The Hunter

by T R Kohler

  Still, he didn’t deserve what had happened, even if it was technically Micah’s doing.

  “I do too,” Jonas replied. “But right now, I need to know who he works for.”

  The statement seemed to catch something within Tam, the man jerking his head toward Jonas. Clenching his teeth, he held the pose for a moment, appearing as if he might come charging across the room, wielding the plastic bowl like a hammer, before some of the fire receded from his features.

  “I don’t know the man’s real name,” Tam said. “Him I only met once. Big, slovenly guy, insisted on being called Bob.”

  Filing the name away, Jonas conceded instantly it was likely fake.

  “Bob,” he repeated. “And where is Bob?”

  Glaring at Jonas a moment, Tam turned his attention back to the door. “I tell you, they’ll kill me.”

  “You don’t, they’ll kill everybody,” Jonas replied.

  He still didn’t know exactly how much Tam knew, though he was willing to take a chance and err on the side of hyperbole. Keeping his gaze aimed on Tam, he waited, silently willing the man to give him something he could use.

  Time was dwindling. He could feel it ticking in his head, raising his anxiety level.

  Still, he couldn’t dare show that to Tam. He couldn’t appear antsy, or even worse, desperate.

  “Where can I find Bob?” Jonas asked.

  Remaining silent, Tam rocked his head back against the wall. His lips moved just barely as he worked through things, weighing what he knew, what it might mean.

  “I don’t know where he is,” Tam muttered. “Guy has a half-dozen places all up the coast. Nobody sees him unless he wants them to.”

  His lips parting slightly, Jonas fought to keep any visible response from his face. He was a tiny bit closer than he had been before, at least now having the name Bob, though that didn’t amount to a whole lot.

  “But I might know where he’s keeping the object.”

  The single line had been a revelatory lightning bolt, Jonas hitting the door at a sprint a moment later. Pausing just long enough to grab Micah along the way, the two had been off and running.

  Now twenty minutes later, they found themselves back along the coast, this time in a town called Oceanside. Behind the wheel of a midsize SUV, Jonas squeezed it tightly in both hands, willing it forward.

  Beside him, Micah sat staring at the GPS display on the phone in his hand, guiding them the last few blocks.

  “Are you sure about this?” Jonas asked, staring up at industrial office buildings rising to either side.

  “That’s what it says,” Micah replied. “Public Storage, down here at the end.”

  Lifting his gaze, Jonas focused on each driveway as it went by. Passing his gaze over the signage out front, he went by an insurance company and a CPA firm before finding what he was looking for.

  Easing a bit closer, he pulled up almost flush with the gate standing across the opening, the vertical metal bars blocking them from within.

  “How do you want to handle it?” Micah asked.

  Taking in everything he knew, could see, Jonas considered his options. If Bob or Kaia and Ember hadn’t been by yet, ramming the gate open would give away their position. Same for ordering Micah out to pull it wide and let them pass.

  There was also no way of knowing if they had come and gone, or if they were inside as they spoke.

  “Hop the fence,” Jonas said, knowing it would be nothing for Micah to bound over. “Take a look around, see what you can find. See anything, send me a flare. If not, we’ll find somewhere to post up and wait a while.”

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  The bag on Kaia’s shoulder began to smolder the instant the trio stepped outside, exiting from the storage facility onto the pavement. Tendrils of smoke began to rise, emanating from the shiny black leather.

  Smelling it before she saw it, Ember made a face, turning to accuse Bob of breaking wind. Halfway there, she saw the true source of it, singed cowhide giving off a rancid odor.

  “What the-”

  “We’ve got company,” Kaia said, her voice detached. Reaching up, she snatched the sunglasses from her head and cast them aside, hurling the cheap plastic across the concrete.

  She swept her gaze over the grounds around them, eyes pinched tight as she checked the rooftops, entire body rotating in a quick arc.

  “What?” Bob asked, barely able to get the word out. “What’s going on?”

  Neither woman answered as Ember matched Kaia’s stance, turning in a tight circle. “You see them?”

  She didn’t need to ask who, the answer to that having shown themselves the day before. How they knew about the place or had gotten there so quickly both rose to the front of Ember’s mind, dismissed in moments as she continued looking.

  Around her, the thoughts she’d had on the drive in grew even more pronounced. If she didn’t know better, if she hadn’t been with him every moment since first arriving hours before, she’d swear Bob had set them up.

  The place looked like it had been designed in a government lab specializing in creating ambushes. Long, narrow corridors funneled them inward on either side. Dozens of doorways and entries provided ample places for surveillance and hiding reinforcements.

  Only a single entry and exit with a sturdy metal gate.

  “Not yet,” Kaia said, “but they’re close.”

  Sliding the bag from her shoulder, she held the singed straps in her left hand. Her right she plunged inside, taking just a moment to find what she wanted before ripping it free.

  The charred remains of the bag she let fall by her feet, the scent intensifying around them.

  “Is that-?” Ember asked, her eyes bulging as she tried to compute what Kaia had.

  “A damn bullwhip?” Bob muttered.

  In its most basic terms, the object could be described as such. It had a handle as an endpoint, Kaia gripping it tight in her hand. From there extended a long and looping piece of material Ember had never seen before.

  The few whips she had encountered in her life were made of rawhide.

  And they damned sure didn’t glow blue-hot with flames.

  “It’s a hell of a lot more than that,” Kaia muttered. Setting her jaw, she took a step forward. Lifting her chin, she bellowed, “Come on, you bastards!”

  The words echoed along the length of the storage facility, pounding off the metal doors, before falling away.

  In their wake was nothing but silence.

  “Jonas! Micah! We know you’re here!” Kaia repeated, a clear challenge in her tone. “How about facing us straight up this time?”

  Putting her chin to her shoulder, Kaia said, “Bob, you might want to disappear right now.”

  Shifting her angle just a bit, she settled her focus on Ember. “And you might want to get ready.”

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  Ember said something in response to the command to get ready, but Kaia didn’t hear it. Her focus was on the world around them, every sense tightened, her gaze swinging from side to side.

  The place was a tactical nightmare. She’d seen it the instant they drove in, had been waiting for it the entire time they were inside. Under normal circumstances, she would never have considered walking into such a situation.

  But Typhon had been clear. Getting the Seeing Eye ranked above all else.

  A swirl of emotions rose within Kaia. Frustration at the situation, exhilaration over the impending battle, angst over everything this case had somehow turned into.

  Not to mention a whole lot of anger.

  Allowing that emotion to bubble up, to consume her to a point just shy of losing focus, she took another step forward. Of the people behind her, one was a mortal, a fat slob that would be nothing but a liability against even the weakest of opponents.

  Which Jonas, and Micah, and anybody else they might have brought, would certainly not be.

  The other was a rookie, a woman working her first case. Though she had shown promise, how mu
ch she could really be relied on - or even trusted - remained to be seen.

  And this wasn’t exactly the time to be testing that.

  Which meant Kaia was effectively alone, matched up against two or more of the most dangerous opponents she’d ever encountered.

  “Jonas!” she screamed again, some of the girlish voice she’d assumed as part of her identity stripping away, revealing her true tone. Extending the word to almost ten seconds in length, she felt her hand tighten around the base of the whip. Muscles bulged the length of her arms, veins popping, sweat coating her skin.

  The whip only ignited when in the presence of angels. A weapon designed for combat, never once had it given her a false positive.

  Battle was imminent.

  And Kaia hated waiting.

  The first to appear was Jonas. Striding out from behind the corner of the building before her, he moved as casually as a man walking the beach. His hands empty, he looped out wide around the building, making no effort to hide.

  “I see your little toy there tipped you off.”

  Knowing the statement was meant to get her to look away, to glance down at the weapon, Kaia instead did the opposite. Taking a step back, she jerked her head in the opposite direction, just barely in time to see the hulking shape of Micah duck down beneath the ledge at the top of the building.

  “Your tricks are getting old, Jonas. Time to update your material.” Raising her voice, she called, “I see you up there, Micah!”

  A few steps back, she could sense Ember nudge closer. How much she could hope to gain by having an unarmed partner by her side she didn’t know, though she couldn’t deny it would be a help.

  For misdirection, if nothing else.

  Continuing his slow walk forward, Jonas said, “We’ve got a few surprises for you this time I think you’ll like.”

  Kaia watched as he took another couple of steps, his pace increasing, before lowering his head. Leaning forward into a run, he took off straight for her, arms pumping as he headed her way.

  In kind, the previous feelings, emotions, evoked responses, her body had been feeling spiked ever higher.

  It was time.

  Twisting her wrist out in front of her, Kaia watched as the whip whirled in a sharp arc, the flaming tip slicing through the air. Giving one revolution to build momentum, she aimed it at Jonas hurtling forward, throwing the searing edge toward his center mass.

  Keeping a sharp heading, Jonas didn’t attempt to evade. Instead of sidestepping, pushing his weight away from it, he instead leaned forward harder, thrusting his body forward like a missile.

  Rotating once as he hung suspended in the air, his shoulders just barely missed the fiery touch of the whip, a single puff of smoke rising from his skin as he passed by.

  Like a matador in the center of the ring, Kaia stepped out wide to the side, letting his momentum carry him past. Turning hard on the ball of her foot, she jerked the whip back in the opposite direction, the clear snap of it echoing off the metal doors to either side.

  Inside the enclosed space, it was as loud as a cannon blast, only adding to the cocktail of emotions she felt.

  It had been years since she’d been in open combat with the other side. Ever since the incident, that damned single event that marred her resume, had gotten her put on babysitting duty for so long.

  This was her time to make amends. To reinstate her at the top of the heap.

  She wasn’t just good. She was the best.

  And it was time everybody knew it.

  Pulling back at the waist, Jonas just evaded the flaming lick of the whip. Standing off-balance, he spun out in the opposite direction, using a hand to steady himself as he pulled away.

  Seeing her opening, Kaia let the whip trail behind her. Instead of swinging back for another strike, she smashed her thumb down on the end of it, an obsidian blade springing from the opposite end of the handle. Clicking into place, the late-day sun shone on it as she sprang forward, slicing it through the air.

  Dropping to a shoulder, Jonas rolled through. Anticipating his next move, Kaia pivoted, sending the whip shooting out.

  And just as she’d planned, the tip arrived at the exact endpoint of his roll, snaking around his calf and ankle.

  On contact, smoke rose from his skin. The smell of burnt flesh filled the air as a guttural cry passed from his lips, his body seizing tight against the pain.

  Jerking back, Kaia could feel the whip pull taut, his mass holding firm for an instant before the agony of his bindings became too much. Lifting him from the ground, his body somersaulted through the air, almost weightless. As he rocketed forward, the whip unfurled from around his leg, freeing him as he hung suspended above the ground.

  Letting the momentum swing her around, Kaia watched as he sailed forward, his flight ending unceremoniously with a thunderous collision into the closest roll-top door. Creasing the textured metal, Jonas fell in a heap to the concrete, the lower half of his leg black and charred, smoke rising from it.

  A tiny spark passed through Kaia as she took a step forward. Thirty-some years ago, Jonas had bested her. He had been the reason for her demise, for her years of doing work beneath her.

  Drawing back the whip, she aimed for the crumpled ball of mass across from her, his limbs splayed in various directions.

  So intent on her prey, stalking ever closer, she had barely registered the fight between Ember and Micah going on beside her.

  Didn’t notice that he had again managed to get the best of her unarmed, untrained cohort.

  Didn’t even notice the surprise Jonas had mentioned having for her until she felt it cut through her skin, a fiery poker tearing into her flesh, piercing her from behind.

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  Ember’s second encounter with the man known as Micah had gone only nominally better than the first. The back-and-forth had been a bit longer, Ember landing a pair of solid punches, one even drawing a trickle of blood from the corner of his lip, before the man’s length and strength eventually won out.

  To say nothing of the blade he was carrying.

  Where it had come from, how he had produced it seemingly out of nowhere, Ember didn’t pretend to know. Longer than a knife but shorter than a sword, the damned thing practically glowed as he pulled it out. Moving so quickly it was little more than a blur, it wasn’t until Ember felt it crease her left arm, saw the cascade of blood droplets splash onto the concrete, that she even knew what it was for sure.

  A sound somewhere between a moan and a shriek passed over Ember’s lips as she crumpled to her knees. Drawing in sharp pulls of air through her teeth, she slapped her right hand across her opposite bicep, blood bubbling up through her fingers.

  Leaning forward at the waist, she pressed her stomach against the front of her thighs. Hot tears formed on the underside of her eyes, vision blurring as she tried to keep the world in focus.

  She couldn’t die. She knew that. Kaia had told her as much. But the body she was in was far from invulnerable, the pain she felt real, the wound deep and bleeding.

  But she could not die.

  Repeating that simple phrase over and again to herself, Ember continued sucking in deep breaths. She willed her body to move past the firing neurons, to see beyond the pain.

  Blinking twice, three times, she cleared the moisture from her vision. Rocking her weight back so it balanced on her heels, she saw Micah’s feet come back into view, the man standing just beyond her reach, his weapon no doubt poised, ready to strike again.

  Bracing herself, keeping her right hand locked over the gash on her arm, she raised her gaze to look at him. A moment passed as the two stared, a look bordering on appreciation crossing the man’s face as he raised the knife above him.

  And Ember readied herself for a strike that never came.

  The sound of the man known as Jonas crashing into a metal door jerked both their attention to the side. Switching their focus, they watched as the gate folded beneath his weight, his body remaining suspended ab
ove the concrete before slowly sliding to the ground.

  Unable to stop his fall, he dropped into a heap, lying motionless after impact.

  Of the two, Micah was the first to react. Abandoning all plans for Ember, he pushed off his back foot, rocketing himself across the open pavement toward Kaia. Running in enormous strides, the blade flashed with each pump of his arms.

  Seeing it, watching the blinding blur of it, Ember knew there was nothing she could do alone to help Kaia. Not in a battle between supernatural elements, the depths of which she was only beginning to understand.

  But that didn’t mean she was helpless.

  Digging her toes into the pavement, Ember rocked her legs up beneath her. The world shifted slightly as she staggered to the side, her mind swimming as her body processed the loss of blood, her singular focus the only thing keeping her upright as she staggered forward.

  Turning her back on the fight behind her, she covered the ground in a ragged jog, her breathing rapid and shallow. Sweat burned at her eyes as she forced herself to keep putting one foot in front of the other, the gap between her and her destination growing ever smaller.

  By the time she arrived, she was unable to stop her forward momentum, her body slamming into the side of Kaia’s Viper. Her left arm erupted in agony on contact, the hot metal burning her skin as she fumbled for the driver’s-side door. Just barely getting her fingers around it, she jerked it open and fell in behind the wheel.

  And found, just as she’d suspected, that Kaia had been anticipating such a thing, the keys still in the ignition.

  Firing the engine to life, the machine responded with an angry grunt as she pressed on the gas. Tires bit into the pavement, a squeal echoing through the air as she pulled the wheel to the side, turning the car back toward the fight.

  Just in time to see the tip of Micah’s blade strike home.

  For a moment, all feeling fell away. The pain in Ember’s arm. The heat in the car. The sounds of the battle waging outside.