by Sophia Sharp
Nora sighed to herself. Even now, he had a way of making her feel absolutely smitten with him.
Hunter turned back to the chest, and traced his hands over the top. Then he lowered them to the sides, where the opening mechanism could be reached. Nora heard a click, and then another one, and the top of the chest popped up.
Hunter glanced over his shoulder at her, then very slowly and very deliberately pulled the top of the chest up.
And he stumbled back into Nora.
Chapter Two
~A Rash Decision~
“What is it?” Nora asked cautiously. She couldn’t see over his shoulder to the chest.
“The chest, it’s empty,” Hunter said breathlessly, sounding shocked. “Everything’s been taken. There’s nothing left!”
A sinking feeling spread through Nora’s gut. “The Vassiz.”
Hunter nodded. “It looks like they strip-searched the mill after they found one of their comrades down.”
“When?” Nora remembered being taken from the mill by one of the bounty hunters and having Hunter chase him down and rescue her afterward. But not before his own fight with the second bounty hunter – the one he was forced to kill.
“I don’t know,” Hunter said. “It could have been recent, or it could have been as long as weeks ago, just after we left. But we lost a critical advantage as soon as they found those letters.”
“There are other ways we can find the elders, right?” Nora asked worriedly. He was the expert on these things.
“It’ll be more difficult,” Hunter replied slowly, “but yes, we’ll still be able to do it. That’s not my biggest worry.”
“Then what is?”
“If they have the letters, it’ll put them on their guard. More so than before, definitely. Especially when they realize my connection to Maria…” He took a deep breath in. “But that’s still not the worst part.”
“What is?”
“They kept the chest closed.”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“I mean,” he said seriously, “that they anticipated us coming back. Or planned for it, at least. If they hadn’t, they would have just taken the chest, or kept it open once they got everything inside. But they didn’t. They closed it and kept it there, perhaps as a way to lure us in. And once they had us here—”
He cut off at exactly the same time Nora’s ears picked up noise outside. Footsteps. Coming toward them, into the mill.
“A trap!” Nora whispered, looking around her desperately. “They have us trapped!”
“Dammit!” Hunter cursed so quietly Nora barely heard him. “Keep your voice down! If we’re lucky, whoever it is might not realize we’re here right away.”
Beneath them, the door to the mill creaked open. Then she heard more footsteps, clearer to her ears this time. She realized with a start that the footsteps were being echoed – which meant that there was more than one person down there.
“Keep absolutely still,” Hunter whispered.
For a long, anxious moment, all Nora could hear was the sound of her own heart beating. The footsteps had stopped. Who was down there?
Suddenly, someone coughed, right below her.
“How long have we been here already, eh?” a gruff voice asked. “Nobody’s coming. I don’t see why we’re stuck guarding this stupid mill.”
Nora forced a shaky breath out as quietly as possible. Whoever it was down there, they didn’t know Nora and Hunter were above them.
“Shut up.” Another voice, equally gruff but harder, answered. “When the elders give you orders, Algar, you don’t question them. You simply obey.”
“Well, we’ve been obeying their orders for the better part of a month!” Algar, whoever he was, sounded angry. “I’m telling you, no one in their right mind would come back here. They’d have to be absolutely witless to do it. They left the body here – why would they possibly backtrack?”
The other one – his companion – growled deeply. It was a frighteningly guttural sound. “We are forbidden to speak of it,” he said menacingly.
“To the others, maybe,” Algar replied. “But both of us know what happened here. Do you so simply follow orders, Kalvarin, that you will act clueless to the murder?”
“It is not our place to question what the elders tell us, Algar.” There was a dangerous emphasis to the name. “We obey, and they keep their attention away from us. They keep us – all of us – safe.”
“They keep us safe?” Algar sneered. “And do tell, what happened to the bounty hunter who was found here? And to his friend?”
“That was the work of a rogue,” Kalvarin emphasized. “Nobody belonging to a pack would do such a thing.”
“I heard,” Algar started slowly, “that the hunters got arrogant. Cocky, even. And it was the elders who put them down like the rabid dogs they were.”
“That’s blasphemy,” Kalvarin said dangerously. “You overstep your boundaries, Algar.”
“Do not forget, dear brother,” Algar replied, with just the hint of ease, “which of us has been left in charge here.”
“That does not matter,” Kalvarin replied. “Blasphemy is blasphemy. And what you are suggesting supersedes the governing rules that keep us here.”
“Hah!” Nora heard the sound of laughter, but it was quickly cut off. “Look at yourself. Were you not just berating me for questioning the elder’s orders?”
“Drop it,” Kalvarin warned.
“Not unless…”
Nora let the words drown out and turned her attention to Hunter as he pinched her shoulder. He motioned with his hands for her to follow him. Stepping lightly, he shifted his weight to a plank not far away and gently eased his entire body onto it. Nora did the same, holding her breath and straining her ears for any sounds that might give them away. She was glad the river was just outside, helping to mute any inadvertent noise they might make.
“They’re so busy arguing,” Hunter said under his breath, “they wouldn’t notice if a jet flew overhead.” Still, he was very careful to speak just loudly enough for the sound to reach Nora’s ears, and no more.
He made his way across the wooden plank, and Nora kept up behind him. Every motion either of them made was very slow and very deliberate. Hunter put one foot forward to test the strength of the wood, and only after he was satisfied it wouldn’t creak under his weight did he move forward. Nora took his cue, and did exactly the same thing.
They were moving slowly back toward the attic entrance they had come through. It was the only way out, unless either of them wanted to break through the plywood sides of the attic. No matter how much the Vassiz below them were arguing, Nora doubted they would miss that.
Suddenly, she found herself walking right into Hunter’s back. He’d stopped in front of her, and she had been so preoccupied with making sure she didn’t make any noise, she hadn’t noticed.
“A bad spot,” he pointed ahead. “The plank’s weak there. We have to go around.”
“Around?” Nora scanned the floor of the attic. The next closest plank was six, maybe eight feet away from them. And as much as she trusted herself to jump across and land right on it, she didn’t want to think about how loud a sound the impact might make. Or, even worse, what would happen if the plank couldn’t support the abrupt weight increase.
“Back up,” Hunter whispered. “We’ll go through the roof.”
“Through the roof?” Nora said incredulously. “How are we supposed to do that?!”
Hunter shot her a dry look. “Do you have any better ideas?”
Nora looked around her… and realized that no, she did not. “Could we do it quietly?” she whispered to him.
“Of course,” he answered back. “But a part of me is starting to think it might be too much of a hassle.”
“What? What do you mean?”
“Well, there’s two of them, and two of us…” he trailed off and grinned at her mischievously. And Nora saw a wild sparkle in his eye that she didn’t quite recognize. He
motioned down beneath him, and raised his eyebrows suggestively.
Nora gasped when she realized what he meant. But – no. Could he be suggesting…? No. That was crazy, wasn’t it? He wouldn’t do it, would he?
“So it’s agreed.” He smiled before she could even get a word in. “Ready? In three, two…”
And before the countdown even finished, Hunter leapt off the plank he was on and hurtled down through the ceiling. Nora winced at the crashing noise that sounded. She wished it hadn’t come to this, but it wasn’t like she had any choice. She never remembered Hunter being this rash before. With a sigh, she jumped off and followed him down.
Chapter Three
~Unexpected Help~
Nora landed in a thick cloud of dust. She saw Hunter at her side, and he smiled at her before turning his attention forward to where the two guards they’d overheard were running straight at them.
Nora didn’t even have time to think. She knew if she stood still, by the time the dust settled, she would be in a very vulnerable position. She rolled expertly to her right, and out of the corner of her eye she saw Hunter move to the left.
The two Vassiz who were coming at them snarled and split. One was heading for Nora, the other for Hunter. Both were significantly larger than Nora or Hunter, but he and she shared one precious advantage, they had both taken Vassiz blood, and were, therefore, that much more dangerous.
The guard who had chosen to move at her smiled viciously as he closed the gap. He didn’t think she stood a chance. In her mind, Nora pitied his ignorance. He jabbed forward with one fist, and Nora smoothly moved aside. Her mind went blank, and she let instinct take over. She caught his hand in her own and used his momentum to send him flying forward. He stumbled over his feet, blinking unsurely. In that brief fraction of a second, Nora used his momentary confusion to clock him over the head with her fist. The punch was one smooth motion, and she surprised even herself with how much force she used.
The guard fell to the floor, and Nora launched herself at him. But he was quick, too – and deftly rolled to one side to just avoid Nora’s force of impact. Nora’s foot came down hard on the spot where his head had just been. Too hard, in fact, and she broke through the wood panels of the floor and jammed her foot in the spot.
“Dammit, Hunter,” she cursed out loud. Next thing she knew she was flying through the air, propelled by an angry shoulder to her side.
She flew toward the far wall, but righted her body midway through the flight and absorbed the impact of the wall with her legs. She launched herself directly at her assailant, using the force of her legs to propel her forward.
A momentary look of surprise graced the man’s face right before Nora slammed into his body – hard. The two of them flew a dozen feet back before hitting the floor. He grunted in pain as his back slammed against the hard wood, softening Nora’s own impact. With him on the floor below her, Nora had all the advantage. With a few quick jabs, she bloodied his entire face, breaking his nose, cutting his lip, bruising his eyes. She didn’t want to kill – despite everything, some part of her human side still shone through even as instinct ruled – but she wanted to be sure he would be too weakened to move anytime soon. Slowly, his attempts to shield her blows weakened, until eventually his arms simply fell limp at his sides.
Seeing that, Nora stopped. Stopped and gingerly looked around her. She could still hear the sounds of battle coming from the adjacent room, but they were slowly dying out. And the cries she heard were definitely not Hunter’s. It seemed like he had been – or was going to be – just as successful as her.
Nora got up and turned away, and something struck her hard from behind.
For a split second, she lost all coordination as pain radiated from the back of her head. She staggered forward, feeling dizzy and vulnerable all at once. Before she even had a chance to turn back and see what happened, another blow connected – this one right into her kidney. She collapsed forward in a heap, the pain from her head and her side overwhelming her senses.
Weakly, she turned over and saw the Vassiz she thought she’d beaten senseless smile over her, his face a bloody mess, yet still intimidating.
“You are easily fooled, girl,” he said, in a deep, hard voice. She recognized that voice as belonging to Kalvarin. “A smart combatant never reveals his all to an opponent before seeing her own strengths, first.” He smiled a vicious smile, made worse by the blood streaming down his face. “Let that be a lesson to you, for next time. Oh, wait. For you, there will be no next time.” And with that, Nora felt a jolt of pain as his boot found the side of her stomach. She doubled over, clutching the spot he’d struck.
“The elders have placed quite a premium on your skin,” he continued, looming over her. “And while they say they’d prefer you alive, I’m sure they would forgive a little…mishap…should it occur.” He struck her again in the same side, the hard toe of his boot wedging itself right under her ribs. All breath escaped her lungs. Weakly, she tried to roll away, but he just laughed and put his foot down hard on her back, pressing her to the floor.
As she lay there on her stomach, still dizzy from the first blow she had taken to the head, she saw the wall in front of her break in. Gray roared through, looking every bit the intimidating killing machine he was.
The guard standing above Nora jerked around at the noise. “What the…?” he started to say, seeing the hole in the wall. But Nora knew he couldn’t have said what caused it. If he was like most Vassiz – which he was – his eyes would have glazed right over Gray’s intimidating shape, not seeing the bear until it was too late.
And that was exactly what happened.
As the guard turned back toward Nora, Gray raced over, and with a deadly slash of his great paw, tore an excruciating laceration across his back. Kalvarin howled in pain, twisting around to see what had maimed him. But it was too late. With his other paw, Gray took another swipe at him, this time ripping a sickening gash across his torso. Blood flew across the room, and Kalvarin collapsed to his knees. Gray roared once more, a deep, booming sound, and Kalvarin fell forward, clutching his body. An unnatural amount of blood pooled under him. He was dead.
Nora looked to Gray, feeling a momentarily unnerving bit of fear at his capabilities. She knew he was strong, but she had no idea just how strong he really was. She didn’t realize how deadly he really was, either. But with Kalvarin out of the way, only concern touched those shimmering black eyes. He pushed the body aside with one paw, as if it were simply a ragdoll, and lay down beside Nora, nudging her with his nose.
She smiled. He had run in here to protect her. Somehow, he had known she was in trouble and had rushed to her side right when she needed it. She reached out to rub his massive head and felt the connection with him form. There was only the utmost concern radiating from him. She sent him back a message that she was alright – a mixture of wellbeing tinged slightly with felicity.
She pushed herself up. The pain from the blows she took had subsided to become barely noticeable. Somewhat chagrined, she realized the pain had never really been that bad – it was just the shock of it coming completely out of the blue that caught her off-guard.
She heard the floor squeak behind her and whipped around quickly. Hunter was standing there, looking none the worse for wear. And he had a big, stupid grin on his face.
“Are you crazy?” Nora began. “You could have gotten us killed! What on earth possessed you to do something like that?” She rounded on him. “It was the stupidest, most rash thing you’ve ever done! You could have—wait. What are you doing? Are you laughing?”
It was true – Hunter was holding onto his sides, shaking with mirth as laughter overtook him. Nora glared at him angrily, but he just kept going.
“Did you see what happened to me?” she demanded. She stalked up to him and pushed him gruffly in the chest. “If Gray hadn’t come in to stop Kalvarin, I might have been the one on the floor, not him!”
Hunter, still holding back some chuckles, met Nora’
s glare. “I wouldn’t have let that happen,” he told her. “I was right here the whole time, watching to make sure you were safe. I didn’t think you’d like it much if I interfered in your battle.”
“You were…” Nora cut off with a strangled noise. “If you were right here, why didn’t you help me when I was down?”
“I knew you could do it yourself,” Hunter said, a proud undercurrent entering his voice. “Besides, if things had gotten too bad, I would have jumped in and helped, but otherwise…”
“But otherwise you waited for Gray to come help me?” Nora demanded.
Hunter smiled at her. “Gray broke in just as I was about to make my move. I didn’t want to take away from his hunt, either. Besides,” he said, looking Nora up and down slyly, “aside from your disheveled hair, you look just as good as I remember.”
“Ahh…” Nora couldn’t stay mad at him. The rush of the fight, and the thrill of feeling adrenaline pump through her veins as she battled against Kalvarin, was a distinctively good feeling. And from what she knew, it was good to let the Vassiz instincts within her loose every once in a while.
“Fine,” she told him, faux-coldly, crossing her arms under her chest, “as long as both of us are fine, I guess I can find it in my heart to forgive you.”
Hunter smiled at her widely, as if he never expected anything less. “Thank you, my dear,” he said, with only a hint of mockery. “And I suppose I can find it in my heart to forgive you for the deplorable manner in which you greeted your—hey!”
He cut off as she slapped the side of his arm, pretending to cower against the blow. Then Nora started to laugh at the insanity of the entire situation.
“So how’d you handle Algar, then?” she asked, once she calmed down.
“Is that who I fought?” Hunter answered, raising an eyebrow. Then he shrugged. “He was arrogant, thought too highly of himself. That was his downfall. In the end, it was a quick battle. Although I must say, he did meet a kinder end than did his brother.”
