Magic Bite (Supernatural Bounty Hunter Series Book 1)

by Leia Stone

  He knew that, of course he knew that. I’d only mentioned it a million times.

  “But do you have to pace?”

  “What else am I supposed to do?” I growled.

  “I dunno, look for a new case for us. I have expensive tastes, you know. I need the income.” The thick gold chain he wore around his neck caught the light of the sun when he grinned. On anyone else, the smile would have been hideous. But I had a soft spot for the ugly imp, who had bizarre sex appeal for certain segments of the supernatural community. Can’t account for tastes, apparently.

  “How am I supposed to work a case while locked up in the cabin? I can’t, that’s how.”

  “So defeatist,” he tsked. “Since when do you let a man bring you down?”

  Oh, but he wasn’t just any man. He’d blown my mind wide open, and made me realize that I should’ve been having sex all along, especially sex like that.

  “You’d better not go making gaga eyes like that when the alpha’s around,” Cass added.

  “I did not make gaga eyes.”

  “You did too.” He fingered his gold chain.

  “I did not.”

  “What are you, five?”

  Crossing my arms over my chest, my lip jutted out. Fine, I was being a petulant child, but I was used to getting my own way. Even if I had to work for it, I usually got what I wanted.

  The imp arched his brow at me, making him look ridiculous... and cute, in the he’s-so-ugly-he’s-cute kind of way.

  “Fine,” I huffed. “I’ll call Mack to tell him we’ll be here for a while, and ask if he’s got word on a local case.”

  “Good girl.” Getting up, Cass started to walk away.

  “Wait. Where are you going?”

  “To find me some tail,” he announced.

  “You can’t leave me.” I really didn’t want to know more about his active sex life so I chose not to comment on his need for “tail.”

  “Sure I can.” He waltzed toward the front door.

  “You can’t drive.” I put a hand on my hip. How dare my best friend leave me while I was bored out of my mind on house arrest!

  “I have my ways.” He winked and pulled a cigarette from behind his ear, his magical skateboard tucked under one arm. His tiny wings couldn’t take him that high or far without getting fatigued, but throw a little demon magic under his skateboard, and he could hover-fly to a location a good twenty minutes away before the magic wore off again.

  “You’re going to fly all the way into town?” I looked at him, doubt sketched all over my face. The imp was a lot of things, including lazy. There was a reason for that pot belly.

  He shrugged. “If I have to.” Both of his hands swept down the many curves of his small body. “I can’t deny the ladies all this, now can I?”

  There was no way in hell I was touching that question. Still, I couldn’t help but smile. Cass amused me even when he was pissing me off. “You can’t go because Brock is just waiting for us to leave the house empty. The second we do, he’ll tear it down. You know he will.”

  “I have no doubt he will. The alpha looked all business.” Cass’ face lit up. “But only you have to stay here, not me.” He was entirely too happy about that fact.

  “So you’d leave me? All alone? To fend for Gran’s cabin?” My bottom lip really got into the frown now. Cass was a sucker for my puppy-dog eyes and pout.

  “Of course I would.” He grinned, and the fucker’s eyes sparkled.

  “Remember that Gran did a lot for you too. She took you in like you were her own,” I reminded him.

  “Come on, that was no effort. I’m loveable. Everybody wants a piece of this.”

  I knew the real Cass behind all the attitude. He appreciated what Gran did for him. A lot. He just wasn’t going to admit to it.

  Daggers shot from my eyes at him as he placed his little knobby hand on the door handle. “You know if you really needed me here, I’d stay.”

  Yeah, I did know that. “I do need you.” Why was I being so whiny? Oh yeah, because I was used to living in downtown LA, and going out every night. Staying cooped up in this tomb of memories was going to kill me.

  “No, Evie, you don’t. You’ll be fine.” He pulled the door open. “Don’t wait up. You know how it goes. Once the sun goes down, I’m all fire.” His pink furry ass, stuffed into too-tight leather shorts, strutted outside and he slammed the door behind him.

  “Fucking imp.”

  “I heard that,” he called, far too happy with himself.

  Fine, he wanted to leave, no problem. I had things to do anyway. I was a damn fine bounty hunter. I’d have a new case for us by the time he got back.

  Twisting the lid off a beer—thank you, grocery home delivery—I booted up my laptop. Gran never liked the idea of Wi-Fi, invisible and insidious; dial-up was the only internet she permitted. I roamed the house looking for the hookup, surprised I’d forgotten where it was.

  I hadn’t been back since I was sixteen. Once I’d been admitted to prestigious Hunter Academy in LA, I’d left and never looked back. Gran visited me about three times a year to see my big city life, as she put it. She respected my hatred of this town, the place where my parents died, and where the Black family had mercilessly teased me for being a dud.

  Finally, I found the dial-up next to Gran’s apothecary of herbs, all neatly labeled in her hand. Just seeing her writing, the one that had penned so many old-school letters to me, had tears pricking at my eyes.

  But just because Gran was old school in most things, didn’t mean she didn’t know how to break her own rules. She was a traditional witch, and she’d often told me that the old ways, when available, were best. “Why reinvent the wheel?” she’d say. But she’d also say, “Use it when you have it,” when she got the hankering down for a particular bit of tech, or modern invention.

  The internet fit the bill. A world of information at a witch’s fingertips—and a witch could do a lot with little.

  The last three days without internet and with my cell phone turned off had been rather nice, just me and Cass drinking beers, watching Gran’s old movies, and playing poker.

  I turned the modem on and tried to link to it. When it asked for a password, I frowned. Shit. Gran hadn’t left me a sheet of instructions. She hadn’t expected to die. Hell, she’d expected to live another half century, at least.

  A shiver ran through me and I shook it off immediately. There it was again, that feeling that something was wrong. Yet, Gran had died peacefully in her sleep. Witches lived a long time by human standards, but they weren’t immortal. I didn’t like it, but there it was. At least she’d gone quickly. No one had reason to kill her—well, beyond the alpha. But as bad as he was, I didn’t think he’d actually kill Gran over the land. Besides, I’d had a bounty hunter buddy look over her body and speak to the medical examiner, while I was trying to wrap up my last gig in LA and get out here. He’d found nothing out of the ordinary, and I trusted his instincts.

  However, the feeling was still there, nagging at me. I wished I’d been able to get here sooner, see her body, inspect the scene.

  I pushed the unease away, and directed my mind to something useful. What password would Gran pick? After running through a dozen possibilities, I was about to give up for good.

  She loved me as much as she’d ever loved anyone. After Grandpa Mick died, I was all she had. EvieBlack I typed in, just for the hell of it... and then I was in the system. I furiously blinked tears away. I was strong. I wouldn’t let Gran’s death bring me down like this. She was with our ancestors, and that was a great honor in my family, one I wouldn’t tarnish with my tears. She wouldn’t want that.

  This also meant, holding on to her cabin, no matter what.

  Opening my email, I jerked straight up on the couch when I saw the subject line from my boss, Mack. “Sirens again.”

  Mack was a satyr and head of the Supernatural Bounty Hunter Service. There was no organization better at hunting down the bad guys—at least not in N
orth America—and he didn’t mess around, even though Mack was prickly as fuck.

  The subject could only mean a case, especially since he’d emailed me when I was on bereavement leave, but I still hesitated to open the message. See, I knew plenty about sirens, as I’d been the one to take down the last we’d seen of them during a case. But something about that situation had never sat right with me, and I had a very bad feeling about this one. Sirens were devils in disguise, with pretty hair and pearl earrings.

  I sighed and clicked open the damn email—I was a rip-the-Band-Aid-off kind of girl.

  Right away, I wished I hadn’t.

  “You fucked up, Black. One of the twin sirens broke free, and has been spotted in your neck of the woods. Track her and bring her in, or you’ll owe me half the bounty you got for them.”

  Shit.

  My stomach sank. No, “Hope you’re well” or “Take care.” No “Sorry the only family you ever had just died.” Nothing. Fucking Mack. He was good at his job, but that was about all I could say for him.

  He knew damn well I’d already spent the bounty—all of it. It had been a tidy sum, but after I’d split it with Cass and, you know, lived for a while, it was gone. Gran left me this cabin, and her 1973 Cadillac Deville, but that was it. She didn’t have gobs of money lying around for me to inherit. Not like Brock the Cock’s daddy probably left him when he died.

  “Motherfucker,” I shouted to the empty living room. Then I got my shit together, like I always did. I’d decided long ago that the only way to be a badass was to believe you were one, so I’d play the role until I got my groove back. I wasn’t going to let this siren bankrupt me.

  I wanted to email Mack and tell him it wasn’t my fault the siren had broken free. I’d done my job of turning her in, but I knew better. Cass and I had dropped the siren twins off at bounty headquarters, and let some rookies transfer them to the human courthouse. If one broke free before getting there, that was on me.

  Now she’d been loose for three days because I’d been too busy babysitting the cabin, and my battered heart, to worry about work.

  Still pissed off, I clicked on the links at the bottom of the email. No doubt they were from Stella, the uber-efficient secretary of the hunter service, who kept everything running when Mack was off, banging some fae in his office. Satyrs’ sexual appetites were almost as bad as Cass’.

  My hand stilled as a photo popped open on my screen. It was a grainy zoom-in of security footage, but with her long green hair and vicious eyes the color of the ocean, I’d recognize the chick anywhere. My stomach dropped when I realized where she was in the security photo. Right in front of the bar I’d been at a few nights ago. Where I’d met the alpha.

  Fuck!

  Another reel of unwelcome imagery flashed through my mind before I shut it down, hard. Damn that sexy wolf. It’d be a while before I forgot what he did to me.

  If the siren was in town, then it’d be an easy snag. Okay, maybe that was hopeful thinking, because sirens were mean as hell. Besides, if she was here, the odds were she was looking for me. Sirens didn’t forgive easily, and I’d been the one to take her down and her twin sister.

  Humans knew their own weaknesses, and catching supernaturals was one of them. They depended on us bounty hunters to do it for them, and paid a hefty fee for the service. It’s what put food on the table, and I was grateful for the job. How the rookies had lost Calista, after I’d handed her over bound in anti-magic cuffs, I had no idea. I was just glad we still had her twin, Constance, locked behind bars, and likely soon headed for the Island.

  The sirens were bad news.

  Once I responded to Mack to tell him I was on the job, I reached out to Cass.

  ‘Cass, one of the sirens broke out three days ago. She’s in town.’ The bar was only a couple miles up the road. He should be able to hear me.

  ‘The sirens from last week? Which one of them?’

  ‘Calista, the meaner-looking one.”

  ‘You’ll have to be more specific. They were both bitches.’

  True. ‘The one with the ugly scar across her chest.’

  ‘Damn. For real? I thought we nailed them good.’

  Speaking of a good nailing, my thoughts whisked to the wolf, and I cursed. Cass laughed across our connection. ‘You’ve got it bad for the alpha, don’t you?’

  ‘I absolutely do not. It was just good sex.’ I hesitated. ‘Okay, it was great sex, but that doesn’t mean anything, Cass. You know that. You have good sex all night long, every night, and you rarely hit the same girl twice.’

  ‘Yeah, but you’re talking about good sex, not great.’

  ‘Same difference.’ I hurried to change the subject. ‘I need you to case the place. She was seen at the hotel the other night. But don’t let her know you’re on to her.’

  He laughed again. This time he went on and on, before finally wheezing across our link. ‘You’re saying you want me to find her, but not be noticed. Have I got that right?’

  We’d worked a hundred jobs together. He knew the drill. ‘Of course that’s what I mean.’

  ‘Have you met me?’ my pink-haired, beer-bellied bestie asked.

  Damn. He had a point. ‘Then you need to get your happy, furry ass back here and let me case her.’

  ‘Uh-unh. Not gonna happen, hon. Sorry.’

  ‘Why not? This is a case we’re talking about. Drop the bimbo and get back here.’

  ‘No can do. I’ve got two saucy fae lined up. Two, Evie. And I’ve already bought them their first round of drinks. They’re not going anywhere but upstairs with me. Besides, if shit goes down here, you need me for backup.’

  For a beat, I didn’t say anything. How the beer-loving imp got this much action was one of the universe’s great mysteries. He must have a giant—I pushed the thought out of my mind and shivered a little.

  ‘Two. You can’t ask me to give up on a threesome,’ he pressed further.

  I groaned. Could I deny Cass his one true happiness? A threesome with fae?

  ‘Fine.’

  ‘Thanks, girl. I owe you one.’

  ‘You owe me a hundred, you horndog,’ I shot back playfully.

  ‘So, we’re even.’

  Yeah, we probably were. The imp had saved my ass more often than I cared to remember. I totally owed him a threesome.

  ‘Ask the vamp to stay while you head out,’ Cass suggested.

  ‘The lawyer?’

  ‘Yeah, why not?’

  ‘Because he’s a vamp, that’s why.’ Honestly, did Cass think he would actually come house-sit for me?

  I felt Cass telepathically shrug. ‘You never know. Miracles happen.’

  Yeah, but did they happen to me?

  ‘Gotta go, Ev. The girls are getting feisty.’

  Yuck. And just like that, the fucking imp was gone. Huffing, I threw my hands in the air, and got up from the couch.

  Beyond the Black witches and wizards, I didn’t know anybody else in town, and I’d rather commune with a viper than any of them. Maybe I should call the vamp? What was the worst he could say?

  I stalked through the living room toward the nook where Gran took her coffee, and where I’d abandoned my cell days ago. Powering it on, I prepared to march around the property to try to catch a signal.

  The front door creaked open as I pushed it, and that’s when I noticed the wolves outside. Two hunky young werewolves with their shirts off were sawing at an old tree, right at the edge of my property line—at least the one Gran claimed. It was nearly dark out, after dinner. What the hell were they doing?

  I yanked the door open all the way and stomped across the porch in my bare feet. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  “The boss wants the tree down, so we’re taking it down,” the blond hunk said, sweat glistening across his bare, muscled chest.

  It was the night of the full moon, and fucking Brock the Cock sent two newbie werewolves to cut down a tree on my property? I’d kill him! Was he hoping I got attacked, o
r that I would shoot his wolves, and get in trouble with the Supernatural Council?

  “Those trees aren’t his to cut down,” I shouted. “My grandmother loved those trees! They’re part of my inheritance.”

  Blondie shrugged and kept sawing, while the red-haired one swept his shirt from where he’d discarded it on the ground, and wiped at his face. The ginger was just as hot as the other one, and I suspected the alpha hadn’t really sent them to cut down a tree but to taunt me.

  He must think I was some kind of slut. Sure, I’d behaved like one, but just for the one night. Didn’t he realize it wasn’t my usual M.O.?

  He thought I was going to, what, swoon over the two werewolves and invite them into my bed, where I’d be distracted and forget that he was about to tear down what was mine? Fat chance.

  To add insult to injury, he’d sent dudes who weren’t him to tempt me. Werewolves were notoriously possessive. Alphas were borderline crazy with how possessive they were about their women. He’d sent his underlings as a big eff-you, to show that I meant nothing to him. Yeah? Well, two could play this game. Hadn’t he learned that already?

  Without another word, I spun on my heel, and stalked into the house.

  I unbuckled my weapons belt, which I always wore, even if I was grieving, and placed it on the table. Then I shed my jeans and top and picked up my cell.

  After sauntering onto the porch in my skimpy unmentionables, I grinned inside as the two wolves stopped what they were doing to ogle. Blondie stilled mid-saw.

  “Don’t let me interrupt you, boys,” I called, like the vixen I was.

  Ginger patted at his forehead again, and I took perverse pleasure in the hard-on that was springing to life in his pants, big enough that I could make out its outline from where I was. Who was tempted now?

  I sauntered across the length of the porch, staring at my cell, while looking at them through my peripheral vision. Blondie’s jaw dropped as I put my ass on display in my thong.

  Ha! Brock sent them to distract me. Well, who was distracted now? Take that, you fucker! I hoped he was watching with binoculars.

  Croft’s contact listing popped up on the screen, and I pressed dial. Out on the porch I had one tiny bar of signal. If the vamp wouldn’t come through, maybe I could go online and find some kind of property sitter. Like a babysitter, only for cabins.