Title: Save a Horse, Chapter Ten
Author: Maggie
Archived: www.geocities.com/Margaret_Mary69
and www.taintedfiction.com
E-mail: [email protected]
Feedback: Welcome if Constructive or at least not too
mean, LOL
Genre: Dark Hunter… for info on Cannon Characters go to www.Dark-Hunter.com
Rating: PG (for now)
Disclaimer: Any characters you recognize are the
property of Sherrilyn Kenyon. She retains all rights to the characters and does
not authorize this work. This is solely for mine and hopefully my friends’
amusement. No money is being made off of this story.
Notes: A Dorian Squire goes on an adventure. It
might be more than she planned on. This may contain spoilers through Unleash
the Night.
Thanks: Special thanks To Luna for being such an awesome Beta on this even when she’s busy with real life stuff and to Nathan encouraging me to continue this story!
The hunter turned just in time to receive a stiff right to the jaw knocking him
off his feet. He looked up at the mysterious stranger thinking this was turning
into one hell of a long night.
The stranger
advanced on him. His first impression of the man was “hired assassin.” He was
certainly dressed for it in black jeans and a long sleeve black tee shirt. Then
again, a hired hit would probably cover his hair so it wouldn’t make him stand
out so much. It wasn’t precisely blonde, but had enough golden streaks to make
sure it was nowhere near a true auburn either. Tad realized the coloring must
be layered as it changed hues as the man moved.
The possible
assassin kneeled next to the hunter, bouncing on the balls of his feet, his
arms leaning on his knees. The man stared at Tad, his expression stony. “Now
what am I supposed to do with you?” The hunter opened his mouth to reply but
the man shook his head at him. “It was a rhetorical question. You really don’t
want to add to the ideas I already have in mind for you.” He grinned then and
that more than anything else worried the hunter.
Throwing caution to
the wind, Tad sprang from where he was seated, crashed straight into the
stranger and knocked him off his feet.
The man grabbed the hunter, pulling him down with him and they rolled
across the front foyer trading punches. Tad winced as he heard the snap of wood
right before his antique phone stand came crashing down. He slid out of the way
leaving his guest to take the brunt of it but wasn’t able to move fast enough catch
to vase that was sitting on it. Shards of glass flew everywhere, causing both
men to shut their eyes in self defense.
Pushing himself up,
the hunter didn’t even wince as glass shards cut into his hands. The scent of
his own blood did remind him however that he was still in danger. He rolled to
his feet and backed away from the dark clothed man, turning off the hall light
as he did so. His visitor was obviously taken aback by this, groping in the
dark to find a safe spot to stand up. It appeared his assailant was human from
his difficulty with the dark. Who the hell would be after him here? He hadn’t
been in town long enough to piss anyone off… well anyone except his squire at
least. Tad remained very still, watching to see what the intruder would do.
For his part, his
guest took a deep breath and sighed as he slowly got up. “Couldn’t make this
easy could you?”
The hunter meant to
remain silent but couldn’t help chuckling at that. The man followed the sound
of his laughter so he shrugged. “No, I generally don’t make a habit of being an
easy target for would be killers.”
The young man
winced. “I didn’t mean to kill you. Just hurt you a little… enough to put a
healthy fear in you anyway.”
“Maybe it’s you who
should be scared.” Tad hissed as he slid out of the room and down the hallway,
turning off more lights as he headed toward the kitchen and the only weapons he
knew were already unpacked.
Meanwhile outside
Jenny was pulling back into Tad’s drive. She realized she had forgotten to give
Tad the keys to his custom Mustang parked in the garage. Noticing the lights
appeared to be off she sighed in relief thinking she could slip in, drop the
keys off with a note and be gone before he even knew she was there.
Back inside the
intruder went chasing down the hallway after Tad. An empty sauce pan flew at
his head as he slipped through the kitchen door. The man managed to duck it but
not the frying pan that followed. Both pans clattered to the floor, their
ringing on the tile the only sound in the sudden silence. The stranger rubbed
the top of his now aching head warily watching for the next attack.
The hunter used the
distraction of the pans clanging about to move closer to his guest and nailed
him with a stiff uppercut to the jaw that sent the younger man reeling. He
turned to swing only to have his punch blocked as the hunter connected once
again, this time with a hard right to the ribs.
The dark haired man
felt the air whoosh out of him as he struggled to keep his feet. He kicked out
at Tad, trying to knock him off his feet but this time the golden haired hunter
was ready for him. He side stepped the kick and pushed the man back towards the
table that was now behind him. The man stumbled back into the table, knocking
over a chair before gaining firm footing. He pushed the hunter away as he came
crashing toward him, sending the immortal flying into the breakfast nook to the
left of him. The man moved forward, pressing his advantage. He managed a stiff
punch to the hunter’s gut before he realized what the older man was doing.
The hunter had
grabbed the intruder’s other wrist holding it down on the counter. He barely
had time to scream “don’t,” as the hunter slammed a butcher knife into the
fleshy part of his hand, barely missing bone. The intruder gasped in pain
trying to push Tad away with his one free hand, the other pinned to what
appeared to be a wooden cutting board on the counter.
The overhead kitchen
lights suddenly came on, causing both men to squint momentarily before looking
to see who had hit the switch. Jennifer screeched at the two men, “What the hell
are you doing?”
Tad motioned the
girl back. “I don’t know who this guy is but he attacked me. Get back until I’m
sure it’s safe.” It was then Tad looked down at his handy work with the knife
and noticed a tattoo on the man’s hand. “Blood rites!
What the hell is a Blood Rites squire doing attacking me? I know Ash didn’t
send you. He was just here!”
The girl leaned
against the door jam, looking from one man to the other. “Yes, would you care
to explain Johnny?” She smiled sweetly
at him but the hard edge under the question let her brother know he was skating
on thin ice and the spring thaw had just hit.
The hunter looked
from the girl to his assailant. “Wait you know each other. Damn! Is this your
boyfriend? I already got the lecture from her on keeping my hands to myself.
You may be into her but she’s not so irresistible that I can’t control myself
buddy.”
Jenny grimaced at
that. “Ew! That is wrong on
so many levels. No the big lug is most definitely not a romantic interest.”
Stepping into the room, “Not that I want to admit it at the moment, but he is
one of my brothers. Tad this is Jonathan. Jon, Tad. There introductions done
and I repeat, what is going on?”
Tad looked from his
squire to Johnny, then to the door as if it was about to burst open. “One of
your brothers you said. How many do you have?”
Jon grinned despite the pain from his still bleeding hand. “Four.”
“Shit! Is it too
early to ask Ash to be reassigned or at least ask for a new squire?” The hunter
muttered.
The girl bristled at
that. “Hey I’m not the one that apparently attacked you. I had nothing to do
with him being here,” she added as she came over to where the pair were
standing and finally saw Jon’s bleeding hand with the knife still embedded. “Oh my god! Are you both insane?” She ran over to the sink
to grab a towel telling the men “Pull that knife out now. We need to get some
pressure on the wound so it will stop bleeding.”
Tad sighed then
pulled the knife out of the man’s hand as the female squire moved to place a
towel over the wound.
”Ouch,” the intruder screeched at his sister, “you don’t have to press so hard
Jelly Bean.”
“Don’t Jelly Bean
me, you overgrown ape. What were you thinking? What are you doing here anyway?
Don’t trust to me to be able to take care of myself,” the archaeologist huffed
refusing to loosen her hold.
There was a chuckle
behind the girl as she turned to look at her employer who had raised an
eyebrow, “Jelly Bean?”
The blonde haired
woman glared at the hunter. “THAT is not an acceptable way to address me unless
you’ve been doing it since before I was old enough to argue back.”
Tad grinned over
Jenny’s head at Jonathan. “What a blissful time that must have been huh?”
The young girl let
go of the towel at that point leaving her brother to tend his own wound. She
placed her hands on her hips and advanced on Tad until they were nearly
touching. “Very funny. What the hell did he do to
deserve a stabbing anyway? I thought you guys were supposed to protect humans?”
Tad shook his head
and leaned back against the kitchen sink. “I do protect humans, the innocent
ones at least.” He looked pointedly at the injured squire, making no move to
help.
The young woman
looked from one man to the other. “Okay what’s that supposed to mean?”
Her brother’s face
reddened as he sheepishly confessed, “I may have provoked him a bit.”
“A bit,” the hunter
roared. “Breaking into my home to greet me with a stiff punch… Not telling me
who or what you were… Flat out saying you’re here to hurt me then proceeding to
chase me through my home and attack me. That’s a bit? I’d hate to see what you
do when you really want to provoke a confrontation.”
The blonde haired
woman rubbed her forehead as if it were throbbing before she turned to her
older brother. “Want to explain that one or should I just leave you here for
him to finish off?” She looked over at Tad and grimaced. “On second thought, could
you take him somewhere else? It has been too long of a night already for me to
be cleaning up bodies this morning.”
“Very funny Jen… I
just, well, I wanted… hell why did you ever accept this job anyway?” Jon sighed,
wobbling on his feet now that the blood loss outweighed the adrenaline rush.
The young woman
sighed as she grabbed a chair and scooted it over to her sibling. “I take it this
misguided trip was part B of the Jenny we don’t want you to take this job
program.” When he nodded, she looked over at the hunter apologetically, “I’m
really sorry Tad. My brothers’ hearts are in the right place but sometimes
their brains…”
“Don’t quite engage
quickly enough,” he asked.
She grinned as she
covered Jon’s mouth preventing his reply. “That about covers it.” Looking
around at the destruction of the room she sighed. “I truly do apologize. I’ll
clean this mess up for you.”
The hunter stopped
her as she moved to pick up an overturned chair. “You don’t have anything to
apologize for. We can call a cleaning service to come take care of the mess.”
He grinned as he looked over her head at her brother. “I’m sure my uninvited
guest won’t mind footing the bill. It beats a night in jail which was my first
choice of punishment for him.”
The
Blood Rite Squire quirked an eyebrow. “First choice?”
Tad grinned. “Well
actually I can’t mention my first several choices of what to do with you in the
present company.”
Jenny grinned at the
pair. “Hey don’t ask don’t tell is a good policy. If you want some privacy I
can leave.”
Jon positively
growled at her sister. “Not even funny Jennifer. You know I don’t …. Have those
interests.”
Tad’s eyes gleamed with wicked humor. “Maybe you just haven’t met the right
guy. You sure you don’t want to give me a try?”
The younger man
shook his head. “You’ve been hanging around the French too much up there in
Tad nodded in
understanding. “I was just pulling your chain anyway. My preferences are pretty
well known too or I’m guessing you wouldn’t have been here threatening my
life.”
The younger man
frowned. “Don’t remind me.”
Jenny hit her brother upside the hit. “Don’t remind ME why I should feed you to
the wolves you mean.”
“How
about to the demon? I got
lots of barbeque sauce.” Simi had appeared with a grin, still in her school
girl uniform, hornays prominent.
The young
archaeologist frowned taken aback the horn things on the newcomer’s head she
quickly realized she’d seen this creature before. “Hey you’re that girl from Madame
Selene’s shop in
The creature looked
affronted. “Of course the Simi is a girl charonte
demon. Don’t you see my pretty outfit and hornays? I
like Selene. She always has lots of sparklies for me. I like sparklies
almost as much as I like Barbeque. Do you like barbeque? I think you’d make
good barbeque though Akri said I couldn’t eat you.”
She pouted as she paused to catch her breath.
Tad took the opportunity to interrupt her. “That’s right. Acheron would not
want you to eat my squire. Why are you here Simi?”
Jenny rolled her eyes. “Oh a friend of Mister ‘I Know Everything.’
I should have known.”
“Pluh-eeze,
Akri don’t know EVERYTHING but he does know how to
keep the Simi happy and gives her lots of plastic to get pretty things from QVC
so you should be nice to him. He gets blue when humans aren’t nice. I don’t
like when Akri gets blue, well blue in the heart that
is. He’s very pretty when he has blue skin. But I’m not supposed to talk about
that cuz it makes him mad just like when I want to
eat people or make the babies cute by giving them hornays…”
”Simi, the point,” the dark hunter interrupted her, feeling a headache come on.
The demon frowned at
the man. “You picking up bad habits from your squire.
You used to be a nice hunter Thaddeus.”
Sighing he smiled at
the deceptively young looking creature. “I’m sorry Simi. It’s been a rather
long night. You know I love your company but I’m betting that Ash sent you here
for a reason so it might be best to get on with it.”
“Oh
yeah. Akri
said to tell you, big trouble in Dolo near the train.
Hunter Anthony needs back up and the Bitch Heifer Goddess won’t let Akri away right now so you need to go help,” She nodded.
“Great, my first
night in a new town and I need to go searching for trouble, like I haven’t had
enough already,” the hunter mumbled as Jenny held out the car keys he was
searching for. “Well that solves that problem. Now where is this Dolo?”
Rolling her eyes,
the young female squire told her boss, “I’m pretty sure she means LoDo, Lower Downtown, it’s a re-vamped party district, lots
of clubs so lots of prey for the daimons I guess.
Union Train station is near the heart of it. We drove by it on the way in, down
the street from the big baseball stadium.” As the hunter headed out the door
she yelled, “Wait up for me. You’ll never find it on your own.”
Jon stood, grabbing
his sister’s arm to stop her. “Squires are not supposed to be involved in daimon fights. It’s not part of your job.”
Yanking her arm
away, she pointed at the wall clock as she headed out the door telling the man,
“It’s less than an hour ‘til sunrise. Making sure he gets someplace dark before
he’s vaporized by the daylight is my job, so can it. I’ll deal with you later!”
As he watched his
sister run out the door, the blood rites squire wondered how the hell his
evening had gone so wrong and what he was going to tell his parents if Jenny
got herself killed. “Some nights it doesn’t pay to be me.” He turned back to
ask Simi what kind of trouble the duo was walking into but she was already
gone. Growling, Jon looked up at the ceiling, “If she gets hurt, I’m holding
you personally responsible.” The demon may have said Ash was busy but he was
betting the spooky enigma was paying attention none the less. If the leader
wasn’t looking out for his charges, Jon would make sure there was hell to pay.