Huntress Apprentice (Huntress Clan Saga Book 2) Read online

  Huntress Apprentice

  Huntress Clan Saga™ Book 2

  Jamie Davis

  This book is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Sometimes both.

  Copyright © 2020 Jamie Davis and Michael Anderle

  Cover Art by Jake @ J Caleb Design

  http://jcalebdesign.com / [email protected]

  A Michael Anderle Production

  LMBPN Publishing supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.

  The distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

  LMBPN Publishing

  PMB 196, 2540 South Maryland Pkwy

  Las Vegas, NV 89109

  First US Edition, January, 2020

  eBook ISBN: 978-1-64202-693-1

  Print ISBN: 978-1-64202-694-8

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Also by Jamie Davis

  Jamie’s Author Notes

  About Jami Davis

  Other Series By Jamie Davis

  Books By Michael Anderle

  The Huntress Apprentice Team

  Thanks to the Beta Readers

  John Ashmore, Kelly O’Donnell, James Caplan, Larry Omans, Rachel Beckford,

  Thanks to the JIT Readers

  Dave Hicks

  Peter Manis

  Diane L. Smith

  Jeff Goode

  Jeff Eaton

  Dorothy Lloyd

  Deb Mader

  If I’ve missed anyone, please let me know!

  Editor

  The Skyhunter Editing Team

  Chapter One

  “Again.”

  Quinn groaned as she rose from the mat and squared herself to face Clark. The dark basement surrounded her in an oppressive silence. She heard nothing but her own breathing as she strained to draw in extra oxygen to try to recover some strength. She’d been down here for almost two hours sparring with Clark.

  “I need a break,” Quinn gasped.

  “Again.” Clark’s voice carried the even, stern tone he’d used in every one of their training sessions.

  No matter what Quinn did or said, he never seemed to lose his temper. It was one of the many things about her mentor that infuriated her. Nothing got under his skin.

  Quinn lunged forward, then ducked to sweep Clark’s legs out from under him while she tried to grab his shirt to pull him down to the mat beside her. The combination move was one he’d taught her earlier. She’d been struggling to get it right since.

  He blocked her attempt to clutch him with a forward thrust of his hands, separating her reaching arms before her hands could grab him.

  In a desperate attempt to salvage something from the exchange, she continued her leg sweep. Maybe she could still topple him.

  She should have known better.

  Clark’s hands drove forward in a continuation of the blocking maneuver, fingers together, so his hands formed dual spears that jabbed Quinn’s chest. The blow knocked her off balance, and her leg sweep ended up propelling her around, her arms windmilling to recover before she landed on her back.

  Quinn glared up at him.

  The hunter stepped forward. The bare incandescent bulb in the rafters of the basement ceiling silhouetted him leaving his face in shadow. Quinn could see the barest hint of his headshake of disapproval.

  “Dammit, Clark. How am I supposed to make this work when you’re expecting me to try the exact move I’m using. It’s the definition of futility.”

  Clark’s answer carried a stern tone of admonishment. “You expect your opponents to just let you try out your moves on them without countering?”

  “I did all right in my first fight with the demons.” Quinn’s anger rose to meet the hunter’s disappointment.

  “You were lucky. They’d been newly turned and possessed. They hadn’t come into their full abilities in the new bodies yet.”

  Quinn shook her head. “I saved your butt, didn’t I?”

  He didn’t take the bait. “Could you do it against a more prepared and skillful opponent?”

  When Quinn didn’t answer, Clark stepped back and gestured with one hand. “Get up. Again.”

  His dispassionate voice drove her anger to another level and sparked her to try something she hadn’t used since the fight at the VirSync building almost a month before. When she concentrated on her strength and speed, a green bar appeared in her vision as she stared up at Clark. It was only at half-charge. Focusing her mind, she drew upon her stamina level to boost her abilities and climbed back to her feet.

  Without waiting for Clark to gesture again, Quinn lunged forward, her enhanced speed and strength propelling her body at him. This time, when Clark’s hands shot out to counter her attack, she moved so fast he was unable to bring his hands up before she’d breached his defenses.

  For the first time, Quinn’s fingers clutched the fabric of Clark’s flannel shirt, her grasp tightening at the same instant her sweeping leg connected with his ankles.

  To her delight, she glimpsed a hint of surprise in his eyes as she pulled him off-balance, causing him to topple to the floor beside her. She continued the move with a roll that should have ended with her atop him, pinning him to the mat.

  Somehow, he got a knee raised in time to catch her in the chest as she descended on him. Before she could counter, Clark’s leg straightened and propelled her over his head to land on the mat behind him.

  Quinn’s breath whooshed from her lungs, but she pushed through the pain and lack of air. Using her enhanced strength, she kicked her feet in the air and kipped back up to her feet again.

  She spun around, hands at the ready to defend herself from any counterattack.

  Clark had regained his feet as well and stood a few feet from her, crouched and ready. This time he nodded. “That was much better. You moved with a hunter’s speed and agility that time.”

  “Yeah, but I can’t do that all the time. I only have so much power to draw upon.”

  Clark’s head cocked to one side. “What do you mean? You’ll get tired like any person. Still, you’ll be able to outlast most mundane opponents, and even most supernaturals if you’re careful.”

  Quinn hadn’t told anyone about her ability to use the VR skills she’d gained inside the VirSync training system in the real world. She’d tried to keep it a secret. This was the first time she’d used it in training with Clark.

  “I have this thing I can sometimes do. It’s sort of like a skill in a video game.”
>
  Clark stared at her and shook his head. He didn’t understand what she’d said.

  “When I first went into the VirSync system, I discovered I had certain abilities, the kind you’d gain in any sort of VR game setup. I could boost my strength to increase my speed and agility by drawing on my stamina stores.”

  “And you can do that here and now, outside their VR system?”

  Quinn nodded.

  “How long have you known you could do this?”

  “Since the beginning. I used it in my fights in the building when we were trying to escape. It’s how I was able to match the demon-possessed strength of Cindy and the others.”

  “What else can you do besides this? Did you gain other skills?”

  “I haven’t tried them all, but I assume I can use the tracking ability and some of the other skills I had inside the training system.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me about this sooner? This is important.”

  Quinn shrugged. “I didn’t tell anyone because I was afraid it might mean I was still connected to their system somehow. I thought if I used it, they might be able to find out where we’re hiding.”

  Clark shook his head. “Maybe that’s true, but it could also explain why I can’t get you to access your hunter attributes, despite all our training sessions.”

  “You helped me learn to use the magic in my amulet to hide in shadows. I wasn’t inside the VR world then.”

  “Yes, but that was the power of the amulet. Those abilities are connected to it, at least initially, not to your hunter lineage. Somehow the magical interface of the amulet, coupled with the technology of the VR system, enabled you to access your hunter side inside the training scenarios and slayer hunts.”

  Clark reached out to the wooden post supporting the ceiling and tossed her a towel hanging from a hook there. “I need to talk to Miranda about this. Maybe we’ve been going about your training all wrong. Come on upstairs.”

  Quinn caught the towel as Clark turned toward the steps leading to the main floor of the farmhouse. She pressed the soft terrycloth against her face, wiping her sweat-soaked skin. Her dark hair, damp with sweat, hung about her face, clinging to her cheeks and forehead. The dark locks had started out pulled back into a ponytail, but all the training of the last two hours had shaken most of it loose. She’d given up trying to keep it in place between bouts.

  The training here day in and day out would have worn her down, but Quinn kept her focus on her ultimate goal, inspired by that mysterious voice she had first heard barely a month before.

  “Welcome, and well done, my daughter, my Quinn, my new huntress,” the woman’s voice had said in her mind.

  To Quinn, it hinted at something she’d long dreamed of—a family. Now she saw their small group, the four of them, as the beginning of a new family, one she could build to become whatever she wanted it to be. But it all hinged on her learning the hunter skills from Clark and matching them until she became a true huntress, one with a full clan behind her and not just an Initiate.

  She headed for the open wooden steps leading up to the farmhouse’s kitchen. Clark had brought her and Taylor here, along with the witch, Miranda. He chose this secluded location as a hideout after their escape from the VirSync building.

  The property was located about twenty minutes north of Baltimore, where a few patches of farmland still remained amidst the sprawl of housing developments and businesses. This particular farm was vacant, and according to the sign at the end of the long lane leading out to the main road, up for auction in a few more weeks. When that happened, they’d have to relocate.

  Clark’s animated voice met her as Quinn reached the kitchen. It differed from the passionless monotone he used most of the time. “I think we had a breakthrough just now. Quinn did something I haven’t seen her do before.”

  Miranda smiled at Quinn as she entered the room and turned back to Clark. “What kind of something?”

  “She finally displayed some of the hunter strength and speed I’ve been trying to unlock in her. Usually, we begin training young initiates at the age of ten. That way, when they hit puberty and their abilities manifest, they’re prepared to access them through the hours of meditation and training we’ve given them. With Quinn, I had to try something different.”

  Quinn stared at Clark and said, “That was why you kept me down there for hours every day? To force me to release some sort of hidden abilities?”

  Clark nodded. “I didn’t know any other way. If you remember, I tried to get you to meditate. You laughed it off and wouldn’t give it a serious try. Given your prior martial arts training, I figured I could use a different sort of focused attention to spark you to release your skills.”

  Quinn began to snap out an angry reply, but Miranda cut her off. “So, then, I guess your plan worked?”

  “Yes and no,” Clark said. “At least, not the way I expected it to. I think I understand now why I couldn’t unlock her abilities myself. It had already happened inside the VirSync VR system. The combination of technology and magic in their VR rig had already done it.”

  Quinn huffed and said, “It could’ve saved us both a lot of time and pain if you’d only told me what you were trying to do. You know, you’re really failing at the mentoring gig. It’s like you’ve never done anything like this before.”

  “I haven’t.”

  “What?” Quinn and Miranda replied in unison.

  “I was barely an apprentice hunter when the purges began twenty years ago. I only escaped being discovered and killed through blind luck.”

  “But I thought...” Quinn began.

  Clark shook his head. “I’d been through most of the training, but I hadn’t reached the level of Master Hunter, where I’d have my own initiates to train. The rest of the clan members were killed before then.”

  Quinn’s anger bubbled up. “You lied to me, Clark. You told me you could train me to become the huntress I was destined to be.”

  “And I have. It just took us longer to get there, partly because you didn’t tell me everything you could already do.”

  “I was afraid to,” Quinn said. “I told you, I was afraid they could track me if I used the skill outside their building or VR setup.”

  Clark shook his head. “If that was the case, why’d you use it today?”

  “Because I got so pissed off, I didn’t care anymore. You stood there with that smug look on your face while you countered everything I could throw at you. I had to take you down just once.”

  Miranda laughed. “You two need to come up with a better way to communicate with each other. All you do is fight and argue. It sounds like this could have been solved with a little one-on-one communication.”

  Taylor, Quinn’s best friend, walked into the kitchen with an empty red plastic cup in her hand. Her wireless headphones hung around her neck. “Don’t stop fighting on my account. I’m just here to get some water. I’ve been listening from the dining room, and the whole thing is super entertaining. Your daily training arguments almost make it bearable to be stuck here in the middle of nowhere.”

  The mousy blonde got a pitcher of filtered water from the fridge and filled her cup, then took a sip. “What’s the issue today? Is our trainee huntress still not progressing to your man-standards?”

  Clark ignored Taylor’s dig and turned to Quinn. “Go get a shower and cool down. We can talk more about this when you’re finished. This is a breakthrough. I wish it happened sooner, but at least it happened.”

  Quinn started to say something but decided Clark’s attempt at defusing the situation was probably for the best. Besides, she just felt grimy. Flipping the towel up over her shoulder, Quinn nodded and headed to the hallway by the front door and the stairs to the second floor. A shower would feel good after two grueling hours of hard work.

  Chapter Two

  Clark waited for Quinn to leave and start up the stairs before he spoke, his voice lowered so it didn’t carry beyond the kitchen. “I think this will change ever
ything. She has no idea how close I was to giving up on getting her training to work. Even if she was the daughter of a hunter clan member, I don’t know of any precedent for beginning training of someone her age.”

  Taylor shook her head. “I’m missing something, what happened today that’s different?”

  “I couldn’t unlock her hunter abilities because she’d already done it, we just didn’t know it.”

  Taylor laughed. “I told you last week you were approaching this all wrong. Quinn is special. I’ve always known it, as long as we’ve been best friends. She always does things her own way, and they have a habit of working out. How did you find out she’d already broken through your little hunter wall?”

  Clark ignored her attempted dig. “It came up downstairs just now. I’m not entirely sure where we go from here, but I think I’ll need your help to figure it out.”

  “Mine? Why me?” Taylor asked.

  “Because her breakthrough happened when she was at VirSync inside the VR training system.”

  Taylor seemed confused. Clark continued, “I’m guessing it’s something to do with her wearing the amulet coupled with the magic and technology interface they used to send you, Quinn, and the other candidates out as slayers. I was hoping you and Miranda would be able to explain it to me. She’s our resident witch, and you’re—well, I guess you’re our tech witch.”