Beloved (Heart Hunter Series Book 1)

Chapter 7

The living room grew darker as the minute s ticked slowly into hours and she woke from a clash of thunder. She lifted her sweaty cheek from his chest and his heavy hand cascaded down her back. He was still asleep and a bolt of lightning lit the room and side of his face. Her eyes went to the window and its lack of light. It was almost nightfall and her heart thumped from adrenaline.

She slipped out of his arms as Megan walked into the living room, with a cup of coffee. “I was just coming to wake you two up from your platonic cuddle fest.”

Kara wrinkled her nose and stood, waking James in the process. He caught onto what was going on and leaned forward, rubbing a hand over his face.

“You ready to go?”

Kara nodded to her.

“I’ll get my helmet.” Megan went to spin away but Kara stopped her.

“Maybe we should all take the car? There’s probably flooding.”

“I’m not afraid of a little rain—”

Another loud clap of thunder shook the walls around them. “Can I drive?” Megan asked.

“Not a bloody chance.” James stepped up beside Kara. “It’s a hire car. Under my name.”

Megan scoffed. “There’s insurance for a reason.”

“No, I’m driving.” He said to Megan as he walked around them and out of the room.

Megan made a hissing noise similar to a cat once his steps had faded down the hall towards the washroom. “Got a plan?”

“Not much of one. Aside tipping this town on end for information.”

Kara sighed. “Do you?”

“I’m all for beating some Demon up for lunch money.”

“If that fails…” Kara didn’t want to come to terms with the other plan she’d thought up because bringing James to see her psycho ex-boyfriend, who had eyes all around that town, really wasn’t going to go down well. “Back to the mountains.” “Smack down it is. I’ll get my coat.”

She nodded as Megan left the room and looked down to the corner where she’d plugged her phone into charge hours before. Now that it had a full battery, she could call Kyle and try to squeeze more information out of him. But when she did, it only rang once and went to voicemail. Either Kyle had skipped town or he was avoiding her calls, which didn’t give her much hope for that evening.

She found a tattered leather coat in the hallway and did up the buttons, one at a time until she got to the top where one popped off in her hand. The odd shaped wooden button she pocketed with a sigh as Megan showed up beside her.

“Where’s Sherlock Holmes?”

Kara shrugged as Megan came dancing around her with James’ keys in hand.

“Let’s ditch him.”

Kara grabbed them out of her hand. “Do you like to do everything alone?”

Megan paused under that thought and shrugged. “No, just most things. Anyway, it’s not that I don’t like him, I just think he might hold us back … kinda like he was holding you on the couch.”

Kara rolled her eyes. “He was not—”

“Yeah, no, he kinda was.” Megan snorted out a laugh. “You said you don’t like him like that.”

“My brother is missing.” She reminded Megan. “And I don’t.”

“You don’t?” Megan continued to question her.

“I don’t!”

There was a thump to the floor behind them and they turned to face James as he dropped his duffel bag to the floor.

“What are you arguing about?” He’d changed. Now in dark jeans, a black cotton shirt that contoured over every one of his muscles and a matchingng black hat on his head. Kara tried not to look down at her still soggy wet runners on her feet and lack of anything remotely clean she wore.

“You.” Megan admitted. James looked to her and creased his brow the longer they stared at one another. “Someone has my keys.”

Kara held them out for him as Megan swung around and left the house. James reached for the key ring, taking her hand with them and leading her outside. She tried not to think about how his fingers had entwined in hers and followed him down the steps and into the rain.

“Where to first?” James glanced over his shoulder to her.

Kara swallowed. “I want to go back to the club where Josh was stolen. I want to shake that place up for information. They’ve got to know something.”

He turned back away and their fingertips parted as they walked around opposite sides of the vehicle. Megan was in the back of the car first, feet up along the entire seat, uncaring to the mud she’d smeared across the cloth. “Put some music on.”

James started the engine. “I like the quiet.”

She leaned over his headrest. “You act like such a grandpa.”

James could be talented at ignoring people and this was no exception. Kara did up her seat belt as the car started to move, something Megan didn’t feel the need to safety up on.

“No, really, do you only listen to classical music?” The Hunter continued to tease him and her cackle followed.

James reversed the car, having to look back at Megan in the process.

“NSG, Polo G, Audio Push, Plies… should I keep going?”

Megan scoffed. “Bullshit!”

He pulled the car out onto the road and in the same moment found his fancy phone in his coat pocket, which hooked up to the technology advanced car audio system. He tapped the screen, turned up the stereo and a song full of bass ripped through the speakers.

Megan let out a howl. “That’s what I’m talking about!” She punched Kara’s shoulder with a laugh. “He just got so much h hotter! I called this, I told you he’s a bad boy.”

James grunted. “That right?”

Megan stuck her head next to his with her twisted smile center stage. “Yes, Sir!”

Oh my God. Kara sunk into her seat as the loud rap vibrated the door beside her.

“You like that, don’t you?” Megan continued to taunt and Kara couldn’t stop from looking over at him as he drove. He seemed unbothered but of course, James could keep himself in check far longer than the average person. It was one of his many talents.

“I think you’re a bit of a nymphomaniac,” he said over the blaring music.

“Oh, yeah, you know it!” Megan laughed and shimmied back along the seating with her head nodding to the beat. The awkward conversation fizzled but Kara caught a glimpse of James’ subtle amusement from it. She felt her cheeks heat and she tried to ignore how her heart had started to ping in her chest. Especially when his foot on the gas mimicked the increasing bass of the somewhat inappropriate song. It didn’t stop there but the music became a distraction along the deserted highway of blowing leaves and debris, she welcomed the next song. The closer they got to the city center, the more her blood sped. Until the adrenaline, fueled by her instincts and the deep bass of the music, made her feel like she was ten energy drinks in. She was more than ready to let her Hunter blood take over.

He stopped the car in the exact place she’d last seen her brother, and it took a lot to push past that fact. She got out of the passenger side and shut the door. The silence around them made her pause. No low bass thumping in the background, no muted Demon shrieks, no shifting noises coming from the shadows as Demon dropped in and out of their cloaks. There was nothing nor mal about it aside the lashing weather.

“What the fuck…” Megan muttered as she too caught on to the deadness of their surroundings.

Kara swallowed back the lump of panic. “There’s nothing here.” James looked across the car hood to her.

Her eyes met his and if he knew it too, that really meant there were no Demons to be found that night. Megan trudged across the road through the wind and rain without a word and Kara hurried to catch up. She ran around the vehicle and her old tennis shoe sunk into a six inch river barreling toward an overflowing storm drain. The water cascaded up her leg and almost reached her knee. She kept running after Megan and saw the Hunter slide behind the metal door that led to the normal nightclub hang out.

She grabbed the handle as it swung to close and stepped inside to the barren, dark interior. It might have still reeked like Demon but it had none inside. The neon light flicked across the floor of disturbed tables and chairs.

Megan grabbed a bottle of whiskey from behind the bar. “It’s been abandoned.”

James had stopped behind her and she felt his breath on her shoulder. “Because of the storm?”

Kara watched Megan take a few long swigs. “Not a chance. I’ve never seen this before. This place is always crawling with Demons.”

“It’s those fucking Demons in the mountains, they scared everything off and just made our job a lot harder.” Megan turned up the empty whiskey bottle and drained the last few drops into her mouth.

“We need to go back there.” Kara announced, turning as James stood in her way.

“ To the mountains?” he asked.

“Duh.” Megan walked around them, leaving the joint with only a few shots but it seemed to be enough for her.

“I don’t think we should go back until we know how to deal with them”

“And in the meantime, my brother is in their hands. What would you do, if it was your brother, James?”

He hesitated to answer her and it told Kara enough. “I think you should go home.”

“Excuse me? You’re telling me to leave, now?”

“I don’t want you here.” To admit her fear toward losing not only Josh but James too put her in a situation she couldn’t let happen. If they were going back into the mountains, James was not coming along. He stepped in so close she could feel his breath. “Why are you doing this?”

The tears stung her eyes. “I don’t want you to get hurt—”

“For fuck’s sake,” he exploded. “I’m the last person you need to worry about getting hurt!”

“How can you say that to me? You’ve seen those Demons. They mean business.”

His jaw clenched. “I’m coming.”

“You’re not. You need to go home . Now.” She brushed past him and their shoulders brushed together in the moment.

“Don’t do this, Kara.” His voice had become determined. “Don’t.”

She stopped before exiting the bar and turned toward him. “I just can’t lose you and him in the same day. Do you understand?”

He took a breath that seemed to take forever to leave his lungs.

“Perhaps I’m not as incompetent as you think I am.”

She let out a laugh. “You’re a human. Trust me, leave this mess to me. Go home.”

He stepped so close she could feel his breath fan her face. “Is that what you see when you look at me?”

“A human?” She wasn’t too sure what else the question meant. “That’s what you are.”

He stared at her with a creasing brow that ended in the most defeated of expressions.

“Take the car.” He held out the keys. “Go save your brother. If this is what it’s going to come down to, I won’t stand in your way.”

“James…”

“I’ll get my bag out of the back.” He walked for the door and she stumbled to keep up. Her heart pounding, he’d given her the keys, he’d backed down…

What the… She hurried after him. “Are you sure about the car?”

“Just take it,” he mumbled as they headed back toward the vehicle where Megan was waiting, smoking a cigarette. Kara pressed down on the fob to open the trunk and James grabbed his bag from it.

“What’s going on?” Megan looked between them and the weirdness that had begun to fizzle.

James slammed the trunk shut. “Kara’s decided to cut me out.”

Megan’s eyebrows lifted while Kara shut her eyes from the shade. The Hunter let out a quick giggle. “What for real?”

“For real,” he echoed and started to walk away.

“James…” Kara went to follow him.

“No.” He stopped her dead in her tracks. “Go find Josh.”

It made her all sorts of insane watching him walk away into the rain and darkness. His black clothes quickly disappearing into the even murkier surroundings.

She could believe many messed up things in her life, but this one, right at that moment made no sense.

Megan let out a whistle once James was out of view. “I am seriously impressed. I didn’t think you had that in you.”

Kara swallowed and got into the driver’s seat, again adjusting the settings. Megan jumped in the passenger side.

“And you convinced him to let you have the car?”

“I think it was a parting gift,” Kara muttered.

“Still being your bodyguard then. Seriously, doesn’t that make you wonder?”

“About what?” Kara started up the vehicle, trying to think of a plan in her clouded head.

Megan perked her brow with a smile. “Okay. So, what’s the new plan?”

Kara swallowed. “My ex-boyfriend.”

“What?”

“If anyone in this town right now knows anything, it’s Tom and his followers. I didn’t want it to come to this but he’s got eyes all around here. He won’t be pushed out by these Demons like everyone else seems to be. He’s a lot more… territorial, for lack of better words.”

“What makes him so special?”

Kara hated to jog her memory like she was but Megan had to know. “He’s the son of a drug-lord family, they run the east coast. They own it all. You can’t piss him off. He’s got a short fuse.”

Megan’s smile slowly glowed her features. “I didn’t peg you as so interesting. Drug Lord ex-boyfriends with anger management issues and a tall, dark and… Well, he’s plain hot, English boy following you around like a lost puppy. Spicy.”

She choked the way it made her feel, spicy or stupid?

“The point is, he’s not human and he will kill us.”

Megan gave a nod. “Got it, not human and crazy. No problem. My kind of night to be honest.”

The rain and wind continued as they drove. It wasn’t far to get there and when they rolled up to the strip mall of stores, all closed because of the storm, his wasn’t. Her eyes wandered to the mocha express hut.

“Which is it?” Megan asked.

“There.” Kara pointed across the street to the neon hot beverage sign glowing through the blur of the heavy rain.

Megan laughed. “A coffee shop?”

“Under the table drug operation, but yeah, whatever you want to call it.”

Kara rubbed her arms to instill some warmth but came to the conclusion she’d just have to endure the bone chilling cold the rest of the night.

“You are seriously getting more interesting by the minute.”

Kara rolled her eyes and got out of the vehicle. She walked across the road with every ounce of courage she had left. To m. The last family alone with him she had wasn’t pleasant. None of her experiences with him had been pleasant but some had been bearable and distracting. That was all she’d been after at the time and it had worked. Until it one night it hadn’t.

She pushed open the glass door that rattled an old school bell above their heads. The smell of java beans and bubble teas against the soft hum of percolating machines welcomed them first. A shelf of stacked magazines she’d memorized while waiting for him many times still threatened to tip to the floor. It had always been hard to read the glossy pages in the dim, fluorescent name but somehow she’d managed.

“Quite the storm!” A barista appeared from a back room, wearing a black apron but she wasn’t fooled for a moment. “What can I get for you?”

“You can get Tom for me.”

His eyes shifted between Megan and Kara. “Who’s askin’?”

“Tell him.” She couldn’t believe this was happening. “Kara Heart.” He eyed her up and down just like every supernatural oddity in that town who knew her name but not her face.

“Stay here.” He slithered away into the back room, where he’d walk up a narrow set of stairs to the loft suite above the shop. Megan poked around, playing with a few trinkets along the bar top. She let out a chuckle. “I hope this guy is as badass as this coffee shop.” Kara went to reply as the curtain for back room was thrown aside.

Tom stepped out, just as tall and lanky as before, aside his mocha brown hair now longer and falling across his brow. Their eyes met and they both tensed.

“Well, well…” He stepped around the bar. “It is you.” His ice blue eyesdarted over her. “Why are you here?”

She had one last moment to get her head in the ga me and seeing him had shoved her off the cliff. “I need to know what’s going on right now in this town and you must know what I’m talking about.”

He smiled. “You can’t show up here and demand things of me, that’s not how this works, Kara.”

She watched him approach with his slow glissade. A slithering walk she’d gotten to know very well. “My brother was taken, Tom, and I need to find him. I’m running out of time. You must have heard something. There’s

some Demons in the hills”

He paused while glancing next to her at Megan. “You made it super crystal clear you wanted nothing more to do with me.”

“That gives you all the reason in the world to know where Josh is! I know you keep tabs on me, Tom, don’t play me !” Kara snapped.

He smiled at her. “Still jumping to conclusions as usual. I don’t know where your baby brother is, Kara.”

Megan scoffed. “You gotta know something, aren’t you some big bad gangster?”

He laughed and pointed at Kara. “Is that what she told you?”

Megan crossed her arms. “Yeah, and that your parents are a bunch of drug lords. You must be the washout though of your family, super nice town they gave you to run.”

“Megan.” Kara snapped at her in a whisper.

His smirk slipped to a scowl. “Who’s your charming friend, Kara?”

“None of your business, Demon.” Megan went to lunge forward on him but he took her by the throat in a quick move, lifting her off the floor as his eyes flashed silver. Kara swallowed, she knew the warning well and it turned her stomach worse than her instinct of a near Demon. He dropped Megan to the floor like a rag doll. Leaving her to gasp for air while staring at him in astonishment with her bloodshot eyes.

Tom smiled down at the Hunter. “First things first, I’m not a damn Demon.” He crouched down to Megan’s level. “Got to love Hunters and their lack of instincts. You might as well just be humans with some enhanced, baby strength.”

Megan fumbled off the ground away from him. “I thought you said he wasn’t human?”

Kara stammered about her words. “H-he’s not…”

“That’s right, I’m not,” Tom approached with a grin and Megan’s brute crease in her brow vanished. “I’m all Lycan, baby.”

“Oh, fuck no!” Megan tripped over a chair and chucked it aside.

“You’re mixed up with Lycans, are you nuts?” She shot at Kara. “I’m out of here.”

“No, Megan!” Kara’s eyes widened as the girl fled the building. The bell rang and there Kara stood with a pounding heart, listening to Tom chuckle in the echo of the silent shop. Dejavu hit her hard, she didn’t need to be reminded of that one time with Tom and she dashed for the door.

“I don’t think so.”

His men appeared out of nowhere and blocked the door. She’d escaped him once before by chance and wasn’t sure she’d come up lucky again.

He turned her to face him, lifting his hand to her chin and looking her over. “This was all you had planned? I will admit though, you still make me hard. Just like the first time I met you at that party… Do you ever think about that?”

“Tom, I need to find Josh.”

He stepped back with a sneer of boredom. “You must know something.” “I do.” He nodded to his men who grabbed her from behind before she had a chance to brace against it. “But I think it’s fair to say… We’re not friends anymore so I don’t really feel like helping you.”

“I-I’ll make a deal with you.” She panicked. Afraid he’d take her and never let her go now that he had her again. She had been stupid i magining going in there with Megan would be easy-peasy but if she knew one thing about Tom it was how much h he was fascinated with her. “You can have me, but you have to let me go get Josh first. Ow.” She tried to free her arm from the twist one of the men had on her.

“Let her go.” He demanded and she was freed in an instant. “How am I supposed to believe you’ll hold up that end of the bargain?”

“Come with me then.”

He smiled. “Fighting Demon for justice isn’t one of my past times. I want nothing to do with this shit show.”

“Then just wait outside, I don’t care. Just help me. Please.”

“Wait outside?” He laughed with a shake of his head as he invaded her space, staring at her with that same desire he always had.

“Either you help me or… You don’t have me.”

“I could keep you here now. It wouldn’t be hard.”

Her heart pounded against her rib cage. “Let me get Josh, then I’ll be with you willingly…” She stepped against him and bit her bottom lip, getting the gumption to tell him her next words. “I promise.”

His expression hindered with the lift of his eyebrows. “Follow me.” He turned and walked toward the back room. “It’s a war against Hunters and it’s only just starting. These aren’t your average Demons. You won’t be able to

find them without this.”

“What do you mean?” Kara swatted a cobweb out of her face, only able to be seen due to the lonely light bulb hanging by a cord from the exposed rafters and insulation.

He shuffled about a desk in the far corner. “They’re using a dimensional hide-out to ghost themselves.” He lifted an amulet up out of a drawer and studied it. “These are the keys to gain access. They’ll even glow when you’re close.”

She recognized it right away, just like the pages of the book, Megan had been right. The same pendant that had been on the Demons in the woods was in Tom’s very real hands. “How did you get that?”

“Once I heard these new Demons were in town I had a few men track them down in the trails, I’m assuming you know where already—we caught one off guard with this, killed it for it. Turns out, this piece of old junk is worth some money but not as much as you are worth to me.”

She stared at him. “I’m just a Hunter, Tom.” And they were talking about an ancient artifact after all.

He just smiled in heinous reply. “If you don’t return to me. If you run off. I will find you. You won’t escape me this time, Kara.”

“I get it.” She snatched the amulet dangling from his fingertips and pocketed it. “See you on the flip side.”

He took her wrist when she turned to leave. “Maybe a goodbye kiss?”

Kara blinked up at him. She hadn’t expected to have to deal with her tumultuous decision until after Josh was safe.

The last time their lips had touched he had gone too far, and she let him know but all she ended up with was a backhand to the face.

It took her a week to muster the courage to end things with him and she almost didn’t get to. Even with Hunter blood sur ging through her, she had to run for her life. Rejecting him had shown her Tom’s true colors and proved she had a little bit of courage left.

He slipped against her, dropped his mouth to hers and she shut her eyes to pretend it wasn’t happening. It didn’t work. His tongue slipped against hers, forcing the taste of liquor onto her taste buds. He’d always loved straight vodka—a stark reminder of her own mother ’s alcohol abuse as well. He stepped back once satisfied, trailing his hands down her body. Even in the darkness, his eyes sparkled with desire.

“Do you know how many times I’ve dreamt of you willing yourself to me? Like in the beginning, when we first met.”

She swallowed.

“All I’ve ever wanted was for us to be together. You know that.”

“Yeah.” She glanced at the tightening hold he had on her. “I-I need to go.”

“Be careful.” He looked her over once more and dropped her wrist.

“And just think, no more having to buy drugs off that scuzzy Demon. He rips you off. I’ll take care of you again.”

She took a deep breath and turned away, not wanting to think over the many times she must have been stalked by his people over the past four months. She walked out of the back room, past his workers and into the drizzling rain without a glance back. He’d let her go, just like that. She couldn’t believe it.

“Thank fuck, I wasn’t going to come back in there for you!”

Kara squinted across the street and saw Megan puffing a cigarette. She marched straight for her. “I can’t believe you left me !”

“Yeah, well, Lycans… not my favorite type.”

“So unworldly Demons do it for you but not guys that turn into big wolves?”

Megan took a drag and then flicked the ashes off the tip. “I don’t trust them.”

Kara let out a burst of a laugh. “You’re unbelievable, there’s no difference!” To her, anything that could play two face qualified as a bad guy. “There’s a big difference,” Megan shot. “Ask my dead mother.”

Kara’s anger faded. “What?”

“My mother was killed by them. Ripped to shreds by the bastards and left to die. I found her just before she crossed into the Great Red Fire.” Kara saw the first signs of pain in Megan’s face, felt the blazing fury of vengeance and she knew in that moment that she’d chosen the right partner to help her rescue Josh.

“I’m—sorry. I just… I need your help.”

“Fighting Lycans. That’s not my thing—”

“There won’t be anymore. It’s just us and those Demons now, Tom wants nothing to do with any of it, but he did give me this.” She pulled the amulet out of her pocket to show Megan. Its blackened and tarnished surface barely reflected any light, only fragments of the red ruby in the center of the crusted metal caught the ambi ent street lamp glow.

Megan’s eyes widened and she snatched the amulet from Kara like a hungry bear snatching salmon from turbulent rapids. She was practically salivating. “This is it!”

“Yeah.” Kara nodded, the same pounding excitement mani festing as the boom of her heartbeat in her ears. “It will give us access to the dimensiona fold they’re using to hide in.”

“He just gave this to you?” Megan traced her fingertips over the center ruby, playing with the bumpy oxidized surface grasping the gem.

“Well, I…” The price she had to pay for it raked its tendrils deeply into her skin. “I made a deal.”

“Shit.” Megan’s astonishment bled her features. “You’re ballsier than you look.”

Kara hesitated, taking back the amulet. “Does that mean you’re in?”

“Totally.” Megan grabbed the passenger door handle. “Let’s kick it.”