Deceptions: A Collection (42 page)

“Wow. You sure use a lot of words to say that very profound sentence,” I drawled. Disturbingly profound. I looked at the compound bow I carried, thought of the sleek, lovely bow back in my car. And even that was enough to stir her song…I could hear her now. Whispering in my mind, the beat of her drums, thudding in time with my heart.

Well, shit
.

“Work on it,” Kori said cheerfully. “You never know.”

Kori’s ability to hear the earth
whispering
came in handy.

By halfway through the afternoon, we’d managed to find two pits.

Nobody alive, but one of them held a corpse. Kori stared at it hard for a minute and then said, “Not a witch. Shifter of some sort.”

I looked at the corpse and tried to get a feel, but the life had been gone too long. I could read a person’s energy, but it was tied into the soul and the soul had been gone quite a while.

“Probably another stray cat or wolf,” I said tiredly, rubbing the back of my neck, thinking of my own cat.

He’d left early. It had been barely seven when he’d pulled out in that long black car and it was a bit of a drive to Orlando—two to three hours if traffic wasn’t bad. He would have been there by ten. It was crawling up on three now, meaning she’d had him for hours.

A hand touched my shoulder. “Stop it, kid. He knew what he was going back to.”

“Did he have a choice?”

“He’s the one who chooses to stay with an Alpha half the Assembly sees as bat-shit crazy.” Kori shrugged and turned away.

“If she’s that bad, why doesn’t the Assembly handle it?”

“Because she keeps her clan in line and doesn’t let her crazy outside of it,” Kori said, shrugging. “If she was like the rat you tangled with a few years ago, they’d intervene. Hell, sometimes I think people
wait
for that…and shit, if she’d come gunning for you? The Assembly could shut her down. Maybe that’s why Es did what she did, offering you the protection of the house, even as she jabbed at the bitch. She’ll snap sooner or later, and once she does, the laws will fall into place and she can be dealt with. She’s getting worse, I’ve heard.”

“She’s bad enough already,” I muttered, scratching at my arm.

“Yeah. But you can’t force your boy to do anything.” She sighed and settled into silence, her eyes taking on a flat look. I could feel her magic tingling my skin again.

Searching the earth, I suspected.

Something rustled in the grass and I grimaced as I caught the long body of a gator coming out of the water. Its black eyes stared at me and then moved away, headed off in another direction. Good gator. No food here. None at all.

Something whistled through the air. Familiar—

“I…”

Kori’s voice stopped.

I looked over at her.

For a minute, the red stain on her shirt made no sense.

But the glint of bloody iron protruding from her shirt made sense. A lot.

She toppled forward. I tried to catch her before she tumbled into the pit, but I couldn’t.

With a scream, I called my sword even as I flung myself to the ground.

The volley of arrows that came flying at me didn’t let up for a long, long time.

It could have been an hour.

It could have been minutes.

I didn’t know how much time passed before there was a pause in the arrows coming my way. I couldn’t just fade away because they’d see me and I wasn’t going to reveal that secret in front of them, unless I had no other choice.

Arrows—why were they using arrows? I wondered. Stupid. Just stupid, although it gave me a leg up once I’d managed to crawl my way over to a tree and get behind it. I had a feeling there were four different archers. Wasn’t positive, but I thought. Judging by the various angles they were coming from and the different kinds of bolts and arrows, there were definitely at least four, but somehow I didn’t think they had a couple of people lying in wait, just to throw me off.

Regular fiberglass arrows, as well as bolts, the kind somebody would fire from some of the crossbows out there.

I’d grabbed one of the arrows closest, checked it, smelling it for some sign of poison or anything else and there wasn’t anything.

Why arrows and no guns?

Didn’t make any sense. Peering around the tree, I caught sight of a scrap of white. Another arrow whizzed by, but that was fine. I had a location now. Smiling, I reached for one of my arrows.

My aim is true
—

Unlike theirs.

I heard the strangled scream and a furious swear bounce through the trees second later.

One down.

Another volley of arrows came raining around me. Sighing, I leaned against the tree. My eyes drifted to the pit. Was Kori alive—?

Couldn’t think about that. Just couldn’t.

After another twenty minutes, I found another target. The sound of his scream was like music.

Within an hour, it was down to just one.

And I was confused as hell. They were wasting all of this time, the ammo—
why
?

By the time I figured it out, it was almost too late. I heard them drawing near, another group coming to catch me in a pincer move. I didn’t have time to find another place to hide myself and I couldn’t leave Kori.

Damn it—

Fade
—no choice now, not if they were doing what I thought.

I faded and took out the last target and then moved over to peer down into the hole at Kori.

The site of her locked, open gaze hit me like a fist to the chest. The arrow had pierced her heart, and I knew iron when I saw it. It would have killed her instantly. They’d been using fiberglass to pin me in place, but they’d specifically chosen to shoot her with iron…they’d wanted her dead. Witches were stronger than humans and able to heal, but iron weakened them. She could have healed if it hadn’t pierced her heart, but it had.

Slanting a look across the water where the archers had hidden, I narrowed my eyes.

If I hadn’t killed all of them, I would.

She was gone, so there was no reason to linger here.

Carefully, watching every step I took, I started to move. The path was littered with arrows and bolts and branches and I had to be careful not to touch them. I could hear them coming closer and closer now and they were quiet. Hunters, all of them, humans who liked to spend their days prowling through the wild in search of prey. Made a study of it.

Today they wanted
me
to be the prey.

No.

Absolutely no.

Once, I caught a glimpse of them from the corner of my eye and I could hear them as I made my way around the bend to where the archers had lain in wait. Four of them, just as I thought. Although one of them wasn’t dead. The arrow had gone through his lung just below the heart.

Damn. My aim wasn’t as true as I’d like.

I searched the rest of the area before I went to his side. As I knelt beside him, I heard the crackle of a radio.

“Where’s the target, Hooper?”

The man just inches away panted, scrambling for the radio a few feet from his hand. I rose away and let him roll over, grunting, whining with pain. “She’s…over. There. Saw her. Fucking bitch. Gut the bitch. Need help. Hurry.”

“She’s not here, Hoop,” a voice said. “We’re heading out. Got to find her before he gets here.”

He fell back on his back and started to cry, clutching at the arrow going through him.

He
…?

I knelt down beside him and faded back into sight, smiling as I covered his mouth with my hand.

“Hello, Hooper.”

Grabbed my arrow, I jerked on it and laughed softly as he screamed against my muffling palm. “We should chat. Who is
he
and why is coming after me?”

It was six minutes I’d never get back.

Hooper had nothing to tell me and I ended up killing him with my knife across his throat.

It was quick, painless and easy—far easier than I’d rather give him, but I didn’t believe in torture.

As I cleaned the blood off my blade, I heard a dreaded slithering sound and I swallowed the bitter, noxious taste of fear cloying in the back of my throat. Tracking the noise, I found the snake coming through the grass. Another big-ass snake, too.

Man, I think I could really start to hate those things. With a passion.

But it didn’t come for me. Okay. This was looking up. It was checking out one of the dead bodies.

“Have at it,” I said.

Its tongue came out, tasting the air.

Those freaky eyes watched me as I circled around, keeping a very, very wide berth. I had men to kill and no damn snake was stopping me. I just needed one thing—Hooper’s radio.

It had a rugged little wrist strap which I caught with the tip of my blade, still watching the snake, keeping my ears out for the sound of any more. Did they like dead bodies? Didn’t know. Didn’t care. So long as they stayed away from my live one.

The radio in my hand crackled, loud. Too loud. As the snake started to coil around the body, I fumbled with the volume. “Where in the hell is she, Hooper? We’ve only got until sunset…”

Sunset.

My blood went cold.

I peered up at the tree, then at the bodies across the lake. I could still see most of them but I didn’t know how many were there…

I had a couple of hours. Getting out of here would take every single minute of them. But if I ran into more men…Between the pack I was hauling, my weapons and the fact that I’d have to fade out and be quiet, it was going to be hell. I’d paid closer attention this time and I knew the way back, but still.

I had to get out of here.

I didn’t have the missile I’d need for this fight, although why in the hell he wanted me
now
I didn’t know.

Evangeline’s voice echoed through my memory.

He’ll be in contact soon, Colbana. You don’t want to keep ignoring him. It won’t go well for you
.

My breathing hitched as I remembered the dream.

You
…
the energy in you is pleasant. I feel it without even feeding from you, but ever since I’ve fed
…
It’s a pleasure like no other, Kit, and I can’t wait to have it again. It’s unparalleled
.

It didn’t make sense that he’d set this up just to try and grab me. Didn’t make sense that this had been constructed for my benefit. But if Jude had been behind it all along—for fun, money, or whatever his fucked-up reasons and I got in the way…? Had he just decided to go ahead and grab me because it was convenient and he’d wanted me all along anyway?

It would make sense…if that was what Jude wanted to do.

He’d asked me if I was going back home. The boy had been found, after all.

Why not go back home?

Because it just wasn’t in me, but Jude wouldn’t understand that sort of thing, would he?

He would understand one thing, though—Damon had called me persistent. Maybe Jude had realized that if I didn’t go home, I’d tie this to him. And he’d go down.

Was
that
it?

Strange, wet cracking sounds came to my ears. I looked up and immediately wished I hadn’t. The snake was coiling around the body. Constricting.
Shit
. That was nasty, but it served as a reminder. I didn’t have time to worry about
why
Jude was coming for me.

He was coming for me and that was a problem. Dumping my pack on the ground, I went through and removed what wasn’t vital. The food was the first thing. I dumped everything but three bottles of water and two protein shakes. If I didn’t make it out of here before I went through those, it wouldn’t matter.

Jude would have found me by then and then…

I stroked my thumb over my wrist.

Then Damon would be after us both.
Nothing hurts you
…

I wasn’t going to rely on Damon to save me, though. I was alive and sane because I’d saved myself, and damned if I’d stop trying to do that now. I wasn’t a quitter, and despite what my grandmother thought, I wasn’t weak.

I’d hold on to that.

Hold on to that, and my sword.

Hefting my lightened pack onto my back, I faded out and started to move, following a line that took me away from the hunters and straight to my car. I’d come back for them. All of them. If Kori could taste fear in the dirt, then surely Es had another witch who could do the same.

My legs burned.

I knew how to run and I could do it for a long time, but not like this.

Still, I kept moving.

Those idiots were still using their radios and it was a blessing, because a few times, I caught that warning crackle just in time to freeze.

One time was bad. They had dogs. I heard them baying after me and the excitement of the men.

I laid it on harder, until I thought my lungs might burst.

Finally, the sounds grew distant and I let myself slow. Thirty minutes, I thought…Maybe thirty minutes to the car, and almost to one of the more populated areas.

My head was pounding. The burden of keeping myself unseen was getting to me but I couldn’t drop it now.

I heard a laugh—young and girlish, followed by a deeper one. Male. Young. Shit. Getting close to people.

Was that a good thing or bad?

The radio I’d hung at my waist crackled.

“Girl.”

I stopped.

“Come on, girl. I know you took Hooper’s radio. We doubled back and counted, saw your shit, saw the snake eating him—we won’t hold that against you, since that’s the way things sometimes play out when you play a real hunting game. The snake won that round. So did you. But it’s time to listen to the rules of the game.”

Rules of the game…you son of a bitch
. I took the radio off my belt, still listening to those voices. They were still a few hundred yards away and my gut whispered,
Human
. Kids out for a hike or what?

“What do you want?” I said.

“You.” The man’s voice was blunt and honest. “What do you think?”

“Fuck yourself. Sideways.”

He chuckled. “Now, now…here’s where we have a problem. You weren’t ever supposed to be a target. You’re human and we don’t like hunting our own.”

My skin prickled and crawled.

“But we’ve got somebody interested in you and if we don’t give you to him? He’ll take it out of our throats.”

“That’s what happens when you fuck with vampires,” I said.

There was a pause and then a laugh as he said, “Nobody said nothing about vampires, kid.”

It was a lie—I heard the strain in his voice.

“I did.”

More silence. “You aren’t going to get out of here, girl. If you try, we’ll come after your ass. We’ll hunt everything, everybody you love. We’ll kill anybody that gets in the way, starting with the kids who are between you and the exit of the park…are you there yet?”

Another whoop came from up ahead. He couldn’t have heard them. I wasn’t talking when they’d been laughing and I didn’t have the button down now.

So he had people up there. Around here.

Close.

“And why should that matter to me?”

“Because you lingered long enough to make sure your friend was dead before you left her…we were watching. Because you hung around even after we let you find the kid you were hired to find, the girl witch, and the wolf. We didn’t think you would come back, but you did. Since you’re still here, I’m going to assume it’s for a reason. You’re soft. You’re okay. It’s okay. The world needs people like you. We don’t need to waste time and play games. You don’t want me killing those kids, do you? Nice girl like you, you don’t like waste, but either you come to us, or there is going to be all sorts of waste.”

I listened to the laughter, waited for it to fade. “You want me, you fucker, you’ll have to find me. I won’t leave the park, but you want a hunting game? Hunt me. And I assure you…there’s going to be a lot of waste. I’m having fun with all of these gators out here anyway.” I smiled as I said it. Most of the gators were back by the water and I’d left that behind a good thirty minutes ago.