Hunter

by Jacquelyn Frank

  Dimitre mimicked his sister so perfectly that Tatyana reached out and swatted him on the shoulder. She glared at Hunter and Annali, who were laughing.

  “Well, I did. I just wish I’d done more than bite Braen yesterday. He caught me off guard,” she said with a frown.

  The room instantly sobered at the reference.

  “Did she say Braen?” Annali gasped.

  “You’d better come with us. We’re going to talk to Ryce.”

  “It’s called an Interior Doppelganger spell. It’s extremely complex. The casting takes well over a day to get it right and it requires a lot of energy to pull it off. Between Braen and his familiars, he would have been able to do it.” Ryce paced in front of the fireplace in irritation. “I should have known Asher would never leave us voluntarily. I kept making up excuses about why he would leave without telling anyone where he was going. I guess I figured if he’d been taken by the Belladonna coven, you and Kaia would have seen them bring him in as a captive.”

  “Explain this spell,” Dimitre urged him.

  “The caster basically wears another person like a skin. It doesn’t displace the other person’s spirit, it just paralyzes it. Asher probably saw everything that was happening, but couldn’t do anything to stop it. It was a clever way for Braen to get into the house and to start trouble.”

  “He always was a shortsighted prick,” Hunter said bitterly. “He couldn’t even wait five minutes before he was trying to gratify himself on an innocent woman. If he’d held off, he really could have done some damage.”

  “He could have tried. This family is tighter knit than Braen is capable of imagining,” Ryce countered. “I should have seen so many things and I feel like a complete ass. Asher wouldn’t have redelivered that ultimatum from ten years ago, I don’t care how surprised he was at seeing you.”

  “But he wasn’t surprised,” Annali recalled. “Not even when he acted it toward Gracelynne.”

  “You think that was Braen? The one who attacked Gracelynne?” Tatyana asked, wrapping her arms around herself in a hug as she shivered.

  “I think it was,” Hunter said. “And I think he got off on watching Gracie get upset like that. Probably part of why he went after you so quickly, angel.”

  Dimitre looked up abruptly when he heard the endearment, watching as Hunter slid a hand gently around the back of his sister’s neck. Exactly as Dimitre had done to Annali earlier. Up until that moment, he hadn’t taken notice of any chemistry between the master witch and his novice. Now, he couldn’t help but see it. If it hadn’t so clearly been a gesture of comfort, and an obviously effective one as his sister relaxed her hug on herself, he might have gotten pretty upset about it. He might have seen Hunter as taking advantage of the bond they’d developed. But the blood bond enhancement was purely about sex. He could honestly say that, in the beginning, his motives toward Annali had been more obsessively about sex than anything else. What he was seeing from Hunter was tenderness, plain and simple. He recognized it because he’d done the very same things to ease Annali as they’d worked through her traumatic memories.

  He sighed when Annali reached to take his hand, giving it a squeeze. He supposed she’d seen where his attention was directed and this was her way of reminding him that his sister was an adult with her own life to lead. He had already reminded himself, so he guessed he was a step ahead of her for a change. He had always prided himself on being the one family member who didn’t treat her like a baby, who had tried to cultivate her independence. The way he had been behaving these past couple of months wouldn’t have proven that theory.

  But who could blame a brother for worrying? He’d witnessed, through Ryce’s memories, Hunter committing an act of brutal assassination. True, that act had saved the woman Dimitre loved from a life of hell, but there was something a bit nerve-wracking about placing a beloved sister in hands that wielded life and death with such accuracy and force.

  Then again, who better? Hunter had just saved his sister from being raped and, by the sound of it, killed.

  “He meant to kill her,” Dimitre said aloud. He watched his sister startle and the immediate way Hunter stepped up closer behind her chair. “It’s something you said, Tat. He was planning on healing the wounds you gave him, and ... and even though it physically wasn’t his own body ... well, why bother with a condom?” He shifted uncomfortably; the whole concept left a bad taste in his mouth.

  “No witnesses,” Ryce agreed grimly. “No blood, marks, DNA ... It was what Gracelynne’s attacker was aiming for as well. Same M.O.”

  “Great,” Hunter said sarcastically. “It’s not bad enough I have a warlock for a brother, but he just has to push the envelope and be a serial rapist, too.”

  “He thinks it’s his due,” Annali said quietly. “He has spent years and years taking everything he wants the instant he wants it, and sex is no different. To him, it’s all consensual. Or it should be. We’re all just waiting around for him to prove his prowess to us. To show us his power.”

  “No. He knows full well his behavior is designed to destroy a woman’s psyche. He is counting on it. He’s using it to weaken this coven,” Hunter said darkly. “That’s why he did Gracie for himself and was taken by surprise by you, Annie. To him, you were already weakened by him and Evan. Tarnished goods, so to speak. Remember how shocked he was when you fought him off at the Blessing Tree? It never occurred to him that you had not just recovered, but flourished in this place.”

  “And might I just add a hearty neenerneenerneener on your behalf,” Tatyana said. The tension in the room broke with that, making the coven chuckle as one.

  “How is Asher?” Hunter thought to ask now that he realized the truth of what had happened.

  “Not great. Kaia is exhausting herself trying to save him. Only Nox’s stasis spell is keeping him alive at the moment. But I have faith that between her magic and her medical skill, our Kaia will prevail.”

  “Why throw him out a window? I mean, besides trying to kill him. Or is that all it was? Hunter would have done the honors himself in another minute or two,” Annali noted. “I would think that would have made more impact on the coven. Wasn’t that his goal? To damage our morale?”

  “Except he couldn’t escape the wards around the house if his host died within its boundaries,” Ryce informed them. “He needed Asher’s body to get out of the house just like he needed it to get in. It’s a limitation of the spell Braen was using.”

  “Another is that he couldn’t use Asher’s magic, he had to use his own. That’s why he was spellcasting,” Hunter said.

  “Okay, so here’s a question ... how are we going to kill the bastard?”

  They all looked at Tatyana when she asked the question with her arms crossed and her foot bouncing impatiently.

  “Right. Good question,” Ryce agreed. “Easy to ask, but not so easy to execute. He knows this coven too well. He’s been gathering warlocks for years just to contend with us. There are only two advantages we have that he didn’t plan for.” He first pointed to Dimitre and then to his sister. “He wasn’t prepared for Hunter before, but he is now. He knows nothing about you, Dimitre, or your power. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a Tempus of his own, though, so you can’t be cocky about it. Unfortunately, we have no idea what advantage number two is yet.” Ryce cocked a brow at Tatyana. “Whatever it is, Tatyana’s magic is untried and bound to be erratic at first. And until we do figure out her magic and how to use it, we need to lie low and heal our people. We need Gracie. She’s big guns.

  “Now, that’s exactly what he isn’t going to want, so we need to keep alert. We can’t take any more injuries. Kaia simply isn’t strong enough to cope with so much all at once, and Annali can only do so much picking up the slack. Hunter, Nox, and I can do rudimentary healing, but we need to store magic in other ways if possible. First off, we need to change some of the wards on this house. That’s the first thing he’s going to attack and you can bet he got a good look at them both times he passed t
hrough. It’s only a matter of time before he figures out how to unravel each one.

  “Nox and I will work on those,” Ryce said. “Hunter, you have one job. Find out what your apprentice can do. Dimitre, all I can say is practice. Really stretch yourself. Not drain yourself, stretch yourself. Annali will show you what I mean. Annie, I want you making potions that pack a serious punch. If you need supplies, let me know, I will teleport a basket and list to Raven’s occult supply shop. No one, and I mean no one, is to leave this house without my express permission and one or more witches accompanying them. Even so, it had best be a damn emergency. Someone do me a favor and nail that directive to Kaia’s thick skull for me?”

  “Consider it done,” Hunter chuckled.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Braen was, once again, in a bad mood.

  After carefully orchestrating so many opportunities to get the best of his enemy, one by one they had slipped through his fingers. First, Adaliah’s storm. Adaliah, Odessa’s mother, was a powerful Weather witch. She had socked in almost all of New York with that awesome blizzard once Odessa had pointed out it was a surefire way of keeping the missing witches away until he had a chance to utilize the captive Asher to his best advantage. Braen had hoped to keep them all separated, providing an opportunity to pick them off. The problem was the two that had been missing had gone out from under his radar, slipping right past his spies. Now, the storm was ended and, sure enough, just as his spies had caught sight of the Healer bitch and her unknown witch escort, within minutes their car had been left abandoned on the side of the road and they were nowhere to be seen.

  Second, the fiasco with his Interior Doppelganger spell. He had burned out every familiar he had and a great deal of his own personal magic as well to cast that spell, and he had done it perfectly. But to have it so easily ruined! And when he’d been so close to that little redhead he could practically smell her sweet little pussy just begging for a good ride. Because God knows Hunter wouldn’t know what to do with a hot little bitch like that, whether he’d marked her already or not. His baby brother was far too noble and honorable and all that bullshit to really use a woman to her full capacity.

  Now all the witches were safely home and his Doppelganger spell had ended most unsatisfactorily. The only plus was knowing he’d made certain Asher had landed badly enough to guarantee a broken neck. They would be short one witch next time they clashed. Not a very strong witch, but admittedly he’d been a useful one.

  At least for his purposes.

  Still, he was furious as he tried to figure out how his traitor of a brother had managed to penetrate his muting spell so he could come storming in like some pathetic white knight to save the girl, cheating Braen of his prize.

  “Of all the times for him to come back, he had to pick now,” he complained bitterly to his companion.

  Odessa laughed, her darkly painted lips parting to flash white teeth and a red tongue. Even without her clothes on, her dramatic makeup, black hair, and starkly pale skin made her look Gothic.

  Braen reached up to grab her by her throat, cutting off her laugh and giving her a mean shake. “What’s so funny?” he demanded.

  “Braen, you’re cock-deep inside of me and your mind is an entire state away. You’re lucky I’m not pissed off.” She smacked his hand away and leaned forward so she was nose to nose with him, her small breasts brushing against him. “If you are bored with me, lover, let me know. I’ve got a half dozen familiars with nice healthy pricks at my beck and call.”

  Braen obviously didn’t like the sound of that. He wrenched her over until she was beneath him on the bed. His focus returned to the task at hand and he began to pound himself into her.

  He did his best thinking while he was fucking around with Odessa. Whether it was alone or toying with their familiars together, he always obtained a certain clarity as he relaxed into the pleasure of pumping himself to orgasm. Odessa was a bit of a nymphomaniac, so she got off without much effort on his part. When he did put effort into it, she was like an animal.

  They were perfect for each other, really. She had made a better leader out of him. They lived together, something he had never done with any other woman. She was fast rising in power and was just about ready to be proclaimed Dark Knight of Belladonna Coven; the equivalent of a white coven’s Sentinel. He had dreamed of finding a perfect match for himself, thinking he could finally out-power Ryce Champion because he refused to train and elect a new Sentinel for Willow Coven.

  And then he went and brought Hunter back.

  Braen had been livid to find out Odessa had gotten her little ass kicked by Hunter so easily in that initial battle. She had underestimated him, not believing his claim of being Sentinel. It had given Hunter all the advantage his brother had needed.

  Stupid bitch, he thought angrily, his fury projecting into the crashing connection of their bodies. Odessa ... well, of course she got off on his violence. She came hard, then successively, but he wasn’t ready to finish, so he kept up his abuse, and his thinking.

  He needed a way to get at that cursed coven. Until he got rid of them, they would keep picking off pieces of his coven and he wouldn’t be able to achieve any of the goals he had wanted to achieve. He was fairly certain he could take on Champion with Odessa by his side, but he needed to get rid of his brother and that potion-making whore first. Yeah, she’d been sweet in her time, his mentor Evan letting him play with her, but now she was powerful and clever. Tricky as hell. Total waste of a perfectly good familiar. Maybe she wouldn’t have been as much fun after her mid-twenties, after the horror of her situation had burned her mind and soul out, but the body would have lasted.

  Instead, she had led Ryce and Hunter to Evan and had gotten the greatest warlock of all time slaughtered over her. Annali. Hunter gave a damn about her. So did Champion. If he struck at Annali, then maybe ... But how? He had already tried to lure her out using the Blessing Tree. His brother had thwarted that ploy.

  What he would really like was to get his hands on all of the women of Willow Coven.

  “I’ve been inside two of them already,” he muttered, closing his eyes and replaying those pleasures in his mind. Annali as a young girl of sixteen, screaming and weeping, and then that amazon packed into a little body who’d given him a hot fight before he’d finally nailed her. He’d been so worked up after that clash it had been all he could do to get the clothes off her before he’d been ready to come inside her. He’d almost forgotten to wear a condom. Except there was no way he was letting any of those white magic bitches get pregnant with his child. So they could make an abomination of righteousness out of it? No thanks.

  Now he’d missed his chance with Hunter’s little redheaded lover. She hadn’t used magic on him, so he doubted she was a witch. It had been difficult to sense her, muffled as he was with another man’s skin and soul all around him. Still, he’d fucked her up sufficiently to mess with Hunter’s head. He had to accept that as enough of a victory.

  That left the Healer.

  Oh, yes, the little Indian squaw. All round in the right places, big breasts, fuckable ass. She was the one who defied Champion most often, always leaving the grounds to go to the hospital or clinic. It was only a matter of time before she would leave again to tend to her patients on the outside.

  “Oh, yes,” he groaned as he contemplated the possibility of catching her. “Except, this time, she dies. No getting away at the last minute like the other two. Yeah. With no Healer, it will be only a matter of time. They can’t stay in that house forever.”

  “Kaia,” Odessa moaned between cries of pleasure.

  “Yes. Kaia.”

  “You want to fuck her? Before we kill her?”

  “Yes,” he gasped, feeling his orgasm approaching faster with every word. “You can hold her down for me, Dess, right?”

  “I’ll bind her with a spell. I’ll make her beg for you. Would you like to hear her scream, or beg for you? You can tell Champion she begged for it like a two-dollar whore. Tell
him she sucked your cock dry and let you fuck her besides.”

  “Oh God!” Braen jammed himself into Odessa and came furiously inside of her, spewing and spewing until he cried out again from the pleasurable pain of the dry contractions of his drained cock.

  He collapsed over her, not even noticing her own screams of release or that she could barely breathe from it. He sighed and grinned. He’d known he’d get his mind cleared if he just got Odessa into bed. Now, he had a plan.

  “You’re going back to New York,” he chuckled. “I need a doctor.”

  “Just ... tell me what happened. Whether it was really Asher or not, it doesn’t change the fact that something happened. Something that drove you away from people you call family for an entire decade.”

  Hunter paced restlessly from the conversation area before the fire in his sitting room, to the doorway leading into his bedroom. It was obvious the topic made him uncomfortable. His agitation was rubbing Tatyana’s nerves a little raw.

  “We’re supposed to be figuring out what kind of magic you can do,” he hedged awkwardly.

  “Oh, we will. After you tell me. Until then, you are S.O.L., my friend.”

  “You know, it’s your maturity that really fascinates me,” he mocked.

  “And you won’t get me off the topic by insulting me about my age. Although I will want to know how you picked up on how to push that button so quickly,” she said with consternation.

  Hunter had to grin at that. Actually, she had given it away in her phone conversation with her brother that first morning they’d spent together.

  “Look, it ... I just prefer to leave the past in the past,” he said with a sigh.