Bounty Hunters and Black Magic

by Kristen Banet

  She released Dark Prince into the field after she finished cooling him down and brushing him off, and he promptly went to flirt with his mares. She went inside, pulled off her boots, and fell on her bed. If she didn’t move for a week, it would be too soon.

  She was at least home, though, so there was that. She was home, and one hundred dollars richer on top of it. With new research into using black magic to banish demons permanently back to hell—even better.

  “I should eat,” she mumbled to herself, face-down on the bed, right as her stomach decided it wanted to sing her a tune that sounded like an angry hellhound with heartburn. “Oh, I really should eat.”

  She pushed herself back off the bed, groaning. Her legs hurt like she had been fucking for two days and not riding her damned horse.

  Oh. That was a gross thought. Probably an illegal one in most states.

  As her mind trailed off into all the inappropriate ways that could be taken, she stumbled into her kitchen and grimaced at the mess. Three weeks away and everything was a disaster. Dust covered everything, which disgusted her. “Food is going to have to wait, then. Well, I could set up a stew, then clean while it’s going.”

  Adalyn got to work. She didn’t do dirty homes. She liked to live like she had some self-respect, being raised back East, not in the West like a lot of the other heathens.

  It was near midnight when she was done getting her house back in order and had some stew going, nearly done on top of that. Adalyn was lucky her preserving spells had lasted her entire trip. Thank the gods for that, since she didn’t have the damned energy to run to town and get anything from the saloon to eat. Plus, that would put her in Valen’s path and she wasn’t ready for that.

  There was only one thing wrong with the night, and it was more because she didn’t want to deal with it.

  Someone was already knocking on her door. She’d been home for only a few hours and there was already a visitor. She wanted to ignore it, since whoever it was would probably want to come in and sit down, and talk, and be up in her space. They were probably curious as to where she went for a few weeks.

  “The stew needs more time,” she told herself, frowning at the pot. Rabbit was notoriously tough meat, and the stew needed to soften it up more. “I guess I’m doing this…” She left the spoon stirring on its own, like the broom she’d left to finish the sweeping in the hallway. It was really all the magic she could muster after a hard ride.

  She pulled the door open and found no one. Not a thing. She closed the door again, wondering if she was just hearing things.

  Shit. Maybe I am crazy.

  Shaking her head, she went back to the kitchen and stirred the stew until it was ready. Then she heard a howl, close to the house, followed by the soft noises of her horses being disturbed. Werewolves. One of the young ones must have pranked her and run off. It happened all the time.

  She jumped back up and walked back outside, not bothering to put her shoes on. She grabbed the rifle at the door and ran her hand down the barrel, causing it to glow and change the type of ammo in it. Silver bullets, just in case. She saw her target immediately. It was probably one of the teenagers, thinking he was going to have a bit of fun. He had that scrawny, short thing going on, which meant he definitely wasn’t one of the big adults.

  “Boy,” she called out, seeing the small werewolf taunting her horses. Dark Prince was running around his mares to stop the werewolf from plucking their tails to annoy them. “Get moving before I start shooting.”

  The were’s head snapped in her direction and she heard a growl, and saw teeth and fangs flash in the dark.

  “Get going. The last thing I want to do is shoot you,” she said, training her sights on him. “We both know I can hit you. I just got home and I’m tired. I’ll be telling your parents about this tomorrow.”

  The werewolf snorted and growled again, knowing his fun was over. She watched him wander into the dark.

  “Damn werewolves,” she mumbled, lowering her rifle. “Werecats should be keeping an eye on them tonight. I wonder how he snuck out to be a pain.” The only good thing about the situation was that the boy hadn’t been feral. She’d need to touch base with one of the werewolves tomorrow. They couldn’t be roaming so much, and especially not on her property, not if they didn’t want her putting wards up.

  “Redstone hasn’t changed a damned bit.” Part of her was glad for it. The small-time trouble the wereanimals got into, the rowdy saloon she’d had to ride past. “Home is where the heart is,” she reminded herself, smiling.

  She walked back inside and waved a hand to stop the fire on her stove. She levitated a bowl to her countertop and dished herself some stew. Once she was done eating, she took a long, hot bath and let exhaustion take her, the call for sleep much stronger than the magic of the full moon outside.

  Adalyn went to town the next day. She was back from a long trip and her stew the night before hadn’t been the most satisfying. She’d had no bread to go with it or anything, since none of that had survived her long trip away from home.

  Redstone was a quiet, normal Western town. Two streets met in a cross, and the corners were the four big places you needed: the General Store, the Redstone Bank, Magic Notes Saloon and Bar, and the sheriff’s office and jail. One of those was shut down, thanks to the tombstone on her property. No one had wanted to replace William after he and his deputy died. Not like she blamed them. No one wanted to be the first line of defense guarding the Gate to Hell underneath the town, nor the person responsible for upholding the law in a town full of Supes.

  So, of course I decided to take things into my own hands. At least on the Gate to Hell front.

  The first item on her agenda was depositing half of the cash she carried into said bank. She only needed fifty to keep afloat for the rest of the month, and she was out of money in savings. Which she deserved, for using the last year to research black magic to banish demons permanently, instead of continuing her potions business. Oops.

  Before she could even make it in the door, she was grabbed by someone, a large hand on her shoulder. That wasn’t okay. In two seconds, she had her revolver out of its holster and pointed at the ribs of the man who touched her.

  Valen just laughed at her, looking down at the gun until she put it away. Damn. She was jumpy and she really had no reason to be. Pointing a gun at Valen was asking for trouble. The man could do things that bent reality in ways not even she could unravel. It wasn’t normal magic, that was for sure.

  “Jumpy, little witch?” he asked in an accent that was rare for the West. The big man was a Russian…something. No one really knew exactly what. “I haven’t seen you ride into town for nearly a month. How are you?”

  “I’m fine, Valen. Just took a short business trip and need to get some errands done now that I’m back. You know how it is.”

  “That I do. When are you coming back to the saloon? We’ve missed you.” He reached out to push some hair from her face, causing her pulse to jump for a moment. She didn’t look at him, as ideas raced through her head that shouldn’t have. She hadn’t been touched like that in a long time.

  Girl, just like with Tobias, you absolutely can’t be thinking about that with him. He’s a friend of the family, a friend of William’s. He also lives here. It would be a nightmare of drama.

  I need to get this damned itch scratched and stop talking to myself.

  He was an attractive whatever he was, and that was her problem. A very attractive one, with his massive shoulders and light blue eyes dancing with humor. It was his fault, she decided. He was too handsome, and here she was with an itch to scratch.

  Why do Supes have to be so damned good-looking? I mean, really. I’m a widow, a horny one, and all my friends are stunning and off limits.

  “I really need to get this done,” she said, pointing at the bank’s door. “And I think you’re about to have some trouble.” Adalyn pointed around the mountain of a man to a group riding into town. “You’ve been handling the riffraff sin
ce William died, right?”

  It was obviously a group of outlaws, based on the guns they carried and the clothing they wore, but she couldn’t place them from any wanted posters she’d seen. And they were human, not Supes, that was clear. One of the scraggly men was wide-eyed in fear at the sight of a werewolf walking through town who hadn’t yet shifted back from the full moon the night before. Sometimes it took a day or so for the magic to let them go, and that was common for newer wereanimals.

  “I’m glad you noticed, and those guys won’t be a problem.” He was still smiling at her, like they didn’t even exist. “Ignore them. They come into the saloon and they’ll learn real quick this isn’t a town they can toy with. Hopefully they’re just riding through.”

  “Sucks not having a sheriff,” she said. Hell had pretty much broken loose in Redstone over the last year. Three times, the bank had nearly been robbed by demon outlaws rolling through town. Luckily, none of them had been Beelzebub’s boys, nor had they succeeded, since the bank was run by the werecats. On more than one occasion, humans got killed in the town, thinking they could roll in and rule it, with them not having a peacekeeper, not realizing the denizens of Redstone were more than equipped for plain old humans. They weren’t more than an annoyance, but Redstone didn’t want too many bodies buried underneath it. The Society of Magic and the Magic Division of the US Marshals’ Office were going to start looking at them funny.

  And if the Magic Division looks at us funny, they’ll send someone to talk to us. And no one wants him back in town. At least I don’t.

  “We all miss him, Addy.” Valen took his hat off, revealing his orb of a bald head. It should have made him look old, but she couldn’t see him being past his late thirties. Paired with his thick, sandy blond beard…

  Don’t do that happy, sexy sigh at him, Addy. He is not someone you can play with.

  “Yeah. Miss him,” she mumbled. She did, too, but he was gone and she had to make the best of it. That was the danger of living out West, and even Supes didn’t play with raising the dead or anything crazy like that. Once dead, the best thing someone could do was grieve for them, then move on.

  “Why don’t you come to the saloon tonight and have a good time? It’ll cheer you up, I think.” He gave her a small wink.

  “You know what happens when I go to the saloon,” she chastised him. “It’s never a fun night.”

  “It’s the best of nights! William would want you living your life. It’ll be on me! I know finances probably haven’t been kind to you during your mourning.”

  He was not going to let it go, was he? She wasn’t feeling up for a night at Magic Notes, but maybe that was just the thing she needed to get back into life. And he had a point. William would be furious in his afterlife if he heard she wasn’t living life to the fullest. He really would. Even when he was alive, he’d wanted her to let loose and have a good time as often as possible. Said he always liked his wife being the town’s best troublemaker. Made his job ‘easy,’ since the punishment involved handcuffs at home, not the jail. Though, if the jail was empty, they would go there sometimes instead.

  I miss those handcuffs…

  That thought made her toes curl. Those handcuffs were one of the most fun things about his job. She would never forget the things he would do to her when she was attached to the bedpost after a long night at the saloon.

  “Addy?” Valen was grinning now and she realized she was still in public, and it wasn’t the time to be having those sorts of thoughts. God, she was horny. Her eyes drifted over the massive man and she swallowed. Like Tobias, she knew he was going to make some woman very happy one day.

  Gods, save me from myself.

  The saloon gave her an opportunity to fix this problem.

  Never mind. Don’t save me. I like this idea more.

  “Okay. I’ll go. I just need to run my errands and get some things taken care of. And I want to change. I mean, look at me.” She waved over the beaten-up jeans she wore to town, the old cowboy boots, and a shirt that once belonged to William over her corset. She wasn’t exactly saloon-ready. She even had the hat on, the hat everyone hated except her. It was a witch’s hat put on a cowboy hat brim.

  “You look fantastic!” Valen laughed, looking her over playfully. “Go, go! I hope you don’t disappear on me, little witch. I’m going to tell everyone in town our witch is coming back to the world of the living. About time, too. Your year of mourning ended weeks ago!”

  She was laughing at that as she walked into the bank to get away from the mountain man. He was right. Her year of mourning was definitely over, and it was time for her to live again. The werecat behind the counter in the bank had a cheery smile on her face as Adalyn walked up.

  “Hey, Kitty. How was last night for the werecats?” she asked, pulling her wallet from her bag. “And I need to make a deposit.”

  “The werewolves were rowdy, but we kept them under control. It wasn’t the worst full moon, that’s for sure. And they’re always grateful for our help.” Kitty counted the cash that she gave her, writing something down after that. “Deposit of fifty dollars? Okay. I’ve got it added to your account ledger.” The werecat was still writing something as she spoke. “We wereanimals got to help each other, ya know? Werecats on the new moon and werewolves on the full moon. If we didn’t, twice a month would be a nightmare for the town. I’ll always be thankful to William for finally brokering some peace between Pack and Pride.”

  “He was tired of breaking up the fights,” Adalyn murmured, smiling. Yeah, William had done great things for Redstone. The situation between the wereanimals had followed them over continents from Europe to the United States, then followed them out West. William just reminded them that infighting for Supes in the West was a good way to get them all killed. He’d been charismatic enough to convince the Alpha of each group to stand down and finally work together. “That was seven years ago now. By the gods, where has the time gone?”

  “You were a young thing. Not even married to him yet. He wasn’t even the sheriff, either. Just one of the deputies.” Kitty also had a wistful smile on her face. “We’ve missed seeing you in town. I hope you come back regularly.”

  “Oh, I promised myself one year of mourning, then I would get back on track and live my life, so here I am. He wouldn’t want me mourning any longer, anyway.” She had a feeling that if she didn’t get moving and start trying to be normal, she’d have concerned friends at her doorstep. They had promised to leave her be for a year. “You probably heard just now, but I’ll be showing up at Magic Notes tonight. That should go…well.”

  “Oh, I’ll have to be there then. I have to see how wild Adalyn Lovett is going to get without William here to save her. Actually, no sheriff or deputies at all! Should be quite the sight, I’m betting.”

  Adalyn laughed at that. Dear gods. There had never been a time when she got rowdy at the saloon without William there to keep her from getting into too much trouble. She was a little annoyed, though. She didn’t need reminders from everyone that William wasn’t around anymore.

  She waved to Kitty as she backed out of the bank and went to the General Store next. If she ordered early enough, she could give a delivery boy a dollar to run it up to her home. The sun was nearing its highest point, so it was late morning. That should be plenty of time.

  “Hey Forrest!” she called, walking in. She saw him behind the counter, wiping down his countertop. Forrest was a horse shifter that had an eye for business and controlled the flow of supplies to the general population of Redstone. He was a good-hearted older man with an easy smile. “How have things been?”

  “Adalyn Lovett, in the flesh!” Forrest called back, laughing. “How have you been? Did you feel that full moon last night?”

  “I did!” She stopped in front of him, smiling. “I even did a bit of magic.” A very tiny amount of magic, sure, but she had done some.

  “Oh no. Tell me nothing on your property blew up. William isn’t here to fix it for you anymore.”r />
  She bit back a comment to that as annoyance ran through her. Gods, hold me back.

  Welcome to the West. First, she was almost tired of them saying how she didn’t have William there to do something, even if it was true. Second, the expectation he ever cleaned up her messes from magic? When she blew up the barn, she paid for the rebuilding out of her own hard-earned money, and even helped. Now, her barn had a loft where she could roll in the hay safely. William had appreciated that little touch.

  “With the year over, are you going to look for a new husband?” Forrest pulled out his catalog while he spoke.

  She grabbed it and flipped it open. She should put a future order in. I’m damned sure not going to respond to that question. Fucking asshole.

  Third, even for Supes in the West, women were expected to be married, be a caretaker and have a husband to look after. It was really the worst thing about losing William. She either became a social outcast spinster or remarried, and fast. She had no intention of remarrying.

  Spinster that gets laid it is.

  “For today, I’m going to need milk, cheese, and butter for dairy.” She didn’t have time to make all of that herself. Forrest’s wife had several dairy cows, and she made most of it for everyone, for a price. “Two pounds of flour, a lot of salt, sugar…” She tried to think of what else she would need for cooking. She had a vegetable garden, and her neighbors had an even better one. She didn’t need any herbs or spices either. “Coffee. Also, feed. Oats and hay for the horses. Put all of those for my regular order amounts.” She had one more thing to get, just in case. “I need to order some black candles from the Magical Society in New York, before I burn through my current ones.” They were needed for her rituals, and the season was about to shift into fall. The local farmers were going to want her to do some harvest spells.