The Hunted: Hunter Circles Series Book One

by Jessica Gunn

  I spun around on him, a fire lighting my veins. Adrenaline had turned to rage. How long before that fuel burned out completely? “Excuse me?”

  “Other demon haunts, too.” Nate cringed, like he was guilty for having discovered this information. Good. He should have felt that way. “You’ve been escorted by human police from a number of clubs in the city, mostly for causing fights, but occasionally for underage drinking, amongst other things.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “I’m twenty-four.”

  “Four years ago,” he amended.

  “You looked me up last night?” You’ve got to be kidding me. We’d barely had time to sleep, let alone do any research on the demon attacks. When had Nate found time to run a background check on me?

  My new team’s distrust stung, but the fire it stoked in my gut only solidified my own beliefs: the Hunter Circles were nothing more than an organization filled with quacks and inexperienced people trying to make a difference, but really just escalating the entire situation. And for what? To fight Darkness?

  The ancient peoples of the planet had formed the Circles four thousand years ago to combat the demons of Darkness. But that was forever ago and now, in the modern world, the Circles didn’t fit in anymore. Witches handled the protector duties. And guns and other modern weapons made killing demons an easier task. Besides, magik had never been as powerful a force as it was now with so many people having access to it.

  The point was: we were supposed to be a team. But how could I join a team when its leader was a hothead ready to explode? I had done better on my own.

  “I wanted to—”

  “What?” I asked Nate. “Make sure I’m legitimate? Make sure Jaffrin really did send me since my arrival came with bodies? Have you ever known anyone to actually want to meet with that asshole and follow his orders?”

  No one responded.

  “No. I didn’t think so,” I continued. “Yeah, when I was younger I did stupid things. But when I was younger, I was essentially trapped at my mother’s house, being forced to train all hours of the day to fight Darkness. They placed trackers on my phone, my car. I was essentially their prisoner, unable to go anywhere or talk to anyone without it being monitored because of their misguided attempt to protect me. It grates on a person. And you can’t honestly tell me none of you drank before twenty-one. That’s even crazier than whatever the hell has Ben’s panties—”

  “Enough!” Ben roared. “There are a few hangouts we can check for information.” He stood and marched over to the stairs. “Join me or not; I’m going either way.”

  Nate and Rachel shared a concerned look before following Ben down the stairs. A few seconds later, the front door slammed open. I hurried behind them as they rushed out into the early-morning darkness.

  I ran a hand through my hair and stared after them. They didn’t trust me. And the kicker was that there was a good chance I was the “her” Lady Azar wanted. Because of the prophecy I hadn’t yet told them about. Because of the amount of power inside me.

  A Son and Daughter of Alzan, two with the power to save the city from Darkness. To save all realms from threat of a crumbling cianza. Blah, blah, blah.

  Jaffrin hadn’t given me permission to tell them about the Alzan prophecy yet, and that was one of the few things I’d obey him on. Because once they knew, there was no going back. They’d be involved, too. And then we’d all be targets for Aloysius.

  I caught up with my team a few blocks down the street. What a group we must have looked like, running into and out of the house at all hours of the night. It was a miracle more Hunters never got brought in or arrested for trespassing or doing things like walking around at night, armed, in groups. Each team got assigned to an area to watch over, but it was usually more of a house-sitting job than anything else. Demons caused more ruckus than Hunters ever had. So, if they kept quiet, so did we.

  Except now, when someone had called out Ben.

  My stare bore holes into the back of Ben’s head as we walked. It was hard to keep pace with his big, angry strides. After another five-block stretch of road and turning right, I’d figured out where we were headed. And there was no way I could go there with them.

  I ran ahead, cutting off Ben by stopping in front of him, and slammed my palm against his chest. “Stop. Please. For one second. Hear me out.”

  His eyes lit afire as if the suggestion had been utterly preposterous. “Why?”

  Word this carefully. One misstep and I’d incriminate myself a whole lot more than I needed to. But if I walked into Arnie’s right now, like this, with a Fire Circle knife strapped to my thigh—with an entire team of Hunters, no less—I’d be held there. Killed, possibly. Especially since I’d been there less than forty-eight hours ago. Arnie’s was the same bar I’d been in when Jaffrin had texted me about meeting my team.

  “You know that time in college when you called home to Mom and Dad about all those wholesome extracurriculars you’d joined?” I asked him. “The sports, the We Love Jesus club, the chess team?”

  “What the hell is your point?” Ben growled.

  I shrugged, cringing. “We both told those lies, Ben. Except instead of going to the campus church, I went to Arnie’s.” I gulped, praying Ben wouldn’t make me spell it out for him. I’d been young and stupid back then. Well, if two days ago qualified as “back then.” Except I hadn’t been dealing. I’d just wanted a place to go where Hunters wouldn’t follow and report my whereabouts back to Jaffrin. I hadn’t dealt there in months.

  Ben’s face hardened even more, if that were possible. “Are you saying you frequented that cesspool?”

  I lifted a finger. “‘Frequented’ is such a strong word, it was really more of a—”

  Ben shoved me out of the way and hurried down the street. Rachel followed after him while Nate walked to my side.

  “Arnie’s?” Nate asked me. “Are you serious?”

  “I was bored. It’s complicated.” The words came out as a squeak. Arnie was not going to be happy to see me. Not without burgundy eyes.

  Arnie’s blended in with the buildings surrounding it. Built out of brick and mortar some hundreds of years ago, the building served as a wayward bar and meeting area for some of Boston’s lower-level demons. The new spawn haunted Arnie’s bar like vampires stranded in brightly-shining daylight. Only vampires didn’t exist and demons didn’t shy away from the sun. It had no effect on them. They were, after all, human. Mostly. The dark magik in their veins wasn’t originally theirs. But it’d twisted their minds and bodies all the same. Made them all but immortal, lengthening their lives to the degree of their magik.

  Ever since I’d turned eighteen, I’d come to Arnie’s under a demonic disguise—dark clothes, burgundy contact lenses, spells hiding the scent of my Blackwood ether magik—and interacted with the demonic locals. Most of the time, nothing happened. It was usually a boring night filled with underage drinking. But sometimes, when I got lucky, I’d catch information about the newest demonic hideout or some other type of gossip about Darkness’s Empire.

  I’d never told the Fire Circle—especially not my mother or Jaffrin—where I’d gotten the information. But every time it panned out and the Fire Circle cleared another nest of demons for the greater good of the Powers, I received a reluctant nod of approval.

  I liked to pretend they didn’t know that their good girl Hunter-witch was a regular at the demon bar, but Jaffrin did. Why he never reported it, I had no idea. I’d never stuck around long enough to ask that question. But now I had bigger problems at hand.

  Ben made quick time to the door to Arnie’s. He barged right in, not even bothering to knock. I gulped as two dozen pairs of burgundy eyes turned on us. A sick feeling sloshed through my stomach, warning me I’d be teleportante-ing all of us out of here very quickly and just in the nick of time.

  “Ben,” I warned. “This is a super shitty idea.”

  “She’s right,” said Rachel. “We shouldn’t be here. There are other ways to get information. Let
’s go.”

  Ben ignored her and strode down the middle of the bar right up to the bartender behind the counter. “Tell me where she is, where they all are.”

  Right. Because that’s descriptive enough for Arnie. The video hadn’t said, “Go to Arnie’s and he’ll tell you everything!” Idiot. Ben would be better off interviewing demons at Hunter’s Guild than here. At least there he wouldn’t be attacked.

  Arnie, the bartender and owner, a huge dude with biceps larger than my face and deep burgundy eyes in which a dark shadow swirled alive, threw his head back and laughed. Laughed. “Who the hell do you think you are? Do you all hear this guy?”

  Ben’s jaw worked. “I need to know where I can find Shadow Crest’s hideout. Where I can find her.”

  Silence sliced through the room as if someone had vacuumed out the sound of every heartbeat and breath. I hadn’t realized Ben was the type of person who not only loved to tread the line between stupidity and bravery, but that he lived for it, especially if it put his own family at risk.

  I sucked in a deep breath to calm my nerves and then stepped in front of Rachel and Nate. If this went south, I’d at least be able to get them out. Maybe not every person on my new team had to die tonight.

  Maybe it’d just be me.

  I tried to keep my eyes from wandering, from spending too much time looking at any one demon, as Ben’s conversation with the bartender devolved into hell.

  “You foolish, insolent Hunter,” Arnie spat. “Coming onto my property and demanding answers of me, about Shadow Crest no less? Are you insane?”

  Everyone—every demon—in the bar stood, hands raised at their sides. Whether reaching for their weapons or their magik, I couldn’t tell. This wasn’t going to end well either way.

  Arnie’s gaze lifted to the bar’s entrance, where the rest of our team stood. To me. “And you. You haven’t been a regular here for a while. Might it have something to do with your new friends?” But then he must have seen it, my lack of demonic-characteristics, and he hissed. “Heathen.”

  “Okay,” I said. “Enough with the Old English speak. Not all of us are trapped in the fourteenth century.”

  He and every other demon in the room sniffed theatrically. I hadn’t bothered hiding the scent of my magik this time. There wasn’t a point. I’d walked in here with Hunters and I’d be discovered to also be one no matter what I did.

  “Leave,” Arnie growled, the darkness in his eyes shimmering like comets against the night. “Leave now and I’ll let you go with your lives. You Hunters think you own this city, that you can push us around whenever and however you like. But you won’t do that here, and you won’t get any information from me.”

  “My, my,” said a new voice from behind me. The low brass of it skittered up my spine as his magik reached out to mine. “To think I’ve been dealing with a witch this entire time.”

  I swallowed hard but turned to the newcomer with confidence. Eldric. I’d sold him dharksa for two years before leaving him to die in a deal gone wrong. I hadn’t had another choice. It was him or me, and I liked me a lot more than him. Besides, the Hunter Circles were counting on me to be there for Alzan. That stupid, mythological city from the prophecy.

  “Apologies, dear,” I said. There’d never been anything romantic between Eldric and me, at least on my end. He’d been a means to an end, a way to funnel more information from Darkness to the Circles.

  “‘Dear’?” Ben hissed.

  “Oh, shut up,” I said. “You dragged us in here, and for what? Did you really think Arnie was going to tell you where to find Shadow Crest? They’re hidden—and feared—for a reason.”

  Eldric’s eyes narrowed. “Traitor. We were partners.”

  I spun around. “Hey, I never lied about who I was. You just believed what was presented to you.” And what a fool he’d been. No young demon dealt in dharksa.

  “You know about the Trade,” he hissed. “I can’t let you walk out of here alive.”

  I leveled him with a look. “I knew about it before coming here. We all did. I just didn’t have direct access to dharksa. Thank you, by the way, for facilitating my business and for buying it from me afterward.”

  “Dharksa?” Nate asked. His eyes narrowed. Oh good. More reason for them not to trust me. “Why were you dealing in that?”

  The demons in the room stalked toward us, weapon and magik hands raising.

  Arnie clicked his tongue loudly and they backed down. Marginally. “If you leave now, you may leave with your lives. Never come here again.”

  “Where is Lady Azar?” Ben demanded.

  Both Arnie and me flinched. There was a brilliant plan. I wasn’t scared of her name, but I sure as hell was terrified of her, like everybody else.

  “Out!” Arnie shouted. The warmth from the fire in his palms scorched the air in front of us. Sparks shone in his dark eyes. “Now!”

  The other demons pulled up their magik and weapons.

  I grabbed Ben’s shirt and tugged him toward the exit. “Let’s go. This is stupid.”

  We got all the way to the door before my body froze, unmoving. No matter how hard I tried, my muscles wouldn’t oblige my commands.

  “Not so fast, witch.” Eldric.

  “Look. I get you’re mad, but—”

  “We have a payment conflict,” he purred.

  “As in, you remember how I never paid you back and then didn’t return?” Okay. So maybe Arnie’s wasn’t exactly dangerous for the team. Everyone in here was a fledgling or lower-level demon. But Eldric and his dharska chain leaders? Very dangerous indeed. And I’d pissed them off. Big time. And then I’d left Eldric to die. “I will. Let me just go get my wallet from home and—”

  Eldric pushed me out into the alley, slamming the door to Arnie’s behind us, and pressed his free hand to my collarbone. “Now. You’re going to pay now. With interest.”

  The door swung open and Ben, Nate, and Rachel filed through. Lightning spawned behind us, sparking in the air. The hair on my arms stood up. Eldric pulled me closer to him as though I were a human shield.

  “Don’t, Ben,” I said. “This is my debt to pay.” Here’s hoping it won’t kill me.

  Ben backed down, anger clenching his fists and jaw, but he didn’t speak another word. Whether from fear or from actually realizing I had this situation somewhat under control, I didn’t know.

  “Debt.” Eldric barked a laugh. “You have no idea.”

  His fingers twitched against my skin, clammy and cold. A primal energy surged beneath his fingertips, closing the already-small distance between his body and mine. Slowly at first, my magik seeped from me, through the blood and water in my veins, up through my chest, to his fingers. Eldric’s eyes glowed and his breathing ran ragged like he was making love.

  “Holy—” He moaned headily. “The… power here…”

  Disgust spiraled through my body as he siphoned the ancient magik inside me into himself. “Not sure that’s the word… I’d use…” I grunted out as my magik and life drained from me.

  It was like donating blood to the Red Cross, only instead, I was giving away my magik to a water wraith who’d rather steal my life essence. Too bad Eldric was getting more than he’d bargained for and, judging by the pain now crinkling around his old, glowing eyes, he was starting to realize it as the pleasure faded.

  “No,” he said, panicked. He tried to pull away, but I held his hand there.

  “You wanted this,” I told him, my words shaky. “Stop selling dharksa in this area. And elin too, for that matter. No one wants your hallucinatory, power-zapping magik drugs. Humans have no business being superheroes for a day before they drop dead.”

  Eldric snickered despite the smoke rising from his hand. My anger and heat—it must have been transferring into my blood. Water wraiths were revolting demonic creatures. Although the difference between his abilities and Rachel’s wasn’t that much, if one thought about it enough. Ether vs. elemental, that was what separated her magik from his.


  “You didn’t seem to care when you took it,” Eldric hissed, although his words were starting to sound like a whine as I continued to hold his hand in place.

  I looked over my shoulder but couldn’t see Ben. What did he make of this? I almost didn’t want to know. Actually, what the hell had he been doing this whole time? One show of his power, a bark from me, and he was kaput? Useless.

  But as I looked around, I realized my entire team had been restrained by silence and the wrappings of a rope made of fire. Which didn’t make sense. None of us had fire magik.

  “It’d be wise to let the woman go,” said a voice from the shadowed alleyway.

  A man emerged from the darkness dressed in dark jeans and a dark red T-shirt. Trying to blend in with the sunrise, no doubt. Flames whipped around him, spiraling up above him before ending in wisps of smoke that billowed into the air above.

  Eldric let his power slip from my body and he dropped my hand. “S-Sorry. I didn’t know you’d marked her. Sir.”

  Marked me? “What kind of demeaning—”

  “Hush,” the fire-elemental demon cooed in my direction.

  Which only pissed me off more. “Who the hell are you?”

  The closer he got, the easier it was to pick out his features. Fair skin, jet-black hair. Burgundy eyes, just like the rest of them. He carried himself with confidence, but loosely. Like he couldn’t be bothered to act in a threatening way, that it almost wasn’t called for because everyone should automatically know who and what he was. Curse me, it was almost actually attractive. A tingle ran down my spine as I took in his walk, his strong-jawed face. The careless arrogance.

  My eyes wandered over his loose fist—the one that must have been holding my team hostage. He had incredible control to be able to hold three powerful magik users against their will while simultaneously walking amongst flames.

  Flames. In an instant this demon’s aura ricocheted through me, bouncing off memory after memory. The second attack, the second mutilated body… that aura that’d remained burning after an hour of him being gone. That aura belonged to this demon-man standing in front of me. Dark and shadowy and bright red all the same, swirling in a sparking blackness that reached deep into my soul, stole breath from my lungs, and made my blood sing. My gaze fell to the tattoo crawling over his loose fist, full of curls and sharp geometric lines. A violet flame, magik-infused to appear as though it were an actual burning wave of embers.