Authors: The Hunter
Hunter paused. Oh by the higher powers, that sounded so lame, so not him!
He crumpled up the sheet and started over.
Dear Mother, I miss you, and was hoping you could come for a visit. Love, Hunter.
PS. I think I’ve found the one.
Ha! That would get her going. Hunter grinned as he sealed the short note into an envelope addressed to his mother for transport back to the Realm. He wondered how soon he should expect her.
Knowing her, she’d be here by tomorrow.
Owen’s lanky form came striding into the room.
“Hey, Hunter, you’re looking like the cat that ate the bird. What’s got you so smug?”
“Nothing. Just inviting my mother for a visit.” So he could go on a hot date with Suzie.
“Here give me the letter. I’ve got a dispatch of them going out within the hour.”
Hunter handed over the missive. “So, anything new? Got any more info on the Dragon?”
“Actually,” said Owen, sitting down at his desk. “I just finished typing up the report on some stuff that just came in. We think we found out why the Dragon came back.”
“Really?” said Hunter, leaning forward in his chair with interest. “Hidden treasure? A cult? Burger King?” Hunter sure wished the Realm had one of those. Whoppers with cheese had become an addiction of his.
“Nope, something even better. Well, at least where the Dragon is concerned. Children. Twins, actually.”
Hunter froze at the word twins. Surely a coincidence. Although, as his mother always liked to say, there were no such things as coincidence in the Realm.
“Yeah, seems he played house with one of his students back west. Got her pregnant with twins.
They’d be about three years old now.”
Hunter felt a sinking sensation. No way, this had to be the world’s biggest coincidence. “What’s her name?”
“Funny thing,” said Owen. “She apparently took off with the kids. Guess she figured out he was a jerk. Pity no one told her about him being incarcerated. She ended up moving quite a bit. I guess she was trying to stay away from him. Had a bit of a time trying to follow her, but if I do say so myself, I am good.”
“Owen, her name,” said Hunter through clenched teeth, resisting an urge to shake the information loose from him.
“Oh, Suzanne Clarke. You’ve probably met her, actually, since she lives in the house next door to yours.”
49
“Damn!” said Hunter, slamming his fist down hard on the desk he’d sat at, toppling the cup that held pens and pencils. For the first time in his life, Hunter felt dread. He’d left Suzie and the kids all alone with the Dragon on the loose looking for them. The park incident hadn’t been a random act by a stranger. It had been the Dragon. He needed to get back now.
“The Dragon’s already made contact once. Remember that incident in the park I told you about?”
Owen nodded his head, eyes widening in realization. “He’s after the boy. I’ve got to get back and make sure they’re protected.”
“Oh damn, Hunter. I hope they’re okay. Did you want some backup?”
“No,” said Hunter with a cold smile. “I’ll take care of the Dragon myself.” Permanently.
Hunter tore out of the office and jumped on his bike. His pulse raced. Surely, they’d be all right. He hadn’t been gone that long. The Dragon wouldn’t be brazen enough to try something in the middle of the afternoon with the whole neighborhood watching. Right?
Hunter prayed to the higher powers like he’d never prayed before.
Please, just let them be safe.
He drove like a bat out of hell, weaving in and out of traffic, the usually short fifteen minute commute cut in half, but still seeming like an eternity.
But he arrived too late. His worst fears were realized when he arrived to see Suzie collapsed on the front porch.
Hunter jumped off his bike and ran to Suzie, his heart pumping madly in his chest.
How could he have failed her like this?
Please, don’t let her be dead.
Dropping to his knees, he scanned her for injuries. And he stifled a groan at the extent of them. Her face was a bloody mess. In between the streaks of blood, her skin blossomed into a rainbow of colors, and she had one eye swollen so much that, even were she conscious, it would have stayed shut. And then there was her throat. Hunter swallowed his anger hard else he would have howled at the bruises ringing her neck. The bastard had tried to choke her. But he could hear her breathing, a whistling, rattly sound, but it meant she still lived. After scooping her up, he carried her limp body into the house and then stopped dead and finally let loose the pent up bellow of rage and pain when he saw Jessica, that sweet little angel, lying in a boneless heap on the floor.
He laid Suzie carefully on the couch and went over to Jessica, knelt beside her, tears pricking his eyes as he checked over her delicate little frame for injury before picking her up. Apart from a goose egg on the back of her head, she appeared fine. But what if she had internal injuries? What if they both did?
He scooped his precious little girl up and cradled her feather weight in his arms. To his chagrin, he felt tears rolling down his cheeks. Men didn’t cry. But the sight of this child, almost a baby, hurt, was more than he could bear. He laid her with her mother, and then checked the rest of the house.
Of Jared, there was no sign. Hunter hadn’t expected to find him, but he had to look just in case.
“Damn!” he screamed, his rage a living thing that needed outlet. He whipped out his cell phone and punched in the number for the agency. Bob answered almost immediately.
“Magic Emporium, how may we help you?”
“It’s Hunter. The Dragon was here.”
“Owen filled me in. Have you apprehended the Dragon?”
Hunter took a deep, calming breath before answering. “He took the boy and injured the mother and daughter. I need a pickup for transport to the Realm immediately.”
“Now wait a second, Hunter,” said Bob. “We can’t just haul two mundanes into the Realm like that.”
“This is not negotiable, Bob,” said Hunter coldly. “They’re hurt, and it’s our fault. We let the Dragon loose and, because of us, they’re hurt, bad. They need healing quick, and the best healer I know is my mother. Don’t make me go over your head.” Hunter was in no mood to argue, and it must have been apparent in his tone.
50
Hunter heard Bob sigh in his ear. “The commander won’t like it.”
“I don’t give a damn what the commander likes or not. I’ll deal with him. Now get me a team out here now for pickup, and send notice to the portal guardian that we’re coming through.”
“We’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”
“Make it ten,” Hunter growled before flipping his cell phone shut. The girls both still lay on the couch, their skin waxy white. Damn, he hated feeling helpless.
Hunter raced up the stairs and started throwing clothes into a suitcase he found in Suzie’s closet.
When he went into the twins’ room, he felt a pang of dread staring at their little beds and toys. Would they ever see them again? He grabbed some of the kids’ clothes and stuffed it into the suitcase before walking out of the room, only to walk back in and grab Jessica’s doll.
Shut up, my precious angel is going to
need her dolly when she wakes up, and I’ll punch the first person that makes a comment about it.
He heard doors slamming outside and hurried down with the suitcase and doll. Hunter flung open the door before Bob, who had come in person, could knock. He’d brought Owen with him along with the Magical Emporium van. Scanning for passerbys—the street gaped clear of traffic and prying eyes—
they opened the back of the van that had been cleared of seats.
Hunter first grabbed Suzie and carried her out to the van. He lay her down carefully in the back.
Then, he went back in and grabbed Jessica, her frightful stillness scaring him more than any ogre or assassin could. He climbed into the back of the van with her cradled in his lap. Owen shut the van door and climbed into the front. Bob had the wheel, and with a squeal of the tires, took off like a bat out of hell. Hunter hoped they wouldn’t get pulled over because they’d have an awful hard time explaining themselves to any cops.
But they made it back to the agency without incident and parked in the back of the shop. Hunter ended up letting Bob carry Jessica so he could carry Suzie while Owen brought up the rear with the suitcase and one little girl’s dolly.
It took precious minutes to unlock the secured door that led to the basement. Once opened, they hurried down the stairs, emerging in a dimly lit storage area. Boxes were strewn all over the floor and stacked up against the cinder block walls. Only one section of wall had been left partially clear, and Owen went over to it. By pressing on the cinder blocks in a complex pattern, a doorway appeared with more steps leading down. A musty smell wafted up along with a tingle of power—an alien feeling this side of the border. The stairs were hewn out of rough rock and went down about fifty steps where they emerged into a large, stone cavern.
The torches were already lit and cast eerie shadows on the rough stone walls. Hunter strode to the portal, Suzie cradled in his arms, followed by Bob holding Jessica and Owen with the luggage, the dolly tucked under his arm. The portal stood like a shimmering mirror except nothing ever reflected on its glassy surface. This close, the hum of magic could be felt—a buzzing along the skin that awakened the magic dormant in Hunter this side of the boundary.
Hunter spoke the traditional words. “Guardian of the portal, I seek passage.”
A heavy feeling descended over them—a presence that could be felt but not seen. A low, rumbling voice came from nowhere, yet everywhere at once. “I see thee, Hunter, Bob, and Owen. I sense you bring others though. A girl child, daughter to the Dragon. One that has never been to the Realm, but within whom the magic is strong. I also sense a mundane female, the mother of the one whom the Dragon calls son. What cause have thee to bring them here to seek passage to the Realm?”
“They have been injured by the Dragon, who recently escaped from the Realm. They require healing. We also seek to find the son whom the Dragon has stolen.”
“The Dragon already moves within the Realm, his son, unwilling passenger at his side. He dares to weaken the boundaries that hold the Realm safe. I will grant thee and your party passage, but on one condition. Thou cannot pass back through the portal again till the Dragon has been caught. Do ye accept my charge?”
51
“I gladly accept,” said the Hunter without hesitation. He’d not rest till he’d found Jared and destroyed the Dragon. Although, he had to admit, this was the oddest conversation he’d ever had with a portal guardian. It would seem even powers as old as the boundary itself worried about the Dragon being left loose.
A boom sounded. “The charge has been accepted, the conditions understood. I grant thee passage.
Good luck in your hunt for the Dragon.”
“I thank thee, guardian.”
The heavy feeling left as the guardian returned to his slumber, or whatever it was that they did between portal calls. Their magic was an old one, lost from the time of the boundary’s creation, but who cared so long as it worked?
The three men approached the portal and, one by one, stepped through. It felt like stepping into a cold shower, yet they remained dry. They emerged in a room, an exact mirror of the one they’d just left except for the desk where a wizard in robes, who’d been napping, jumped up.
“Halt, and state your business,” said the dumpy-looking wizard, tugging on his robe, looking down his nose at them imperiously.
“Stuff if, Norbert,” said Hunter, in no mood to deal with him.
“I’m just doing my job,” stated Norbert huffily. “You don’t make the rules. The commander does.
And those rules state I have to ask your business starting with who those two strangers are,” he said, fluttering his hands toward Suzie and Jessica.
“They’re with me,” said Hunter flatly.
“And they are?”
“None of your business,” growled Hunter. “I need a teleport to my family home now.”
“Now, Hunter, these two aren’t Realm citizens, you can’t just . . .” The words froze in the wizard’s mouth, and he gulped hard at the dangerous look Hunter gave him.
“They’re hurt, just like you’re going to be in a minute if you don’t teleport us to my house in the next five seconds,” said Hunter with a menacing scowl.
“But the commander. . .”
“I’ll deal with the commander. Now just do it!” Hunter roared. There would be consequences to his actions later, but right now, he didn’t care.
Norbert swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing in nervousness, but he wisely decided to do as Hunter asked. Too bad, Hunter was in the mood to hit something.
Norbert grabbed Hunter’s sleeve in one hand and Bob’s in the other. “I’ll have to come back for Owen,” he said almost apologetically. The wizard closed his eyes. “Teleportus!”
With a wrenching sensation, the cavern with the portal disappeared, and they found themselves in the front hall of Hunter’s home. Norbert immediately let go of Hunter and flashed out of site, reappearing moments later with Owen.
“Mother!” bellowed Hunter.
The bald head of the butler popped into view from an archway off the front hall, only to duck back into the room he’d peeked out of at the thunderous look on Hunter’s face.
“Mother!” yelled Hunter again. Where the hell was she? Didn’t she know he needed her? Now!
“Goodness, dear,” came his mother’s voice as she floated down the stairs. “There’s no reason to—”
She stopped halfway down the stairs and took in the odd group in her front hall.
“Please, Mother,” Hunter said, holding Suzie up, his eyes full of anguish. “Help them.”
Without any questions, his mother took charge.
“Benson!” she called, her bellow almost as formidable as her son’s.
“Yes, my lady,” said the bald butler, coming out of hiding.
“Get my things and bring them to the pink room. Quickly, Benson.”
52
“Yes, my lady,” Benson said, bowing before quickly walking away, his long stork legs giving him an awkward gait as he scuttled off to do her bidding.