Hunter: Eclipse

Chapter 15

My parents are at a staff meeting. Alfie is off with Annipe by the river somewhere, and Jordan sits on the laptop with his earphones in. Sitting beside him, he barely acknowledges me until I pull them off.

"Sup?"

"How did your mission go? Penny said it was a flop."

"Then you already know how it went." He snatches the earphones back but doesn't put them in. "Your bear friend was upset though."

"Why?" Oz hadn't mentioned anything to me when we last spoke, Paul hadn't said anything either.

"Some werewolves went and trashed his bar. Things got messy, but I'd hate to see him in bear form fighting off a bunch of those man beasties. He won, but they're still replacing furniture and things."

"Paul never mentioned it."

"He handled it, no need to get our kind involved or to worry. They're a bit wild out that way aren't they?" Jordan typed something before closing down his account with the Council. "No new missions, things seem to have got real quiet this week."

"Good point. Even the vamps aren't still whining about everything. Ailin hasn't called any meetings or sent out any alerts. When it gets quiet like this, it's never good." I bite my lip nervously, unsure if we're looking for trouble where there isn't any.

"Tom and Sam, I think Drew as well, are all coming by tomorrow. That should be fun." He changes the subject. "Annipe said you were leaving when I went by after dinner. Nice timing, but where you off to now?"

"I meant soon but could be a good time to go. It's even weirder now Tom's nice to me," I shrug. "I'm grabbing V and heading out to the coven if you want to come?"

"Thought they were anti-men?"

"Well, he's hiding in the bushes with some of his friends, and I think it's a light fae that was helping them spy on the coven. Nothing's come up yet, but the surveillance team have noticed a lot of other things coming and going over the last couple of weeks. Witches, some demon species, you know, the things we try to avoid most of the time."

"I got nothing else on. What does the golden boy think of this? Thought you were taking a step back from it?"

"He isn't here, and what's the worst that could happen? I'm not going along, not technically." I shrug.

"So you're going to be in trouble when he finds out?" Jordan shakes his head.

"Only if he finds out." Secrets. We all have them, and hell, he keeps more of them than I do. "You going to be a dobber?"

"Please. My lips are sealed Elliephant. Pretty sure you used to be the one to open your mouth first when Mum and Dad wanted to know something. You're the biggest dibber dobber I know!"

I laugh. I can't help it. The ridiculousness of it breaks me, and I can't stop until tears are streaming down my face. Jordan laughs too, and for a second, I wonder if maybe we should stay home. Put on a movie, cook some popcorn; we hadn't hung out in ages, and not just the two of us. CJ was always around, but now he had his girlfriend, I couldn't actually remember when I last saw him.

"Come on, we better get ready." Jordan puts his things away and gets changed, while I pick at dinner leftovers and ignore the tiny wave of guilt that turns up whenever I think about what we're about to go and do.

"Why is it so dark?" I wonder, tripping over something as Jordan's phone light seems unable to stay pointed down to where we need it.

"We're in the forest. No street lights here!"

"Funny," I snap before muttering under my breath. "Idiot."

"If you two were any more obvious, we may as well just head on over and set up watch from the balcony!" V scolds us, and slowly I begin to make out his shape. "It's a New Moon, so it's extra dark as it's night time and there's no moonlight."