Page 36 of A Hunter Found
“I can hear him coming,” Nicky hurriedly whispered.
She could hear who coming? What? The bolt sliding on the other side of the door had Kane shaking off the first signs of bloodlust and pushing to his feet. They had a plan, he remembered, and it looked like the vampire, at least, had finally returned. Glancing at Nicky, he mouthed,Are you ready?
Seeing her nod, he palmed the blade and prepared for an attack.
The door opened, the vampire stepped in holding a tray of food, not even bothering to look around as he announced, “Feeding time at the zoo, boys and girls.”
Kane launched himself at the man with a shouted, “Run!” to Nicky, before he sunk his fangs into the vampire’s throat. The tray hit the floor with a loud clatter and Kevin Thompson thrashed in Kane’s brutal hold, but Nicky had made good on her escape. And while the blood was welcome, giving him strength, he had to make sure she made it out of the building, not just this room. So, with that in mind, he thrust the blade into the side of the vampire’s head and tossed the body aside.
The last of the rogues had been dealt with, now it was time to confront a witch.
Leaving the room as quickly and quietly as he could manage with his injured leg, Kane spotted Nicky close to the warehouse doors, huddled between the corrugated metal wall and some tall, industrial shelving. Joining her, she shot him a grimace and pointed. The witch, back in the form that had been captured by the security footage they’d taken from that bar, was pacing in full view of the door, tapping her finger against her lip, deep in thought.
“I’ll distract her,” Kane whispered. “You make a run for it and find Jourdain, just like we talked about, okay?”
Nicky nodded, and as Kane prepared to stand, she surprised him with a hug so tight it had the air in his lungs expelling in a whoosh. Patting her back, he pulled away. “You’ve got this, Nicky. I’m counting on you.”
“I won’t let you down.”
And with that, Kane stood and, despite the throbbing pain of his leg, put on his best swagger, holding his arms out to the sides. “You disappoint me, Evangeline. I expected a better show from you.”
The provocative statement did exactly what he hoped. The witch’s eyes were firmly on him, never noticing the door to the warehouse opening and the wolf shifter escaping into the night.
Evangeline’s eyes went black, similar to what a Turned vampire looked like in a rage, but the skin around her eyes went black as well, making her look disturbingly like she had nothing but empty sockets in her head. “So, you want a show, vampire? I’ll give you a show.”
One minute, Kane was standing with his feet firmly planted on the floor, the next, he was being hurled backward through the air by an invisible force, crashing into the very shelving where he had just been crouching with Nicky. There was no time to catch his breath, no time to take inventory of his injuries. His body was lifted, hurtling again through the air, this time, his back connecting with a concrete support post before he belly-flopped to the cement floor.
Fuck! That hurt. He spat blood out of his mouth and, despite his pain, gazed up at the witch with a taunting smile. “Is that all you’ve got?”
And honestly, he kind of hoped thatwasall she had. He was hurting badly, couldn’t keep this up for much longer, his vision already darkening at the edges from the pain.I hope you’re fast, Nicky, he thought before his body was airborne once more.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Archer was being brought up to speed with this newest information about Kane when a call from Destin Jourdain came through. “Mister Jourdain. This is a surprise. What can I do for you?”
“I have someone here I think you’ve been looking for,” was grimly stated in that deep, booming voice. “And from what Nicky has been telling me, I think you better bring the Hunters and as many people as you can spare.”
“You’ve found Nicky?” Archer asked, standing so fast he nearly toppled his chair. The others, he saw, rapidly gained their feet as well.
“She found me,” Jourdain replied. “Kane helped her escape from Evangeline, but she still has him.”
“We’re on our way,” Archer growled.
Disconnecting the call, he looked at the anxious faces of the Hunters. “Evangeline has Kane. He helped Nicky escape.”
Morgan was already checking her guns before he finished the statement, and his Jamie was pulling out her cell, likely to call in reinforcements, while both dragons stood snarling with slitted, reptilian eyes, smoke billowing from the female’s nostrils. A fearsome sight indeed.
“We’ll meet at Jourdain’s. Come up with a plan,” he told them. “Nicky will be able to tell us where the witch is holding Kane.”
“If she’s hurt him…” Sophia St. John snarled with a clicking growl that raised the hair on the nape of Archer’s neck. He almost pitied this mysterious Evangeline if the dragon found even a scratch on the Born she had obviously claimed as her mate – almost.
∞∞∞
Kane awoke to find himself stuck to a table, his body screaming in agony. A quick glance down and an attempt to move revealed that his hands and feet were bound to the table with wire, but worse than that, he was now shirtless, with two rusty spikes embedded, one in each shoulder, pinning him like a butterfly. He even had flecks of rust on his skin from where the witch had pounded the spikes home, most likely with a hammer, dislodging flakes. How had he slept through that? She must have put him out with a spell, that was the only explanation.
“Oh, good,” Evangeline said, her face suddenly appearing over his. “You’re awake. I have to admit I was becoming rather bored waiting for you to come to.”
“So sorry to inconvenience you,” Kane replied dryly. Lifting his head for another look down at his chest, he blew at the flakes on his skin and asked, “What did you do? Go out and find the rustiest spikes you could? It’s a good thing vampires don’t get sepsis.”
