Huntress Initiate (Huntress Clan Saga Book 1) Read online

  Huntress Initiate

  Huntress Clan Saga™ Book 1

  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 © 2019 Jamie Davis

  Cover copyright © LMBPN Publishing

  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, November 2019

  eBook ISBN: 978-1-64202-603-0

  Print ISBN: 978-1-64202-604-7

  Contents

  Prologue

  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

  Also by Jamie Davis

  Jamie’s Author Notes

  Michael’s Publisher Notes

  Other Series By Jamie Davis

  Books By Michael Anderle

  Connect with the Author

  The Huntress Initiate Team

  Thanks to the Beta Readers

  John Ashmore, Kelly O’Donnell, Sarah Weir, Mary Morris, Larry Omans

  Thanks to the JIT Readers

  Dorothy Lloyd

  Jeff Eaton

  Diane L. Smith

  Dave Hicks

  Peter Manis

  Deb Mader

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

  Editor

  The Skyhunter Editing Team

  Prologue

  “If we don’t leave her, they’ll kill her along with the rest of us.”

  Naomi checked the rearview mirror for the tenth time in the last minute.

  They were close.

  She could feel it.

  The amulet’s warning was never wrong, and the intense cold coming off it sent a chill through her again.

  Brian, Naomi’s husband, shook his head. “That makes no sense. You’ve got power and abilities. You explained it to me after we got married. You’ve protected us and kept us hidden this long. Can’t you just—”

  “Don’t you see? After everything I did, they still found us. I’m telling you, someone betrayed the clan from within. They’re all gone. Nothing I’ve done has stopped the killing. Trust me when I say we’re screwed. I can’t protect her or us anymore. The witch told us the coven’s spell would only hide us long enough to have the baby. It was only temporary. The protection has faded.”

  “But giving her up this way?”

  “You think I like this? You think this is easy for me? This is the only way. Even then, it may not be enough.”

  Naomi spun the wheel, turning at the last second onto a side street as she raced through the early morning streets of Baltimore. She glanced in the mirror, watching to see if anyone followed them from their original path.

  “Look, Brian. There’s a slim chance I can break whatever tracking spell they have on us, but if I can’t, there’s only one way this will end. I’m sorry to bring you into this. You didn’t understand what it meant to marry into a hunter clan. I see now my father was right. It wasn’t fair.”

  “I’m not sorry. I want to make sure we’re not abandoning our baby when there’s a chance you can still work it out.”

  Naomi shook her head. “I can’t take that kind of chance with her life. No one has been able to stop the assassins yet. Hunters far better than me have tried and failed.”

  Brian glanced back at the baby in the carrier buckled to the middle of the back seat. “Where are you going to leave her? You’re not going to knock on some door and leave her on the front steps with a note, are you?”

  “Something like that.”

  Naomi spotted her destination ahead. The blue light over the garage doors spilled a muted light over the sidewalk in front of the old brick firehouse. Some of her ancestors had worked as firefighters here in the city. A few of these older firehouses had protection circles that still held residual power. It might be enough to keep the baby safe.

  A last check in the mirror showed a clear street behind them. Nodding more to convince herself than Brian, Naomi pulled over and stopped at the curb in front of the old building.

  “Get her car seat out of the back. I’ll write a quick note.”

  “Naomi, are you—

  “Sure? Yes, now hurry. We’ve lost our pursuit, but they’re still close. I can feel them coming.”

  A fresh chill emanating from the amulet punctuated her dire prediction.

  Flipping open the glove box, Naomi dug for a pen and a scrap of paper. She pulled out the broken stub of a dull pencil and an empty bank envelope.

  It would have to do.

  She scribbled a brief note, re-read it, and nodded again, climbing out of the car to join Brian in the splash of the headlights on the sidewalk.

  Her husband’s grief-stricken face tugged at her heart. It almost made her doubt her decision. She shook it off, though.

  “Give her to me and get back in the car. I’ll be right there.”

  Brian hesitated for a moment before handing over the infant carrier.

  Naomi took it and stared down at her beautiful daughter, barely a week old. She blinked away a few tears and walked up to the firehouse personnel door, off to one side of the vehicle ramp.

  She set the carrier down. Kneeling beside it. Naomi reached up behind her neck, unclasping the silver chain that held the hunter amulet she’d received on the day of her initiation. It had never failed her. Perhaps it would serve her daughter as well, even though she’d never know its true powers.

  Naomi slid amulet and chain into the bank envelope and fumbled with the pencil stub as she added another two lines to the note. She placed it on the blanket covering her daughter.

  Squealing tires in the distance somewhere up the street behind her alerted Naomi to potential pursuit. Her hand brushed her chest where the cold chill of the protection amulet used to rest.

  The sound from the approaching vehicle wasn’t a coincidence. As soon as she’d removed the hunter’s amulet, its inherent protection around her had dissipated. She had to leave before it was too late to save at least the baby.

  Naomi pressed the door buzzer for a long second, then raced back to the car. She put it in gear and drove away, reaching over to squeeze her husband’s hand as they left their daughter in the darkness behind them.

  Two cars with black-tinted windows raced past the firehouse a few seconds later, oblivious to the baby carrier on the sidewalk next to the entrance.

  A minute after the two cars passed by, the firehouse personnel
door opened. A young man in the uniform of the Baltimore Fire Department stepped out to see who’d rung the buzzer.

  “Anyone there, McKinley?” the lieutenant asked from inside.

  “You’re not going to believe this, sir. It’s a baby.”

  “Damn, not again. I’ve got too much paperwork to do as it is. Is there any identification?”

  McKinley bent down and picked up the carrier. “Just this.”

  He handed the lieutenant the envelope with the hand-scrawled note.

  Her name is Quinn.

  Give her the necklace.

  It is her birthright.

  McKinley checked the empty street one last time, then stepped inside with the baby and closed the door.

  Chapter One

  “Quinn, hurry up. We can’t be late on our first real shift at the testing center. They’ll fire us.”

  Quinn frowned. Her roommate’s anxiety about things like this was typical. That was just the way Taylor was. Quinn preferred to take things as they came, without anyone else’s drama.

  Taylor’s anxiety about the job was understandable. As a total computer nerd, getting a job testing software at a company like VirSync was a dream come true.

  Despite the differences between the two of them, she’d been Quinn’s best friend for most of high school, becoming close after Taylor had helped her when Quinn spent a portion of her eighth-grade year homeless on the streets of Baltimore. It was either the street or staying in an abusive foster care situation.

  Eventually, child protective services placed her in a new and more stable home situation. She and Taylor had remained friends, though. In some ways, Quinn believed she owed the other girl her life. Something deep inside told Quinn that was important.

  “Chill, Taylor. I’ll be right there.”

  As Quinn shrugged into her t-shirt, her hand brushed her lucky pendant. It was the only thing she had from her birth mother. It had been left with her as a baby at a firehouse door eighteen years before. The child and the pendant on a silver chain came with a note stating Quinn’s name.

  She tucked it inside her t-shirt’s collar, tracing the outline of it beneath the fabric. It might be her imagination at work, but Quinn had grown up believing the small silver oval somehow warned her when something was wrong.

  Quinn grinned as she rubbed her thumb over the surface, turning it over through the fabric. The pendant was inscribed with a stylized tree on one side and what one of her teachers had once described as some sort of Germanic runes on the other.

  She smiled as she pulled on her jeans. The pendant’s magical protections were just another part of the childhood daydreams she had to put behind her now that she had graduated. All those times she’d imagined the charm warning her of trouble were a product of an overactive child’s imagination. Quinn knew she’d just been lucky, and prepared to act on that luck.

  She’d grown up believing in her ability to recognize dangerous situations facing her, like her foster-father’s approach from behind that night so long ago. It had allowed her to escape him, and she’d run away to the relative safety of the streets.

  “Quinn, come on.” Taylor popped her head into the open doorway, her long blonde ponytail bouncing behind her. “We don’t want to be late. We get our first VR test assignments today.”

  “I’m coming, I’m coming. You heard the instructors in the orientation sessions. Everyone gets the same sort of assignments to start. Only after we go through a few VR sessions in the testing system will we get segmented into different groups based on ability.”

  “Well, I’m not taking any chances. You know how lucky we were to get this job right out of high school the way we did. It’s the only way we can afford to share this apartment.”

  Quinn shook her head as Taylor disappeared back into the living room. Despite Taylor’s early enthusiasm for the job, Quinn still wasn’t sold on everything it promised.

  Quinn had been recruited by her lacrosse coach right after the graduation ceremonies. She’d directed Quinn to a link online, recommending she apply. The coach had told her the job was perfect for an athlete like her. Knowing Taylor would want to be included in the opportunity to work for the Baltimore-based gaming software company, Quinn had shared the link with her best friend.

  They’d applied together and had both been both offered probationary spots in the new test program for VirSync.

  Quinn figured she’d try the new job, at least for now. The money was too good to turn down, and she needed a place to stay now that she was officially out from under the state’s care.

  She and Taylor had dreamed of getting an apartment together after leaving school. It was hard to turn the opportunity down when the VirSync recruiter told them the job offer included an apartment for the two of them. It was better than most places Quinn had known growing up, and there was no way she could turn it down.

  Quinn shoved a change of clothes and a towel in the duffel bag as directed by their orientation instructions for VR testing days. They’d each change at work into a specially-designed black bodysuit. Each had been fitted for one during their orientation sessions.

  Taylor poked her head back into the room. She rolled her eyes and said, “You don’t even have your shoes on. Quinn, please! We’re going to be late.”

  “I know. This job is important for both of us. Go get ready, and I’ll meet you outside at the Jeep.”

  Quinn smiled as Taylor gave an exasperated grunt and left again. They were opposites in so many ways, but that seemed to help them get along, since they had complementary skills.

  Taylor, although most thought her a typical absent-minded computer nerd-type, had gravitated to sports in high school and joined her friend Quinn on the lacrosse team, surprising many with her athleticism.

  Dark-haired, athletic Quinn had never liked tech much, preferring to focus on athletic training, and eventually on various martial arts programs offered by the city over the years.

  Taylor had often remarked that while she was the brains of the duo, Quinn, with her natural street smarts and wisdom, was the heart.

  Quinn slid on her sneakers and shouldered her gym bag. She headed for the door, stopped to make sure it would lock behind her, and went downstairs to where Taylor waited by the Jeep.

  As she left the newly renovated apartment building, she looked back at the three-story structure and shook her head. Who gave eighteen-year-olds their own apartment as part of any compensation package? It didn’t make sense.

  “Quinn, hurry up.”

  Taylor stood next to Quinn’s beat-up Jeep Wrangler, her most prized possession. She’d scrimped and saved to afford it, and even though the pay from the new job could have let her buy her a better model, Quinn was happy with this one for now.

  She unlocked the passenger door as she passed it. Taylor smiled and climbed in.

  Quinn got in the driver’s seat and started the engine. She settled the faded Baltimore Orioles ball cap she’d grabbed from the dashboard on her close-cropped brunette hair and turned to Taylor. “See, we’re leaving on time. You just have to have a little faith.”

  “Quinn, it’s always best to be early. You remember what Miss Hudson used to say in school. Early is on time and on time is late.”

  Quinn shook her head. “Hey, we’ve graduated. We don’t have to listen to teachers anymore.”

  Taylor laughed. “It’s just a good thing to do. I know if this was a sporting event or a sparring match, you’d be there an hour early to do extra warm-ups before anyone else arrived. This is a great job. It’s okay to like it, even though you didn’t want to take it at first.”

  “That’s not the whole reason. It’s strange how this job fell in our laps the way it did. Don’t you wonder how they even knew to get coach to offer it to me?”

  Taylor dismissed that with a wave of her hand. “It was probably one of the guidance counselors trying to do us a favor. You know how they were always going on about how they were there to help us, especially with you growing up in the
system the way you did. We shouldn’t be disrespectful when something good is handed to us.”

  “I’m not disrespecting the offer, Taylor. I just want to understand what is happening. They’re paying us a lot of money to do…what? Play a video game?”

  “You heard the recruiter when we went to the interview,” Taylor replied. “It’s so much more than just a game. It could change the way they train our nation’s soldiers forever. They wanted people who were active and athletic to try it because of the physical demands of the system. We both like video games, and we are both athletes. As far as I’m concerned, it’s the perfect job.”

  Quinn drove on as Taylor continued to outline all the reasons this was a good idea. Quinn decided to put her concerns in the back of her mind and focus on getting to work on time. She got on the Beltway that circled the city and started around it to the exit that led to the company’s office complex. She had to hurry through afternoon rush hour traffic to get there before six o’clock. Quinn didn’t want to hear Taylor tell her “I told you so.”

  Despite Taylor’s concerns about being late, they arrived ten minutes before their proposed start time that evening. Quinn stopped at the gate to flash her badge at the card reader.