Hunter

by Jacquelyn Frank

“You do take care of me. The instant you see I need it. Don’t be so hard on yourself.” She turned her head and looked up at him, reaching to rub away his frown. “Now that you know, you can teach me everything to help me. Like, if I have to keep this prison around my mind, how do I learn to use any of this power? What if I get tired? What about when I am asleep? Can I fry my brain in my sleep?” she asked, nibbling her lip worriedly.

  “Unfortunately, anything is possible. Fortunately, I have spells that can help us with that until you learn better control. I can seal the room at night. You won’t be able to hear anyone’s thoughts or feelings except maybe mine.”

  “But then, how will you know if the coven needs you?”

  “Ryce will break through the spell. Or Nox. Or hey, cell phones work.”

  “Cell phones?” Tatyana giggled.

  “A good old-fashioned knock on the door?”

  “Oh yeah, I’m sure. ‘Excuse me, could you stop throwing fireballs at me so I can politely awaken my Sentinel?’ That’ll happen.”

  “Smart ass.” He smiled when she laughed. “It’s only a temporary measure to help you, and it’s my job to see to it. Everyone here knows that. They understand there’s going to be hard situations while you and your brother are training. The idea is to make the investment and take the risks for the benefit of developing a powerful witch in the long run.”

  “Am I still bleeding?”

  “No.”

  “Good, because I feel like Carrie after the prom sitting in this water.”

  Hunter chuckled at her flair for imagery. “How about a nice shower in our little cinderblock cell? See, each thing you do has to be brought into that enclosed space. It helps keep you aware of protecting yourself.”

  “Got it. One co-ed prison shower. Mmm, sounds sexy.” She reached to open the drain in the tub and stood up. Her pale body gleamed wetly as she stepped out and crossed to the glass shower and its multiple sprays, which she had working perfectly within minutes. She stepped under the water just as Hunter joined her.

  Showering with her was somehow suddenly a far more erotic idea to him than bathing with her had been. Maybe it was because he had been seeking to soothe her in the bath. Now he was just ... watching her bathe. She let the water rinse over her, running it through her hair and rushing it over her body with the use of her hands. After a few minutes of watching her hands flow over her own skin, Hunter was humming with attentive desire for her. She grabbed up shampoo for her hair and tossed it to him. He caught the bottle and she turned her back to him with a grin thrown over her shoulder.

  “You’ve been fantasizing about washing my hair since you first thought of us coming in here.”

  “I love your hair,” he said after clearing a catch in his throat. “The color, the length, and the way it feels in my hands and on my skin...” Hunter sank his hands into her deep, dark hair and worked up the shampoo lather as well as his own delight. She stepped back closer to him.

  “My headache is going away. It seems so much quieter now that I realize it’s just you and me I’m listening to.”

  “I’m glad.” He turned her and tilted back her head to rinse the soap away. “Once we’re done here, I have to take care of Kaia’s request. Nox and Ryce are still holed up anyway and I can’t really interrupt them twice. It wastes magic. After that is resolved, I’d like to take you to bed for a while. If that’s okay with you.”

  “Oh, I’d really like that, actually,” she said agreeably, stepping up to rub her body against his, her fingertips trailing down his back. “But, do we have time before Ryce is finished?”

  “Yes,” he said roughly, watching her sly smile as she reached for some soap.

  “Good. Because I still need to wash, and so do you.”

  She laid soapy hands against his chest and began to slide slickly over him.

  Chapter Nineteen

  “I’m not arguing about this anymore.”

  “Good, because I didn’t want to argue about it in the first place,” Dimitre snapped. “All I want is for this to be okay between us. I want to know what I have to do to get you to forgive me.”

  “I’m not ... I don’t know!”

  Annali paced the length of the infirmary, just as she had been doing since Dimitre had hunted her down there. She was incredibly confused, hurt and aching with the need to be held, but the man she loved was the cause of all of those feelings and she didn’t know how to handle that contradiction.

  “Babe,” he pleaded softly, coming up behind her and stopping her circuit with a touch on her waist. “My sister cast a spell that demanded I see the woman I want, the woman who wants me, when I looked at her. Despite my idiocy with Hunter, doesn’t it mean anything that it was you I saw and no other? I mean ... I love you babe, so much, that I see you everywhere I turn anyway. I can smell where you’ve been. I feel comfort in the wake of your presence. Whenever I do see you, all I can think of is how I need to have you very, very soon or I will go insane. When I saw that whole scene upstairs, I was in complete shock. My mind couldn’t even accept it. I fell apart and all I could think was, ‘I can’t do this.’ My heart was breaking so hard that it still hurts. I can’t lose you. I can’t exist without you. I can barely breathe knowing you’re angry with me, Annali.”

  Annali turned around to face him, tears running down her face.

  “How can you love me and not know I would never do something like that to you?”

  “I do know it. Even in the moment I was making up excuses in my mind, blaming Hunter for things ... things worthy of his brother.”

  “I love you, Dimitre. I gave everything, risked all of my trust, and fell in love with you. I couldn’t give that to anyone else. I don’t think I even know how.”

  “Anna,” he said softly, reaching to cup his hands around her pretty face. “Annali, please don’t expect me to be perfect. No one can live up to that. I told you, I might screw up, but it won’t mean I’m not crazy about you.”

  She sighed, relenting at last and sliding her arms around him. He seized her offered hug with full enthusiasm, making her squeak with the pressure he exerted around her.

  “I won’t doubt you again,” he promised her. “Do you believe that?”

  “Well, you better not. Next time I will beat it into your head with potions.”

  “Annie? Where’s Kaia?”

  Dimitre and Annali turned to face Ryce, both slightly startled by his appearance. The High Priest looked a little tired; his day of casting had clearly taken its toll.

  “In bed, I hope. She was exhausted and needed rest. I know she was anxious about Asher, though. He needs blood and she wants to get it for him ASAP.”

  “He’ll have to wait. I don’t want anyone to go out. I did some scrying and I can sense warlocks all around us. Make certain someone keeps Kaia in the house for me, will you? You know how determined she can get when a patient’s life is at stake.”

  “I would think she’d know better,” Dimitre scoffed.

  “We’ll revisit that assessment after you’ve lived with her for more than a decade,” Ryce said dryly. “Just watch her. I need to rest. Nox is already sleeping. I’ll check on Gracelynne before I go down for the night. Your sister is with Hunter. Seems like we’re safe and snug, right?”

  “We’re fine, Ryce. Please go. You look exhausted,” Annali encouraged him.

  With a nod, he headed back out of the infirmary, off to find Gracelynne.

  Hunter woke with a start when he heard his name.

  The room was pitch black, not even moonlight intruding on the darkness because the shades had been drawn for privacy. The wards might keep warlocks from touching the house, but they didn’t necessarily keep them from spying in windows. Hunter wouldn’t chance any of his private time with Tatyana being observed from the outside. He turned toward her as his eyes adjusted a little better. Her bare, pale skin stood out starkly. She had shed the covers and lay sprawled on her belly over much of the mattress. She appeared to be sound asleep, but he co
uld swear he had heard her calling for him.

  Given her new powers, she might very well have. She could be dreaming and calling out to him telepathically. Interesting thought, that. Was she dreaming about him? If so, he wondered if it was something nice and erotic. Considering the exponential growth of his appetite for her, and the heated sex they’d had earlier, he would love to know.

  “She’s pregnant, you know.”

  Hunter felt his heart freeze in time, as sure as if Dimitre had commanded it. He flicked his attention up to Tatyana’s face. She was still asleep, but ...

  “Who is?” he asked in a whisper.

  “Our Annali.”

  Hunter turned sharply, looking for the source of the information. Now his heart was racing. It had been ten years, but he recognized that voice.

  “Amber?”

  “Yes, Hunter. Don’t look for me. Can’t see me. You can only hear met.”

  “By the Lady,” he breathed, “how are you doing this? I’m not a Spiritus witch.”

  “No. But Asher is helping me. He doesn’t need his physical health to use his magic. His coma is allowing him to act as a conduit. It will tire him, though, so I have to be brief.”

  “Amber, you didn’t come here to tell me about Annali.”

  “Yes and no. I came to warn you. If Annali goes with you tomorrow, she will lose her child ... possibly her life. You have to convince her to remain behind.”

  Hunter didn’t bother questioning her. Asher and other witches like him had taught him that the world beyond death moved independently of time. Amber might already have witnessed dozens of possible futures. She was merely trying to prevent one of them.

  “When you said ‘If Annali goes with you,’ what did you mean?”

  She laughed, her voice just as soft and girlish as he remembered. “You always did know how to work the world of magic to its optimum. I can’t tell you that. It will come to you soon enough. Even I must obey certain rules.”

  Hunter heard movements, just a brush of a breeze, then a touch that was cold and eerie across his skin. He watched as Tatyana’s hair blew against her face and she shivered. He quickly drew up the comforter over her.

  “She is very pretty,” Amber noted, a wistful tone obvious in her voice.

  Hunter didn’t know how to respond to that. He had never in his wildest dreams imagined meeting with Amber again. His entire chest ached with tension and he worried about her.

  “Don’t worry so much, Hunter,” she scolded softly near his ear, as if she sat between him and Tatyana. “I am really beyond all of the things that kept my mind so narrow when I was alive. You learn a lot once you come here. I’ve seen your future, and hers as well. All the things that have happened happened so you could be here with her. She was meant for you. But, this you have already figured out.”

  “Yes. I have. I’m not sure she has, though.”

  “If she is meant to, then she will. In her own time.”

  “Amber? Are you ... happy?”

  “Oh yes. Very. I miss Asher terribly. And sometimes it is sad to just watch you all and not be able to speak with you ... to join you. I miss you very much.”

  “I’m so sorry I wasn’t there for you, Amber,” Hunter said, his voice roughening with emotion.

  “I know you are. I’m sorry these years have been so hard on you. I didn’t want that. After a while, neither did Asher. Did you know he has been looking for you?”

  Hunter caught his breath in surprise. “No. I didn’t.”

  “For three years now. I tried to help him, but our contact has to be limited. He would never have moved on otherwise. I never came across any spirits who had been in contact with you, though. I suppose you moved too much to form any attachments.”

  “Something like that,” he agreed.

  “All I could assure him of was that you weren’t dead. So, he kept looking by conventional means. It is hard to search for someone who not only doesn’t want to be found, but lives a secret life to begin with. He wouldn’t have wanted to draw attention to you.”

  “Honey, you’re fading,” he said worriedly.

  “Asher is tired. I’m going to leave. Please, keep Annali safe. This baby will mean great things for Willow Coven. Your lover and her brother come from an ancient line of witchcraft. Their children will save many innocent lives one day. I need to go. Take care.”

  “Good-bye Amber.”

  Hunter felt the coldness fall away from him, and Tatyana’s body heat radiated to him once more. He reached for her, drawing her up against him. She complained in her sleep, but soon turned toward him and snuggled up against him for warmth. Her bare skin felt cool along her back and warm along her front, a result of being exposed to the chillier room air as she slept on her tummy. She was warming up quickly, though.

  He had a lot to think about because of everything Amber had said, but all he could focus on at first was Tatyana. Amber was right, of course. He had already come to realize she was very special to him.

  Well, okay ... special was a mild term for what she made him feel. It had been less than a week, but already he couldn’t imagine letting her go. When she had told him flat out she was staying with him, literally moving herself in, he had nearly expired from joy. He had to admit, he had played it pretty cool. However, now that he knew she was a Mentalist, he could kiss any emotional secrets he had good-bye. He’d like to come clean himself before she snatched it out of him on her own. He was just afraid she might think it was too soon. Insincere. Cavalier.

  And if he was going to be honest with himself, he was just afraid, period. He’d never felt this way before. He had learned how to love and be loved in this very household—Ryce had taught him—but he’d never fallen in love before. Was it possible he was mistaken? How could someone like him even know if he was right about something like this? Also, how much could he really offer Tatyana? Clearly, she deserved everything.

  But did everything include his dark magic genetics? Six known generations of warlocks, and he’d been the first, and only, to walk away. Even now his brother threatened all of their lives with his poisoned desires and magic. Braen had raped women Hunter loved like sisters, and had almost done so to Tatyana as well. If she were destined to have powerful children who would contribute to the cause of good, would that future be endangered by his familial influence in the mix? Ryce had preached that no witch was born predisposed to good or evil, and he often used Hunter himself as an example, but was it really true? Would he and Tatyana be able to raise his offspring completely away from the influences of darkness?

  The selfish rush of pleasure that hurried over him at the thought of giving her his children nearly floored him. Hunter buried his face in her sweet-scented hair and tried to breathe through his dizzying desire. A wife. A child. Home. It had all seemed inconceivable only three weeks earlier. Ryce’s scry had brought home within reach again. If that could be regained, couldn’t the rest be gained as well? He couldn’t broach all of this with Tatyana now, not until after she had become the strong witch she was meant to be. Not until she had learned to live with him. Not until he could coax her into maybe loving him.

  For the first time in years he had an incredible urge to run to Ryce for advice. Even the impulse made him smile. Ryce was sure to be asleep though, resting from a long day of spellcasting with Nox. He could figure his way through this on his own. If she read his thoughts and emotions, well then he’d have to deal with the consequences. Until then, he would just have to take it a day at a time. A step at a time. Familiarity and trust. Love. And the rest ... ?

  What right did he have to pursue all of that when he might be unable to offer her everything?

  Knowing he wouldn’t be able to sleep, he slid away from her, apologizing softly when she complained again. He dressed in pajama pants and belted on his robe, then walked out of the living quarters. He hit the main part of the house and instantly thought of Asher and Annali. He walked back to the infirmary, the floors chilly under his bare feet as he went
. He entered the clinic and found Annali asleep in a bed not too far from Asher’s. Dimitre was sitting up, reading something thick and old that was probably from Ryce’s vast library.

  “Hey,” Dimitre greeted, surprised to see him.

  “Hey. How is he?”

  “Same. He was running a slight fever before so I figured I’d keep a close watch. I don’t want to have to wake Kaia unless it’s imperative.”

  “How’s Annie feeling?”

  “Tired. She puts a lot into her work.”

  Hunter wondered if Dimitre even knew about Annali’s pregnancy. Did Annali? He quickly thought back to Kaia’s smooth dodge about why she couldn’t use Annie’s blood. Also, when he had walked in on Annali earlier, she had been washing her face as well as her hands, hovering over her sink. Had she been ill? Morning sickness?

  None of that meant either one of them knew, and it didn’t seem to be his place to tell either of them if that were the case. Not unless he had to in order to keep her safe from whatever was coming their way.

  “Listen, I’m sorry about what happened earlier,” Dimitre said awkwardly as Hunter pulled up a chair and straddled it backward.

  Hunter chuckled. “Don’t worry about it. I doubt I would have done any different if our roles had been reversed. Although I wouldn’t have just been managing the instinct to kill, but the skill as well.”

  “Yeah, something I’d actually appreciate lessons in one day.”

  “Anytime. I’ll teach you to kick my ass good and proper next time.”

  “I appreciate that,” Dimitre chuckled.

  “Seriously? That stopping time trick is great, but you need a follow-through. Some blade work. Maybe a tanto or long pike. I have some ideas. Less mess, just as sharp ideas.”

  “Speaking of ideas, something has been on my mind,” Dimitre confided.

  “Oh?”

  “Yeah. Something Ryce said earlier. First, I need you to explain just how well your brother knows the habits of this coven.”

  “As well as if he lived here, except for the capacity to understand the tenets we work toward and the things we value. Actually that’s wrong, he understands; they just have no worth to him.”