Huntress Clan Saga Complete Series Boxed Set: Books 1-6

by Jamie Davis

  “No sense borrowing trouble, right?” Quinn said. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. First, we need to get in there. If we play our cards right, we should be able to find the collection, get the book, and get out again without alerting anyone. Taylor’s got the bypass for the alarm system figured out. Plus, the online brochure gives the layout of the museum building, so I know where I’m going. This should be a piece of cake.”

  “Many a botched mission started out with a statement like that, Quinn,” Clark said. “Stick to the plan, pay attention to your surroundings, and don’t freelance. Got it?”

  Quinn saluted but couldn’t hide the grin on her face. “Yes, sir. Permission to change, sir?”

  “Get outta here. Be back down and ready by ten-thirty so we can do a run-through of what the plan is one more time before we go live.”

  Quinn nodded and bounced out of the room. Ever since the amulet had been destroyed, there’d been a cloud hovering over her. It kept her from believing anything could ever be normal again. Now, in one day, her hope had been restored. The VR system was up now, giving them a way to stop the slayers again. Now they were going to get the book that would help her restore her amulet. Everything had fallen into place in a way that on most other days would have alerted Quinn to possible trouble ahead. In this instance, she wouldn’t let anything banish the hope filling her.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Just before midnight, Quinn stared at the ceiling. The VR goggles rested on her forehead as she listened to Taylor and Miranda going over their checklist again. Clark had left a half-hour before so he could be in position outside the museum to help if she needed it.

  Quinn let out an exasperated sigh. “You two have gone over the stupid list twice now. Even I know you’ve checked everything.”

  Taylor stood up and leaned over the table so Quinn could see her. “This is deadly serious, Quinn. I didn’t know everything Miranda did on her end of things. It’s a freaking ton of stuff, and now I have to do it on top of making sure the tech is working. If I screw up, you could get stuck somewhere in between where we can’t get you back.”

  Quinn smiled. She wasn’t letting anything break her mood tonight. “But you’re not going to let that happen to me, are you, sweetie?”

  “Not as long as you let me make sure everything is ready. Now I have to start the checklist all over again.”

  Quinn groaned and then saw Taylor’s smile. “Hah, very funny. I take it that means you’re ready to go?”

  “Yes. I’m going to try to make the transition as smooth as possible. Because I’m working both ends of the equation, I found some places in the code that didn’t match the magic. This will ease the process for you, I hope.”

  “I know you’ll do the best you can. Let’s get this over with.”

  Taylor glanced at Quinn’s waist. “You’ve got the gear I made for you to bypass the security system, right? Just follow the instructions I gave you. Try to bring the gear back so we can use it again.”

  Quinn patted the pouch attached to her waist, then checked her Bowie just to be sure. She nodded, and Taylor sat back down behind the computer screens.

  Miranda floated over her with a smile. “Put on the goggles. We’ll see you soon.”

  Quinn nodded, lowered the goggles over her eyes, and situated the cups of the headphones in place. Everything went dark and silent for a few seconds, and then the wrenching backward sensation hit her. She fell into the familiar darkness.

  When she woke up seconds later, Quinn lay completely still and stared into the darkness. She could just make out rafters in the ceiling above her. She strained to listen for anyone nearby. The plan Taylor had come up with placed her in the attic of the old home that had been converted into the museum. It was the only place they could be reasonably sure would be unoccupied, even at night. They figured any vampires or other guards would remain below, watching the building’s entrances.

  Glancing left and right, Quinn saw nothing until she murmured, “Dammit, I need to see.” The darkness changed to greenish light that filtered things into shades of gray. All around were wooden crates and cardboard boxes sealed with packing tape. The sloped roof didn’t leave a lot of space. Quinn would only be able to stand up in the very center of the room.

  Rolling to her side, she searched for the opening in the floor that would be the stairs entrance leading to the storeroom below. That was her next objective.

  “Quinn, can you hear me?” Taylor asked over the earpiece Quinn wore.

  Quinn tapped her ear to open the radio connection. “Yeah, I’m in. The attic is smaller than it looked in the drawings you pulled up. It’s pretty cramped up here.”

  Clark came on. “Can you find a way out?”

  “I’m looking now,” she said, chuckling. “If I can’t, that would suck, and it would make this a very short trip.”

  Quinn crawled over and around boxes and crates until she located the rectangular opening framed in the floorboards.

  “Got it. It’s got a trapdoor and has one of those folding ladders attached to it. It ought to be fun, trying to open and extend it from this side.”

  “Be careful,” Clark said. “Listen and make sure no one is down there before you go through.”

  A muffled voice said something Quinn couldn’t make out, followed by Taylor saying, “All right, I’ll tell her. Just wait.”

  “Are you talking to me?” Quinn asked.

  “Sorry, Miranda is pissed because ghosts can’t wear headsets.”

  Quinn stifled a laugh. “Tell her I know she’s here in spirit.”

  “Hey, good one,” Taylor said, laughing. She repeated what Quinn had said to Miranda, then said, “She wanted me to tell you to be ready for supernatural protections and spells. After your joke, she says, ‘Never mind.’”

  Quinn smiled. “Tell her I’ll be careful,” she said as she squared up to the opening and leaned over. “Okay, I’m going through.”

  Pressing her head to the wooden floor beside the opening, Quinn listened to the room below. She couldn’t hear anyone.

  Taking a deep breath, she moved so she could put her feet on the folded ladder and pressed down. The spring-loaded trapdoor opened and the ladder went down, locking into position. Quinn pressed her foot on the top until the base of the stepladder touched down below with a soft thump.

  The shelves in the storeroom at the bottom of the ladder were full of papers and pamphlets in boxes, along with boxes of paper towels and toilet paper rolls. Other than that, the room was empty.

  Quinn climbed down and turned to the door. According to the floor plan and what Taylor had been able to find in the planning and zoning database, she was now on the top floor of the museum. The map showed what looked like offices and a single exhibit of early hand-stamped printing presses. The area she needed was down on the second floor, just below her.

  She keyed her mic. “Clark, are you set up outside?”

  “I’m in place.”

  “Do you see any movement inside on the first or second floors? It’s all quiet up here on three.”

  “I’ve been watching for almost twenty minutes. There are a few lights on, but I think they’re just the ones they leave on at night since most of the windows are dark. I think you’re good.”

  Quinn nodded. “Okay, let me check something else,” she said. She mentally clicked on the map icon in her HUD, and a transparent overlay of the surrounding area popped up. She focused on her location in the center and searched outward for any of the telltale red dots indicating an enemy detected by the VR system.

  Seeing nothing nearby, she was about to close the map when she spotted a green dot at the edge. Quinn concentrated on it, and her map moved over and centered on the dot. It showed up just inside the entrance of a building across the street. It took a few seconds for her to figure out what she was looking at.

  “Clark, are you standing by the front door of a building across the street?”

  “Yes,” Clark said. “How did you
know?”

  “I have you on my HUD map.”

  “Oh, yeah,” Taylor chimed in. “When I was going over the code to review places I needed to merge the magic, I found that function and switched it on. You can now see allies on the display, but only ones you’ve got a personal connection with. You have to have met them before for it to work.”

  “That’s useful. Thanks, T.” Quinn canceled the overlay and reached for the storeroom door. “I’m headed into the museum. I’ll check in with you in a little bit.”

  Quinn tried the doorknob. It twisted with ease and she opened the door, stepping through into the museum’s third floor. There were no lights on this level, but there was a sensor blinking on the wall across from her.

  She froze, remembering the alarm system. She slowly moved the pouch at her waist around to the front, unzipping it as she did so. She pulled out a device a little larger than a cell phone, except this one had a mechanical keypad on it. Thinking back to Taylor’s careful instructions, Quinn pressed the red on-button and waited for the red light at the top to turn on. It blinked to life, and she keyed in the six-digit code she’d memorized.

  This was the moment of truth. She’d either just shut down the alarm system or ordered a pizza. Only Taylor knew how the hell the thing worked. All Quinn could do was stand there and wait for an alarm to sound, the cops to come, or the little light above the keypad to switch from red to green.

  Five long seconds later, the light blinked a few times between red and green before staying a bright and steady green. Quinn realized she’d been holding her breath the whole time and let it out in a long, slow exhale. The sensor on the wall with the blinking red light had turned off.

  “The alarm is off, Clark,” Quinn said. “Taylor, the little box thing worked.”

  “Good,” Taylor replied. “Don’t forget to turn it back on before you leave. If we’re lucky, they’ll never know you were there.”

  Quinn smiled. She’d love to pull off the perfect crime and stick it to Handon without him even knowing it. First things first, though. She had to locate the old clan’s life tome.

  Walking through the offices and into the exhibit area, Quinn moved to the open stairway. She started down, opening her huntress senses outward as a precaution. She had ways to hide from her opponents, and there was no reason the other side couldn’t hide from her tech and abilities, too. It was best to be ready for anything.

  Quinn activated her tracking ability, so her enhanced hearing and sense of smell kicked in. She continued down to the second level. In the background, she heard the steady drip, drip, drip of a faucet inside the bathroom at the bottom of the steps, but nothing else. She scanned the open space around her, looking for the correct exhibit.

  She smiled at the small printed placard on a waist-high sign beside a pair of glass cases.

  Medieval European Collection

  After walking over to the cases, Quinn leaned close and studied the old leather books inside on glass shelves. She expected them to be beaten up and falling apart, but they didn’t look that way. The leather shone in the single overhead security light. It looked as polished and supple as if it were brand new.

  It so surprised her, Quinn straightened and scanned the room, trying to locate something more like what she expected. Her eyes kept returning to the books in the case.

  “I think I found them. The lettering on them is in Latin like we expected, but I’m going to need help. There are seven books here, and some of them are pretty large. I can’t bring them all back with me.”

  “Send us a pic,” Taylor suggested. “Clark can read the titles.”

  Quinn pulled out her phone, snapped a photo, and texted it to a group message thread. She waited while it went through the system until it showed as delivered.

  “You should have it now in the group chat.”

  “Got it,” Clark said.

  Taylor followed with, “Me, too.”

  “Okay,” Quinn said. “Which one is it?”

  “Give me a second,” Clark said. “It’s been a long time, and I wasn’t very good at Latin when I learned it.”

  Quinn smiled. She couldn’t wait to bring this up with him when they all were back at Spring Grove.

  After a few seconds, Clark said, “Um, I’m not entirely sure, Quinn. I never saw the book growing up. It was called the life tome by everyone in English. Nothing fits that.”

  “What would it be?” Quinn asked. She scanned the room again. “Maybe they took it somewhere else.”

  “It would be something like Libre de Vita or another combination of those words. Damn, I wish my Latin wasn’t so rusty.”

  “I can’t stand here all night,” Quinn said. “Are you sure it’s not one of the ones in these two cases? Damn, there’s got to be an app for translation. Next time I’ll load it before I come.”

  “None of them match what I expected,” Clark said. “But I can’t translate all of them, so I can’t be sure.”

  Quinn walked around the cases and checked out the tables and displays nearby. None of them had any books. They were all individual documents under glass.

  “Hey, everybody stop,” Clark hissed in alarm. “Someone just pulled up out front in a red sports car. It’s a woman with long dark hair.”

  “What’s she doing?” Quinn asked. “Maybe she’s going to a neighboring building.”

  “Nope, she’s going up the museum steps to the front door. Maybe I should try to take her out.”

  “Stay where you are, Clark,” Taylor said. “I think I figured it out. Quinn can still get the book and get out of there. The image you sent is blurry, but one of the titles looks like it’s Narratio. I did a quick search online. That could mean narrative or story, which would match its purpose for the clan—holding the clan’s history. It’s also the largest of them and has the most ornate leatherwork. What do you think, Quinn?”

  She moved back to stand beside the first case. She saw the one Taylor described on the top shelf. The leatherwork depicted vines, leaves, and things growing, which could mean life or nature. It could also be an old gardening guide.

  Clark’s urgent whisper filled her ear. “The woman is going in the front door. She had a key.”

  Quinn didn’t need the warning. She heard the door open on the floor below hers. She had to decide. The case was hinged at the back, and Quinn lifted the heavy glass lid, grabbed one of the smaller books, and used it to prop open the case.

  She lifted the book with both hands and looked at it closely. A tingling sensation spread from her fingers to her shoulders, making her shiver for a second. Quinn smiled, taking it as a sign.

  “Got it. This has to be the right one.”

  “Okay, Quinn,” Taylor said. “I’m engaging the recall sequence now. Start back upstairs. The transition will be easier on you if you return from the spot where you started.”

  Quinn turned around, clutching the leather tome to her chest.

  “Hello, Quinn. When I got the alert the alarm was off, I thought the idiot janitor had forgotten to turn on the security system again before he left.”

  Naomi stood between Quinn and the stairs, up or down.

  Quinn glanced at the book. There was no way she could fight while holding it. If she put it down and transitioned out of VR, it would remain here. All she could do was play for time.

  “I guess you got lucky this time, Naomi. Too bad you couldn’t stay out on a lovely night like this. Someone like you must enjoy the Baltimore nightlife,” Quinn said. Naomi looked only a little older than Quinn, maybe early twenties, but that could be deceptive. Vampires stopped aging when they were turned.

  “Actually, I was looking forward to a quiet night at home with my cat and some binge-streaming. Instead, I’m here having to teach you a valuable lesson.”

  Quinn started to make a snarky reply but stopped when Taylor cursed over the connection in her earpiece. “Dammit, I missed a step. I have to restart the sequence. You’ll have to do something to stall her, Quinn. Sorry.”
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  “I’m coming in,” Clark called.

  “No!” Quinn exclaimed. “Stay where you are.”

  A puzzled frown crossed Naomi’s face. “I don’t think you are in a position to give me orders, Quinn. Now, hand me the book and come along peacefully. The master will want to have a few words with you before he decides what to do next. If you play your cards right, you might survive the night.”

  “What, and give up everything I ever fought for to become one of the enemy? I know you used to be a hunter. That’s how you knew who Clark was, am I right?”

  Naomi paused. She stared at Quinn as if searching for something.

  “What?” Quinn finally said. She was grateful for the additional time it gave Taylor to fix things, but it was creepy, too.

  “Nothing. For a moment, I thought… Well, that doesn’t matter now, does it? You’re right, of course. I was a member of the clans. In the end, let’s just say I had my reasons to want to stick around. When Handon offered me the option, I took it. Who’s to say the clan’s version of what the world should be is any better than Handon and his cohort?”

  “You can’t be serious. You were raised to fight demonic forces and everything that entails. You’ve seen what power does to people. How could you trade sides so easily?”

  Taylor whispered in Quinn’s ear. “Get ready. Since you didn’t make it back to the attic, this is going to be a rough transition. Sorry.”

  Naomi shook her head. “You have no idea what I’ve given up in my life or what drove me to make the decision I did. I don’t have to justify what I did to you of all people. Now, stop stalling and give me the tome. I have no qualms about teaching you a lesson about your betters. Do it now, or I’m coming to get it.

  The familiar tugging at the back of Quinn’s mind began, and she smiled as Naomi started forward. The vampire was about to be disappointed.

  Quinn’s smile disappeared when the gentle tugging became a gut-wrenching pull that sent her tumbling backward into darkness just as Naomi reached out to grab her. Quinn turned over and over in the dark, then landed on an unyielding surface hard enough that she banged her head and saw stars.