The Hunter's Curse (Monster Hunter Academy Book 2) Read online

  Never let a demon see you sweat.

  Zachariah Williams isn’t just the darkest, most gothically gorgeous member of my new academy monster hunting squad…he’s broken in a way I deeply understand. The son of a small-town preacher with a big-time skillset, he’s faced down monsters his whole life, a natural-born demon hunter whose deep empathy and shattered soul makes me crave his glance, his smile, and, okay…his hands all over me.

  Trouble is, he’s also got one killer of a family secret: right after he falls in love, Hell on earth breaks out. The only way to stop it? Sacrifice whoever’s captured his heart.

  Talk about a second-date buzzkill.

  Of course, I haven’t been fighting monsters practically since the cradle to back down now. Zach and the entire Wellington Academy monster hunter squad are becoming my stand-in family, and that means more to me than I ever expected.

  And if someone’s gotta take out a bunch of fire-breathing demons without getting hot under the collar, I’m still the right girl for the job.

  The Hunter’s Curse

  Monster Hunter Academy, Book 2

  D.D. Chance

  Contents

  Zach

  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

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  About D.D. Chance

  Zach

  She should never have come here.

  I lifted my hands to test the cool morning air. Today’s demonstration was supposed to be something simple, easy. I’d done this demon sunrise ceremony nearly a half dozen times now, though the ones in the late spring were always better than the ones in the fall. Demons weren’t always afraid of the sunshine. They liked showing off.

  They weren’t the only ones. I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to the rush I got from watching the faces of students move from skepticism to belief to awe. Not so much of a rush that I craved my own group of followers like my dad, but enough that I enjoyed impressing people.

  Especially certain people—like a brand-new monster hunter I had no business looking at twice, even if she was now technically part of our team. Hell, especially because of that. I should stay far away from Nina Cross, keep her safe. Protected. Never mind the fact that she was Tyler’s girl—a guy who’d been nothing but awesome to me since I showed up on campus, a fish out of water flopping around on the banks of Boston Harbor.

  But I couldn’t help myself. Nina was more like me than any of the guys were—reckless to the point of being stupid. Fierce. Angry. Proud. She was a fighter through and through, and she’d earned her scars. I knew what that was like.

  She also wanted to find her family, and even though she should be careful what she wished for, I wanted to help her. More than that, I wanted to look deep into her eyes, connect with her. Truly know her. And though she was warded against me, I couldn’t stop thinking about pushing into her mind more. Harder. In ways I shouldn’t even be considering.

  The moment Tyler, Liam, Grim, and I had all worked together to bring Nina into our monster hunting collective, it got a million times worse. Something seemed to crack wide open inside me, dark and forbidden. She was the girl I couldn’t have. The girl I couldn’t stop wanting. The girl I’d sacrifice to save my own fucked-up life, if I believed everything I’d been told.

  I blew out a harsh breath. She shouldn’t have come here.

  Never mind my problems; we had a job to do. To hear Commander Frost talk, we were on the brink of a full-on monster outbreak, the first in generations for Wellington Academy. Nina wasn’t just a hunter, she was a harbinger…and that meant monsters would be following hard on her heels.

  I could handle that. Darkness shouldn’t be feared or even respected, necessarily, but it did need to be understood. Right before it was blasted back into the bowels of hell. I’d always been good at that, though I tried to keep it quiet. I was here at Wellington to get smarter, stronger. To change the script for my family once and for all. So most of the time, I flew under the radar, playing it cool. These once-a-semester demonstrations for Demonology 101 were the only time I tried to tempt the demons out of the shadows.

  The demons didn’t always play along, of course, but part of me really wanted them to put on a show this time. Which was stupid. I needed to stay focused.

  All I wanted to do was focus on her.

  A light moan reached my ears, followed by a low, haunting laugh, as if someone was watching me from the decrepit old chapel that served as the stage for this sunrise ceremony. Bellamy Chapel had always bugged me, though it had long been abandoned, its doors hammered shut and sealed off from idle eyes. Now the old chapel served little purpose other than to look spooky on the edge of a monster hunter academy. But that moan, oddly, heartened me. The demons were going to show up today. I could already feel them.

  Like I could feel her, despite the bracelet she wore to keep me from getting too close. That first moment we’d met, I’d touched Nina’s mind, and my heart had nearly exploded. Liam had given her the bracelet to shield her, and she was clearly Tyler’s girl, so I’d tamped down my emotions, hard. After all that, I’d thought maybe she’d stay free of me, maybe I could keep her safe. But then, we’d made the Run. She’d joined the collective. And I knew I was screwed.

  The scornful laugh rolled over the cemetery, making my skin crawl. There was something there. The soft sneer was unmistakable, taunting me from the shadows. Your time with her will come, boy. Enjoy it. Because then she’s going to die.

  I rolled my eyes. Demons had been my family’s stock-in-trade for generations. But I was done with them and the curse they’d laid upon us.

  Fuck you, I thought back just as succinctly.

  Fuck me, too. Because what I felt for Nina Cross wasn’t safe, and it sure as hell wasn’t smart. It was far more dangerous—for everyone.

  “Mine,” I whispered.

  She should never have come here.

  1

  Nina

  No demons before coffee.

  If that wasn’t an official monster hunting rule, it should be.

  I scowled at the darkened windows of the Crazy Cup, the glow from my phone screen confirming it was only 4:38 a.m. For some ridiculous reason, that was too early for coffee shops to open. I should just have made coffee in my apartment, but I was running low on supplies, again. And I had to be at the campus by 5:00 a.m.

  “Slackers,” I muttered, shoving my phone back into my hoodie pocket and turning toward the academy. Fortunately, it wasn’t a long walk, and the morning was already warming up. The breeze rustling through the trees served up hints of the gorgeous May day to come that made so many people fall in love with Boston.

  People like my mom, who’d been my entire inspiration for this road trip from North Carolina, this quest to find the family I’d never known I had. It had sounded like a made-for-Hallmark-Channel adventure—come to the big city! Find the family of
your beloved late mother! Become a trust-fund princess—or at least find a new cousin or two. I’d even entertained the hope that Boston would prove to be an idyllic summer vacation haven, far quieter than my monster-crawling hometown of Asheville, NC.

  Nope.

  First had come a Technicolor wave of fearsome supernatural attackers, drawn to me like frat boys to beer pong and jumping out from practically every corner of my new, trendy Back Bay neighborhood. Then I’d found an actual school—a whole academy—dedicated to training monster hunters, along with a ridiculously hot group of college-age hunters who’d convinced me to join their ranks. I’d met, kissed, and damned near fallen in love with the head of said monster hunter collective, a guy so hot, he made butterflies form daisy chains in my stomach whenever he was near. He was an entitled asshat, sure…but he was my entitled asshat, the first boyfriend I’d allowed myself since my very unfortunate junior prom and the even more unfortunate bugbear incident behind the school. Poor Joey Porter would never be the same.

  But Tyler Perkins was a hunter, and so were his three best friends. Who were also, coincidentally, the three best friends I’d started lusting after out of nowhere. Because that was totally normal.

  I sighed at my own ridiculousness, cutting down a street that would take me toward the far end of campus, not its main entrance. This morning’s class location was some chapel on the west side of Wellington Academy, a place I hadn’t visited yet in my scant week as a freshly minted monster hunting student. But it’d be a far better class experience if I could score some…

  I slowed, squinting down the row of restaurants. Most of them remained as dark as the Crazy Cup had been, but one still had a red, flickering OPEN sign glimmering in a high window. The White Crane. It was a bar, not a coffee shop, but…bars had coffee, right? Especially bars still open at four in the morning, something I didn’t even think was allowed in Boston.

  My need for anything resembling caffeine carried me forward. I pushed open the tavern’s door and stepped into a gloom only slightly more illuminated than the predawn streets outside. I scanned the tables—all empty—but there were a few questionable types hunched over their drinks at the bar, and a bartender with wild, gray-streaked hair leaning against the far counter, eyeing me as I approached. The other patrons paid me no attention.

  “Coffee?” she smirked, turning to a bubbling pot by the line of beer taps. I didn’t care if she was judging me. I plopped right down on a stool as soon as the aroma of strong, dark coffee hit me. My mouth watered so hard, I didn’t even protest when the woman added a splash of deep amber liquid to the mug.

  “House rule. Gotta have something in it for me to serve you at this hour,” she said, and I blinked at her gravelly voice. Up close, she seemed younger than she had from a distance, her pale, heart-shaped face partially obscured by her heavy fall of hair, an ebony mane shot through with stripes of icy gray. Her eyes were also gray, and if she wore any makeup, I couldn’t tell in the low lights.

  “Thanks,” I managed. I picked up the coffee, inhaling a rich scent enhanced by the sharper tang of alcohol. “I didn’t realize you guys would be open this late. Or early, I guess.”

  “We set our own hours.” The bartender shrugged. She peered at me, her head tilting. “How do you like the academy so far?”

  Surprise skittered through me. I’d only been in the White Crane once, and I didn’t recognize this woman, but I’d been here with Tyler and hadn’t really paid much attention to anyone but him. I took a long draft of coffee, sighing with real appreciation as the twin fires of heat and whiskey hit the back of my throat.

  “It’s good,” I said. “I’ve got a five a.m. class this morning, but otherwise, it’s good.”

  The bartender lifted brows that suddenly seemed more winged than they had been a few seconds ago. I tried to focus on them, but she turned again, so instead my gaze lingered on the crow’s feet tracing her temple, the deeper lines bracketing her mouth. She’d been tending bar a long time, I suspected. Maybe she even ran the place.

  “Five a.m.,” she echoed. “Demon sunrise ceremony? It’s about time for that this semester.”

  I tipped my mug to her. “Yep. Professor Newton.”

  “Uh-huh.” She picked up a cloth and pint glass, turning back to regard me as she leaned again against the far counter, absently polishing the glass. “You should be a little more careful, you know. With your questions. Boston may be a big town, but this neighborhood, not so much.”

  I blinked at her, smothering my surprise at her comment with another slug of coffee. My pulse quickened, though, and I couldn’t help straightening. This woman was a bartender. Bartenders heard things. They knew things too.

  “What questions would those be?” I asked, and she snorted.

  “I don’t know any Janet Cross, so don’t get your hopes up. But I know you’re looking for her people, and that means I’m not the only one. In a place like this, the right questions have a way of reaching the wrong ears. You should watch yourself.”

  “But—”

  A bell at the front of the bar sounded, and the woman glanced over, the light catching her in such a way that she seemed far older—her face lined, her jaw soft. I dropped my gaze to my coffee again as she offered a familiar greeting to the newcomer, and finished off my mug. She said she didn’t know my mom, so I shouldn’t care too much about what she did know, but still…

  I looked up to find her regarding me again as the newest arrival ambled over to his buddies at the end of the bar. She seemed to be waiting for something, but I didn’t feel like spoon-feeding anyone this early in the morning.

  “Any other advice before I go?” I finally asked, standing up from the stool. I reached into my pocket for my wallet.

  She waved me off. “Drink’s on the house. You’ll need it where you’re going. But yeah, now that you mention it…” She leaned closer, and I felt a whisper of energy move through me, rocking me back on my heels. Was this woman supernatural? Or merely super creepy?

  “Yeah,” she said. “Stay close to your guys. They need you more than they think they do, especially given what’s coming.”

  I opened my mouth to say something flip, but closed it just as fast. Monsters. She meant monsters, of course, who followed me around like stink on moldy cheese. Since I’d hooked up with the monster hunters of Wellington Academy, our team had already successfully shut down the area’s first legit in-public monster attack in generations, and the guys were absolutely convinced that episode was only the first of many. Probably not surprising that the ever-so-slightly woo-woo bartender at the edge of a monster hunting academy shared their belief.

  “Noted,” I said.

  The woman nodded, her smirk back in place as she turned away to her newest guest. But I felt her gaze slide back to me as I made my way out of the White Crane. Were other people out there waiting for this monster outbreak to happen, too? Hoping for it? And who among them would care about me looking for my mom?

  I checked my phone again, picking up the pace as I angled toward Wellington Academy and scrolling through my email until I found the one from Professor Newton. In it, the demonology prof briefly outlined the extra-credit sunrise ceremony for his students, clearly as a reminder for them, though I’d learned about it for the first time just yesterday.

  I peered at the annotated map he’d included, trying to orient myself. Bellamy Chapel was at the far edge of campus, past the dotted line I assumed was the outer wall of Wellington Academy. It wasn’t the only section of the school that lay outside the reinforced footprint of the institution, but if we were dealing with demons, shouldn’t it be in the most secure environment possible? And shouldn’t that be inside the section of campus with updated security, and not the moldering ancient wall that was…porous at best?

  Dew gathering on my running shoes, I tramped across the campus, my neoprene tights and running jacket the best gear I could manage for such an early morning outing. The professor had instructed us to dress for easy movement,
like we were going to be practicing Tai Chi or something, so if everybody else was dressed in their academy best, too bad. He got what he got.

  I found the far wall a few minutes later, heartened by the fact that I wasn’t the only student heading in that direction. The campus, for the most part, remained quiet. But here students were gathering in groups of two and three, as well as a few solo stragglers. I hadn’t attended a demonology class yet, but I didn’t recognize anyone from my other classes, either. I imagined the study of demonology took all kinds, and I wondered briefly if any other monster hunter minors would be here. So far, I’d only met the guys—Tyler, Zach, Liam, and the appropriately named Grim—and they were all juniors, which put us at more or less the same age. Despite the bias against the minor, I knew there were a few younger monster hunters at Wellington…no sophomores, I was pretty sure, but maybe two or three freshmen.

  I peered at the mix of students around me and wondered. There was the expected combination of bright and perky as well as slow and shuffling, while I fell somewhere in between, even bolstered by my laced coffee. I really was a morning person more often than not, but I hadn’t been sleeping well these past few nights since the guys and I had completed our first unofficial task as monster hunters. Tyler had been great at keeping tabs on me since then, but I hadn’t really seen much of the other guys, and I felt out of sorts.