Vivi Anna - Releasing the Hunter

Ronan took a step toward him. “Better watch your mouth, Reggie, or I’ll knock all your teeth out.”

“Testy, testy. Doesn’t look good on you, Ronan. I thought hellspawn didn’t have feelings.”

“I’m only half hellspawn.” In a single second, he’d breached the short distance between them and grabbed Reggie around the throat, lifting him off the ground. “And our deal is off.”

Reggie flung out his hands to the sides. Blue light ignited from his fingertips. Ronan could feel an electric sizzle in the air and knew he was about to get an enormous shock to his system.

He dropped Reggie and ran toward the water just as the other two sorcerers rushed out of the darkness. They also had blue sparks bubbling on their fingertips. Ronan drew his gun and fired on the one closest to him. The bullet grazed the sorcerer’s arm. Crying out, he grabbed his arm. It was enough for the magic blue sparks to disappear.

Ronan swung around to the other one, but it was too late. The sorcerer let go with a blast of magic. It hit Ronan in his left side. It was like being electrocuted. He dropped to one knee, gritting his teeth as pain shot through his body. Thankfully, the water had dampened the effects. He imagined that burst of magic should’ve stopped his heart.

The one sorcerer advanced on him, likely thinking he had put Ronan down. Pity for him. Ronan swung his gun up. This time he didn’t miss. The bullet took the sorcerer in the gut and he dropped to the ground.

Ronan pushed to his feet and started for the water again. If he could jump in, he would be safe. He could hold his breath for a long time. Besides that, the cabal’s magic couldn’t touch him in the water.

As he sprinted, he could hear Reggie running behind him, his breath coming out in harsh pants. “You’ve doomed yourself for her, Ronan.”

I know, he thought, but she’s worth it.

A blast of magic erupted right behind him. Bits of dirt and rock hit him in the back of the legs. But he didn’t slow.

“You’ll never be human again. You’ve lost your one and only chance for a cure.”

Another blast, this one a little closer. The blue bolt zipped across his right leg. It burned a hole in his pants. Luckily, it missed his skin.

He was a foot from the water’s edge. Another blast came. This one grazed his left arm. Agony seared through him and he dropped. Right into the water.

Ronan pushed with his legs and went under. There was instant relief on his singed arm. He kicked hard and dove down deep. He swam out a ways, and then came up to the surface. He spied Reggie and his injured minion glaring out at him from the shoreline. He lifted his arm out of the water and gave them the finger.

“It doesn’t matter, Ronan,” Reggie shouted at him. “You’ve done all this for nothing. You’ll never be with her, hellspawn. You think I’d let the Stroms live? They know too much. They are too much of a liability.” Reggie’s laughter echoed off the water’s surface. “While you bob up and down in that water, my people are stripping the flesh off their bones.”

Ronan’s heart thumped hard and his gut roiled at the thought. But he didn’t believe it. Both Ivy and Quinn were too smart and too careful to be ambushed by some cabal sorcerers. Still, dread filled him and he had to swallow down the fury that bubbled up inside him.

If he found this to be true, there would be no place for Reggie and his ilk to hide. Ronan would hunt them all down and kill them, nice and slow. He had a lot of talent with a knife and oodles of patience.

Ronan turned and dove back down into the water. He had parked his stolen car about a mile down the shore in the event of something going wrong. Like it had. He would swim there, get in and find Ivy. Just to make sure.

Ivy unlocked the front door of the old bungalow and walked into the foyer. It had been over two years since she’d been in the house. It was the house that Quinn and she had shared with their father before he died. After his death, she and Quinn had lived there until Quinn did a runner. Then she’d stayed for maybe a year before forging her own path into the demon-hunting world.

But it felt good to be back. She flicked on the hall light. Everything was as she’d left it. All the furniture had been covered with sheets. The place had a musty scent, though, but nothing some open windows and air freshener wouldn’t cure.

She dragged her bags into the living room, then dropped them onto the hardwood floor. She whipped off the sheet from the sofa and collapsed onto it. She was exhausted.

The trip back from Sumner was long, hard and trying on all her emotions. She’d driven straight through without any long stops. The only time she did stop was to use the facilities or to get coffee and food.

Quinn had asked her to come with him to track down Ronan. But she’d refused. He’d left in another vehicle intending to find the cambion and kill him. Ivy didn’t want to be a part of that. No matter what Ronan had done, she couldn’t see him harmed. Well, maybe just a little. But by her hands, and no others.

She didn’t want to know what Quinn planned on doing. It was out of her hands. Her brother would do what he wanted. He would do what he had to, to retrieve the key. She understood that. The connection to honor and loyalty and a person’s word. It had been ingrained in her, as well. Their father had been huge on doing whatever it took to do the job. The job was the most important thing. Nothing else mattered.

Ivy ran her hands over her face and sighed, leaning her head back on the sofa pillows. She used to think that, feel it, live it. But after meeting Ronan and falling for him, she realized that there was so much more than following a path, adhering to a code. There was great sex and love and all the messed-up crap that came with it.

She looked at one of her bags on the floor and reached over with her foot, hooked it and dragged it over. She unzipped it and took out the white envelope with her name written across it. She had yet to open it. She was afraid to.

What if Ronan took the key and left because he’d been using her this whole time? What if he truly didn’t have any feelings for her? Then her ideas that she’d never truly been worthy of being loved would be confirmed. She didn’t know if she could face that. Sometimes she liked her delusions. They were safe.

She tore open the envelope and slid out the plain white piece of paper. She unfolded it and read.

Ivy,

I could say I’m sorry, but I know that doesn’t cut it. I imagine nothing would make what I did okay. To know that I have been searching for a cure for years, that I loathe the blood inside me, wouldn’t be enough. But do know and believe this...

That I didn’t fall for you because of the key. I fell in love with you because of you.

Ronan

She read it twice, then crumpled it up into her fist and tossed it across the room. Tears stung her eyes and she was about to wipe them away when she heard a noise at her window.

She jumped to her feet and rushed to the big bay window. She pushed the drapes aside and looked out into the yard and onto the porch along the side. There was no movement. But she sensed someone was out there, watching her.

Unsheathing one of her blades, she moved to the front door, quietly turned the knob and stepped out onto the porch. A cool light breeze blew her hair around her head and over her face. She looked to the right and then to the left but didn’t see any movement. A dog barked in the distance and she could hear the faint revving of a car engine nearby.

Then she spied it. A glint in the cypress tree in the yard. There was something hanging from one of the branches. Glancing around cautiously, Ivy stepped off the porch and crossed the lawn to the tree on the far corner.