Releasing the Hunter (Harlequin Nocturne)

by Anna, Vivi

“I hate waiting. It’s been two hours. Where the hell is he?”

  Ronan finished the bowl of stew they’d been given and dropped the plastic spoon into the garbage can. “He’ll be here. He’s probably trying to figure out the best way to lie to us about the key.”

  She stopped walking and frowned at him. “Do you think he’ll deny he has it?”

  He nodded. “Oh, yeah. It’s why this town is under siege, I’m sure of it. So he’ll try to keep it under wraps for as long as he can. Even though he knows I’m right.”

  She looked at him for a long moment. He could see she was struggling. It looked like she wanted to say something to him but was unsure how to put it. He had a notion of the thing she wanted to ask. Because he was asking himself the same question. Did it all start with him? Was he the reason that the demons had found out about Quinn and the key?

  He decided to put her out of her misery. “The answer is, I don’t know.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “The reason you’re staring at me that way. You want to know if I think this is because of the cabal asking me to find the key.”

  “It’s a reasonable question.”

  He nodded. “I know it is.” He scratched at his chin where stubble was coming in. “But I do know that the cabal wouldn’t want demons to have the key. So they didn’t send them here. The demons are here on someone else’s orders. Someone who knew that Quinn has the key and that he was here in Sumner.” He rolled his shoulder, which was still stiff from the bullet wound, but healing nicely. “We didn’t know that until fifteen hours ago. The demons have been here three days. They were here right around the time we first met.”

  “It can’t be a coincidence.”

  “I agree. There are no such things as coincidences.”

  “What then?” She sighed, and he could see the fatigue lining her face.

  “There’s another player around. Someone with a lot of power and knowledge.”

  Ivy walked to the tiny cot in the corner and sank down onto it. She covered her face with her hands. “I hate this. I should be celebrating because I found my brother but all I have is a bad churning in my gut.”

  “Maybe it was the stew. It kind of has a bad aftertaste.”

  She lifted her head and half smiled at him. That’s what he wanted to see. He didn’t like seeing a defeated Ivy Strom. It almost scared him to see her like that. Like watching a steel bar bending under pressure.

  “I’m sorry for the way Quinn treated you.”

  He waved her apology away. “Don’t be. I expected it. I’m sure you did, as well.”

  She nodded. “Yeah, I guess I’d forgotten what a hard-ass he was.”

  “Just like another sibling I know.”

  Ronan got up from the chair, crossed the room and sat down beside her on the cot. He put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her against him. She didn’t resist, but laid her head on his shoulder. He liked that she could lean on him. He wanted her to. He wanted to be the man she could count on in good times or bad. He wanted...her.

  “Yeah, families can be a hassle.”

  “Do you have a family? Brothers or sisters?” she asked. “I know virtually nothing about you.” She closed her eyes, her head still on his shoulder.

  He shook his head. “I lost them a long time ago.”

  “I’m sorry. How did it happen?”

  He felt his throat tighten up. It was still so difficult to talk about it even after all these years. “It was the same night I became what I am.”

  “Are they dead?”

  “Yeah,” he sighed. He tried not to think about his mom and sister. They’d all been out for dinner together, in the wrong place at the wrong time, when he’d been attacked by the demons. They’d gotten in the way. He should’ve known his lifestyle would be the death of them eventually. He’d been drunk and stupid and they had paid the ultimate price for his mistakes.

  “My mom and younger sister. They were with me at that restaurant and were walking with me through that alley to my car.”

  She wrapped her hands around his arm and held on to him as he continued. Her warmth pressed against him gave him the strength to talk about it without the guilt and anger and regret pulsing through him.

  “For about five years after, I drank myself into oblivion almost every night. I thought maybe I could pollute the demon blood out of my system. And numb the pain of their deaths. But neither worked all that well.”

  “I tried that after my dad died,” she murmured.

  He sighed. “Yeah, it doesn’t help, does it?”

  “No, it doesn’t.” She lifted her head and stared him in the eyes. “I’m so sorry, Ronan, about what happened to you.”

  He nodded, and then brought his hand up to rub his thumb down her cheek. He tilted her face a little and leaned toward her mouth. She lifted her lips to his and they kissed.

  Ivy brought her hands up to his chest and gripped his shirt, pulling him closer. She tore at his mouth, nipping and tugging on his tongue and lips with a savage glee. He responded in kind until they were both panting.

  His heart pounded hard, as did his groin. He wanted to take her right here and now, their circumstances be damned. He didn’t much care for anything, except Ivy. Kissing her, touching her, hearing her moan and feeling her writhe under his weight. But it was more than just the physical pulsing between them. He knew there was more than that. He knew she had feelings for him. As he harbored feelings for her. The question was, were they enough to get them through this together?

  Unfortunately they didn’t get a chance to find out before the door opened and Quinn marched in.

  “Holy crap,” he growled.

  Ivy pulled away from Ronan and actually sprang to her feet.

  “You have got to be kidding me.” He shook his head. “Ivy, seriously?”

  “Oh, please, spare me your ethics lesson,” she growled back.

  “Yeah, but him?” He gestured to Ronan. “He’s practically a hellspawn.”

  That had Ronan on his feet. “You know if you want to solve this between us, I’m more than happy to take it to a more private venue.”

  Quinn took a step forward, his hands fisted.

  Ivy got between them and pushed at Quinn. “Don’t be an idiot.” Then she poked Ronan in the chest. “And you relax. You aren’t helping any.”

  “You know, I thought you’d gain some sense in the past three years. But I see you haven’t. You’re the same impulsive, unpredictable girl you were when I left.”

  Ivy pushed him again, and this time he backed up. “I have changed. More than you’ll ever know. You made sure of that. You forced me to change by leaving. You abandoned me, Quinn. You left me to fend for myself. And I did.” She bit out the last few words between clenched jaws. Waves of fury vibrated off her body.

  Quinn’s face fell. “Ivy, I didn’t abandon you.”

  “The hell you didn’t,” she spat back. “What do you call sneaking out in the middle of the night with no notice, nothing but a note on the kitchen table telling me not to look for you? If that’s not abandonment, then I don’t know what is.”

  He ran a shaky hand through his hair. “That’s not how I meant it. I just wanted to spare you some of Dad’s shit that I had to deal with.”

  “Well, you didn’t. Who do you think took up all the responsibility of hunting? Me.” She poked him in the chest. “And I became a damn great hunter. No thanks to you.”

  “I’m sorry, Ivy. I didn’t think my leaving would hurt you as much as it did.”

  She wanted to scream at him that it had ripped her heart out. What little of one she had left after Dad had died only a year before that. Instead she said, “Well, you’re an idiot, aren’t you?”

  “It was just I always thought of you as pretty independe
nt. You never needed my help in the past. I didn’t think my presence meant all that much to you.”

  Tears stung the corners of her eyes, but she refused to let them fall. Not in front of Quinn and never in front of Ronan. So she dug her nails into the palms of her hands. “You thought wrong. I needed you, Quinn, especially after Dad died.”

  He reached out to her, setting his hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.” She let him pull her into a hug. He patted her shoulders awkwardly.

  After a few moments, she pulled back from him. “Okay, I sort of forgive you.”

  He smiled, and then punched her on the arm. “Good, because I don’t how long I can be the mushy brother. It’s totally cramping my style.”

  She returned his smile, not because she forgave him completely, but because she realized that she didn’t need him in her life. She hadn’t had to rely on him in years. She’d done it all on her own. She’d forged a life as an independent woman and made a name for herself in the hunting community. That wasn’t to say she didn’t want him around. She did. She loved her brother. She missed him. But she didn’t need him to be who she was.

  When she left this town, if he didn’t come with her, she was okay with that because she knew he was alive and driven to complete his own mission. She would be able to endure being separated from him...at least for a while.

  “Okay, now we want to know about the key.”

  Quinn looked from her to Ronan and then back. “What do you know about it?”

  “I’ve been told you have it,” Ronan said. “And Quianna Lang informed us of its purpose.”

  He sighed, then asked, “How is Quianna?”

  Ivy interrupted, “Who cares how she is? I want to know about this key.”

  “Ivy, you don’t want to know. To know is to bring this,” he gestured with his hands, “on you. It’s important that I keep it hidden. If it fell into the wrong hands, it would be, well, nothing you can even imagine.”

  “I can imagine quite a bit.”

  “This war here in Sumner would be just the beginning. If the wrong person had the key and opened the chest—” he closed his eyes and shook his head “—it would literally be hell on earth. Those demons cannot be released.”

  “Who do you think is looking for it?” she asked.

  Quinn stared straight at Ronan. “Besides the demons here in this town, I’d say you know perfectly well who wants it.”

  Ivy glanced at Ronan, then back to Quinn.

  “You’d be right,” Ronan said, his voice calm and flat.

  “Who hired you?”

  “Crimson Hall.”

  “The Crimson Hall Cabal?” He shook his head. “Jesus, they’re worse than most of the demons in this town. Do you have any idea what they would do if they had the key?”

  “I don’t really care.”

  Ivy stepped between them. “He’s not going to take it, Quinn. At first that was his plan, but that’s changed.” She glanced at Ronan for his confirmation.

  Except Ronan made no motion to contradict Quinn. He just kept staring at her brother. He refused to make eye contact with her.

  She stepped into his line of sight. “Right? You’ve changed your mind, right? It’s not about that now.”

  He glanced down at her briefly, then dropped his gaze. “You don’t understand, Ivy.”

  “You son of a bitch.” Tears pricked the corners of her eyes. “I trusted you. I can’t believe you’re doing this for a few lousy thousands.”

  “It’s not about money.”

  “What’s it about then, huh?” She pushed him back. “Screwing me over?” She tried to shove him again, but his hands came up and locked around her wrists.

  “This was never about you.”

  Those words stabbed her hard in the chest. The tears she was so desperately trying to hold back fell. She couldn’t seize them any longer.

  “I suggest you let go of my sister.” Quinn’s voice quivered with anger. Ronan let her go and took a distancing step away. Ivy turned to see Quinn leveling his gun at Ronan’s head. “Now, we’re going for a little walk.”

  “Don’t kill him, Quinn.” She hated the desperation in her voice.

  Quinn frowned. “I’m not going to kill him. But he’s no longer welcome in this compound.”

  “Where are you going to take him?”

  “Back to town. He can fend for himself.”

  Quinn motioned with his gun to the door. Ronan walked to it, seemingly unaffected. Ivy always thought he was stoic and unflinching, but she’d never seen him so cold. It was as if he was made of ice.

  “Shooting me won’t do you any good,” Ronan said as he neared the door. “I can heal myself pretty fast. Benefit of my demon blood.”

  “Yeah, I bet.” Quinn snorted. “Except I’m pretty sure you’d have a harder time healing if I put this silver bullet in your head.”

  Ronan nodded. “Yeah, that might hurt a little more.”

  “Open the door and go out,” Quinn ordered.

  Ronan did as he instructed and moved out of the room. Quinn followed, Ivy behind him, still unsure of what she was doing or how she was feeling.

  She followed them all the way out onto the driveway of the farmhouse. There Quinn had two of his gunmen standing by to take Ronan away.

  They were about to hood him when Ivy stepped forward. “Wait.”

  She went to stand in front of Ronan. “Tell me this wasn’t all for money.” She needed to know that he’d felt something for her. That the passion between them hadn’t been fake. That he hadn’t just slept with her to get to her brother and the key.

  “It was never for money. The cabal has a cure. I need the key to exchange for it.” He lifted his hand and traced a finger down her cheek. “I needed you at first, but then, I—”

  “Doesn’t matter why,” Quinn interrupted. “You’re still a traitor.”

  Ronan dropped his hand and straightened. “I’m sorry, Ivy. I never meant to hurt you.”

  She glared at him for a long while, her heart snapping in two. “Don’t worry about it. You didn’t.” She lifted her chin, then walked back to stand beside her brother. Although her legs quivered like jelly, she stood straight and tall.

  One of the gunmen shackled Ronan’s wrists behind his back and pulled a hood over his head. Then they grabbed him and tossed him in the backseat of a Chevy POS.

  Ivy stood in the driveway and watched them drive away. Quinn holstered his gun and turned to her. He touched her on the shoulder, much like Ronan had done before when he knew she was feeling sad. “Are you okay with this?”

  She shrugged off his hand. “Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?”

  “I just thought, you had, you know, strong feelings for him or something.”

  “He was a job and nothing more. He helped me get here, which was what I wanted. End of story.” She turned and started for the house. “Now, tell me how I get to kill some demons.”

  Chapter 22

  They dumped Ronan out into a ditch just outside the other end of town. Although they’d taken several turns and backtracked a few times, he still had an idea how to get back to the compound. He’d just had to cross the demon-infested town to do it.

  Still shackled, he rolled onto his knees then pressed to his feet. He leaned over and shook the bag off his head. He’d been right; he was on the outskirts of the town. He could see the scattering of houses as they pressed together to start the town limits.

  Now to take care of these handcuffs.

  Closing his eyes and concentrating as hard as he could, Ronan conjured a ball of heat in his body. He moved it up to his shoulders, down his arms and into his wrists. Gritting his teeth, he poured all he had into his hands. Within another two minutes, the metal started to melt. He could feel it drip off his wris
ts until, finally, he yanked his hands free of their bindings.

  Wincing, he looked down at his wrists. They were raw and red, blisters starting to form. Thankfully it wouldn’t last long. After an hour or two his skin should be healed.

  He checked his surroundings. There was no one around. It looked like about a two-mile hike back into town. He had no weapons but he figured he’d find some on the way. After cracking his sore neck, he started to jog on the dirt road.

  It didn’t take him long to reach town. He hunkered down inside a burned-out building along Main Street and took stock of the situation. He found a knife on the floor in the building; he pocketed it. He also found an aluminum bat that might come in handy.

  Peering through the broken and black window, he spotted about six people out on the street. Two appeared to be demons, not the same ones as before, and the other four were of the possessed persuasion. He hated dealing with the possessed. Because he didn’t have any exorcist tools with him, no salt, no silver, no bible, he couldn’t relieve the human hosts of their parasites. So if they came after him, he had to take them down without prejudice.

  Ronan watched as the two demons conversed on the street. One was talking into a radio and then relaying information to the other. It looked like a serious conversation. The one on the radio pointed to various points along the street. It appeared they were planning something. He needed to get closer so he could hear exactly what.

  Slowly, silently, he crept out of the building through the busted door. He crouched against the wall for a minute, then continued on. He spotted an abandoned car about six feet behind the demon duo. If he could get to it, he’d be able to hear them, but he had to cross an open part of the street to get there.

  Looking up at the buildings, he searched for snipers or scouts on the roofs. He didn’t see any. He glanced down the street, looking for any sign of more demons or the possessed. As far as he could tell, the road was eerily quiet and void of more problems.

  Still, it felt like the calm before the storm.

  Under his breath, he counted to three, then shot across the street, mindful of where he stepped. He made it to the car and crouched down behind it. He sighed with relief, then crept along the metal body and planted himself near the bumper, just out of the line of sight of the two demons. But he was close enough now to hear every word.