by Sarah Hawke
I only left one of them alive. After shattering his arm at the elbow, I grabbed his collar, hoisted him up off the ground, and slammed him against the cavern wall.
“Tell me where your boss is hiding, and I’ll let you live,” I snarled.
The reflection of my demonic visage glinted in his eyes, and I smelled the urine saturating his trousers before the wet splotches appeared.
“The bunker!” the thug stammered. “He’s in the bunker! Please…please don’t—”
I tossed him to the ground and glanced back over my shoulder. Jorem had crawled out of the cart, and his eyes were flicking back and forth across the carnage. His fingertips crackled with unspent Aetheric energy.
“Bloody hell,” he rasped. “Are you sure you need my help?”
“Come on,” I beckoned, retrieving my crossbows. “Sobren will have heard the ruckus. We need to move.”
Barely a minute before my suspicions were confirmed. As we charged through the mining tunnels, it quickly became apparent that the alarm had already been triggered. Whether they had heard our battle or found the body outside didn’t really matter. The point was that the hourglass had been tipped, and time was now our enemy.
The “bunker,” as the Brotherhood thug had described it, was little more than another junction in the tunnels warded off by barricades and protected by a squad of soldiers. I was actually tempted to go around, if for no other reason than killing them would waste time and give Sobren an opportunity to escape. But then fate finally threw us a bone: just before the Brotherhood soldiers raised their crossbows and fired, I spotted their boss and one of his bodyguards dashing away down another of the tunnels behind them.
“Not this time,” I hissed. “Jorem!”
As I rushed forward, crossbows firing, Jorem unleashed a barrage of sorcerous death. The fireballs exploded just a few yards in front of me, detonating the barricades and showering the entire junction in flaming debris. Two of the soldiers were instantly incinerated while several more were merely doomed to stagger around shrieking as their flesh melted off their bones. The rest were totally enshrouded in a thick black smoke, allowing me to pounce forward and gut them one by one before they could retaliate.
I was already running at a full sprint when I cleared the smoke and saw Sobren in the distance. He rounded a corner and ordered his bodyguard to stay behind and stall me, which was as sure of a death sentence as an official writ of execution. The man threw a pair of knives at me as I ran, and one of them even pierced my armor and nicked by shoulder. But I shot him in the chest twice before he could take cover behind a rock, and I whipped around the corner so quickly I nearly lost my balance.
The brief stumble probably saved my life. The instant I lurched forward and braced myself on my palms, a boulder whipped past my head and crashed into the wall just behind me. I glanced up just in time to see Sobren Lecasi standing fifty feet down the tunnel, his body teeming with Aetheric energy. Apparently he wasn’t going to try and run after all.
He snarled like a raging maanka cat as he thrust out his hand. I felt more than heard the telekinetic energy rip another chunk of rock out of the wall next to me, and I regained my balance just in time to try and lunge out of the way—
Too late. The boulder smashed into my left flank and pummeled me against the cavern wall, knocking the breath from my lungs and dislocating my right shoulder. I wheezed silently as I slumped forward, biting my lip to try and ignore the pain.
Apparently Sobren was smart enough to figure out what most sorcerers could not. Attacking a Senosi with magic directly was suicide—every gout of flame or stroke of lightning only made us more powerful. Attacking us indirectly, however…well, a rock was still a rock, and the vatari dust woven into my flesh couldn’t feast on its energy any easier than it could feast on an arrow or a ballista bolt.
But I wasn’t out of the fight just yet. Growling under my breath, I leapt back to my feet and charged forward again. My right arm hung limply at my side, but the left was more than ready to carve him to pieces. He hurled rock after rock at me, and my superhuman speed was the only reason I was able to dodge them all. I leapt, I juked, I rolled…and suddenly he was only a few feet away, his eyes glinting with rage…
Then a final boulder slammed into my good arm, hurling me across the chamber once again. The force of my impact shattered the thin cavern wall, and I tumbled wildly into an adjacent chamber. The pain was so intense I actually screamed. Both of my arms were broken, and I couldn’t feel my hands. The dust covering my face and hair was so thick I could barely breathe.
“Senosi cunt!” Sobren hissed as he stepped through the gap in the crumbling wall.
I could feel the Aetheric energy coursing through him, and I hungered for its power. With time, my flesh and bones would mend, but Sobren wasn’t going to give me that chance. I was broken, pinned, and utterly helpless…and he knew it.
“Your mistress may have driven us underground, but the Brotherhood will endure,” he said. “We always endure.”
He kicked a loose stone at me and cackled when he struck my forehead. Blood trickled down my brow, and I could barely see anything. Thankfully, I didn’t need to—I could hear a whisper of movement further down the tunnel, and my hunger could sense even more potential food on the way…
“Do you really think you’re the first Senosi to come after me?” Sobren sneered. “Did you really think you could charge in here all by yourself and kill me?”
“No,” I rasped, licking the blood from my lips. “I’ve learned that only a fool hunts alone.”
He paused, a momentary frown of confusion darkening his face—
And then screamed when a blast of pure Aetheric energy struck him in the side. He vanished from sight amidst the flashes of flame and lightning from a sorcerous duel. A trace of feeling returned to my left arm, enough that I could yank it free from the rubble and wipe the blood from my brow. Grimacing, I tried to crawl out through the gap, but I was still too weak. I held my breath when the flashes of magic finally stopped, wondering if the next person I saw would be my savior or my executioner…
“Bloody hell,” Jorem stammered. He was panting in exertion, and his arm had been badly burned. But he still dove down next to me, his brow creased with concern. “Are you all right?”
I smiled and brought my trembling hand to his face. “Never better.”
Epilogue
The sorcerer was standing in front of the cracked mirror next to his bed, his short hair still wet from his quick dip in the reservoir. He hadn’t shaved since our first meeting almost a week ago, but even though I didn’t normally like facial hair the stubble on his cheeks actually made him more attractive. It was annoying. Really annoying, in fact. How much easier would my life have been these past few days if he’d been some kind of hideous freak?
He probably thinks exactly the same thing about me.
“At some point you’re going to have to learn that I can see you hiding back there,” Jorem Farr said.
“No, you can’t.”
I had the satisfaction of watching him hop ever so slightly at the sound of my voice.
“You randomly say something every hour or so to see if I’m watching you,” I went on. “It’s a little paranoid, but also pretty amusing when I don’t answer.”
I could see him smirk even though he was trying to hide it. “So you caught on to my little trick. Clever girl.”
“I have my moments.”
“How long have you actually been there?”
“Long enough to watch you bathe. Do you always sing like that?’
Jorem finally turned around. “If you’re planning on reneging on our deal, you might as well just shoot me and get it over with.”
“If I was going to turn on you, do you really think I’d make it that easy?”
“Probably not,” he muttered.
Smiling, I slithered out of my hiding place near the ceiling and dropped down to the floor. There was no way in the abyss he could see me in the d
arkness without magically enhancing his vision, but to his credit he didn’t so much as flinch when I emerged from the shadows with my crossbow pointed directly at him.
“I assume your mistress was pleased?”
“Very,” I confirmed.
“How nice for her,” Jorem muttered.
“How nice for everyone , you included. A loss for the Brotherhood is a win for Vorsalos.”
“They’ll rebuild. Or they’ll just shift the bulk of their operations to Highwind or Greygale.”
“Perhaps, but not for a while. And in the meantime, Sobren won’t be able to terrorize any more helpless people. You deserve as much credit as I do…maybe more, if I’m being honest.”
“I’ll pass on that, thanks. The fewer people know my name, the better.” He leaned his palm back on his armoire in an effort to look relaxed. “So, do you have my gold or not?”
I pulled the trigger. The bolt lodged into the armoire a fraction of an inch from his hand, and this time he hopped a full inch into the air. Even better, the towel around his waist fell to the floor.
“It’s all there,” I said, nodding to the tiny coin purse dangling from the bolt’s shaft. “I spoke to the captain of the Maiden’s Fancy myself. He’s leaving for Highwind the day after tomorrow, and he promised me he could fit you in.”
Jorem glanced to the coin purse then back to me. “It’s that simple?”
“It’s that simple,” I assured him. “I’ll even escort you to the ship, if you want, though I doubt it will be necessary. He’s an experienced smuggler, and he usually works for us. None of my sisters will give that ship a second look.”
“I see,” Jorem whispered. His voice was hollow, as if he was only now letting himself believe that my offer might have actually been genuine. “So that’s it, then? You’re really done with me?”
“I still have four more shots,” I said, sauntering towards him. “If you dance around for me, I’ll give you another few silvers.”
He remained silent, his brow creased in thought. I approached within a few inches of him, keeping my gaze firmly on his eyes rather than his cock. It was surprisingly difficult. We had only just returned to the city a day ago, and my Senosi hunger was already growing desperate for another meal. Apparently Jorem was more addictive than dry lotus…
“Look, I understand why you want to leave Vorsalos, and I will fulfill my end of bargain,” I told him. “But there is another option.”
“I’m listening,” he said.
I let out a deep breath and tossed my crossbow onto his bed. “You and I made a good team—a really good team. And there are still a lot of dangerous sorcerers hiding in this city.”
“I’m not going to help you hunt down my own people,” Jorem insisted. “This was a one-time offer, sweetheart.”
“I’m not interested in orphans or refugees or random street vagrants just trying to get by,” I explained. “I’m talking about bad people. People just like Sobren Lecasi—people that are just as much of a threat to other sorcerers as they are to anyone else.” I smiled and nudged an inch closer. “People I can’t handle on my own.”
His dark eyes devoured me. “In exchange for what?”
“More gold, if that’s what you want,” I said. “But more importantly, I can offer you protection. I can shield you from my sisters and keep you safe.”
“And what happens when you decide I’m no longer useful?”
“Then I put you on that ship and say goodbye. But in the meantime, you’ll be a whole lot richer and a whole lot safer here with me. Just because there aren’t Senosi in Highwind doesn’t mean it’s some kind of paradise. You’ll still be an outcast.”
Jorem shrugged. “From what I hear, there are a plenty of opportunities for a sorcerer to make coin out east. And I wouldn’t have to rely on the charity of a woman I barely know who enjoys drinking blood.”
“It’s not your blood I’m after,” I said, inching forward again. “And there are other benefits to our arrangement.”
“Such as?”
I finally glanced down to his cock. It was as hard and ready as ever, and my mouth began to water uncontrollably just looking at it.
“I’m not like other girls,” I said, gently dragging my fingers along the shaft. “You don’t have to wine me or dine me. You don’t have to listen to me complain about petty nonsense. And I honestly don’t give a damn who else you fuck. You can go and shag that favorite whore of yours tonight for all I care.”
I glanced back up to his face and touched his lips with my free hand. “But you know exactly what I need. I’ll never make excuses. I’ll never say no. Any time, any place, any way you can imagine…as long as you feed me, you can have me any way you want.”
“That’s…that’s one hell of an offer,” Jorem managed.
“You know I’m good for it,” I said. “But just in case you’ve forgotten what’s at stake…”
I locked my arms around his neck and kissed him. His lips were like lightning and his tongue was like fire. I wanted every part of him inside me.
I was so hot when I finally pulled away that my arms and legs were actually shaking. And for once, it wasn’t just because of my insatiable lust for magic. I wanted him—not my Senosi hunger, but me , Valuri Sorvaal. I had never felt this way about a man before. I wasn’t sure I had ever felt this way about anyone before…
“I feel like you’re trying to tip the scales,” Jorem whispered.
“Maybe just a bit.”
He smiled and gently brushed my black hair. “This is such a bad idea.”
“Terrible.”
“I’m going to regret this for the rest of my life.”
“Probably.”
“Fuck,” he swore. “You never actually talked to that ship captain, did you?”
“Nope.”
“You knew I couldn’t refuse.”
“Of course not.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m a Huntress,” I said, slowly sinking down to my knees in front of him. Once his cock was dangling in front of my lips, I gently kissed the tip and smiled. “And I always get my prey.”
Also by Sarah Hawke
The Elf Slave Series
Slave to the Empire
Unbound
Unchained
Unbroken
Unleashed
The Spider Queen Collection
Web of the Spider Queen
Slaves of the Spider Queen
Bound to the Spider Queen
Vengeance of the Spider Queen
The Dragon Bride Chronicles
The Dragon Bride
Dirty, Filthy Fantasies
The Priestess’s Gratitude
The Headmistress’s Punishment
The Ranger-General’s Submission
Wings of the Seraph
Wings of the Seraph
Outcast
Spider Zero
Spectre
The Last Blade
For updates about new releases, you can follow Sarah on Tumblr (https://hawkenovels.tumblr.com/ ) or on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Sarah-Hawke-607848309369374 ) or Twitter @HawkeNovels
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And you can always drop her a line at [email protected]
About the Author
Sarah Hawke lives in New England with her two cats, a horse, and a car that actually functions now thanks to the generosity of her readers!
Table of Contents
The Amazon’s Pledge
Mark of the Huntress
The Black Mistress
Daughter of Destiny
Legacy of Winter
Wrath of the Inquisitrix
Huntress: Origins
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