Title: Save a Horse, Chapter Eleven
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 to Luna for her speedy
and excellent Beta job on this.
Jennifer caught up
with Tad at the garage door. He was still trying to figure out how to get into
the side building when she walked up next to him and typed in the security
code.
She chided her boss.
“I thought you’d have no trouble remembering the code.”
”I’ve been a bit distracted tonight by your family members trying to kill me,”
he growled.
She grinned at him.
“Not my whole family, just one of my brothers. Wait until you meet the rest of
them and my dad… did I mention my uncles yet?”
She giggled hearing him groan as he walked into the dark garage. The
squire turned on the overhead lights to reveal his sleek midnight blue mustang
before taking mercy on him. “Okay so most of my uncles don’t live in state and
the ones that do aren’t quite as rabid as the immediate family so you’re
probably safe… For now.”
“Gee thanks,” he
sarcastically told the squire as he opened his car door to get in. The hunter stopped when he realized the girl
was mirroring his actions. “Just where do you think you’re going?”
“With you,” she
replied giving him a ‘duh, are you lost’ stare.
He frowned. “I don’t
think so. Squires are not supposed to get involved in fighting daimons in case
Ash didn’t explain that to you.”
Rolling her eyes,
she leaned on the car door. “Yeah I’m familiar with that rule. Do you know this
one? Squires aren’t supposed to let their charges get burnt extra crispy. It’s way too close to sunrise for comfort. If you’re set on
going, you’re going to need me to make sure you get someplace dark before the
daylight gives you serious heat stroke.”
That said she got into the car and shut the door daring him to put her
out.
Growling Tad climbed
in slamming his own door behind him. “Fine because I don’t have time to argue
but you are not leaving the car. Considering the way that idiot you share a
gene pool with treated me already I don’t want to find out what he’d do if I
got you hurt.” Finding a garage door opener on the dash, he hit the button to
open the door then shifted the car into gear, “Now tell me where I’m going.”
Stopping to think for a second he added, “and I better
NOT get some smart ass reply back to that.”
Jenny pretended to
pout. “Gee ruin all my fun,” she chided him before giving the hunter directions
towards downtown and the train station.
The drive downtown
was a quiet one. The hunter was trying to take in the lay of the land so he
would know his way home, just in case they got separated. His squire was lost
in her own thoughts. When she wasn’t giving her boss
directions to the station, she was seriously debating her own sanity. Now that
they were on their way down there, it occurred to her that she could seriously
get hurt if things went wrong. Her first hands on experience with daimons in
As they pulled into
an empty parking lot at the Union Train Station Tad warned his squire, “You
aren’t to engage in any fighting. Your only job here is to drive the get away
car if need be so stay put.” He winked at her as he climbed out of the vehicle.
Jenny nodded sliding
over into the driver’s seat. Looking out at the darkness a shiver ran through
here. Something was out there. She had to admit she rather liked Tad’s plan
given the view. There was less chance of her being an early morning snack for
whatever was waiting in the shadows. She quickly locked the doors and slid down
in the seat until she was just low enough to be inconspicuous while still being
able to see out of the windows for approaching trouble.
Meanwhile Tad was
quietly wandering down closer to the tracks beside the station. He could
faintly hear the noise of a fight in the darkness beyond the pavement. The
hunter stumbled as he meandered toward the sounds, appearing for all the world as nothing more than another drunk looking for
a dark place to relieve himself. The act served two purposes. It encouraged any
innocent bystanders nearby to quickly change course away from the area and
hopefully allowed him to be ignored by the daimons as a normal part of the
background scenery near the tracks.
Slipping in behind
the daimons he noticed the hunter across from them already had a rather deep
gash in his right bicep that was dripping blood to the pavement. It was a
wonder the man could still stand. Tad tried to keep his distance from the man
while assessing the situation. He knew they didn’t have long before their
proximity started to deplete both Anthony and his own powers. There was more than one reason hunters
generally didn’t have social gatherings.
The soul suckers had
his comrade outnumbered six to one. Hell even with him joining the party it
still left them to deal with three each.
The group started to close in on the other hunter and Tad knew he had to
make his move.
Stepping closer to
the daimons he reached out to spin one around to face him. “Mind if I join the
party?”
The daimon growled
as he dove at the newcomer. “Great, two hunters for the price of one and I
thought this was going to be a dull night.”
The daimon managed
to dodge the knife Tad aimed at him and came up swinging. Tad fell back at the
blow but quickly regained his footing. Another daimon came at him from the
right side just as the first one moved to the left to grab him. The hunter
managed to jump back allowing the pair to collide into each other. He could
hear more fighting in the background but he couldn’t afford to spare a glance.
He would have to trust the other hunter was holding his own for now.
As the pair in front
of him argued over their collision Tad managed to stake one of them in the
heart. As the daimon turned to dust he turned to take out the second soul
sucker. A sharp blow to the back of his head sent the hunter sprawling before
he could complete the task. When his head cleared he looked up to see his
original dance partner along with another daimon, the one that had clocked him
no doubt.
Tad wobbled slightly
as he stood up to face the pair.
He heard Anthony call from nearby, “I appreciate the hand buddy but if you stay
much longer I’m going to be too weak to do much of anything.”
The fresher hunter
on a burst of adrenaline slammed into the first daimon sending him sprawling as
he told the man, “Then I suggest we finish these leeches off soon so we can
both get the hell out of here.”
The other hunter
groaned as he managed to stab one of his three attackers taking the count down
to four on two. “Why didn’t I think of that? Here I was trying to invite them
out for morning tea.”
“Well if you’ve
still got your sense of humor you can’t be hurting too bad,” Tad observed.
He bent over as if
to catch his breath and one of the daimons moved closer. Before the creature
knew what was happening the hunter rose up his knife wielding arm following in
a smooth arc to slam into the daimon’s chest. Tad
grinned at the shocked look on his opponent’s face right before he faded to
dust.
Unfortunately Tad’s
first opponent had regained his footing by then to take a flying leap. Tad
sidestepped him but not before the soul sucker had sliced a wide gash through
the hunter’s shirt to inflict a flesh wound on the man’s left side.
The newcomer hissed
as he saw his blood oozing out of the cut onto the damaged clothing. “That was
one of my favorite shirts you asshole!”
Tad heard a grunt
and a mumbled “yes” from the distance as he headed for his attacker. He saw one
of Tony’s two sparring partners go up in a cloud of dust in his peripheral
vision but didn’t have time to see if other hunter had a handle on the second
guy.
The blonde haired
hunter crashed into the daimon who had cut him,
knocking him to the ground again, this time landing on top of the attacker. The
soul sucker hissed as he tried to break free of Tad’s grasp. Surprised at the
sudden break in tension of his hands being freed, he was too shocked to even
see the blade Tad drove into his chest. Seconds later Tad landed on the ground
with a thin coating of daimon dust covering his pants.
“Oh sure, like
ruining the shirt wasn’t enough,” he muttered getting to his feet.
“When you’re through
doing the fashion report could you either help me with this guy or get the hell
away before my powers take a total nose dive,” Anthony panted dodging another
blow from his last attacker.
The blonde haired
hunter chuckled as he moved toward the dueling pair only to stop short as a
bright light shone on all three of them. He turned squinting into the glaring
headlights to see his squire had moved his car within striking distance of the
fight. He was going to kill the girl if the daimon didn’t get her first.
Jenny gasped as she
saw the two hunters, both bleeding, fighting the one remaining daimon. She
opened the door jumping out of the car before she could think about the
consequences.
Tad growled at the
girl even as he dove for the daimon pulling him away from the other hunter.
“Get back in the car now! I thought I told you to stay out of harm’s way!”
The young woman
paused in her forward motion but told the man, “I thought I told you that I
have a serious aversion to watching you get burnt to cinders on my first night
as your squire. It’s too close to daybreak. You guys need to get to shelter
now.”
“I have to agree
with the girl,” Tony told the other hunter as he stumbled toward the remaining
daimon.
The soul sucker,
having broken free of Tad, noticed the newcomer and was headed her way. The
blonde haired hunter observed the man’s direction and cursed as he moved to
head the creature off. Both men reached him at the same time. As Tony grabbed
the daimon’s shoulder to turn him around Tad kicked
out sweeping the creature’s legs out from under him. As the daimon fell to the
ground, the blonde hunter jumped on top of him, stabbing the evil doer through
the heart.
Wiping the dust off
his jeans as he stood, Tad caught Tony just before the other hunter fell over.
Jenny ran around the car door to come help from the other side.
The darker haired
man shook his head, “No I live close enough to walk. It’s too risky for us to
be together.”
Tad sighed, “You’re
too weak to walk anywhere. We’ll drop you off.”
He helped Jenny get the man into the car and then made sure she was in safely
herself before jumping in. The man was true to his word and did just live a few
blocks away. A young man came running down to the street as Tad got out of the
car with his wounded comrade and helped them get inside.
Jenny was told to
wait in the car and the look Tad gave her as he said it didn’t exactly leave
room for an argument. She did use his absence to slide over back over into the
driver’s seat. Maybe he would let her take the car back for him.
The blonde hunter
came running down the stairs to the car. Opening the car door he told his
squire, “Move over. We’ve got to get back to my place and fast.”
She shook her head, “No you need to spend the night here. There isn’t enough
time to get you back to your place by sunrise even if I speed and hit all the
lights right.”
The man frowned at her. “I can’t stay here. Tony was injured. He won’t heal if
I’m this close to him and my own powers will be depleted as well. Staying is
not an option.”
Sighing, the blonde
shook her head, “Then get in car and let me get you out of here. It’s too risky
for you to drive.”
Growling the man ran
around to the passenger side and climbed in the car slamming the door, “Only cuz I don’t have time to argue with you. Now get me home.”
As she shifted out of park the young woman shook her head. She wasn’t sure it
was a good choice but the fact was it was the only choice left. “I told you
there isn’t enough time to get there. Looks like you’ll be bunking with me
today.”
The shocked look on
the hunter’s face was almost enough to make all she’d been through that night
worth it, almost anyway.