by Emma Dean
She yanked the witch ball of doom off her bracelet and handed it to him. “This disables any electronics within a ten foot radius and creates a smoke cloud.” Kenzie yanked off another. “This one will melt the bullets in their guns, but you have to get close.”
“They’re using silver,” Finnick informed them. “Get her out of there now.”
Fuck. Kenzie took the charm back and slipped it in her pocket. It was only good for lead. She pulled off one entire bracelet and handed it to Ash. More wood chips and glass shattered as bullets tore into the house. “These are just explosives. Clear a path. I’ll take care of any you miss.”
“Are you sure?” Ash asked, eyes glowing gold. His teeth were sharper too and there was a strange rumble in his voice, like his own was repeated and amplified a hundred times over.
“I can take care of myself. I’ll be right behind you,” Kenzie told him, activating the strength charm earring. She palmed four smoke bombs the size of marbles and adjusted them so one was in between each finger. “Go!”
They needed to get out of there. She had to do this even if she wasn’t sure and Ash couldn’t clear a path if he was constantly hovering over her. Kenzie just hoped she was as adaptable as she thought she was.
Her shield would only take so much damage.
Chapter Twenty
Kenzie
Kenzie waited for the lull in gunfire. Then she stood and threw one of the bombs as hard as she could. Pink smoke burst into the air and covered the front porch.
She launched herself over the couch and ran straight for the door, leaping over the stairs to land in a crouch on the ground. Tossing another smoke bomb she trusted Ash to make his own way through the smoke. He was the more experienced one.
“Leave the car,” Hunter instructed. “Run to the second location.”
Gunfire pinged off her shield. “It’s registered,” Kenzie protested.
Ash blurred past her and she prayed the Fates would protect them all a little longer.
“Not to any one of us,” Hunter snapped. “Get to the second location.”
More gunfire, but it just glanced off her. Kenzie tossed the rest of the bombs and checked her watch.
One of them was on top of her.
Kenzie screamed at the sudden pain when something sliced into her back. She whirled around and one of the ravens had a knife in his hand. How did he get through her shield? Blocking his second attack she smashed a curse into his neck.
The raven’s eyes shot open and suddenly he was bleeding everywhere. Through his eyes, ears, nose, mouth, every pore he had was suddenly dripping blood. The raven dropped to the ground and she picked up the knife.
It was enchanted.
“Five,” she said over the comms. Kenzie touched her back and it came away bloody.
She grimaced. The only thing she didn’t possess was a healing charm. Healing magic was beyond anyone in her family. That was a rare specialty.
“Six,” Hunter said, and somehow he sounded closer. “Where are you two?”
“Fifteen yards from the trees,” Ash responded. “Seven kills.”
Lost in the pink smoke she pulled up her map as an explosion rattled her bones. “I don’t know where I am,” Kenzie said. “I think I’m twenty yards.”
“Got you,” a raven said as he came at her.
She ducked. But he faked and his knife went through her smartwatch…and then her wrist.
Kenzie only screamed once as the pain ripped through her before she locked it down. The enchanted blade dropped to the ground and she fell to her knees as she tried to fold the pain away. It was too much to push back so she let it run through her as she ripped the knife from her wrist. The second wave of agony almost made her sick to her stomach, but she found that place she’d been taught to go to.
It made everything else seem far away and it allowed her to disconnect from her body a bit, just enough to be outside the agony and the fight.
The watch sparked, shocking her. It wasn’t stable and she had to get it off before something happened. It wasn’t just electrical wiring, it had magic. The combination of the two could cause insurmountable damage.
But the assassin wasn’t waiting for her to recover. He attacked again and she just barely managed to catch his arm with her left hand. The assassin wasn’t expecting her strength and his eyes widened.
The yelling of her mates on the other end of the comms sounded far away, like her ears were stuffed with cotton.
Kenzie reminded herself she was as strong as a bear shifter now. Her left hand tightened around the assassin’s arm and he yelped as bones crushed beneath her fingers. Then she released him and planted her good hand, using it to pivot and swipe his legs out from under him.
“Kenzie, I can’t find you,” Hunter said. He sounded concerned which meant he was probably losing it. “That fucking scent charm. I can’t find you. Tell me where you are.”
“I can taste her pain,” Ash said. “But I lost her in the smoke. There’s too much death and agony on the air to pinpoint hers.”
“Fucking find her Hunter!” Finnick screamed.
Kenzie winced as she rolled so she was straddling the raven. He wasn’t as strong as a bear, but he was a professional assassin. He needed to die, but she only had one hand. It made her freeze. What was the best way to get out of this mess with only one hand?
He fumbled as she held him down and Kenzie realized her mistake a second too late. His hand came up with a gun and without her smartwatch she had no shield. Kenzie just barely managed to shove his hand away before he blasted through her brain.
The shot grazed her shoulder and she let out an angry scream, knowing she had to get vicious if she wanted to survive.
She shoved one knee into his face so she could push herself up to stand. Then she yanked the gun from his hand, breaking finger bones like carrots in the process. The charm was already exhausting her, stealing from her own strength to fuel the unnatural one.
The raven kicked the gun from her hands and suddenly he was up and she was on the defensive again, blocking him with her good arm.
Kenzie ripped one of the charms from her wrist with her teeth. It was covered in her blood and she spat it at him as hard as she could. It broke against his skin and his screech as his flesh burned made her skin crawl. The raven tried to shift, but froze into some kind of half-form as more of him burned.
She ripped the malfunctioning watch off her wrist and then ran.
“Where do you think you’re going?” another raven asked, grabbing her and tossing her to the ground.
At this point she’d lost count of how many were left. Where were her damn foxes?
Kenzie grabbed another charm from her last bracelet.
The raven smirked. Then he pointed the rifle at her chest. This was the one who’d been firing into the house.
Holding her arm against her chest she got to her feet. Kenzie couldn’t run away from a rifle. The only way out of this one was to get close enough to take him down, but she had strength. Not speed. And she was bleeding and tired from the charm.
Was she going to make it out of this one?
Suddenly Hunter was there. He appeared out of the pink smoke like a ghost – right behind the raven. The fox cut the raven’s throat so fast and swift the shifter was still aiming to shoot her when he fell to the ground, blood spurting from his neck.
“Nine,” Hunter said as he stared down at the corpse with no trace of the emotion on his face she’d heard over the comms.
A pained roar came from behind and the one she’d burned jumped on her in his twisted form, putting her in a chokehold. Kenzie shoved them both backwards to the ground and used the momentum to flip over him. She slid out of his hold and onto her knees, pulling her necklace off in one smooth motion.
One little flick and the necklace went around his throat, and she caught the other end. Kenzie wrapped her legs around the raven and pulled with her good hand. She had ridiculous strength at the moment and the titanium necklace s
lid through his skin like butter, only catching on his spine for the briefest moment before she ripped through.
The head popped off and his blood sprayed everywhere.
“Now it’s nine,” Kenzie said, breathing hard as she looked up at Hunter who was much closer than before – as if he’d run toward her, but then stopped when she’d clearly had things under control.
He crouched down and studied her, and then the dead body covered in burns and the decapitated head. “There was one I found who bled to death. Through his skin. Was that you as well?” Hunter was covered in gore, but he still somehow looked so…normal. Like he was wearing a suit at a nice restaurant and not black gear drenched in blood.
Kenzie nodded, shoving the body away from her.
“I think you win for most creative kill.”
“Hunter…” Kenzie hissed in pain as she tried to get up. For a moment she’d forgotten about her wrist.
Then he was there and touching her. The pain eased as he helped her up. He was taking her pain. “I hate this charm,” he snarled. He touched the earring and for a brief moment she thought he might rip it from her ear.
But his hands moved to check her wounds instead. “I couldn’t smell you, or your emotions, and I had no idea where you were.”
Hunter was growling so deep in his chest it altered his voice. “Do you know what it’s like to hear you scream and have no idea what is happening to you? Kenzie, I thought you were dead!”
She flinched when he actually yelled. His reaction was a thousand times worse because Hunter didn’t lose control. But he wasn’t Finnick, or even Ash.
Instead of raging at the world he took a step back from her and clenched his fists as he snarled. Kenzie closed the distance between them, hissing at the pain in her shoulder. Hunter eyed her warily as she came closer.
“Help me?” she asked, knowing he needed an outlet. “I can’t heal like you.”
Hunter reached for her without even realizing and the second his skin made contact with hers the lines on his face eased. Kenzie was so tired and somehow he sensed it. He scooped her up and walked with her towards the trees.
“I’ve got her. We’ll be at the second location in five minutes.”
“Maybe there’s a way to tweak the charm,” she muttered. “That way I can still wear one, but the three of you can scent me all you want.”
“That would be preferable,” Hunter grumbled.
“I didn’t realize how much you cared,” she teased, laughing tiredly. The bleeding had slowed down, but she was still a fucking mess.
“I may not be able to emote the way Finnick and Ash can, but I do have feelings.” The pink smoke started to clear in the breeze and Kenzie ignored the bodies as they stepped into the trees on the edge of the park. “And you’re my mate. Of course I care about you, even if I don’t understand why.”
“Of course,” she murmured. He was so weird. “Put me down?”
Instantly he obliged. Hunter set her down gently and then made sure she was mostly stable before he released her.
“Thank you for finding me,” she told him.
The small bit of gratitude crumbled some of his impenetrable wall. Suddenly he had his arms around her and more of her pain eased. Then Hunter’s hands were in her hair and she could feel the slight tremor in his body.
“Kenzie, I will always find you,” he murmured. Hunter brushed his lips against hers and the electric sensation made it difficult to breathe. “All I had to do was follow my heart.”
Then he stepped away and Finnick was there, kissing her forehead while Ash checked her back, and between the three of them she felt no pain at all, just the warmth of the bond as it tightened harder.
But the whole time she stared at Hunter.
Who once again had that little smirk on his face and his hands in his pockets. But she could see the glimmer of emotion in his eyes as he watched them. It hadn’t just been her imagination. Hunter had kissed her after saying something so ridiculously romantic she was still trying to process it.
Kenzie knew he meant he’d followed the mate bond, but she also knew Hunter never said anything without a reason. How deeply did he feel behind that blank mask of his?
“Let’s get you back to the den and clean you up,” Finnick said, handling her wrist gently. “We’ll have to reach out to some of our contacts for this.”
Kenzie tried to give them all a reassuring smile. “There’s a doctor we see when necessary. She’ll fix me right up.”
“Of course there’s a witch doctor,” Finnick said, kissing her one more time before heading to the second car and giving Ash room to hover next. She was almost disappointed when he didn’t make a voodoo joke – the real indicator he was still shaken as hell about what had happened.
Ash put his arm around her waist and helped her walk. “I’m sorry I lost you,” he said, rubbing his nose in her hair in an apology. “It’s hard to keep track of someone when they don’t exist to my shifter senses.”
“It’s not your fault,” she told him, and Kenzie meant it.
She definitely had to tweak the charm. It had never been an issue before when she’d worked alone. But now she was working with shifters. There had to be a way.
“We need to check the dark web,” she said to no one in particular. “It’s no coincidence someone put out a hit on Abilene when we started digging.” It was hard not to feel guilty about that.
Ash opened the door for her and Finnick started up the van. Hunter watched everything closely as she got in. When they were all safely in the van he finally hopped into the front seat.
“No, it wasn’t a coincidence,” he agreed. “I’ll have to look into this and make some calls for a cleanup.”
“It can’t be the Bay Coven,” Kenzie told him, leaning into Ash and closing her eyes. “Brad will find out who you are and it’ll all be over.”
“I know a few witches outside the covens,” Hunter murmured. “Don’t worry, no one will find out. And get some rest. You’re safe now.”
Kenzie supposed she was. She reached up with a sigh and removed the scent charm before taking Ash’s arm and wrapping it around herself. All three of them breathed a sigh of relief when she did. Even Hunter.
Chapter Twenty-One
Kenzie
Kenzie wore nothing but her sports bra as Ash cleaned up her back and Finnick worked on her wrist.
“Based on these numbers and codes, it looks like hits were put out for everyone on the list you made, Kenzie,” Hunter said, typing furiously as he took in everything displayed on the five computer screens.
Their setup was impressive and Kenzie was actually a bit jealous of their equipment. She kept adding things to her mental wish list.
“Every single one of them?” she asked, not even wincing when Finnick tightened the bandage around her wrist. It was enough to keep her together until she could see the family doctor.
At this point she figured they were unknowingly siphoning her pain from her with every touch. Kenzie left it alone. They were still seriously shaken up from losing her in the smoke.
“Adeline isn’t the only one who died today,” Hunter informed them. “There were two others on our list who got hit as well. We just happened to be at one of them.”
“Damn, he’s moving fast,” Finnick said, moving on to her shoulder. “Three in one day?”
Ash had tied her hair up in a knot so it wouldn’t get into the long slice on her back and he was painstakingly thorough. Once he was finished with that he brought her a clean shirt that smelled of laundry detergent and nothing else. There was no way for her to know whose shirt it was.
“We need to start moving anyone we can to a safehouse before there’s no one left,” Ash said, leaning his hip against Hunter’s desk with his arms crossed over his chest.
Kenzie’s phone rang and she frowned at the number. “Hello?”
“Mackenzie Kavanagh?”
Without knowing why, her heart leapt into her throat. “Yes?”
“You’re the emergency contact for Selene Kavanagh. She was just rushed into our hospital. We’ve admitted her to the ICU.”
Time stopped as she processed those words. “Why?”
“We don’t know for sure yet why, but it appears she’s in some kind of coma. Is there someone else I should call?”
Kenzie gave the woman Edith’s number and then she was moving, pulling on the shirt and heading for the stairs as quickly as she could.
“Whoa, where do you think you’re going?” Finnick asked, grabbing her good arm. “You shouldn’t go anywhere alone right now and you definitely shouldn’t be driving.”
Even though it pissed her off it made her brain start working again. She pulled down the shirt and went right for Hunter. “Please. I know you all heard the call. This has to be from the curse. You saw her…please.”
He turned in his chair and tilted his head to study her.
Kenzie had said once she’d do anything.
She got down on her knees and took Hunter’s hand in hers. Thanks to them her wrist didn’t hurt at all anymore. “Please, give it to me so I can save my sister’s life. I promise I’ll finish the contract. Whatever you need from me to know I will follow through – just name it.”
Without hesitation he answered her. “Move in with us.”
“What?”
She wasn’t the only one to feel shocked. Both Ash and Finnick shared a disbelieving look – like he’d gone too far.
Kenzie wasn’t mad, but she didn’t understand. Hunter never did anything without a reason, right?
“It’s not safe for you right now. I don’t know if they saw you on a camera drone or what,” Hunter said, standing up and pulling her with him. “Until this contract is complete you need to stay with us so we can protect you. It won’t look suspicious as most of the shifter community has heard a triad of foxes recently found their mate.”
Ash and Finnick closed in behind her and Kenzie suddenly realized she was standing in the center of their triangle – as naturally as breathing.
