Huntress

by Taft, J L

  She took her mug into her office and booted up her laptop. Bringing up a browser, she almost choked on her mouthful of coffee at the headline of the day.

  Woman murdered late last night. Fiona doubted it could be related to her dream but she clicked on it anyway. She scanned the article and read that Missy Jayne, twenty-eight, had been heading home from her law office last night when she was attacked and killed in an alley not far from her home.

  Fiona scrolled down and felt lightheaded when she saw the woman’s picture. It was the same woman from her nightmare.

  Her mind raced as she tried to piece it together. She knew vampires were real because her grandmother had hunted them. But she had never thought about them being so close to home.

  Why was she dreaming about them? And how had she known what the woman had looked like?

  Someone knocked on her door and she jumped, bumping her cup and sloshing coffee across her desk.

  “Damn it!” she exclaimed as she grabbed some paper towels and sopped it up. The knock on the front door came again and she got up to answer it.

  She opened her door a crack and then breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of the mail carrier.

  “Sorry to bother you but I have a letter that you have to sign for,” he told her.

  “Okay, no problem.”

  He handed her the electronic pad and she scrawled her name across it. She gave it back and he held out the letter.

  “Have a nice day,” he said as he turned away.

  “Thanks. You too,” Fiona said distractedly as she closed the door and locked it.

  It was from Grandma’s lawyer. She hadn’t heard from him since the details of her death had been taken care of and that had been last year. Dropping to the couch, she ripped the envelope open.

  It was short and to the point. Grandma had a storage unit not far from where Fiona lived and she needed to catch up the payments or the contents would be auctioned off. The key to the unit was also included in the envelope. Grandma had paid for a year in advance for the unit and the funds had run out last month.

  Fiona hadn’t known about it. It hadn’t been in the list of possessions she had gotten when she dealt with the estate. But there was only one thing to do. She grabbed her phone and her credit card and called the company that owned the unit. It didn’t take long to get everything straightened out.

  Trent hardly slept and had been up before the sun. There was too much going through his head. Too many unanswered questions.

  He refused to believe he couldn’t sleep because Fiona had been wrapped around him like ivy. She didn’t have to do anything but breathe to turn him on. He was enjoying waking up with her a little too much.

  Although it wasn’t just one thing he liked about her. He loved her wild, red curls that were so soft and smelled so good. Or the way her pussy clenched around his cock. Or the feel of her silky skin against his. But he also liked her feisty attitude and that she wasn’t one of those women who expected a phone call the next day.

  Although it would have been easier for him if she had. It figured he finally found a girl he really liked and she treated sex the same way he had before he met her. It was ironic to say the least.

  He had thought a lot about the force of her dream last night. Trent knew she was destined to become a hunter but now he began to wonder if she had no idea what was in store for her.

  But how could she not know? Wouldn’t she need some training? It seemed to him she would have started preparing for something like this years ago.

  Was that why Granny had warned him away from her? Was she doomed?

  If that was the case he wasn’t going to let it happen. She deserved more than to be thrown to the vampires.

  This time Granny was going to tell him what he wanted to know, come hell or high water. Twisting the throttle of his bike, he gunned the engine and made it to her house in record time.

  He wasn’t surprised to see her standing on the porch waiting for him. Her face was grim and she looked tired. It cooled some of his anger. But he wasn’t going to back off completely.

  “Morning, Granny,” he said as he came up the steps.

  “Good morning, Trent. Come in, it’s time we had another talk,” she said as she went inside, the screen door opening and then closing behind them seemingly by itself.

  At least she knew he was here for more answers. He just hoped she got to the point quickly. He didn’t want to leave Fiona alone for too long. He wanted to be back to her place before she fell asleep in case she had any more of whatever the hell that was last night.

  He took a seat at the scarred wooden table and she put the customary glass of lemonade in front of him.

  “Granny, I have more questions,” he began.

  She held up her hand to stop him. “If it has to do with Fiona then you need to bring her to me. I want to talk about you.”

  “About me?”

  “Yes. I’ve told you that Eleanor and I made a decision when you and Fiona were young to keep you apart so that you could lead a normal life. We can’t hide or run from who we are. It catches up with us sooner or later.” She got a faraway look in her eyes and Trent felt that same strange sense of foreboding.

  He knew without a doubt he wasn’t going to like what she had to say.

  “Our family has always had a little something extra. Some of us chose to accept it and use it for good. Some of us have swept it under the rug, never knowing what talents lay within us. I knew about mine at a very young age. Telekinesis isn’t something you can hide easily. But my mother was a natural witch and trained me well how to use it, control it and above all keep it a secret.”

  She reached out to lay her hand on his and a shiver went down his back.

  “I’m an old woman now and I have made mistakes. But none as big as not telling you about your own inner power.”

  “What do you mean?” Trent asked as he pulled his hand away as if he had been burned.

  “Trent, you have the special gift of sight. Some call it clairvoyance. Call it what you will but it’s there plain as day when I look in your eyes.”

  Trent sat stunned for a full minute before he started to object. Granny held up her hand to stop him again.

  “I know, I know. But answer this, Trent, how do you think that you have made it home from those dangerous places you’ve gone to all these years? Did you just think you were lucky those times?” she asked him with a knowing smile. “When opportunity knocks you still have to open the door.”

  She had been saying that to him since he was a kid. But it didn’t make him happy to hear it now.

  Trent stood suddenly to pace back and forth in the little kitchen that hadn’t changed an inch since he was a kid. The pale-yellow walls and dark hardwood floors always had soothed him but not today.

  He tried to piece it all together as he felt his granny’s gaze follow him. There was no longer any doubt in his mind that there were things in this world most wouldn’t believe. Hell, he didn’t want to believe them himself.

  But he had gotten his team and himself out of more messes than he could count. When it came right down to it and bullets were flying by he always knew which way to go. He always knew when something was wrong with one of his men and if his head wasn’t in the game.

  Trent had just chalked it up to experience and his training.

  Obviously not. Granny had opened a door and he knew what she was asking.

  Was he going to walk though it?

  He needed time to think about it. “Granny, I’m going for a walk.” He didn’t wait for her response and headed out the back door to the woods.

  He had played under these trees as a child. Every spare moment he had, he had been playing war games among the trees. Fighting off imaginary enemies with stick guns and rock grenades.

  He stuffed his hands in his pockets and just walked without any specific direction. After several minutes he came upon his old fort. He had built it around the base of a huge old oak tree and he was surprised most of
it was still standing.

  Crawling into it was harder than he remembered but he managed with only a little cursing. He sat in the same place he used to and listened to the call of the birds overhead.

  He leaned his head back against the old bark of the oak and closed his eyes. Everything felt somewhat surreal at the moment. Granny had certainly dropped a bomb on him again today.

  His thoughts wandered and he dozed off, absorbing the comforting feeling of his childhood hideout.

  Trent awoke abruptly and stood, crashing his head into the dead branches that made up the roof of his fort.

  Fiona needed him. He knew it without a doubt.

  Cursing, he stumbled out of his fort and made his way back to Granny’s. It was dusk and the forest was quickly getting darker. Then the sky opened up and it started raining. He had spent the whole day out here.

  He came to an impulsive stop when something teased the fringes of his mind. He could see her. She was ducking under a long, silver metal door. It was raining and her hair hung down in thick, wet ropes.

  Her eyes were huge in her pale face. She was afraid of something.

  The vision faltered and weakened and he immediately felt the disconnection. But right before it faded completely he saw a man standing in the rain.

  Watching Fiona.

  Trent jogged the best he could in the dark on the uneven ground. He wouldn’t be able to help her if he fell and broke a damn leg. The rain made it even harder to see where he was going and he was already soaked through.

  He was stunned at what had happened, how he had been able to see her so clearly, but he didn’t doubt it had been true.

  She was in trouble. He didn’t know what the hell she was doing crawling into a storage unit at night in the rain but he intended to find out.

  The vision had taken longer than he had realized. When he had snapped out of it the forest had been completely dark.

  He burst into his grandmother’s back door. “I have to go,” he said, hardly stopping to kiss her cheek.

  He had the front door open before she stopped him.

  “Go get her and bring her back here before she gets herself killed.”

  He nodded once. The screen door slammed behind him as he jumped on his bike.

  He knew where she was. He recognized the units. Within seconds he was barreling down the dirt road faster than was safe but he didn’t care. All he could think about was getting to her.

  Fiona tried to resist checking out Grandma’s storage unit all day. She had other things that needed to be done and she had already dealt with the more pressing issue of the bill.

  But she couldn’t concentrate and managed to spend the whole day talking herself into being productive. It didn’t happen.

  Then she hadn’t heard from Trent and it had only made matters worse. She had just grabbed her car keys and the unit key before she left the house. She wasn’t even sure if she locked her front door on her way out.

  She wasn’t an impulsive person, usually, and she already regretted being here this time of night. But she was already here so she might as well have a look. Grabbing her flashlight from the glove box, she scanned the row of units and headed to the left. She was looking for number three. She turned a row and got to five then four. Stopping in front of three, she looked at the big door.

  Something ominous crept over her. She glanced around behind her as the skies opened up and made her soaked to the skin in seconds. No one was there but she definitely had the creeps.

  She struggled with the lock for a second, thinking she maybe had the wrong key. After she jimmied with it for a few moments the key finally slid in and the lock opened.

  The door was on a pulley system so it was easy to lift and duck under. She closed it most of the way behind her, letting in some of the street light but blocking most of the rain.

  Fiona searched for a light but there wasn’t one. There were old, dusty crates stacked up against all three walls. They were all different sizes and had no labels of any sort. Opening the first one, she found baby clothes and a few small keepsakes. Maybe they had been her mother’s?

  Fiona looked in several of the other crates and found that Grandma had all of her personal possessions hidden away in the storage unit.

  There were things here she would never have expected Grandma to keep. It showed Fiona a side of her that she had never seen. She had seemed to be a hard, strict woman and Fiona felt a lump forming in her throat to realize she hadn’t really been like that at all.

  It would take her a month to sort through all the things packed away.

  In the center of the room there was a six- or seven-foot-long wooden table. She shined her light on the papers lying there. There were random notes and family photos scattered throughout. One photograph of her parents caught her eye and she picked it up.

  They looked happy, their arms around each other. Next to the photograph was something she recognized, another of Grandma’s journals. Fiona frowned. She thought she had all of them.

  A loud crack of thunder roared overhead and she jerked in surprise. She needed to get out of here and come back in the daylight. She couldn’t see a damn thing in the thin beam of her flashlight.

  But she wasn’t leaving the journal or the pictures. She located a box underneath the table in a pile of other stuff and threw the journal and the photos in before closing the flaps.

  The metal of the door rattled and she sucked in a deep breath. She could feel a presence and it was close. Even if she couldn’t see any feet in the space under the door, someone or something was out there.

  Fiona backed up, knowing her only chance was to hide. But odds were whoever was out there already knew she was here.

  Then she began to doubt there was anyone outside. The door had only rattled once and she wondered now if it could have been the storm.

  She set the box down at the edge of the table and lifted the door suddenly. No one was there. Shaking off the strange feelings, she grabbed the box and closed the door behind her, locking it back up tight.

  The rain had let up and she headed for her car. When she got to the end of the row she turned and stopped dead in her tracks.

  A man stood before her. The type of man who gave her the same strange feeling of awareness she had in her dreams. He was a vamp. He wasn’t huge but his still body didn’t fool her. He was poised to attack.

  “Well, if it isn’t the new hunter. All alone in the dark,” he jeered at her.

  “What do you want?” she uttered. The storm picked back up and she heard a long rumble in the distance that stopped abruptly.

  He came closer without saying anything and his deep-red eyes stared at her. He almost looked as if he were floating over the wet concrete. Fiona knew if she turned tail and ran now it would all be over. She couldn’t give in or show any weakness because he would pounce.

  He stopped inches from her and visibly took a deep breath. “You smell delicious.”

  She recoiled and took a step back. He reached out, picked up a wet tendril of hair off her shoulder and used it to tug her closer. The move was obviously sexual and all it managed to do was repulse her. It sent a shiver of disgust down her spine.

  “Go to hell,” Fiona growled at him.

  “I’m already there, little girl,” he chuckled. “Why don’t you join me?”

  He moved so fast Fiona had no time to react. He was suddenly behind her with his arm around her neck, cutting off her air. She dropped her box and struggled against his tight hold but it was like fighting a brick wall.

  His arm loosened fractionally when she twisted and made the mistake of exposing her neck. She sucked in air and let it out in a scream for help. She didn’t figure anyone was around but she had to try. The scream was sad to say the least. Her lack of oxygen made it sound more like a squeak.

  She renewed her struggles as she felt him lick her shoulder.

  “You bastard! Let me go!” she screeched at him.

  He laughed in her ear, dark and menacing.


  Fiona heard a dull thunk and she was unexpectedly free. Whipping her head around, she saw Trent fighting the vampire. He was losing. The vamp connected his fist with Trent’s face and he stumbled. Trent might have been big and strong but he was no match for the immortal.

  Trent leaned against the storage building for support as the blond vamp looked her way. “Is she your woman?” he asked.

  Trent smiled at him and then Fiona saw the gun in his hand. He fired twice, quickly hitting the vamp in the chest, but he didn’t fall. Holding his hands over the wounds, he turned to Fiona.

  “I’ll be seeing you again.” Then he floated off into the darkness. Fiona assumed he ran because one minute he was there and the next he was gone.

  She ran to Trent’s side as he wiped his mouth and spit out blood.

  “Trent, are you okay?” she asked, putting her arm around his shoulder as he leaned forward.

  “Yeah, I’m okay. You?”

  “I’m fine. How did you know where to find me?”

  “A hunch,” he said and smiled at her as he straightened from the wall, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. “Come on. Let’s get out of here before that spook comes back for another round,” he said as he grabbed her hand and pulled her toward her car.

  Chapter Eight

  Trent followed behind Fiona’s car on his bike as they went back to her place. His chin hurt like a son of a bitch but he refused to think about what would have happened if he hadn’t gotten there in time.

  The rain had slowed to a drizzle but he was still soaked and shivering by the time they made it back to her house.

  He pulled in behind her and cut the engine, hopping off and meeting her at the driver’s side door.

  He took the box that she grabbed from the passenger seat from her hands. “Thanks,” she mumbled.

  She unlocked the front door and held it open for him. He wasn’t sure if she intended to invite him in but he wasn’t leaving her alone. It was too late for him to take her to Granny’s tonight.

  He used his cell to call Granny and let her know they would be there in the morning in low tones while Fiona stepped into the kitchen, giving him privacy.