A Hunter By Any Name (10 page)

I sighed with relief as my butt touched the bar stool at 1:55 am. I had made it to the bar in time I could get a shot of Jack with a beer chaser before last call at 2:00 am. The bartender nodded in my direction and I ordered.

I looked around again as I waited for my drinks. It was a little dive bar in the middle of know-where’s-ville and being a Sunday it was quiet with only one other table filled with 2 couples sitting at it. I had dropped Stephanie off a couple of blocks from her house. She seemed to take the “lose your virginity talk” well. But I guess after realizing there were wizards the idea of a virgin sacrifice was not that shocking. The fearful intelligence in her eyes told me she would take my advice and survive. I was glad.

I had driven south until I found a little town with an open bar. I washed up in the parking lot and hastily dressed my cut. I changed my shirt and had just made it into the bar in time to order a drink.

When I heard the bartender sit my shot of Jack and beer in front of me I turned back around. The TV was on above the bar and the person on the screen caught my attention but the sound was down so I couldn’t hear it. The woman on the screen was eerily familiar and I instantly knew where I knew her from. A foreboding chill ran down my arms. “Who is that?” I asked the bartender as I nodded to the screen.

He gave me a weird look that conveyed the fact that he thought I was stupid for not knowing. “That is the first female president of the United States. She was elected last November.” His tone was polite and it was obvious he was practiced in dealing with a lot of people he considered stupid. He reached to turn up the sound on the T.V. as he spoke, “The news has been replaying this announcement all day. She is looking for someone that she used to know.”

The women on the screen spoke. “I think that the first months of my presidency has proven to all the disenfranchised voters that rallied behind me to elected me that I am anything but the usual president. I have accomplished my first goal I gave you for my presidency. I overhauled the gun control laws making them simpler, easier to understand and in many cases more lenient. However, I made following them mandatory, increased the checks and balances to make sure they were being followed. I also made it a felony for anyone to not do a criminal background check before the sold a gun to an individual. This includes private individuals that sell guns.”

She had to pause while the crowd applauded her. Then she continued. “I know that it is unlawful for the President of the United States to use their position of power for personal gain but this is a small request so I hope you will forgive me in doing so. AND to be clear I am not asking for anyone to help me in any way. I do not want you to do Google searches. I do not want you to contact this person if you know her. I only want to hear from her. You see she is an old childhood friend of mine that I have lost touch with and she is the one that inspired and made it possible for me to become the President of the United States. So Samatha Taylor if you are out there I would like you to contact your local CIA or FBI department they will know how to get you in contact with me. AND once again I am stressing that I do not want anyone’s help in locating her. I only want to hear from her. Thank you for your time.”

I sat there stunned. That bitch had true named me. All my years of hard work and spells in assuming different identities so I couldn’t be traced and the first girl I had ever saved goes on TV and true names me erasing all my hard work.

For the first time in many years I truly panicked and I knew it showed but I didn’t care. I hastily too money out of my pocket and tossed it on the counter. I fled for the door knowing I had a long journey ahead of me. I had to start the hiding process all over again. Plus, now I knew there were Arihants in the world that were hunting me and I had to hide from them too.

Crap-o-la-on-a-stick!

I burst through the door in the parking lot and looked around. My panic was blocking all rational thought and I couldn’t remember what car I had driven here in. Was it a Equinox? No, that had been numerous cars ago. I told myself. Then I spotted the Acura across the parking lot.

Damn! Just when I didn’t think things could get any worse they did. There sat Mr. Brown leaning up against the front of my car looking down at his phone and pushing buttons on it. His hair was cut off strait below his jaw line and with his head tilted down looking at his phone it partially obscured his face. However, the strong profile of his nose and chin contrasted the soft straight hair and made him look sexy. The image of how his hair would swing back and forth around his face when he was naked thrusting inside me popped in my head and my panties moistened at the image.

A car door slammed shut behind me jerking me out of my inappropriate thoughts. I swung around to see who was behind me but it was just the couples I had seen sitting in the bar leaving for the night. I turned back and Mr. Brown had stood up and was walking toward me.

Shit! I really didn’t have time for him right now. I briefly remembered the image that had just ran though my head and regretted not having more time. He would have make a nice romp in that sack.

I walked toward him irritated and said, “Whatever you want the answer is no. I don’t have time.”

I started to storm by him to my car without stopping but he had the nerve to grab my left arm and stop me. That would have shocked the shit out of me but the pain he caused pulling on my hurt shoulder overrode any other emotions. I winced a little before I could stop myself.

Mr. Brown noticed, “Shit. Sorry, I forgot about your shoulder. I can stitch it for you if you want.”

He had changed his grip on my arm and was now almost cradling it tenderly but he had not let go of it. I glared down at his hand and then back up to meet his eyes. “I am perfectly capable of stitching up myself. I have years of practice. What I would like you to do is let go of me and allow me to get on my way.”

Mr. Brown’s eyebrows drew together and the gray clouds passed back over his eyes. He must have been disturbed by my statement. I wasn’t sure if it was my comment about stitching myself up or wanting to leave. I started to contemplate the answer to the question before I caught myself and remembered that I didn’t care.

“I have to go now. If you can find me anyone can. I am not safe right now. So spit out whatever it is you want so that I can tell you no and I can go.” I demanded.

“I want to come with you. I want to learn to fight the wizards with you.” Mr. Brown told me bluntly.

I must say that gave him a lot of brownie points. I do love a guy that can take orders and obey. But still he wasn’t coming with me. “No. It is too dangerous and you will probably get yourself killed. If The Goddess doesn’t like it when I think about killing you then She probably doesn’t want you dead.”

My statement must have shocked Mr. Brown because he dropped my arm instantly. It made my arm jerk and a pain shoot through my shoulder. I was thankful for the pain because it grounded me and reminded me of the danger I was in. I started walking to the CR-V and got in.

“Don’t you even want to know how I found you?” Mr. Brown asked.

“I am assuming a tracking spell.” I said.

“Yes and it worked.” He said.

“Do you want a cookie?” I called back to him over my shoulder.

“It is said that tracking spells don’t work on you but mine did.” Mr. Brown replied.

By this time I had gotten to my car and was opening the door to get in. From the sound of his voice I knew he had started following me and was behind me. I was half way in the car but stopped and stood up between the seat and the door. I turned to look at him over the door of the car.

“I’ll tell you what. If you can find me in two weeks then we will talk.” I said as I reached up and grabbed a couple of strands of my blond hair. I yanked them out and handed them to him. I grinned, challenging at him. I knew there was no way in hell he was going to be able to find me in two weeks.

Mr. Brown didn’t say anything. He just smiled back at the challenge clearly accepting the challenge. He reached up and took the hairs I held out with two fingers in a manner that respected their value. He nodded his head and turned to walk away. As he walked he started whistling a happy tune clearly thinking he was going to be victorious.

Mr. Brown had balls I will give him that. I thought instantly wondered what the mate to his balls looked like before I gave myself a mental kick. I didn’t have time for those thoughts. Still he was a lovely man and I felt sorry that I was about to knock him down a couple of pegs when he couldn’t find me.

Four weeks later I found myself in Newport, Oregon. My name is Hope Sanchez. I had auburn hair and I had even for the first time given myself a perm. I liked my curly hair. I was 32 years old. I had four sisters that all lived in New Mexico. They thought I was crazy for living in Oregon where it snowed. Our parents had unfortunately passed away a couple of years ago but my sisters and I were still close. I was the baby and had never been married. My sisters were constantly trying to set me up with men that lived next to them in the hopes I would settle down and move home.

I was currently sitting on a bench outside the Oregon Undersea Gardens. I wasn’t yet sure if I was on the hunt or not. There had been four suspicious disappearances of young teen girls ranging from 13 to 15. No one, not even myself, had found their bodies. I tried tracking the girls but I was unsuccessful. There was something blocking my tracking spell. Which only proved that there was a wizard involved. I just had to find him.

I was currently trailing a wizard that had gone into the Oregon Undersea Gardens. He was the second wizard I had trailed in this town. The first one I decided was harmless and so I had moved on to this wizard. The jury was still out on this wizard I trailed.

I was trying to enjoy the sun’s rays which were plentiful on this late July day. However, I wasn’t being very successful. The normal heat from the sun just seemed oppressive which was unusual for me.

Also, everyone around me was getting on my nerves. It was the height of the tourist season in this ocean town and there were wall to wall people everywhere. Okay, not wall to wall because I was outside but curb to curb. This is also why I was waiting outside the Undersea Gardens and had not gone in. I could not imagine how crowded the little room down under the water was currently. Okay, I could imagine it and it was the thing my nightmares were made of, me being trapped in a room with a wizard. No thank you.

Outside on the bench was bad enough. Currently there was a little kid liking an ice-cream cone sitting next to me. He had already dripped ice-cream on my leg two time! The mother was sitting on the other side of him talking on her smart phone ignoring the little kid. I was doing my best not to pass judgement on her but was not completely succeeding.

All and all the stress of the situation was getting to me and making me tired. Also, I admit it, I was feeling a little lazy. I had just taken three weeks off before moving on to this hunt. I had done my usual resupply and changed I.D.’s and personas. That had taken about a week. I then took two weeks to wander around while I waited to make sure Mr. Brown could not find me. I had even finally gotten to go see the cliff with the presidents faces on it. I had not been impressed. In fact the whole thing made me a little sad. Here was this beautiful cliff and someone thought “Hey, let’s deface it and put a bunch of president’s faces on it.” I think I will stick with natural wonders from now on, as long as they don’t involve water.

After two weeks I had given up on Mr. Brown following me and moved on to my current hunt, well if you could call it a hunt as I had yet to find anyone to hunt. It pissed me off that I had to waste two weeks waiting for him. The next Sabbat was the Lughnasadh on August 1
st
. I had to find the wizard that was taking girls before then if I hoped to prevent another abduction.

I spied the wizard that I was trailing coming out of the Undersea Garden and stood up to follow him, thankful I was finally going to be out of the little boy’s splash zone. However, as I got up to leave someone blocked my path which wasn’t unusual because as I said before it was curb to curb people around her. However, when I absent mindedly tried to step to the right to go around him he stepped in front of me.

That immediately grabbed my attention and my body instantly responded by going on the offensive. My left hand grabbed the sword in the sheath and angled it out away from my boob. My right had grabbed the handle and started to withdraw the sword. I stepped back away from the person in front of me at the same time my eyes started to evaluate my target.

The eyes that met mine were filled with well-deserved fear. They were also familiar brownish gray ones that belonged to Mr. Brown.

Shit! Shit! Shit! And crap-ola-on a stick. He had found me. I quickly whipped my gaze back to the wizard I was trailing but thankfully his back was to me and he continued to walk away from us.

“Shit.” I swore and Mr. Brown. “You really have the worse timing. How did you find me?” I didn’t really wait for or want an answer. Instead I let go of my sword and grabbed his hand. I started marching us down the street in the opposite direction that the wizard I was stalking had gone.

Even though I had not wanted an answer Mr. Brown started to give me one. “The spell wouldn’t work…” Mr. Brown started to explain before I interrupted him.

I turned and glared at him. I growled at him a low quiet tone through a tight lipped mouth. “Shut up.” I said emphasizing each word. “We do not discuss things like that in public when I am on the hunt.”

Mr. Brown had obviously not considered the fact that I might be on a hunt because his eyes went wide and he jerked his head from side to side quickly looking around.

“Stop that!” I snapped at him again. “No sudden movements. Act normal and follow me.” I growled at him again. We were going in the opposite direction of my car which I had parked along the beach at a state park. We would have to circle back around eventually but I did not want to be following a wizard with a newb in tow.

In the end it took us a half an hour to circle around through a residential neighborhood and to my car. For Mr. Brown’s sake this was probably a good thing because I was fuming. Mr. Brown must have realized this because he walked quietly beside me. He even returned my fake friendly smiles I gave him a few times when we passed by a group of people. People are always less suspicious of happy strangers. I was anything but happy and was afraid the people around us would pick up on my vibes so I tried extra hard to at least appear happy with Mr. Brown.

When we finally got to my car I started driving out of town. This was when Mr. Brown finally spoke in a pleasant tone. “How do you know where my truck is?” He asked.

I just looked at him like he had three horns.

“My truck is up ahead at a shopping center.” He explained.

“We are not getting your truck unless you want to get in it and leave and never try to find me again.” I said. But even as I said this I wondered what the hell I was going to do with him. I couldn’t just drop him off with a promise not to find me again. “How did you find me?” I asked him. Once I knew this then I could figure out what the hell I was going to do to him. A Forget Me Spell popped into my head and I started to run down the list of ingredients I would need before I realized he was talking. “Stop. Sorry, I was distracted. Start again.” I commanded him.

Mr. Brown sighed irritated at my command. However, he must have decided to let it go because he started his story from the beginning again. “The tracking spell didn’t work when I tried it.” He paused and eyed my hair. “Is it because you changed your hair color and got a perm?” He asked me.

That question floored me. What kind of newb was he? “No.” I said irritably and waited for him to continue with his story.

After a few seconds of uncomfortable silence he chose to continue his story. “All of your rumored killings seem to be around the oceans. I decided that we were close to the east coast so you probably wouldn’t hunt on the east coast next. You would change coasts and go to the west. So I started driving west. I just payed attention to the signs The Goddess gave me and eventually she led me to you.” Mr. Brown explained.

“What type of signs?” I asked skeptically.

“Just little things really.” Mr. Brown paused thinking before he continued. “One time I was at an intersection trying to decide if I should go right or left. Then a rabbit hopped out in the road in front of my car and hopped down the left road a little ways. So I followed the rabbit and went left. Then last night I was in the lobby of a Best Western in Kennewick Washington. This little girl was looking so intently at me for a few seconds. Then she ran over to a rack of brochure on the wall and plucked one off. Then she ran over to me and gave it to me.” Mr. Brown paused again lost in thought before he continued. “The brochure was for the Oregon Undersea Gardens. So I came here.” Mr. Brown shrugged his shoulders conveying how easy it had been for him.

Damn You Goddess! I swore in my head before I instantly regretted it. I swore all the time and could give a drunken sailor a run for his money but I never ever took The Goddess name in vain. But Shit! Shit! And Double Shit! What the hell was she doing to me? Obviously she wanted him in my life so the Forget Me Spell would not work on Mr. Brown or if it did The Goddess would just find a way to get him back in my life.

I glanced over at Mr. Brown and studied his appearance. He had a good physique that I could work with. He was trim and somewhat muscular. It shouldn’t be too hard for him to get into the shape I needed. Also, his facial features were plain. His hair could easily be changed. Plus, being a guy we could add or take away facial hair to help disguise him.

I sighed a loudly as I resigned myself to the fact that I had to keep him.

Mr. Brown heard me and looked over at me. “So I take it I get to stay with you?” He asked.

I sighed again. It took me a few seconds before I could bring myself to verbally respond. “Yes,” I growled out.

Mr. Brown smiled and I wanted to punch him for it. I started making plans and sighed again. I was going to have to abandon the hunt I had started. I had to retrieve my back up cache and then we were leaving right away. I was not even going to go get my items from my sleeping spot. Dang and I had found a really nice sleeping bag at the Salvation Army too. Already Mr. Brown was being a pain in my ass.

I wondered what his name was and debated on asking him but then decided not to. I didn’t care. He wouldn’t have it for long anyway. Damn it all to hell! I was going to have to let him in on my secrets and how no one could track me. I really hoped The Goddess new what the hell she was doing.

I looked over at Mr. Brown. He was happily looking out the window and enjoying the ride. We were almost to the shopping center where he said his truck was. “Do you have any weapons in your truck?” I asked him.

“No, just my sword on me.” He informed me.

“How about spell supplies?” I asked.

At that question Mr. Brown got even perkier. “No. Are we going to do a spell?” He asked way too eagerly.

I just looked at him dumbfounded. “How much experience do you have with spells?” I asked hesitantly, scared of the answer.

“Just a little. I was just made a full-fledged Arihants last year. Until then all the spells I have done were supervised. I haven’t had any reason to do spells since then.” Mr. Brown informed me with a twinge of regret.

Okay, I admit it. My mouth literally dropped open at that little tidbit of information. I turned into the parking lot of the shopping mall.

“Do you want me to follow you?” Mr. Brown asked, fully expecting me to drop him off at his pickup truck.

I turned and looked at him with raised eyebrows and a look of disbelief in my eyes showing him how stupid I though the question was. “Who knows where you are?” I asked.

“No one.” He said.

“Let me see you phone I asked as I circled the parking lot.” I spotted a truck with Michigan plates. I turned the driving wheel with my left hand to take us to it while I held out my right hand for his phone. He handed it to me. I griped the wheel and phone in my right hand while I pushed the button to roll down the window with my left hand. When I got close to his truck I pitched the phone out the window. I felt a little satisfaction when it hit the hood and shattered. I stepped on the gas and left.

“What the heck?” Mr. Brown asked me.

Did he just say heck? I wondered to myself. Oh my god said the 80’s valley girl in my head. He is innocent. I thought and in for one hell of a rude awakening. I wondered if he had ever even seen a dead body because there was no way in hell he had ever killed anyone. Shit! I think that is going to be my new favorite word. Shit, Shit, shitty shit.

“Let’s set some ground rules.” I said. Then I smiled. This was going to be fun. I was going to rock Mr. Brown’s world and not in a good way. I would worry about the dead bodies and killing later. “I am in charge. You have to do what I say, when I say it and not ask questions. Got it?” I asked and waited for a reply.

Mr. Brown just stared at me. Okay, it may have been the cliché saying that got to him. So I clarified things for him. “I mean it. My life is literally at stake here not to mention the countless potential victim’s lives. You have to agree to do what I say, when I say it. Maybe you can ask questions. Sometimes. But only when we are not on a hunt.” I paused and waited for his response.

When I didn’t get a response right away I stole a glance in his direction. Mr. Brown was actually thinking about this! I whipped the car over next to the road. “Agree or out!” I commanded him. “I am NOT playing games.” I glared at him.

Mr. Brown sighed. “Fine. I agree.” He growled out.

I debated on pushing the issue but then I thought of the Blood Oath Spell. No, that would be better than any verbal promises. I smiled in satisfaction, well okay maybe it was a slightly evil smile. I had me a newb and he was in for one hell of a ride.