Hunter

by Jacquelyn Frank

  “It’s not for you,” she assured him. “Sit and ... umm ... calm down,” she suggested while giving him a naughty lift of her eyebrows that somehow managed to make him laugh in spite of a turbulent storm of emotions and needs.

  Tatyana checked to see if her clothes were straight as she walked to the door, the covert sweep of her hands making him chuckle again. She shot him a look just before opening the door to Ryce.

  “Tatyana.” There was no mistaking the surprise in Ryce’s voice. Clearly he hadn’t expected to find her in Hunter’s suite. “I’m sorry to wake you but ... there’s someone on the phone for you. I was going to ask Hunter where he had ... umm ... put you to bed. The house is rather big, you see.”

  Tatyana stepped aside and welcomed him into the sitting room with a sweep of a hand. Ryce got his second surprise of the morning when he saw Hunter looking at him with amusement. He gave his High Priest a cheeky little wave. Ryce just closed his eyes briefly and drew a breath. Then he handed the remote phone to Tatyana.

  “Yes, Dimitre?” she greeted without asking who it was.

  Ryce crossed over to Hunter and opened his mouth to say something, but Hunter cut him off with a gesture to be silent. He was focusing on Tatyana’s conversation.

  “Tat, honey, are you okay?”

  Tatyana wanted to be swayed by the massive wave of concern coming at her over the phone, but her temper got in the way.

  “Don’t you dare ‘honey’ me, Dimitre Vladimir Pyotr Petrova!”

  Ryce and Hunter both winced when they heard the slap-down in her tone.

  “Wow. All four names,” Hunter mused.

  “Quite,” Ryce agreed grimly.

  “Tatyana,” Dimitre said quickly, “I’m on my way home. I’ll be there tonight. When I get there I will explain everything—”

  “Oh, well, don’t hurry home on my account,” she bit out. “There’s nothing really left for you to explain. See, this houseful of total strangers already did the job on behalf of my forthcoming and trustworthy brother.”

  “They wouldn’t have had to if my obedient and trustworthy sister hadn’t broken her word and gone running up there without so much as a phone call!” Dimitre snapped back, his temper spiking as well.

  “I wouldn’t have if you’d called me and told me you were going to be out of town! You always tell me everything, Dimi. Or at least you did. Now I come up here to find that within the span of two months, the twenty-four years we have spent as inseparable siblings were just thrown aside! I can accept you falling in love and moving away and all that stuff, Dimitre, but I cannot accept that you would go through such a massive life change and never even consider telling me. And I’m not even talking about your not telling me I am a damn witch! I’m not even talking about the danger you put me in! Knowingly put me in! I am so mad at you I can hardly speak!”

  Tatyana broke off on a sob, which she muffled behind her hand, pulling the mouthpiece of the phone away a little.

  “Aw, honey, don’t cry. Please,” Dimitre said, his anger evaporating. He knew she was right and her anger and hurt were very justified. He’d screwed up. Annali had warned him, but he had let pride and big brother role-playing get in his way. “Just remember this, I have never set out to intentionally hurt you. Everything I did, whether it was right or wrong, I did to protect you. You know I love you.”

  “I know that, but you have to stop treating me like a baby, Dimi. I’m going to be fine and I’m going to make decisions for myself about this like any adult would. Like you did. Don’t think you’re going to come here now and take charge of me. Hunter is my master witch, and I’m his apprentice. He’s going to teach me about witchy stuff. You’re going to explain yourself and then go off and be with that sweet Annali. By the way, I could eat her up with a spoon, she’s just so adorable. I approve so very much. I think she has way too much class for you, but ... the heart wants what the heart wants,” she said with a breezy attitude and wave of her hand.

  Hunter was completely bemused. She’d gone from fury, to hurt, to exerting independence, and now she was actually busting her brother’s chops. All in the span of a minute.

  “Look,” she said with a sigh, “we’ll talk when you get here. Just drive safely please?”

  “I will. Hey Tat?”

  “Yeah?”

  “What’s he like? Hunter, I mean.”

  Well, there’s a trick question, Tatyana thought.

  “I can’t get into details about it right now.”

  “Meaning he’s sitting right on top of you,” Dimitre guessed.

  Well, not anymore, she thought with a stifled laugh.

  “See you later, Dimi.” Tatyana hung up the phone and exhaled in a rush as she looked at Hunter and Ryce. She smiled wanly and said, “Well, I think that went well. What do you say we try world peace next?”

  “How about we stick to getting some breakfast?” Ryce countered. “We’ll sit and talk some. You have to have a thousand questions.”

  “Aww ... are you really going to limit me to a thousand?”

  She gave the men a wink and a flirtatious wrinkling of her nose before tossing Ryce the phone and heading out of Hunter’s suite.

  “Braen,” cooed a soft, feminine voice from the stairwell.

  Braen looked up from his task of spreading ointment over the nasty bites and stings he had suffered during last night’s battle. He could have had a familiar tending him, or even Odessa, who was just now coming down the stairs, but he had been in a very bad mood when he had begun the task and he hadn’t wanted to be abusive to his lover. And familiars just annoyed the hell out of him sometimes.

  “What do you want, Dess?”

  He watched her legs come into view as she descended the stairs, black fishnet stockings leading up curvy legs to a black miniskirt and bustier made of soft leather. The cuteness of her black Betty Boop curls was belied by her dark, gothic makeup, not to mention the multiple black-inked tattoos on her pale shoulders. She had a black widow spider, with the bright crimson hourglass on its belly, tattooed on the rise of her left breast, too. Her breasts were small, but the bustier did a fantastic job enhancing them.

  Odessa knew her lover was in a foul mood. He had achieved none of the victories he had set out to accomplish this week and it infuriated him. Still, sometimes an evil mood could be a good thing ... for her, at least. Braen tended to get very extreme in bed when he was pissed off, and she rather liked extreme.

  She tsked her tongue when she saw what he was trying to do. She felt bad for his discomfort. After all, despite their tremendous power, their bodies were terribly human. They healed and hurt just like normal humans did unless magic was used.

  “Lover, why don’t you get a Healer to help you with these?” she asked as she moved quickly to take the salve from him. She reached first for his back, an area they both knew he couldn’t reach by himself. “We have at least four of them, don’t we? Why should you suffer?”

  “I want to suffer,” he bit out. “I want to remember every minute of this indignity. And I’m going to remember exactly who did it, too. Of all the witches in this world!” Braen slammed his hand down on the table before him. “That upstart Barbie doll of a familiar!”

  “Annali,” Odessa said grimly. “You ought to let me go take care of that one.”

  “How? With the exception of the three witches they are missing, Ryce won’t let any of them out of that house now. She barely leaves as it is. And it was bad enough that blond bitch ties me up like a Christmas goose, but then Hunter shows up! Of all the fucking people!”

  Braen grabbed a glass from the desk and pitched it against a wall in fury. Odessa let the burst of temper ride over him, waiting until he settled down, muttering epithets under his breath in a variety of languages as he resumed his seat.

  “Well, at least we know now what we will be up against,” she said with soothing logic. Odessa got a kick out of playing the voice of reason, just as much as she got a kick out of using taunts and goading. She could work
Braen up either way if she wanted. Right now, Odessa wanted him calmed down so he could think clearly. She wanted her High Cleric to destroy Willow Coven just as much as he did.

  “The problem is opportunity,” Braen said. “We were supposed to bring down Witchcraft Barbie last night, making Ryce more vulnerable. Not only did we fail at that, but now Hunter is there to protect him. You and I could have taken on Ryce and slaughtered the cocksure bastard, but we can’t take on him and his Sentinel.”

  “No one is infallible. Think of the little Elemental,” she whispered seductively in his ear. “What a powerful fighter they said she was. No one could ever defeat her one-to-one, they said. But you destroyed her. In another few minutes, she would have been dead.” She laughed low in her throat. “Ryce thinks he rescued her, but a woman like that, with that much power, can’t recover so quickly from such a sound defeat. Soon your memory-obscuring spell will start to wear away, and slowly she will remember ... everything.”

  Odessa followed up the observation by running a hand down over his muscle-hardened belly until she was rubbing her palm along the fly of his jeans. She knew full well how Braen loved to relive his conquests in his mind over and over. She also knew that they could often spur him on to his next action.

  Despite his discomfort from his wounds, he grew very hard under her taut caress. Braen had really enjoyed himself that day, tearing up Ryce’s property as he beat his little Elemental witch to hell and back. Odessa was right. He was glad he had missed the opportunity to kill her. Not because she had given him the fight of his year, but because it was so much more enjoyable to think of what her returning memory would start to do to her. She would be useless to Ryce for a very long time. She would also be a burden and a drain on his valuable resources.

  “Gracelynne,” he groaned with obvious pleasure, stimulated by memories, thoughts, and Odessa’s touch.

  “And your little Barbie doll, too, remember?” Odessa’s nimble fingers unzipped his fly so she could contact him better. “You had her long before she ever even knew what a potion bottle was for. You could see it in the way she shook and trembled with fury. She remembers. She knows what your cock felt like deep inside her.”

  “She will never forget,” he agreed.

  “And that isn’t the end. You have other surprises in store for them. Things they could never expect. You already know how to use their white, happy little ways against them. All it will take is a little time and your magnificent power.” Odessa moved in front of him, pushing back the table to make room for herself. “And I had an idea you might like.”

  Odessa dropped down to her knees and Braen grinned.

  “I love it already,” he said.

  She laughed. “Oh, well, this, too. But, I think you’ll like my other one even better. All we’ll need is some help from my mother.”

  “Adaliah? How is a Weather witch going to do me any good?”

  “I’ll tell you in a minute,” she promised, lowering her dark lips to her task.

  Chapter Eleven

  Hunter looked out at the snow with his usual appreciation for the beauty of such things, but he was also very aware that Tatyana’s brother and Kaia were driving home in the middle of this blizzard. She and Ryce were both worried about the missing witches. The storm’s precipitous appearance was reflective of the abrupt changes going on inside of Willow House. Because their coven was so closely in tune with the forces of nature, there was a good chance that the turbulence within the house had changed the ice and rain into this unexpected snowstorm. When emotions ran high in a witch, it provided a source of power. When that power wasn’t used, the excess energy bled out into nature and manifested itself in things like rainstorms, a twilight bark among dogs or wolves, or a simple unexpected fog. When an entire coven ran high with adrenaline and unresolved tensions, storms and other wilder manifestations were very possible.

  They could countermand the storm, of course, if they had a Weather witch, but they didn’t. Anyway, it was sometimes best just to let the energy play itself out.

  “Hunter, come away from the windows and sit by me,” Annali encouraged from behind him, her cajoling tone too loving and sympathetic for him to ignore.

  He drew up one of the stools near her workbench. Hunter didn’t bother examining the components she was working on; the extent of her knowledge in potions was completely beyond him. His mind boggled at the amount of botanical and chemical information she could hold in her head at once. At present she was cooking a small beaker over a Bunsen flame, watching with fascination and taking continuous notes.

  “You’re worried. There’s no reason to be,” she chided without looking up.

  “You’re kidding, right?” She was referring to the fact that he was worried Kaia wasn’t available yet to check over Tatyana. “That black-hearted bastard poisoned that lightning strike, Annie. The lightning alone was enough to scramble her brain. The poison could be a time bomb waiting to detonate.”

  “I sensed nothing last night. Only the stain of darkness itself, which I did a fair job of removing if I do say so myself. Tatyana woke this morning coherent and looking the picture of health.” Annali looked as self-satisfied as a cat presenting a dead mouse to its owner. “You doubt my capabilities?”

  “Hardly, sweetheart. But it’s a fact that Kaia is the Healer among us and she’ll know best. I have to tell you, though: you’ve come a long way since I’ve been gone and I’m very proud of you.”

  Annali turned back to her mixture, but he saw the pleased color rushing over her cheeks at the compliment. “As have you. You’re very confident. You weren’t so content with yourself when you left.”

  “Let’s not talk of the past,” he dismissed easily and without emotion.

  “Braen didn’t disturb you?” she asked, arching a brow as she focused steady, seeking eyes on him.

  “No more or less than usual,” he responded vaguely. “My focus was on Tatyana. And on you.”

  “Tatyana,” she mused, engaging in avoidance of her own when he tried to direct the discussion to her precipitous behavior in the battle. “I’m amazed you so easily made her your familiar, Hunter. You never wanted to take on apprentices. You used to say the idea horrified you.”

  “Not horrified,” he corrected. “It was off-putting, maybe. The idea of giving a part of myself away ... well, I don’t suppose you need an explanation,” he finished pointedly.

  “No, I don’t,” she admitted quietly.

  “But you’re right,” he said. “I’ve never taken on an apprentice before. I didn’t see how I had any other choice last night, though. I couldn’t in good conscience leave her exposed. That,” he stressed, “would’ve been horrifying.”

  “And how do you feel now?” she asked.

  Hunter hesitated. Annali was uniquely qualified to discuss the situation with him. It was incredibly disconcerting; to be so drawn to another that common sense and reason became completely submerged in the heat of a moment. Anna would understand that.

  Without meaning to, Hunter took too long to respond to Annali.

  “I see. You don’t feel you can discuss this with me,” she said, hurt obvious in her tone and shimmering in her wounded eyes.

  “Annie ...” He couldn’t lie to her when that was exactly what he was thinking, but he suspected she thought it was for a different reason. “Never think I don’t trust you, Annali. You are now, and always will be, a sister of my heart as well as my coven. My faith in you is absolute.” He reached out to pick up one of the small hands she’d fisted tightly. Gently, he massaged away the tension within it. “I’m just a little overwhelmed by everything that’s happening. By the way it’s making me feel. Part of my brain keeps telling me that I’m allowing my inexperience with the blood bond to control my behavior, and because of that I’m taking advantage of an innocent young woman.”

  “You feel what you feel and you are human as well as witch, Hunter.”

  “Yes, well, there’s the other part of my brain that...” He loo
ked up away from her and laughed wryly. “This is the part I have trouble discussing with you. It’s very disturbing. And it’s taking me a little while to remember you aren’t seventeen anymore. You will forgive me for that, won’t you?”

  When Hunter had left the coven, Annali had still been unsure of herself and trying too hard to make up for beginnings that hadn’t been her responsibility. She’d also had a case of hero-worship, dogging his steps and hanging on his every word. However, just before his departure, she’d shown him another side of herself, one he would never forget. She had shown him a serious glimpse of the woman she would become as she stepped out of the shadows that her capture and torture had cast over her. She had shown him the woman of ten years later.

  “But you’re right,” he said fondly, “it’s wrong of me to forget you’re no longer that frightened, angry girl.” He squeezed her fingers once, then brought them to his lips. “You’ve become a beautiful, compelling woman of impressive intelligence and strength of character. I can see that as clear as day, even if I’m occasionally blinded by memories of your younger self.”

  “It’s understandable,” she agreed, standing up and moving close to him, reaching to add her free hand to their mixture of palms and fingers. She bent her forehead to his shoulder. “You knew me best back then.”

  “You wouldn’t allow anyone else near you,” he reminded her.

  “I know.” She was quiet for a long time, and then she spoke softly, “Sometimes it seems like it happened to someone else. Other times, it’s all around me. We’ve both come to terms with our past, Hunter, but I will always be the girl you rescued, and you will always be my hero, whether you want to be or not,” she said, tears filling her voice. Hunter let go of her hands so he could wrap her up tightly in a hug of love and protection.