Page 13 of Hunter's Valentine

I had to get out of there before he got back. Mur’k claimed he wasn’t interested in this mating business, but his body seemed to have its own ideas. And unfortunately, mine did too.

I wanted to straddle him, grab him by the horns and ride him all night long, and that scared me. I had to get away before I did something I’d regret. He might claim that my pheromones weremessing with him, but I was beginning to wonder if there was some aphrodisiac in the air affecting us both.

Now was also a really good time to leave since the bulk of the bugs in the area were either stuck in his traps, dead, or in the process of being hacked to pieces.

Seeing the once-popular map app on Mur’k’s screen had been a surprise. I hadn’t thought I’d ever see it again. It had been updated recently, and the nests and surrounding area were now clearly marked in red, as were any other dangerous locations. Any blockages on the road were clearly noted, too. I also noticed that Mur’k’s ship was indicated with a shuttle-shaped icon. Other similar icons moved about the map, and I guessed those were other hunters’ ships.

There were both alien glyphs and English words on it, adding weight to both Jack’s insistence that they were working with friendly hunters and also Mur’k’s claim that he’d been in contact with the humans in New Franklin.

I wondered if I’d see him again the next time he visited the settlement. I’d be in a more stable situation by then, hopefully, and perhaps then we could explore whatever was blossoming between us. I was a living, breathing woman, and I had an itch to scratch. Just…not right now.

Then I remembered the date. It was February 12, not February 26. And that meant therealValentine’s Day was in two days. Maybe—

No!

I shook my head. I couldn’t believe I was actually considering it!

I had to get out of here. Putting my jacket and trail boots back on, I made sure my rifle was properly loaded with a full mag thistime, then went to the door. But I found no handle or other way of opening it. I tried ordering the shuttle to open it for me, and lo and behold, the door slid open.

Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.

I stepped out onto the roof, ordered the shuttle to close again, and then went to look for a way down. Unlike the other roof, this one didn’t have a fire escape. I was, however, able to open the door to the stairwell. I got my bearings and found my way back to the store where my bike and other supplies were.

My things were just the way I’d left them, but the door had melted into goo, as had the floor beneath it, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to roll my wheels over that. So I did it the hard way, lifting the bike through the broken window.

Then, after a quick check of my trusty, rusty compass, I was off.

Chapter 8: Mur’k

I returned to my shuttle to find that Sara had snuck out while I took care of the scourge on the ground, and she had left the protein bar.

Hadn’t that been the plan all along? She was supposed to leave once my hunt had proven successful. So why was there an inexplicable hollowness in my chest?

How had she managed to get out? I’d only given her access to the blasters. I had my shuttle replay her last moments and realized she’d simply asked it to open the door, and it had.

I groaned, dragging my palm down my face. When I collected Sara’s biosignature for my shuttle, I also ordered the craft to facilitate her mission of shooting down the flyers. I’d failed to mention that it was not to help her with anything else.

But she had done an exemplary job of keeping the flyers off me so that I could take them down one at a time—not to mention, the truncated centicreep.Curious, I scanned through the recording to watch how she had fought them off.

Her little maneuver, rising in the air to shoot at the centicreep and then landing again once I’d distracted it, had been risky but fruitful. She hadn’t managed to kill the wretched thing outright but had removed enough of the body sections so that it was notmuch longer than a spitter. Every body section gone meant one less set of blades I had to avoid.

It wasn’t just the maneuver with the centicreep, either. Sara managed to take down a large number of flyers as well. I’d tried setting the lure outside and shooting at flyers from inside the shuttle before, but it had only been mildly successful because usually when flyers found nothing to attack they veered away, out of range. Seeing me on the roof, they’d milled around waiting for an opportunity to attack, making themselves perfect targets.

I saw now why mated hunters sometimes brought their partners along to hunt with them. Not only had this hunt been the most successful one I’d had to date, it had also been faster. Imagine what else we could achieve together; the scourge would not stand a chance!

But Sara was gone now.

I lifted off the roof to hover over the town, scanning the landscape for her. I couldn’t see her anywhere between here and her underground shelter.

Had she ducked into one of the homes to forage? She couldn’t have gone too far.

Movement in my peripheral vision caught my attention. There she was! She wasn’t heading back to the underground shelter but traveling away from it. And she wasn’t on foot but riding a two-wheeled contraption as she sped down the abandoned streets.

A quick glimpse through my shuttle’s history showed that she’d scrolled the map showing the way to New Franklin. Was that where she was going? After spending the last few hours with her, I didn’t think she’d be a danger to the people there. However, the group she lived with had been marked as hostile,so I couldn’t be sure. Were they sending her over as a spy? Or was this a diplomatic mission?

I could send a note to the hunters there and let them figure it out. So why was I considering ordering my shuttle to follow her?

It had to be because of the successful hunt. It would be prudent for us to continue working together. I was a hunter, and my job was to destroy the scourge. She’d make a good ally and improve my hunts. Yes, that was the reason. It had nothing to do with liking her or wanting more of her company.

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