Face the Dark (Hunters of the Dark #3)



  Face the Dark

  (Hunters of the Dark #3)

  By Dave Ferraro

  Copyright 2011 Dave Ferraro

  Hunters of the Dark series:

  Her Dark Destiny (Book One)

  Night Cries (Book Two)

  The Tomb (Prequel)

  Face the Dark (Book Three)

  Dead of Night (Book Four)

  Other books by Dave Ferraro:

  Twice Bitten

  The Young Adult Book Club

  Prologue

  Samantha Cummings folded her legs up on the sun chair beneath her and sighed as she took a sip of coffee. She blew at the steam to help cool it down and stared out over the balcony at the sun rising between skyscrapers. The city was already bustling, car horns and various mechanical clanks making their way up thirty stories to her suite, providing a colorful background noise to the morning.

  “Ms. Cummings,” a voice crackled over a speaker just inside the sliding glass doors. “There’s a Lupe Preston here to see you.”

  Samantha took another careful sip from her mug and nodded to herself. “Very well, send her up. And make sure that Tessa is here shortly as well.”

  “Yes, Ma’am,” was the reply before the speaker went dead.

  “I am already here,” a voice announced, causing Samantha to jolt up in her seat and spill some coffee on her gray skirt suit.

  “Shit,” Samantha cursed, glaring over at Tessa as she set her mug on a nearby glass table and dabbed at the brown stain with some napkins. “You need to stop sneaking up on me like that. Make a little noise when you enter a room. Clear your throat, something. Especially since you refuse to use the door.”

  “I will keep that in mind,” Tessa agreed, striding over purposefully. Samantha pulled her handful of napkins away from the stain on her suit as Tessa ran a hand over the dark splotch quickly. When the woman withdrew her hand, Samantha saw that the stain was no longer there. Once more, she was awed by Tessa’s power, and sent a sharp look up at the blonde woman with the milky pink stone dangling over her forehead by a silver chain that disappeared into her hairline. Her blue eyes were steady and intimidating, so Samantha didn’t hold them long, but stood and tossed the wad of napkins into a wastebasket as a knock sounded at the door.

  “That will be Lupe,” Samantha said, stepping inside with her mug of coffee and sitting at a small oak dining table. “Be a dear and get that, won’t you?”

  Nodding, Tessa walked over to the door and swung it wide open for their visitor to enter.

  “Tessa!” Lupe greeted with a wide smile. “A pleasure to see you again. Did you do something with your hair?” She stepped into the suite without waiting for a reply, giving the luxurious room a quick envious once-over before zeroing in on Samantha seated at the table. She quickly covered the distance between them. “Hello, Samantha. Thank you for seeing me on such short notice.”

  “A friend of La Faer Noir is a friend of mine,” Samantha told the blonde with the wave of a hand, noting the woman’s thigh-high black leather boots with a little distaste. The heels on the boots were immense, giving her own heels a phantom pain. “Now, please, I have a busy morning ahead of me. What is so urgent that couldn’t be scheduled normally during office hours?”

  “I thought that you might like this off the record,” Lupe told her, leaning forward eagerly. “I serve at the pleasure of La Faer Noir and wish nothing more than to-”

  “Let’s skip the pleasantries, shall we?” Samantha said, trying to look bored, even though her interest was piqued. She detested when people sucked up to her because of her position as head of the New York branch of La Faer Noir. The position certainly had its advantages, but listening to endless blathering about loyalty and admiration was wearing. “What is it that you’d like to discuss?”

  “I’ve marked Shanna Hunt.”

  That got her attention. Samantha stood up straight and motioned for Tessa to close the sliding glass doors. As soon as that was done, Samantha took a calming sip of coffee as Tessa took a seat beside her. After a moment of consideration, she frowned at Lupe. “And who gave you authorization to do that?”

  Lupe looked taken aback. “Authorization? Why, no one. I merely had an opening and took it. I thought that La Faer Noir would be pleased with-”

  “How did you mark her?” Samantha demanded.

  Swallowing hard, Lupe shrugged, looking smaller in her chair than before. “Well, Rocquelle and I planted some false information into the hunters’ hands to set them up.”

  “Yes, I’ve heard about that debacle. A freelancer trying to get in our good graces replaced one of the hunters. Cameron, I believe, leading the entire hunter group to rescue him from Greece. It could have turned out much worse, but it seems the hunters returned to Lime Bay a week ago. So, you were involved in that as well, were you?”

  Lupe smiled tightly. “Yes, well, when Rocquelle and I were distracting the hunters so the switch could take place, I used some Gur’tich powder on Shanna. From what I gather, she thought it was just a tactic to keep her out of the fight momentarily.”

  “Gur’tich powder? Hmmm. A poison most commonly used as a base spell to mark one for assassination from a powerful demon?”

  “Precisely, and her friends by association,” Lupe sat up again. “We could take out this threat quickly without having to dirty our hands whatsoever.”

  “If that were our goal, we could have done so by another means by now,” Samantha said after a moment of silence, which she used to make Lupe nervous and uncertain again. She turned to Tessa. “Tessa, is there a way to revoke the Gur’tich powder from the hunter without damaging her?”

  Tessa shook her head. “No. Once Gur’tich powder has been ingested, it will either combine with another ingredient to complete a mark, or permanently damage the victim’s nervous system. There is no way to merely negate it.”

  “Negate it?” Lupe broke in. “Why would we want to negate it?”

  “Shanna Hunt is much more valuable to us alive,” Samantha told Lupe. “In a manner of speaking, at least. La Faer Noir does not want any harm to befall Shanna Hunt. Our branch has been charged with bringing her to our side, and to see if there is more to this similarity to Diana than striking facial features.” She paused and looked hard at Lupe. “It seems your impulsive actions threaten that order.”

  Lupe paled visibly. “I - I didn’t know. I though I was doing you a favor.”

  “Refrain from doing such favors in the future,” Samantha snarled. “In fact, I can make quite sure that you will be unable to-”

  “We could use this to our advantage, actually,” Tessa suddenly spoke up.

  Samantha paused and momentarily swallowed her anger, turning to the speaker. “I’m listening.”

  “Gur’tich powder must combine with another substance to complete the assassination mark. The demon involved depends on the second substance. If we select wisely, we could use a demon who would not aim for assassinating Ms. Hunt at all, but merely incapacitate her long enough for us to obtain her.”

  “Yes, let’s do that,” Lupe said eagerly, cringing under the scathing look Samantha sent her way.

  “Very well,” Samantha conceded. “If you think we can do this, Tessa.”

  “I fail to see another option,” Tessa confessed. “We were searching for a circumstance to bring her to us and this could suffice.”

  “What did you have in mind?”

  Tessa smiled. “I have a few ideas.”