by Kelly Hall
“I don’t know, but at least we know for sure what we’re up against.” Rebekah looked at her arm, which was already beginning to heal, and she hoped Jarreth wouldn’t ask any questions. Was her cover blown?
Jarreth looked down at their clothes. “I guess grabbing lunch is out.”
Chapter 20
They were halfway home when Jarreth began asking her a million questions. “Where did you get that dagger?”
“A friend.” He didn’t need to know the friend was from ancient Rome.
“Are you hurt? Are you okay? Is it bad?”
She was starting to feel relieved that their lunch plans were ruined. “I’m fine. I’m calling the academy and having our new squad rounded up. Now that we know what we’re up against, I want to start training immediately. We’re going to stop them from hurting anyone else and find out what the hell they want.”
She took out her phone and called Ignis, who answered with a teasing tone. “Don’t tell me you need my help with the old woman.”
“Fine, I won’t. I need you to get Canter to round up the squad and meet us in the garage with Father Timms. We’ll be there in half an hour.”
“You’re winded. Should I bring a towel?” Ignis had been right about how the mission would go.
“Better make it a few. And tell Sam to get the hose ready. This car is in bad shape with all of this shifter blood.” She ended the call, and before Jarreth could berate her with more questions, she turned up the radio. The song was hard and gritty, just like she felt.
Back at the academy, Canter was busy carrying boxes when Ignis came into the room, looking like someone lit him on fire.
“You, Canter!” His finger pointed as if making an accusation, and Canter froze, his eyes wide as if the mage was going to burn him down with magical flames. Ignis let out a sigh, and his shoulders sagged. “Well don’t just stand there, come on.” He waved him over.
Canter dusted off his pants and left Sam working on boxes alone. “Bex asked me to get you and have you round up the others and meet her in the garage. She and Jarreth will be back in a bit, and I’m afraid their outing turned violent.”
“Are they okay?” Canter’s eyes were filled with concern for his friends.
Ignis nodded. “Of course, but she wants to get training started as soon as possible.”
“Sure thing. I’ll get the others and meet you there.”
As Canter turned away, Ignis approached the old man who was moving boxes from the floor to a dolly at a turtle’s pace. “You’re Sam, right?” The old man barely had time to nod. “You wouldn’t happen to have a hose, would you?”
Sam looked at Ignis like he’d lost his mind.
As Jarreth pulled into the garage, Rebekah reached over and gripped his arm with her blood-stained hands. “You leave the talking to me.”
He nodded as he put the car in park. “Yeah. Of course.” He liked the fact that she bossed him around, and seeing her covered in blood, knowing how brutal she’d been on those shifters, it only made her more attractive.
Ignis approached as Rebekah stepped out. He had Sam with him. The old man frowned as she got out of the SUV in her bloody clothes. “Shit,” he said as he let out a breath and turned to fetch the hose.
“That’s the most I’ve ever heard him say,” said Ignis. “And don’t you look like I expected? I should have put money on that one.”
“But you didn’t, so I don’t have to hear you gloat about it for the next hundred years.”
He cleared his throat, and Rebekah realized that Jarreth was hanging on her every word. She hoped Jarreth wouldn’t think anything of the hundred years comment and waved it off. “Did you get Canter?”
Canter and the others appeared on cue and filed into the garage. “What the hell happened?”
“We were attacked in the parking lot just outside of the nursing home. There were seven wolves and a red-eyed mage. We took down four of them, but the others got away. I’m sure there would have been more if it hadn’t been the middle of the damned day.”
“Seven was plenty,” mumbled Jarreth.
“Shifters and a mage?” Canter looked to Ignis, as if curious about his opinion. The mages were his people. Would he feel any sort of loyalty to them?
“I know it’s a different scenario, something we’re not used to, but at least we know what we’re up against. I want you all to start training.” She turned to Ignis. “Did you get the hologram room fixed?”
“Yes, I traced the malfunction to the dark magic that I felt lingering. It seems that before it faded, it caused an interference.”
“Any idea what the dark magic was all about?” Rebekah asked. “What were they trying to do?”
Ignis shook his head. “No idea, but I got the hologram room back on track.”
“Good.” She turned her attention to Canter. “Start training immediately. I want you all on your A-game when I call. Ignis, meet me in the office in ten. We have some work to do.”
Everyone scattered, and as she walked off, Jarreth followed in her steps.
She stopped and turned around to face him. “Is there something else?”
He had never seen anyone so fearless or skilled, especially a woman, and that dagger—that dagger had shielded her from dark magic—but what he was thinking was crazy, wasn’t it? “No.”
“Good, get yourself cleaned up and join the others.”
She walked away, and he couldn’t wait to get to the hologram room.
He still couldn’t get the events out of his head. This shit going down was for real. There wouldn’t be any waiting a year for their first mission.
He got to his room and headed straight for the shower. He lathered and rinsed, and then lathered and rinsed again, each time the suds growing a bit less red. The smell of blood, which had always smelled like pennies to him, exchanged for soap.
He dressed in his sweats and a tee, pulled on his shoes, and headed down to the hologram room where everyone was just organizing a new session.
“Is that what you’re wearing?” asked Canter when he arrived.
“Yeah, sue me, but all of my clothes are dirty, and I couldn’t exactly wear the pants I had on earlier. I think I might have to burn them.”
Delilah walked up, and he pulled her into his arms. She breathed in his fresh, clean scent and then pulled away. “What the hell happened?”
“I got assigned to drive Rebekah into the city to a nursing home, and when we were leaving, we were attacked.”
“Were you hurt?” Delilah looked him up and down, hoping she wouldn’t find a scratch.
“No, one grabbed onto my leg, but all he got was a mouthful of my pantleg. I kicked him in the face.”
“Did you make a kill?” Cooper asked as he walked up and slapped Jarreth’s hand.
“Yeah, I got one.” Everyone seemed impressed, but Jarreth wasn’t planning on telling them everything that happened. He needed to get Canter and Delilah alone.
“Way to go, man. I can’t wait to get out there.” Cooper balled his fist and punched his palm.
Jarreth looked at Canter and gestured to the observation room. “Hey, man, I think I want to sit this one out.”
Canter nodded. “I was going to watch and see what everyone needs to work on, so you can sit with me if you want.”
Layne stepped up. “Get this thing going, man. Some of us aren’t tired from a surprise mission.” He and Cooper slapped hands.
Canter got everyone in their places as Jarreth slipped out and took the stairs to the observation room.
Delilah caught up with him. “Are you okay? It’s not like you to sit out of a training mission, especially when the other guys are giving you shit.”
“I’m not worried about them. They’ll see what it’s really like soon enough.” They had no idea what they were in for.
“What was it like?” asked Canter as he joined them.
“It was scary, intense, surreal. It all happened really fast. It wasn’t like you’d think. Here, we
have time to relish in it almost, but when it’s real, fuck that. You’re too busy doing. There’s no time to think. It’s all pure instinct at work, almost like you’re a machine.”
Canter opened the door, and they continued up into the small observation room.
“Go on,” Delilah urged. She had never heard him talk with so much passion.
“Like I was saying, it was like I was a machine. You haven’t tested your instincts until you’re around one of them. Every hair on my body was on end, and I felt this overwhelming urge inside of me. I can’t wait until you can feel it, too.”
“It’s sounds amazing, almost euphoric.” Delilah wanted a taste.
“It’s indescribable.” Jarreth breathed in a deep breath and leaned back against the wall. “But what I really want to talk to you about is Rebekah.”
Of course, thought Delilah. Always Rebekah. His preoccupation was nauseating, and she hated the fact that the two had been off alone together. She refused to let that show, though. “How’d she do? Was she scared?”
“No, she was like an animal. She turned around and stabbed one of them before I could blink, and she gutted one as he lunged on top of her. She had this dagger; I didn’t get too good a look at it because she keeps it under her coat, but the damned thing did look an awful lot like that sketch I have of Stella.”
Delilah gave him an elbow. “I told you. Do you think she’s the Huntress?”
“I’m not sure, but the way she took on the mage, it wouldn’t surprise me. I’ve never seen anything like that before in my entire life. She held up that dagger and deflected the magic away from her. It shot off the blade and hit a wolf. Whatever that magic was, it was powerful. It took down the wolf, and that’s when they ran. I think they were just as surprised. After that, she jumped in the car and we peeled out of there. I didn’t slow down until we got on the highway.”
“Sounds like whatever we’re dealing with is serious shit.” Canter reached up and rubbed his mark.
“It’s definitely not going to be flying witches and devil pigs.” Jarreth looked down to where his friends were hunting in the arena. In comparison to the real thing, the holograms were juvenile, almost as if the training were designed to make them fail out on real missions.
Canter walked over and pressed his forehead to the glass. “Some of us could be killed out there.”
Delilah swallowed a hard lump that had formed in her throat. “Or all of us.” She glanced over at Jarreth and couldn’t imagine a world without him in it.
Chapter 21
Rebekah took the side entrance past the offices and made her way to the stairs, hoping no one would see. Even though it was a training academy, she didn’t want to draw attention and hoped that Jarreth had the same sense.
When she made it to her room, she shut the door and began peeling off her clothes. She shimmied from the tight pants and then sat on the floor to take off her boots. With nothing but her hair to cover her, she beelined to the bathroom and turned on the water.
Stepping beneath the spray, she watched the water turn red as the blood—hers and the shifters’—stained the white tile beneath her feet. She looked at her arm, and it was already healed. The skin had stitched itself together over the past hour, leaving an angry red line that would soon disappear and a trail of blood down her arm. Once she rinsed it away, she took the bar of soap and worked it across her body. The lather was fresh and frothy, and its scent finally killed the coppery tang that had permeated her nose and pores.
Finally, she was clean, and she sank down to the shower floor for a moment to gather her thoughts before she turned off the water. After stepping out to towel off, she brushed out her long hair and left it hanging loose to dry. Then she pulled on some spotless clothes and made her way down to the office where she had asked Ignis to wait.
He sat behind the desk and stared out the window. A ray of light shined in and made his skin seem paler than it was and his five o’clock shadow look like embers. He stood as she walked in, anticipation burning in his eyes. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” Rebekah walked in and waved him off. She needed space to think.
“Was the entire visit with Estelle a flop?”
“No, but I need us to rethink our options and fast.”
“You mean she’s bad off? Worse than you thought?” Ignis hated that for her. Knowing there wasn’t much he could do made him feel useless.
“She’s got Alzheimer’s, Ignis. She wasn’t in her right mind, and I didn’t have the heart to try and tell her that Merik was gone. Her nurse said that even if she remembered who Merik was, it wouldn’t mean that she’d understand.” Rebekah ran her fingers through her damp strands. “Considering the attack took place right outside the facility, I want to move her as quickly as possible to a safer place. This just confirms that someone is trying to target my bloodline.”
“It seems so, but why would anyone want to speed up the Prophecy of Hope? Something is way off, Bex, and I don’t like it.”
“I agree. Someone’s on a deadly mission, and we need to find out who it is. Someone may have hired them all. You should have seen it, broad daylight and they cornered us in a parking garage. They’re fearless. God forbid if some civilian was strolling to their car.”
“Maybe you should call in backup. Hell, you could have at least called me today.” He couldn’t help but feel slighted.
She turned her head to give him a pointed look. “Sorry, I was a bit busy.” She didn’t have time for his sulking. “Which brings me to my next problem; I had to use Stella. You should have seen Jarreth’s eyes. I know he caught a glimpse.”
“I know you have this hope for anonymity amongst the trainees, but it isn’t like you can help it. What will it hurt?”
“I’d like to maintain my privacy. Not all of us want crowds of adoring fans.” She thought of Ethan and wondered how his singing career was going. She remembered the days he would perform around camp fires, and how he used to charm the ladies. He’d finally achieved his dream. She just wondered how he was going to explain the fact he didn’t age. Perhaps he would reinvent himself again. She knew it was best to stay private and anonymous. People didn’t ask as many questions and that was just fine with her. Hunters didn’t have time for gossip. They had work to do.
“Before you get lost in bitterness, just hear me out. It’s inevitable, Bex. It’s time for the Immortal Huntress to come out of hiding and get back to business. I know you’ve been miserable, and it’s not just because you’ve been forced to work the administration for the Fellowship, but because that in doing so, you haven’t had a chance to be back out there.”
“It was kind of nice to see those bastards bleed. Especially knowing what they did to Merik and the others.”
“That’s my Bexy, always ready for the smell of blood and the taste of victory.”
“Are they not one and the same?”
“You’ve still got it, baby.” He chuckled. “That fire and spirit, it burns in you. It’s a desire, a craving. Feed it.”
“Actually, I think my place is here for a while. Are you prepared to stay? You know that’s what it’s come to.” Rebekah knew there were better places he would like to be.
“I don’t know. Ireland was growing on me.” He gave her a teasing grin, and they shared a laugh that was a tad bit weary for her.
“I am going to miss my castle. I was just getting the damned thing the way I wanted it. And I suppose I’ll have to keep the staff on to take care of it while we’re away. Or at least hire a caretaker.”
“It will be there when you get back.” Ignis tried his best to comfort her. She’d put so much work into the house and having every wall, every piece of trim, right down to the furnishings, placed just right. He knew she would miss it.
“Whenever that may be.”
As the sun dipped down into the horizon, they shared quiet conversation, and she explained Estelle’s situation and gave him all the information about the mage she could remember. Then, soon aft
er, Lulu brought them dinner in the office, and they ate in peace, away from the watchful eyes of the trainees who no doubt had already heard about the fight, especially since Lulu had asked her if she was okay.
“Well,” said Ignis, getting to his feet once their dinner was done. “I’m going to retire to my room. I have a bit of research to do on that mage, and just my luck, my damned phone is about to die.”
“You should enchant it to last longer.” Rebekah knew he loved to mix magic and electronics.
“Whoa, I’ve got too much on my plate as it is.” He held up a hand. “But I’ll put it on the backburner.”
“Let me know if it works.” She got to her feet, too, stretching her arms and thinking how good a massage would be. Ethan used to give the best, his strong hands digging in to just the right spots, but that had been so long ago.
With nothing to do and the trainees all winding down for the night, she gave herself the extra time to rest while she could. It wasn’t so much her body that needed it. Being the Immortal Huntress, her body had excellent stamina, but that didn’t mean her mind couldn’t grow weary once in a while.
It wasn’t long before sleep took hold, and her thoughts stitched together a dream. She moved on the crowded dancefloor, her body swaying to the pulsing music as she let herself go. She hadn’t danced in years, but Ignis was there too, egging her on.
“Isn’t this fun?” He leaned over, whispering as he ground his hips into the beautiful blonde in front of him, as well as her friend, the brunette, who stood behind him, making an Ignis sandwich. He smiled, clearly in heaven with the two giving him attention.
Rebekah closed her eyes and spun around, feeling hands on her hips, the soft caress of a lover on her waist, up the inside of her arm, his lips on the back of her neck. A hand clasped hers, and she spun around, opening her eyes to find herself alone. Ignis, the ladies, the crowd: all gone.
“Ignis?” The smoke thickened in the club, and the music throbbed like a heartbeat in her ears as she walked across the dark expanse. The floor changed beneath her feet, turning softer and carpeted, though she couldn’t see it through the fog.
