Huntress Apprentice (Huntress Clan Saga Book 2)

by Jamie Davis

  She dialed up her stamina bar and drew on it to increase her speed. She was surprised by how little her stamina status changed this time. Her recharge earlier had given her a lot of power to draw upon. Quinn picked up speed until she raced through the trees, weaving in and out of them in a dark blur of motion. There was no way to tell how close the slayers were to their final target, whoever it was.

  Quinn opened her enhanced senses and tried to draw in all the scents as she ran along. The familiarity of what she sensed surprised her. The smell of the forest, the faint tang of the brackish water of the Chesapeake Bay nearby, and other things she couldn’t quite identify, all seemed like things she should know.

  She kept working at it in her mind as she sped through the trees, closing the gap on the slayer hit team ahead of her. She’d almost reached them when everything snapped into focus.

  Recognition of the various smells and sensory input gelled when her eyes fell on something familiar in the HUD map.

  Quinn froze behind a tree, knowing the slayers were probably close enough to hear her. It didn’t matter. She had no time to do anything sneaky. It was an emergency.

  She tapped at the earpiece and waited while she searched for signs of the slayers amidst the trees ahead.

  Please let her be in time.

  “Quinn, you’re on speaker,” Taylor said.

  Quinn probably didn’t need the phone. She was so close already that it didn’t matter anymore. She shouted, “Guys, get out! Run!”

  “Quinn, you’re not making any sense. We’re safe here at the farmhouse. Talk to Clark.”

  Quinn glanced at the HUD map. “There’s no time. The target IS the farmhouse. Watch out. They’re all around you!”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Clark paced across the room and back again for the twentieth time, returning to stand beside Miranda. He stared down at the empty dining room table.

  “What’s taking her so long?” he asked. “She’s been gone for over five minutes. She called right away last time.”

  Taylor pointed at the center screen with the brain scan alpha wave data streaming back to them. “She’s not spiking, and everything is nice and even, although it going faster than usual. She must be running.”

  “We should call her,” Miranda said. “After the incident today, maybe we should have figured out another way to take care of this. She needs some time to cycle the extra power out of her system. She might be tempted to do something rash.”

  Taylor’s phone rang, and she swiped the screen to pick up. “Quinn, you’re on speaker.”

  “Taylor, get out! Run!”

  “Quinn, you’re not making any sense. We’re safe here at the farmhouse. Talk to Clark.”

  Clark started to say something, but the voice on the phone cut him off.

  “There’s no time. The target IS the farmhouse. Watch out. They’re all around you!”

  His head jerked up and he stared out the dining room’s bay window at the darkness outside. He couldn’t see a thing. The lights in the room were blinding his night vision.

  Drawing his sword, he swung around to go turn out the lights so he could see outside and the three of them wouldn’t be lit up like sitting ducks. “Get down and stay down.”

  Miranda shook her head and hunched over Taylor in her chair, staring at the monitors. “We have to hurry up and bring her back.”

  “There’s no time,” Clark said. “She must be close anyway. She can hit them from behind. You two take cover. I’ll come back and get you when we’re finished.”

  Taylor started furiously tapping on the keyboard. “We can’t take the chance that she gets caught in there. We don’t know what will happen if we can’t bring her back.”

  “I don’t understand,” Clark said, stopping halfway to the light. “Why can’t she just walk back if she’s that close?”

  “Because she’s not all there,” Miranda said as she started pulling out spell components and setting them on the table where Quinn had been lying. “Part of her essence remains here in the computer system while she’s out there. It has something to do with how the programming allows her to access new skills and talents while she’s inside. If the computer shuts down without bringing her back, I’m afraid it’ll kill her or worse.”

  Clark didn’t want to know what was worse in this situation. “Fine, get her back. I’m still shutting the lights off. Watch your backs.”

  He turned back around and reached for the switch, but he didn’t make it. The bay window burst inward in a shower of glass and wood as three black-clad figures with glowing red eyes leaped into the room.

  “Get back!” he called as he charged forward, flinging a throwing knife at a slayer holding a crossbow leveled at Miranda’s back. The knife missed the slayer but struck the stock of the crossbow, knocking the shot wide. The bolt flew across the room to lodge in the wall.

  Clark followed up by jumping up so he slid across the dining room table. He swung his right leg around to kick the slayer in the head.

  The slayer’s glowing red eyes rolled up in his head, and he dropped to the floor.

  Clark landed in a crouch beside him and brought his sword down through the center of the slayer’s chest.

  He didn’t wait to make sure that one was dead. The other two slayers who’d dived through the window had started toward Miranda and Taylor.

  Miranda had cast some sort of shield between her, the tech witch, and the advancing attackers.

  Two more crossbow bolts flew at the women. The hastily erected invisible barrier worked, causing the bolts to clatter to the floor.

  The attackers drew medieval longswords and charged, angling slightly away from the two women.

  At first, their movements confused Clark. He thought they must be trying to circumvent Miranda’s barrier. Then one brought her sword crashing down on the first of the computer monitors arrayed on the tabletop.

  Taylor shouted, “They’re trying to destroy the VR rig. Stop them!”

  Clark understood then the attack wasn’t just about killing the hunter team. It was about eliminating their ability to cause further interference.

  He shifted direction toward the woman smashing at the monitors. She’d destroyed the first one and lifted her sword to strike the second. Clark pushed his hunter strength and speed to its limits. He blocked the downward blow, deflecting the sword to the side so it hacked into the table beside the two remaining monitors.

  The slayer turned to face him, her face locked in an angry grimace. “You can’t stop us, Hunter. You’re taking on more enemies than you can fathom.”

  Clark ducked under the slayer’s counterattack and lunged to try to get past her guard with a thrust at her gut. “I’ve faced impossible odds before. I’ve survived this long, haven’t I?”

  He punctuated his words with a grunt as he pushed the blade home. Before the woman danced backward, he managed to score a hit on her stomach, slashing open the fabric of the black shirt and cutting deep into her belly. Black ichor oozed from the wound, not blood.

  The woman clutched at the wound with her free hand and moved her blade to use its superior length to advantage over Clark’s short sword.

  She blocked the first two followup attacks but missed the third.

  Clark’s shouted, “Ah-ha!” followed his finding the angle to break through her defense. His blade bit deep into the woman’s neck, almost decapitating her.

  As this opponent dropped to the floor, Clark turned to the third slayer. That one was facing away from the hunter. He had both Taylor and Miranda clinging to his back, trying to pull him away from the computer system.

  The male slayer had started to cut through one of the multiple cable bundles with his sword, a Japanese katana. He ignored the two women on his back, trying again and again to cut at the wires leading into the rear of the computer tower beneath the dining room table.

  Clark dove and hacked down at the slayer’s sword hand. His blessed silver blade cut cleanly through flesh and bone, severing t
he arm at the elbow.

  At the same time, Taylor raised her arm, another of Clark’s throwing knives in her hand. He hadn’t given her another one, so she must have helped herself to his arsenal chest in the basement. He’d deal with that later.

  Taylor’s arm came down three times, stabbing the slayer’s back before the man fell to his knees and toppled forward. A few seconds later, he ceased struggling beneath the two women.

  Clark rose to a crouch, staying low in case any attackers outside had crossbows. “You both unhurt?”

  Miranda nodded and Taylor said, “I’m good.”

  Clark pointed at the computer gear. “Is it still working? Can we get her back?”

  Taylor nodded as she glanced at the remaining two working monitors. “I think so. I have to splice some wires, and it’ll take me a few minutes.

  The faint clash of steel on steel outside drew his attention. “Do what you can here, kid. Miranda, cast a barrier across the window after I leave, and watch Taylor’s back.”

  “Where are you going?” Miranda asked.

  “I hear Quinn fighting outside. She’ll need help. As soon as you’re ready, bring her back. Don’t wait for the call, just run the recall sequence.”

  Taylor had already started examining the cut wires beneath the table and didn’t respond to him.

  Miranda said. “Don’t worry, we’ll take care of it.”

  Clark didn’t wait any longer. He stood and took two steps before leaping through the window into the darkness. He landed in the grass, got his bearings, and darted to the left toward the sounds of fighting.

  Chapter Twenty

  Quinn raced through the trees, feeling surer of herself now that she knew where she was. She also knew what the stakes were. Three of the six red dots in the HUD moved into the farmhouse. The other three fanned out to form an arc around this side of the building.

  She angled for the closest of the dots while she drew on her amulet to enhance her night vision. She muttered the activation phrase she’d created: “Dammit, I need to see.”

  The hazy black and white before her eyes gained sharpness and definition in the bright moonlight.

  Quinn spotted the slayer and raced forward at full speed, her Bowie raised to strike at the figure’s back.

  The man must’ve heard her coming because he turned. He brought around a crossbow that had been hidden from her before. He moved nearly as fast as she did, raising the weapon and firing at her.

  Quinn juked to the left while bringing her knife down across her body. The descending blade caught the speeding bolt in midair and deflected it away from her chest.

  Not waiting to marvel at the odds of doing what she’d just done, she kicked out with her left leg to push off a tree, shifting direction to target the slayer who’d fired at her.

  The man had dropped the crossbow and drawn a pair of what were either long knives or maybe short swords, holding them ready for the charging huntress.

  Quinn boosted her speed even more, dropped to the ground, and slid with her legs leading the way. The move brought her in under the double attack the slayer launched at her with the blades.

  Her right foot kicked the legs out from under the slayer, dropping him to the ground on his side.

  Quinn used her remaining momentum to dig into the ground with her left foot and pop her back to her feet beside the downed opponent. The glowing red eyes flashed with a brief moment of fear just before she thrust her Bowie into his neck.

  He jerked once beneath her blade, then was still as the light dimmed from the staring eyes.

  Quinn moved to cover behind a nearby tree, where she crouched and searched for the next slayer in the arc outside the farmhouse. Her enhanced hearing picked up the shouts of a struggle inside.

  She shook her head, Clark and the others would have to deal with that for now. Quinn cleared her thoughts to focus on the targets out here. She had to trust Clark to protect Taylor and Miranda.

  A check of the HUD revealed the next closest slayer outside the home had shifted his position and started in Quinn’s direction. She concentrated while she whispered, “Mist” and smiled as the hazy blur around the edges of her vision signified that she’d dropped into shadow and was hidden from view.

  Quinn waited ten long seconds, made more anxious at hearing more shouts from inside the farmhouse.

  Her patience was rewarded. The slayer who’d started her way came into view, darting from tree to tree. He stopped occasionally and looked around. She was sure he was searching for his missing comrade.

  Quinn shifted around to the other side of the tree so she could move behind the approaching slayer.

  She moved carefully to the next tree in her line of movement. Her ability to hide in the shadows wasn’t perfect invisibility. If he looked right at her, especially outlined against the light coming from the house at her back, the slayer would surely see her.

  A few more careful moves, working to remain silent, put Quinn behind the slayer, about ten yards away. He was almost to the place where his companion lay dead on the ground. This slayer also carried a crossbow.

  She lined up her angle of attack and darted out from behind a tree, charging at his back with her Bowie raised to strike.

  He detected her approach. The slayer spun around, snapping off a shot with his crossbow.

  Quinn slashed downward with her blade but wasn’t so lucky this time. She gasped in pain and tumbled to the ground when the speeding bolt slammed into her left thigh. The powerful blow knocked her leg out from beneath her, sending her tumbling to the ground.

  She fought through the pain and turned her fall into a rolling dive. It wasn’t perfect, but she managed to come up to a kneeling position with her Bowie raised to deflect the next attack she knew had to be coming.

  The slayer swung a medieval longsword down in a slashing attack at her from above.

  Quinn caught the attack with her knife and twisted her arm to the side to deflect the powerful blow into the forest floor beside her.

  Twisting with the incoming attack, she summoned more strength, punching up into the slayer’s gut with enough force to launch him back several feet. He stumbled but managed to keep himself upright.

  The break in the action was enough to allow her to climb back to her feet. Her injured leg nearly buckled again from the pain. A quick glance down at her leg spotted the feathered end of the crossbow bolt sticking out of her thigh a few inches above her knee. The leg throbbed, and she tested it by putting more weight on it. It held, but she was at nowhere near a hundred percent.

  The slayer opposite her showed his teeth in an unfriendly grin. He knew she was injured and would likely try to take advantage by forcing her to push off that side. That’s what she would do in this situation.

  Two could play that game, though. Clark had told her in a fight to the death, making assumptions could kill you. Quinn ground her teeth together against the pain as she feinted right and then darted to the left despite her injury to get around the guy. It pushed her injured leg to its limit.

  Her opponent’s eyes widened in surprise at her move. He’d already started to react to the feint.

  Quinn took advantage of it, driving in hard while he tried to twist to meet the attack that had caught him off-balance.

  He managed to bring his sword around in a half-strength slash at her face. It was an attempt to distract her into bringing the Bowie knife up to parry it and give him the time he needed to recover.

  Quinn opted to twist her upper body to the side so even more weight rested atop the injured leg. Agony flared as it started to give out at last and her vision tunneled as a result of the pain. She fought through it and turned her pending collapse into a desperate attack.

  Quinn drove ahead with her shoulder, taking the slayer in the side of his ribs beneath his raised arm.

  At the same time, she pulled her Bowie around in a broad arc and plunged it into the guy’s back just beneath the ribs, slicing into his kidney and eliciting a scream of pain as hi
s free hand reached back to try to grasp the hand holding the knife in his back.

  Quinn yanked the blade free and fell to her side.

  The slayer stumbled to the side, too, as the mortal injury registered. He fell to his knees and then slumped over to the side, his face inches from Quinn’s.

  She watched to be sure the red glow in the eyes began to fade before she turned to get back to her feet and search for another target.

  Quinn rose to one knee to start looking for the remaining slayer out here with her. Her injured leg had finally given out, and her free hand clutched at the stub of the crossbow bolt still protruding from the wound.

  She spared a moment to glance down at her leg, then tightened her grip on the shaft while she tried to decide whether to try to pull it out. She didn’t know what to do.

  “If you pull it out, you’ll likely cut open your artery, if it’s not cut already. Then I wouldn’t have the joy of killing you myself.”

  Quinn looked around for the source of the familiar voice.

  Cindy, her eyes glowing bright red, stepped from behind a nearby tree. She had a crossbow leveled at Quinn’s chest as she moved forward. “You fell right into our trap. It took us a while to figure out who had killed our brethren at the fae’s home and then got away without being seen by any of the others. Once we realized how, it was easy to figure out who. Myles sends his regards. He would ordinarily offer to hire you and whoever managed the technical wizardry needed to pull this off, but in this situation, he was sure you would turn us down.”

  “He was right. There’s no way we’re switching sides.”

  “Really? You can’t win. We hold all the power, all the resources. Why not join us? We can conjure up an endless army of creatures and demons to fight you. We can lose as many as it takes. You can only lose once.”

  Quinn had to keep her talking and hope the others were faring better inside. “That’s exactly why you’ll lose. You claim it’s your strength, but it’s your biggest weakness. You use people up and throw them away like trash when it suits you. Eventually, your minions catch on and change sides.”