Being bested by a human, and a female at that, was one of the most humiliating things to ever happen to him. Hunter had been toying with her, following and slamming his mace into every table to give himself the thrill of her fear mixed with adrenaline. He knew he was a bastard for doing it—a downright fucking animal who wore human skin. And maybe that's why he let his guard down.
It had to be.
"Hey, hey!"
The words were low and far away, echoing through his clouded mind. He was staring, unseeing, at the slow healing hole in the center of his stomach, chest moving up and down slowly, lungs watery.
"You gotta get up man," Eden called, coming into view with the ghoul's body floating along behind him, crooked and sick looking.
Hunter blinked at it.
She bested me.
"Yeah, no shit!" Eden shouted, making Hunter realize he'd uttered those words aloud. "But you also caught a ghoul, leading me to assume—"
Each word was ringing and too far away, so Hunter flinched, cutting his brother off. "Not here. I can't fucking think. I need to heal."
Eden snapped his manicured fingers, a rush of pale rose magic peeling off the ghoul to assist Hunter getting up. He wanted to snarl and snap that he didn't need the help, but the words wouldn't work their way out. The fluid in his lungs was blood, he knew it was, and despite his healing abilities, it had to come out.
Shit.
"Eden, I need you to—ack!"
Hunter felt a flat palm slam into the center of his spine before he could finish, sending him hacking crimson across the wood floor, staggering forward at the same time. There were men shouting, policemen.
Shit.
"Get it moving, old man. We get out of here now without fucking up too bad, or we really fuck up because I won't do well in jail. I'm willowy and pretty, okay? I have eyes."
Hunter blinked at his younger brother, raising a brow despite the situation. Eden was panicking. His cheeks were whiter than sheets, blue eyes blown wide, his ebony pupils eating up every spec of them. He brought one ham hand up to cup his younger brother's shoulder, squeezing it and flashing a feral smile.
"Don't worry. It'll be fine. I won't let that happen."
Eden blinked twice, mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water. "I might be in shock. I don't do this a lot."
"I know," Hunter said, trying to sound gentle.
It was more of a growl.
"I got the body."
"I see that."
"Can we go now?"
"Yeah, buddy. Let's go."
Hunter forced himself to put one foot in front of the other until they got out the back door, sprinting toward the next alleyway where his truck was parked. He checked over his shoulder periodically. Eden kept pace without difficulty, taking normal steps which carried him farther distances.
Rose mist shrouded his feet, and his body didn't glitch, but seemed to teleport from one place to the next, effortlessly. The corpse supporting rings of teeth and dripping blood floated along behind him. It's disorienting to see while half dead. Hunter faced forward, gripping the silver handle of his truck with slippery fingers.
"Get in," he rasped. "Put the body in the back, lying down."
Eden nodded frantically, drifting the body into the metal bed with a grimace before rounding the frame and hoping into the passenger's seat. Hunter started the truck, keeping the headlights off and waited until most of the police force entered the building.
Then he left without flare. Pulling out slowly and silently. No one even looked in their direction, and Hunter could only hope they remained so lucky.
"What the hell happened, man?" Eden asked, flailing his arms.
Hunter grimaced, keeping his gaze forward. "The ghoul was going for her, so I swung."
"Through her. You swung through her, Hunt. A normal citizen, which I love, which you almost killed."
Hunter rolled his eyes. "You don't love that woman, she's not normal in any sense of the word, and she dodged, so why are we even having this conversation?"
Eden was glaring at him, he could tell, big time. "What do you mean she isn't normal? I didn't sense any magic coming from a root or her pendant. I was about to get up and tell you that before everything went to hell."
The petulance in his brother's voice didn't suit the younger man's ethereal appearance. Hunter shook his head in silent disapproval.
"Take a deep breath, all right? Nothing happened, and she's not normal because her necklace glowed burning white while her green eye blazed as she swung my hundred pound mace into my stomach like a fucking baseball bat! No human could do that, and you want to know who that reminds me of?"
"Mom," Eden replied, miserable.
"Exactly. Why do you sound so bummed about it? All we have to do is convince this new Druid to help us heal Ma or fix the pendant."
Eden nodded, but still had a troubled look marring his brow. "Yes, maybe, but that's not all we discovered tonight. There's something much more dangerous going on. Take me to the lab downtown. Orpheus will know what to do."
Hunter simply nodded and redirected their course despite wanting to ask questions and make more comments. Like: Of fucking course it's something dangerous. Did you see that thing's teeth? I'm going to have fucking nightmares. Or: What the hell else is there to do but ask the Druid to get rid of them?
Every question led to the same answer: Sage Reiner, according to his snooping. He didn't have to hire a private investigator when he was one himself. Hearing her conversations on the phone, every exchange with baristas or bank tellers, and digging through personal messages. It was invasive, but he didn't care. Not when his mom's life was on the line.
Hunter tapped his fingers along the steering wheel, trying to forget about the way his stomach was actively stitching itself back up. While Sage was right that he couldn't regenerate whole organs, injured ones were a piece of cake. He'd be back to walking around with a hop in his step by tomorrow morning.
But today?
The rest of today was going to suck major balls.
He sat back a little, searching for comfort while knowing there was none. Despite Sage's wicked backswing, this wasn't the worst injury he'd ever suffered. Hunter had been shot four bullets at a time before, and had an arm cut off. He couldn't put it back on by himself, and was pretty sure sewing it on was one of the many reasons Lock hated him.
"You okay over there?"
He glanced at Eden, pressing his bloodied lips together beneath the mask. "I'll make it like I always do."
His baby brother frowned. "That's not what I asked."
"Fine," he sighed. "Not even my rude ass can lie to you. I'm in pain, obviously, and will be until tomorrow."
"If you didn't taunt her—"
"—cry me a river."
Eden kept talking, voice louder. "Maybe a powerful Druid wouldn't have slammed your own weapon into your stomach."
Hunter frowned. "You're the one who fuckin' asked, all right? Chill out over there. I get what you're saying, but honestly, I really don't care. If it weren't for your streaming addiction you wouldn't even know this woman existed."
Eden rolled his eyes. "You sound like an old man."
"I am an old man."
"You're in your early thirties! I've told you so many times that if you just tried watching a few of the FPS tournaments, you'll really like it. It's guys shooting guys!"
Hunter cut him a glare as he slowly pulled into the institute's lower parking lot along the Grand River. "I see enough guys getting shot in real life, but thanks."
He didn't bother to look for a spot in the long, car-filled rows at the back, driving right up toward Eden's empty reserved space right beside the elevator. In his side profile, he could see his younger brother typing something furiously to Orpheus, probably asking for a stretcher. The sour look crossing his face didn't suit him.
Hunter said nothing else as they waited together because there was nothing to say. While all three of them were the syndicate heirs, their roles were very different. He was an enforcer. Someone who took to the streets and corrected out of control supernaturals. It's what his father had done when he was young, and what Hunter would continue to do until he passed.
He'd killed many people. Humans. Fae. Werewolves. Vampires. The only constant between them was the color of their blood. Eden didn't understand the toll it took to preserve peace. He was smart, wickedly so, and worked at this lab three days a week to improve medical treatments for supernatural patients, but that was living. That was a contribution.
Hunter knew taking lives was the opposite of that. Breeding guilt and a lack of vulnerability. Creating this mess of anger inside himself he wouldn't trade for anything because he wasn't sure what would be left once it was gone. He swallowed a mouthful of bloody spit with a grimace, wishing he could be anywhere else but here.
The car idled for a while in complete silence - Eden staring holes into the side of his head in a way that made him feel small. Mom and him were only ones capable of doing that, and Hunter fucking hated it. After a while, his younger brother sighed, popping open the door to climb out.
"Fine, but I think you take yourself too seriously. Try to lighten up a bit, yeah? Go home, shower off that blood, heal. I'll message you with the results."
Hunter nodded, not looking at Eden. "I'll do that."
The words were acid in his throat, and when he pulled away, Hunter found himself turning to drive toward the first woman to ever catch him by utter surprise.