Bounty Hunters and Black Magic

by Kristen Banet

  “Yeah, I’ve got them,” the blond called. “We’re staying at the boarding house. We can talk there, I assume?”

  “Yeah, that works,” she agreed, looking back at him. She slowed down for him to catch up. “So, how long have you two been bounty hunters?”

  “Just over a decade, since we met. Also, forgive Remy—his manners aren’t the best, Mrs. Lovett. Most hellhounds don’t have any, so I guess we should be thankful.” Easton gave her that blasted attractive, enigmatic smile that she liked more than a little. His sapphires eyes, now that they were in the dark, glowed much like Remy’s.

  “A hellhound?” Of all the things she’d been expecting, that had not been one of them. “You’re a hellhound? Hellhounds don’t have human forms.”

  “I’m not a full hellhound. My father was, and my mother was a wolf shifter. I got the ability to shift between forms.”

  Her mind wandered off on that thought. His mother had bred with a hellhound… “Oh.” She was stuck on the idea of a female wolf shifter deciding to breed with a hellhound. What the hell had led to that? Hellhounds were just that. Hounds. Canines from hell. Not exactly sentient creatures. Hell’s version of a hunting dog or wolf.

  That has to be illegal somewhere. Hell, if it’s not, maybe it should be.

  The part wolf in him explained his smell though—that earthy wild, but a touch of sulfur that was becoming more obvious to her, like a campfire lit with hellfire. William had been a wolf shifter with a similar smell, that delicious earthiness, which was why she liked it so much. The sulfur popping up otherwise would be from the fact that he was Hell-Touched. Hell-Touched, meaning he’d either had a drop of hellion or demon blood in him or was marked by one of them. Hellion blood was the culprit in this case.

  “Yeah and since Easton outed me…” He growled viciously over her head at his partner. “He’s a Nephilim.”

  That had her stopping completely. She stood in the middle of the road, eyes wide. What in the hell have I done to deserve a Nephilim in my town?

  The bounty hunters continued nearly five feet past her before they realized she hadn’t continued. Easton turned back to look at her. “My father wasn’t a Fallen, if that helps.” He was patient, smiling in the moonlight like he’d expected her reaction.

  Did it help? Yeah, it helped a whole hell of a lot. A Fallen-born Nephilim…well, those were evil straight out of people’s nightmares, and righteously powerful on top of it. Nephilim in general were rare, and being Fallen-born was normally the case.

  “Who was your father?” she asked carefully. “If you don’t mind me asking.”

  “Yeah, sweet thing, that’s not something I’m going to tell you.” He was still smiling, but the sapphires in his eyes got a bit harder, much more like cutting jewels ready to strike her down. And damn, it was hot to see him a little angry without it actually coming through.

  “My apologies for asking.” She held up a hand in defeat. She shouldn’t have pressed, but knowing who his father was would tell her a lot about the Nephilim himself and what area he might have dominion over. Which was exactly why he wasn’t sharing, obviously.

  “It’s fine. Lots of people do when they learn what I am. Come on. I take it you’ve snuck away from the marshal? Going to be hard to keep him out of this, even though he’s bad for business. Marshals tend to take the arrest and leave bounty hunters poor, but we’ll make do.”

  “Maxwell,” she said. “Maxwell Donahue. Yes. He’s staying with me, and I left him home. He has no idea I’ve come.”

  “You know him?” Remy asked. “I was wondering why a man would take liberties with a woman like he did at the saloon.”

  Says the hellhound shifter who took many liberties at the saloon himself. Not that I have a problem with that. He took some wonderful liberties…She kicked those thoughts out of her head before responding. Now was absolutely not the time for the horny widow problem. “He used to be a friend of my late husband’s.”

  Not hers. She wouldn’t claim him as a friend. Not under any circumstance. The only thing that could convince me to consider him a friend again would be William coming back from the dead and asking me to give it another go.

  They hitched their horses to the post outside the boarding house and she followed them in. Dark Prince just wandered in the street. She wasn’t worried about her stallion. She followed them quietly as they went all the way to the top floor and opened the door for her.

  “You go ahead,” she said politely, gesturing. She wasn’t going to walk into a dark room with two men at her back. She was already taking risks by trusting they weren’t trying to kill her, something Maxwell was going to kill her for if he found out.

  Easton shrugged and walked in first, followed by Remy. A fucking hellhound. She wanted to see it, because in her world, seeing was most definitely believing. She went in last, her eyes falling to the lanterns in the room. It took a simple thought and a wave of her hand to get them lit before the two bounty hunters could even consider it.

  “Very nice,” the Nephilim murmured, looking at the lantern closest to him. “Wild magic, you say?”

  “That’s right,” she said proudly. “Is there a problem with that?”

  “Your kind are nearly as rare as mine, I hear. I’ve only heard rumors of what a wild magic witch can do.” He lifted the lantern, looking it over. “Uncontrollable. Dangerous…”

  “They aren’t wrong. Wild magic is just that. Wild. Sometimes, I’ll get into a mood and things will happen. Most witches and warlocks need to cast spells, saying incantations or using ingredients and pentagrams. There are a lot of things I can just…do. I have more control than most, but still, like today at the General Store, sometimes things just happen.”

  She hadn’t lost control at the General Store. She’d been able to direct her temper to devastating effect. But they don’t need to know that.

  “That why you came out West?” he asked, looking her over. “Most witches and warlocks stay back East, near the Society of Magic.”

  “Why I came out West is none of your business,” she said sweetly, smiling. “Now, are we going to do this or not?”

  “The way you say it, I feel like I should be taking your clothes off,” Remy teased, looking her over. “Not that I’m against the idea…”

  The orange eyes were hot on her and she resisted squirming from the weight of his stare. Oh, good gods save her, she wanted him. She shouldn’t, but it had been so long since she’d had a warm body. She really needed to focus on her new problem, one she had most definitely brought on herself. Demons and bounty hunters.

  “Me neither,” Easton murmured. She knew those sapphires were drifting over her body like she was a prime cut at the butcher’s shop. She even liked it. It felt good to be desired again. And not by one, but by two men.

  Girl, don’t let this go to your head. They might just be toying with you.

  “We can revisit that thought later,” she promised, unable to bring herself to just shut them down. “First, we should make a plan about the Anzu Gang, or whatever they call themselves. I can’t let them come into the town.”

  “Really? That’s the easiest way to do it. They outnumber us, and getting a few of the townspeople involved would sway things in our favor. Though we’ll need to bring the marshal in, no doubt. I don’t see us doing it without him.” Easton sat down on one of the two beds in the small boarding room.

  “Demons aren’t normally welcome in the town for…reasons. Being a hellhound, I’m not sure people would have a problem with you…” She said that to Remy, hoping he didn’t feel threatened. She wasn’t looking to piss off a hellhound. “It’s a badly kept secret that there’s a Gate to Hell underneath us. Even though most demons don’t have the resources or power to open it, we don’t like them rolling into town too often.” And they already had too many in the last year. She didn’t want her own mess to bring more.

  “Well, that does complicate things…” The Nephilim lay back, kicking his boots off. His button-up shirt,
underneath the vest he wore, rode up, revealing cut abdominal muscles that drew her eyes. “I knew I felt something strange about this town.”

  “Yeah, sweetheart, keep staring,” Remy growled, leaning over her as he said it.

  She crossed her arms and looked up at him, then let her eyes trail over him. He was stockier than the Nephilim, who trended a little on the lanky side. “You don’t know how to be serious, do you?”

  “He’s a dog,” Easton reminded her with a huge grin, the first one she’d seen from him yet. “Literally. He likes to hump pretty ladies as often as possible.”

  He can hump me any day. Except today. This is supposed to be a serious meeting.

  She stepped away from the hellhound now sniffing her hair, and sat in a chair across the room from both of them. “So we need a plan that will keep them from trying to take advantage of the Gate.”

  “More difficult, but possible. Remy, where are they right now?”

  Orange became the brightest glow in the room. She watched Remy lift his head and sniff the air. “One is in Fort Lackey right now. They probably figured out it’s Adalyn who banished their boy by now, or will tomorrow. We’ve got two days at minimum before they get to Redstone. Maybe three or four. And there’s a high chance, a man down, they won’t roll into town immediately, but they could be gunning hard for revenge, and that changes things.” The glow began to fade and Adalyn just stared in amazement. That was some ability.

  “How?” she asked leaning over, her witch’s curiosity getting the better of her.

  “I can track one person, anywhere. He’s the perfect distance in the right direction to be in Fort Lackey right now. It’s how hellhounds find their targets, no matter where they run or how far they try to go.” He grinned and revealed his canines were longer than they had previously been. Not that they had ever been normal—they were just even longer now. “Remember that, pretty little thing. I get attached to things I want.”

  That just made her a little hornier than she had already been. His nostrils flared, a tiny bit of smoke coming out of them, leaving a tiny touch of sulfur in the air, reminding her that he was Hell-Touched. It should have told her that he wasn’t someone she should have wanted to sleep with but…

  Do I care? No. Not a single bit, it seems.

  “Well, it’s useful. Easton, you have any tricks?” She waved a hand around. “I’ve shown you mine, Remy has shown me his. I think it’s your turn.”

  “You haven’t seen all my tricks,” Remy murmured, grinning still. Goodness, these men and their smiles. Did they all have to look so damned good? Damned Supes. And it didn’t help Remy looked like he was going to eat her and make her like it.

  Oh, I bet he would, and all I would need to do is ask.

  “And what are those? Easton, you too.”

  “None you really need to know about right now.” The Nephilim shrugged. “We’ll hang around the town, pretending we’re going about our business. Maybe…you can show us around. Help us settle in. It would keep us close if anything happens.”

  “It would also piss off the marshal,” she said, considering that option. There really was no reason to make this all secret, other than her own reputation as a respectable woman of the Wild West.

  Her? Respectable? That was a funny idea. Not even William had ever tried to pass her off as a perfect, respectable lady.

  “Do you care?”

  No, I really don’t. Okay, maybe a little, but positively. I like the idea of pissing him off right now. “Fine. I like that. Tomorrow, I can come into town and you can ask me for a tour, maybe even a warmer welcome than Maxwell gave you. He can watch and be upset with it. He did ruin my night at Magic Notes, and if we have a couple of days…”

  Yeah, I’m beginning to like this plan.

  “Perfect. One of us should walk you home,” he said. “Remy, I’ll handle it.” She raised her eyebrows at the whimper of the hellhound. “Come on, man. We both want…” He went quiet, and she desperately wanted to know what they both wanted.

  “I don’t need anyone to ride home with me,” she said kindly. “But thank you for the offer.”

  “Please. I’m fairly certain you can handle anything the world throws at you, but I want it to be a show of faith. That you can come see us and we wish you no harm.” The Nephilim stood up, tucking his shirt back in and fixing his wrinkled vest. He turned away from her, and she got an eyeful of how well his chaps framed his ass as he grabbed his boots.

  She felt the need to fan her face but resisted. Good gods, what was wrong with her?

  My year of mourning ended and my libido turned back on with a vengeance, that’s what.

  She met him at the door and let him open it for her, since he was wanting to be a gentleman. They walked out of the boarding house together and she jumped on Dark Prince as he mounted his appaloosa gelding, who was a good two hands shorter than her boy. Dark Prince was a big boy.

  They rode back in silence, for the most part. She looked out over the dark landscape. The area around Redstone wasn’t a wasteland like most thought of the West, but it had its weirdness. They lived in a shrubby place, with few trees. The land was decent, but not rich. It looked arid at night, even more than it did during the day. Add in that all the buildings were old wood and red brick, made from Redstone’s odd red clay, dirt, and gravel, and it was a far cry from back East, where she’d grown up. Being asked about coming out West brought the thought on like a runaway train.

  “I was born and raised in New York. My parents were prominent members of the Society of Magic.” She didn’t know why she was saying it. “Being a wild magic witch made me too different to really fit in with anyone there.”

  “I hear ya. My mother was a businesswoman and a widow. I didn’t fit in her circles either, being what I am. I was a stain on her reputation to the few who knew she had a son out of wedlock, and they didn’t even know what I was.” He pulled his horse closer to hers to the point their knees touched. “I should warn you. Don’t play with Remy unless you intend on going through with it, and be ready for some strangeness.”

  “Really?” She pulled on the reins, slowing Dark Prince and stopping him. She wanted to hear this before she made it back to the house, where Maxwell could possibly hear.

  “He’s…more animal than man, thanks to his heritage. His human form is his secondary form, not his primary. He’s also never been with a woman alone. He and I don’t trust his hellhound.”

  “Are you saying…”

  “If you sleep with him, expect me to be there for it,” he confirmed, smiling. “Are you down for that, or is it going to scare you off?”

  “Give me the night to think about it,” she answered honestly. She’d never been watched or had others in the room. That brought another fantasy to her mind, one that made her bite her lip nearly painfully. “Does it mean you would want to…” She didn’t want to say join in, but the words hung in the air.

  “Yes,” he whispered.

  She had never been with more than one man at once. It sounded like the exact sort of thing she wanted to try, though, in this new chapter of her life. And before she got herself killed trying to hunt down Beelzebub before he came back to Redstone.

  No, these bounty hunters weren’t going to scare her off. It helped that she found both of them insanely attractive and they came into her life at the perfect time. They would have a bit of fun, then disappear once the problem of demons was solved.

  He leaned over and kissed her cheek. He had soft lips that brushed over her skin like a tease, barely there but leaving a definite mark, albeit an invisible one. “I promise you, it wouldn’t have to be suffered through, at least not for me.”

  She tapped her heels to her stallion’s side, causing him to jump forward before the Nephilim could see the heat creeping over her cheeks. She needed to get away from the attractive strangers. And that’s what they were, strangers. It was honestly part of their appeal. They didn’t know her late husband or her life as a married woman. They weren�
��t old friends in any sense of the word. They were gorgeous strangers who were running into her life thanks to her own antics.

  I don’t believe in fate, but damn, this is one of those moments where I want to.

  He followed her to her gate and laughed as Dark Prince jumped the fence into their field and left him behind. She looked back once and was captivated for one last second by the glowing sapphires in the night before he turned away, heading back to town.

  She made it into the barn and was done brushing Dark Prince down by the time Maxwell found her.

  “We’re going to talk in the morning,” he said, all that steel in his voice.

  “We can talk now. I’m going to show them around town tomorrow. Maybe even get to know one or both of them a little better. You should think on that tonight before I get the long-winded speech at breakfast.” She patted her horse’s shoulder, a sign that he could run out. He did, going off to find his mares. “And finally, nothing you say is going to convince me otherwise.”

  She stepped around him and walked back to her house, leaving the marshal alone in the dark.

  8

  Remy

  Remy wanted to pant after them, his tongue lolling out of his mouth, like a puppy that wanted his bitch to give him a treat. He wanted to crawl all over that little body like he owned it. He wanted to nibble and lick, claiming every piece of that pale milk skin that taunted him like the moonlight.

  He growled, a deep thing coming from his chest, at the erection he had. She’d have to be okay with some things first. He knew Easton was probably telling her the important parts, like they always were in the room together when Remy wanted to bury himself balls-deep in a woman.

  He wanted to bury himself in her and stay there. He’d never met a tempting little thing like her before. All curves and a little extra weight, something he could put his hands on. No bones grinding into his own. Those blue-green eyes looked like seas he’d never seen, only heard of, and her black hair was the night itself.