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The curious Hunter asked me about Grams, about Kate and my classmates, about the things I did before everything changed. He never once brought up Phillip or anything in relation to the Austrian’s sudden arrival. He didn’t mention Eros or overthrowing the Organization. The gorgeous Brit barely mentioned our entire Hunter schtick.

The dude was a genius. It was clever the way he knew how to get me to talk about things I hadn’t thought about since Phillip came into my life. It was a distractive method, one I’d learned myself, but goddammit if it didn’t work like a charm.

“Where are we going?” I finally asked after Sloan dragged details out of me about Cici. “Are we hiding underground or with other Hunters?”

Sloan’s grin was impish. “It’s a surprise.”

“What am I, five? Besides, nothing surprises me anymore,” I complained as we strolled out of the airport, no luggage to our name and somehow perfectly inconspicuous.

“This will,” was all he replied before he hailed a taxi, and then we were on our way to some obscure address Sloan gave the driver.

It took two hours from the airport to get to the address Sloan gave the driver, who was thankfully quiet and didn’t try to make conversation with us. I wouldn’t know how to after leaving Phillip behind to his uncertain fate in Austria. The address Sloan gave wasn’t a location I knew in California. Granted, I didn’t know most places in California except for the ones raved about by Kate or on the news.

I’d never been out of state in all my eighteen years, and in a matter of weeks I’d been to several different states and a totally different country. In the next few years, I doubt there would be places that I hadn’t been. If I lived, that is. It was a new experience to say the least, traveling all over the place, and I took it all in the only way I knew how—with a sigh and a shrug. Thankfully, it kept me from thinking about my new life as a Hunter, or really as a woman with the blood of a vampire and whatever the fuck else was in me.

A life that had begun in utter chaos.

The taxi slowed to a stop in front of a small house, and once we got out, Sloan walked in an entirely different direction. “This way.”

Curious, I followed him down the street towards a line of trees. His hand reached for me, palm up, and I looked down at it for a moment before taking it. Sloan led me down a path, picking up speed naturally with our abilities, and in only minutes we covered miles of ground, headed deep into the forest. Soon, we were surrounded by nothing but wildlife with no buildings or houses anywhere nearby.

Sloan’s lips tilted. “Just a little farther.”

“This is giving off major murder documentary vibes. If you’re taking me somewhere you plan to kill me, let me just remind you that I’m stronger and faster, so you don’t stand a chance, buddy.”

His rich, surprised laughter soothed the tight feeling in my throat. Brushing back his hair, which was finally starting to look normal, Sloan offered me a devilish grin. “Can’t say I blame you for being suspicious, but it’s important to keep our path here confused and untraceable.”

“Fair enough.”

Hunter 101: Move in ways that can’t be easily traced.

We were up against our own kind. Maybe even better. All precautions were necessary. And from how Sloan made it sound, we weren’t going to stay on the move. We were putting up shop wherever the hell we were going. So, the kinds of precautions we took were even more necessary because we couldn’t be followed.

Finally, when it felt like I’d spent hours looking at the same dirt path and high-climbing trees, we arrived at a cave entrance. It was a clever place to go since very few would know where to look for it. Off the map, untraceable, no digital footprint. A perfect place to hide.

“So, a cave,” I commented, amused. Then a voice and scent hit me that damn near sent me into a verbal outburst.

“Not just any old cave. The best cave there ever was!” the deep, impressionable male voice said from behind me.

I turned full circle, unable to hide my surprise, and stared at the last man I ever thought I’d see. His chocolate-dark eyes and beaming white smile hit me like coming home to Grams, and I couldn’t stop myself from smiling back. “Nigel!”

Sloan crossed his arms over his chest, happy with himself, and watched the two of us collide in a hard hug. He didn’t interrupt our happy reunion as the entire pack came out of the cave to greet us, and it was minutes of chatter before I realized what it meant to be around them.

“This was your grand idea?” I finally asked when Tiff let me go. The chick squeezed me with her insane strength for nearly five minutes straight. “Nigel’s pack?”

“I figured who better to help us than the man who stood beside you before us,” Sloan explained, eyes on Nigel. “Thank you for letting us come here.”

Nigel’s jaw clenched. “I’d do anything for V, so no thanks necessary.”

Tiff swooped in, looping her arm through mine, and led me into the cave ahead of everyone else. “I have so many things to show and tell you. It’s really just swell that you’re staying here with us!”

For a second, I forgot what a crappy day I’d had, or that I was nearly done in by a bastard of a Dark Fae. For a minute, it felt like coming home, and I totally submitted to the spritely she-wolf talking a mile a minute beside me. Tiff’s excitement and jubilance stole away my sorrow, my guilt and shame, my slow heartbreak. Somehow, being with Nigel and his pack felt like we could have a real chance at tackling the Organization.

So, I decided in that moment to enjoy Tiff’s company and ignore the reality that, somehow, I’d stopped time. I’d believe Phillip had gotten away and that it was only a matter of time before he came crashing back into my life, much like when I first met him. For once, I chose optimism and hope. Because in no way, shape, or form was this over.

No, we’d only just started.

To be continued...

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