Page 29 of Exes, Hexes, and Strategy
“You three clowns,” the angel barked, and both Rafe and Nina jumped apart and snapped to attention only to see that Cam was pointing to the assholes as he demanded, “Get in the van.”
“He broke my nose,” the one whined, his hand cupping the injury, trying to stifle the bleeding.
“You deserved it,” the angel retorted. “Now get in the van before I throw you in.”
There was a mad scramble as the three took off and Rafe watched as Cam stroked his hand over a still agitated Sierra’s fur, smoothing down her raised hackles. His voice was low-pitched, soothing, as he told her, “You can’t be like this here, child. Change back now.”
Turning his attention back to Nina, Rafe couldn’t resist hugging her again. “You were incredible,” he told her.
“She was,” Cam, now shirtless, agreed as he joined them. A moment later, Sierra – back in human form and dressed in the angel’s black T-shirt since her own clothes had shredded in the shift – was nodding her head vigorously before she added, “Maybe next time, they won’t be so quick to dismiss us.”
“I doubt there’ll be a next time,” Cam stated darkly.
Sierra blanched, Nina gasped in a breath, and Rafe prepared for the worst. He’d thrown the first punch, he’d take the blame. “Nina and Sierra didn’t do anything wrong. I’m the one who messed up.”
The angel’s silver eyes swung to Rafe, that trademark lopsided grin making an appearance as Cam assessed him for a moment before he finally said, “Nobility in one of the Born is a rare trait.” He shook his head slowly back and forth and then sobered. “And I wasn’t referring to you three, but them,” he clarified, nodding his head sharply toward the van. “What’s the first rule of the Hunters’ Society?”
“A Hunter’s loyalty is to their team,” Sierra quickly offered.
Cam nodded. “I didn’t see a team tonight. I saw three idiots too hung up in their own egos to listen or make use of the assets at their disposal.” The angel shrugged. “Morgan will make the final decision, of course, but I highly doubt they’ll be with you when you go out next time.”
There were three audible sighs of relief and the angel chuckled. “Come on,” he said. “Let’s get you guys back. I’m sure Morgan’s going to want to talk to you.”
The head of the facility did, in fact, wish to speak with them, calling them into her office almost as soon as they walked through the doors. Rafe couldn’t help but wonder if she’d be as lenient about the punch as Cam had been. He’d been around the angel enough to have gleaned that the man was a bit blood-thirsty in nature, a warrior of old, so a punch thrown would be no big deal to him. Morgan Rhys may not feel the same.
However, when the reprimand came, it was an extremely mild rebuke to Sierra about shifting in the city tempered with the reminder that the last thing the female would want was to find herself the target of a hunt instigated by a scared mob of citizens. Morgan then complimented Nina on the breakthrough in her magic, before turning to Rafe and saying, “Your restraint was phenomenal. I would have thrown that punch hours earlier.”
“What happens now?” he asked.
Morgan settled deeper into her chair behind the desk and laced her fingers over her belly. “You go out again tonight and see if you three do a better job without the others.”
“They’re being cut?” Sierra asked with a squeak of surprise.
“Tempting, but, no. Tonight’s disaster did exactly what we expected,” Morgan told them. “It showed us who can work together and who can’t and what areas of the training need to be worked on.” She shrugged up one shoulder. “Those three may not make it in the end, but we now know that theycanwork well together, just not with a mixed team.” Her lips pressed together in a grimace. “Or, apparently, with one of the Born.”
“Did any of the teams actually find their target?” Nina asked. A question that Rafe – and apparently, Sierra, considering how she leaned forward with interest – wanted to know the answer to as well.
“One,” Morgan replied. Turning her attention fully to Rafe, she added, “Your friend, Logan’s team. Thanks to his nose, his team tracked down their target in record time.”
Rafe couldn’t hold back his grin. “Good for him.”
Morgan nodded and then stood to dismiss them with a warning of, “Get some sleep. It will just be you three when you go out next, and while that might sound good after tonight’s debacle, it also means you’ll be doing twice the work.”
Chapter Eighteen
Despite Morgan’s warning of twice the work, Nina was convinced they’d find their target tonight. Unlike the night before where the game plan had just been blindly hunting through the city, canvasing as much of the area as possible, tonight, the three of them sat down together and studied the target file for possible clues. It was a fictitious bio, yes, but Cam had said they should study it, learn their target, so there had to be something in there to help them solve the puzzle.
“According to this, Wolfy McWolferson grew up in the French Quarter,” Nina remarked. “Ms. Rhys said in one of her talks early on that most runners tend to go home first, like they want to revisit their mortal stomping grounds.”
Rafe nodded. “It’s true. Of the ones that ran from my father’s territory and needed to be fetched back by a Hunter, almost all of them had been found near where the vampire had lived as a human.”
“So we can narrow it down some, at least,” Sierra speculated, leaning in closer to her tablet and scrolling. “Does it give an address where he lived?”
“Toulouse. I say we start there,” Nina suggested, and unlike the previous night, no one attempted to dispute her logic. It felt good. She felt useful, and as they left to put their plan into action, she was determined to make sure both Rafe and Sierra felt the same.
Sierra might not be able to use her nose to track as Logan had successfully done the night before, but her vision was excellent, and her ability to climb, invaluable – especially for quickly and quietly scaling fire escapes to get a peek into windows on some of the taller buildings they were searching.
“God, I hope we don’t get arrested for being peeping Toms,” Nina quietly uttered to Rafe, her head tipped back as she watched Sierra effortlessly climb yet another building.
