Blood Hunt

by Butcher, Shannon K.

  The man remained still, as if immobilized. “Is someone there?” he asked, his voice faint and weak, almost garbled.

  Logan stayed silent.

  One of the Synestryn lifted its head, which swiveled back over its narrow body. It was the size of a large cat with a long snout. It had no ears, only gaping holes at the sides of its head. The front legs were shorter than the back ones, and all of them were tipped with gleaming, sharp claws. Bright green eyes peered out at Logan, but they did not flare with recognition of his presence.

  Logan’s mask had held.

  A wide, flat tongue swept over its bloody muzzle before it returned to its meal.

  The man moaned, the sound one of hopeless despair. He knew he was dying. So did Logan.

  He couldn’t let it happen. This man was blooded. He was too valuable to waste his blood on such creatures.

  Warrior or not, Logan had to save this man’s life. For all he knew, he might be Hope’s perfect mate.

  Logan slid his dagger from his coat. He approached silently, keeping his shields up until the last possible second. He slashed across the neck of one demon. Black blood spurted out of the wound. It hissed and flailed, raking blindly at him.

  He fell back out of its reach. His shielding faltered and he didn’t have time to get it back up.

  He grabbed the demon’s thin body and hurled it across the room. A few flecks of its blood landed across the back of his hand, burning his skin. He bit off a cry of pain and shoved a burst of power toward the wound to heal it.

  The other demons sensed an easy meal and bounded after their wounded pack mate, leaving the man’s side.

  Logan had little time before the distraction no longer held their attention. He bent down, tossed the man over his shoulder, and headed for the door.

  He hadn’t quite reached the hallway when sharp, stabbing pain radiated across his back. It took him a moment to realize that at least one of the things had attacked him, slashing at him with claws.

  He shifted the man’s weight, pulling him forward to protect him from attack. Cradling the man in his arms made his weight more awkward, and Logan stumbled.

  A wobbling weakness slid up his legs, and his body reacted before his mind could. Instantly, his blood went to work manufacturing an antidote for the paralytic. He felt a wave of power flow over him, weakening as it passed.

  Hope’s power.

  He was using up the strength she’d given him much faster than he’d hoped. And now it seemed that he was going to have to use even more of it to get out of this alive.

  The idea of never seeing her again tore at him, making an anger he’d rarely felt before rise up and bellow in outrage.

  Logan stumbled out the door, turning his body to ward off any more attacks from behind. One of the beasts still clung to his back, so he slammed his weight into the wall, crushing it.

  A hiss of pain rang in his ears as the demon fell and lay twitching on its side. He kicked it away and lifted his eyes in time to see another two charging.

  Logan used a flash of power to slam the door shut. An instant later, the creatures thudded into it and began to claw at the wood.

  He didn’t wait to see if they made it out. Already his body was weakening, dragging down the hall as his blood struggled to cure the growing paralysis.

  He’d made it to the stairway and looked up at what seemed like an insurmountable task. Each jagged step looked like a mountain he had to scale. With every beat of his heart, his strength faded. The weight of the man in his arms bore down on him, crushing the air from his lungs.

  Logan shoved more of his dwindling power reserves into creating the antidote, hoping to speed the process. He could feel the cells within his body jumping to obey, squeezing out tiny droplets.

  It wasn’t enough.

  The scratching at the end of the hall grew in intensity. Logan leaned against a wall to hold himself up.

  It didn’t work. His legs went rubbery beneath him and he slid to the floor, panting and sweating.

  A moment later, one of the doors midway down the hall slid open. Out from it stepped a creature like those trying to claw their way through the door. Only this one was much larger, filling the hallway as it rose up on hind legs.

  Apparently, the demons he’d fought had been offspring. And this one was a fully grown adult.

  Its elongated muzzle opened, letting out a feral hiss. Then it charged.

  Chapter 10

  Something was wrong. Hope could feel it in her blood.

  Her insides itched. She couldn’t sit still. All of that she could have brushed off as her nerves—her worry for Logan—but there was one thing she couldn’t ignore. That glowing-sunshine type of warmth she’d felt since meeting Logan was starting to fade. Without it, she felt cold and strangely lonely.

  He was in trouble. She was certain of it.

  She dialed his cell phone. He didn’t answer. His cultured voice came over the line, asking her to leave a message.

  “Call me if you get this. I’m worried.”

  Hope hung up, feeling no better. That pervasive itching deepened until she was curled around herself, panting and sweating.

  Screw this. She wasn’t going to sit here, waiting for a call, when he might be out there, dying. She didn’t understand this connection they had, and she sure as heck didn’t like it. But that didn’t change the fact that she had to do something.

  The only thing she could think to do was to go back and check on him.

  Sister Olive didn’t allow guns in the shelter where Hope had grown up. She had never even considered getting a gun, but was cursing that decision now. She didn’t know who or what she was going to face once she found Logan, but she doubted they would respond to reason and a nice, civil discussion.

  She did, however, have a baseball bat tucked under her bed, just in case. She was definitely taking that with her.

  Hope went out the back exit and cut through alleys, running as fast as she dared over the slippery pavement. Cold wind whipped her hair around her face, sucking the air from her lungs.

  Even with the shortcut, it seemed to take forever for her to get to the defunct furniture factory. Every step she took seemed to ease some of that restless itching.

  Without even pausing to get through the creeps this place gave her, she hurried through the busted door, following her instincts and the last bit of fading warmth she knew came from Logan. They led her to the basement entrance.

  Hope had never been down there before. The door loomed over her, daring her to open it.

  She clenched the bat in one hand and reached out for the handle with the other. Her hand shook, and oddly, she just now realized she’d forgotten her gloves.

  A rough sound of pain echoed behind the door. There was a harsh breath of air and a low, snakelike hiss.

  The pained sound came again, giving Hope the courage to do the right thing.

  She turned the knob and pulled the door toward her. She braced it open with her foot and took a solid grip on the bat.

  It was pitch-black inside. Not even the lights she’d flipped on as she came in reached this far into the corner. She leaned in and felt blindly for a light switch.

  She heard a scuffling sound and a shocked breath. It came from below her—several feet below.

  Her heart pounded fast, vibrating in her chest with fear. Her breathing was so rapid, a steady stream of silvery mist bloomed in front of her, blocking her vision even more.

  She took a step inside, reaching, feeling for a switch with her hand and the top step with her foot.

  The door shut behind her, shoving her forward as it latched. It banged against the bat, and the hollow racket echoed in the darkness stretching before her.

  She thought she heard her name, but couldn’t tell over the frantic pounding of her heart.

  Finally, she found a switch and shoved it up with clumsy, cold fingers.

  Light flared to life in the hallway below. An enraged bellow of pain blasted up the stairwell. Crumpled
at the bottom of the cement stairs was Logan. Halfway up the flight was another man. Logan turned his head slowly, and looked up at her, fear shining in his eyes. His mouth moved, but no sound came out. His aura was dim, tinted red with pain.

  A shadow fell over him. A heartbeat later, a paw came into view. It was black, tipped with shiny black claws. Its aura was the black nothingness that haunted her nightmares.

  Hope didn’t need to see the rest of it to know it was bad. Really bad.

  “Run!” Logan shouted, but the word came out as more of a breath than a yell.

  The other man with him—the one lying unmoving and bleeding—stared up at her with pleading eyes. The faint aura hovering around him was threaded with tentacles of that black nothingness, as if it had somehow infected him. He looked broken, paralyzed. She couldn’t leave him lying there. She had to at least try to help them.

  A vibrant humming exploded inside her skull. Pressure pulsed inside her as something tried to break its way free.

  Memories. She was teetering on the edge of seeing something from her past, but didn’t dare take the time to examine it. If she did, none of them would live long enough to celebrate.

  She shoved the memory back, screaming inside to let out some of the frustrating disappointment she suffered. For all she knew, that memory would never again bubble to the surface, leaving it lost forever.

  As soon as the pressure passed, her body disconnected from her mind, acting on its own. She moved down the stairs as if dreaming, gliding in a smooth, fluid way she’d never felt before.

  An odd buzzing tingled through her limbs. Her muscles rippled, tightening as the shuddering feeling passed through her body. She had no idea what had caused it or what it had done to her, but right now, she simply didn’t care. Her focus was on getting all three of them out of here alive.

  She saw the creature hunched below, cringing from the light she’d turned on. She felt an inky fear hover around her, not quite penetrating. The demon was huge. Frightening. It could kill her with one well-placed swipe of its paw and still she wasn’t afraid.

  At least not yet.

  She grabbed the back of the man’s shirt and hauled him up the flight of stairs before she’d even thought about how it should have been impossible for her to move that much weight.

  The adrenaline. That had to be what was making her stronger, helping her compartmentalize.

  She didn’t stop to think, simply dropped the man on the first floor and went back downstairs where Logan was. She had to go down farther, which allowed her to view more of the demon. She’d been gone only a few seconds, but in that time, the demon had knocked out the bulb over its head and was covering its eyes with one paw while blindly swinging for the next light—the one over Logan.

  Hope grabbed Logan’s leather coat and began hauling him up the stairs, too. He was heavier than the last man—much heavier than he should have been, given his lean build. He thudded along, his body jerking with every stair, but she was able to keep only his head from hitting. Nothing else. He’d have to deal with the bruises left behind if they made it out of this alive.

  “Leave me,” he whispered. “I’m nearly recovered.”

  “Yeah,” she snorted out. “You look like it. Shut up and think light thoughts.”

  “It’s coming,” he warned her. “Drop me and run. Save the human.”

  Hope spared a quick glance over her shoulder and saw the demon had managed to knock out another light. It oozed forward up the stairs, moving methodically, catching up with them more by the second.

  Hope pulled harder, dropping the bat for more leverage. It clattered as it fell, bouncing off the steps until it hit the demon.

  The monster swiped at the bat, slicing it in half with its claws. Two large pieces as well as three smaller ones flew out, slamming into the walls so hard they splintered.

  Hope did not want to be on the receiving end of that kind of power.

  They had only a few steps to go. Then she’d find a way to bar the door and keep that thing below.

  Logan’s hands began to move and he started pushing himself up, helping her. They moved faster, but it wasn’t fast enough.

  The demon slinked up the steps, catlike in its grace. It opened its jaws wide, showing off tiny, serrated teeth. Primal fear exploded inside her chest, shoving the breath from her lungs.

  She reached behind her, one hand feeling for the door handle. She found it and pulled, wrenching her shoulder in the process. Logan reached for the door, shoving it open, trying to help her as much as he could.

  Hope had just stepped across the threshold when the monster sprang up at them. It leapt forward, closing the distance. It dug its long claws deep into Logan’s legs. He bellowed in pain.

  The demon pulled. Logan’s coat ripped out of her hands and he slid down the stairs, snatched away by the demon.

  Hope lunged for him, but the thing was too fast. He was gone—dragged into the blackness the monster had created below.

  Jackie knocked on Joseph Rayd’s office door. He was the leader of these people, and if she wanted something, it was best to go straight to him and forgo all the middlemen.

  He looked up from whatever he was working on, his hazel eyes meeting hers. His spine straightened, but his shoulders were still bowed as if he carried some great burden.

  “Please come in,” he said as he rose from his desk. He was a big man and with every step he took closer to her, she wanted to shrink away.

  Jackie held up her hand to stop his advance. “No need to get up. I was hoping I could speak to you for a moment.”

  He stepped back, motioning to a chair across from his desk. “Sure. Have a seat.”

  It had been a long time since Jackie had been in such a civilized setting, though she was used to being on the other side of the desk. This side seemed odd and alien, putting her in a position of servitude somehow.

  She didn’t like it. She wanted her old life back—the one full of boardroom meetings and schedules and making things happen.

  Sadly, that life was over. She knew better than to believe otherwise.

  Jackie sat perched on the edge of the chair. If he made a sudden move to touch her as so many of the men here had, she could bolt and avoid him. “I want to leave.”

  Joseph frowned. “Leave?”

  “This place. These people.”

  “Leave Dabyr? But you just got here.”

  “It’s become apparent that my presence here is causing problems. These men of yours are looking to me as some kind of savior. I can’t handle the pressure. Not so soon after . . .” She couldn’t bring herself to verbalize even one of the things she’d endured.

  He leaned forward, bracing his elbows on the desk. Silvery strands of hair gleamed at his temples. “I’ll tell them to back off.”

  “It’s not that simple and you know it.” She squeezed her eyes shut. “Even you look at me with hope in your eyes.”

  “I would think that would be a good thing. Not everyone has the power to give people hope.”

  “What I offer is false. I’ve seen the unions between your people—what you think I’ll be a part of one day. I’m telling you now that it can never happen.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  “I do. I’m a grown woman. I know my own limits, and after . . . everything, I know that I’ll never again be able to tolerate the touch of a man. Especially one who isn’t human.”

  “What you’ve suffered is horrible. But you’re strong. You may not be able to see how you can come through it, but I know you can.” He stood and moved around the desk. Jackie gritted her teeth and held her ground. “I also know that if you trust us enough to stay and find a compatible Theronai, he could help you through this. Help you heal.”

  Joseph was too close. She slid in her chair, pressing up against the far edge so hard she knew it would leave a bruise. “I need to leave. I need to go somewhere where the expectations are not so high. And I need to work. Be useful. Find some reason to get up in the m
orning.”

  Joseph let out a sigh and nodded. “The Synestryn will want you back. I can’t let them have you.”

  “They won’t know where I am.”

  “They’ll be drawn to you.”

  That thought made her blood thicken in her veins. She could feel their taint inside her, dirtying her soul. “So you’re saying I’m a prisoner here as I was in those caves?”

  “No. I’m saying that if you leave, you can’t do it alone. You’ll have an armed escort.”

  “To a job? I don’t see that working out.”

  “It would with the right job.” He said it like he already had something in mind.

  “And what job would that be?”

  “We know why you were taken. The Synestryn are trying to breed more human-looking demons so they can more easily mingle among people. I’m certain there are other women like you out there—women who were taken and need to be saved.”

  “It’s not the women you have to worry about,” said Jackie before she thought better. “It’s the children.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I was used for my blood. I was food. Fuel. The children were not so lucky. They were altered. Fed the blood of the monsters so they changed.”

  Joseph nodded. “Like Tori. They took her as a child so that she could grow up and give them children.”

  Jackie swallowed hard, struggling not to throw up on his carpet. She’d seen what happened to those kids. She’d heard their screams.

  “You were a prisoner a long time,” said Joseph. “You might have heard or seen things that can lead us to others. I was going to ask you to lead a team, but I didn’t want to push you before you’d had time to recover.”

  “I’m recovered.” At least as much as she was going to.

  “Tynan will have to clear you for field work, but if he does, you can get out of here and have a job all at the same time.”

  Just the idea of it made her feel like she could breathe again. She knew she couldn’t go into those caves again, but they’d moved her a couple of times. She might see something that would help find the location of the other caves. “Who would you send with me?”