Page 35 of Bird on a Blade (Hunter’s Heart #1)

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

SAWYER

A s soon as I see the dark car pull up to Edie’s camp, I know something’s wrong. I can smell the stranger’s fancy cologne and a rippling undercurrent of malice. But that’s not what worries me.

It’s the other scents, too.

Men. Men who are accustomed to killing, although they ain’t Hunters. At least two of ‘em, although there may be more.

I slip through the trees, getting closer to the clearing. I didn’t want to leave Edie alone in the cabin—I know she’s scared—but I’m sure as shit glad I did now. I didn’t tell her my reasoning, just said I needed to finish up the preparations. I didn’t want to scare her further. But I wanted to be out here, out in my element, in case her piece of shit ex tried anything tricky.

And it certainly seems he has.

I follow him in the shadows, watching as he strolls up to the cabin, which is lit up bright in the darkness. The air’s heavy with the impending snow and crystallized with cold, but the cold is good. It heightens things. Makes it easier to hunt down the others.

I just hope he doesn’t do anything to Edie right away. Times like these, I wish I believed in Jaxon’s gods. I know the Christian god ain’t gonna listen to my prayers. But Jaxon’s gods might, and I’d like knowing a god is on Edie’s side.

But I don’t believe in them, and so Edie just has me. I’ll work fast.

Her ex is knocking at the front door. I wait until he goes inside to pull my attention away from him and spread it out through the woods. I keep Edie’s presence in the background. She’s scared, but it’s the same fear I’ve been smelling all night. It seems the asshole is gonna let her talk, at least for a little while.

I pull back into the woods and stand very still, eyes closed, listening and smelling. The cold might as well be a white searchlight, the way it illuminates everything in the darkness. And there’s not much out here, not with that snowstorm coming. The mountain animals are all hunkered down in their little hideaways. Only animals left are the humans.

It doesn’t take long for them to announce themselves: a rustle of fallen leaves here, a broken twig there. One of ‘em even coughs, a small puff of air. That one’s close; the wind gusts, and I catch his scent, strong and sure. He ain’t scared.

He’s about to be.

I move toward the scent, working as fast as I can. I don’t know how much time Edie has. Fortunately, I know these woods well, and it only takes a minute or two until I spot my prey. A gorilla of a man, with big shoulders and a huge chest. Dressed all in black. He’s got a rifle, the sight of which sends a phantom pain ringing through my skull.

I can not let him shoot me in my head.

I come around behind him. I wish I could take my time, play my little games. But I’m not killing for me tonight, so I just dart up to him and wrap my arm around his thick neck and draw my blade across his throat.

The snow’s almost here because the gurgle he makes as he topples forward is as loud as a thunderclap. I grab the back of his shirt and ease him down, just in case the other is nearby.

No. Others . With one gone, I can sense there are two more. One’s out behind the cabin, the other’s across the clearing. Triangulated around my Edie. But she’s my perfect prey. Not theirs.

She’s still scared. Scared, and a little angry. I move toward the man behind the cabin.

Halfway there, the snow starts. I feel it rather than see it, little blooming bursts of cold through my clothes. The forest goes even quieter, so quiet I can’t silence my footsteps proper ‘cause there’s nothing for me to blend them in with.

“Who’s there?” The voice is sharp and commanding. A military voice. He’s trying to intimidate me but all he does is draw every ounce of my attention to where he’s crouched beside a big white oak tree, sweeping his gaze around through what I can only assume is some night vision scope on his rifle.

I know I shouldn’t. Edie’s panic is rising, and I can’t fuck around. But I also can’t help myself.

I let him see me. Just for a moment, through his night vision. Then I dart sideways, ducking into the shadows. Making him doubt what he saw.

And it works. His fear curls through the air, dark and intoxicating.

“Freeze!” He shouts. “I’m armed and authorized to shoot.”

I somehow doubt that, but at the same time, I’m not taking any chances with a gun. I move around sideways, slow and steady. It’s easier now because the snow’s falling more thickly, making a staticky noise up in the half-empty tree tops.

My prey whirls around, gun flashing. I wait until he turns away from me, and then I slam my knife into the base of his spine. He screams, a sound I cut short when I jam the blade into the side of his neck. When the snowflakes hit his blood, it steams.

I let him fall. Let him make noise. There’s one left, and he’s on high alert, fear and adrenaline spiking. If I can get him to come to me?—

But then Edie’s fear erupts.

It drowns out any other scent in the forest. It drowns out any sound in the forest. Any sight. For a moment all I see and hear and smell and taste is her terror. My chest seizes up, and I lunge forward toward the cabin, my blood-slick fingers tight around my knife.

If that sack of shit does anything to her?—

Footsteps to my left. I tense, glancing sideways and scanning the darkness for the final soldier—or whatever the fuck they are. The snow’s falling more thickly, turning the world to static, but I see a flash of green light, the gleam of a gun.

“Freeze!” the voice shouts.

Edie’s terror is the sweetest perfume I’ve ever smelled, but it also coils a sick knot of worry in my stomach. All I want is to stride through the snow toward her, to stop whatever her ex is doing or about to do. But that soldier will shoot. I can hear the promise of violence in his voice.

I can’t fail her, my perfect prey.

So I grunt out my frustration and then do as he says, tightening my fingers around the knife. He comes closer, moving out of the shadows until I can see his outline. He watches me through the gun, the scope gleaming a little.

“Put your hands up,” he orders.

I do, even though it means he sees my Bowie knife.

“Drop it,” he says.

Edie’s fear wafts out of the cabin and curls through the snow. Everything is sharper in the cold.

I need to get to her.

“Drop it,” the soldier says again, moving closer. “And take off that fucking mask.”

Everything is sharper in the cold, and that will work to my advantage .

I lunge sideways with every ounce of my Hunter’s speed. He fires off two rounds, but they splinter the trees behind me, loud as explosions. I tackle him, my knife sliding into his neck over and over, hot blood gushing all over me. For a moment, it’s all I can smell, that metallic coppery tang. One of my favorite fucking scents in this world.

And then I smell Edie’s fear again, lifting over it, and that’s even better.

I stand up and he falls over dead, his blood dark against the white of the accumulating snow. I take just one moment to check if there are any others.

There aren’t. Just Edie’s ex. And I have very specific plans for him.

I run as fast I can toward the cabin, drawn forward by Edie’s terror. I’m manic and furious at the thought of her ex hurting her. Killing her. She’s my prey. My treasure to stalk and hunt a thousand times over. I will not let some human psychopath take that away from me.

The lights from the cabin shine up ahead, as bright as a bonfire. There’s about an inch of snow on the ground now, and that makes everything brighter, too.

His blood is going to look so pretty against all that white.

As I come up to the cabin, I start to hear them through the walls. He’s grunting softly, and her heart’s pounding violently fast. What the fuck is he doing to her?

I race around to the front, my own breath sharp and panting inside my mask.

Then I slam the door open to a flood of artificial light.