Page 11 of Hunting Her
My breath comes a little faster, a spark of electricity zipping up my spine as Lorcan’s fingers squeeze. Every inch of me enters red alert stage, trying to grab enough air to tide me over when he inevitably cuts off the flow.
Before it does, he lets go. “Interesting,” he murmurs.
I let out an involuntary whine of relief, my heart rate coming down from the fluttering panic of being at his mercy.
“I only have until sundown for my head start. You have to leave now.” My voice is breathier than I want it to be.
“Fine. But my brother and I will see you very soon.” His grin is feral. “We’ll be the first ones to hunt you down.”
He parts the veil between worlds and disappears from view, leaving me completely alone in the forest.
Exhaling in relief, I take a few slow and steady breaths to get my wits about me again. There’s something about the demons that calls to me—that makes me want to lose at this game, on some baser level.
My instincts are caught between fighting with everything I have and giving in to the urge to roll over and learn what it’s like to be touched by demons.
I’m not going to let them have me. Not easily, no matter what my brain says.
So, I pick my way between bushes, weaving around trees in the direction of the cars. I have two tasks right now: hiding and finding a weapon.
I’ll have to pick up the weapon along the way somehow, because I already know the perfect place to hide.
In plain sight.
Blending in with the downtown crowd on Halloween night will buy me a few hours before I really have to flee from them. I’ll save my strength while I can.
I walk down the side of the highway once I find it, feeling every rock through the shoes they gave me. My coat is thick enough to fend off the worst of the chill. I’m not going to fit in with the costumed partygoers when I get downtown, but at least I’ll be warm enough.
The sun descends rapidly, but I know this stretch of highway. When the next exit comes into view, I’ll be able to veer back into the woods, walk for five minutes, and end up in the back alley servicing a stretch of cute little shops.
But maybe until I see the exit… I should run.
I won’t be able to run through the thick underbrush, and when they start to hunt me… I doubt I’ll be hard to find out in the open like this.
Giving the sun one last look, I break out into a quick jog.
IZORAN
Nova is smart, none of us can deny that.
She questioned Damek more than most humans dare to, and there wasn’t a bitter edge of fear to her scent—only notes of anger and irritation.
And now that we’ve started the chase, she chose a tactic none of us expected.
She wasn’t hard to find. Lorcan and I followed her scent from where he left her, using a glamour to shield us from the view of humans as we stalked the woods. It’s where we found her that proved to be problematic.
Our human queen is sitting in the middle of a crowded pub, wiling away the hours in a place where it would be a challenge to steal her. We could, but not without one of the humans noticing.
It’s normal for us to erase human memories when the supernatural presence is revealed, but it would be impossible to catch everyone in a crowd like this.
Her plan must be to stay here until they close, among a hundred humans doing Jello shots made to look like blood, while spooky All Hallow’s Eve music plays loudly over the speakers. Then she’ll let the real hunt begin, and we’ll only have a few hours left to catch her.
I bump my shoulder against my twin’s. “Think we can charm her into leaving willingly?”
He snorts. “Not a chance. She knows what she’s doing.”
We’re leaning against the wall near the entrance, our horns and wings hidden by a glamour that also changes the hue of our skin to a human colour. Tonight is a night we could get away without it, considering plenty of humans are dressed as cheapimitations of us, but we want to blend in. We don’t need the attention of people telling us we have ‘cool costumes.’
I’m surprised Nova got into this place—I thought humans had arbitrary age restrictions on alcohol, and I doubt she meets them. The men at the door don’t seem to be checking very stringently.
