The Traitor: Hunter Circles Series Book Two

by Jessica Gunn

  “What’d you tell her?” Ben asked, falling back against his pillow tower.

  I shrugged. “To fuck off, basically. I’m sorry. Things sort of fell apart while you were out cold. It’s my fault.”

  “No, it’s not,” Ben said. “Your job isn’t to lead this team; mine is.”

  And yet something still felt wrong. “Every leader has a right-hand man… woman… whatever. On this team, it feels like me. And I could be totally wrong. But as far as hunting experience goes, I’m your number one.”

  His blue eyes met mine as he bit his lower lip. “You pretty much always were.”

  I blinked, unmoving. What did I say to that?

  Ben broke the eye contact and scrubbed his face again. “I don’t know if I can do this. If we can.”

  “Fight Kinder?” I asked as his cheeks flushed from the scrubbing. “You’re right on that one. It’ll probably have to be on a field of our choosing, if possible.”

  “No, I mean all of it.” His words in that moment were so small, so unsure, that my chest constricted in worry.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Even if Kinder has nothing to do with Landshaft, those bounty hunters are still working around here,” he said, holding my gaze. “That means Riley is now in danger from two sides. If Kinder still has the Power, we have to assume she knows Riley does, too. Why else come straight to Boston, to where he might be? If Kinder’s really after revenge against the Fire Circle—and that’s my guess, for the record—what better way to hurt a Fire Circle Hunter than to steal his son?”

  I didn’t know what to say to that. His conclusion was a mighty leap, though one with plenty of logical steps. “You really think Kinder would go head-to-head with Lady Azar for Riley, given the chance?”

  “Yeah, I do. She’s Lady Azar’s mother after all, no matter how much Aloysius wants to forget about it.”

  “Then the question is: Is Kinder also after Cianza Alzan with Lady Azar, or is she just along for the ride here in Boston?”

  “I don’t know. I get the feeling it might be a while before we do.”

  I shook my head. “The history books at Headquarters were pretty clear: Kinder hates the Fire Circle because of how they turned her in and wanted her executed for her Power. She narrowly escaped. I don’t think she’d willingly come back here to help her daughter, whom she also abandoned.”

  “I don’t understand how parents do that,” Ben mumbled under his breath, so quietly that I wasn’t sure he meant for me to hear.

  All of this sudden stress couldn’t be good for his still-healing concussion. And the fact that despite being so overwhelmed by this, he hadn’t tried to get out of bed… that worried me. Was he hurt more than he was letting on? Ben didn’t seem like the type of guy who’d let you see the worst of it. Even if he was already half-naked.

  “Don’t worry. We’re going to figure this one out.”

  His fists balled at his sides, pulling the bedspread with them. “Which ‘one’? Stopping Lady Azar from jumping across the Canadian border and stealing my son regardless of the rules? Or Kinder attacking us at home, since we can’t even go bowling without something attacking us? Or the fact that no one on this team is who they say they are? What the hell do I do about Shawn? An Ember witch.” Ben rolled his eyes. “How can he be one half of the Alzan prophecy, part of the Powers’ doing, if his magik is half-demonic? I don’t—”

  I leaned forward and pressed my lips to his, silencing his onslaught of words. His lips were slightly chapped but full and tasting vaguely of mint.

  Crap. I shouldn’t have kissed him. Seriously, that had been a bad idea.

  But Ben didn’t pull back. So I didn’t either. I lifted my fingers to cup his warm face. The longer this kiss kept him silent and his brain cells occupied, the longer the both of us could think straight. But this kiss sent my thoughts into a flurry of senseless movement. A chill shot down my spine, straight to my core, and my stomach fluttered. Fluttered.

  Because I was kissing Ben.

  I pulled back and dropped my hands. We stared at one another for a few long moments, breaths ragged. He didn’t blink once, just looked at me with his sapphire eyes.

  “I shouldn’t have done that,” I said as I brushed back a single lock of hair that’d fallen into my face in my rush to kiss him. To shut him up. “Sorry. It’s just—you were freaking out and—”

  Ben looked at me for a beat, then leaned forward, wincing at the discomfort in his shoulder, and crashed his lips to mine, barely giving me time to gasp in a breath. He angled his head, deepening the kiss as his fingers threaded into my hair. His tongue prodded my lips and I let him in, our tongues dancing as I scooted closer to him. Despite the goosebumps I felt on his arms as I ran my fingers up over his hard biceps, Ben’s body radiated waves of heat. Another chill rolled down my spine excitedly, jolting a life into me that I’d forgotten. It felt like I’d been struck by lightning kissing Ben. Which might not have actually been that far of a stretch.

  Finally, we broke away from each other, breathless.

  “Holy shit,” I muttered, rubbing my temple. “That was…”

  He nodded quickly. “Yeah.”

  I shook. “Not good.”

  “Nope.” His breath ran ragged. “Amazing. But not good.”

  “We’re teammates.” I inched my way off the bed. “You’re the leader. You have a son.”

  “Not a girlfriend, though,” he said beneath his breath. He looked up, reaching out for me. “Please don’t go.”

  I bit my lip, glancing between him and the door. “I think I better.”

  “I don’t regret it,” Ben said. “I… well, I’ve wanted to do that for a while now, honestly.”

  Nodding again, I said, “Me too. Still doesn’t make it—”

  His eyes tightened. “Don’t. Don’t do that.”

  “You’ve already yelled at me once for not following the rules, Ben.” That same lock of hair fell over my flushed face again. I roughly brushed it back into place behind my ear. “I don’t want to give you another excuse to.”

  “Krystin—”

  I held up a hand. “It’s fine, okay? We’re fine.”

  Ben sucked in a breath, then pushed himself to the edge of his bed and swung his legs over. And stood.

  “Ben, you’re not supposed to get up yet.”

  He paced a few steps toward me. “I’ve rested enough. I’m not going to let you make this awkward and leave—”

  I turned into him. “It wasn’t awkward.” It was the furthest thing from weird. That kiss had been amazing—everything and nothing at the same time, stars exploding, all that good romance movie fluff. It had all been real. But that didn’t change our positions on the team.

  “Krystin…” His gaze traveled down to my lips again.

  “Jesus, Ben,” I said but stepped forward to kiss him again anyway.

  Ben wrapped an arm around my middle and walked me back against the door. My back hit gently, cushioned by Ben’s one good arm, and he leaned into a kiss that went on for far too long, curling my toes and causing my entire body to heat and cool and heat all over again.

  He pulled back, looking into my eyes. “I don’t know that I care if I’m the leader or not.”

  I swallowed hard and bit my lip. So far, Ben was the only person who’d challenged me and not given up. We’d worked hard to earn each other’s trust. And he was strong, loyal, and never seemed to give up. Ever. On anything.

  Even this.

  “Let’s at least take it slow, okay?” I asked. “I… I don’t want to jump into anything when we don’t even know if we’ll survive the night.”

  He smirked. “Didn’t you just assure me we would? And besides, that seems like a perfect excuse to jump—”

  I smacked his good shoulder. “Shut up.”

  Ben winced, yelping a little. “Shit.”

  My eyes widened. “Oh, crap. I’m sorry.”

  He waved it off. “It’s fine. I’m okay.” But his pinched eyes and fr
own told a different story.

  “Back to bed,” I told him. “Go rest. I’ll tell the team you’ve been briefed.”

  He nodded and moved to follow my order. But before he backed to the bed, I leaned in and kissed him on his stubble-ridden cheek.

  “Rest, for real, then we can talk,” I said, a grin on my lips.

  “Deal.”

  Chapter 15

  Ben

  My head was still scrambled around dinner time. The world spun with every step toward my bedroom door, but I forced myself into a shirt and new pair of sweatpants anyway. There wasn’t time for me to sit and recuperate like I should. Like I would have back in my football days. But those times were long gone, and so too was that version of me.

  Each step down the stairs sent a raw ache climbing up my spine. I ignored it as best I could and pressed my arm against my chest so as not to disturb my shoulder. I really wished the healers had been able to take care of the entire wound, but anything was better than the gaping, bloody hole that’d been there only hours ago.

  My team sat in the living room, the TV turned up so high that it must have masked every one of my pained, heavy steps. Rachel caught me in the corner of her eye and rose off the recliner I usually sat in.

  “Ben! Take it easy,” she said, rushing to meet me at the bottom of the staircase. I took her outstretched hand and she guided me into the living room.

  “I am. I took it easy all day. What’s our next move?” Which was a pretty stupid question to ask because I was their leader. I should have known what the next move would be. But I’d come up with only one possibility. A shitty one.

  “Our next move?” said Krystin as she looked me over, her eyes softening in concern. Nothing had changed since she’d left my bedroom, not with my physical condition at least. Mentally… she was all I’d been able to think about the past few hours. Krystin smirked. Wait—had she heard those thoughts? “Our next move is to wait for Jaffrin’s orders.”

  “Assuming he’ll give any,” I said.

  “He will,” Shawn said. He had his phone in one hand while his other held the TV remote.

  I walked over to the coffee table and sat on top of it. I saw no point in relaxing on my recliner or the deep cushions of the couch when I was apt to never get up again. Not like this, with my shoulder and life a hectic mess. There was a part of me that wanted nothing more than to curl up in my bed or on the couch and never wake up and face reality.

  “Look, I have an idea,” I said and the team glanced at me. “It’s not a great one, mind you, but at least it’s a plan.”

  Krystin’s eyes narrowed as if she could sense the bullshit I was about to drop. I was pretty sure she wouldn’t accept my idea. “What is it?”

  I looked at each of my teammates in turn, though I paused when my gaze fell on Shawn. He nodded, but slowly, like it was an apology or something. “I’m tired of us being attacked. I’m exhausted from it, honestly. I say we take the fight to Kinder. Enough of this cat and mouse game.”

  Nate looked skeptical, his eyebrow raised in question. “And how do you plan to do that?”

  That was the easy part. “We lure her to Cianza Boston. And when she falls for the bait, we kill her.”

  Krystin gasped. “Are you insane? We can’t do that—I can’t do that. Neither can Shawn after he went and gave himself his powers back.”

  Nate stood from his seat on the couch. “Agreed.”

  “Same here,” said Shawn.

  Rachel said nothing. Even if they’d been right and she knew it, Rachel would still pick my side. Usually.

  Krystin’s gaze locked on mine. “Even if that was a sane plan—and it’s not, for many reasons—I can’t waltz across the cianza. It’ll explode and take all of New England with it, not just Boston.”

  “Isn’t that her plan, though?” I asked. “I mean, destroying the Fire Circle at least. That’s what she wants—revenge. If we lure her to the cianza, she’ll think she’s about to get it.”

  “And then die when the cianza immediately implodes.” Shawn stood and ran a hand through his long hair. “This is a shitty plan.”

  “Then find me a new one,” I said. “I’m open to anything that takes Kinder off the playing field.”

  “Yeah,” Krystin said. “Not like she’s an Old One or anything.”

  Rachel bit her lip, then slowly lifted a finger. “Actually. Well—it might also be terrible, but how about this: We somehow find a way to safely offer Riley—”

  Anger flashed across my mind, fists clenching. “Are you kidding me? We are not using my son as bait. I don’t care what the consequences of not doing so are.”

  The room fell silent and I was thankful. At least until Krystin sighed loudly and looked at me. Studied me for a few long moments.

  “Yes?” I asked her.

  She looked me in the eyes. “What if… What if we spread the rumor that Riley is returning to Boston? No one has to know the truth and it only has to work long enough to lure Kinder out. She’ll want Riley because he has the Power and there’s some connection between them because of it. That’s the only reason I can think of that she knew about him beforehand. You were right on strategy, Ben, just not on the tactics of carrying said strategy out.”

  I scratched the top of my head. My thoughts raced a hundred miles a minute. “That would work, yeah.”

  Nate leaned forward. “Except for the fact that Jaffrin would have to know about an operation like this.”

  “So let’s tell him,” Krystin said. “He can help us spread the rumor. We can head on over to a popular demon nest or bar and pass it along. Watch the rumor spread like wildfire.”

  Well, it was a safer plan for Riley at least. “Okay. That works. Let me handle Jaffrin.”

  All demon nests built beside or inside bars were the same: dimly lit and filled with lower-level demons armed to the max. Knives, daggers, swords—each had one or several strapped to their backs or legs while they sat around drinking and talking. The entire scene at this dive-bar-turned-demon-nest was so normal-looking—weapons aside—that had I not known to look for the deep burgundy eyes as dead giveaways of a demonic presence, I wouldn’t have known it was any different at all.

  That was what they liked, though: to blend in. Not to be human, but to fit in so well that the humans didn’t know the magik and demon side of the world existed until it was time for them to feed on a human’s life energy, or to turn them into demons during Autumn Fire.

  It worked well for them here, which made my nerves fray as we walked through the space to the bar at the back. Nate and Shawn broke off to find a table while I ordered drinks. If a fight broke out, if they figured out who we really were, I wasn’t sure we’d be able to teleportante out of here fast enough. And I doubly wasn’t sure we’d survive the ensuing fight against three dozen or more demons.

  “Jaffrin knows we’re doing this, right?” Rachel asked.

  I swallowed hard. “He knows we wanted to.”

  Krystin peered up at me. “Wanted?”

  “He might have said no,” I said, looking directly in front of me. “And I might have disagreed… but only after the healers finished taking care of my arm.”

  The bartender reappeared from a doorway to the side of the bar. I leaned over and flagged him down. But even before our drink order left my mouth, the ground began to shake. The liquor bottles and glasses behind the bar rattled, then slipped off the shelves and mounted hooks. I grabbed on to the bar to anchor myself, then reached out for Rachel as the tremors grew into violent waves of shifting earth.

  “What the hell?” Krystin shouted as the demons roused, standing as they looked up at the ceiling. Like they’d find answers there.

  Doubt it.

  Dust fell from the shaking ceiling. Some of the demons teleported out while still others either ran out the front door or dove beneath the tables. Earthquakes in Boston didn’t happen—not like this. So why now?

  Krystin’s eyes met mine and her face paled. Sweat beaded along her b
row as her eyes grew drawn. She swayed, letting go of the counter she’d pinned herself to, and started to fall. I let go of Rachel and dove to catch Krystin before she hit the trembling ground, cradling her head in my arm as my knees hit the wooden floor.

  “Krystin?” I brushed hair out of her face and placed my palm on her forehead. She was burning up, sick all of a sudden.

  My stomach dropped. No. Already? I looked up. Shawn was bent over the table and Nate had his hand on Shawn’s back. Oh god. “The cianza. It’s reacting to them already.”

  Rachel’s eyes widened as the tremors got worse. She white-knuckled the bar’s counter, but even that started to buckle. “We’re not on top of it.”

  “No. But we’re damn close. A lot closer than we normally go.” Which meant we were way closer to Cianza Boston than Krystin should be. Shawn too, now that his powers were unbound.

  “We need to get them out of here,” she said, bending down to help me with Krystin. We lifted her and threw each of her arms over our shoulders and made our way over to Nate and Shawn.

  “There’s no way it’s just the demons,” Nate said as he propped Shawn up against him. Shawn didn’t look much better than Krystin, with his eyes closed and mouth hanging open slightly. Sweat dripped down the side of his head.

  “What do you mean?” Rachel asked.

  “We’re not affected,” Nate said. “We normally aren’t. And neither are the demons. Which means it’s something with the cianza and Shawn’s and Krystin’s Alzanian magik. But they’ve both been close to the cianza before and nothing’s happened. Someone else is here—a lot of someones.”

  My eyes narrowed. “Kinder.”

  The shadow of a figure fell into the bar next to us—a quick, errant teleportante. A man appeared it its place, taller than Nate and me and dressed in a long, burgundy coat that matched his eyes. He slammed his palm onto Krystin’s chest and a red glow emanated from it before he looked up at me with wide, genuine eyes.

  “Put aside our differences if you expect any of us to survive this,” Giyano said.