Foxy Heart Read online

  “I’ll say,” I drawled, tracing my upper lip with my tongue.

  Troy looked behind him to the quiet alley next to the pub and took a step toward it. I turned to Lorelai and the rest of the gang who were looking at me incredulously, completely unaware of what had just happened.

  “I guess I’ll see you guys later,” I said. “I just found my mate.”

  Lorelai’s face dropped, and the guys behind her grinned knowingly.

  “Oh my god!” Lorelai exclaimed. “Congratulations, sweetie.” She gave me a quick hug and looked at Troy, my Troy, before her and the guys headed inside. “I’m happy for you,” she added before she disappeared inside.

  I took a moment to center myself, feeling Troy’s hot stare on my face, before turning to his direction and following him into the alley.

  “I can’t believe you found me. I always thought it would be the other way round. We’ve got so much to talk about. How do you want to do this? Do you want to bond first or get to know each other before we bond? I’m cool whichever way. Oh my God, this is so unexpected—”

  I knew I was waffling, and I couldn’t stop myself regardless. Thankfully, he stopped me.

  “What? You knew I was coming? What are you talking about?” Troy asked, confusion wrinkling his face.

  A strand of ebony-colored hair dropped in front of his eyes, and I reached out to put it aside. Troy winced but didn’t move away from my touch. This must be as weird for him as it was for me. How did you even have this kind of conversation?

  “Of course I didn’t know you were coming. It’s just... I’m surprised we just bumped into each other. I always thought it’d be different, you know? But that might just be me and my silly romantic novels I like to read way too much. It doesn’t matter how we meet. It just matters that we have—”

  “What are you talking about? You know what? Forget it. I think you’re in danger, dude,” he said.

  Out of all the things I imagined my mate to call me, dude was not one of them. There was definitely room for improvement there.

  “What do you mean ‘in danger?’” I asked him.

  Troy took a deep breath and straightened his back.

  “I don’t know. But I think someone’s trying to kill you.”

  He stared at me waiting for a reaction, but I couldn’t decide what sort to give him.

  “Is this a prank? What are you talking about? Did my friends set me up? What is it? A spell? A potion? Oh my God, it’s the shots we did before we left Horatio’s, right? Motherfuckers. Why would they do this to me?”

  “Dude, are you drunk?” Troy asked, and I felt my whole world crumbling underneath me.

  Why would my friends do this to me? They knew how much I’d been craving to be mated and how hopelessly romantic I was. Why would they play such a cruel prank on me? And Lorelai? I trusted her. She was my best friend. Why would she agree to this?

  “No, I’m not drunk. But whatever my friends gave me is definitely working. You can stop pretending now,” I told him, and turned around to leave Troy—if that was even his real name—behind.

  “Okay, you need to stop,” Troy said, and snatched my arm stopping me, “and listen to me. I don’t have much time.”

  I turned around to face him, not wanting to believe it was all a lie. But the more I looked at him, the more I realized this wouldn’t be happening to me. Why would I ever find my true mate? Why would my mate be just my type, and why would my mate be the handsomest, sexiest man I’d ever laid eyes on?

  “A couple of weeks ago, I started working for this company. They made me sign all kinds of NDAs and privacy agreements. But when I snooped a little because nothing in that company felt right, I found your picture with the word ‘eliminate’ stamped on it. Do you know why anyone would want to hurt you? Have you got yourself mixed up with anyone or anything strange?” he said to me, and as he talked, my brain took a hundred different turns trying to assess the current situation.

  If this wasn’t a prank, then I’d truly met my mate. But what he was saying was far more sinister. And the more he shared, the more I realized that he had no clue he’d found himself in the clutches of the witch hunters.

  “How did they hire you? Did they not test you for witch blood?” I asked him, and he looked at me as if I was crazy again.

  “Dude, focus. I don’t get you. You’re in danger. Are you listening to me? I don’t know who or—”

  “It’s the witch hunters. It must be,” I told him, but his confused look didn’t disappear. “How long has it been since you were ignited?” I asked.

  “What?”

  “When did you gain your powers? When did you find out you were a witch? Has no one warned you against witch hunters?”

  Troy raised his hands in the air and started walking away from me.

  “You know what, dude? I’ve done my part. I’ve warned you. I can’t take any more of your crazy. This is not one of your fantasy games, okay? Witches are not real. You are not a fox. You are a human being, and someone is after you. I’m outta here,” he said.

  He didn’t know? I wanted to stop him and get to the bottom of things, but before I could, three guys appeared at the end of the alley, their muscular bodies menacing in the darkness. Troy paused when he noticed them too. I closed in on him and placed myself in front of him just as the witch hunters stretched their shiny blades from the hilts of their swords, cutting into the night.

  My natural power caught me by surprise as it always did when I had one of my premonitions. In my vision, the witch hunter standing in the middle stabbed Troy in the heart, and he died before I even got the chance to know him, before I even got a chance to explain everything to him. And with his death, my own strength crumbled, and the same guy carved the witch hunters’ pentacle on me and killed me.

  When I opened my eyes, only a second had passed, but I knew I needed to do everything in my power to protect Troy and myself. And I sure as hell wasn’t going down without a fight.

  “Who are you?” Troy asked behind me, his voice cracking at the sight of the swords. I could feel his heart racing in my head, and I wanted to turn around and reassure him that everything would be okay. That I’d protect him. And I would do my best to change the premonition so he didn’t have to die because of me.

  I reached for the spells in my belt and grabbed the one on the left.

  “Wh-what is that? What are you doing?” Troy asked behind me.

  The witch hunters stepped closer, and I stepped back, putting my free arm in front of Troy protectively.

  “Whatever you see, I want you to know I will never, could never, hurt you, okay?” I told him and waited for his response.

  “Uh-okay,” he mumbled as the first hunter came after me, slashing at me with his sword.

  “Fire,” I shouted, and the sapphire gemstone in my hand exploded into blue dust. An invisible force struck the hunter in the chest and he flew back a few feet, dropping his sword, but that didn’t matter to him anymore. He lay there still, never to move again.

  “What the—” Troy cried behind me, but before I could say something, anything to make him feel better, to help him understand, the other two attacked us.

  I grabbed the second stone on my belt and threw it at them shouting the word to activate the spell, but all it took was for one of the guys to cut at the dust with their sword and the spell turned to nothing. I knew it was a cheap shot and the spells I carried around me weren’t the best for protection, but then again, I usually didn’t need to protect myself.

  The last stone on my belt was my last hope. It was a gift from Caleb, Lorelai’s other best friend, and I’d been saving it for a rainy day for a couple of years now. I didn’t even have time to look at the dark stone. I just threw it at them hoping Caleb’s gift would pay off.

  “Chaos,” I shouted, and the stone exploded into dust that covered one of them entirely in a cloud of smoke and the darkness of the abyss.

  Lorelai had told me two years ago when he gave it to me for my birthd
ay that Caleb had always loved his chaos spells. And if I had him in front of me, I could have kissed him for helping save our lives now.

  But I couldn’t celebrate just yet. There was still one hunter left. The middle one. The one from my premonition. But like hell would I let him hurt Troy.

  I might have ran out of spells, but I hadn’t run out of options. The guy grinned and played with the sword in his hand, doing tricks that I knew were to intimidate us. But I wasn’t falling for his bullshit.

  Instead, I decided to let my true form out and protect my mate.

  Three

  Troy

  I tried to close my eyes when the man with the sword came at us, but I couldn’t. Not because I physically couldn’t shut them, but because a bang of smoke and a strike of lightning engulfed Easton.

  To say I was confused and disoriented by that point was the understatement of the century. I had no idea what happened to the first guy and how he got completely knocked out, and I definitely did not know where the second guy had gone or what that black swirl of nothingness was in the middle of the alley was. What I did know was that there were guys wielding swords trying to kill Easton.

  No, not just him. Us. I had somehow stupidly got involved in whatever it was Easton Forrester was involved in, and now my life was on the line just as much as his.

  I had been stupid to come find him. I should have just let things be. But I knew if I’d done that, I would wonder for the rest of my life if I had contributed to someone’s death. If an innocent man had lost his life because I’d chosen to do nothing.

  The dangerous man came one step closer, his blade edging mortally close to my neck, but before I knew what was happening, a big, red fox emerged out of the smoke in front of me, the very smoke that Easton had disappeared in only seconds ago. The fox growled at the sworded man and jumped at him, snatching his arm with its choppers. The guy cried out in pain, dropping his sword.

  The fox let go of his arm and he stumbled backward. The vulpid stood protectively in front of me and I didn’t know how, but I knew it was Easton Forrester. It was something about the thrumming in my ears and how it corresponded to its movements, to how it breathed.

  If I wasn’t in so much shock, I might have fainted. However, the adrenaline coursing through my body wasn’t letting me. Neither was the fear.

  The man grimaced at the fox, lines of confusion drawn around his eyes, but instead of wasting any time to understand what the hell had happened, he glanced at his sword on the floor between him and the fox and ducked to grab it.

  The fox bolted at him, pushing him with its big head. Before he could do anything else, the fox landed on his chest and bit the man’s shoulder. He yelped in pain. The drumming in my ears pounded so fast it was all I could hear. That and the man’s cries of agony as the fox attacked him one bite at a time until he no longer cried and the alley was soaked in his blood.

  I watched as the fox—Easton, because it must be him—got off the limp body of the attacker. Even if that didn’t make sense to my rational mind, my heart knew it was him. It looked at me, its snout and the white fur underneath it seeping in red.

  It approached me, and while I should have been scared shitless, I wasn’t. The pounding in my ears eased with every step it took toward me, and as it came within inches of me, a bang of light and a cloud smoke made the animal disappear, and the man I’d come to find tonight stood before me. Blood stained his face and neck. His eyes, the beautiful green eyes I couldn’t stop staring at before those people ambushed us, were wet and the whites red, the worry in his face apparent.

  “Are you okay?” he asked me and reached a hand to my cheek.

  I didn’t even flinch under his warm touch as I nodded. Only my breath stopped and my gaze froze on his, and if he hadn’t been soaked in blood, I could have kissed him right then and there.

  “We gotta go. It won’t be long before he comes round again,” he said and looked to the direction of the black hole still swirling in the middle of the street.

  “Who are they? What are they?” My voice trembled as I asked. “What are you?”

  Easton attempted a smile and his hand massaged my cheek gently when he answered.

  “I’ll explain everything, Troy. I’ll tell you everything.”

  And with that, he removed his hand from my cheek and grabbed my hand instead, dragging me out of the alley, and we ran.

  We ran like the world was chasing us, and for all I knew, the world was indeed after us. After everything that had happened tonight, nothing could surprise me. Not even learning that a role-playing game society was a far more mysterious and sinister group than I had initially thought.

  Tonight had been a whirlwind of crazy indeed. I listed all the things in my head and it nearly gave me a headache, but thankfully, the adrenaline was still pumping me forward.

  Find out I work for mercenaries? Tick.

  Track ginger beauty who I seemed to be unable to resist? Tick.

  Get attacked by men with swords? Tick

  Get saved by a huge, protective fox? Tick

  I didn’t know how much else I could take tonight, and as to what would happen next, I was just as clueless.

  “We can’t go in there,” Easton said, glancing at the pub. “If they’re following me, I don’t want to lead them to my friends.”

  “That… sounds wise,” I mumbled, the only thing I could manage.

  “How did you know they were after me?” he asked me, zooming past the Crow.

  I dug my hands in my pants pockets and tried to keep up with him.

  “They hired me to upgrade their security networks. I’m an IT consultant. But something always felt off. They never told me what they did ,and anytime I’m taken to their office, it looks as if… as if it’s been cleaned up. I don’t know how to explain it. It’s weird. So I decided to do a bit of snooping. I hacked their network and downloaded files to my phone. But when I got home, the only thing I had was your picture,” I said.

  Easton turned to look at me for a few moments before biting his lip in consternation regarding the path he walked us on.

  “Who are these people? Why are they after you?” I asked.

  “I can explain everything. But first, I need to get us under cover. I don’t know how many more are coming after us,” he replied without looking at me.

  I didn’t know how I knew, but I could tell he was nervous on top of being scared. Whatever it was, I needed him to tell me what I’d gone and gotten myself into.

  I grabbed his arm, and I thought I saw him take a deep breath and close his eyes in ecstasy for a moment before turning to me.

  “Please tell me now. I debated for hours if I’d do anything about the picture, and I knew it might be dangerous, but this is not the kind of danger I expected. Who were those people and why were they carrying swords? What was that fox? It was you, wasn’t it—”

  Easton traced his fingers over my lips and attempted a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. The skin contact made it difficult for me to swallow or move—or do anything normal, like breathe or blink. It was as if I was bound to that spot and unable to move unless Easton told me to.

  “I’m sorry you got into this. I wish I could turn back time and warn you against it,” he said, and I was confused. Why would someone I’d just met wish that kind of thing? What had I gotten myself into? “I want to tell you, I really do, but I’m all out of… protection, and we need to be ready in case they come after us. And I swear to you, they will.”

  “Wh-who will?” I could have punched myself for sounding so weak and breathy when I wanted to sound domineering so I could find out what the hell was going on.

  “The witch hunters,” he said simply, as if it was normal to talk about witch hunters. As normal as talking about the weather.

  “The what hunters?” I asked, and I was grateful that at least this time my voice didn’t break.

  “Witch hunters,” he replied. “They hunt people like me and my friends.”

  “Wh
y?” I asked, and his hand trailed from my lips to cup my cheek, and I felt my face flush. I hoped to God I hadn’t gone beet red. I’d be so fucking embarrassed. Keep it together, Troy.

  This time, Easton grinned as if I’d said something funny.

  “Because I’m a witch,” he said. “Only half, but still half enough for them.”

  Had he just said he was a witch? Had someone slipped me something at some point during the day, or had I inhaled anything hallucinatory because that was the only explanation for what was happening to me this evening.

  The odd pull I felt for Easton. The hunters. The fox. Yeah, that sounded right. Someone had given me drugs, and this was my come-down. A weird as fuck come-down.

  Easton tried to move on, but I stood still, frozen in the middle of the street, waiting for the punch line or the candid cameras and a canned laughter telling me I was a contestant in a messed up show.

  But none of that happened.

  What did happen, though, was Easton came back for me, took me by the hand again, and urged me forward.

  “We just need to take cover and then I’ll explain everything,” he said. “I know a place just around the corner.”

  We walked down the Southbank and crossed Blackfriars Bridge making our way toward St. Paul’s Cathedral. I didn’t know if he felt like praying or what, but I didn’t bother asking him. I never got the chance, anyhow, because he bypassed the Cathedral and we went through Paternoster Square, ducking into an alley and stopping in front of a café called Java Jinx where I stood peeping through the glass display.

  “Uhm, I think they’re closed. It is midnight,” I said, and realization hit me.

  I had missed my pickup for the job. Which I know didn’t matter much after what had happened tonight. But if I wasn’t in trouble before, I was definitely fucked now.

  “I messaged a friend,” he offered me as a reply, and he knocked on the glass door.

  A friend that responded to texts after midnight? I could only imagine the kind of friend he was. And I didn’t know why I felt jealous at the thought of Easton with another man, but my guts twisted.