by Billi Jean
“She is mine!”
The man’s scream was followed by a silence so deep, her ears echoed. She squeezed her eyes closed and tried not to move. Rick was there, she realized, with her still, but so was Satan.
“She was never yours,” another man said. A Scot, she thought.
Shocked again, she tightened her grip on Rick and prayed harder than she ever had in her life.
Sweet Danu, please, if I am one of yours, help me now. Don’t let him have me, or Rick.
“Hunter, open your eyes, baby,” Rick whispered near her ear.
She shook her head and clutched him closer, burying her face in his warm neck.
“She made me promises—”
“She made you no promises. Her oath was given to save that witch’s life,” Rick said, tightening his arms around her. “But since she never died, the oath doesn’t hold, does it? You’re Arawn, right? Does it hold?”
“Nay, if the woman never died, then her oath to serve Satan would no’ hold. Did you die, woman?”
Hunter blinked open her eyes and saw Margaret standing before a man dressed in a kilt. Lucifer stood across from him, scowling horribly.
“Answer me!” Arawn said in a quiet voice.
Margaret fell to her knees, sobbing, and shook her head.
“You have never died and been brought back to this world?” Arawn questioned.
Hunter trembled at the power in Arawn’s voice. Rick squeezed her and murmured her name. “Just hold on, baby.”
“No, no I haven’t,” Margaret cried.
“That does not matter,” Lucifer said disdainfully. “An oath is an oath.”
“It matters. You ken it matters,” Arawn said, and drew a huge broadsword from the sheath along his back.
Larisa appeared, stumbled, took one look around and bowed, head down in supplication so that it touched the floor.
“This creature is yours.” Arawn lowered his sword to Margaret. “As is this one,” he added, pointing to Larisa. “You used both to try and take what is mine.” Arawn didn’t shout. It was more like a roar that vibrated throughout the hall and probably into the next universe.
Lucifer didn’t appear impressed. He crossed his arms and tilted his head. He was dressed in an average suit and tie, like so many Wall Street brokers wore to work every day. Only this wasn’t trading company stocks. This was her life.
“She is mine. Both are mine. Hunter is as well. Her oath—”
“We will battle if you continue this way,” Arawn warned, tensing his muscles and swinging his sword in a lazy circle by his side with just his wrist. “And I will make certain you lose much.”
“Do you believe so? All over a girl? A worthless girl?”
As she watched, Lucifer grew in size until he was once again a fallen angel. Arawn grew as well, and between the two beings, Larisa and Margaret cowered, looking tiny. Arawn threw the first punch, and Lucifer deflected the blow.
Hunter hid her face, unable to watch. The sound of the fight was deafening and beyond her comprehension. It seemed as if they battled in the very heavens, yet she feared they were in hell, this time perhaps to stay. Rick held her tight and strong to his body, but even his strength didn’t lessen her terror until she heard Arawn bellow something and silence filled the hall. After what felt like hours of waiting, she heard the sound of labored breathing.
“Go now,” Arawn said. “Take these with you and never touch what is mine or else suffer my displeasure. Or stay and we will battle again.”
For a long, terrible moment, she feared they would come to blows and crush her and Rick in the process. Finally, with a horrible scream, Lucifer vanished, Margaret and Larisa right after.
The black and gray hall disappeared and they were back at the compound.
Rick blinked and glanced around, then shook his head. “Oddest thing, right then, but…did you hear me? I love you.”
Hunter trembled, not sure she was hearing right.
“All right, I could have picked a better time,” Rick grumbled, and brushed her chin with his thumb. “But it’s out now, so you can stop being so shocked. You had to know,” he added.
At her inability to think of what to say, he frowned fiercely and shook her by her shoulders—gently she noticed, but clearly getting worked up.
“Why the hell did you think I bullied my way on this team with you and got shot twice, and nearly had a heart attack several other times? I thought I’d finally gotten you to see you’re a genius. Don’t prove me wrong now by not believing me, because if that’s what the silence is, I’m—”
“Rick!” she shook his jacket, not him, of course, but got his attention.
“Yeah?” He frowned down at her then his eyes widened. “Oh, baby,” he murmured, cupping her cheek so he could brush his fingers over her damaged face. “Baby, I…your burn, it’s…”
She blinked through her tears and sniffed. “I don’t care about that, you silly man. I love you. The burn will just have to be there, even if we go shopping.”
He shook his head while she spoke, and a slow, cocky grin filled his face. “Oh, is that so?”
“Yes. I didn’t know you loved me, though,” she offered, trying hard not to cry and look like a complete moron. “But you know, once you make a promise—”
“You can’t take it back. I know. I was never after a quickie,” he whispered against her lips.
It was so Rick, so the teasing, honest, macho man she loved, she kissed him fast and hard.
“Baby, you know I want those lips for a lot longer than that, but you know”—he glanced around at the destruction and back at her quickly—“we did it. We won. And uh, well, your face—it’s not burned any longer. Not sure—”
“What?” She reached up and touched her cheek, then blinked and realized all of the room was in focus, not just her right side. “I…my eye? It’s not—”
“It’s good. I wish I could have done this for you. I mean—” He cleared his throat and rubbed the back of his neck. “I mean, I wanted to, you know? I thought about it right off, because well, I know how girls are with their faces. But yeah, I hated that you hurt so much over it. Even when I knew you wouldn’t understand me, I loved you.”
She was speechless. He’d loved her so long? When he’d first tackled her to the floor? “You did?”
“I just didn’t know it,” he whispered against her lips.
“You are such a nut—”
“Aye, it did take ya some bit of time.”
At Arawn’s words, Hunter pushed at Rick’s chest. He didn’t budge.
“Who is that?” Rick asked, not looking away from her eyes.
“That is…” She paused to wince, not sure what to say with Rick and why he didn’t know, and well, what was going on. The truth… She’d simply tell him the truth. Slowly, so he wouldn’t get worked up. “Well, that’s Arawn, the Celtic God of the Afterlife,” she whispered, recalling what he’d done to her face. And the curse. “You saved me, Rick. It was you. I mean, you did this.” She gestured to her face, unable to keep a tear from falling. “You did fix my face. And he just fought Satan—”
“He recalls what I wish, lass,” Arawn said, a clear warning in his tone.
Rick stiffened and narrowed his blue eyes on her face. Then, he looked up. Hunter could tell he didn’t remember anything, but he didn’t give away that Arawn had just stunned him by being here either.
She took a shaky breath and felt happiness fill her to the point she had to cover her mouth to hide a crazy smile.
Rick was hers. Truly, completely her man. And he was just…Rick Kincaid. He gave Arawn a once-over then focused back on her face as if he wasn’t impressed by a seven foot, hulking highlander complete with beard, sword and kilt standing a few feet from him.
“And he’s here to—?”
“Uh—”
“I am here to accept my daughter with open arms, in a manner of speaking,” Arawn said, giving Rick one heck of a slap on the back that she felt it too. “You did verra well. I didnae see
the end of this, but in you I knew she had found someone that would stand by her side. Even if ya didnae keep her out of trouble, eh?”
“Hey, we won this fight, didn’t we?” Rick exclaimed, tightening his arms around her.
Rick was right. They’d won this battle, maybe even saved the changelings from being changelings.
Suddenly Hunter was tired of everything, simply exhausted to the bottom of her not-so-aching feet. She simply wanted a bed, her man and a long, long sleep in his arms. She leaned on Rick, more than ready to be done with it all, especially the digs at Rick’s ability to keep her safe.
“Rick saved my life. I’m the one that got injured, not him. The wounds were my fault, not his,” she said wearily. Yes, he was a god. Yes, he’d been the one to melt her face and probably could again, but she wasn’t easy at keeping things from him. “Why can’t he remember what just happened?”
“What just happened?” Rick asked suspiciously.
“Some things are better no’ remembering,” Arawn said as if those were soothing words. Rick turned to solid steel against her. “And, nay, little one, your man is injured as well.” Arawn grinned when she gasped.
“What?” Hunter cried, pulling away from Rick to stare at him. He grimaced and shook his head, but she realized something was off. “You got hurt?”
“Aye, it is no’ so good when the shoe is on the other foot, eh?”
“It’s nothing.”
She saw the blood on his leg that he was trying to hide from her. She spotted more on his shoulder, too.
She hit him on his big chest. “You big jerk! You are hurt!”
He held his arms up, but she nailed him again with another slug. “When were you going to tell me? When you bled out? I can’t believe you. Do you need a crayon! This is not teamwork—”
Rick caught her fist on the next blow, then her. Before she knew what he was doing, he kissed her. Really, really kissed her until her toes curled in her boots.
“This is teamwork,” he whispered against her lips. His eyes were so blue, so intense with something—love—her knees threatened to not work. “Keeping you safe while you save the world and all that is my part. Besides, Sparky, he can fix me up, huh? I mean, he is a god, right?”
“Rick! He is not here to heal you. I think he’s here to maybe talk to me… I might need to listen, so we should probably listen.”
“Fine, but the least he could do is…you know, wave his hand and all, for my injuries.”
“Aye, the least I can do is see that you’re no’ too injured for this beach you wish to walk on every day, eh?” Arawn asked with another big grin.
She thought Rick tensed at that, but of course he covered it up and set her down, patting her butt when he did. “See? He’s a good-natured guy, right?”
“Oh, aye, I am at that, but you and I, we need to speak, Richard Kincaid. Come, walk with me,” Arawn said.
“Not without me.” Hunter stepped right in front of Rick. “What you have to say to him—”
“You can say to us both,” Rick finished, laying an arm on her shoulders. “We’re a team, and teams stick together.”
Arawn’s eyes got a bit intense, but he motioned for them to walk with him. “You’ve fought a great battle here. Today many paths converged. Many destinies were changed. Even, I believe, your own. But the why of good and evil is beyond me. I have seen evil stain the land like a plague, and good rise to the top against all odds or die a sudden death before it can touch one life.” He ended in such a low murmur she had to strain to hear him. “The evil of some men, aye, and women, is unfathomable. But with evil there must be good. If no’, we have an unbalance in the weave.”
Rick tightened his arm around Hunter and she pulled them to a stop on the opposite side of the huge room from their friends. No one was down at this level, other than the dead. Everyone they knew appeared oddly distorted, as if Arawn had walked them into a mist.
“Now you,” Arawn murmured, stroking his beard. “You posed a threat, or a potential threat to that balance. What occurred today is more than a defeat against impossible odds, it is a major setback in this war your kind wages. You now have a cure for the changelings. You have revealed your enemy and at the same time swept them away before they could do the very thing they plotted and hoped you would give them—their enemy. ’Twas the verra reason you were taken and raised by such evil,” Arawn said, and laughed heartily at that, as if it were a fine joke.
Rick caressed her shoulder and they shared a puzzled glance.
“You dinnae ken, do you?”
She winced, and tried to understand. “You mean that family took me and tried to make me evil?”
“Aye, but you would never do what they wanted, and this they grew to understand. And thus, the bargain with Lucifer,” he replied.
Rick grumbled a curse.
“You mean my life was all a plan? A plan to get these powerful people all in one place so that they could be eliminated?” she asked
Arawn nodded.
“What? I don’t get it. If that was it, how did they know Hunter would bring everyone here? She was going to be punished by Satan, forced into who knows what. How would that get her friends here?”
“Right, if Satan had let me back up here, he would have made sure I did what he wanted. And even if he didn’t, everyone hated me, didn’t trust me—”
“Oh? Is that so? I donno see anyone being forced to be here,” Arawn said. He gestured to Rick. “This man would hardly leave your side, and that with my bane on you.”
That sank in, but she still struggled with what he was saying. Her friends were here. And Rick had tricked, schemed and dug his way right into her heart. He loved her. She believed that as surely as she’d once believed no one ever would.
“Your spirit is strong or else you would never have survived and been as you are—honorable. Aye, to a fault sometimes, but that is oftentimes the case with the young. But you have always been worthy of love and trust.”
“Even though you put a bane on her?” Rick asked, sounding offended.
“Aye, I had to, or else the Lord of Lies would never have let her go. He does no’ just seek people to worship him. Lucifer thrives on misery. The more he can cause, the stronger he becomes. But he is also—above all else—a trickster, a dishonorable being to his very core. Even with me, he broke trust,” Arawn said, clearly still angry with Lucifer. She wondered at it and the lives such beings led. “Aye, he could not settle for allowing you the mere chance at surviving and breaking my bane.”
“Larisa,” Rick said suddenly. “He sent Larisa.”
Arawn nodded.
“Does she have to worry over Larisa still?”
“No, I don’t think so,” Hunter answered for Arawn. “I think she’s done, maybe…he is as well,” she added in a whisper.
“Aye, you will no’ have to worry on Lucifer or his servants. He broke our pact when he sent the she-wolf. I believe Lucifer made his one bid for you and failed. There are more souls in this world for him to gain without angering me. But does this mean he has forgotten? Nay, he will never forget. He had his notice and to incur such a thing can be dangerous, and aye, deadly, as you have learned.”
Rick shook his head, scowling. “Shit, that does not sound good, and on that subject, why doesn’t Hunter heal quick-like?”
She wondered about it, too. Even now her head hurt from the blow she’d taken from Balrick.
“Hunter is no’ immortal. She wouldn’t have been until after the first Harvest Moon. If you did not declare your love by then, aye, she would have—”
“Holy motherfucker! You mean you could have died!” Rick exclaimed, tightening his hands on her upper arms until it hurt. “You could have died. Like seriously been dead doing some of the crazy shit you were doing!”
She rolled her eyes. “Duh, so? You could have as well.”
“Hunter, don’t fuc—say that. You were out there, doing shit that could have—”
“Rick! Ouch! That hurts.�
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He eased up a fraction. “Hunter, there’s—”
“I never knew if I was immortal or not before, so—”
“Heart attack,” he muttered and hugged her to his chest. “You’re like a heart attack waiting to happen.”
“I am?” she asked, squinting at him when he released her enough to see his face again.
Rick simply grinned and laughed.
“She doesn’t have to be, Rick Kincaid. I can give her immortality, and with it, she will live for a great long while.”
Rick tensed.
“No. I don’t want immortality.” She took Rick’s hand. His eyes were so blue in that moment, his hair a mess, and there was blood on the bristled golden whiskers on his jaw and neck. She knew she’d never love him more. “I want a lifetime with you, though.”
“Hunter, immortality… This battle was won but it’s not over,” he said softly. “If you and I are going to keep fighting—”
“I don’t care. I’m with you, unless”—she tugged her hands free and examined his face—“you don’t want me to be.”
“Crazy woman, do I need to get a crayon? I said I love you. That’s not going to suddenly fade away now I have you. I’m just telling you to think about this. It’s immortality, baby.”
She shook her head. “Not without you, it isn’t. It’s an eternity of emptiness, of feeling like I don’t belong. Of being scared and alone and never knowing someone cares.”
“And if I offered immortality to you both? Then what would you say?”
At Arawn’s words, Rick narrowed his eyes and grabbed her hands. He didn’t say anything, but in his eyes she could tell he knew as much as she did that the offer was sincere.
“You are correct, Richard Kincaid. This fight is not over. I fear it has only begun. Hunter needs to take her place in her coven. She needs a protector by her side. A warrior. Just as Circerran has Jack, you two could have each other.”
“Would I have superpowers?” Rick asked.
She bit her lip to keep in her laughter.
“Do you need them, Richard Kincaid?” Arawn asked, not falling for Rick’s joke.
Rick scratched his jaw and gave Arawn his best arrogant smile. “I guess not, if you think I don’t.” He winked at her and her stomach fluttered with butterflies, spreading the hope billowing up inside. “What do you say, Sparky? Is it too soon to promise an eternity with me?”
