Whispers of Darkness (The Deadwood Hunter Series) by Rachel M Raithby Page B

to pull the trigger those hands snapped his neck. He was left discarded on the floor as Lexia and the two cats fled the scene without a single thought for the Hunter they’d just killed and left in the darkness.
    Lexia could see the tall trees ahead of them, feel the pull of the forest, its peacefulness, its otherworldly feel , and she could feel, too, the calmness settling over her panther beside her as he got nearer and nearer to his home where he could run free with no fear of being seen, where he and his panther could be one.
    But as they neared their freedom, Lexia stopped and gasped as she felt the swirling mass of darkness and danger around the corner . She heard her panther growl and pace restlessly around her looking for the threat.
    The Hunter seemed to take over and her eyes closed; as she concentrated Lexia could feel them, the large group of deadly Hunters.
    “Hunters ,” she whispered, her eyes still closed. She felt the cats cover her, in front and behind but she couldn’t seem to pull herself out of the trance she was in.
    “I can feel them Lincoln ... See them... Their life force... Dark, so dark .” She felt the rumble in his chest but no sound came out, both cats had gone deadly silent.
    “There’s ten... No , twelve hunters...” She opened her eyes, snapping back to herself, feeling drained. “That was so weird,” Lexia mumbled to herself.
    Lexia looked around at their surroundings . “We can’t risk taking them all on... In here.” She unlocked a gate, letting Lincoln and Caden walk through first but as she closed the door she heard a strangled squeak at her back and realized she’d made a mistake.
    She’d been so consumed with the Hunters that she’d missed the human energy behind the fence. Lexia tried to rein in the Hunter, she needed to keep this person calm, get her to trust her, and she couldn’t do that with the gold eyes of a Hunter, she needed human eyes.
    Slowly Lexia turned to see a middle -aged woman, a cigarette halfway to her mouth. Her eyes seemed to bulge from her skull as she stared at the two wild animals in front of her.
    “It’s ok ay, they won’t hurt you,” Lexia told her, keeping her voice low and even, but it was like the woman hadn’t even seen her, her eyes held the cats’ as panic and fear gripped her.
    Lexia took a step forward in front of Lincoln and finally the woman looked at her . “Don’t move or speak and they won’t hurt you. Do you understand? Don’t say a word.” The woman nodded, dropping her cigarette and clamping her hands over her mouth.
    They stood there in tense silence, each second seeming like a minute . Lexia struggled to keep the Hunter from taking over, all the energy around her seem to prickle at her skin; a thousand tiny needles stabbing at her over and over. The dark mass of Hunters grew nearer, Lincoln’s wild, barely contained energy wrapped around her, and she could even feel Caden becoming restless. Everything compounded together, pushed her closer to losing control.
    Lexia knew everything was going to blow up around her, the Hunters grew nearer with every second that passed and Lincoln  saw this woman as a threat, she could almost hear the battle he waged in his head over whether to kill this woman. Caden’s eyes had never left the woman; he’d frozen in a crouch, ready, waiting to take her out. They were like a time bomb just waiting to go off, all at once they would be thrown into chaos as Lincoln lost his grip on the beast and Caden joined him, the Hunters would hear them and they’d be trapped in a tiny backyard.
    Lexia lost her hold and the power swirled through her veins and as her eyes bled to gold Lexia reached for the woman, clapping her hand over her mouth she pulled her away as the two cats pounced.
    The Hunters were on the street now, just a few doors down from them; the woman’s legs flailed about wildly as she struggled feebly in Lexia’s arms and the cats snarled and snapped at her