by Emma Dean
Mika considered the white tiger, crossing her arms over her chest.
“As did I.”
She studied the wolf from the San Juan Mountains, Marshall. He was old, ready to retire soon if she was right.
The others nodded too, and Mika wondered what they thought about her alliances with the undine, the hell realm, and the lesser shifters – not that it really mattered.
“You asked for access to the hunters,” Logan reminded her. “I’m not sure if you’re aware of this, but the hunters are all contracted – either independently or on retainers. The Council doesn’t own them. All you have to do is offer them a job.”
Mika stared at the bear. She’d heard they were really straight forward, but she actually hadn’t met one before.
“They can take it?”
“As long as the ones on retainer don’t have clauses in their contracts stating they can’t also work for someone else because of conflict of interest.” Logan shrugged. “The Council hires the hunters and taps coven witches. That’s all they do.”
Samuel gave the bear a look, as if he were spilling state secrets, but Logan didn’t seem to give a fuck.
“Thank you for that information,” Mika told him, genuinely grateful. “I’ll look into it when I have the chance.”
With Kenzie’s help of course.
A list of hunters was almost impossible to get unless you found the ones who preferred to work freelance, but the Council knew them all thanks to the licenses required.
“So, what is it you want to talk to me about?” she asked, heading toward the forest.
No one else in her group spoke and Mika always felt weird about that.
Lucien was still a fox, so he couldn’t speak, but Ethan fell into step with Malachi and Dagon. All three of them were silent, and she wondered what it was they were thinking, or if they planned to always be her silent enforcers.
It was a weird thought.
Corbin and Emily were working with the majority of the ravens to create and enforce a perimeter, as well as to keep up their training, but they didn’t like people watching them, so they stayed in the forest.
And of course, the coyotes had joined them at some point like it was all a game.
Mika would never understand the strange camaraderie the scavengers had. It was almost like they weren’t even really all that separate – not like the other shifters.
As she walked, she could see the distance between the wolves and the tiger like giant chasms, but the wolves didn’t seem to mind the bear.
It was weird as hell.
She was a witch – a high society one at that – Mika had very little experience with shifters outside of Samuel’s annual barbecues.
“I heard the truth in your voice,” Michael, the Cascade Mountain Alpha murmured, eyeing Dagon from time to time. “I know Azrael is going to try and take this plane. If I hadn’t heard the truth in your voice, I’d still be able to see the changes happening in my territories. There is far more demon activity than ever before and none of it makes sense.”
“We want to know how you plan to fight him.” Marshall shrugged. “Because obviously that’s what you came to the Council for. A witch is readying for war for the first time in ages.”
“Only a few hundred years,” Morgana said, appearing out of thin air right when they hit the tree line. All of the Alphas jumped. “Neutrality is a stain on our existence.” She smiled at the undine then, and he smiled back at her. “My queen, the ravens are asking for you.”
Mika smiled slightly, gritting her teeth at yet another reminder of her other title.
They stepped into the forest and the trees whispered slightly, happy to see her. She trailed her fingers over their trunks as she walked.
Mika wanted to visit the blackthorn soon – whenever there was a moment to breathe. The cutting in her room and at her house was sufficient for communication, but it wasn’t the same as sitting with her hand against her sister’s bark.
Would Azrael burn down the trees as well?
She stopped suddenly, realizing they’d walked into the temporary training grounds Edgar had set up. They covered almost the entire forest, but they fought silently for the most part. It was creepy to watch and still hear almost nothing.
“Azrael won’t be using the seals to hell,” Mika told them, crossing her arms over her chest. “Lucifer monitors those. He’s not even in the hell realm anymore. The Morrigan and Aine are hunting him down, searching all the other realities. I’m not sure what the plan is once his base of operations is found. I assume Lucifer will handle his brother. He’s going to kill Azrael and make sure the threat is eliminated.”
She left out the bit about her part in all of this other than simply having the unfortunate luck to end up on his shit list by accident of birth.
“What Lucifer asked me to do, was defend earth. Azrael can create portals. He can bring his army here at any point, at any time. We don’t know his game plan, so we’re trying to protect what we can.” Mika uncrossed her arms and ran her hand through her loose hair. “Once I get the new wards up, he can’t breech the island, but the rest of the world? Not everyone can fit on this tiny scrap of land.”
“Who is everyone?” Marshall asked her.
“Everyone, even the humans to some degree.” Mika didn’t care about humans – most paranormals didn’t, but it was one thing to ignore them, and another completely to let the innocent die. “I’m not going to stand by and watch children get slaughtered, whether they’re shifter, witch, or human.”
Then she found Corbin and Emily among the fighters. Mika slowly walked toward them, watching as they trained.
She’d seen Corbin work while they sparred, but Emily made him work.
They were both so fucking fast, so skilled, so…everything. Mika had never seen ravens spar without holding back. Everything she’d learned about them so far—these two were the best of the best in this Collective.
Emily was still bothered Corbin had been granted solo work first clearly, because her knives nearly sliced off his ear. Mika smelled blood and clenched her jaw, not liking the flicker of pain she could feel from Corbin.
“I don’t need anything from you except knowing you’ll keep an eye out, protect your territories and those in it – all of them. I need you all to work together, to work with us – warn us if you see armies of demons…anything like that. There is no way to predict where Azrael will strike next, or when.”
“That’s it?” the bear asked.
She nodded. “If I ask for your fighters, I take them away from the ones they work best with. I would also be leaving you light and with no good way to protect your borders.”
Mika hissed in a breath when Emily’s knife sliced across Corbin’s stomach and she smelled more blood.
“We also want to offer some of the hellhounds, reapers, and demons Lucifer is loaning us,” Ethan said, noticing how distracted she was – smoothly taking over. “But we weren’t going to waste those precious resources on packs and prides who couldn’t stomach working with them, or simply didn’t believe there was a threat. Once we’ve distributed them, we’ll assign the rest to various locations that are vulnerable.”
Like Santa Fe and Las Vegas.
She knew Ethan was worried about his mom, and Malachi was too. She’d asked them to bring them here, but so far neither had seemed inclined to leave their homes.
Corbin landed a cut on Emily’s cheek and she froze, touching her face like she almost didn’t believe it. “Are you serious?” she snapped. “My face?”
Suddenly Ben and Chance made themselves known and Mika smiled and waved. The other two, Jace and Aiden, were up in the tree. She waved at them too, even though she couldn’t physically see them.
“Look, it’s already healed,” Corbin teased. “And it’s only fair. You tried to take off my ear.”
Emily grinned then, flipping a knife around. “I suppose. Draw?”
Corbin’s eyes glowed red, and Mika knew he wanted to keep going, b
ut they had company.
“For now.” Corbin gave Emily a small bow and then jogged over to Mika, kissing her on the cheek. “The Alphas came.”
“They did.”
Mika could feel everyone’s eyes on her, and she tried to ignore it, but she’d always been awkward about public displays of affection.
“Have you worked out today?” Corbin asked, eyes roving over their little group.
It was almost impossible not to roll her eyes. “You know I haven’t.”
“Good, then you can work out with me.” Emily beckoned with her knife and Mika felt a strange flare of—anticipation.
Mika hadn’t been able to use her full strength or speed yet, and she had a feeling Emily would be a good person to work with. Then she studied Logan. Maybe the bear too, if he could fight.
Logan grinned and Samuel’s eyes glowed gold, but he didn’t smile.
“I scheduled the entire day off,” the white tiger said carefully. “I wasn’t sure what to expect.”
“You guys should get paired up,” Corbin practically snapped, as if he was ordering the rest of her boys to work out too. “You could learn a thing or two.”
“Are you offering, raven?” Marshall asked. “I thought you didn’t teach outsiders?”
“Oh, we don’t.” Corbin grinned and shoved Mika toward Emily. “But it would take a lifetime to teach you everything we know. I think a few minutes of fun would be fine. Right, Emily?”
The other raven grinned and beckoned for Mika. “Come on, I’ve been dying to see what you can do since I saw you shift.”
Mika wasn’t sure this was a good idea.
She stepped forward into the makeshift circle anyway and grinned.
It may not be a good idea, but it would be a lot of fun.
18
Despite all her training and gifts, something about Emily made Mika nervous. She’d sparred with Corbin many times, but Corbin had a vested interested in not ripping her head off. Emily, well, she was difficult to read.
Mika liked that about her.
“Weapons?” Mika asked, hand hovering over the knives on her thigh.
“Knives only,” Emily replied, nodding once as she flipped the two in her hand like she was getting ready to throw them.
“How many?” Mika had three, but she knew Emily had more stashed away, she could practically taste the metal.
“Whatever is on your person. No shifting. No magic.”
She could hear Corbin ordering the Alphas to fight him one at a time so he could see what kind of training they had, if any, and Mika could feel the giddy anticipation through Lucien and Ethan.
This moment had to be such a relief to anyone without ties to a traditional coven, or apex predator packs. Showing those apex predators, who thought they were so much better, a thing or two would really remind them just how much they weren’t aware of.
Mika assumed Samuel knew more than most considering the members in some of his packs, but still it wasn’t quite the same.
It was why she wanted the witches to work with the hunters more, and then get both of them to work with everyone else. Mircella had been kind enough to share the list of new students and their declared species.
There weren’t as many variations as Mika had originally hoped for, but there were more apex shifters to be sure, and a few vampires which had shocked her. It shouldn’t have considering they were recently turned, but she’d had very little interaction with vampires.
They needed to hire more professors that weren’t witches – that had been glaringly obvious and now…Mika had the power to do that. This place was hers.
“Are you ready?” Emily asked, seeing how distracted Mika was as she catalogued everything.
Her new senses were still taking some time to get used to, but she’d been able to tune some of it out – what she considered unnecessary, but ever since she’d seen her brother Mika had been on constant alert.
When was the last time she even really slept longer than a few hours?
“As ready as I can be,” she said, ignoring the raccoons who hadn’t once moved. “Can no one else see them?”
Emily’s grin was wide and sharp. “If they don’t move, usually eyes will slide right over them. They’re not invisible but camouflaged, essentially. No one ever sees them if they don’t want them to. Which is why I’m so interested in why you can.”
Mika unsheathed her longer knife and a shorter one, eyeing Emily’s. The raven’s were the same length and slightly curved which made her nervous. This wasn’t going to be easy. Mika had seen just how fast ravens were.
“No shadow realm?” Mika asked, trying to avoid the unspoken question.
“No shadow realm,” Emily agreed. Then she pointed a knife at Mika’s throat. “Why can you see them?”
Eyeing the assassin, Mika assumed Emily knew where they were because they were mated. If the bond was anything like hers, then Emily knew where they were at all times and could feel the strongest of their emotions.
“Go?”
“Go.” Emily flipped her knives and glared. “Answer my question, witch.”
“I can’t see them,” Mika muttered, keeping her eyes on the blades. “I’ve told you that before.”
“Then why do you know where they are?”
She’d only seen Emily fight for a few minutes. Mika had no idea what to anticipate, but if the raven’s personality was any indication, she’d attack first and ask questions later. There was no way Mika could win against an assassin trained from the moment they could walk.
Mika still hadn’t won a fight against Corbin despite knowing him far better than she did Emily.
The most she could hope for was to hold her own and not get her ass completely handed to her.
She relaxed her entire body and stood there, flat-footed with her knives dangling from her hands, arms at her sides like an idiot.
Tricks were always a good strategy too.
“It’s difficult to explain,” Mika said, trying to picture what it was she saw. “It’s kind of like…I know where their blood is? It registers as energy almost—a song. Unless someone is shielded specifically against blood witches and our magic, I assume anyone who is attuned to blood could figure out where they are.”
Emily struck hard and fast. It was terrifying and awe-inspiring just how controlled she was of her body and her abilities.
Thanks to her new speed, Mika was able to track the motion and slide a fraction to the left – barely missing the whistling blade. At the same time, she drove her right hand up with the short knife, aiming for the stomach.
Emily twisted when she realized she’d missed. It was amazing to see how the raven’s mind simply adjusted instantly when that blade didn’t strike the target. The control required for that…
Fuck.
Mika didn’t wait for her to strike again, because Emily was in the perfect position to sink a blade into her kidney. So, she dropped down to one knee and spun, aiming for the hamstring with her longer knife.
The sound of a blade was all that warned her. Mika dropped to the ground, avoiding a strike that could have easily decapitated her if it had landed. Whipping her leg back around caught Emily at the ankles but the raven just front flipped instead of stumbled.
Fucking hell, did nothing stop her?
Mika rolled onto her back and kicked up, knocking one of the knives out of Emily’s hand. She took the opportunity to turn the motion into a backward somersault and then a backflip onto her feet, picking up Emily’s blade from the ground. Sliding the assassin’s knife into her belt felt good.
Emily’s grin was feral, and she threw the knife in her hand hard and fast. Mika dodged and gritted her teeth when she saw another two blades in the raven’s hands. Exactly how many did she keep on her person at all times?
“Corbin managed to train you well, a full-grown witch.” Emily sounded impressed. “I wouldn’t have thought it possible.”
“I trained as a hunter growing up,” Mika admitted, bringing up h
er blades just as Morgana taught her. “And he hasn’t been the only one training me.”
Morgana’s ghostly form appeared beside Ben and the raccoon just looked at her as if he was annoyed while Aiden, the smaller one, nearly jumped out of his skin. The ghost witch grinned at Mika and then turned to admire the extremely large raccoon.
“Who else?” Emily asked. They circled each other, eyeing the sides favored and the way each held their blades.
The raven could still hand Mika her ass, but she seemed more intrigued than anything. As if she wanted to see exactly what Mika was capable of.
Mika didn’t dare look at the ghost or find Malachi. She knew Hunter was around somewhere, and with Kenzie’s help they’d taught her a few things too. Audrey had favored Ash and Finnick, said the psycho made her nervous.
And considering the bruises Hunter had left on Mika’s body, she didn’t blame her adopted sister.
She didn’t bother replying this time. Mika just attacked – just like Corbin had taught her to do over and over, just like Hunter had insisted was necessary.
Everything faded away until it was nothing but the sound of blades clashing. High, low, a nick here and there – Mika didn’t even feel the cuts as they sliced through her sweater, her pants, not until a knife lodged into her shoulder and she hissed through the pain.
Sliding her knife up and under the one stuck in her bone, she used her strength to force it up and out, pushing Emily back at the same time. She spun, landing a hit on the raven’s ribs with the first knife, and another across her chest.
Emily didn’t like that.
“I was holding back before,” Emily snapped.
“That’s your fault.” Mika threw one knife and slid the other out of the sheath on her thigh. “Push me harder.”
The grin on the assassin’s face was terrifying, but Mika never once stopped moving. The smell of blood sang to her and she ignored the pull down deep that whispered all the ways she could use it to her advantage.
