by Leia Stone
“We’re not blowing anything up, remember, Tianna?” Haru said from where he stood a few feet away. “Evie will be closing the gate with as little collateral damage as possible. Reo and I’ve been training our whole lives to assist the kitsune to do this. We’ll get it done.”
She nodded. “As will I.” A smile pulled at her lips. “And if I get to blow shit up, that’s just a bonus.”
Haru opened his mouth to protest, but I raised a hand to stop him. “What about my, uh, dad? Can he help?”
Haru and Reo shared an uncomfortable look. Reo cleared his throat. “We’ve been trying to reach him, but he’s not answering.”
Great. My dad rose from the dead only to disappear again. Did the recent Akuma attack have anything to do with him not answering? My heart thumped. Shit. Was he okay?
“We’ll keep trying,” Haru said, “but in the meantime, this is our best bet.”
I nodded, shared a tight smile with Brock, and got right to it. Better to rip the Band-Aid off all at once. This gate could be wide open and leaking demons for all I knew. I needed to shift and get over there, stat, to check things out.
One more tail, coming right up.
I pressed my eyes shut, pictured myself as a rusty-colored fox, and let the fun begin. I grunted and groaned as my bones cracked and my flesh stretched in impossible ways. If the pain had decreased, I wasn’t noticing it. Panting and heaving, I tried to curl into myself, but already my body was beyond my control.
When I popped the fifth tail, I grit my teeth and growled ferociously. Then the pain began to subside until, finally, I was entirely a kitsune. I shook my furry head to clear the remnants of pain and bared my teeth.
Time to hunt some sirens.
21 Die Bitch. Just Die Already.
‘Smell that?’ I asked Brock as we ran in animal form toward the gate. The unmistakable brine scent of salt water permeated the crisp forest air.
‘Either the sirens are already on the property, or that tsunami is hitting sooner than predicted.’ He confirmed my thoughts.
My money was on those bitches being on our land. Why couldn’t the sirens be like the mermaids of my childhood dreams? All smiles, pearls, and granting wishes?
“We’ve got your back!” Tianna called out, and I glanced over my shoulder. The fae-witch was running full tilt behind us while Cass rushed beside her on his hoverboard. Haru and Reo were next to them, with a dozen wolves fanned out around them.
We had the craziest little crew, but something about it felt so normal, comfortable, like we’d been family from the start.
‘Tianna says to put up a shield in case the sirens are lying in wait,’ my bestie sent through our telepathic bond.
Good idea.
Pulling on my witch magic, I created a bubble of protection around my fox form, just like Tianna had taught me. It had become easier to identify my separate kitsune magic and witch magic within myself, but at the same time, they felt as if they were beginning to coalesce into one more powerful, unified force.
Brock, who’d been running next to me, suddenly stopped, peering down at my paws. His yellow wolf eyes were wide, muzzle open in shock.
Shit. What now?
‘Walk a little,’ he told me.
The others stopped and joined Brock’s wolf in staring at me. What? Had I manifested some freaky gift that I couldn’t see, like a unicorn horn? Obliging Brock, I padded forward a few steps.
Tianna gasped. “That’s so cool! Your paws don’t leave prints. You could walk in the snow and be completely untraceable!”
What the actual fuck did she just say?
Looking down, I walked a few more steps. The blades of grass didn’t even bend as my paws passed over them.
“Kitsune gift number five,” Haru commented, awe in his voice.
The power of shifting, purple healing magic, super scent, sensing demons coming out of the gate, and now this. I was starting to lose track. I guess having too many kitsune powers to remember them all was a good problem to have.
‘I like this gift,’ Brock told me. ‘It will keep you safe if you need to run and hide.’
I was processing what he’d said, and the many possibilities my new gift opened up, when I heard a whooshing sound like water coming from the direction of the gate. Spinning around, I took off in a sprint, Brock and the rest of our crew right on my heels.
We were still on the part of Brock’s property where the trees were sparse and the land between them clear and open. But we were about to enter the denser portion of the forest, where the trees grew close together, concealing the gate behind them. It was difficult to see beyond the trees, my vision obscured by thick tree trunks and low-growing ferns. Yet for a second, I thought I glimpsed her.
Calista.
That bitch killed Gran. She’d admitted to it and I still let her live. What the fuck was wrong with me? I should have drowned her in the pool in the ritzy gym. Fuck my job and fuck the bounty. I wasn’t playing by the rules anymore. My teeth were going to rip out her throat.
As we neared the area that surrounded the gate, the ground grew soggy. Brock’s paws splashed in a few inches of water, whereas mine didn’t.
Crazy magical shit.
The closer we got to the area of the gate, the more water there was. Brock’s large wolf paws were sloshing through it now. I was just trying to figure out why the sirens would be flooding the land when I spotted the gate to the underworld. A circle of spinning green light six to eight feet high glowed in the middle of the forest. A bright, green fog only I could see swirled in a continuous motion above and around the gate. And a tendril of thick, green sludge—a glowing sickly ooze—seeped from the crack in the gate—the source of all our problems.
Calista and her sister were identical from a distance. Long green hair that looked like strands of kelp hung to their waists. They were both lithe and lean in what looked like bikini tops and short skirts, but lined with long muscles. They were barefooted, as was a siren’s preference, to better sense the water beneath them.
They stood about ten feet to the right of the gate, looking away from it, scouting the ground around them. Behind them, the water was cascading into the gate.
And when they noticed, which they would, they’d have the location of the gate.
Shit, shit, shit.
Even without being able to see the gate itself, the water was flowing into it and disappearing. Anyone would be able to notice how the water in all directions dropped and vanished at one single point.
The bitch was smart. Calista had been doing this to see where the water traveled, knowing the gate was cracked open a little and that the water would flow into the underworld, revealing its location.
Brock must have realized her intent too, because he changed course, pivoting and running out into their line of sight, trying to draw their gazes away.
If the sirens managed to open the gate all the way and call through the army that I’d seen readying inside it, we were so fucked there’d be no unfucking ourselves.
The sirens spotted Brock right away. They sank into battle stances, knees bent, hands out in front of their bodies, and hissed, narrowing their eyes at him, and then at his pack of wolves assembling in front of them.
I decided I’d be of better use in my human form with my katana, so I started to shift as Reo and Haru made their way over to my side. In less than a minute I was standing naked in the water, which rose halfway up to my calves. I was ready to fight these bitches naked when Reo tossed me a loose sundress. Tugging the dress down over my head, I reached out and took the blade he also offered me. The moment my fingers wrapped around the hilt of my katana, purple magic flared to life along the newly restored blade.
Reo leaned close. “They’re demon in essence. Behead them and then stab them through the heart to be sure,” he whispered in my ear.
I nodded. Glad he was also on board with killing these psychos.
Brock and the pack were pushing the sirens away from the gate when a wall of wat
er rose up behind them—where they wouldn’t see it in time.
“Brock, look out!” I screamed, and started running toward him.
The sirens were too powerful. It was unnerving. No one should be able to command a wall of water as massive as this one. It had to be at least ten-feet tall.
“I can see the lines of power. They’re pulling from the ocean!” Tianna said from beside me and I jumped. She’d come out of nowhere, running as fast as I was. Cass zipped up next to us on his hoverboard, trailing sparks of the golden magic he used to power it.
“How’s that possible?” I shouted, almost reaching Brock, whose wolf was now fully encased in a water bubble. “We’re like forty miles from the ocean.”
Those damn witches the sirens were allied with were powerful. Really powerful.
I didn’t have a plan; I wasn’t that type of fighter. I operated on instinct, and my instincts were telling me not to let the love of my life drown. While Tianna and Cass squared off with the sirens, I crouched without stopping to place my blade on the ground and ran full speed into the wall of water encapsulating Brock.
My body broke through the water and crashed into Brock’s wolf with such force that something snapped as my arms wrapped around his middle like steel bands. Pushing with all my strength, and using the advantage of momentum, I muscled us both out of the wave and onto the ground on the other side, all while keeping my katana from stabbing either of us, a feat in itself.
Brock’s drenched wolf heaved, gasping for air as his wolves whined around us.
‘Thanks,’ he huffed through my mind.
Rage like I’d never experienced before consumed me. The sirens had killed my gran, and now they’d tried to take out my baby daddy.
Those bitches were going to die.
Standing, I sidestepped the hovering vertical wall of water and gripped my katana tighter.
‘Evie, you look scary as hell. What’s your plan?’ Cass was on his hoverboard, staring at me and throwing the occasional golden ball of magic into the fight.
‘No plan,’ I said, before charging at the sirens, katana raised.
I was fast and Calista didn’t notice me until I drew close. Close enough to cut the bitch. Turning toward me, her eyes widened as she took in the threat. She raised an arm over her head to protect her face as I swung my blade down onto it, sinking my katana into her forearm with a wet thwack.
Yes!
“You bitch!” she hissed, reeling away from me.
I was about to deal another blow when she thrust her arms out, throwing an orb of pearl-colored magic straight at me.
Panic ripped through me.
Would my protective bubble shield hold? Could my katana block her attack? What the fuck was it?
Before it could collide into me, I thrust out my right palm and pushed every bit of magic I had at her—kitsune and witch magic swirling together in my defense. With a grunt, I shot purple lightning from my hand. It struck her pearl magic, making it vanish in a flash of purple light.
“What the fuck was that?” I asked.
“Later,” Tianna groaned. Calista’s sister had the fae-witch backed up against a tree, pushing her forearm against her throat, choking her. I started to go to her aid, but Cass was already zooming over on his hoverboard with a wild look on his face. His black eyes were narrowed menacingly and his mouth was pressed into grim lines. He was going to flatten the siren for threatening his woman. Golden magic crackled between his palms as he steered his hoverboard over to Tianna.
‘You get that bitch, I’ll take care of this one,’ my bestie said, his voice rough with anger.
‘You got it,’ I said to him, then met Calista’s shocked gaze. She wouldn’t know what my purple lightning magic was any more than I knew what her magic orb was. My guess was that she didn’t know anything about my true nature or what I was capable of.
“It’s over,” I said to her, flicking a quick glance to the wall of water behind me that she’d moved to prevent the others from joining us. Every time Brock, his wolves, Reo, or Haru attempted to circle the liquid shield, it circled with them, cutting them off in all directions as if the water had a mind of its own.
Abruptly, Calista whipped her head around in the direction of the gate. I wasn’t sure what had drawn her attention. Maybe it was the soft sound of cascading water, difficult to hear over all the tumult. Whatever it was that had alerted her, I lunged, sword forward, aiming to distract her before she could spot the water pouring into the crack in the gate.
But she was prepared.
A second wall of water rose up and slammed into my face with so much force that my head felt like it would burst from the pressure. Water entered my nose and mouth before the sheet of water fell away.
I coughed and choked, working to clear my nostrils.
What the fuck happened to my shield?
“I found it, sister!” Calista shrieked, calling out to her sibling, and my heart sank as she took off running for the gate.
Fuck!
With a ferocious battle cry, Reo and Haru charged through the wall of water that had been holding them back and I sucked in a deep breath of panic. What if the water drowned them as it’d tried to do with Brock? But my warrior protectors burst through, swords drawn, no harm done beyond being soaking wet.
The wall of water crashed as they emerged on the other side of it. I suspected Calista had been the one maintaining it, and with her now distracted by the fucking gate, my warriors managed to break the magical hold she had on it.
My warriors stormed after Calista. I took off running after her too, hoping to cut her damn head off—when something yanked on the back of my dress, causing me to lose my balance and fall backward.
A streak of gray darted in front of me, rushing toward the sirens and the gate.
Brock.
Motherfucking possessive stalker baby daddy.
Calista was in the middle of turning to defend herself against Reo and Haru’s attack, cradling her injured arm against her chest, when Brock lunged at her, jumping onto her back and clamping enormous wolf jaws around her shoulder.
Yes!
Regaining my balance, I stood just as Haru sliced through the air in front of Calista—and that’s when the bomb went off. Well, not literally a bomb, but it sure as shit felt like one. Brock was on Calista’s back and the next second he was flying off of her, twisting through the air. Haru and Reo went flying too.
Water sprayed in all directions, making it difficult to see or make sense of much of anything. It was like a cyclone had hit us. By the time the mist cleared, I was just able to make out a sea green streak of hair following the flow of the cascading water … into the gate. A second flash of green hair as her sister streaked into the gate right after her. Both sirens dove feet first into the funnel of water draining downward, vanishing.
My stomach dropped.
Calista and her sister were in the underworld.
Fuckity fuck fuck.
I charged forward, holding my katana ahead of me, aiming straight for the gate.
Cass zoomed in front of me, halting me. “Whoa, whoa! Ev, baby. What are you doing?”
“I’ve got to kill them! If the triplets get together again and bring the underworld army to Earth—”
“Evie. You’ll be eviscerated if you go through the gate.” Cass cut me off. “Only demons can pass into the underworld. Your body won’t be able to sustain existence there.”
Dread pooled in my stomach and radiated outward into my limbs.
Tianna appeared over my shoulder. “I’ve cut off Calista’s connection to the ocean, so that should stop the tsunami. She won’t be able to access the power of the ocean again until she returns topside.”
At least there was that. The water that had flooded Brock’s land was already draining … into the damn gate.
“What now, then?” I asked my bestie and his lover as Reo, Haru, and the wolves gathered around us.
A firm, possessive hand on my shoulder announced Brock’
s human presence behind me. “Now we wait and prepare for war,” he said in a gruff, fierce voice.
Fuck. So much for nesting and having lots of sex.
We had a fucking war to win.
Continue Evie and Cass’ adventures in book 3 of Supernatural Bounty Hunter, Magic Touch, expected to release in June or July of 2019.
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Acknowledgments from Leia
Wow what a fun Co-authoring experience. A big thank you to Lucia for being an amazing, creative, and easygoing individual. I can’t wait to write the rest of this series with you! Thank you to our editor Lee from Ocean’s Edge editing, and proofer Stephany Wallace for putting the finishing touches on this manuscript. Also a huge thanks to our ARC team for their excitement for this book and for helping find any last typos. Lastly, thank you to my family as always for supporting my dream. Love you guys.
Oh and I can’t forget, thank you Tate James for teaching me what a crotch goblin is.
Acknowledgments from Lucía
A huge thank you to Leia for having faith in our seed of an idea, which led to the adventures you just read. I didn’t realize it could be so much fun to share a fictional world with another writer! Of course, Leia is no ordinary author. In her, I found not only a fabulous writer, but also a wonderful friend. Leia, I’m ever so grateful to share this wild ride with you, girl.
I’m also deeply thankful to all the readers who make the endless hours working on our books worthwhile. Creating magical worlds is a great passion of mine, one which would be far less meaningful without your support. Thank you, dear readers, for all your enthusiasm and love for our characters! It means the world to me.
