Hunter

by Jacquelyn Frank

  “And you all live here ... but you aren’t related?” Tatyana looked confused. “I thought Dimitre said you lived with your family, Annali.”

  “She does,” Hunter said softly, his eyes perfectly tender as he looked over at Annali. “We are her family. We’re all connected by things even more important than blood.”

  “Oh! I see. Great, Tat. Way to trivialize your brother’s girlfriend’s relationships,” she said wryly.

  “Oh, don’t worry, honey. You didn’t.” Annali brushed it off with a wave. “We know very well how unusual we are. People find it hard to imagine that so many vastly different people can live under one roof and actually get along.”

  “Usually,” Ryce amended.

  “Mostly,” Annali countered.

  “Isn’t that what usually means?” Ryce asked Hunter archly.

  “Well, one is a quantifier, the other more qualitative,” Hunter mused.

  “I’m not sure I agree with that,” Ryce argued.

  “Finish your tea and ignore them, sugar,” Annali whispered beneath their speculations. “Whatever you do, don’t encourage them. Once they start talking language ...” She shuddered dramatically. “These arguments have been known to have a narcotic effect.”

  Tatyana giggled into her cup, sipping tea and quietly listening to Hunter and Ryce bicker over what she realized amounted to nothing, a mark of the familiarity bred between the oldest of friends. She felt the tension and chill bleeding out of her body as she swallowed down the last of the flavorful tea. As minor disasters went, this one was beginning to take an unexpected turn for the better.

  Though she was finished with her tea, she kept the cup against her lips a moment and used it to hide a covert peek at the man called Hunter Finn. Though Ryce was what she would call more classically dashing and aristocratically handsome, Hunter’s features and physique appealed to her much more. He had the kind of body that made women lick their lips in anticipation of total yumminess. If she hadn’t had a cup between her lips, she would definitely be lip-licking. Broad shoulders, perfect for laying one’s head on, and a well-defined chest and belly that she already knew felt like heated riverbed rocks, all smooth, hard, and bumpy in the right places. Then there were her personal favorites, his long legs and awesomely sexy thighs, which were just as fit as the rest of him and high on her scale of appreciation.

  All of which would mean a big zero if he hadn’t also been incredibly chivalrous and brilliantly charming since the moment she’d fallen into his big, capable hands. Mix in a smile that blinded and a sense of humor he was displaying at Ryce’s expense, and he had an overall drool factor that went off the charts.

  Tatyana lowered her cup and her eyes, licking her lips covertly to check for any possible drool. She knew nothing about him, she reminded herself. Men this fine were always married with kids. Or gay. She glanced quickly between Hunter and Ryce.

  Nah. She barely had any straight friends, so she had an inner radar about these things. Then again, it would be just her luck with the week she was having. She looked at them again, narrowing her eyes as if it would help determine their sexual preferences.

  She gave up on the examination quickly. What did it matter? They lived in the back of beyond and she lived in Queens. She worked in Manhattan and had everything she could ever need all within a block where cell phones always worked and everybody delivered and she could raise her pinkie finger and find a cab magically by her side.

  They had cows. Lots of cows, unmarked roads, everything was on a hill, and the nearest neighbors were the Hatfields and the McCoys. Not to mention it was fifty degrees colder than the rest of the civilized world. Well, okay, maybe ten degrees, she relented reasonably, but that made all the difference to her hands and feet and other far more precious body parts that’d nearly been frozen off.

  Hunter Finn turned one of those heart-stopping smiles on her and reached out to run a pair of fingers from her temple to her chin. It was a friendly little touch, no big deal really. Except, he left a path of tingles in his wake that popped, sparkled, and rushed down the side of her neck, hitting her nervous system in a shiver she couldn’t repress.

  Horrified that he’d possibly see the juvenile fluttering for what it was, Tatyana pulled away and abruptly surged to her feet while giving her unruly libido a mental kick in its ass. It was one thing to ogle the good-looking man covertly, and quite another to get all weak-kneed and quivery where the good-looking man might see it. Once they knew you were attracted, they were all ego and preening peacocks. She’d drunk her fill of egos and arrogance, with their idiocy chasers. Now if she could just remember that, things were bound to get better before the week was over.

  Tatyana realized she was babbling to herself and gave her head a shake to stop herself. She always babbled when she was nervous. In her mind or out loud. Taking a deep breath, she managed a smile for the three people looking at her with curiosity in their eyes.

  “There. All better now,” she said brightly, as she brushed her dress into place and touched her hair self-consciously. “Thank you so much. Annali, that tea worked wonderfully.”

  “You can stop thanking us,” Hunter said. “You’ve done so enough.”

  “Now on that issue Hunter and I can finally agree,” Ryce mused, reaching to take her arm and helping her step over discarded blankets. He escorted her out of the room.

  Hunter turned to give Annali a crooked grin. “Care to share what was in the tea?” he asked.

  “Oh, a little of this and a little of that,” she said, the reliability of the stock answer warming his soul with that sense of home. On impulse he reached out and seized her in a tight hug. She gasped in surprise, and then laughed.

  “Well it did the trick,” he remarked. “Though you should be careful. You can look at her and see that she isn’t a stupid woman. Don’t do anything she will question.”

  “Hunter, really,” she scolded as she wriggled out of his arms to settle onto her own feet. “I’ve been doing this for eleven years now. I know what I’m doing and I know how to conceal my tricks. Honestly,” she ended with exasperation.

  “You’re right,” he relented quickly, holding up a peaceable hand. “I’m sorry. Old habits die hard. I think it will always be my instinct to protect you. The whole lot of you.”

  “That’s because it’s your job. You are Sentinel after all,” she reminded him. “You were born to be a defender.”

  “On that note, do you have any idea how dangerous it is to have a civilian in the house right now? I mean, we can refrain from magic, but only if nothing comes up.”

  “That’s why I wanted us to eat in. We are protected here. And you know I couldn’t let her go off to some hotel. She can see we have the room, and if I didn’t offer she would think we didn’t want her here even more than she already does. Dimitre has been putting her off until he could get settled and in control of his life and craft. She was very hurt by that as it is. Then this thing with the trip and not telling her?” Annali sighed and brushed away a stray strand of hair. “Poor thing. I couldn’t let her feel any more rejected.”

  “Of course not. You’re right, Annie.” Hunter smiled and touched a fond finger to her forehead, taking a long moment to simply absorb the woman she had become. “Sometimes I focus so much on being a witch that I forget how to be human.”

  “That’s because you didn’t have us to remind you. But that will all change now.”

  “Lidija ...”

  “Dimitre is going to kill you. You are so asking for it.”

  “I’ll cross that sword when I come to it,” Tatyana sighed into the phone to her sister. Ryce had shown her to a strange library of some sort and was letting her use a phone to first call for a tow and now to let Lidija know she had arrived safe and sound. Lidija hadn’t known where she was off to when Tatyana had called her before leaving the party. Lidija had cared only that she got there safely on the most notoriously dangerous night for driving in the state of New York.

  But now that
she did know where Tatyana had run off to, she was quite eager to point out all the flaws in her plan so she could get in some hearty I-told-you-so’s.

  “Stop scolding me like a child. I’m a grown woman and I’m free to make my own choices.” She paused for a beat, picking invisible lint from the skirt of her dress. “I just needed to see him, Lidija. I miss him. I’ve been worried. I’ve been feeling so shut out and it’s never been like that between us, ever. I understand he’s in love with this woman, but I won’t let him just push me aside like I’m some ... some old girlfriend instead of his sister.”

  “I’m not scolding,” Lidija said with a pout in her tone. “Or at least I don’t mean to be. I know he’s been acting weird lately. It really was wrong that he didn’t even come to Christmas after he missed Thanksgiving. Mama was beside herself. Someone had to do something, and it may as well be you. I’m glad you’re safe. What do you think of these people he is living with? Are they axe murderers? A cult maybe? Alien worshippers or something weird like that?”

  “Hmm, they do have a lot of weapons on the walls,” she mused, glancing at the shields and mounted arsenal between the bookcases.

  “Tatyana Danica Petrova, that isn’t funny!” Lidija lambasted her in hot Russian. “I worry about him, too, you know! And you as well! Tell me you were kidding, Tat. I mean it.”

  “Dushenka,” Tatyana soothed gently in their parents’ tongue. “I was teasing. These are good people. You know I’ve a sense for such things.”

  “Are you sure? Tell me you’re sure so I can be very convincing when everyone starts going crazy over what you’ve done.”

  “I’m positive. Stop worrying. The only danger was of freezing my ass off and stepping in a cow pie. Both of those dangers have been eliminated, and I’m fine now. Better than fine. You’d drop dead on the spot if you could see this place. Donald Trump would be jealous.”

  “You know, as much as you’ve been bitching about your week, you have the damndest luck,” Lidija said enviously. “I bet those two guys you were telling me about are gorgeous and single, as well as rich. I just know it.”

  “Believe me, men this good-looking and living together are very probably gay,” Tatyana laughed.

  “Don’t try to make me feel better. Go eat dinner. Call me when Dimitre comes home. Remember, if you want, any one of us can be there in a couple of hours to back you up.”

  “That isn’t necessary. Lidija, tell everyone not to worry. I’ll get to the bottom of all of this and live to tell the tale. You’re right, you know. Someone had to do something, and I did. Now everyone can relax while I scope out the deal here.”

  “Relax? This family?” Lidija said with a snort.

  “Good-bye, dushenka.”

  “Good night.”

  Tatyana hung up the phone, shaking her head and smiling to herself. When she had headed up to the Catskills, she hadn’t even told her father or brothers she was going. No ‘why’ or ‘where,’ knowing if she did they would try to talk her out of it. Even though they were as eaten up with worry and concern as she was, they would have reminded her that Dimitre was a grown man living an adult life.

  But it wasn’t like that between her and Dimitre. They were ... special. She and Dimitre had always had a very special ‘sense’ for one another. Call it being psychic, or ‘the sight’ as her Old World family did, but of the many siblings they were singularly connected. Ever since she was born, Dimitre had always known when she needed him. He always knew when she was in trouble or hurt. As she had grown older, the ability became reciprocal. Her sight had been narrowed in on Dimitre for weeks now, bringing her confusing and sometimes terrifying images. She had even begun to have wild dreams, occasionally nightmares, in which Dimitre was under a constant cloud of danger. How the hell was she supposed to ignore that? She also couldn’t tell anyone else about it. They knew how accurate her sight was and it would have freaked her family out. It was better that she find out for herself what exactly was going on in this house with these people. On the surface everything seemed copacetic, and so far her psychic sense wasn’t even so much as twitching a warning to her. Hopefully she was just being neurotic and overprotective.

  “You don’t have a hint of an accent.”

  Tatyana jumped in her own skin and pivoted quickly to face one of her hosts.

  Hunter Finn.

  “I beg your pardon?”

  “Your Russian is flawless. Your heritage is obvious in your name, of course, but you speak like a native without any hint of accent. Are you second-generation American or first?”

  “First, actually,” she said slowly. “My parents came over after my first three siblings were born. You speak Russian?”

  “I spent a few years in Russia and far longer in Romania. My Russian is passable, my Romanian and Romany are much better.”

  “Romanian and Romany? There is a difference?”

  “Yes. Mostly dialect.” He shrugged as if it weren’t so remarkable that he should know this. “I didn’t mean to eavesdrop on your conversation. I only wanted to let you know we were going to relax with something to drink before dinner, in the front parlor, when you’re ready. And”—he paused, his eyes taking on a beautiful illumination that took her breath away—“I’m not, you know.”

  “Not?” she asked dumbly. “I don’t...”

  “Gay,” he clarified. And in case she was in doubt of it, he let those brilliant blue eyes of his slowly drop down over her, let them reach out and connect to her in an almost physical touch. Tatyana felt her skin turn bright and white hot everywhere that assured masculine gaze touched. It was so fast and so sharp it was as if he’d set fire to flash paper, a dazzling burst of flame dancing to life. Then he winked at her and left the room, leaving her speechless and gaping in his wake.

  “Passable Russian, my eye,” she muttered as she pressed cool hands to her flaming cheeks. The dirty rat. It was incredibly bad form to tease her about a private conversation he’d had no business listening in on in the first place. It wasn’t as though that had been the last thing she’d said, either. He’d been standing there a minute or two at least.

  Tatyana looked at the empty doorway thoughtfully. It wasn’t lost on her how incongruous it was to encounter such educated and obviously worldly people in such a remote setting. They were a strange mix, these three. A Southern belle, an Englishman, and ... she wasn’t exactly sure where Hunter Finn originated from. She heard the occasional lilt of the Slavic in his speech; he was darkly colored in a very eastern European way, and yet there was something very American in his manner. Still, how was she to conclude anything on an acquaintance that must not even total an hour as yet?

  Tatyana shook herself mentally and turned to search for a reflective surface. She wasn’t about to go looking for a bathroom in this monstrous house. With her luck she’d get lost. She found a highly polished steel shield and looked herself over. Her cheeks were windburned and her lips a bit chapped from her journey in the cold, but otherwise she deemed herself presentable. She was suddenly grateful for the expensive silk dress with its bold red color and soft glimmer of sparkles. It had done squat for her in the cold, but for sitting down to drinks and dinner it was just the thing. At least she would be off to a good start as she tried not to embarrass her absent brother.

  “Good God,” she sighed, “when did I become so insecure?”

  She wasn’t the type to feel outclassed no matter where she went or whom she met, but for some unknown reason she felt terribly like a fish out of water tonight. As though, instinctually, she felt that these people surpassed her in some way beyond her comprehension.

  She shook the alien feeling off and headed out of the library.

  Chapter Five

  “If you want my opinion as Sentinel, of course I’m going to say we have to get rid of her,” Hunter said flatly. “The looming danger of the dark coven hunting us makes this no place for an ignorant civilian.”

  “My thoughts exactly. Annali, what in the world were you thinking?�
��

  “Oh, come now, Ryce. You’re overreacting!” Anna declared. “You’re just being paranoid.”

  “After what happened to Gracelynne?” Ryce snapped. “Not bloody likely!”

  “Ryce has good reason to be concerned,” Hunter interceded, “but when I step away from the role of Sentinel, I have to agree with Annali.”

  “Thank you,” Anna said, pulling her shoulders back with triumph.

  “We aren’t just witches, Ryce. We are human beings. This woman is family to our fellow witch. That makes her family to us by association.”

  “Blast.” Ryce sighed, knowing Hunter was right. “I’m always the one trying to remind everyone how important it is to live our lives as humans as well as witches, and here I am being reminded by the two of you.”

  “You’re concerned for her safety. We all are. But frankly, I’d rather have her in here with us. The second she walked into this house she became associated with the coven,” Hunter pointed out. “If any warlocks are out there watching, they might go after her just to see what she is worth. Hell, knowing them they’d do it just because she is beautiful. Then they’d take what they want just like they always do.”

  The idea was sobering to the trio. They had each seen up close the twisted ways dark witches had of taking what didn’t belong to them, never caring if it destroyed someone’s soul in the process. That was the very definition of dark witchery. Take. Get. Grab. Selfishness and greediness backed by monumental powers and corrupted magic.

  “We’ll keep her in the house until Dimitre returns,” Ryce said gravely. “We’ll do our best to keep our magic hidden until he decides what to tell her. We cannot let her go unprotected. You are so right, Hunter. The moment she walked over that threshold, everything changed.”

  More than either of them know, Annali thought apprehensively. She was nearly shuddering with relief that they were focused on protecting Tatyana so closely. If they only knew just how much of a target to warlocks Dimitre’s sister truly was...