Huntress (A Grace Murphy Novel)

by Nicole Hamlett

  "Well he looks okay to me. Whatever his temperature was before, it’s gone down and he’s only running around 99.8 right now. His eyes are a little dilated and I’m concerned that he may be in shock. Also, why is it so wet in this hallway? Did Brandon’s pipes burst?"

  Closing my eyes and pursing my lips, I shook my head. "Oh no, that’s not what happened at all. I’ll explain later. Do you think we need to take him to the hospital?" Secretly, I was hoping that she’d say yes so I could take Dylan home and talk to him alone. I’m not that lucky.

  "No, but I do recommend a sleeping pill. He seems pretty exhausted and could use the rest."

  "Let me try this again," I gritted out between my teeth, trying to be a little discreet in case someone was listening. "Rose, are you sure you don’t think that Dylan needs to go to the hospital?" My eyes were staring her down at this point, wide, as though I could force my thoughts into her brain if I just focused hard enough.

  "Yes?" She answered, confused.

  "Brandon? It’s ok to come in now. Rose thinks that we should get Dylan checked out at her hospital. Drew thinks that your sprinkler system burst here in the hallway which caused it to look like snow. I nodded upwards at the sprinkler and Drew reached up and yanked on it, causing an entirely different spray of water to drench us anew.

  "Thanks," I muttered.

  "What? I just had the house inspected a few months ago?" Brandon replied annoyed as he stood at the end of the hallway. What a sight we must have been, all looking like drowned, frozen rats, while he stayed dry and cozy out of danger. How typical.

  "She wants us to get checked out as well just in case we’ve caught something and exacerbated it standing here in the downpour, so I’ll take him. Is Zachary still with you?"

  He scowled at me and opened his mouth to protest, when Zachary sauntered up behind him and smacked him on the back in a gesture of camaraderie. "Sure am, Daughter. I was just talking to Brandon’s fiancé," he looked at me meaningfully and suddenly the situation clicked. "Seems as though Dylan started getting sick after the big announcement. She thinks that it could have been something disagreed with him from dinner at Rose’s. Lovely woman. Wouldn’t mind giving her a quick tumble, myself."

  Brandon wheeled on him and I took the opportunity to shuffle everyone out of the hall and toward the door. We were all soaked and going outside in this cold didn’t appeal at all. "I’ll bring him back when we get the go ahead from the docs, Brandon."

  The biting cold air froze the clothes to my body and I threw Drew another dirty look. "You are going to be the death of me."

  "Not anymore," he grinned unrepentantly at me and unlocked the doors.

  "I’ll meet you at the hospital," Rose started to say, but I cut her off.

  "No, I’ll meet you at your house." I pushed Dylan into the back seat of the car, which was thankfully slightly warm since we hadn’t been there long and climbed in after him, pulling him into my arms after I was settled.

  I noticed that Drew hadn’t gotten in right away. I could hear him talking to Rose in murmured tones outside. That was ok. I needed to find out what had upset Dylan so much.

  "Ok, are you ready to talk about it?"

  "No," he responded sullenly.

  "Really?" I wasn’t skeptical. No, not me.

  Shifting in his seat to look at me, I could see the pain in his eyes. "She said that you weren’t fit to raise me and that Dad should just take me so she could be my new mom. She thinks that they can re-file with the court after their wedding next month"

  It took every ounce of control for me to not lose my temper. One earthquake a day was enough, thanks. The temperature of the car started getting cooler and I nudged him.

  "Hey, I’m already freezing so un-chill. Look at me." I gently nudged his chin up so that he could see how serious I was. "Nobody is taking you away from me. I paid a shit-load of money for a great lawyer just for that reason. You are mine and you are staying that way."

  His chin dropped and he huddled closer into my body. "Promise?"

  "Always and always." Giving him a squeeze and a kiss on the top of his head, I tried to think of how to broach the other subject. The kid was smarter than I was. He did it for me.

  "Mom?"

  "Yeah?"

  "I was so angry, but then I got so scared. I didn’t know how I was doing that. You guys said that it wouldn’t happen to me."

  "I know. I’m going to have to have a long talk with Drew about that one. The question is - you’ve got it, so what do you want to do with it?"

  "I don’t know," he said hesitantly. "I’m kinda scared of it."

  "Hey, I’m a billion times older than you are and I’m scared of it too. That’s pretty normal."

  "Yeah, I guess so. I’ll be honest, Mom. I don’t know if I want this. I felt so weird. Like I was sick when it was happening."

  "Ok, so we have a couple of options. We can send you off with the other kids your age so you can get a grasp on it. We could get a much better heating system for the house, or you can hold off until I find your Grandma so we can ask her to stop it. She stopped it for me right? She can stop it for you too."

  The car was silent for a few minutes. It was important to let him work through his options. I had been instilling choices and consequences in him since he was little. He knew the importance of this decision.

  "I’ll think about it."

  "Good kid. This isn’t a ‘decide now’ kind of decision. Take your time. You’ll know what you want and then you can tell me."

  "Mom, my stomach hurts." Dylan curled into himself and I held him closer.

  "It’s ok baby. It’s probably some sort of bug that you have. My tummy isn’t feeling so hot either."

  Drew jumped into the car and threw it into gear, jerking us around in the back seat.

  "Whoah, in a hurry?" I asked, scowling at his reflection in the rearview mirror.

  "Yeah," he replied briefly.

  "Okay," I drew the word out, raising my eyebrows. "Want to tell me where we’re going in such a hurry?"

  "Away from here. Dylan, does your stomach hurt?"

  "Yeah," my son responded in a small voice.

  "How bad? One to ten."

  "I dunno. Six?"

  "Shit."

  "Shit, what? What’s going on? My stomach is feeling a little queasy too. Maybe we’ve got a bug." I look back now and find it pretty amazing how stubborn I was in my ability to completely repress the obvious. I was repressing like nobody’s business at this point.

  "Grace," he started with exasperation. "We don’t get sick. Are you both belted in?"

  "No, we’ve just been sitting here talking." I was interrupted by a quick jerk of the wheel that sent me flying across the seat into Dylan.

  "What the hell, Drew?!" Shouting sometimes makes things better. Oddly enough, it didn’t work this time.

  "Get your seatbelt on," he ground out.

  I belted myself in and then took care of Dylan, who was now bent over.

  "It’s getting worse," he panted.

  "What’s going on? You’re going to get pulled—." The sentence trailed off as a loud thump sounded on the roof above us. The ceiling dented a few inches and I yelped in surprise before covering Dylan with my body.

  "I don’t know what’s going on," I whispered, "but if I tell you to run, I want you to run and hide ok?"

  He didn’t respond and I was getting scared.

  "OK? You promise me that you will run and hide, Dylan Murphy." I shook him a little to make my point and he nodded his head.

  "Not good enough. I want to hear you say it."

  "I promise," he whispered.

  "Ok. I love you. Don’t ever forget that." With those words said, I pulled in my kukri and shoved it upwards with all of the strength I had. The sharp steel pierced through the top of the roof and was met with an unholy squeal of rage.

  "Pull over," I yelled.

  "We need to get out of this area Grace. We can’t do this with normal humans around." He pun
ctuated his last sentence with a sharp turn of the wheel. The tires squealed and we briefly ended up on two wheels as we rounded a corner.

  I glanced around to see where we were. Five more minutes and we’d be up in the mountains, far enough away from the densely crowded west-side of Colorado Springs.

  "Got a plan?" I asked as the pounding on the roof started. I called in my other kukri and stabbed upwards, hoping to catch a break and shake this thing loose. A wave of disappointment washed over me when I realized that I’d missed. I could have used a gun right now.

  I would have bonked my forehead with my hand if I hadn’t been holding onto my swords. Duh! I could call in a gun.

  "Baby, cover your ears."

  "Grace, that isn’t a good idea. People are going to hear you. We’ll attract attention that we don’t want right now."

  "Like the way you’re driving AND the whatever-it-is taking a joyride on the roof of my car isn’t attracting attention?"

  "It’s not gun-shot attention," he replied grimly.

  We were getting close to a stopping point and I tried to run scenarios through my head. How could I get Dylan out of this safely? Briefly, I considered throwing him out of the car and having him run to the nearest house, but I couldn’t be certain that whatever was attached to the car wouldn’t go after him.

  "Drew? As soon as you stop the car, I want you to blip Dylan to safety."

  "What? Are you crazy?"

  "No, I’m trying to think of a safe place to stash my kid. Work with me here!"

  "No, I can't leave you alone to fight this. Bad idea."

  "Okay, got a better one?"

  "He’s going to have to stay in the car. When I stop, roll out and come up firing. We’ll be far enough away from any subdivisions to avert attracting attention."

  "So…fire toward the car that my kid is hiding in." I let the words trail off, allowing him to grasp the reality of how bad that plan was.

  "Oh, right. Bad idea. Ok, I’m going to slam on the brakes. Unfasten your seatbelt now. Maybe it will shake it off the top."

  "Is that a good idea?"

  "You got a better one?"

  I hated having my words thrown back at me, especially when they made sense when I wasn’t.

  "No." I unbuckled my belt, planted a quick kiss on Dylan’s forehead and looked into his eyes. "Remember what I said?"

  He nodded and then so did I. "I love you, kiddo."

  Drew slammed on the brakes and I went flying forward. I thought I’d land in the front seat. I didn’t. My body crashed head first through the windshield and out onto the hood of the car.

  I shook my head, a little stunned and safety glass clattered out of my hair.

  "Yeah, that was a super idea," I muttered - wiping blood out of my right eye.

  "Get down on the floor," I cried as I flung myself off the hood. I’d forgotten to pull my swords out of the rooftop, but I had other tricks in my magic bag of holding.

  A Colt .45 appeared in one hand and a machete in the other as I burst into a sprint, firing at the creature that had tumbled off of the car in the stop.

  Drew and I worked in tandem distracting the creature and getting our slices and dices in. It wasn’t the same kind of monster we’d encountered earlier.

  Long, hooked talons extended from the forearms, perfect for slicing and digging. The body was lithe with backward jointed legs. Its face rose sharply into a point at the top of its head, not unlike a mole. Cone-head, I thought.

  Beady eyes stared malevolently at me and it started talking. The sound hissed around the two stakes that it called teeth. I paused to try to understand what it was saying.

  "Youuu will come to meee," it hissed. At least, I think that’s what it hissed. It really was hard to tell what the thing was saying.

  "I don’t think so, buddy," I replied and fired two more bullets in rapid succession into the wiry body. I missed and one of the bullets lodged into the front of my car.

  Crap, I had to watch where I was firing. My son was in that car.

  My hesitation gave the creature an advantage. Diving for me, it sliced back at Drew, leaving a line of red across his chest. Poor guy was getting beat to hell today.

  I was flung to the ground and though I struggled - trying to buck it off of me - we were going nowhere, fast. Drew went for a side tackle and the thing twisted at an unbelievable angle. He missed, hurtling through the air and landing a few feet away. Dirt and mud closed over the top of him, filling his mouth, ears and eyes.

  I looked toward the car with fear. Dylan’s face was pressed against the glass, watching. I never in my life want to see that look on his face again. He was terrified and the window was icing over in his panic.

  "Run!" I screamed at him. "Run Now!"

  He shook his head, frozen in terror. "You promised!" I screamed.

  Man this felt familiar. Now I knew how Drew had felt. I called on my power and felt the gentle presence of the Earth respond. I had seconds to figure out what to do.

  The creature on top of me seemed to be holding me in position, concentrating on something unknown. I focused on Drew and the debris that was burying him alive cleared away. He gasped for air and rolled over to stand.

  "Get Dylan to safety!" I cried.

  Our eyes met and I opened my mind to him. "Please save my son," I begged.

  He looked like he was going to try to take the creature out again for an instant and then I could see his grim decision. He would leave. Leave me, so that he could save Dylan.

  My connection to the ground was cut off abruptly, leaving me feeling disoriented and bereft. I hadn’t realized how in-tune I was until it had been taken away.

  Frozen mud flowed over my trapped body and the creature lying prostrate on top of me. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, knowing that if this was it for me, at least Drew would take care of Dylan.

  Chapter 21

  So...when did I become the girl that kept getting kidnapped? Seriously, what the fuck? At this point, I felt like Lois Lane on a bender. Twice in the last month was a little much, don'tcha think? My lungs started burning. I needed to take a breath.

  I could feel a small pocket of air develop as the earth retracted from my face, and I took a deep gulp - relishing it even though it tasted stale. My arms were still pinned to my sides, so I couldn't wipe the goop out of my eyes to see and mud clogged my ears, but I was able to catch snatches of sounds - nothing definite.

  The body on top of me shifted as the mud flowed off but I still couldn’t move. An oppressive force of power kept me immobile. It felt like the Earth’s gravity had rocketed up a hundred times. My brain hurt and I was pretty sure it was going to come squishing out of my ears at any moment.

  Actually, I felt something sliding out of my ears and thought, "Welp, that’s it for me and my witty banter."

  Gentle fingertips wiped the mud away from my eyes and I could hear the faint sounds of a woman’s voice. She smelled nice and I wanted to huddle closer to her radiating heat for warmth.

  "Grace, honey I need you to listen to me."

  That voice sounded familiar. "Diana?"

  "Yes. He’s got you pinned down but I know you can break out of it if you concentrate. Can you do that?" she was whispering frantically while she wiped the caked -on mud from my face.

  "This gives a whole new meaning to mud masks." I am pretty sure that I’m an idiot. I don’t even know where that statement came from. Everything was so damned weird right now. Retreating into sarcasm was definitely my M.O. but that statement made me internally roll my eyes.

  She smacked me for my trouble. "Grace, focus damnit. You need to reconnect to your power or he is going to kill you. Baby, I don’t want you to die. I want to get to know you. So concentrate."

  "Right, concentrating."

  My focus was interrupted by a sneering voice. "So this is Zeus’ brat?"

  "What?" I asked confused.

  "This is what you left me for Diana? You could have had it all but you couldn’t see past yo
ur foolish desire to hold his power. You should have known that having his child wouldn’t change him."

  I opened my mouth to set whomever this was straight but I caught the small shake of Diana’s head and shut my mouth.

  "Geb, you know this isn’t true. I have responsibilities to our people. Responsibilities that you used to share. I cannot just walk away from them to pander to your crush."

  "Is that what you think this is Diana? You believe that I have destroyed civilizations because of a crush?" His voice was incredulous.

  Since he wasn’t focused on me, I took the time to study him. His posture was rigid and I could see the waves of power manifest visually from his body. They covered him in a reddish haze. I was going to attribute that to the rage and the madness.

  He must be blind if he thought that I was Zeus’ daughter. I realized where my natural coloring came from. I may have gotten my Mother’s sea foam green eyes, but everything else came from my father.

  His blue black hair swept back from his forehead in a widow’s peak and flowed gently down his back in a waterfall of waves. Dark eyebrows slashed above his purple hued eyes and a perpetual five o’ clock shadow caressed his jaw line into a full Van Dyke.

  "It’s true," I thought ironically. "The bad guy always has a goatee."

  "You wouldn’t know love if it shot out of the Earth and bit you in your idiot ass," my mother retorted, standing and stalking toward him with her hands planted on her hips.

  "No," he countered. "Tis you who knows nothing of love. You’ve left me buried here for decades! How could you not realize that everything was done for you?" His scorn could have skinned a person alive it was so razor-sharp.

  "For me? You mean for the power you would gain with me by your side. You’d finally be able to over-throw Zachary and then what? Would you destroy this world as you tried to destroy your own?"

  My eyes widened at this discovery. They had completely forgotten that I was here and I was more than happy to listen to them argue.

  "Why don’t you just admit that you love that blundering idiot more than me!" he shouted, furious.