I’m convinced Ethan still has his humanity and no longer wants to hunt, but he won’t let me help him get out. Every time I try to talk to him about it, he shuts down.
He’s probably too scared to leave.
If I confess my secret to the monsters, would they punish me as well? While I refuse to hunt, that doesn’t mean the instinct isn’t there. The O’Hern surname is derived from the mythical hunter Herne. I carry the hunter’s curse in my blood. If I’d had children, they would have been destined to hunt supernatural beings. My body demands to fight, capture, and kill. But my morals are stronger than my destiny.
And apparently so is my libido because my body can’t seem to get enough of one certain monster.
No. I can’t say anything about my true identity. Not yet.
I just hope this decision doesn’t come back to kick me in the ass.
Iwake to my phone ringing.
Groaning, I peek at the screen and see my older brother’s name.
I check the time.
2 a.m.? What the fuck?
The ringing stops and I lie back down, huffing. Is the asshole drunk calling me? He’s never done that before, but I wouldn’t put it past him just to piss me off.
It’s been a week since Evangeline and Xander’s wedding. I’ve spent the days unpacking and barely had time to rest before my new summer teaching position starts at Five Boroughs College. My first class is today at 8 a.m. Thankfully, the campus is only a few blocks from my new apartment on the Upper East Side, so my commute won’t be too miserable.
My phone goes off again.
“Someone better have died to be calling me in the middle of the night,” I growl upon answering.
“Farrah,” Dean whispers.
“What is it?”
I stand, palming my chest as if that will stop my heart from pounding violently.
“It’s Ethan.”
“It’s Ethan what? What do you mean?”
“There was an incident.”
“No.” I pace the room, shaking my head back and forth. “No.”
“I’m sorry, but he couldn’t be saved.”
“What happened?” The words barely come out, my voice too shaken.
“You know I can’t—”
“Fuck off with the secrets. Just tell me!”
He huffs into the phone. They never give me too many details, but this is different. This isEthanwho’s dead.
“The monsters were hosting a convention. We paid a griffin a lot of money to help us kidnap a sphinx—you know their golden feathers are worth a lot of money. We took her to our new headquarters in Queens, but the vampire queen and her gargoyle guard weresomehow able to track her down. We were outnumbered. Ethan didn’t make it out.”
“No,” I sob.
My baby brother.
He can’t be gone.
