The Huntress : The Alterealm Series Book 1

“Sorry I took so long…”

Jumping apart, Troy and I spun to look at Quinton standing in the door.

Glancing down at the floor, Quinton cleared his throat. “Sorry.”

“I was afraid you were packing to move in permanently.” I tried for a light playful tone, but failed miserably with my shaking voice.

Quinton looked from me to his brother and then back to me again. “Uh, I could come back in a bit…”

“No, I need to get back.” Troy gave me a quick once over and then moved over quickly to the door. “Call if you need me.”

He was out the door so fast neither of us had a chance to say anything. Setting his bag on the floor, Quinton looked at the closed door and sighed. “I hope I didn’t interrupt anything important.”

Did he? I wasn’t sure. “You didn’t. We were just talking.”

I avoided the doubting look he gave me and moved out to the kitchen. Chances of there being any sort of food was slim to pretty much never, I knew, but looking in empty cupboards was a great way to avoid having to talk about any of his brothers. “We’re going to have to get some groceries, or …” I opened the small freezer on the top of the fridge, “we’ll be on an ice cube diet.”

A chuckle came from behind me. “It’s all taken care of. Raf is going to bring us at least one good meal a day while we’re here.”

I can’t even describe how happy that made me. Turning around, I squinted at him. “Didn’t trust the food on my side?”

“Actually, I’ve had some pretty tasty things when I’ve been here lately, but Mitz cornered me when I was coming out of my room.” He shrugged. “When she offered, I wasn’t going to offend her and say no.”

I paused for a moment to check out how much of the small doorway he filled, which brought the next thought, where was I going to put him to sleep? My couch was what they called a three quarters size, meaning there was no way he was going to fit on it. “Can’t have an offended Mitz,” I finally replied.

“So, are we staying in tonight?” He looked around slowly, the look of hesitation on his face.

I tried not to grin. “I need to go check up on someone.” I hoped he would blend in a little better than Troy had when we’d gone to the club looking for Wanda.

Relief filled his face. “Lead the way.”

Going over to the closet, I reached in a grabbed my knife off the shelf. Strapping the leg strap to my ankle, I tucked it in and pulled my pant leg down. When I turned around he was grinning. “What?”

With the silly grin still on his face, he pulled his pant leg up to show me the knife strapped to his.

I went over and opened the door. “Just goes to show we’re both smart.” Pulling my phone out of my pocket, I dialed Crissy. If she didn’t answer it could turn out to be a long night tracking her down, the girl had no definite home address and randomly picked one hidden location after another to call home for no more than a week at a time.

I couldn’t even begin to explain Crissy, she was either the most screwed up person I know or a friggin genius that knew things the rest of us wouldn’t be able to live with. I’d met her about five years ago, when she was trapped in an alley with a bunch of punks harassing her. I persuaded the pukes to back off and leave her alone. For the record, I didn’t mean to break that one guy’s nose.

Since that day, we had spent a lot of time together, I’d even managed to get her to stay at my place a few times. There were times she seemed perfectly normal, then other times not so much. She could see things, or this is what she told me, I’d never been able to substantiate any of these things though. Each to their own, right?

Unfortunately, she had a knack for being in the wrong place at the worst possible time. At least ten times I’d had to go to her rescue when she found herself in some kind of predicament that would scar most people for life. Gang wars, robberies, hostage situations and trapped in automated buildings during power outages to name a few. For this reason, I always followed my gut feelings when I felt I needed to check up on her. It usually meant something was up.

After trying the third time, I was ready to give up and start going to every odd place I’d found her in the past, then my phone rang and her number came up. “Criss, I was just starting to worry.”

“Daxx,” she whispered into the phone.

I stopped walking, knowing that tone all too well. Quinton almost walked right over me. “What’s wrong?”

“There are so many of them now. I don’t know what happened to change the balance but I am freaked out totally and I just don’t think I can do this anymore.”

I could barely hear her by the end of the sentence. “Criss, hold the phone near your mouth.” I constantly had to remind her of this. “Where are you?”

I could hear rustling and had to wonder where the hell she was crawling into this time. “I stopped by the club earlier, thought maybe you would be around. You’ve been missing a lot lately, Daxx.” More rustling, like paper being crinkled. “I couldn’t take it tonight. So many…”

“Crissy. Where are you?”

Quinton now stood in front of me and the concern on his face reflected what I was feeling.

“Safe for now. No one sane would look for me here.” She giggled.

Taking a deep breath, I tried to stay calm, having learned a long time ago that if you raised your voice to her, she shut down. “I thought maybe we could hang at my place. I have so much to tell you about what’s going on.”

“Ohh, you know, don’t you? That’s why you’ve been hiding too.”

I looked up into the deep brown eyes glaring at me to hurry up and tell him what was going on. “I haven’t been hiding, I’ve been away.”

“Where did you go? Somewhere…” She stopped talking and I couldn’t hear any sounds for several seconds. “Daxx, could you maybe find a few minutes to come and get me? I think they’re looking for me.”

I cursed to myself. “Happy too. Where are you?”

“The recycling dumpster behind the old fish place.”

I knew I shouldn’t be surprised, but she had managed to do it to me again. “Stay exactly where you are, I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

“Okay. Bye.”

She hung up before I could say anything else. Nodding down the street, I looked up at Quinton. “We need to hurry.” I started walking, knowing he wouldn’t have any problems keeping up to me.

“Who was on the phone?”

“A friend.” I was close to jogging and he didn’t even look like he was walking fast, some things just weren’t fair. “She’s a little unusual, but harmless.” I didn’t know if that was even the right word to describe her.

“Is she in trouble?”

I grinned. “Crissy is always in trouble, without even doing anything.” As I picked up the pace, I hoped that this time it was just one of her paranoid problems and not a real one. My plate was already close to over-flowing, I didn’t know if I had time for anything else.

****

When we reached the back of the building that used to be an old cannery for various disgusting fish by-products, I slowed down and looked around. There were a few cars, but no one in sight. Anything that went down in this area, wasn’t legal so I knew I had to get Crissy and get us out of here. I motioned to the corner of the building. “Can you keep watch? If she sees anyone she’ll bolt and I hate chasing her down.”

He raised an eyebrow, but didn’t comment. With a nod, he went over to where I pointed and stood with his back to me looking around. I looked around again and then went to the dumpsters at the far end. They had been here for a few years, which made me wonder what was in them. Even if the devil himself were chasing me, I wouldn’t have gotten in one of them.

“Crissy? It’s Daxx. All’s clear out here.”

I listened to the motion inside as she most likely uncovered herself and moved to get out. When I saw fire engine red hair clear the top, I breathed a sigh of relief. Of course, her hair had been purple the last time I’d seen her. One more thing I’d never quite understood about her. If she wanted to stay below anyone’s radar, why did she always pick the brightest hair colors she could find? “Nice hair.”

Her pale face peaked over the edge. “Do you like it? It makes me feel so daring.” She smiled, her amber eyes huge with excitement.

I didn’t bring up that someone daring wouldn’t be hiding in a dumpster. Then again, who knew what was in there. I reached to help her get up over the side, shaking my head when I saw the little bits of paper clinging to her. When her feet finally hit the ground, she turned and hugged me.

“It’s so great to see you.”

The exception to the touchy feely hug thing, was with Crissy. You really didn’t have a choice, you were going to get hugged a lot when she was around. I hugged her back quickly, noting that hidden beneath her baggy black jumpsuit her bones were sticking out. Criss was only a few inches taller than I was, but when standing beside her I looked almost on the plump side, which I wasn’t. One of these days I’d figure out a way to get her to settle down long enough to eat.

She stiffened suddenly and backed away. Turning, I spotted Quinton standing where I left him. “Hey, it’s okay. He’s with me.”

Sigh sighed and began to brush the paper off. “I thought they found me.”

I flicked a few stray pieces off her shoulder. “Who?”

Straightening up, she looked all around us, paranoia filling her eyes. “I don’t know, but I don’t think they’re from here.”

Oh I really didn’t have time for the aliens delusion she had more often than any of her other ones. “What makes you say that?”

I followed her over to a heap of old bins and watched as she moved them around and pulled out her bag. Crissy traveled with her whole world in a large tote bag.

“Their eyes—they’re not normal.”

The hair on the back of my neck stood up. Had she seen some of the missing Alterealm runners? “Are they bulging or in the side of their head, what’s not normal?” I took the one bag out of her hand and started walking toward Quinton.

She began digging in the back pack she always wore across her chest. “I tried to draw them, but it didn’t turn out very well…” Pausing, she gave me bored expression, “and no they are not bulging or in the side of their head. They’re right where eyes should be they just do this gleaming thing.”

That told me precisely nothing helpful. Quinton turned around and waited for us to reach him. I stopped a few feet away from him, hoping Criss wouldn’t notice anything about his eyes.

She stumbled and came close to landing at his feet. With a little smile, she looked him up and down. “I thought maybe you just looked big from over there, but you really are.”

Quinton glanced at me and then smiled down at her. “I’m average size for my family.”

Crissy turned and gave me a wide-eyed look. I nodded.

“Crissy, this is Quinton.”

He held out his hand and to shake and scooped up the bag in her other hand and slung it over his shoulder.

She took his hand for a nanosecond and then stepped away and looked at me. “I’d like to go to your place please.”

I handed Quinton the other bag and took her arm. “Let’s go. Then you can tell me what’s going on.”

Nodding, she glanced behind us. “I really don’t want to talk about it until we get there.” She looked the other way. “You never know who is listening,” she whispered.

I watched the odd look cross Quinton’s face, but he just nodded and kept walking.