Hunter’s Revenge: Willow Harbor - book 3

by Juliana Haygert

  I walked around Tessa and past the couch.

  I inhaled sharply, taking in the scene.

  The lady fit our demon’s MO. She was in the exact same state as the other two victims we had found—white, parched skin, sizzled hair, dark circles around her eyes and mouth. I knelt beside her and pulled down on the neck of her blouse. A dark mark on her chest too.

  “Those look like burn marks,” Tessa said, her voice low.

  “They are burn marks.” Even though nothing else was burned.

  “What about him?” Tessa pointed her foot to the man lying on the other side of the coffee table. I glanced at her just as she closed her eyes and pressed a hand to her mouth and the other to her stomach.

  The man didn’t fit the demon’s MO. His hair and skin were also dry and pale, but he had no dark marks. He had a deep wound in his chest and a pool of blood around him. A trail of blood stained his mouth, nose, and ears.

  Tessa turned around, clearly affected by the scene.

  “You can leave, if you want.”

  “I just …” She inhaled deeply, and then coughed. “Damn.”

  “Open the back door and breathe in some fresh air,” I suggested. “You’ll be fine.”

  I searched for more wounds but found nothing.

  “Shouldn’t we look for identification? To know their names?”

  I stood and turned to her. “I know their names.”

  Tessa, standing under the open door, cocked an eyebrow at me. “Really?”

  “Small town, remember? I might not know everyone, but I know these two. Derrick and Josie Brown. He worked at one of the local accountant offices, and she was a middle school teacher.” I paused. “Though I could find out their birthday and ages with their IDs.” I looked around. There was a purse on the kitchen counter and a man’s jacket draped over a chair at the table. “Check her purse for a wallet.” Tessa moved fast, as if having a purpose made her able to fight the nausea. While she rummaged the woman’s purse, I searched the pockets of the jacket. I found a wallet and his driver’s license and work ID. “Thirty-six.”

  “She’s thirty-four.” Her eyes widened. “How about kids?”

  I shook my head. “Unless they hid them from the entire town, they had no kids. But it wasn’t a secret that they’ve been trying for years.”

  “You sound like one of those ladies who stays in the town square all day and gossips.”

  I swallowed a laugh. Only Tessa could make me laugh at a crime scene.

  She looked around. “What else?”

  I walked around the living room and kitchen. There was no common demon marks, no smell of sulfur, no hidden hex bags, no hidden witch symbols, nothing unusual.

  So far, I had a bag of nothing.

  I sighed. “I guess there’s nothing more for us here.”

  * * *

  TESSA

  * * *

  Nobody ever stopped at this house. I had been here for three days, and I had only seen everyone together at my father’s funeral. Even then, some of the members had been away working on cases across the country.

  Early morning, as I had my first cup of coffee of the day, I counted nine hunters coming and going, grabbing coffee or a quick piece of toast or even leftover piece of pizza from the fridge and leaving after a quickly uttered, “Morning.”

  Landon, Nathan, and Amber had been the only ones to cook a meal, sit down at the island with me, and take their time eating.

  “What’s on the agenda today?” I asked as I poured my second cup of coffee. I still wasn’t awake enough for food.

  Amber stood from her stool and took her plate to the sink. “I have errands to run.” She shuddered. “Take my car for a checkup, stop by the post office, and grocery shopping for all these gorillas.”

  “Hey!” Nathan protested. “This gorilla is going grocery shopping too.”

  I frowned. “You two always go?”

  “Oh, hell no,” Amber said, opening a drawer and picking up what looked like a planner. “We have a list of chores and who has to do them and when. Unfortunately, it’s our turn to hit the store.” She flipped through the pages, showing me the most mundane things.

  I smiled. It seems she hated grocery shopping as much as I did.

  “How about cleaning?” I asked, genuinely curious. I couldn’t imagine any of these badass hunters scrubbing the floors on their knees.

  Amber’s lips widened in a playful grin. “A witch comes over once a week and works her magic.”

  My jaw hit the floor. “You’re kidding?”

  Nathan chuckled. “I know it sounds absurd, but it’s true.”

  “She just needs to cast a quick spell in each room, and bang!” Amber clapped her hands together right in my face, startling me. “All dust is gone.”

  I turned to Landon, who was furiously scribbling on his journal beside us. “Are they shitting me?”

  He lifted his gaze from his journal to me. “Nope. It’s true.”

  “Oh, man …” I sighed. “How much does she charge? Because I could use her services at my dorm?” It was a joke because I was broke. However, it would be nice.

  After a bit more teasing and revelations, the conversation went back to serious topics.

  “What about you two?” Nathan asked. “Any new leads?”

  Landon raised his eyes to him. “Not yet.” He looked at me. “Until then, we’ll be training.”

  I groaned.

  Nathan offered me a grin. “Planning on joining our ranks, huh?”

  Landon went rigid; his eyes bulged in what looked like a mix of shock and rage. “Hell no!”

  “But—”

  Landon stood and towered over his friend. “I said no.”

  He dropped his plate and mug in the sink, swiped his journal from the island, and then fled the kitchen as if it were on fire.

  “What the hell was that?” Nathan asked.

  Amber shrugged. “Who knows?” She tapped Nathan shoulder. “Let’s go or we’ll be late.”

  Nathan stood. “Late for what?”

  Amber rolled her eyes. “For the car service.”

  “Why would I care? I’m only going to the grocery store with you.” He followed her from the kitchen through the doorway that led to the underground garage. Their voices and argument faded the farther they went.

  I glanced at the other door near the front of the manor, where Landon had disappeared a minute ago. Without really thinking about it, I went after him.

  As I expected, he was in my father’s office, seated in the high chair and writing in his journal.

  He didn’t look up from his journal, or stop writing, as he said, “Meet me in the training room in twenty minutes.”

  I wanted to scream at him. There was the fact that he was being a jerk and telling me what to do, and he was trying to decide for me whether I should become a hunter. To be honest, I hadn’t thought about it until Nathan had mentioned it. I had no idea how I felt about it.

  Finally, Landon stopped writing and looked up at me. “What?”

  I crossed my arms, decided not to let his hard gaze intimate me. “I’m starting to wonder if working on this case with you was a good idea.”

  He pointed his chin to the door behind me. “Feel free to leave.”

  Ugh, sometimes this man got on my last nerves. I knew what he was trying to do. He thought I was slowing him down, that because of my inexperience, I would only get in the way and make things worse.

  I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of seeing me quit. “See you in twenty minutes.”

  Ten

  LANDON

  * * *

  I stepped into the training room and remembered why this wasn’t a good idea.

  Damn, this girl in workout clothes. I couldn’t decide what look I liked best on her. A little black dress and a neat ponytail, skinny jeans, and blouse and loose hair, a pretty summer dress and a braid, or the gym attire and a loose ponytail. She looked too good in all of them.

  Which made all of this,
all of our interactions, all of our training and hunting, and even simply having a panini dinner in the manor’s kitchen, a bigger challenge than I ever expected.

  “What?” Tessa asked, her hands on her hips again. The fact that she was wearing a tank top over her bra top didn’t help much. You would think not seeing the skin of her midriff would make me stare at her less. So wrong.

  I wiped the stunned look from my face. “Nothing,” I said. “Hm, how about we go for a run first?”

  She scrunched her cute nose. “I hate runs.”

  I almost grinned at her. “One more reason to do it. Come on.”

  She grumbled all the way outside, and for the first two minutes of our run around the manor. Then, her heartbeat must have gone up, and she finally quieted down. I confess I was impressed with her stamina. I had thought she would be panting and begging to stop after five minutes, but twenty minutes in, she was still running, not looking too tired, and only a few paces behind me. We ran my usual circuit: around the manor twice, then out the long driveway, down the back road until it connected to Main Street, follow it to the beach, two minutes on the sand, then back.

  Exactly forty minutes later, on the road back to the manor, Tessa slowed down. “I’m done,” she muttered. I turned around as she veered to the manor. She walked, keeping up the pace until she reached the backyard. Then, she threw herself at the rough stone steps as if she couldn’t move a muscle anymore. She lay down on the steps, her elbows keeping her back from fully grazing the stones underneath and her head tilted up to the sky.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Enjoying this great summer day. See that sun?” She pointed up, but I didn’t look. “Perfect for tanning.”

  I swallowed a chuckle. Only she would think of sunbathing when we had a demon to catch. “Come on, Tessa. Let’s train.”

  She gawked at me. “Are you crazy? You just made me run for forty minutes under this baking sun, and now you want to train? Not without a long break first.”

  I groaned. “We don’t have time to waste.”

  “You hunters are no fun.”

  “We don’t have time to have fun.”

  “Well, you should make time. Look at this beautiful day! And what are you going to do? You want to bury yourself in a dark room and sweat all over a mat.” She glanced around the large estate. “You guys should put a gigantic pool out here. Oh, no, better! An artificial lake. Man, that would be awesome.”

  “Tessa …”

  “It’s a shame this house wasn’t built right on the beach. It would have been perfect. But seriously, can you imagine a lake right there?” She waved behind me. I didn’t need to turn to know she was talking about the edge of estate, where the woods started. “You guys build a long boardwalk and shack, where you could make some barbecue on Sundays. Oh, you could also have jet skis and have races around the lake. Or swimming and enjoying the water. See? Fun.”

  “You’re mistaking us for normal people.”

  Her blue eyes hardened. “I know you’re not normal people, believe me, but are you really living your life? From what I can see, all you guys do is work. You only think about your duty, your honor, and it doesn’t matter if it’s early morning or in the middle of the night, you quit everything and go hunting. But wait, quit what? You guys don’t do anything else but hunt. So, I ask you again, are you really living your life, or are you acting like a programmed machine that someday will run out of batteries or luck?”

  Her words … the way they twisted in my chest. I had never stopped to consider that. Hunting was my life, the only life I had known since I was ten. Of course, I had seen happy families around town, doing family stuff, and for a brief second, I wished I had the chance to have that. But I had to agree with Isaac—there was no room for that in our lives. It was too complicated, too risky.

  Still, seeing Tessa stretched over the stone steps—soaking in the sun and talking about swimming, barbecues, and good times—made my gut twist in longing for something I had never had and never would.

  “It’s a sacrifice we’re willing to make.”

  “Right.” She pushed off the steps and stood. “Because it’s only black and white, right? No shades of gray.” She turned around and went up the stairs.

  “Tessa, wait.” Like a puppy, I followed.

  For three steps until my cell phone rang.

  “Cole, what’s up?” I answered the call. At the top of the stairs, Tessa paused and looked down, a frown between her brows.

  “Dude, I think the demon acted again. I got a call at the station about a disturbance at some house. The chief asked me check it out.”

  “And …?”

  “I’m here now, but I haven’t gone in yet.” He paused. “I think the demon is still inside.”

  Shit. “What’s the address?” I ran up the stairs, gesturing for Tessa to follow me. Cole told me the address. “We’ll be right there. Don’t go in until we get there.”

  I turned off the call and rushed into the manor.

  “What happened?” Tessa asked, following me into the kitchen.

  “Another victim.” I fished my car keys from the hooks beside the door, and then turned to her. “Cole thinks the demon is still there. This might be dangerous. Are you sure you’re up for it?”

  She stood tall and fixed her eyes on mine, looking confident and strong. “Let’s do it.”

  * * *

  The speed limit in Willow Harbor was twenty-five miles per hour, but at times like this … well, I drove as fast as my car could carry me on the little town’s roads. If any supernatural saw my car cutting through the streets, then they knew I was about to knock down on a case.

  I looked down at myself, at my sweaty and smelly workout clothes. I didn’t think I had ever gone to a case dressed like this. I wished we had had time for a quick shower, but the case couldn’t wait.

  On the short, six-minute drive, Tessa stared out the window, her hands twisting in her lap. She was nervous; I could tell.

  I parked my car behind Cole’s and reached across the seats. I took her hands in mine. “Hey. It’ll be okay.” Her hands froze, and I felt her entire body tensing. “Just … stay behind me and, if anything goes wrong, run like hell. Got it? Promise me.” She finally lifted her eyes but didn’t say anything. “Tessa, promise me that you won’t do anything stupid. Promise me that you’ll run if things get bad.”

  Without a word, she pulled her hands from mine and exited the car.

  Goddamn it. I shot out of my car and slammed the door. “Tessa!”

  “Hi, Cole,” she said, halting by Cole, who leaned against his car.

  Cole raised an eyebrow at me. “Something I should know about?”

  “No,” Tessa answered, her voice normal, calm, while I was fuming by her side. “So, what’s up?” Again, Cole glanced at me as if waiting for an okay. “Ignore the big brute over there,” she said. “That’s what I do.”

  That was it.

  I snapped.

  “Why are you doing this?” I yelled, stepping between her and Cole, so she had to face me.

  Slowly, she lifted her chin and looked into my eyes. “I’m not doing anything.”

  “You’re being childish, stubborn.”

  “No, I’m not. You asked me to promise you I would run away. I can’t do that, so I simply said nothing.”

  “See? Stubborn.”

  “Why?” she asked, her voice rising. Her calm facade breaking. “Because if something goes wrong, I should leave you behind? Are you crazy? I thought by now you knew me better.”

  “I do know you better, and that’s why I need you to promise me you’ll leave.”

  “Why?” she pressed, her voice rising again. “Why?”

  “Because I can’t see you hurt, damn it.”

  Her eyes widened in surprise, but then she rested a hand on my chest, right above my heart. “And I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if something happened to you, while I watched or left you behind.”

  The world st
opped. Time stretched.

  I fell into those deep blue eyes, as if I had jumped into the ocean and didn’t even care about swimming to the shore.

  A loud bang came from the house, and we all turned to it.

  “Right.” Cole cleared his throat. “That.”

  I raked a hand through my hair. “What’s going on?”

  “We’ve got a call for loud noises and screams. The neighbor who called said she was worried because the residents of the house are usually quiet people.”

  “And why do you think it’s my demon?”

  “Because before calling the police, one of the neighbors tried to come over to check if everything was all right, but as he was about to ring the doorbell, he swore he saw a bright red light flashing from inside, animal-like growls, and a huge figure behind the curtains at the front window.”

  I nodded. “That could be our demon.”

  “Wait.” Tessa paled. “This demon, it has magic?”

  “It depends on what you call magic.” I tugged on the edge of her tank top. “Come on. Let’s gear up.”

  I opened the trunk of my car and contemplated which weapons to take. I ended up taking a gun with both silver and salt bullets, and a dagger dipped in the willow tree’s water—a channel ran beneath its roots and its water had magical properties, especially healing powers. Just to be on the safe side, I placed some red bullets in my pocket too. We could do our best to guess, but sometimes our cases surprised us.

  Tessa stretched her hand to me, waiting for weapons. I stared at her palm, unsure about letting her even go inside the house.

  “What’s the problem?” she asked.

  I groaned, not willing to start the argument all over again. In the end, I handed her a gun with the same salt and silver bullets. “Be careful.”

  “Thanks,” she said, opening the magazine and checking the bullets.

  I grabbed her wrist. She fixed her eyes on mine. “Please, be careful.”

  She nodded once. “You too.”

  Eleven

  TESSA