It was one of our hunters.
Chapter Eleven
“What the fuck—?” His gaze jumped from my face to the bracelet in my hand. Realization dawned, and without another word, he turned and ran.
“Aiden!”
I dropped the bracelet on the table and bolted after the hunter. I jumped down the steps and began threading an immobilizing spell around my fingertips, but before I could finish, silver flashed past me—Aiden in wolf form.
The hunter must have sensed his presence because he suddenly stopped, spun around, and raised his hand.
In it was a gun.
Before I could react, I was hit side-on and sent flying. I fell with a grunt, skinning my knees on the concrete as my hands slipped forward on the grass.
Saw Jack run past.
Heard gunshots. Two of them. One from the killer, and one from Jack.
Saw Aiden’s form shimmer as he shifted from wolf to human; there was no blood on him. No sign of a wound.
The same could not be said of the hunter. Or, in fact, Jack. In shoving me to one side, he’d been clipped by the bullet meant for me. It had torn through his left arm in what looked to be a straight in-and-out wound.
My gaze went back to the hunter. He was dead. Shot through the heart, from the look of it.
Aiden swung around, his gaze sweeping me before moving on to Jack. “Thanks for the save, mate.”
Jack grimaced. “I wasn’t quite fast enough to stop the bastard pulling the trigger—and I certainly didn’t mean to kill him.”
“Better him than any of us.” I climbed to my feet then bent to study my knees. Thankfully, my jeans had taken the brunt of my fall, which meant my knees had escaped with only a minor amount of lost skin.
“You need to stop that bleeding, Jack,” Aiden said. “Do you want me to bring down the medical kit from the truck?”
“No,” Jack said. “I have to go call this in anyway, so I’ll rough bandage it while I’m up there. Just make sure you keep a record of anything you do.”
“As ever.” He waited until Jack had moved away and glanced at me. “What are the chances of you reading the hunter’s memories? I know you haven’t got your spell stones with you but—”
“I actually don’t need the stones. They’re more a precautionary measure when there’s some form of magic involved in the death.”
“So you’ll try?” When I nodded, he added, “Good, because if we can get some idea where the other two are, we might be able to stop this madness today.”
I walked over, wincing a little as my knees protested. “One of these days I’ll get through an investigation without being injured in some way.”
“But today is not that day,” he mused.
I grinned. “I wasn’t aware you’re a Lord of the Rings fan.”
“I marathon the movies at least once a year.”
“What about the books?” My gaze went to the younger man, but I had no sense of his ghost and, thanks to the light connection Belle was maintaining, could see that his soul had already risen. I just hoped fate and reincarnation made him pay for his crimes the next time around.
“I’ve never read the books,” Aiden said.
“Ranger, that is another outrageous statement which needs to be fixed immediately.”
“Not going to happen. I have tried, but the language is too ponderous and old-fashioned.”
I did a wider loop than necessary around the body and stopp