Infernal Hunt Complete Set

by Holly Evans

  I exhaled slowly through my nose. The previous attempt at it had burned like a sonofabitch and required a rather expensive salve from the alchemist to fix. He either conveniently didn’t remember that experience, or gleefully ignored it as his face contorted into a look of intense concentration. He twisted around trying to smear some of the stuff onto his ribs and lower back.

  His thick black hair began to fall into his eyes causing him to blow upwards; that only made things worse. I flopped down on the sofa and waited for my turn. I knew I should probably have helped him apply the stuff, but I’d seen it catch on fire. Twice. The pain of the injuries was growing and making me stiff, but I was too proud to allow it to show any more than was absolutely necessary. A quiet celebratory noise came from Quin’s direction; I assumed he’d succeeded in coating the wound from the lycan in the healing gloop.

  He stood and looked over to me with a grin on his face. “This is a new recipe, it tingles but it should heal things more quickly.”

  A weight settled in my stomach. He’d never intentionally harm me, and I trusted him with my life, but I couldn’t shake off the memory of the fireballs. It had been a long night and I really didn’t want to end it by being set on fire. Some of Quin’s previous experiments had resulted in nightmares for weeks. He approached me with a look of eagerness that wouldn’t be out of place on a puppy. With a soft shake of my head, I stood and prepared myself for his latest healing gloop. Our parents had been friends with a very strong old witch. She had taken us under her wing as children and taught us the basics of magic so we could defend ourselves. She also taught Quin the basics of herbs; he loved every second.

  The paste really did tingle; I had to fight not to squirm against the cold, almost fizzing sensation.

  “Is this from that elf, Kadrix?”

  I had to ask. I wasn’t fond of the elf alchemist, myself, but Quin had a way of making friends with all and sundry, the elf being no exception.

  “Sort of.” That didn’t fill me with confidence. “He told me how the three main ingredients come together, so I applied what Serena taught me. It seems to be working pretty well so far,” he said with a distracted tone.

  He was almost done, and it hadn’t hurt yet. He couldn’t help but keep poking and experimenting with things. I didn’t understand why he couldn’t leave well enough alone. Still, sometimes his experiments did help us, so I kept my complaints to myself. He stepped back, looking satisfied that everything had been done; he looked quite absurd with random splotches of bright pink on his lightly tanned skin.

  He wandered into the kitchen to wash up and called back over his shoulder, “It really is a shame you had to kill Serena, I could have learned more from her.”

  I sat down slowly, trying to keep the paste off the sofa.

  “She tried to kill me,” I said more defensively than I’d intended.

  It was still a sore topic; she had been a family friend. I hadn’t enjoyed taking her life, but she’d given me no choice.

  Quin leaned back against the kitchen counter, his eyebrows furrowed and his lips pursed. “I’m still surprised that she worked with that coven to have me kidnapped. I don’t understand why she did it, why me.”

  I rubbed my eyes, wondering if I could get some sleep before we visited the alchemist.

  I said with a sigh, “Why is that a surprise?”

  “I mean, she was a family friend.”

  I curled my lip; as far as I was concerned, their reasons were irrelevant. The witches were dead and Quin was home, where he belonged.

  I looked at Quin and smiled softly. “I’m sure you were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

  He’d thought highly of Serena; I didn’t want to ruin his memories of her any more than absolutely necessary.

  “Do you remember that time the lycan thought it would be hilarious to try and hump your leg?” Quin said, amusement dancing across his face.

  I laughed. “He didn’t think it was so funny when I castrated him.”

  “I’m not sure if he was more hurt by that or your rather scathing comments on his manhood,” he said with a laugh.

  “Well, you’d really have thought that a creature of that size would… have more to show,” I said. I narrowed my eyes at him. “Is this you trying to segue into telling me I need to get laid again?”

  He ran his fingers through his hair; that only added some sparkly gold streaks and made it stand up at interesting angles.

  “It has been a while, sis…”

  I walked to him and pulled him into a hug. “I love you, but I am not screwing a lycan. And no, I don’t care if it would be a fantastic experiment.”

  I couldn’t keep the grin off my face as I said it. He meant the world to me, but I’d been subject to more than enough of his experiments.

  Quin’s paste had done a pretty good job. The tingling remained even after I’d washed it off, but the deep cuts had knit together and left only pink marks. My thigh was still a little stiff, but much better than it had been. He, of course, was incredibly proud and beamed as he made notes in his leather-bound book of recipes. He was the older one by a few minutes, but I felt like the older sibling by a few years.

  “Kadrix will be fascinated to hear about this.”

  I pulled my leather jacket on and mumbled, “I’m sure he will be.”

  I was exhausted and wanted to crawl into bed, but it was better to sell the bits sooner rather than later. I didn’t like the idea of the parts disintegrating, the cleaning would be a nightmare. Quin finished scribbling a minute later and pulled on his own leather jacket; they were good for protection as well as being stylish. I ran my fingers down over the blades at my hips, just in case. The sun had risen, but I didn’t see any reason to be caught off guard.

  We headed over to the tram stop in high spirits despite the lack of sleep; it had been a difficult month, and we could finally justify having a few nights to just relax. I almost envied the humans that milled around us, with their normal jobs and easy lives. Ignorance was bliss. We’d wrapped the glassware in old towels to stop them from clinking too much; we didn’t want to draw attention, not that Quin could help it. A pretty brunette in high heels was fawning over him as the tram pulled up. She ‘accidentally’ tripped and fell against him, causing him to put his strong arm around her. I tried not to roll my eyes; he always did have the pick of the city.

  The journey to the alchemist’s was relatively peaceful. I allowed my mind to wander as I gazed out the window and admired the architecture. We’d moved to Prague in our early teens, we’d been there for a decade, and yet I always found something new to draw my eye and make me smile. There was so much detail, you couldn’t stop looking up. The architecture changed from more elaborate fare with angels holding up the upper half of the building and guarding spires to simpler plain white walls and tall red rooves. The tram turned the corner and stopped outside of the prettiest Starbucks in Europe.

  As much as coffee would have been a wonder, we walked around the back of the coffee shop and headed up the increasingly narrow road with the more colourful buildings to the alchemist’s. It sat next to a duck-egg blue building with elegant mosaics adorning its upper walls. Its front was an old-fashioned lékárna, a pharmacist in English terms. It played up the old world feel with large glass jars along the back walls, and a broad wooden counter between the customers and the medicines they came in for. We walked around the end of the counter and smiled politely to the quiet guy who kept it running to slip through the wooden door into the alchemist’s.

  The air almost vibrated with the elf’s old magic; it made my skin crawl for the first couple of steps down the short hallway. It always felt as though the white stone walls were closing in on me before we stepped out into the work area. Every surface was covered with something alchemical. Herbs hung from every inch of the high ceiling; ladders leaned against the shelves that filled all of the walls. Every shelf was bursting with bottles, bowls, vials, and other brightly coloured glassware. The five wood
en lab tables were equally crammed with burners, bowls, and beakers. Books were piled up below each table leaving narrow walkways and paths between the chaos. The elf was at the far end of the room with a pair of brass goggles on as he poked at a ceramic bowl that spat and hissed at him.

  Quin strode up to him, completely at home in the mayhem. “Kadrix, we brought you lots of redcap and lycan parts, we even managed to bring you some nymph vocal chords.”

  The elf raised his head slowly, his pretty mouth with the perfect cupid bow lips spread into a smile that he only shared with Quin. A tinge of jealousy formed, but I shrugged it aside; I had no interest in a relationship, especially with a supernal. I walked up behind Quin, staying a safe distance from the popping and bubbling concoction in the small black ceramic bowl before Kadrix. A small plume of green smoke erupted from the bowl, causing me to take a step back. Kadrix laughed softly at me as he pulled his goggles off to reveal bright blue-green eyes that practically shone against his pale skin.

  “Don’t worry, Evelyn, it won’t bite.”

  I glared at him as Quin laughed. I looked around for a space to put the backpack down so the deal would be done and I could go to bed.

  “I played with the healing paste recipe,” Quin said as he lifted his shirt to show where the lycan scratch had been. I cleared my throat and looked at them both pointedly; I had no intentions of standing around all day.

  Kadrix gave me a dark look, but pointed at a small clear space behind him. “Put the items for sale there. We’ll tally them up and you can go home. I see you haven’t come very far in your lessons on manners, Evelyn.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him, remembering all too clearly the lecture he’d given me when I demanded he help me find Quin. He had been right on some counts, but I didn’t like his tone. I emptied out my backpack, trying to arrange the varying jars and vials in some organised manner. The redcap nails looked even more revolting sitting by themselves under the bright blue light the elf had floating above us. Quin put his own bits down with mine. Kadrix stood a little closer to Quin and looked over the large selection.

  He said with a small purr, “You two had fun last night, then. I’ll give you sixty thousand crowns for the whole lot.”

  I crossed my arms and looked at him; the redcap blood and bits were worth that alone.

  He extended his hands, palm up and gave me a smirk as he held my eye-contact. “You can’t blame me for trying.”

  I felt the liquid charm of his words and glared at him before I spat, “Don’t pull your elven tricks on me. One hundred thousand or we walk.”

  He pursed his lips and said mockingly, “You wound me, Evelyn. As it’s you and your delightful brother, I’ll make it ninety thousand.”

  Quin licked his lips and smiled sweetly at Kadrix. The elf sighed melodramatically. “Fine. One hundred thousand. For Quin. You could learn a lot from your twin, Evelyn.”

  I ignored him and waited for him to hand over the cash.

  Quin gave me the notes and said, “I’m going to stay here for a little bit, I want to talk to Kadrix about that healing paste.”

  I opened my arms to hug him; I couldn’t leave him on a bad note.

  He smiled and hugged me saying in my ear, “Thanks, sis, I know you don’t approve of this alchemy thing.”

  I squeezed his shoulder, pocketed the cash, and headed home to my warm, comfortable bed.

  Kadrix had been his usual charming self; I didn’t know how Quin could spend any amount of time with him. I left the alchemist’s exhausted and ready to curl up on the closest bench and sleep. The comfortable seating in the underground section of the Starbucks was appealing. Instead,I leant against the ticket machine and waited for my tram to arrive. The city was beginning to wake. People bustled around in business attire; they mingled with the eager, early-rising tourists. The smell of trdelník filled the air, tempting me; my stomach growled at the wonderful scent of warm vanilla and cinnamon.

  I couldn’t resist. The woman handed me one of the sweet pastries just before a guy caught my eye. There was something about him. He was slightly taller than average with thick black hair that he'd styled in that sexy just-out-of-bed way that no doubt took two hours to perfect. A day's worth of stubble coated his strong jaw that gave him a slightly rugged pretty-boy appearance. It was the blue eyes that were almost indigo that held me, though. He flashed me a smile then melted away into the growing crowd. I bit my bottom lip and smiled to myself; my heartbeat had increased a little. I hadn't felt like that since I'd been with Christian. It was a shame that I'd caught him in bed with a pixie; I hadn't been with anyone since. Eighteen months was beginning to feel like a really long time to be without that sort of company.

  The journey home was uneventful; Quin came in not long after me. Even his usual effervescence had diminished. I sank into my bed, safe in the knowledge that the bank would be very happy to see me when I finally crawled back out of bed.

  My dreams were filled with the sexy guy that I'd seen at the tram stop. I chided myself for being so absurd; he was just a guy, we hadn't even spoken. Yet he remained rooted in my mind, just out of reach. I woke up feeling refreshed. I'm sure the smell of bacon, eggs, and cinnamon helped that. Quin was slaving over the stove, humming to himself, when I walked in. He placed two pieces of French toast onto a plate that was already piled high with bacon, eggs, and sausages. The table had been set. I felt a little guilty at not being awake to help him with everything.

  "Thanks, Quin, I really appreciate this."

  He grinned at me as he carried the plates over to the small table sitting in front of the large window at the edge of the kitchen area.

  "A good breakfast is essential, especially given you slept for twenty-four hours straight. If I hadn't have cooked, you'd probably have tried to sneak out the door with nothing more than half a pastry."

  I bit into the wonderful French toast and said around my food, "You could have been a chef, you know; I'm sure Savoy would be happy to have you."

  "What, and miss all the blood, gore, and fun?" he said back with a laugh.

  We finished up breakfast in a companionable silence. I took the plates and began cleaning them before Quin said, “We'll head out tonight, it's about time we found you some fun."

  I shot him a dark look; I wasn't ready for the kind of fun he was talking about. He regularly enjoyed the company of beautiful women, but I hadn't been interested in anyone since Christian.

  “Don't give me that look, sis, Christian left eighteen months ago. Look, I get it, you thought he was the one. You can't let that memory hold you back forever. He vanished, he's done, you're young, so live life!"

  I sighed heavily and couldn't help but wonder if perhaps I'd see the blue-eyed man again. It was foolish, verging on ridiculous; we rarely bumped into fellow hunters and people we knew out in the city, let alone mysterious strangers.

  Still, Quin was adamant. “We'll get a few drinks at Salen then head over to Nostalgia to dance and pick up some beautiful people. Don't worry, I'll be back by sunrise."

  With that, he gave me his most charming smile and headed off for a shower. There was no arguing with him, and I found that I didn't really want to. It'd been so long since I'd got dressed up and let go. One night of fun would do me good. I didn't have to spend it with a random guy, after all.

  The trendy underground bar was packed. People were pressed tightly against each other under the soft lighting. We managed to push our way through a number of the different areas in Salen, each one with different music and feel. I practically dragged Quin through the bebop section; I was not going to sit on one of the wooden benches and listen to that. We finally squeezed our way down the final narrow tunnel, the small tables pressed against the bare stone on our left. It opened out into a room no bigger than our living room with people crowded around more small round tables.

  I kept my eye out for fae; all underground bars are owned by fae, and the last thing I wanted was for one of them to show up and ruin our night. Quin leaned cas
ually against the simple wooden bar and flashed the barmaid a roguish smile while he ordered our drinks. I swore I saw the sexy guy from the tram stop across the room, his indigo eyes flashing under the pale yellow light. I tried to move closer to him, but he was gone before I got anywhere. I shook my head. I was imagining things. Quin was clearly right; I needed to find a little fun for the night.

  As if on cue, Quin appeared at my side with two shots of ouzo and a pair of mojitos on the bar. His eyes were shining, a grin spread across his face; he was in his element. I knocked back the potent anise-flavoured liquor that burned all the way down and chased it with a big gulp of my mojito. Quin laughed at me before he did another shot. He had always been a much heavier drinker than me. The DJ turned up the music, and I found myself dancing to the heavy beat that thrummed through the room as we pushed our way down the wooden steps to the deepest room in the sprawling bar.

  We squeezed onto a bench at the far corner and leaned back against the cool exposed stone. It was probably the alcohol, but I could feel my muscles finally starting to relax. The music filled the air and made a normal conversation close to impossible. I closed my eyes for a moment and allowed the energy of the place to wash over me. The worries of the city slipped away; it would survive without me for one night. Quin was looking around the room, no doubt hoping to find his latest conquest. His gaze settled on a brunette who looked incredibly bored with her date. She stifled a yawn as the guy kept talking animatedly. I glared at Quin; stealing her from under his nose was a little gauche. Even for a charmer such as him.

  Quin leaned in and said, “Someone is interested in you, go and grab some fun."

  I looked over at where he was pointing to see the guy from the tram stop. His black shirt hung over his athletic frame without hiding too much from my eager gaze. A small smile sat on his perfectly formed mouth, but he turned and walked away, giving a good view of his tight little ass mere seconds after Quin pointed him out. Quin sighed and gave me a look of 'seriously?'. I merely shrugged. I wasn't in the mood to chase anyone; I did enough of that as a hunter. At least that’s what I told myself; in truth, I didn’t want to make a fool of myself.