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CHAPTER SIXTEEN

NERI

I love you, angel.

Neri froze on the way to the kitchen, her hands full of torn and colorful wrapping paper. Hunter spoke to her. Axel ran into the back of her and laughed, but when he walked around her and glanced at her face, his smile turned into a frown.

“What’s wrong?”

“Hunter’s in trouble.”

Kai shut off the water in the sink and turned toward her with a hand towel, wiping his hands dry. “I left him on the back porch about ten minutes ago. He was fine.”

Neri didn’t wait for the end of his statement. She shoved the armful of paper in the trashcan and ran to the back door, too shocked to teleport there. When she tried to open the door, something on the other side prevented the door from being opened from the inside. She closed her eyes and concentrated.

The wind blew, bringing the cold wind from the late fall evening and a sense of dread. She forced open her eyes, she whipped her head around the area. There was no Hunter.

She tilted her head to the side as her eye caught something near the door. As she walked closer, she spotted the twisted and mangled black box blocking the door from opening. With a shaky hand, she reached for it and yanked it loose from being wedged, flinching it when it splintered wood at the bottom of the door.

I’ll replace that.

With a gentle touch, she cupped the box in her hands as tears welled in her eyes. Without opening it, her instincts told her what lay inside and it broke her heart.

Hunter! Hunter, are you near? Answer me!

In her own mind, she sounded panicked. No matter how she tried to clear her head and figure out her next step, her mind kept repeating the same pleas again and again.

The door swung open from the inside and she got out of the way in time so it missed her by inches. People poured onto the porch and the moment they spotted the look her face, they became all business and searched. Gunnar, Jade, and Noah hopped off the tall balcony and searched for footprints in a sweeping motion until they disappeared through the trees.

“Did anyone alert to something in the last ten minutes?” Ghost asked.

The assassins who weren’t tracking shook their heads.

“Murmurs from the living room when Kai and Hunter spoke on the porch, but after Kai shut the door, there was nothing. If there was a confrontation, how did we miss it?” Axel asked.

Liv darted from her place at the door toward the corner of the balcony and bent down to examine something she found. When she reached for it, Kai bristled and Xander let out a huff.

“What it is?”

She held it with her thumb and forefinger, Liv examined it for a moment before she sniffed it. “A powerful horse or bear tranquilizer, by the smell and the size of the dart. It’s familiar to the one that struck Frost before the fight with Anzû.”

“Would…” Neri’s voice broke, and she cleared her throat before she continued, “is that enough to knock out Hunter?”

The tiny vampire shook her head. “No. Because of his size and Hunter’s enhanced healing, it would have taken at least three, maybe more.”

“Damian and Zahava. They didn’t set off the perimeter alarms, and they start at one hundred feet from the house. Also, there are sensors on the bottom of the steps of the deck. So Damian must have teleported onto the balcony after some long-distance surveillance and brought Zahava with him,” Kai said.

Dread flowed through her body with numbing ease as she realized the danger Hunter was in. Zahava’s capable of many things; torture and murder, but after their confrontation at Thalia’s house, she understood what Hunter meant to her and the evil woman wouldn’t hesitate to use the information to her advantage.

Images flashed in her head as different scenarios played out in her mind. Hunter injected with whatever new concoction Zahava’s doctors and scientist had come up with in the four years since Liv destroyed the bioweapon. Then she wondered why physical pain she would put him through if he refused to cooperate and give her whatever she demanded. Which Neri couldn’t even fathom what that might be.

Why didn’t they take her?

If they killed her, at least Hunter would live.

Neri focused on the situation.

“How do we find him?” Her voice wavered.