Heart Blade: Blade Hunt Chronicles Book One

by Juliana Spink Mills

  “Shit!” She had no time to say anything else. Two female demons came barreling out of the lingerie store and grabbed her by the hand, yanking her away from Dan. It was neatly done, and she had no time to protest before another demon came out of nowhere, attaching himself to her other side. This one was a boy, handsome in a sultry kind of way, and he threw an arm around her shoulders, exclaiming, “Babe! Where were you?” The girl demons let go, but remained at her side, doing a good job of faking giggles and small talk.

  To anyone who was watching, they’d look like any other group of teens out for fun at the mall. A security guard was approaching from the other direction, whistling to himself. He’d pass them in a moment. Rose thought fast. Dan had said not to involve humans in preternatural business. He’d said nothing about ordinary human business. She mentally crossed her fingers that she wasn’t about to break a million laws, and stopped in her tracks. She glared up at the guy demon, timing her outburst.

  “Quit touching my boob! And let go of me. I’m not your property.”

  The security guard stopped too. “Is everything all right, Miss?”

  “Not really. This jerk here thinks he can feel me up just because I’m his date. No way.” She poked a finger into the surprised demon’s chest. “I’m not that sort of girl!” She pointed at the female demons, standing around looking uneasy. “Take your sisters and get out of here. I’ll call a cab.”

  The demons milled around, hesitant. The guy reached for her arm, but the mall cop stepped in between them. “You heard the young lady. She’s not interested. Now move it!”

  The demons left. Behind Dan, who was cheerfully fake-chatting on his cell phone, Rose had already spotted the two from the jeep. They were hanging back, pretending to check out the display in a skatewear store.

  “Will you be okay, Miss?” The mall cop looked concerned. “Why don’t you come along to security, and we’ll call a cab from there.”

  Rose drifted along with him, trying to look suitably upset. “You think you know a guy, right? I can’t believe he did that, and in front of his sisters, too.”

  “Yeah.” The man shook his head. “My daughter’s twelve, and sometimes I just want to lock her away from all this until she’s at least twenty-five. You wouldn’t believe the stuff I see here.”

  In a mirrored column she caught sight of Dan, still trailing behind on his cell phone and doing an admirable job of ignoring her. The two demons were further back. When they were almost at the security office, she passed the entrance to the restrooms. Rose cleared her throat.

  “Uh, I need to go in here. I’ll come straight over to security afterwards, I promise. Thank you so much for all your help, you’ve been wonderful.”

  She walked down the side hallway toward the restrooms. Dan followed her. A staff door stood open, propped by a cleaner’s cart. Rose and Dan ducked into the service corridor and kept going.

  “Nice job back there,” he said. “Quick thinking.”

  The service corridor led straight on for a while and then took a right, ending in a sort of hall with three doors leading from it. The one on the left was marked emergency exit, with an alarm warning. Dan shook his head. “Probably not the most discreet way out.”

  He tried the second door, only to find a stairwell leading up and down. Rose heard footsteps behind them.

  “Dan… I think we should leave.”

  He pushed open the last door and they found themselves in an office of some sort. “Come on,” he said.

  “Hey!” a woman at a desk protested. “Staff members only!”

  “Sorry! Sorry.” Dan smiled as he led Rose through. “Our mistake. We took a wrong turn.”

  They emerged by one of the main exits. Outside, Finn was waiting anxiously in the fire lane, his short, spiky, green-dyed hair unmistakable. He passed Dan his helmet and pulled another from a lock-box at the back of the bike for Rose. “Go. They’ve seen me. They’ll be on your tail in a second! Give me your keys. I’ll get your stuff from the car and meet you in Waterbury. My cousin’s house, okay?”

  Rose climbed on the motorbike behind Dan. She’d barely settled her helmet before they were off. The wind whipped her bare arms, and before long she was horribly cold, but she’d take anything over the demons and capture.

  The ride was tense and uncomfortable, but mercifully uneventful. The Waterbury cousin turned out to be another pixie, as slight in build as Finn and with the same black eyes. This one had bleached hair braided back in long cornrows and dyed purple at the tips. He didn’t give them a name, and didn’t let them into his house, so they waited in silence in his garage for Finn, who arrived two hours later, looking pleased with himself.

  “I did a real cloak-and-dagger job, Padre.” He grinned, flashing a mouthful of vicious, needle-like teeth. “You’d have been proud!”

  “You weren’t followed, then?” Dan looked both worried and amused, all mixed up in one complicated expression that somehow also managed to be exasperated at the same time.

  “Followed? Sure I was,” Finn answered cheerfully, proceeding to tell a complicated tale involving a hotel, a laundry van, and a cage of chickens.

  Dan shook his head. “You amaze me, Finn. Thank you so much.”

  The pixie dropped them off at a rental-car office, where Dan whipped out a fake license and momentarily became “Mr. Peters”. Soon they were on the road again, speeding up I-84 toward Hartford in a silver SUV.

  Rose settled back in her seat, listening to Dan as he talked on speaker using a cheap-looking cell that she guessed was a burner phone.

  “Yes, Alex, compromised,” he said. “They were watching the safe house, and the minute we left they were on to us.”

  Alex, she thought. The monk who’d killed the vampire and dropped her off at Marla’s, the one who looked barely older than her. Probably preternatural. See? She was learning.

  “Daniel, are you sure you didn’t lead them there? Think back.”

  “Yes, of course I’m sure.” Dan looked frustrated. “I followed every precaution! Everything you’ve ever taught me!”

  “You shouldn’t have waited so long to leave New Haven.” The voice on the phone was crisply authoritative, yet oddly seductive. She remembered her brief meeting with the monk, and the gut feeling that she’d follow him anywhere if only he gave the order.

  “I’m telling you, they had eyes on Finn,” Dan answered. “It wouldn’t have made a difference. And we were up until nearly six in the morning removing part of Rose’s warding. She was exhausted; she needed a rest. I did, too. I’m not twenty-five, Alex. Tasmania was a long time ago.”

  “Easy, Daniel. Rose needs your calm head right now.”

  Huh. Alex was definitely preternatural. Rose bit back a grin to see her imposing godfather being lectured like a child.

  “You’re on speaker, by the way. She’s listening in.” Daniel winked at her, and now she really did grin openly.

  There was a brief silence from the phone. And then, “Hello, Rose. All well?”

  “As you’d expect,” she answered. “All things considering. I’d like to know more. I’d like to be told what I am, and why I’m being chased. I’d like the rest of these damn wards removed. If I’m to be preternatural, then let me be preternatural.”

  Dan looked mildly shocked at her vehemence, but Alex chuckled over the phone. “Your parents’ daughter, through and through. I promise we’ll answer all your questions as soon as you’re safe. Yes, Rose. We. I’m heading up there, Daniel. Give me a couple of days. I’ll meet you at the Den. And then we’ll see if we can shed some light on things, all right, Rose?”

  Put on the spot, Rose didn’t know what to say. She gave the phone an imperious nod, even though Alex couldn’t see it. “All right. Light would be nice.” Then she blurted out, “But hurry, okay?”

  There was an answering laugh from the phone and then Alex hung up, leaving Dan and Rose alone to speed up a Connecticut highway in a somewhat awkward silence.

  Chapter Thirteen
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br />   Diana

  Diana parried Theo’s staff and swung low with her own, fast even for a demon, cracking him across the shins. He buckled and fell to one knee, and she twirled her staff gracefully, bringing the extremity to a rest against his neck.

  “Point,” called out the demon from South Carolina who was refereeing the match. “Diana takes the game. Sorry, Theo, you’re out.”

  Diana bowed to her opponent and then took the towel he tossed her and wiped the sweat from her face. “Nice moves,” she told her lieutenant. “Almost had me there at the end.”

  Theodore Raven gave a hearty chuckle and shook his head. “No, fair is fair. You’re still the best out there, Diana.”

  She liked her big, beefy second-in-command. He was always cheerful, and his roguish charm belied the firm hand with which he commanded the human drug lords that Shade had gathered under her rule. She had no doubt, though, that he’d be just as happy to take her down as soon as she faltered, and become Master of the Hunt in her place.

  Theo grabbed a water bottle and drank deeply. Diana picked up a bottle too, draping the towel around her neck. “Walk with me, Theo.” They left the sparring arena and the gym, making their way along the woodland walkway to the main lodge. Around them, the trees sang the sounds of nightfall: katydids and frog calls, and a fox barking somewhere not too far away. Diana tapped the water bottle against her thigh, impatient. “No more news from the trackers since their rather spectacular failure in New Haven?”

  “I would have reported it, Huntress.” Despite the formal title, his rich voice was light-hearted. She looked up at him, eyes narrowed.

  “This isn’t a game, Hunter. The Lady is waiting.”

  “Ah, how hard can it be to follow one priest’s trail? The trackers will pick him up. Or Jude will dig him out again. If our boy can find one Guild safe house, he can find another.”

  “Don’t underestimate the priest. The Fox, they call him. He’s wily. If that blasted leech had done his job as he was supposed to, she could have been one of ours already.”

  Theo’s buzz cut gleamed with sweat in the dim lights of the walkway. When Diana had first joined Shade’s Hunt, his hair had been longer, and he’d sported a fine pair of sideburns as was the fashion at the time. He was a sleeker creature now, honed by time and infinitely more dangerous.

  “The Heart Blade. Diana, do you really believe it’s time? That we’ll finally see the prophecy come true?” His voice was a little awestruck, and she repressed a smile. She hadn’t pegged him for a lover of myths.

  “The Lady believes so, and that’s all that matters,” Diana answered. “I’ve been going over the Blade Hunt books. It is as the Lady says: the Heart Blade is the key to all the other blades. If we bring Shade the girl, and she Gifts her, she’s bound to the pack. We can keep her from the Church’s influence, and from the Guild. The sword, when she eventually summons it, will be under our control.”

  “And the Heart Blade will lead us to the other three Blades,” said Theo.

  “That’s the idea,” said Diana. Shade’s words came to mind unbidden: the world will be plunged into chaos. She shivered, despite the warm evening air. Just sweat cooling on my skin, she told herself. “So we need to take the girl alive, at all cost.”

  “I know that,” he said, a little impatiently. “It’s the Heart Blade. The tales say it can’t exist without its bearer. It might be another thousand years before a chance like this comes along.”

  Diana raised her eyebrows. “You’re more knowledgeable in this than I expected.”

  “I’ve read the books. I know the lore,” replied Theo, his voice pleasant enough. But there was a hint of something lurking beneath his words — petulance, or the faintest edge of frustration, perhaps. Diana looked over at him and caught… she wasn’t sure what she’d caught. Something hastily smoothed away. Snakes, she thought, as she made sure her own face was similarly blank. I’m surrounded by snakes and I have no idea which one bears the poison.

  They parted ways in the lodge, Theo heading for the steam room and Diana for her shower. On her way, she stopped by the games room that Jude had commandeered. He was alone, head bent over his work. She watched him for a moment. He had three laptops spread across one end of the Ping-Pong table, the other side covered in maps. But he was ignoring it all, nose deep in a large book.

  Jude was one of her quietest pack members, the last to be Gifted besides Del. He had the sort of nondescript good looks that were useful for fading into the background: average build, dark blond hair, and gray eyes. And a mind so sharp you could cut yourself on it and bleed to death without noticing.

  “Any news from Camille?” she asked, breaking the silence.

  To Jude’s credit, he didn’t look remotely startled. He set the book down gently and turned to the door as though he’d known she was there all along. And perhaps he had: it was hard to tell with Jude.

  “Huntress.” He bowed his head politely. “She hasn’t called, but we just received a message from the Court, approving mediation between Camille Darkwing and one James Deacon, fees payable to Dominique Girard.”

  “Very well, thank you, Jude.” She moved closer, pretending to look at the search maps but instead peering at the cover of his book. “The Blade Hunt Chronicles?”

  Jude smiled. “I thought I should understand what our trackers are searching for. It’s always good to know the stakes.”

  Diana didn’t know what to answer to that. She gave him an awkward nod. “Let me know if you have news on the priest.” She left the room, but paused at the door. It suddenly struck her how little she knew about Jude. He was useful, and obedient, and all too easy to overlook.

  “Jude? What’s your immortal hunger?”

  He blinked, taken by surprise. Although a demon’s hunger wasn’t a secret, it wasn’t the sort of question you usually asked. He met her eyes, his own unreadable.

  “Greed, Huntress.” She was still hesitating at the doorway, and he frowned slightly. “Was there anything else, Huntress?”

  “No. Thank you.”

  He turned away and picked up his book again, and she left him to it.

  In her own room, she stood under a steaming shower and let the water unknot the gathered tension in her shoulders. What was Camille playing at? Had she found Del in Hartford? Did the sentinels have her? If Deacon had her, she was probably dead. He wouldn’t care about consequences. Not after his wife.

  A nasty business, that one. But that’s what you got for crossing Shade. You got the Hunt turned on your family. You got to watch your wife bleed out in front of your child.

  Diana had fed well that night. There had been so much guilt in the old repair shop, waves of the stuff flowing from Deacon. Guilt that he couldn’t save his wife or spare his son the pain. And an angel’s blood guilt for giving in to his rage, breaking the Covenant, and killing those demons. She had sated herself and then later, alone, she had vomited the contents of her stomach until there was nothing left but bile and her own rising feelings of shame.

  That had been the beginning of it all: the secret despair that every death since then had only served to deepen.

  Her cell phone rang. Diana wrapped her body in a towel and sat on her bed to take the call.

  “Camille. You kept me waiting. I am most displeased.” She spoke in her frostiest tone, and Camille had the good grace to sound flustered.

  “Well, I had nothing concrete to report. I was waiting to set things up.”

  “For a parley. I’ve been informed.”

  A pause. She had shaken her. Good, it would teach Camille not to try and play Diana in the future.

  “Ah, yes.” Camille’s voice grew steadier and more self-assured. “Your sister Adeline is indeed in Hartford. She left the bus station with her bag. I have reason to believe the sentinels know of her presence, and intend to question the Scion about it. I have requested mediation services, and authorized payment from pack accounts. I just received confirmation that the Scion will meet me tomorrow, at
noon.”

  Reason to believe. Unseen, Diana allowed herself a grin. Camille thought she was being cunning, but anyone could have guessed that. If you were a demon and were stupid enough to show up in Hartford, you could expect no less than a little sentinel attention.

  That wiped the grin off Diana’s face. Del wasn’t stupid, but she was horribly undertrained. And she had no idea about the depth of the war between Shade and the sentinels.

  Camille was still waiting on the line. “Very well, Camille. Make sure Deacon leaves enough of you to report back as soon as the meeting is concluded. If Adeline is dead, take no action. She’s innocent of charges and I’ll have the Scion taken to Court over this. If she’s alive, bring me his demands and I’ll see what’s best for the pack.”

  She hung up. For the pack. The words still rang about the room. Because however fond Diana was of Del, the pack came first. Or her position as Mistress of the Hunt was forfeit, and subject to death challenge from her pack members.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Alex

  Alex ran lightly through the upper gallery, a shadow on the hunt, trying to focus on his target and not think of the blood-splattered office and Tom’s still, fallen form. Rage pulsed within, and he welcomed it and made it his tool.

  His ancient sword burned in his grip, thirsty for blood. Alex was thirsty for it, too, but he channeled his want through his blade until Redemption shimmered red in the midnight silence of the abbey’s hallways.

  The black-clad killer was a half-demon and fast, almost too fast for Alex to follow. He ducked his head and put on a burst of speed. He had to stop the demon before he gained the streets outside and lost himself among the humans. Vaulting the stone half-wall, he landed on the stairs a few steps behind the killer. The demon turned slightly to look, stumbled, and fell with a muted cry. Alex was there in a flash, Redemption’s blade swinging in viciously. But the demon summoned his soul blade just in time to parry the cut. The two swords blazed as they touched, and Redemption screamed in hate and joy.