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

by Jamie Davis

  Filippa gave Quinn a passing glance, saying to Clark, “I see you found your wayward girl. I should have warned you that foundlings are notoriously unreliable.”

  Quinn opened her mouth to respond, but Naomi stepped behind her seat, hands on Quinn’s shoulders. She gave a firm squeeze, and the Huntress stopped before saying anything.

  Clark said, “What do you two want? I assume since you and Aurora have patched up your differences, you have something you needed to tell us.”

  Aurora smiled, though no glint of humor showed in her eyes. “My cousin and I became allies of necessity. Such is the case whenever an outbreak of wild magic occurs. We had to rally our resources so we could discover the cause of the outbreak.” The Fae princess shifted her gaze to Quinn.

  Quinn held her stare for a second before saying, “So, I’m the source of the outbreak now?”

  “I didn’t say that. I said you’re the cause. In this case, that is more important.”

  Filippa said, “Clark, I know you understand the severity of this situation.” She reached into her flowing robes and pulled out a folded sheet of yellow parchment, closed with a green wax seal.

  Quinn said, “That looks official. Is it your list of grievances? If it is, I can tell you where to put it.”

  Filippa didn’t look at Quinn, instead keeping her eyes on Clark. “This is a writ of arrest for your Huntress. It’s been approved by the regional Fae court and is effective immediately in the interests of public safety.”

  Quinn shook off her mother’s grip and pushed to her feet. “Arrest me? You’ve got to be kidding. I’m not the one guilty of petty burglary, assault, or attempted murder.”

  Aurora assumed a shocked expression and placed a hand on her chest. “Such horrible accusations. I assure you I know nothing about anything like that.”

  Quinn smiled. “You don’t know, do you? That’s a shame. I suppose I should tell you, though.”

  “Tell me what?” Aurora asked.

  “Your man Zephyr had a fatal accident earlier this evening.”

  Aurora glared at Quinn, her eyebrows lowering and her lips peeling back from her teeth in the beginnings of a snarl.

  “Cousin,” Filippa snapped. “Control yourself.”

  Naomi laughed. “I see who’s holding the leash now. I wonder how that happened?”

  Aurora whipped her head to Quinn’s mother. “No one holds my leash, vampire. Your girl has admitted to killing a member of my personal retinue. I must now insist that she be turned over to us for investigation.”

  “I think not,” Naomi said. She moved to stand at Quinn’s side. “My daughter didn’t admit to anything other than finding your man dead in her travels earlier this evening. Unless you’d like to enlighten us as to what he was doing for you, there’s no evidence she’s done anything but found a body.”

  “This is ridiculous,” Filippa spat. She turned around and raised her hand over her head. At that moment, the band went silent on the stage, and the crowd turned in her direction.

  “People of Baltimore, I hold a lawful writ from the Fae court for the arrest of Quinn Faust, a resident of this place. I ask you to assist in her apprehension so that justice may be served, and we might end the unfortunate outbreaks of wild magic.”

  All eyes in the room turned to Quinn. She looked around the room, seeing puzzled expressions turn into angry and determined ones. These people were about to turn on her, and there was no way she’d be able to fight her way free.

  Miranda floated over behind Quinn and whispered, “Say you request sanctuary.”

  “What?”

  “Just do it! You’re running out of time.”

  Quinn didn’t understand what Miranda wanted, but she then didn’t understand any of this.

  “I request sanctuary!” Quinn shouted.

  Filippa’s head whipped around. “Nonsense, girl! What do you know of the rule of sanctuary?”

  Clark held up his hand. “Don’t say a word, Quinn.” He glanced to the side, where Paddy O’Malley stood.

  The leprechaun stood by the bar, wringing his hands.

  “What about it, Paddy? This is your place. Quinn requests sanctuary. What say you?”

  Both Fae turned their icy glares on the bar’s owner. He blanched, the blood draining from his face as he looked from Clark to the princesses and back again.

  “Oh, for God’s sake,” Juni said from across the room. “What’s the holdup, Da? If you won’t do it, I will.” The waitress raised her voice. “The claim of sanctuary is accepted. Quinn is safe here.”

  Aurora laughed. “You can’t offer sanctuary, girl. Only the owner has that power. Clearly, your father knows the risk of such a move and has decided to say no.”

  “I am the owner of this bar, at least in part. My da and I signed the agreement over a year ago so I could take over managing the place.”

  Filippa shook her head. “He’s the original owner, so he can overrule you.”

  “No, he cannot,” Naomi said. “Once valid sanctuary has been offered, only the protected individual can rescind it. Paddy cannot overturn it.”

  Clark nodded. “She’s right and you know it, Filippa. You’ve lost this round. I think it’s time for you to leave unless you have another card you’d like to play out of turn.”

  Filippa glared at Paddy O’Malley, who shrank in on himself. He didn’t say anything, only shook his head.

  “There you have it,” Naomi said. “Quinn is safe here from any writ of lawful arrest. I think it’s time for you both to leave.”

  “Fine,” Filippa said. “Come, cousin. It seems we’ve been outplayed.”

  “But we can’t leave without her.”

  “If your man had done his job earlier tonight as you assured me he would, we wouldn’t be in this mess. Let’s go.”

  Filippa gripped Aurora’s arm and swung her around, practically dragging her to the exit. Aurora glared at Quinn all the way to the door.

  Taylor whooped and turned toward Miranda with her hand raised for a high-five. “All right, Miranda. Good thinking on that sanctuary thing.”

  Miranda stared at the raised hand, an amused expression on her ghostly face as Taylor lowered it, blushing. “I’m glad I remembered it. Inns and public houses like this were used for local courts in the old days. People sought by another court couldn’t be removed if they invoked sanctuary while their case was heard. It’s only temporary, but I think it bought us some time.”

  “Yeah, but time for what?” Clark asked. “We might have a week until the Fae court can be reconvened. After that, you know they’ll overrule the sanctuary. We have to come up with a plan before that happens.”

  Quinn was still trying to work through the events of the last few minutes. It didn’t make any sense to her that she was the dangerous one. “They know the egg is about to hatch, and the dragon is still imprinted on me. They can’t bear to let that stand. I have to die so one of them can take control.”

  No one spoke for a few seconds, then Taylor said, “Well, then, we have to get the egg back and do what we can to get it to hatch. Once that happens, the wild magic situation will resolve itself, and the dragon will be Quinn’s.”

  “Taylor,” Clark said, “it’s not that simple.”

  “But it is,” the tech witch said. “Quinn’s correct. The egg is at the center of this. Possession is nine-tenths of the law, and the person who possesses the egg holds the cards. We need to get the egg back. The rest we can figure out afterward.”

  Quinn shook her head. At this point, all she wanted to do was go to her own bed and sleep for a day or two. “Does the sanctuary cover the whole building or just the bar?”

  Juni overheard Quinn’s question. “You should be fine upstairs. The whole building is under the business license, including the apartment we rent out. If anyone asks, I’ll say as much.”

  Quinn nodded. “Then I’m going to bed. We can figure out the rest tomorrow morning.” She slid away from the table, then pushed her chair back in place and t
urned to the waitress. “Thank you, Juni. It seems I owe you my life.”

  “I never liked either of them. The Fae royals all think they own the rest of us. It was time for someone to remind them the world’s a different place than it used to be.”

  Quinn smiled. She’d made many new friends over the past year, and it was hard not to see how all of them had helped her in one way or another. She’d have to find a way to make it up to the leprechaun girl.

  For now, though, she wanted nothing more than a long rest to recharge. Maybe she’d come up with a plan to resolve all this before it boiled over again. She also might get a second chance at understanding that dream she’d had earlier.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Her sleep turned fitful again that night. When she woke in the morning, she couldn’t get the giant staring yellow eye out of her mind. None of the other parts of her night’s dreams remained with her, just that. It had to be a dragon, and that meant it was linked to the egg.

  Realizing she was wide awake and not likely to go back to sleep, Quinn sat up. She started to talk to the egg that usually sat on the other pillow but stopped herself, glaring at the empty pillow beside her.

  Anger boiled up, and Quinn jumped out of bed. It was barely six in the morning, but she didn’t care. She needed to get out and work through the dream and all the jumbled feelings within her before she killed someone. She slipped on sweatpants and a t-shirt and grabbed her shoes for a run around the neighborhood.

  Then she remembered the night before.

  Stopping in front of her bedroom mirror, Quinn said, “I can’t go out. I can’t go anywhere, or the stupid Fae cops will arrest me.”

  Quinn shook her head and put on her shoes anyway. She didn’t have to go outside. She’d go run through the Hunter tunnels beneath the pub.

  Things were quiet and dark in O’Malley’s when she got downstairs. It was too early for anyone to be setting up for the day. Quinn crossed the floor to the back door leading to the storerooms.

  She pulled it open and jumped when she almost bumped into her mother.

  “What are you doing up?” they said simultaneously, then stopped and laughed.

  “You first,” Quinn said.

  “Getting a late snack from the kitchen before I turn in for a few hours. Paddy keeps local blood in the walk-in chiller for me. What about you?”

  Quinn smiled. “I couldn’t sleep. Dreams have me all worked up. This whole house sanctuary thing is going to wear thin real fast. It might as well be house arrest.”

  “Do you want to talk about it?”

  “No. Actually, I was going to go for a run. I need to work this out of my system.”

  Naomi smiled. “Want some company? I promise I’ll go easy on you.”

  Quinn grimaced. Her mother’s version of easy entailed working her to exhaustion, but that might be what the doctor ordered.

  “You know what?” Quinn said. “I think that’s a great idea.”

  “Really?” Naomi asked, surprised. “I would think you’d want to avoid having me work you over in a training exercise. Who are you, and what have you done with my daughter?”

  “Very funny. Honestly, I just need to keep my body occupied while my mind works through some things. Having you do all the thinking for me sounds perfect for that.”

  “Fair enough. Let’s go.”

  “What about your snack? Don’t you need to charge up on some fresh blood?”

  Naomi shrugged. “I’ll be all right. It’ll still be there when we get back. Come on, let’s start right now. I’ll go easy for the first five minutes until you’re warmed up.”

  Quinn nodded, and Naomi took off back down the long hallway into the darkness. Quinn invoked her night vision and took off after her, boosting her speed with a little draw from her stamina bar in the HUD.

  An hour later, the two women walked back up the hall. Quinn dripped sweat. Despite her fatigue, or maybe because of it, she felt better than when she woke up.

  “I can’t believe you’re not sweating,” Quinn said to her mother after a glance at her dry pale skin.

  “Undead, remember?” Naomi replied. “Believe me, I’m feeling it on the inside.”

  “Really? That’s the first time you’ve ever let on about something like that. I always thought you were still raring to go after our practice sessions.”

  Naomi laughed. “Well, now you know it was all an act. To be honest, there were more than a few times, especially when Avery was here and working out against you, that I thought I was going to pass out.”

  At the mention of Avery, Quinn shifted her thoughts to the other Huntress, wondering what she was up to. She hadn’t heard from her girlfriend in almost a week. Given what she was doing, that wasn’t unusual. Still, Quinn missed her. The few days they’d had together had been magical and left her hungry for more.

  “I’m sorry, Quinn,” Naomi said.

  “Sorry for what?”

  “I shouldn’t have mentioned Avery. You miss her a lot, don’t you?”

  “I do, but her work is important. Until she uncovers the rest of Gemma’s little Huntress projects, we need to be apart.”

  Naomi smiled and changed the subject. “Come on, let’s head to the kitchen. I can get that blood bag, and you can whip up a smoothie or something.”

  “That sounds nice.”

  In the kitchen, Quinn and Naomi shared their breakfast. Quinn tried to cover her distaste for the blood snack Naomi sipped. She didn’t know why it bothered her since the blood was from a living donor.

  Naomi must have seen the look on Quinn’s face despite her attempt to hide it. “Still grosses you out, doesn’t it?”

  “Yeah, it does, but it’s my problem, Mom, not yours. I’ve got to accept this is who you are. It’s not like you can change back. If I want to have you in my life, I’ve got to make my peace with it.”

  “If it makes you feel better, it took me a long time to accept who I’d become. I had a good reason to do what I did, but it was anathema to everything I’d been raised to stand for. In the early days, I had no self-control. Handon used to take advantage of that just to watch his pet hunter feed. It was horrible. I’m glad to be in a place where that’s not a problem.”

  “How long did it take?” Quinn asked.

  “To get to the point where I could resist killing someone?” Naomi replied. She continued after Quinn nodded, “Two long years, almost to the day. John had found a particularly tasty morsel for me. He was so disappointed I didn’t finish her off that he walked over and snapped the girl’s neck to spite me.”

  Quinn clenched her fists at the thought of someone being used for bait and food like that.

  “I still see her startled expression right after he did it. That was when I knew I had to help you survive. You were my only chance for escape, and I wanted to make up for everything I did.”

  “So, I guess it worked out for both of us after all,” Quinn said. She drained the last of the pineapple and banana smoothie and got up to rinse the glass in the sink. “Sorry it took me so long to come around after I found out who you were.”

  “It’s all right. I was willing to give you the time you needed. It wasn’t like I had anywhere to be. And look, here we are sharing breakfast after a mother-daughter workout.”

  “Let’s hope there are more,” Quinn said.

  The door into the kitchen opened and Taylor came in, calling, “I found her,” over her shoulder.

  “What’s up, T?” Quinn asked.

  “I got up and went by your apartment. When you weren’t there, I called Clark. We thought you might have gone after Aurora to retrieve the dragon egg.”

  “I won’t say I haven’t thought about it, but in this case, I think that has to be a team project. They’re going to be expecting me to do it, after all.”

  Naomi tapped her chin. “You’ve been to Aurora’s home, right?”

  “Yes. What are you thinking?” Quinn asked.

  “Well, doesn’t it make it easier for Taylor t
o do her thing when she sends you somewhere via the VR rig?”

  Taylor snapped her fingers. “That’s a great idea. I’ll need to code a few special additions I’ve had in mind. I need to get on it if you’re going tonight.”

  The tech witch left the kitchen door to swing closed on its spring. Clark stepped in and caught it before it shut all the way.

  “What was she so excited about?”

  Quinn smiled. “We’re hitting Aurora’s in the VR tonight. It’s time to get my egg back.”

  “She’ll be expecting you,” Clark cautioned. “Have you considered that?”

  “Come on,” Quinn replied. “Let’s think about the plan. We’ll need some sort of distraction outside to make it work. What Mom said last night about getting Aurora out of her house could work in our favor. They don’t want to wait for the sanctuary thing to work itself out. Maybe we can give them some bait.”

  Naomi nodded and followed Quinn out to the restaurant. Clark fell in beside her.

  Quinn smiled. For the first time in a while, she felt like things were back in her control. It was time to take advantage of it.

  Chapter Seventeen

  It took Taylor all day to come up with the changes she needed to adapt to place Quinn inside Aurora’s home. That was fine since it had taken all day to come up with something Clark and Naomi could do to distract the Fae princesses and their guards away from the home.

  Quinn waited until well after dark and got some food down in O’Malley’s to fuel up for the evening’s main event. She ate the last French fry on her plate just as Clark and Naomi came into the club. She waved at them and waited for the two to join her.

  “You both look pleased with yourselves. I assume that means you had some success?”

  Clark smiled. “It was all Naomi’s doing. She does a pretty good job of pretending to be you in a pinch. We had to wait until after sundown, but that helped our deception.”

  Naomi said, “At this point, you’ve been spotted all over the city, stirring up supernaturals to stop being pawns of the Fae and their rules.”

  “I can’t believe it worked,” Quinn said. “Didn’t they realize you were a vampire?”