Page 41 of Enspelled

Keane doesn’t seem concerned. At all. Is this normal for shifters? Or just an occupational habit of this hunting that he does?

Please do not let this be the future I have to look forward to if I manage to survive Georgia Calla. “Did you at least know him?”

Keane scans the parking lot, and finding it as empty as it was when we arrived, he scoops up the body and tosses it in his truck bed before throwing a canvas sheet over it. “Greg.”

I wait for more of an explanation, but none is forthcoming. “And Greg was…?”

“A hunter,” Keane says, retrieving a large plastic jug of water. “Like me.”

As I watch, he douses the parking lot, diluting and then washing away the blood until only the faintest trace of it remains. He does it so calmly and efficiently that I know this isn’t his first time.

“Why would he want to kill you?”

Finished emptying the contents of the container, he returns it to the truck bed and lifts his gaze to meet mine. You wouldn’t know to look at him that he’d just killed a man or been on his way to having sex in the front seat of his truck.

He looks so perfectly in control that I can’t understand how he can be like this. Someone tries to kill him and he’s not the least bit concerned.

“Someone would have had to hire him. And paid a lot, to come after me.”

Another person after us. Great… that’s just great. “Who?”

He shrugs. “Don’t know, but whoever it is, they’re going to have to deal with me themselves if they want the job done. I’m not easy to kill.” Stalking around the front of the truck, he points at the passenger door. “Get in. We’re leaving.”

“What about Bodie?” I ask as I swing my legs back in the truck.

“He can find us.”

“Where?” I take a second to straighten my sweats, because the last thing we need is Bodie—or even worse, Sera—noticing how disheveled I am and putting two and two together.

Keane climbs into the driver's seat and slams the door shut before darting a rapid glance at me. For just a second, I’m almost positive I glimpse something stir in his eyes. Something like desire. For me.

But then he blinks and turns the key to start the engine. “Layla’s house, to deal with her before Liam sends his wolves after us.”

Closing my eyes, I slump back in my seat. “First a hunter, and now a pack of wolves. Great.”

12

SERA

It’s always been the whispering and the gossiping I’ve hated the most about coven meetings. This one is no exception. With every head bowed close together, and more glances cast in my direction than in any other, there’s no guessing what they’re whispering about.

Briar.

This lunchtime emergency meeting at the Madden Grove community center is going to be about going after my best friend. I feel it in my bones.

“Sera.” Mom’s voice drags my gaze from the thirty members of the coven standing around the polished hardwood floors of a stuffy building in the center of town.

Waving away a weak-looking black tea, I lean against the wall as my focus returns to the women. With more smart suits and formal dresses than I’m used to seeing at a typical coven meeting, it looks like Vera’s forcing everyone to use up their lunch hour to be here.

“I don’t see why they’re treating you as if you’d been the one who did something wrong,” Mom sniffs. “And would it have killed you to change into something more appropriate for a meeting?”

My eyes rest on the blue and white polka dot sundress she changed into and her blown-out long, brown hair. Then I shift my focus to my oversized black jersey top and the same baggy jeans I always wear. Everything is always a couple of sizes bigger than my size four shape, but the second I start dressing the way Mom—and the rest of the coven—dress, that’s it. I become one of them.

“Isn’t this supposed to be an emergency meeting?” I ask. “Vera shouldn’t care what anyone is wearing as long as they come.”

She shouldn’t, but she will, because Mom isn’t the only one who made time to apply a face full of makeup.

“Appearances always matter,” Mom says as I mouth the words right along with her. “All this mess comes down to Briar. I told you not to—”

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