Hunter’s Revenge: Willow Harbor - book 3

by Juliana Haygert

We were finishing setting up the dessert and putting all the bowls on three big trays when Amber barged in the kitchen. “Need any help here?”

  “Great timing.” I pointed to the trays on the island. “You can help by taking one of these.”

  “Sure.” She picked up the tray, and in a line, we went to the dining room.

  I almost dropped my tray when I saw Landon, always-so-serious Landon, smiling and actually laughing—laughing. To be fair, everyone was laughing as Caleb acted out another funny story from Cole and his crazy police cases.

  “Then the woman said, ‘O.M.G. I think it’s fish.’” The laughter in the room rang loud. “I’m serious!” he said, laughing.

  “That’s bullshit,” Nathan called out, trying to catch his breath.

  “We have dessert!” Amber said over the laughter. The other voices died down, and she smiled. “Bah, if I had known that that was all I ever needed to catch your attention.”

  As I approached the table, Landon’s eyes met mine. Instantly, the smile slipped off his lips. I couldn’t say I hadn’t expected that, but it hurt all the same.

  Surprising me, he stood and reached for the tray. “Let me help you.”

  He took the tray from me. I picked up one of the other pots to make room for the tray. Nathan, Aidan, and Caleb also stood and started picking up everyone’s plates. In two minutes, we had the table cleared of the dirty, used dishes and plates, and everyone had a brownie bowl in front of them.

  Sophia was the first one to dig in. “Hm.” She licked her spoon. “This is delicious.”

  Amber nodded, her mouth full.

  Again, a slew of compliments were thrown my way. My chest filled with pride. I loved doing these kinds of things for others and getting a “thank you” was reward enough. Shame I didn’t have many opportunities to do this, but if Douglas really called me every now and then to come over, then—

  I stopped those thoughts before they got too far from me. I wasn’t a hunter, and I wouldn’t become one. After avenging my father’s death, there would be no reason to come back here.

  I looked at Landon. He was staring at me. My cheeks heated, but instead, I focused on the fact he had eaten half of his dessert already.

  “Glad you like it.”

  He nodded. “You could teach one of the girls how to make these.”

  Ouch.

  I stared at my untouched dessert, and instead of wallowing in the pain that assaulted my chest with his comment, I decided to be just as nasty. “Why one of the girls? Are you sexist? I think one of the guys could learn how too.”

  “True,” he said.

  Frowning, I leaned back in my chair and turned my shoulders so I was facing the other side of the table more.

  Caleb was still telling funny stories, and everyone was laughing while devouring their dessert.

  “Aren’t you going to eat that?” Nathan asked, pointing to my untouched bowl.

  I forced a small smile. “Nope. I’m full. You can have it.”

  “Awesome.” He grabbed the bowl and started eating as if the ice cream would evaporate any second.

  Soon, the hunters had finished their dessert, but they didn’t seem inclined to move from the dining room. In fact, Aidan and Amber brought more drinks while the conversation and the laughter continued.

  Half an hour later, I gave up. Landon hadn’t looked my way once, and I had no idea what I had done to deserve such cold treatment from him. I knew he didn’t like me, just like I didn’t like him, but we were temporary partners, right? There were moments in the last few days that I thought we could break through our hate for each other and become friends. Maybe not best friends or even great ones, but acquaintances who got along well. All wishful thinking from a girl who dreamed too much.

  With a sigh, I stood.

  “Where are you going?” Sophia asked.

  “I’m tired, so I’m going to bed.”

  “But it’s only ten,” Amber protested. “The night is young.”

  “Nah, I really should go to bed early.” I sidestepped my chair. “Good night.”

  Douglas stood. “In the name of the Sanctum of the Seven, I would like to thank you for this wonderful meal. You have no idea how much we needed this moment. Thank you, Tessa.” Everyone said thank you after him. Everyone except Landon.

  I stretched my lips in what I hoped look like a convincing smile. “My pleasure.”

  I kept my steps slow and deliberate as I walked out the dining room, but once I turned into the hallway, I raced down the hall, up the stairs, and into the guest bedroom.

  What the hell was wrong with me? Why did I care so much about all of this? I shouldn’t. I couldn’t.

  I hoped that Landon would find the damn demon soon, we would kill it easily, and I would be done. I would be able to go back to college and save what was left of my summer semester.

  Trying to keep my mind blank before I had a meltdown, I took a quick shower, and because I had forgotten to grab my pajamas from the dorm room when we had stopped yesterday, I put on Landon’s oversized T-shirt. I combed my hair, brushed my teeth, and decided it was best to crawl in bed and watch a TV show or read a book on my iPad.

  I pulled down the covers, and as my knees touched the mattress, a knock reverberated on the door. There was only one person it could be. As I made my way to the door, my hands started shaking.

  I opened the door. “Hey.”

  “I just wanted to apologize—” Landon’s words died as he looked from my eyes to my torso, noticing his T-shirt, and even lower, to my bare legs. Heat spread through my cheeks. He had already seen me like this before, but for some reason, it felt different now.

  I crossed my arms, trying to hide the fact that I was not wearing a bra. “You were saying?”

  “Saying?” His eyes shot back to mine. “Right.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Apologizing. I was apologizing for … being a jerk downstairs. I wasn’t in a good mood and ended up being mean to you. And …” He cleared his throat. “I wanted to thank you for taking the time to cook all that food for us. It was amazing.”

  I tilted my head and narrowed my eyes. “Did Douglas put you up to this?”

  “No,” he said. “Of course not.”

  Shit. “He did, didn’t he? He gave you an earful, and now you’re here to apologize.” I shook my head. “Forget it, Landon. You don’t need to do this. Not when someone else sends you to do it. Just tell him all is well.”

  I started closing the door, but his arm shot out and he pushed the door the open again.

  “Wait.” He took a step inside the room. On instinct, I took a step back. “He didn’t give me an earful or tell me to come here. Douglas doesn’t tell me what to do. But he mentioned—again—how nice the dinner had been, and how relaxed everyone looked. Even I relaxed and laughed at Caleb’s jokes.”

  “I noticed,” I snapped, remembered how his smile and laughter had faded each time he looked my way.

  “I haven’t let my guard down like that in years,” he said, his voice softening. “Not since I became a hunter. I enjoyed a nice meal with the people who are my family for the first time ever. And I realized that it was all because of you.” He paused and looked at me, really looked at me, his hazel eyes softening. “Thank you.”

  I felt myself falling into a trap. A hole I wouldn’t be able to crawl out of. So, I took another step back, for good measure. “You’re welcome.” He stood there, three feet from me, his eyes fixed on mine, in tense silence. “So, I was climbing into bed. If you don’t mind …” I gestured to the door.

  “Oh, yeah. Sorry.” He turned to leave and then stopped under the threshold. Suddenly, he turned to me again. “You know? I do mind.”

  “What—?”

  My words were cut off by his mouth on mine. Landon had taken one big step toward me, cupped my face, leaned into me, and planted a kiss on my lips in a second. Stunned by the sudden turn of events, it took me a moment to react.

  I swear I thought about pushing him away, but my
body betrayed my mind. I stood on tiptoes, wrapped my arms around his neck, and parted my lips for him.

  Seventeen

  LANDON

  * * *

  When Tessa didn’t move right away, I thought she was shocked, which meant, she hadn’t thought about this, about kissing me, as much as I had thought about kissing her. Then, as I was going to pull back, she wound her arms around my neck and parted her lips for me.

  I sighed in relief, and without wasting a moment, I kissed her slow and deep. When I teased her tongue with mine, she let out a small moan that I could feel inside my core.

  Damn, this girl.

  Her lips tasted like sin and heaven, and I couldn’t stop kissing her. I didn’t want to. Slowly, I slid my hands from her neck to her shoulders, down her side, and clasped her waist, pulling her body flush against mine. She gasped but only clutched my shoulders tighter. I could feel the warmth of her soft body against mine and, damn, I wanted more. I needed more.

  But this wasn’t right. Not like this.

  Tessa was a great girl. The greatest. She deserved someone who adored her, worshiped her, took her out on dates, gave her silly gifts, and kissed her at every chance. All things I couldn’t offer her. The only thing I could offer her was right here. Right now. One night, and that was it. But she wasn’t that kind of girl, and I wouldn’t start her down this path.

  So, despite the pain it physically caused me, I unglued my lips from hers, clasped her arms and pulled them from my shoulders, and gave a big step back.

  She blinked once. Twice. “What …? Hm, something wrong?”

  I took a long breath, trying to calm my racing heart. “No. I mean … I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that.”

  “Oh.” The hurt on her face. It was too much to bear.

  I took another step back. “I’m sorry.”

  She nodded once. “It’s okay. I’m sorry it was such a disappointment.”

  I froze under the doorjamb. “What? What do you mean?” She shook her head but didn’t answer. “What was such a disappointment?”

  She lifted her chin with that false confidence I admired so much. “Me. The kiss. Whatever made you stop.”

  I gaped at her. “You think kissing you was a disappointment?”

  She shrugged. “It must have been, otherwise why would you stop?”

  “I …” I didn’t know what to say to her.

  “I’ll see you in the morning.” She put a hand on my arm and pushed me out of the room.

  Stunned by her statement, I didn’t move until she slammed the door in my face.

  What the hell happened?

  I had just kissed her. I wanted her. She must have noticed how much, and then she was saying I was disappointed in her? How did she draw that conclusion?

  I lifted my fist to knock on the door. I wanted to shout at her, tell her, show her how much I wanted her, how much I had wanted her since the morning I picked her up at USC. Hell, since the first time I laid eyes on her, eight years ago.

  Reason won this time, and I lowered my arm.

  It was for the best. It had to be. She shouldn’t get mixed up with me, not in that way. Hell, she shouldn’t get mixed with me at all. The sooner we solved this case and avenged Isaac’s death, the better it would be. She would go back to college, and I would continue hunting.

  Shit. Isaac. If there was a heaven and he was there, he was probably looking down and wanting to kill me. To skin me alive.

  If he were, I wouldn’t blame him.

  Running a hand through my hair, I let out a long breath. I turned around and went to my bedroom, but as I looked at my bed, thoughts of Tessa lying there invaded my mind. No, I wouldn’t be able to sleep yet.

  I took a shower—a cold one—and went down to Isaac’s office on the first floor. I opened my journal and reread my notes about this damn demon.

  What did we have so far?

  The first victims were Jean and Vanessa Brody, the second victim, when Isaac died, was Tony Carvalho, the third victims were Derrick and Josie Brown. Liz Morgan had been the fourth victim, but we were able to save her. From their records, I found Vanessa, Tony, Josie, and Liz had graduated from high school the same year. I didn’t know if that was a coincidence or not, but I wrote it down anyway. I looked through all of their records, and besides a few speeding tickets and some neighbor noise complaints, there was nothing important.

  As for the demon, that sucker had a human figure. It was pale, white skin, no eyes, had dark circles around where the eyes would be, another dark circle around his mouth—which was full of sharp teeth—long limbs and long, razor claws for fingers. It was slow at times, but had bursts of energy when it moved faster than a blink of an eye. It hit like a truck and could control some objects. However, the control was limited, and I hadn’t figured out if there were any rules behind this.

  When it finally closed in on a victim, the demon wrapped its claw around the victim’s neck and its eyes glowed red. Fire spread through its veins, heating up his body, and burning the victim’s eyes and mouth, and the chest, specifically, the area around the heart.

  I glanced at the bookshelves lining the walls of Isaac’s office. So many books, here and at the library, and none had any entry about this demon. I found several similar demons, but there were always one or two things different.

  I still had no idea how to kill it. We tried the gun with silver bullets, red bullets, the dagger dipped into the water from willow tree’s channel, and nothing worked. Even the witch’s rune only seemed to send the thing away for a few days. And that was it.

  The problem was: It didn’t matter if I found the demon again, if I didn’t know how to kill it.

  Somehow, I had to figure out how to kill it before it went through the entire town and killed everyone.

  * * *

  TESSA

  * * *

  I barely slept all night. Again. I hadn’t slept well since arriving at the manor. First, it had been the shock of finding out my father had been killed. Then, there had been the nagas and their call and the blood and the demons and the nightmares.

  Now, it was Landon.

  Every time I closed my eyes, I saw him leaning into me again, kissing me so passionately.

  Only to pull away and leave.

  Ugh. I hated him.

  Determined not to waste one minute thinking about him, I pulled the covers aside, jumped from the bed, and hopped in the shower to help me wake up and give me a boost of stamina. I went with my favorite pair of jeans, a red blouse, and ballet flats for my outfit of the day.

  Once more, I didn’t see anyone as I made my way downstairs. It was enough to make a girl feel lonely or even ignored after such a great family get-together the previous night.

  “The police are already there, though.” I heard Ash’s voice coming from the kitchen. “Sorry, man. Cole said he couldn’t hold this one.”

  “I know.” Landon. With a frown, I paused outside the kitchen, not feeling great about eavesdropping but not wanting to barge in and interrupt their conversation either. “But I gotta check it out anyway.”

  What was he talking about?

  “I thought you would say that.”

  “I just … This has been going on long enough. I need to find more clues; I need to make a connection between them before this demon kills the entire town.”

  “Be careful,” Ash said. “And good luck.”

  “Thanks.”

  Incredulous, I marched in the kitchen as Landon was walking out the door that led to the underground garage.

  “You’re leaving?” I asked.

  Landon halted, his head low. “Shit.”

  “You were leaving to check on a victim without me?”

  Ash raised his hands, palms out, and backed out of the kitchen. In another situation, I would have told him to stay, but right now, my arms shook with rage. I wanted to choke the man standing across the kitchen.

  Landon turned to me. “I—”

  “Save it,” I snapped. Clen
ching my fists, so I wouldn’t slap him, I marched past him and down into the garage.

  I heard his groan behind me, but I didn’t care.

  I hopped in the passenger seat of his car before he had even made it into the garage. We didn’t say anything on the short ride to the colonial-style house on the other side of town.

  As Ash had said, three police cars were here and a little crowd had gathered across the street.

  Landon parked his car half a block from the tumult. He killed the engine and turned to me. “If a cop turns his attention to us, follow my lead, but let me do the talking. Okay?”

  I gave him a quick nod but didn’t say a word.

  Cole saw us approaching and waited for us at the property line. “Hey.”

  Landon bumped his fist with Cole’s then glanced at the house. “What happened?”

  “Same thing, man. The victim’s body was pale and dry with dark circles around the eyes, mouth, and on his chest. Just like the others.”

  “Shit,” Landon cursed. “I’m so freaking tired of missing this damned demon.” He raked a hand through his hair and let out a long breath. “What can you tell me about the victim?”

  “Duke Lewis, thirty-four, human. Worked as physical education teacher at the Willow Harbor High School.”

  “No wife?”

  “Was married for about five years. Divorced almost three years ago.”

  “And records?”

  “Nothing much. A couple of speeding tickets, a warning for anger issues, and that’s about it.”

  “Shit.”

  “I can’t take you inside right now, but I’ll try to snap some pictures. I’ll text them to you.”

  “Thanks.”

  So, we had come here for nothing.

  A little bored, I glanced to the crowd. There were only a dozen people or so on the sidewalk across the street, and they all watched the house with eager interest.

  One woman caught my attention. I reached to my side and grabbed Landon’s arms. “Landon.”

  “What?” he snapped, probably annoyed I had interrupted his conversation with Cole.