Page 11 of His to Hunt

But the strange sensation doesn’t pass. Every step I take, something feels off. Shadows move in my peripheral vision. For a moment, I smell something that reminds me of the forest near my grandmother’s house. Then a car passes and all I smell is exhaust. When I get close to the bar, I’ve never been happier to see the neon signs.

Smells aren’t bothering me like they were earlier. I can tell that when I step into the bar and don’t immediately gag when I’m hit with the aroma of stale beer, citrus cleaner, fried food, and sugary mixed drinks.

I’m glad the bar isn’t packed. Only a handful of customers are scattered around tonight. Valerie is making drinks, so I walk up to the counter.

“Taryn! Yay!” she says happily. “Give me a few minutes and you can walk with me to my car. Your gift is in the backseat.”

“Okay,” I reply, leaning against the bar.

“Want something to drink while you wait?” she asks. “It’s close enough to your birthday that I can give you a free drink without my dad tearing my ass up with his belt.”

“No, I’m fine,” I say, waving off her offer. “I haven’t been feeling that great today.”

“You pregnant?” she asks, glancing over at me.

“No, I’m not pregnant,” I retort. “Why do people keep asking me if I’m pregnant?”

If Valerie hears me, she ignores it. She makes a few more drinks, checks on her customers, and gets her dad to come watch the bar. I follow her outside, and before I can even enjoy the breeze, the strange sensation returns. At least it’s not my stomach now. I’d rather feel uneasy than half a second from puking all the time.

“I was going to wrap it, but I didn’t have any paper,” Valerie says, opening her back door. “So, just close your eyes.”

I force a smile, close my eyes, and hold out my hands. Valerie places something smooth that almost feels like a lamp with no lampshade, so I have to open my eyes to examine it. I’m not sure what it is until she places a few wax discs on top.

“It’s a wax warmer,” she explains. “You mentioned that Shana’s basement has an odd odor.”

I mentioned that to Valerie once. I’m surprised she even remembers because that was years ago. Truthfully, I think I’ve gotten used to it since then. It didn’t even bother me that much today when my stomach was in knots.

“Yeah, it’s a little funky,” I admit, wrinkling my nose. “Thank you so much. This is so thoughtful. I really appreciate it.”

“You’re welcome,” she says, hugging me. “How did your birthday party go?”

“It wasn’t really a party. I would have invited you if I had a party,” I say. “I just hung out with Madison and Shana. It’s been a while since the three of us got to hang out.”

“Do anything fun?” she asks, raising a brow and removing a disposable vape from her purse. She takes a hit and blows out a stream of vapor that smells like lemon.

“We drank way too much vodka and Shana brought some weed, so we had a good time,” I say. “It was like old times. We even tried to cast a spell.”

“Cast a spell?” she laughs. “I thought the three of you grew out of that.”

“So did I,” I sigh. “We found this old book at my grandmother’s house a long time ago. It’s supposed to be a book of spells, but we could never get any of them to work.”

“Because magic isn’t real?” she asks jokingly, taking another hit from her vape.

“That and the fact we could never decipher it,” I say. “Madison used AI and got further than we ever did in high school, so they wanted to try a spell.”

“What kind of spell?” she asks, raising a brow as she exhales a lemon-scented cloud.

“A love spell,” I say, rolling my eyes. “Truthfully, I don’t even know if it was really a love spell. We couldn’t decipher everything.”

I see something move in the dark beside the bar, but I’m sure it’s just imagination messing with me again, so I try to brush it off.

“Casting mysterious spells that you can’t even read?” she laughs. “Good thing magic isn’t real.”

“Tell me about it,” I say, then I jump because there’s a loud thud from the side of the bar like someone just tried to punch through the brick.

There’s more movement, but this time, I’m not the only one who notices it. Valerie’s head whips toward the shadows at the same time mine does. For a second, I swear there’s a shape near the corner of the building. Tall shadows. Broad shoulders. A glimmer that almost looks like eyes catching the security light.

It vanishes before I can fully process it and a roar echoes from the alleyway behind the bar. Loud, furious, and too deep to belong to any man. It sounds like a beast.