by Tyla Grey
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Copyright © 2012 by Tyla Grey. All rights reserved worldwide.
www.tylagrey.com
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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.
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First Crossing
Hunting Eve Book 1
By Tyla Grey
Usually, Eve liked Saturdays. By the time patients had made it as far as her weekend sessions on make-up and skin care, most of the painful surgery was over. Their scars were beginning to fade, and they were generally feeling a lot more cheerful about their prospects.
Her classes always had a waiting list, now that word had spread about Eve Prentice’s magic touch with skin care. Nobody could understand why people under her care healed faster, or why their scars became almost invisible, and Eve pretended that it was just a mix of positive visualization and special skin cream blends.
She would never be able to explain what she did anyway. She couldn’t explain it to herself.
Today’s morning class had been one of the best yet: full of laughter and optimism. It should have been a great start to the weekend. Instead, Eve was bleakly certain that she’d be lucky if she survived it.
Something was off about today. She’d felt it from the minute she woke up, and she was never wrong. Until today, though, her predictions had been about bad things happening to someone else. What worried her this time was that some calamity was barreling straight at her. Worse, she had no idea what it was. Not a single clue.
How could you head off disaster if you didn’t know what it was? Or where it was coming from?
She shut the clinic door behind her, wheeled her heavy case down the ramp and heaved it into the trunk of her Chevy Malibu. The lid of the trunk closed with a dull ‘thunk’ that seemed to echo her state of mind perfectly. Eve leaned against the car to stare up into the sky, as if there might be some answers written up there in that cloudless expanse of blue.
She did a quick body scan. No hairs standing on end; no prickle of warning, so there was no immediate threat. No feeling of unwellness, no unusual symptoms, so it wasn’t physical.
Deep inside… that was different. That’s where she felt it; that and that strange connection with the otherness of life that she had never been able to explain.
She quartered the sky above her and checked each quadrant as far as her senses could reach, and then did the same for the richness of the earth under the concrete. Nothing lurking above or below.
Well, standing here wasn’t going to provide her with any answers. She ran through her options. Go home, get changed, swim the length of Rockaway beach and back. The freezing water of the Pacific was just what she needed to focus her mind. She’d have the ocean to herself; very few people could put up with the temperature the way she could.
Or maybe go to the gym and work out then do forty laps. Get changed and go for a fast, sweaty run. Yeah, a run followed by a swim.
Truth to tell, she was getting tired of the frantic physical activity. She felt like a scared animal, sensing an earthquake coming and running around in circles looking for shelter. It didn’t really matter what she did, she wasn’t going to be able to outrun it.
Damn, damn, damn.
She unlocked the driver’s door and slid behind the wheel, staring at the rows of cars in front of her. On impulse, she pulled down the visor and peered up at her image in the mirror. Pale grey eyes, almost silver, looked back at her from under white-blond bangs.
Normal. She looked completely normal. People used to have difficulty coming to terms with that, when they found out that Eve shared her grandmother Alice’s gift of precognition. It was as if they thought she should look a little bit odd; maybe wear clothing decorated with stars and moons to fit their idea of a Mystic Meg. Not an ordinary-looking girl clad in jeans and a scoop-necked t-shirt.
So why do they want to hunt me down?
The thought came out of nowhere, slashing through her mind like the blade of a dagger. Eve blinked.
Hunt her down? Where had that come from?
Abruptly, in her mind, she saw a quick flash of a girl fleeing, shadows racing after her. It lasted only a millisecond. But it wasn’t like her normal visions; it lacked clarity. And she knew the girl was her.
She slapped up the visor, her heart thumping. This had never happened before; never. Now she had some idea of the emotions people felt, on the rare occasions she had trusted them enough to warn them. A hopeless sense that something was coming and it wasn’t good, and you had to just hope like hell you could survive it.
Eve turned the key and started up the Chevy. She cast one more look around, saw nothing, and headed out into the traffic. Time to go home. What she needed was a dose of her father’s solid practicality.
***
She was barely halfway into the driveway when the sense of dread returned, thudding into her chest like a physical punch. Eve instinctively hit the brakes, and sat gripping the wheel of her car, staring at the pleasant little white cottage in front of her. The house she’d lived in all her life. The house her father had lived in for most of his life.
Why was she afraid to go in?
She sent out a feeler, and instantly set aside her first concern: that something had happened to her father. No, that wasn’t it. He was in there, and he was okay.
But something was wrong.
Eve glanced from side to side. The big oak tree that shaded the concrete car pad was the same as always. Nothing sinister lurked behind the sturdy trunk, or in the leafy branches. The mailbox gleamed in the early afternoon sun.
All was quiet.
She turned off the ignition, and stepped out of the car. Whatever awaited her, she couldn’t run away from it. She knew that as surely as she knew her own name.
The door opened just as she reached it, and her father stood there in his soft old Levis and a familiar butter yellow golf shirt. He looked at her, his grey eyes full of pain, weariness in every line of his face. He looked ten years older than he had when she left that morning. He reached out and drew her to him with his work-roughened hands, and hugged her tightly.
The fear intensified. “Dad…?”
From behind him, a voice spoke. “Hello, Eve.”
Eve went stock still. The voice was deep and resonant, and hinted of deep, secret places in the world and limitless skies. It slid into her mind like honey, yet she was bone-chillingly afraid of what it might bring into her life.
It didn’t sound like the voice of a stranger. On some soul-deep level she knew this man.
Eve gently eased her father away, first making eye contact and patting his face reassuringly, and only then looked past him to the man standing in the entrance to the living room.
Warrior. His massive body was clad in deceptively simple dark clothing; a short-sleeved black tee-shirt that strained over his slab of a chest, and black cargo pants. She knew those clothes concealed weapons; she sensed steel in three different places on his body. Blades… and other weapons she didn’t have a name for.
He stared right back at her, his gaze skimming her body and then meeting her eyes with an unblinking stare. Black eyebrows arched over moss-green eyes in a face that looked like i
t had been sculpted with the blade of an ax. His dark hair was carelessly tied back with a leather thong. Scary.
“Come in,” he said, gesturing to the sitting room, for all the world as though he owned the house. “We have a lot to discuss.”
Eve took a deep breath. She had never been one to deny reality. Both her ability to peek into the future and her work with accident victims had taught her that nobody ever knew what lay around the corner. Not one of those shattered bodies ever expected calamity to befall them.
Her future had come to meet her. Or her past had caught up with her. Or both.
“Eve, I’m so sorry,” said her father, touching her arm. “I never wanted –“
“It’s okay, Dad. Whatever it is, it’s okay.” She gave their visitor a sharp nod and walked around him into the living room, taking a seat on the comfortable old leather settee. Absently, her hand caressed the plump cushion beside her while she narrowed her eyes at him. “I know you. Or I have known you.”
“Yes.” He leaned back, his green eyes piercing. “How much do you remember?”
Eve gave a brittle laugh, trying to control the tumult of emotion in her chest. “Nothing. That’s it. You’re somehow familiar, but you’re not part of my conscious memories.” She studied him carefully. “Who are you?”
“Hunter.”
“Is that your name, or your job?”
She detected a flare of amusement in his eyes, although his face didn’t move a muscle. “It is my name.”
“Huh.” She regarded him warily. “Okay. Hunter, then. Tell me, should I remember something?”
Beside her, she heard her father sigh. Hunter caught the sound and his eyes flicked to the older man. Eve followed his gaze, to see her father now staring at the floor, his hands linked between open knees. “Tell her,” he said tonelessly. “I had hoped this day would never come; that Eve would live out her life here. That we both would.”
That sounded less than promising. Ignoring her increased heart rate and a growing dread, she squeezed his knee and turned her attention back to Hunter. “Go on.”
“You know me because I brought you here when you were just a few hours old,” he said. “Your mother ordered me to accompany you. Your safety was her only concern.”
My mother? For a moment, Eve stopped breathing. What did he mean, a few hours old? According to her father, her mother had died when she was a babe of three months. Why had he lied? What could her mother have been protecting her from? And… the thought almost made her heart stop – was her mother still alive?
Eve put a hand to her forehead, not knowing which question to ask first. Maybe that’s why Hunter was here; people were after her mother. Maybe now they wanted to hunt Eve down, too.
That phrase again. Hunt her down.
His name was Hunter.
Should she be worried?
With an effort, she yanked her mind back to focus on him. “Is she –” She moistened her lips. “My mother…are you saying she’s alive? Did she send you here?”
“She’s alive, yes.” His words were decisive; his tone even. He didn’t even seem to realize that his words were smashing her life asunder. “My coming here was a joint decision: your mother and… others. They have learned that you are in danger here. There is no choice but to take you away.”
“Hang on there,” said Eve, instantly annoyed by his presumption. “There’s always a choice. I’m not some soft, helpless female, you know. Tell me what’s going on and I’ll let you know if I want to leave.”
A muscle moved in his jaw. “With all due respect, Eve –”
Eve rolled her eyes, her irritation growing. “Oh, please. Anytime someone says ‘With all due respect’, I know that means they’re about to patronize the hell out of me. Believe me, I know how to take care of myself. I do martial arts, boxing, and hey, I can even shoot. So your reasons for wanting me out of here better be good.”
He sat looking at her for a long moment, and although his expression remained completely calm, Eve could tell that he was keeping a lid on his temper. When he finally spoke, his measured tones made more of an impact than a shout. “Oh, I’d say my reasons are good.” His voice grew softer, yet more menacing. “You might be able to handle yourself well in this world, Eve, but you have no idea of the kind of beings that are hunting you right now. You won’t even see them coming. How well equipped are you to deal with beings that can enchant you with one gaze, and make you go with them willingly? Or who can dematerialize and attack you from behind?”
Eve shook her head stubbornly. It was all moving much too fast. “Where do you plan on taking me?”
Before Hunter could answer, her father finally found his voice. And some backbone.
“Eve.” He sat upright and seized her arm in his strong tradesman’s grip. His palm was rough against her skin. “I know this is beyond strange, but you can trust Hunter. I was with him when he brought you across; after I had spent time in the Otherworld - with your mother.”
Eve stared at him, unable to move a muscle. The Otherworld? But then the questions in her mind were swamped by compassion. The grief in his eyes was almost too much to bear. “Dad…”
“If I could go with you, I would,” he said passionately. “But I can’t; I’ll draw them to you. It’s too easy for them to track a human. Without me, you have a chance.” Tears spilled over, making tracks down his weather-beaten brown face. “You have to go; they know you’re here now. Oh, Evie. Evie.”
For several seconds, the room was silent except for the hitch in her father’s breath as he struggled to control himself. Eve was still frozen. What did he mean, without him she had a chance? She was human too…
Wasn’t she?
You know you’re not, her mind said. You’ve always known.
Hunter stood, restlessness in every muscle. “We must go. Now.”
Eve felt a nudge at the edges of her mind, then something persuasive and foreign eased around her mental defenses. She suddenly felt a powerful urge to get up and follow him; to get out of there as soon as possible.
It took her about two seconds to realize that she was being manipulated. She slapped away the urge to run and glared at Hunter. “If that was you, then quit it. I’ll come when I’m ready.”
For a split second his eyes showed surprise, then he simply inclined his head a fraction and waited.
Eve put her hand on her father’s arm, not taking her eyes from Hunter’s. “What about Dad? Is he going to be safe? If these… creatures… are that bad, I can’t just abandon him.”
“He’ll be safe. It’s you they want. We’ll leave a trail so they know you’ve gone.”
She gave in to the inevitable and tried to think. “What do I need?”
His gaze raked her from head to foot, from the ivory-framed sunglasses perched on her head, to the comfortable white training shoes that she habitually wore when she was going to be standing for hours working. “Nothing. You can get anything you want when we get there.” Hunter’s enigmatic green gaze moved between her and her father. “I’ll leave you to say your goodbyes. Two minutes.” He stood and moved to the doorway, and Eve saw the bulge of a weapon at his back, under the t-shirt. “I’ll be waiting out back.”
***
Eve took three minutes, not two. That wasn’t nearly enough time to hug her father and say farewell after twenty-seven years. Especially when she didn’t know when she would see him again.
Or if she would see him again.
Despite her resistance to Hunter’s orders, she knew that her life didn’t rest here, with her father. She had known it on some deep level an hour ago, when she was sitting her car in a concrete parking lot, wondering about her life.
She was about to find out who or what she really was.
“Goodbye,” she whispered. “Love you. Take care.”
Having no words left, he hugged her fiercely to him, and then pushed her away. “Go, Evie. Be safe.”
She nodded, knuckling the moisture from her eyes, and walked th
rough the back door and along the flagged path to the edge of the canyon without looking back.
Hunter stood in the shadows of the Monterey pines at the end of the yard with his back to her, watching a red-tailed eagle swooping down on some hidden prey. She knew he was aware of every step she took.
“They’re nearer than I had expected,” he said without looking at her. “Follow me, and stay close.” He strode off, veering off to the left, following a dirt track through tangled brush and around a sun-splashed group of boulders. She knew the path; it led upward to a windswept hill, and then down to a thick cluster of cypress, backed by rugged stone.
Not there, she thought, the fear growing. She never went that way.
Several times, as a child, she had ventured over the hill and down to the dark shadows of that mass of trees, and every time was consumed by a nameless terror so heavy and menacing that her body trembled for hours. Each time, she had nightmares. She never told her father, ever. She had never even thought of telling him.
Did she somehow know, even then, that this moment would come? That he, too, had closely-guarded secrets?
Now Hunter was leading her to that very place. Despite the recurring thought They’re hunting me, they’re hunting me, Eve’s steps slowed. They were down there…
He pivoted, came back to her and seized her wrist. “Eve, you must hurry.” His eyes burned into hers with a deep green fire. “I know what you are feeling, but far worse awaits if they arrive before we go through to the Otherworld.”
Far worse? She shook her head, trying not to think of what that could mean, and quickened her pace to match his. There was a whole lot of background he owed her, but she was practical enough to know that this was not the time. If they made it safely to wherever the hell he was taking her, he was going to have some explaining to do.
They crested the hill and broke into a jog to go downhill. In front of them, the cypress trees loomed. Every leaf was still, despite the brisk afternoon breeze.
Running easily beside her, not even out of breath, Hunter continuously checked the terrain and the skies. Eve matched him step for step, used to cross-country training runs along the canyon. Her competitive streak came to the fore. You’re not out-running me, Hunter Man, she thought.
