Page 22 of Hunter

“Finally awake, I see,” Samantha said, her voice smug and haughty.

Kana opened his eyes and found he was lying on the hard cement floor of a dimly lit cell. Samantha was standing on the other side of a thick iron door, looking down at him through a barred window.

“Where am I?” Kana groaned out, his head aching even more as he spoke.

“That’s not important,” Samantha replied immediately. “What is important are the questions you are going to answer. Once you tell me everything, I’ll bring you back home to the coven where you can be useful for once in your life.”

“How did you find me?” Kana asked. He sat up so he could face her directly, and the room did a slow spin before his vision steadied and he could see her again.

Samantha laughed. “Don’t think you’re that important,” she said, her voice dripping with derision. “We weren’t looking for you. The coven’s spell indicated we would find the witch who would help us in this area. We sent witches all over the Northeast; I was sent to Albany, and what do I find within a few days? A cat familiar wandering around. I tracked that familiar to you, of all people, but then that whole fiasco with the werewolves and vampires occurred, and I knew I needed stronger backup. Luckily, a hunter decided to come see what happened, and I was able to grab him. But then the witch snatched him from me!”

How long had Samantha been poking around? If she had been in Albany prior to Kana meeting Ember, then she must know all about him. However, she kept saying “the witch” rather than using his name, so maybe she didn’t. Samantha was like most of the witches in Kana’s old coven who refused to believe Kana would ever amount to anything simply because he was male. There was no way someone so blinded by that mindset would ever believe Kana had bonded to the cat familiar Samantha claimed to have been following.

“But you’re going to tell us everything. Who the witch is, where we can find her, and why she refused to join a coven like a good witch should.”

Kana gaped at Samantha, shocked both by her audacity and her blind ignorance. She really didn’t know about Kana.

“How do you know the witch hasn’t already run away from you?” Kana asked.

Samantha laughed, a cold, cruel sound Kana remembered from every time she had belittled him in high school. “We captured her familiar. She won’t run until she gets it back.” She vanished from the window, and Kana heard a metallic tapping sound. “Come see the special cage we made, just for the familiar, if you don’t believe me. The cage is a thing of beauty. Keeps the familiar asleep and blocks the witch from communicating with it.”

Kana had to see. Mika had vanished into a black hole, but maybe he was in that cage. Kana levered himself to his feet, glad when the room only tilted a little as his vision swam, and stumbled his way to the door.

Mika lay in the center of the cage, curled into a tight ball and completely asleep. He looked unharmed, and Kana let out a breath of relief. There was no sign of Sora.

Kana reached for his connections to Mika and Sora, hoping to wake Mika and tell Sora where to find them, and his magic slammed into a wall. His cell lit up with an eerie blue light, causing Samantha to cackle in glee.

“Tried some magic to free it, did you? Take a look around you, fool, before you try anything else stupid.”

Kana turned to look, leaning on the door for support, and his jaw dropped at what he saw. Samantha cackled some more.

“Impressive, huh? Once I figured out the witch we wanted was in this city, I had to come up with a way to keep her confined until she agreed to work with us. You’re just the test run.”

The blue light was shaped in a pattern, Kana realized as he followed each line carved into the cement walls. Runes and circles were illuminated, not by the spell, but because they were absorbing the magic Kana had tried to use and dumping it down into the earth. The room was ingenious. Kana could use the strongest power at his disposal, and the circles carved into the cement would simply funnel it away. Kana followed each line, searching for a weakness, but couldn’t spot one at first glance. The light started to fade, so Kana turned back to Samantha, who was grinning at him, teeth bared and eyes bright with spiteful glee.

She waved a heavy iron key, as if to mock him with it. “All we want is the name and location of the witch,” she said as she placed the key on top of Mika’s cage. “Giving us that information is the only way you’re getting out of that cell. I’ll leave you to think about it,” she finished and patted the key to mock him with it again before turning and walking away.

Kana stared at the key, wishing it would grow a set of wings and fly over to unlock the door. If he could access his magic, he wouldn’t even need the key, yet his freedom sat, unmoving, right where Samantha knew she could leave it to twist the knife of his captivity.

The whoosh of a door opening and closing sounded. Kana waited a few extra seconds to be certain Samantha was actually gone before hissing, “Mika. Mika,” hoping in vain Mika might somehow break the spell of his own cage and come rescue Kana. Mika didn’t even twitch.

Kana could only hope Ember was searching for him. The wolves Ember had sent to escort Kana back to the pack house had been attacked—and Kana hoped they were okay—but at least Ember would know things had gone very wrong. There was no telling whether Ember would actually be able to find Kana, especially with Samantha and who knew who else casting spells to hide him.

No, Kana would have to figure out a way to get out of the cell on his own. Once he was outside the influence of the cage, he would have his magic again, and Samantha certainly wouldn’t be able to stop him. There was no telling how long that would take, though.

“Mika,” he called, hoping this time Mika might hear.

The door whooshed again, and Kana clamped his mouth shut. Was Samantha still watching him, waiting for him to give himself away by calling out Mika’s name? Had she come up with some new torture to try to make him talk? Kana waited, tensed and ready, but no one walked into view.

Kana thought he saw a shadow moving outside the narrow window of the cell door, but he still didn’t see anyone. Maybe someone had heard him calling but hadn’t been able to hear what he was saying, so they were lying in wait for him to speak again? Kana moved to the right, trying to expand what he could see to his left out the window, but even the shadow had vanished.

A muffled mew sounded from below Kana. He gasped and looked down. Sora was standing outside the door in his cat form, a cell phone clamped in his mouth.

“Sora?” Kana gasped, and his voice choked at the end as his eyes welled up with tears of relief.

“Kana, is that you?” Ember’s voice sounded from the phone speaker.

Kana swallowed to clear his throat before answering. “Yes. Sora found me.”

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