Page 348 of Hunters and Prey

Helgi’s face echoed my confusion.

“Merc dudes?” I strode toward them, shaking my head. “What are you doing here?”

“Could ask you the same thing.” The scale-faced ringleader studied me with moonlit eyes shrouded with suspicion.

“We’re here for a job.”

The Skins traded glances.

“You’re here for a job too, aren’t you?” Helgi surmised. “Barret?”

The merc nodded. “Yeah. He gave us coordinates.”

“Us too.” I began to pace as a queasy feeling lit up inside me. “I don’t like this.”

The crunch of boots on gravel had us all spinning round. Dunstan stood bathed in the silvery rays of the moon.

He fell into a defensive crouch, his fists up and a deer-in-the-headlights expression on his face. “Shit. What the heck?”

The merc growled low in his throat. “Looks like fate has brought us together again, D.”

The merc with the flared nostrils grabbed his boss’s arm. “Wait, stay focused. This feels off.”

“Barret sent me here on a job,” Dunstan blurted. “Is this a setup?”

It was something all right, and my sixth sense was screaming run.

Two more figures approached, spilling out from between a couple of houses up ahead. More males—wiry and mean-looking. They faltered at the sight of us, and then continued in their approach.

“Where’s Barret?” they asked in unison. The tones of their voices melded together until they sounded like one person speaking.

On closer inspection, it was more than their voices that were identical. Looked like we had us some twins. And then a final figure emerged from a building to our left. Huge, hulking with fiery red hair pulled back from his face in a cue.

“Um, Anya, close your mouth,” Helgi whispered.

Shit.

“Barret asked you all to come here too?” the man asked.

His voice was smoke and embers. I studied him as he stepped into a ray of moonlight. The sharp planes of his face and the straight ridge of his nose were perfection. Where was his deformity? Maybe hidden beneath his clothes? Damn, what was wrong with me?

“It looks like Barret brought us all here,” one of the mercs said.

A tingle of apprehension slid up my spine.

Helgi gripped my arm. “Anya, I think we should go.”

And then the air was filled with an angry buzzing sound.

The unmistakable sound of sentinels.

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