Page 42 of Blood of a Huntsman

The Traitress

The whisper had been clear in the night. So very clear. Bash felt like Catherine had been saying his name right against his ear. Her deep accent, rolling each syllable around her tongue, was unmistakable.

It was a dream. Just a dream. There was nothing peculiar about a man dreaming about a sexy woman's voice. Particularly a few weeks after kissing said woman.

But he heard something unsettling in that voice. Something that bothered him. He couldn’t place his finger on what, but he was uneasy.

Cat had said his name a handful of times, perhaps, but it never sounded like this. Almost a plea.

Just a fantasy, he reasoned. Nothing more.

Bash had half an hour until his shift southwest of the territory. He was almost done tidying up his last bullet point on his report when he felt the change in the air. The damn ground shook underneath the dorm. But it was more than that. A force was exploding. Shattering.

Next, he saw a flash of light through the dark skies and thunder resounded in the distance.

He was out of the dorm before his next heartbeat, and halfway up the hill within ten seconds.

The lightning had hit the second house on the hill, destroying part of the roof.

Bash rushed to the front door moments before two women burst out of a window. Cat first, kicked back under Anika’s heel.

Anika's right side was scorched, her skin burned black and her clothes in rags.

What the hell?

Bash rushed to Cat's side, helping her up to her feet.

"Are you all right?"

Moments later, he felt Levi and Chloe approach. Then Mikar, and Alexius. The uproar had caught everyone's attention.

"I caught her writing to her stinking family," Anika screeched, pointing to the large bird of prey flying away from the house.

Bash felt Cat freeze completely. She wasn't even breathing. Her eyes were the picture of shock. And fear.

"She's betraying us. Sending them secrets by air so they can't be intercepted. When I confronted her, she attacked me."

Levi took one step forward, until he'd reached Bash and Cat, his gaze cold.

Bash didn't even think. He placed himself between her and the two-thousand-year-old monster. The predator who could kill him without breaking a sweat.

Levi watched Cat without a word. Bash glared at him.

"Mikar. Ruby," the ancient called.

Ruby. He'd heard that name before; Levi and his employees mentioned her occasionally. One of Levi's slayers who worked around the territory. She wasn't very social, though.

But now that he'd called her, she appeared in the distance, like she'd been standing close by all along.

Ruby had dark hair, light brown skin, and was dressed in ancient white rags. She looked like a ghost. If ghosts could drink the blood of their enemy and bathe in mud.

Bash stilled himself, ready to fight against one, or both if necessary. They were not going to hurt Cat without hearing her out, dammit. And she wasn't in a condition to speak right now, that much was obvious. She smelled wrong. She looked weak.

But when the slayers moved, they fell onAnika instead.

Bash breathed out. Cat didn't. She was trembling, watching the whole thing with wide eyes, her breathing shallow, unfocused.

Anika was one of the best fighters Bash had ever seen in action; there was a reason why she taught the immortals and huntsmen at the Institute. Though his attention mostly remained on Cat, Bash followed the scene from the corner of his eye.

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