Infernal Hunt Complete Set

by Holly Evans

  "Come on, Evie... just a bit of breath and some hairs."

  I gave Quin a dark look. "You have plenty of bits in that workshop you share with Kadrix. How is Kadrix by the way?"

  I feigned innocence when Quin's laughter stopped and he blushed. I'd never seen him blush over any woman; the elf had really sunk his claws into my dear brother.

  Lysander pouted at me. “Now, Evelyn, leave your brother be."

  I smiled sweetly. “Are you forgetting your place?"

  He grinned at me. I let it slide; no one had taught me how I was supposed to handle a hellhound, and we got along well enough, perhaps too well at times.

  Quin handed me a muffin. "You were still in bed when I cooked breakfast, so this will have to do."

  I squeezed his arm and made eye-contact. “Kadrix is treating you well, isn't he?"

  His mouth dropped open. "Yes, he is. He makes me feel like I'm walking on air..."

  I gave a small nod. That was all the information I needed. Elves weren't something I would touch, they had a horrible way of dealing in sacrifices. If you wanted anything from an elf, there had to be a sacrifice in return. I didn't want to know what Quin may have sacrificed.

  Lysander distracted me from my thoughts, his arms slipped around my waist. "Are we going for a run, mistress?"

  That sexy smirk that I loved so much sat on his lips. I stepped back, removing myself from his arms. He was a hound, I couldn't go where he wanted, no matter how much my body disagreed.

  I gave a small shrug and said, "Another time; I'm going to visit Elise. I haven't seen her since the hellmouth incident."

  She had said she needed time to recover from the ritual; it had clearly taken a toll on her. Still, I missed her, and it was about time that we caught up on everything that had (or hadn't) happened.

  Lysander gave me a pout, but soon turned to Quin and said, "Coming for a run?"

  Quin dragged his fingers through his hair and gave the hound an apologetic smile. "Sorry, I have plans with Kadrix."

  The hound's shoulders slumped. “Looks like I'm running by myself then."

  I patted him on the shoulder. “I'm sure a big bad hound like you will survive running around the city by yourself."

  He bit his bottom lip holding back his retort. I turned and headed to get dressed before I gave in to my desires.

  It was unusual to find someone other than Elise in her church. I thought I'd caught some sexy man slipping out of the door once, but I couldn't be sure. Elise wasn't allowed to settle down or date, not until her lady gave her her final partner, but she was allowed, and from what I heard, encouraged, to enjoy herself. The church was filled with voices when I pushed open the large wooden door; I wondered if perhaps I'd forgotten that she was having a meeting or some such. I peered around the corner, trying to assess if I was intruding or not. Elise was standing near the front of the main room in front of the white altar in her full priestess garb. Another priestess was standing near her in a flowing pale-yellow dress and bright yellow flower in her hair. I hadn't dealt with many of the other paths, but I thought the yellow meant the sun god; as far as I was aware, the sun god and Elise's lady, the moon goddess, weren't on fantastic terms.

  My curiosity had been piqued. I leaned around the corner a little farther, trying to ascertain who else was there. Three tall men had their backs to me, each of them stiff and uptight. Two wore expensive pitch-black suits, the other pale blue jeans and a relaxed white shirt with the sleeves rolled up. My eye wouldn't quite settle on them. They couldn't have been human. Or perhaps they were an unusual form of male witch; male witches were rarely powerful enough to be able to emit such magic, though. I frowned. Elise scowled and glared at one of the suits; the priestess in yellow stood a little taller and matched Elise's glare. Another priest stood on the other side of Elise, clad in soft heather greys, a fellow follower of the moon goddess, perhaps. I really hadn't paid much attention to the deities; Elise had told me they were important, but they hadn't mattered much in my life. I was a hunter, not a woman of faith.

  "Miss Hawke, we're aware that you're there," a deep gravelly voice said.

  It seemed to come from the guy in the jeans.

  I walked out from behind the corner and strode up to them with a small smile. "Am I interrupting?"

  Elise smiled. “Of course not, Evie, these gentlemen were just leaving."

  "No we weren't," an icy male voice said.

  Elise glared at the blond man in a suit. His hair was slicked back, his grooming immaculate. His stance spoke of an experienced fighter, slightly tense, but relaxed and confident. His suit hung beautifully, showing off his hard lines and soft curves just so.

  I smiled sweetly. "Aren't you going to introduce me?"

  Elise's face hardened. She gestured at the three men with a broad sweep of her hand.

  "Evie, meet the celestials."

  I raised an eyebrow at her and mouthed, 'seriously?' Celestials came to our plane about as often as demons did. It was a very difficult task for them to come to our plane, and there was some pact in place that stopped them from interfering, supposedly at least. To have three of them standing in Elise's church was no small deal. Elise sighed heavily and gave me a small nod. I ignored them; they had an unpleasant reputation for being arrogant fuckwits.

  "And your other friends?" I asked, nodding at the priest and priestess.

  Elise relaxed a little. She gestured to the woman in the yellow dress, who gave a small curtsey.

  "Petra is a lady of the sun god. Jackson is a priest of the sky god."

  I looked the man up and down. His soft grey robes hung a little too loosely to get a proper impression of him, but he had a strong jawline and bright blue eyes that held my attention.

  He smiled, an easy expression that sat well on his lips. "We were called here, by the men behind you."

  Distaste sang through his words. No one was all that fond of celestials; they weren't as bad as demons, of course, but like most things that wore a suit for any length of time, they weren't much fun.

  The gravelly voiced celestial cleared his throat, drawing my attention. I turned to face them; my fingers ran over my blades subconsciously preparing me for violence.

  The blond said, "I am Zair, this is Ioel, and that," he gestured with some disdain at the one in the jeans, "is Tiel."

  Tiel flashed me a devilishly sexy grin and bowed low before he offered me his hand. His grip was firm without trying to prove something. His deep green eyes held mine.

  "It's a pleasure to meet you, Evelyn."

  I concluded that not all celestials were as bad as they were made out to be.

  Zair glared at Tiel, who raised an eyebrow and gave him a small smirk in response. Elise shook her head at us, whereas Jackson looked a little put out. I walked away and stood by Elise, making my allegiances clear.

  I said to Elise in a loud whisper, "I thought celestials weren't able to come to this plane?"

  Zair crossed his arms and sighed loudly. I tried not to grin.

  Elise said, "The hellmouth opening upset the balance, which allowed them to come down and pay us a little visit."

  She practically hissed the last two words.

  I smiled at her and leaned in a little closer. “Do you want me to rough them up?"

  She giggled and finally relaxed. "I think I can manage, thanks, Evie."

  I pouted and said, "Spoilsport."

  Tiel was smirking at us; the other two, however, wore looks that could kill. They were too easy.

  I crossed my arms and said, "I thought celestials were supposed to have great white wings, you look more like businessmen than terrifying warriors of old. Are you the gods' errand boys?"

  Zair turned an interesting shade of purple. Huge pure white wings burst from his back and spread out behind him, the wingspan enough that they almost spanned the church.

  I gave a small shrug and said to Elise, "Eh... I've seen better. You?"

  She shook her head a little. “He's certainly not what
I'd expected, with such a pretty suit. It's a little disappointing."

  Tiel howled with laughter while Zair huffed and retracted his wings once more.

  "We were told that humans were pathetic little meatbags, but you girls are quite fun," Tiel said.

  I looked at Elise before she said to him, "Thanks... you're not as unbearably pompous as I was led to believe; your friends only have one stick up their ass."

  Zair audibly ground his teeth together, his hands clenched before he turned and walked to the back of the church. Tiel grinned at us and took a step closer; the middle one, with mud-coloured hair, seemed torn. I fluttered my eyelashes and wondered what his buttons were.

  Zair had taken a few minutes to calm and smooth this feathers; Tiel had composed himself.

  "What brings you here?" Elise said coldly.

  Zair sniffed and looked down his long narrow nose at us. "The balance was upset."

  I shrugged and waited for them to get to the point. They simply stared at us.

  Elise and I passed a look between us before I said, "So you're here to do some paperwork? Are there some forms we need to sign, or...?"

  Ioel, the muddy-haired one who'd remained pretty quiet up until then, said, "We're here because the hellmouth opened, and things need to be returned to as they belong."

  "The hellmouth was closed. Things are how they're supposed to be," Elise said.

  "No thanks to you," I added.

  "You screwed up, you allowed demons to come onto this plane, and the balance was upset. It was not our place to step in and save you; you're the guardians, are you not?" Zair snapped.

  I took a step forward closer to him and snapped back, “We did not allow demons to come onto this plane. If you were so fucking concerned about it, maybe you should have stepped in to protect your precious balance a little sooner.”

  "We shouldn't have allowed you such autonomy in the first place. The moon goddess gave you all too much freedom; our lord..."

  "Is too uptight and screwed up," Tiel finished for him.

  The other two shot him dark looks. I fingered my blades and wondered how susceptible celestials were to blades made of their own feathers. The image of plucking Zair flitted into my mind. I'd make enough money to buy a small island.

  Elise moved to stand at my side.

  "Do you have a reason to be here, or are you just going to make shallow remarks?" she said coolly.

  "We're here to aid in restoring the balance. Things have not been entirely fixed yet. There is the matter of a witch who has grown too powerful," Ioel said.

  "You're so big and fucking mighty, why don't you kill her and move on?" I snarled.

  Their attitude was grating on me. I didn't appreciate the idea of higher beings looking down on me at the best of times. Zair sighed melodramatically before Tiel stepped closer to us and spread his arms in a placating gesture.

  "We're rather limited in what we can do, as it's not our plane. Thus, we need your help to resolve this little problem."

  The front door opened and Lysander strode up behind the celestials, his hackles raised and teeth bared.

  "How sweet, your pet has come to check on you," Tiel said with a smile.

  Zair curled his lip. “You could have trained it."

  Lysander stalked around the celestials, his eyes never leaving them, his muscles tight and teeth fully bared. He stopped at my side.

  "I felt your aggression and came to make sure you were ok, mistress. I see that you need a little help removing the trash."

  Zair's mouth tightened; Tiel, however, laughed. "How sweet, he's quite the little guard dog, isn't he? How hard does he bite?"

  Lysander went toe to toe with Tiel, the hound's head a few inches shorter than the celestial's, not that he seemed to notice while he snarled at him. Tiel was entirely unfazed, a small smirk remaining on his face. He raised his hand, Lysander smacked it aside and went to grab Tiel's throat. Elise gave me a warning look.

  I sighed. "Lysander, back off."

  Zair's mouth twitched with a smile; Tiel crossed his arms and puffed his chest out a little. Lysander grudgingly returned to my side.

  "You haven't explained what the fuck you want or how we're supposed to get rid of you," I said.

  Tiel pouted. "Are you sure you want rid of us? I'm sure we could have some fun."

  Lysander snarled. I rolled my eyes. I wasn't going to rise to such obvious bait.

  Zair said, "We need to find the witch and put an end to her plans. There's also the matter of the balance."

  He gave Lysander a dark look. I smiled sweetly and trailed my fingers over Lysander's collar.

  "As you can see, the hound is mine and will be staying. Anything else?"

  Zair ground his teeth once more and said, "Find the witch."

  With that, he vanished, taking his quiet friend with him. Tiel blew a kiss at Elise and me before he vanished. Lysander paced and snarled, growling about celestials in a mix of English and what I assumed was the infernal language.

  Jacob looked between Lysander and me, a small scowl forming on his face. I ignored him; I'd had my fill of pissy, pouty men for the day.

  The priestess, Petra, said in a very light and bubbly tone, "Well, that was awkward."

  I raised an eyebrow at her. She smiled broadly and gave a small clap.

  "I don't deal with witches, so you're on your own. It was nice to meet everyone."

  With that, she sashayed out of the church. Elise stared daggers at her back.

  Lysander was still pacing and growling.

  After a few minutes, I said, "Hound. Stop."

  He lowered his head and stood before me, looking every inch the wounded puppy.

  Jacob smirked. “So you have trained it after all.”

  “Lysander is not an it. Why exactly are you here?” I said.

  He shrugged. “I’d hoped to have some fun, but apparently that’s not going to happen. Petra had the right idea. Later, Elise."

  She muttered something under her breath before she huffed.

  "Looks like it's just us again,” she said.

  I hugged her tight. "That's all we need."

  4

  Lysander had remained glued to my side; Elise, however, stayed at her church, saying she needed to speak to her lady. I found myself running my fingers over the inside of the hound's wrist as we stood on the tram approaching Kadrix's workshop. The celestials had put him on edge, and my desire to soothe him overwhelmed the need to keep some distance between us.

  A spark of electricity passed between us when the hound's fingertips brushed over mine in return. I turned away from him and pulled myself together. I could feel the smirk that sat on his lips as I walked ahead of him. Things had changed between us after the hellmouth had been opened. When I'd held him in my arms and thought I was going to lose him, something was knocked loose within me, and no matter how much I tried, I couldn't hide it away again. The sun crept out from behind the thick pale-grey clouds and blinded me for a moment; it always sat too low in the sky in spring. I swore I saw something skirt over the roof of the lékárna, although nothing was there when I peered at the red tiles. Shrugging it off, we walked into it, giving a polite smile to the guy behind the counter as we slipped into Kadrix's workshop. The feeling of magic surrounding me still put me on edge, but I was getting used to it. I'd seen that magic wasn't necessarily as evil as I'd previously thought.

  The elf had his white-blond hair pulled back in a messy bun with his copper goggles perched on his head. It took me a second to spot Quin amidst the chaos; he was usually attached to Kadrix at the hip, but he had his back to the alchemist, a scowl etched on his face. I narrowed my eyes at Kadrix. I was very protective over my twin; if he'd hurt Quin, he'd suffer. Lysander cleared his throat while I wove my way between the sacks of books and workbenches covered in various alchemical paraphernalia.

  "Is everything ok?" I asked Quin.

  He sighed softly and glanced at Kadrix before he forced a smile. "Yea, it's… yea. What brings
you here?"

  Lysander growled, "Celestials."

  Kadrix suddenly gave his us his full attention; Quin, however, merely frowned before he finished pouring the thick viscous liquid into the silver bowl in front of him.

  "What about celestials, Evelyn?" the elf asked, his voice edged with daggers.

  I pursed my lips and fixed him with a dark look. "They were in Elise's church, harping on about the balance being upset. What did you do to Quin?"

  He paled and looked away. "That is between your brother and me.”

  "If you hurt him it'll be between you and my blades,” I growled.

  "Evie, we'll talk later," Quin said softly. "What brings you here?”

  I glared at the elf; Lysander was mirroring the expression. "The celestials mentioned something about a witch being too powerful; we're supposed to track her down and put an end to her nefarious, balance-disrupting ways. I was hoping that perhaps one of you had some connections we could use."

  Things were rough between us and the witches; a lot of them had sided with the demons during the hellmouth incident. There were still hedgewitches and others, though, who could have been of use. Kadrix carefully fixed the vial he was holding in a set of clamps and gave us a small, tight, smile.

  "There is a hedgewitch, as it happens. I've been trying to keep connections with them; they're good for profits."

  He scribbled down an address and thrust it at us. Lysander took it from him while I caught Quin's eye; I wasn't going to let it slide. I wasn't what you'd call a people person, but I was fiercely loyal to those few I did have close. Quin glanced back at Kadrix before he muttered something about taking a break and gestured for me to follow him out the back door.

  Lysander remained close on my heels, his mouth pulled into a stern straight line and his eyes dark. He'd quickly grown attached to Quin. His protectiveness was unlike anything I'd dealt with before; I didn't know what to do with it. Quin leaned against the wall in the small courtyard at the back of the lékárna, his eyes fixed down on the plain cream concrete.