Chapter One
Raven loved this area. The high peaks of the Montana Rocky Mountains. Boulders covered the lower mountainside where a small stream pooled at the base. Trees so tall, she could imagine climbing up one. A great place for any bear to run freely. There was even a small cabin that looked worth a half-million dollars nestled right in front of the mountain.
A cabin that was way out of the price range of the polar bear they were hunting. Unless he was doing something illegal. As she looked around, her grizzly bear went on alert. Coming from around the side of the mountain, a polar bear appeared with a fish in its mouth. Bingo!
The bear dropped the fish and stared at her. She smiled and gave a two-finger salute, but she could see it in his eyes, the fight was on. Charging her straight on, the polar threw all his weight into her. Crashing into the side of the truck was not her way of negotiating. Unless she was the one slamming someone against the truck.
“I don’t think he likes you very much,” Leo said, jerking his sword out.
“You think!” Raven stood and pointed at the polar bear. “Now, big boy, we can do this the easy way or the hard—"
Raven Verdes and her brother Leo both hit the deck as a boulder as big as a house flew toward her head. As she lay on the ground, Raven shouted, “Hey, that’s just rude. We only want to talk.” She glanced at her brother who rolled away from her as the boulder broke into pieces above her head. Large pieces of sharp rocks fell to the ground.
Glancing down, she saw the rip in her brand-new jeans. Lennox Bartley, her alpha encouraged her to try to fit in. She’d spent a lot of money on this pair of jeans. These were worth every dollar she had to pay. She actually loved these jeans. Her nerves quivered from head to her toes. She could feel as her bear tried to come out. Patting her stomach, she whispered, “Not this time, girl. This one's for me.”
“Now, Raven, Alpha said we needed to question him, not kill him,” her brother yelled, trying to get her attention as she got up, dusting her pants off.
She pulled her sword out and glanced at her brother. “He should have thought about that before he ruined my new pair of jeans.” With that said, she gave out the battle cry letting her brother know to step down and move away.
Charging, Raven jumped from one boulder to another getting closer to the bear. The bear watched in fascination trying to figure out what she was doing when she landed behind him. Like most of the people she ran across, Archie was too fascinated in what she was doing to move. Thrusting her sword forward into the bear’s leg, she watched as it screamed and fell. She pushed her sword forward, trapping the bear against the boulder he was standing on.
The bear swiped with his massive claws barely missing her. She knew the more he moved, the worse the pain got. She didn’t care one bit either. These were her new favorite jeans. “I bet that hurts.” Raven wagged a finger at the bear. Then she smiled and pointed down at the sword still embedded in his muscle. “You see, this is a Death Hunter sword. Do you feel that burning sensation? The more you move, the hotter it will get.” Raven walked back to her truck as the bear growled in pain. She lowered the back of the tailgate and sat. Her pants had a tear in them and all she wanted to do was make him pay. She waved and pointed down at his leg. “Your fur is starting to catch fire.”
The bear stopped moving, staring down in pain at his leg. The sword was getting a brighter red which meant his leg would probably burn completely off if he didn’t stop moving. This was one of the greatest spells the Old Ones gave them. She watched as the bear shifted. Raven glanced at her brother when Archie Peebottom screamed in pain from the shift and the burning sword.
“Make it stop, please. I’ll tell you what you want, but make the burning stop,” Archie yelled.
Raven held her hand over the sword, whispering the spell as the burning halted. She wasn’t a fool—she left the sword embedded in his leg and the boulder.
“Hey, Archie. Long time, no see. It’s a shame I had to travel all the way to Montana to visit you. Love the cabin by the way. Very expensive looking. Hear you got an extra job now,” Raven said.
Shaking his head, Archie tried to look innocent. “Can’t a man earn a living?”
“Not when it comes to shifter trafficking, you...you…”
“Idiot,” Leo spit out.
Shaking her head, Raven screamed, “No...Idiot isn’t a good enough name for what he is. He should have the king of idiot’s name. You…” The word wouldn’t come out because everything that passed through her head wasn’t bad enough for ole Archie.
“Nitwit, bonehead, blockhead, cretin, dimwit,” Leo said, trying to hasten the interrogation. He glanced at her, waiting for her to agree with any of the names he gave.
“Heck, I don’t even have a good enough name for you right now. You are selling your own people for money. Is money so important to you?” Raven and her brother both stared at Archie.
“Well, yeah. Because it’s a lot of money. If you let me go, I will cut you in for twenty percent of the profit after my expenses, of course,” Archie said, growling from the pain.
Raven started for him when her brother pulled her back. “You nincompoop. You disgust me. You—”
“Okay. Forty percent, but not a dollar more,” Archie offered. When neither of them said anything, he started smiling. “I knew it. I always heard that a Death Hunter couldn’t be bought, but I guess they never offered the magic number.”
Leo covered his face knowing what was coming next—his sister raking her secret weapon down the idiot. Didn’t he know the worst thing he could do was offer a bribe to a Death Hunter. He hated when she got like this. A slap across the enemy’s face. A rake down his body. Slap. Rake. Slap. Rake.
“You crazy b—” Slap. Rake. Slap. Rake. Now came the begging. “Please, please, I’ll be good. Please, please, stop, please. I’ll talk. I will, please…”
Leo peeked through his fingers and winced once he saw what she had done. It was kind of a talent of Raven’s. Her middle finger claw was different. It hooked onto skin and then she zipped it along the flesh. When she was done, it looked like a body zipper. Archie’s face resembled a red coat with a jacked-up zipper. If the man could see his cheeks and forehead, he would tell them everything because next she would start on his back. Ugly...and he would never be the same again. Leo shivered thinking about it.
His sister smiled. She was losing patience. Leo offered, “Archie, if I were you, I would start spilling because I know her look.” Leo shook his head and muttered, “It’s not good, son.”
Archie stared at Raven for a few seconds. “Okay, okay, just stop with the claw. So, I worked for a shifter named Killian Strong and his brother, but they went missing and now I’m in contact with a vampire. He says his name is Boris Connor. I was told he is business partners with a human by the name of Wyatt Benjamin. This is all I know. Please let me go. I’m a dead man now.”
Patting the side of his face, Raven said, “Don’t give me any ideas now, Archie.” She slowly walked away, thinking. She muttered to herself, “Where have I heard that name from?”
“I told you what you wanted. Now, let me go.”