Immortal Hunter

by Kait Ballenger

  “Where am I?” Tears filled her eyes and overflowed on to her cheeks. “Where is that thing?”

  Allsún stroked a hand comfortingly over the woman’s golden hair. “It’s okay. Everything’s going to be all right. You’re safe now.”

  She held the woman, comforting her as best she could, but a heavy weight pressed down on her chest. The way the ritual had drained her meant she had another problem on her hands. She’d slept with David, yet she still didn’t have her light back.

  * * *

  DAVID’S CASUAL WALK turned into a full-on run as soon as he spotted his splintered front door. Shit. He raced down the hallway, bursting into the apartment, then stopped in his tracks at the sight before him. Allsún was sitting curled-up next to an unconscious woman. Dirt covered his bedroom floor. The potted plant his grandmother had given him had been destroyed and lay to one side, its exposed roots drooping.

  David looked from Allsún to the unknown woman on his floor and gaped. “What the hell happened?”

  Allsún gestured to the blonde. “A demon came in, but before it broke down the door I had time to draw a ward with your shaving cream. When it came in, it came running straight for me and got caught in the ward.”

  David eyed the woman. “I’m assuming she’s not still possessed, right?”

  Allsún shook her head, “No, I took care of it. But I had to destroy your plant and use up most of my energy in the process.”

  “Damn. I’m so sorry, Allie.”

  She ignored his apology and patted the crying woman on the back. “Doesn’t the Execution Underground have someone who deals with live victims like this or something? I mean, aren’t you guys supposed to have a bunch of resources?”

  David shook his head for a moment, trying to get hold of his thoughts as he processed the situation. He hadn’t expected to come home to something like this. He’d thought Allsún would be completely safe in his apartment. “I’ll call Damon and have somebody who deals with victims get out here to help her. Did the demon say anything before you exorcised it?”

  She rolled her eyes. “Oh, just the usual, about me being a stupid Fae bitch and all that, nothing interesting. I asked if it was after you or me, but I didn’t get an answer. I’m figuring since it knew what I was straightaway that I was the intended target, but I can’t be certain.”

  He examined her closely. She did look weak, as if all her energy had been zapped, which clearly, as she had said, it had been. A familiar feeling of guilt rose in his chest. If he hadn’t left her alone, maybe she wouldn’t have been attacked. “I’m so sorry I left you here alone all day. I had that meeting, and then...well, you know how it goes.”

  She waved a blood-and-dirt-covered hand at him in dismissal. “Don’t beat yourself up about it. You had no way of knowing they knew your address.”

  David swore again. “Damn. Well, clearly we can’t stay here now. Not without a working door, for one thing.”

  The mystery blonde let out a groan from the floor. Allsún reached out and rubbed slow circles across the woman’s shoulder blades, trying to soothe her.

  “Is she okay?” David asked.

  Allsún nodded. “Yeah, she’s fine. Or she will be. She regained consciousness right after, but then she passed out again.”

  David pulled his phone out and placed a quick call to Damon, requesting that someone come pick up the victim and take her for any necessary psychological treatment. As soon as he hung up, he turned to Allsún. “Damon said he’ll be by to get her himself.”

  Allsún nodded her head. “As long as she’s taken care of. So where do we go from here?”

  David fiddled with his keys, thinking, “We’ll get a hotel room somewhere. If they know where my apartment is, chances are they know where yours is, too, and I’m not taking a chance of leading them to my grandmother’s place.”

  Allsún tried to stand up, but a wave of dizziness made her think better of it. “Any updates from your meeting? What did they find on the samples?”

  David shrugged. “Nothing that gets us any closer than we were before, but we’re trying to set up a way of monitoring the families who could be potential targets.”

  Allsún’s eyes widened. “That has to be a lot of families.”

  David extended a hand to her. “I’ll explain more once we get her taken care of.” He nodded toward the victim. “Does she have any injuries?”

  “No.” She grasped his hand and hoisted herself up with a groan.

  A knock came at the door. David glanced over his shoulder to find Damon standing in the doorway.

  He raised a brow. “Wow. That was fast.”

  Damon gave a single nod. “I was already on my way when you called.”

  David frowned. “That can’t mean good news.”

  “I got a call from Elliot at the P.D. They found another family.”

  David and Allsún swore. Shit. They both knew what that meant without Damon saying another word.

  Damon reached inside his leather jacket and pulled out a small folder. He handed it to David.

  David took the folder without opening it. “What’s this?”

  “Pictures of the crime scene. We don’t have the coroner’s report yet—too soon. The place is swarming with policemen. There’s no way you’re going to be able to get in there without the cooperation of the local P.D., and we’ve only got two guys on the inside. This will have to do for now.”

  David ran a hand over his face. He wasn’t sure how much more he could take. “So much for avoiding a shit-storm of media attention.”

  “Chris and Shane have surveillance set up on the families, so just wait for Chris’s call and be ready to leave at a moment’s notice. We may not have saved this family, but with luck we can save the next one,” Damon said.

  “Yeah, you got it, chief.”

  Damon gestured toward the woman curled up next to Allsún. “What happened here?”

  “She was possessed, burst in through the front door and ran at Allsún. Allsún exorcised her, but she’s upset and clearly confused about what’s happened to her.”

  Damon gave a single nod. “I’ll have someone from the New York City office fly up to counsel her. They’re better equipped to handle this. The EU will take good care of her.”

  Allsún crouched next to the woman’s side and gently nudged her shoulder. The woman blinked awake and lifted her head.

  “Someone’s here to help you,” Allsún told her, “so you have to go with him now. You’ll be safe. I promise.”

  The woman’s lower lip quivered, and she glanced between the three of them, as if she wasn’t certain what to do. When she spoke, her words came out tattered and broken. “W-what about that th-thing? Is it going to come b-back and...take over my body a-again?” The last word turned into a sob.

  Allsún wrapped an arm around the woman’s shoulders and helped her to her feet. The woman’s knees trembled, as if they might not be able to support her weight. That was one of the drawbacks of an exorcism. It left the victim with some serious fatigue. It sure beat the alternative, though.

  Damon placed a hand on the woman’s shoulder. “You’ll be safe with me. I’m going to take you to someone who can help you. What’s your name?”

  The tears didn’t stop, but she stood up straight and looked Damon in the eye. David couldn’t blame her for being in rough shape after the ordeal she’d been through.

  “Alicia,” she said.

  Damon nodded. “Come with me, Alicia. I’m going to take you to somebody who can help you, and we’ll ensure nothing like this ever happens to you again.” He ushered Alicia out the door, pegging David with a stern look just before he left. “You two better get out of here and find somewhere safe to go.” He paused briefly. “And, David, I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you on this sooner. Next time something like this
comes up, you’ll have my full attention.”

  Once Damon left, David turned his attention back to Allsún. He eyed her up and down. “We need to get you cleaned up.”

  Allsún started toward the door, shaking her head, “We can do that later. Right now we need to get out of here. Who knows whether or not they’ll send more demons our way.”

  “When Jace and Frankie were on the lam, Jace said they stayed at the Imperial Hotel. We could always crash there.”

  “That sounds like a plan.”

  “I don’t know about you, but I’m starving right now. You want to grab a pizza or something to eat while we look over this file?” He held up the folder.

  Allsún raised an eyebrow, “I don’t know that I necessarily want to eat while I look at crime scene photos.”

  “Then we can eat before we look.”

  “Deal.”

  Thirty minutes later they stood in the hotel lobby, key cards in hand, waiting for a delivery of their New York–style pizza. Allsún nearly snatched the box straight out of the delivery guy’s hands when he arrived. David chuckled. Clearly, she was as hungry as he was. Then he used his key card to authorize the elevator to take them up to the penthouse, and they made their way to their hideaway.

  It took them a whole ten minutes to tear through the pizza. Allsún sat back against the cushions of the king-size four-poster bed and sighed. “Man, I didn’t realize how hungry I was.”

  He smiled at her happiness, then turned serious. “I hate to ruin your pizza high, but we’d better get to work looking at those photos.”

  He didn’t like not being able to examine the scene himself and take samples. “It’s weird not being able to see the scene. Half the time I’m the first one there.”

  Allsún placed her hands behind her head. “I hate to say it, but at least this way it seems a little less real. You know, without all the actual blood.”

  David pointed to the folder. “We can’t allow it to stop being real to us. That was a family in those pictures. We need to do our best to get justice for them.”

  “Yeah, you’re right.”

  David disposed of the pizza box in the garbage can near the dining room table before rejoining Allsún. He sat down on the edge of the bed but paused before opening the folder. “You ready for this?”

  She glanced at the folder with a wary eye. “As ready as anyone can ever be to see such depravity.”

  David opened the folder and removed the crime scene photos. They both let out a collective groan. The things that had been done to this family were no less disgusting than what had been done to the first two. The first couple of shots showed a set of bloody footprints near the door and a broken window, a dark preview of what was to follow. They looked at each other. A bad feeling knotted in David’s stomach. The next photo validated their fears. Dried blood, almost black, pooled underneath a man bound with duct tape. From his open eyes, it was obvious he had died conscious and terrified. David knew the darkness of the blood meant he’d bled out from the liver, a slow, painful process. His skin was lily-white, a sure sign the body had been drained.

  “Damn.” Allsún put a hand over her mouth to stop herself from gasping.

  Reluctantly, David flipped to the fourth photo. Somehow it managed to be worse. A woman’s face contorted into a hellish death scream. And blood. There was so much blood—bright arterial red splashed across her body. The look of pain in her one remaining eye was too much, even for David. The other eye had been sliced open, probably on some sick whim. Her feathered blond hair lay matted in the pool of dried blood, gluing it to the floor.

  Rage built inside David. All he could hear was the sound of his own ragged breathing as he balled all the anger up, shoving it down deep inside himself. As if the first photos of the scene hadn’t been sick enough, nothing could have prepared them for the fifth one. Had their P.D. contact intentionally organized these to be as traumatizing as possible?

  The fifth photo showcased the woman’s cause of death: the gaping, football-sized hole in her abdomen. Layers of flesh and organs spread out like the pages of a book, as if someone had stabbed her and reached inside the wound to tear it open with both hands. Blood had splattered in all directions from the violence of the attack, streaks spiking out star-like from her body.

  David cringed at the sight. Some part of him was thankful that her death had been quicker than her husband’s, that they both hadn’t had to suffer such a long, agonized fate, though did it really matter now?

  David closed the folder and stared at the wall. Allsún pulled her legs up to her chest, holding herself in a fetal position with tears building in the corners of her eyes. They sat in silence for what felt like an eternity, neither one of them able to speak.

  Finally David cleared his throat. “We’re going to find that demon, Allie, and when we do, we’re going to get justice for these people. They deserve that much.”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  DR. SHANE GREY didn’t date students...or at least that was what he kept telling himself.

  He tapped his pen on the edge of his planner and stared at the time. Two minutes, according to the email she’d sent earlier. She would be here in two minutes. He let out a long sigh and sat back in his chair. He tried not to think about how sweet the sway of her hips would be, or how the sight of her high-heeled leather boots made him want to strip her naked—except for the boots. She could keep those on. He wanted to feel the spikes of the heels pressing into the small of his back as she wrapped her legs around him. He chewed on his lower lip and ran his fingers over his ponytail. This was so not right. She was his student, for shit’s sake. It didn’t matter that she was twenty-three and he was only twenty-seven, or that she had the most beautiful, soft-looking lips and the most tantalizing pair of breasts he’d ever seen. He could not and would not make a move on his student.

  A knock sounded on his office door. Was she early? He shook himself off, straightened his clothes, then leaned back in his chair again as if he’d casually been waiting. She couldn’t know he was nearly sweating through his shirt at the hot and heavy thoughts he was having about her.

  “Come in,” he called.

  The golden doorknob twisted, and Vera Sanders slipped inside, all long legs and sex appeal. “Hey, Doc.” A sweet smile crossed her face as she walked toward his desk.

  He swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat and tried not to think about the way his cock pushed against his dress pants. This was too much like every naughty fantasy he’d ever had about her—the ones where in the middle of the night, he’d work late into the evening, and in entered Vera, sexy as ever, who would stalk in as if she owned the place, walk right up to his desk chair, and without a word spin him toward her. She’d strip him naked, until they were both making love on top of his desk.

  Yeah, that would be the ultimate fantasy.

  “Have a seat,” he said.

  She did as she was told and sat across from him, her perfect posture accentuating the sweet curves of her body.

  “So, we need to talk about your grades in my class.”

  She shifted in her seat a little as if the topic made her uncomfortable.

  “Your grades are substandard, and if you don’t start pulling them up soon, the Religious Studies department won’t allow me to give you credit for the course. I’d hate to see your money for that part of the semester wasted.”

  She pursed her full lips together and let out a huff through her nose. “Yeah, that’s a problem.”

  Shane folded his hands together and placed them over his grade book. He lowered his eyes to the pages, trying to pretend he didn’t see the ample amounts of cleavage her shirt showcased. What was with him?

  He forced himself to focus. “I can tell from the look on your face, the idea of failing my class doesn’t please you.”

  Vera cro
ssed her arms over her breasts and shrugged. “Yeah, I guess you could say that.”

  Shane nodded. “What can I do to help you, then? How can I help you succeed in my course?”

  She didn’t respond.

  “Vera?”

  She dropped her arms away from her chest and let out a long sigh. “I don’t know, Dr. Grey. I honestly don’t know.”

  “I don’t really understand what the problem is here. Are you struggling with the material? I’ve seen you in class, and you have an understanding of the subject, way more than a few of your peers, some of whom are even getting A’s.”

  She continued to remain silent.

  “Are you going to work with me on this? What can I do to help you? If you need private tutoring, then I’d be happy to—”

  “—Yes, I want you to tutor me,” she blurted out.

  Shane blinked several times, and it took him a moment to find his words. The sexy, somewhat coy, look on her face as she spoke sent a wave of heat racing down his spine, and did not help the situation that was currently escalating underneath his desk.

  “I meant another student, not me, but—”

  “I’d really prefer if you tutor me,” Vera said. “When you talk about the subject I understand it so much easier. I’ve gone to the tutoring center before, and it’s no good for me.”

  Shane ran his fingers over his ponytail. This was not a good idea.

  “Please, would you just tutor me? Just a few times. That’s all. I just need to prepare for the final.”

  Though every molecule in his brain was screaming that was the worst idea he’d ever heard, somehow when he opened his mouth, he said, “Yes.”

  * * *

  LATELY GUILT WAS becoming David’s new best friend. As he glanced over the crime scene photos yet again, he couldn’t help but feel as if it was his fault these people had been murdered. Logically, he knew that there had been nothing more he could do to track the demon’s next target, but the weight of all those deaths weighed on him nevertheless. He wanted justice for them, and he needed to put a stop to the murders.