Hunters

eighteen

**Four months later**

I dressed in a pair of yoga pants, a tank top and a sweatshirt; all in black. Jorden wore jeans and a black long sleeved shirt, then pulled on his combat boots after handing me mine. Fae was cocooned in a fleece onesie and multiple blankets. She saw me and squealed, reaching her tiny hands for me and I obliged, picking her up and cradling her in my arms.

"Ready for this?"

"Not at all, but let's get it over with."

Jorden kissed me then opened the bedroom door and let me lead down to the living room. Daddy was strapping a knife holster to his left thigh and then helped Mom position hers.

"I'm ready."

Evelyn walked in, decked out in black clothes similar to mine. Nick was dressed similarly to Jorden and was putting on a coat that held a row of throwing knives on the inside. I sighed, not wanting to go to this battle since I didn't know the outcome of when I'd go to get my daughter.

"Come on people. Time to go."

Fae squealed again and grabbed my hair. "Ow, baby no. Don't pull on my hair."

I disentangled her hand from my hair then passed her to her father so that I could put my hair up in a braid. Jorden cradled her in one arm and wrapped the other around my waist, pulling me after everyone headed to the cars. We sat in the back seat with Fae safely nestled in my arms and too soon the car was moving towards the field with waiting monsters.

Half an hour later we pulled to a stop atop an onlooking cliff and I ran down the path and into the first cave I found. Fae was asleep from the exhaustion of being awake for the whole day, and I tucked her into the darkest part of the cavern, hiding her from plain view, then slowly turned to see what was waiting on the field.

The field was a picnic ground and thousands of monsters had swarmed down on the unexpecting humans. I had to hold down bile at the sight so I moved my eyes to the woods surrounding the field to see the entire hunter army standing in wait for the signal. Jorden walked up beside me and we both headed down, hand in hand.

"Move in." I whispered to the messenger we'd set up to alert the others and he took off running. A few seconds later, hunters from all around charged in, bearing weapons and cutting through monsters quickly since we'd taken them by surprise. "Alright, let's go."

"Find me after, okay?"

"Of course."

Jorden kissed me then ran ahead, conjuring his sword out of thin air and I took a deep breath before following him. My sickle appeared in my hand and I swung my arm, cutting off several heads at once and only realized after that Keres dominated the field with the sprinkling of gelals, vampires and demons.

A vampire lunged at me and I drove my sickle straight into his heart right as I spun and kicked the side of the gelal's head next to me. Dislodging my weapon from the flaming vamp, I sliced it through the gelal's neck and watched as he turned to black ooze.

Behind you.

I spun at Evelyn's voice in my head and found a Keres diving from the air at me. I threw the weapon straight at the monster and dove to the side as it crashed into the ground. I flicked my wrist and the sickle disappeared, then reappeared in my hand. My sister had come up next to me and we moved in a circle, our backs pressed together.

A screech filled the air and several Keres dove for us. I cupped my hands together and turned to Evelyn who placed her foot into the cradle and pushed off the ground as I threw her up. She became airborne and lethal, slashing and stabbing at the Keres around her without a single scratch on her own body.