The Gathering Read online

  Leda entered a large and airy kitchen behind a homey living room as Amber dispensed coffee for all and tea for herself.

  Adrian dominated the room without saying a word, much the same way Hunter did, but with a difference. Where Hunter pretended to be nonchalant, Adrian simply took over. He leaned against the counter next to Amber as she prepared supper, cradling the coffee cup she handed him, and bade Leda tell him the entire story.

  Leda hadn’t wanted to talk much, but something about Adrian compelled her to spill the whole tale, from the moment she’d awakened to find Hunter in her lion’s enclosure to the moment she’d boarded the plane to come here.

  Amber studied Leda as she worked on supper, no doubt guessing Leda had left out some of the more interesting bits. Amber must know Leda hadn’t been able to resist Hunter, just as Amber had clearly fallen for Adrian.

  Adrian sipped his coffee, oblivious of the assessing glances Amber and Leda exchanged with each other. Once Leda had finished her story, Adrian filled her in on things she didn’t know. They’d heard from Darius, who was in Manhattan, working with a werewolf-witch woman who was a bounty hunter of all things, the two of them having run-ins with nasty demons there. Also, a witch called Christine had contacted them a few days ago to say she was on Kalen’s trail in Scotland, but they hadn’t heard from her since.

  Over supper, Amber told Leda about her adventures with Adrian, with input from Valerian and Sabina—their determined search for Tain and the discovery that a demon held him captive. Comparing notes, Leda and Amber decided that the demon who’d attacked the island must have been Kehksut, drawn to Hunter when he used a word of power, and Kehksut who’d stolen away Hunter and tried to bury him. The discussion was less than happy.

  After supper, Leda wandered to the back porch for a few moments to herself. The Institute had a branch here, and she’d contact them in the morning regarding food for Mukasa. Adrian said he’d fetch the food himself, not liking anyone to leave the protection of the house. For tonight he sent Valerian to buy meat at the nearest grocery store, which Mukasa now ate happily.

  Leda had only a few moments alone before the back door opened and Adrian joined her. He closed the door then leaned on the porch rail next to her, looking over the green strip of land that wound behind the houses.

  “This is a magical place,” Leda said. Magic sparkled and shimmered in the air, although something didn’t feel quite right.

  “We did the Calling spell there.” Adrian pointed to a circle of green near tall trees, ribbons hanging from branches. “When the demon broke it, his dark magic produced—the best word is a pocket—of unreality. A ripple with the Goddess knows what waiting behind it. I’ve been finding them all over the city now.”

  Leda nodded, her heart heavy. “Hunter sensed the same thing. In Los Angeles, he said they were hiding what was real.”

  “It’s like ripples on the surface of the ocean,” Adrian said. “You know there’s an entire world under those ripples, but you can’t see it until you dive in. I believe the ripples will grow until they open up and swallow all life in the world.” He nodded toward the grove. “The strong life magic here keeps this one in, but one day it will break.”

  Leda hadn’t been able to sense the pockets Hunter had in Los Angeles, but this one she could almost see, as though she viewed the grove through slightly wavy glass.

  “The Calling must have been a powerful spell,” she said. “I can still feel the residue.”

  “The backlash was just as powerful. It killed Amber.”

  Leda looked up at him in surprise. Amber had left this particular fact out of her stories. “Killed her? What are you talking about? She’s alive and well.”

  “Amber died when the demon broke the spell. I took her to Ravenscroft and begged for her life. Isis gave it back to her. I tell you this so you understand exactly what can happen when you become involved with an Immortal.”

  Leda gave a light laugh. “It’s too late for that. I’d say I’m involved. And I can’t help thinking that Hunter, not to mention the other Immortals, would get found faster if you went out and helped look.”

  Adrian turned his gaze to her, white sparks swimming in his eyes. He was a dangerous man, older and more powerful than Hunter. Leda knew with every part of her that Adrian could easily kill her, and she wouldn’t stand a chance against him.

  “I made a bargain with Isis,” Adrian said in a quiet voice. “I promised to stay here and let my brothers come to me. I can’t look for them, even though Hunter might be lost, Darius in trouble, and Kalen . . . Goddess only knows. If you think it doesn’t kill me to stand here while they’re missing, while Tain is in the power of Kehksut, you’re wrong. I want to tear the world apart to find Kehksut and make him pay for every hurt he’s caused Tain and my brothers, not to mention Amber.”

  Adrian broke off, his mouth in a grim line, and trained his gaze back to the grove. White sparks played a little in the darkness, his power barely contained.

  Leda rested her hand on the railing, near his. “I’m worried about Hunter too.”

  Adrian didn’t look at her. “I was so close to helping Tain. If only I’d been able to hold on to him before the demon took him away . . . But I was too slow, too weakened.” His hands tightened on the railing, the wood creaking beneath his fingers.

  “You’re staying for Amber, aren’t you?”

  Adrian nodded once. “Isis gave Amber back her life; I stay here and let my brothers play their parts.”

  “It’s hard for me too,” Leda said, understanding. “Hunter has done a lot for me—more than anyone ever has. And when he was in trouble, and hurt, I couldn’t help him.”

  Adrian finally met her gaze, his eyes glinting in the darkness. “Why should you have been able to? You’re not an Immortal.”

  “No, but I’m a pretty damn good witch.” Leda let out an exasperated sigh. “I should have been able to do something.”

  Adrian gave her another nod. “You can do something. When it’s time, you can help kick this demon’s ass, and you can help Amber stay safe. Decide to avenge Hunter, as I plan to avenge Tain.”

  Leda liked that he hadn’t told her to stay behind the lines and hide while he and others like Valerian fought. Adrian seemed to sympathize with how Leda felt—angry, guilty, and scared for Hunter all at the same time.

  Avenge him. She could do that.

  Leda nodded. Adrian returned a fierce smile, and Leda relaxed. They understood each other.

  Leda stayed with Amber a week before they heard any more news. During that time she helped Amber research Kehksut and spells to stop him as well as spells that might find Hunter and the other brothers. Leda heard from Samantha, who said she and Fulton were still searching for her mother, Samantha not yet ready to give up hope.

  At the end of the week, Lexi, the werewolf-witch bounty hunter who’d had a lead on Darius, reported that things were heating up in Manhattan. Darius knew Adrian was looking for him, but he wanted to stay and figure out what was going on. They heard nothing at all from Scotland and Christine but did get word that Coven of Light witches there had been murdered, which threw a cold pall over the house.

  The night the moon reached its darkest point Leda lay awake in her bed, staring at the ceiling. She missed Hunter. She ached with it. He’d invaded her life, and now she felt nothing but emptiness. She missed his lazy smile and rumbling voice, the sexy growl he made before he kissed her. She missed his gentleness with the animals and his absolute courage in the face of his enemies. Hunter knew he should be afraid—he simply refused to be.

  Hot tears trickled down Leda’s cheeks. She thought about how Hunter had burst from the ground front of Septimus’s club, cloaked in white light, and had stared at Leda without recognition. Hunter hadn’t known her, and that fact stabbed her through the heart. Even if they found him, she might have lost him forever.

  Dimly she heard Mukasa growling in the darkness outside, then he gave a warning roar that abruptly cut off.

&nb
sp; Leda was out of bed shoving her feet into a pair of shoes before her mind completely registered what she was doing. She tore down the stairs in her nightshirt, a few steps ahead of Adrian, who was joined by Amber, then Valerian and Sabina behind them.

  Adrian tried to stop Leda before she could open the back door, but her terror for Mukasa overrode her caution. She unbolted the door and flung it open.

  Hunter lay on the back porch, his naked body folded into a fetal position. His skin had regenerated, pink and raw, his cheeks were pockmarked where the dirt under the street had crushed him, the bridge of his nose flat where it had been broken. The only place on his body without blemish was the pentacle tattoo on his abdomen, and that was whole and uncut.

  Mukasa stood over Hunter, swiping his tongue over Hunter’s face, though the lion moved when Leda dropped to her knees beside Hunter’s body. Adrian knelt on Hunter’s other side, his hand gentle on his brother’s shoulder.

  “Want me to call an ambulance?” Valerian asked, worried.

  “I think he’s past the worst,” Adrian said, his voice subdued. He touched a lengthwise scar on Hunter’s back, knowing what the marks meant, that the demon had tortured him, had cut him deeply. “His body will heal on its own.”

  Leda lifted Hunter’s head onto her lap and smoothed his hair, which was matted and filthy. His face was rough with beard, his body streaked with dirt.

  Leda didn’t care at this point if he didn’t remember who she was. She leaned down and kissed his lips, feeling them rough and chapped beneath hers.

  As she lifted her head, Hunter’s eyelids fluttered. After a moment, a slit of green appeared, then his eyes opened all the way, clear and focused. A smile cracked his lips, a ghost of his usual wickedness behind exhaustion.

  “Hey, sweetheart,” Hunter rasped, his voice broken. “Miss me?”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Secure in Amber’s home, Hunter convalesced in Leda’s bedroom. Mukasa had pushed his way into the house and stretched his lion’s length across the floor at the foot of the bed, great golden eyes challenging anyone to kick him out.

  Leda didn’t spend much time out of Hunter’s sight either. She sat and read, or rested at his side, alert for any change in his breathing. Could an Immortal get a fever, or infection? Or did he simply need quiet to recuperate? He seemed content to hold her hand as much as she needed.

  At first she thought Hunter reluctant to tell them what had happened to him, but she soon realized that he didn’t remember much. Bits and pieces returned as he lay healing, and he gave a disjointed account over the next few days.

  “How could she do that to you?” Leda demanded when he described how the demon had cut and skinned him. She’d seen him flayed raw and couldn’t imagine the pain.

  Hunter shrugged. “She’s evil.”

  “I don’t understand how Tain could stand by and let his own brother be tortured.” Leda felt the love Hunter had for his brothers when he’d told her stories, and she’d witnessed it the past few days between him and Adrian.

  Adrian explained from where he lounged in the corner. “Kehksut has broken him.”

  Hunter agreed, his expression somber. “I thought maybe she’d trapped him, and he wanted rescue, but when I practically handed him a way out, he wouldn’t take it. I think the technical term for our brother is whacko.”

  Adrian flinched but didn’t dispute him.

  “I’m sorry,” Leda said, heartfelt.

  “Not your fault, sweetheart. He did it to himself.”

  “I mean I’m sorry for you and Adrian. To lose him like this.”

  Hunter peered at her, his eyes clear and green. “You know, for a kick-ass witch, you’re really sweet.”

  “Kick-ass?”

  Hunter splayed a large hand over her thigh. “Kick-ass and sexy.”

  She fought a smile. “I can tell you’re feeling better.”

  Hunter slid his arm around Leda and tried to pull her to him. “Want to see how much better?”

  Leda pushed at him, and he grunted in pain. “Ow. Damn witch.” He glanced at Adrian. “Give me some sympathy here.”

  Adrian shook his head, amusement in his dark eyes. “Even Immortals need to heal before they do any strenuous activity.”

  “I heal fast,” Hunter told Leda with a wicked grin. “I consider it my Immortal duty to give pleasure as soon after battle as possible.”

  “Oh sure,” she returned, her heart squeezing. “So self-sacrificing.”

  “Hey, I aim to please.”

  Leda kissed him on the mouth. “You are so full of bullshit.”

  Hunter tried to continue with the kissing, despite Adrian in the room, but Leda pushed away again, still curious. “When you came out of the fissure, you didn’t know me. What exactly happened down there? I was trying to call upon Kali to help— did she?”

  “She came.” Hunter’s eyes darkened. “Thank you for that, love. The demon broke every bone in my body and stripped my psyche down to its core. Kali lent me her strength. She infused me with her god-powers to help with the healing. If she hadn’t, I’d be worse off than I am now. Consider her a mom bandaging a skinned knee.”

  Leda smiled and rubbed her thumb over his wrist. “Bandaging it with Destroyer powers.”

  “Maybe. All I know is that when I blasted my way through the rock, cloaked in Kali’s magic, I was a little out of it.”

  Leda nestled against him, her heart beating faster as she remembered the way Hunter had seen her and not seen her. “Hunter, the master of understatement.”

  “Becoming the warrior kept me from having to face reality full on.” Hunter’s eyes dimmed, a haunted look entering them. “Sometimes it’s best not to.”

  “I understand.” Leda rested light fingers on the pentacle tattoo that showed above the blankets. “The demon never touched this.”

  “She couldn’t for some reason. There’s goddess magic in it the demon didn’t like.”

  “Kehksut didn’t touch mine either, now that I think of it. Could be useful,” Adrian said.

  “That’s what I thought. We have to have something on our side to thwart her nefarious plan.”

  “What nefarious plan?” Leda asked, senses alert. “Besides the one to drain the world of magic, I mean.”

  Hunter loosely clasped Leda’s fingers. “Something involving all the Immortals. She wants the five of us in one place, she let that much slip.”

  “Maybe she wanted it to slip,” Valerian rumbled from the doorway, pausing from whatever he’d headed upstairs to do. “So you’d think that.”

  Hunter shook his head. “It was pretty clear she wants us all together.”

  Valerian frowned. “Why do you keep calling Kehksut she? When Adrian and I fought Kehksut—once at the club and once at the Calling—he was definitely male.”

  “I think Kehksut has reasons for keeping one form over another,” Hunter said. “Besides, she tried to sexually assault me, so it’s less disturbing to think of her as she. But, strictly speaking, demons are its—genderless—no matter what they project to the rest of the world.”

  “Samantha’s father doesn’t seem to be an it,” Leda said.

  “He’s a lesser demon,” Hunter said. “They choose one sex or the other early on and stick to it. The more powerful the demon, though, the more subtle and manipulative. They change forms or appear to different people in different guises for their own reasons.”

  “That’s true,” Adrian said. “You’ll see an Old One pop up again and again throughout history—different name, different guise, same evil demon.”

  “This one is very ancient,” Hunter said. “Powerful enough to keep me bound and unable to fight whatever she wanted to do with me. She’s stronger than any of us individually.” Hunter’s gaze moved to Adrian. “You decided we brothers should gather against Kehksut, but I think that’s what she wants.”

  “Then why destroy the Calling spell in the first place?” Leda asked. “Why not let you get together and then capture you at th
e same time?”

  “Could be she wasn’t strong enough.” Hunter laced his fingers with hers. “Maybe she needs to collect us one at a time, to build her strength from breaking each one of us in turn.”

  “Not a good thought,” Valerian said.

  “That’s why we’ll keep looking for Kalen and Darius,” Adrian said, rising from his chair. “Hunter, you concentrate on getting healed, I’ll pry our other two brothers out of hiding.”

  Adrian and Valerian left them alone then. As soon as the door closed, Hunter rolled over onto Leda, his body warm and strong, smelling of soap.

  “Hunter,” she began, pressing her hands to his shoulders.

  “Talk later,” he growled. “I need to reassure myself that you’re here—with me. That I really do have you, and not an illusion.”

  Leda touched his face, which bore lines that hadn’t been there a week ago. “I’m not the one most likely to be an illusion, Immortal man.”

  “That’s why I like you. You’re solid and real. You ground me.”

  Leda smiled up at him, the warmth of his body relaxing her. “Sweet talker. Most women want to be told they’re amazingly beautiful.”

  Hunter went serious, all banter gone. “You are amazingly beautiful, Leda.”

  “With an incredible personality.”

  He grinned again. “That’s my darling. I missed you.”

  Leda slid her fingers behind his neck. “I missed you too.”

  “It wasn’t Adrian’s magic that lured me here, you know.” He nuzzled her throat, breath warm, sending shivers along her spine. “It was yours.”

  “Mine?”

  “Your beautiful golden magic waiting for me in this house.” He kissed the tip of her nose. “Well that, and Septimus told me where you were.”

  Leda gave a startled laugh. “You found him?”

  “He found me. I was stretched out on the beach behind Adrian’s house, outside the shield. He got me into Kelly’s place and took good care of me, probably because he’s worried Adrian or I will kill him for letting me get captured. He got his vamps to fly me up to Seattle and drive me here from the plane, but they would only dump me at the back door and run off. Too much life magic in this house for them.” Hunter stroked Leda’s hair back from her face. “Septimus really is trying to help, so he’s safe from me. Not too long time ago, I might have killed him simply because he was a death-magic being, but I can’t get into killing for the sake of it anymore.”