Joey cried and hugged Hunter just as tightly as Aubrey had.
For her part, Hunter appeared freaked out and ready to cry. He got that, and pulled her away and got her head back on straight by demanding action.
“Balrick? Remember?”
“Right, Balrick’s alive,” she said for their new teammates. “I need to get him out of here so we can go free the changelings.”
Everyone murmured their agreement.
“Good. Make a gate to the room, then to Trouble. She can deal with him. As soon as she takes him, we’re down and out. Aubrey, will do something to hide us, if you can? Gray, if you see anything with red eyes and four legs, take it out. Jaxon.” Kincaid fumbled over what to say to the cocky bastard and settled for nodding. “Good to have you on board.”
“Anything for Hunter,” Joey said, clearly not going to let that go.
“Man, he sounds like Torque,” Jaxon said to Markee, earning a quick grin from the Lykae. So, not all Vampires and Lykae hate each other. That’s good to know.
“Markee, I’m glad to see you came to your senses,” Joey added with some bite.
Markee winced but took the direct hit from the tiny redhead, probably because Jaxon was grinning behind her from ear to ear.
“Gate?” Kincaid urged Hunter when she blinked.
She shook her head hard, but got to it when he squeezed her hand. Within seconds the room next door was there, and a few seconds after that, Trouble was waiting in a room that had to be the Coven’s living room in New England.
“Hurry,” Trouble grumbled. “Hand him over. I can’t believe Aidan is this sloppy.”
Kincaid didn’t know what that meant and right then didn’t have the time to care.
Torque stepped into view. “Hunter, watch your back. There’s more going on here than getting to those changelings. Just hold on, and if you have to split, do it, but do not start a battle there. You got that?”
“That’s an order, Hunter. I’m still your coven leader, and I’ll be damned if I’ll see you hurt before you can put the finger on the bastards that did this to you,” Trouble said with some heat. “Now, understood?” she asked a bit more gently.
Hunter had tensed so hard he was sure she was hurting herself.
“Got it,” she whispered.
He bet she was punching holes in her palms with her nails. He took her hand, ignored how she stiffened and unclenched it.
“Good.” Trouble pointed at him. “Do a better job, Kincaid. Your protection skills suck.”
He took that like a man.
Hunter didn’t. “His protection skills do not suck. This situation does, so if you don’t mind, we have something to take care of, like saving his men and getting out of Dodge.” With that, she snapped her spell down.
“Well, I think she deserved that, for the record,” Joey said.
Aubrey smiled as if the girls were discussing nail polish over coffee. “Aye, Kincaid cannae help it if he is no good at keeping her from coming to harm.”
He was never living that down, was he? “Look, that’s great. We’re all on Hunter’s side. We’re all out to get her cleared. Now can we move?”
Markee snorted, but he edged to the door. “Did you cloak us, Aubrey?”
“Yes, we’re invisible. Sight and scent.”
“Right. Now, if we scent them, first sign I want the power blown, okay, Hunter? I want dark, complete dark. I got my night vision gear, right, Gray?”
Gray handed him the goggles. Gray’s were already on his head, but not down.
“If the shit hits the fan, I want the power off,” Kincaid clarified. “See what they can do then. It will lock the doors, and hopefully, them, inside.”
“And Hunter can blow those easy.” Jaxon sounded impressed. “Lead the way. Hunter should be second, maybe behind you so she doesn’t get shot or stabbed. Joey and I will move on ahead.”
“He means we’ll mist and go ahead—not like, walk ahead,” Joey explained, giving her man an elbow, Kincaid hoped for razzing him.
“Sounds like a plan,” he said.
Everyone appeared on board. The room was crowded anyway. He released Hunter’s hand. Almost done, he wanted to say, but held off. She had her head up, her face—both sides—clear for everyone to see.
She met his eyes firmly, and with all the trust he’d taken for granted, she said, “Lead the way.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Hunter studied the door. Her stomach was so upset she felt as if she’d eaten acid pills. It wasn’t the injury either. Everyone was here. Everyone that she had dreaded seeing was here, and clearly didn’t hate her.
It did things to her that she needed time to sort out. Of course, she wasn’t getting that time.
“How long did that take?” she asked.
“Nine minutes, twenty seconds.” Rick shifted a fraction and finally exhaled. “We move in. I’ll test the door, but, Markee, can you sense if there’s anything besides changelings in there?”
“There’s something in there. I sense a lot of something, not sure on the changelings or anyone else. I don’t sense an enemy, though.”
“I cannae sense evil, either, other than the three Vampires.” She indicated the ceiling, where Hunter hoped the Vampires were still having fun.
Jaxon and Joey appeared at their sides. “They were finishing up, seems it was feeding time as well as fun time,” Jaxon said. “They’re young. All of them. My guess is this is their first assignment.”
Rick switched his attention from the door to Jaxon. If he was impressed with the Vampire’s mad skills, he kept it to himself. She guessed he was, but he asked, “Which means?”
“They’re easily fooled.”
“I’m not easily fooled,” Joey muttered.
“You were never easy, period,” Jaxon said, with one heck of a double meaning.
“Rick,” Hunter murmured, leaning on his shoulder to stop the chatter.
“It means they’re not a real threat,” Jaxon clarified. “Unlike Joey here.”
She thought Rick wanted to roll his eyes, but didn’t.
“Right. Markee, take position. I open the door and you four be ready. Hunter, hang back a little this time, got it?”