Harlequin Nocturne March 2016 Box Set Read online

  She threw up her hands. “You can’t laugh.”

  At his steady wait, Annie admitted, “I want to be a librarian.”

  “Then do it.” He shrugged. “Now. No one’s stopping you.”

  “Even in a library, the noise gets to be too much after a while. There’s more peace and quiet there than any other public place, but it still grates. I can’t see me working as a librarian forty hours a week.”

  Annie stood and walked around the small den, picking up stray items and straightening stacks of books and magazines. “And it’s more than wanting to work a full-time job. I’d like to have friends, a family, a social life.”

  “The music is that disruptive for you?” It might be hell for Annie, but this extraordinary ability could only be good for his hunters. And he would try to help her control her gift.

  Eventually.

  Once he’d gotten all he could from her. Duty first, always.

  For the first time in days, a surge of hope fueled a fire within him. “Then what do you have to lose by helping me?” he asked. “I’ll make sure no harm comes to you.”

  She carefully placed a book back down on a coffee table. “I really, really, really hate snakes,” she said, dead serious. “So you’d better protect me like you promised.”

  “I will,” he vowed. “With my life.” This he could say with no guilt or deception.

  Annie picked up a picture of her grandma and bent her head over it. Her long, wavy hair covered her face, but her shoulders shook, and he knew she wept. Surprisingly, it made him long to put his arms around her and kiss away her tears. He hardened his heart—this wouldn’t do at all.

  “It’s what your grandma wanted, too,” he reminded her, pushing Annie to make a commitment.

  She nodded, slowly putting down the picture. “I’m ready.”

  He tamped down a satisfied smile. What the hell was wrong with him? Her grandmother was probably dying. A familiar fear flickered along his nerves. He was turning into the shadows he hunted, losing his humanity and compassion.

  “Should I bring anything?” she asked.

  “No, I have all the provisions we’ll need.”

  She set about blowing out the scattered candles flickering in the room, grief making each act seem like a small goodbye.

  “You’ll be back tomorrow afternoon,” he said.

  “I wonder when—or if—Grandma Tia will ever come back. This place may not be much, but she loved it.”

  He considered his surroundings more carefully. The worn furniture, the framed pictures, saint paintings and jars full of wildflowers strewn everywhere. It was an unexpected blow to his heart, reminding him of a similar modest place filled with colorful wool rugs and books and carved statues his father had whittled. A home that always smelled faintly of corn bread and wood shavings. A place swept away by Hurricane Katrina, along with a peace he never expected to find again.

  “It’s her home. Your home,” he said simply.

  “Yes. I only lived here during the summers, but it felt like my true home. The one place where I was wanted.” Annie cleared her throat and set her shoulders back. “Let’s go.”

  She didn’t need to tell him a third time. “Okay. I’ll wait for you outside.”

  He left, sensing she needed to collect her emotions before leaving. Night had come once again, bringing with it danger and whispers in the wind. But it was also beautiful in its own dark, mysterious way. The full moon shone bloodred, and the tall trees stood like sinister sentinels of doom.

  Annie popped her head out the door. “Do we need flashlights?”

  “Not necessary.”

  She gave him a quizzical look as she shut the door and locked up. “How about you explain a few things to me before we get to the campsite?” She pocketed her keys in a small, crocheted purse and joined him.

  “What questions do you have?” he asked reluctantly. Tombi set off in long strides toward the trail. Normally, he evaded questions from outsiders, but Annie would be part of the hunt tonight, and she had a right to ask.

  “For starters, how do you see so well in the dark? And slow down before I trip on a tree root or run into a tree.”

  He slowed. “Sorry. I’m not used to being with an outsider.”

  “I’m always an outsider,” she mumbled.

  “No offense. It’s just a word we use for those not of our nation.” He took hold of her hand. “It will be safer this way.”

  To hell with that. It was electric. He guessed from Annie’s sharp inhale that she felt the same current buzzing through her body. He forced himself to focus on the path. This was no time to indulge in lustful distractions. Mistakes out here got a man killed.

  “Lesson one. I have unnatural night vision, as do the rest of the hunters. It’s how we were first identified by our ancestors. And since all natural gifts have a purpose—” he squeezed her hand “—they soon found why. It was one of the gifts from the spirits for us to fight and protect ourselves from the evil ones.”

  Annie snorted. “I don’t believe all so-called gifts are for a reason. Sometimes things just are. Like genetic mutations. And why does evil exist in the first place? The spirits didn’t have to allow Nalusa power.”

  “Why does your God allow the devil to live?” he countered. “It’s impossible to question such things. We have to deal with what is instead of trying to pry into the intelligence of our creators.”

  “You have a point,” she admitted grudgingly. “But go on—what other abilities do you have as a shadow hunter?”

  He continued, glad Annie’s questions seemed to keep her distracted from her anger against him. “As you guessed, we can control our energies. Which usually means creatures don’t sense us until we are very close.”

  She stumbled slightly, and he steadied her. “I can see how that’s useful. What powers do your enemies have?”

  His enemies. Tombi searched the gathering twilight. “They can’t sense energy as well as we can, but they have their own elements of surprise. Nalusa can shape-shift to other forms. You saw him as a snake.”

  Her tiny hand trembled in his own.

  “Sometimes he appears as a tall, dark being with small eyes and pointed ears. And there are the will-o’-the-wisps he controls. They can take you alive or steal a soul that’s not yet crossed over to the land of the dead.”

  “But why? What does he gain?”

  “Evil doesn’t always need a reason to exist. It’s the nature of the universe, the duality of our world. But in Nalusa’s case, any kind of death or destruction, any human suffering, contributes to his power. He feeds off our misery.”

  “He sounds like the very devil,” she whispered. “Sorry, but I hope we don’t run into him tonight.” Annie shivered but continued to pick her way through the woods with his guidance, carefully stepping forward and trying to avoid the large, gnarly tree roots that erupted from the soil.

  Even with his heightened senses, Tombi’s night vision was limited. He could see enough to break the dark into lighter and darker shadows and to be sensitive, like a cat, to any kind of movement, even from a considerable distance.

  They would arrive at camp in minutes. Would she find any of his people were really betrayers, working against them and for the dark side? That was the worst part of the shadow world; they could insidiously invade your mind and heart. You had to be constantly on guard against their influence.

  “What, exactly, do you do when you find Nalusa or a wisp?” Annie asked, breaking his melancholy thoughts.

  “I’ll tell you when we get to camp. It’s not wise to speak of such things out here in the woods.”

  Her eyes darted around the path, as if expecting Nalusa to grab her any second, but she kept moving forward.

  He silently kept watch over her as she stumbled along, wondering at her stor