Marked For Death: A Dark Urban Fantasy Novel Becca Blake (fiction novels to read .txt) 📖

the number of different incidents that has us concerned here.”

“Omaha?” I asked. Of all the places to go for my first day back in the field, I wouldn’t have guessed they’d send me back there.

He nodded. “Don’t worry—the demon you were hunting there is long gone. We’ve got another team tracking him.”

That didn’t make me feel much better. I wasn't afraid; I wanted to hunt him down myself.

“Are we going in as part of a bigger team for this mission?” I asked. That happened occasionally, when the job was too big for a pair of hunters to handle, but it was rare.

“Not for this. Not yet, anyway. We’re thinking this one might be a false alarm. Some kid wrote up a blog post about something he and some buddies experienced a few days ago while they were skipping school. One of them died.”

“And we think it was a demon?” I asked.

“The kid blamed it on a woman with electric fingertips. Civilian cops found no evidence of that, of course, but they did find evidence of the teens’ drug stash. Could be demons, could be a human coven or cultists, could be the kids were high out of their minds. We figure it’s the latter, but with everything else going on in the area, it’s better to be safe.”

I flipped through the papers inside the folder and skimmed the printout of the blog post. Some real crazy Star Wars shit, as the author elegantly described it.

“This is just a standard recon mission,” Orion continued. “Go in, investigate, and come back to report. If there is something going on, don’t interfere unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

“Got it,” I said.

“So if there’s nothing magical about this, it’ll be a big waste of time?” Jacob asked, speaking up for the first time since Orion began briefing us.

“If it really is nothing…” Orion shrugged. “I don’t know. Grab some dinner while you’re out of town and get to know each other, or something.”

I had to agree that the mission sounded like a waste of time, and Orion seemed to think so as well… Which I guessed was why he chose it for our first assignment together.

“Any other questions?” he asked.

“No, sir.” I put all the paperwork back in the folder and slid it across the table to Jacob.

“When are we going to get a real mission?” my new partner asked.

“When I decide you’re ready for one,” Orion said. “Have fun out there.”

Chapter Four

I leaned over to the passenger seat of my beat up Chevy Cavalier and tossed a pile of junk into the back seat. “Sorry. Haven’t cleaned her out in a while.”

Jacob looked in through the window. “Why don’t we take my car instead?”

“Why?”

“I’m not even convinced this thing runs,” he said. “I don’t want to get stranded on the side of the road.”

“It runs fine,” I said, resisting the urge to roll my eyes. The Cavalier was an old piece of trash, but it was my piece of trash. And Ayla had never complained about it. “Get in.”

“I could just take my car and meet you there.”

I sighed. “Look, I’m not here to be your friend, but I need to know that I can at least trust you as my partner. That starts with us not arguing over every stupid thing. Just get in the car so we can leave. We have a job to do.”

So much for making more of an effort to get along.

I sat in the driver’s seat and turned the key in the ignition, and the engine hummed to life.

It wasn’t surprising that he didn’t want to get in my trashy Cavalier. He was the son of a wealthy and prominent Councilman, with great gear and a nice car. I doubted he’d ever had to compromise with anyone before.

Jacob begrudgingly plopped down in the passenger seat and slammed the door shut behind him. After I heard the click of his seatbelt, I pulled out of the community lot and started out of town.

He kicked his feet up on the dashboard and leaned back in the chair. “I’ll try to keep my mouth shut and get along until my appeal goes through.”

“What, you’re appealing the Council’s decision to make me your partner?” I scoffed. “Good luck with that. It’s not like they paired us up at random.”

“No. They paired us up because you decided to jump in and ruin my evaluation. I never asked for this.”

I still couldn’t figure out why he was more upset by me helping him than nearly dying. It made no sense.

Unless he wanted to fail.

“Were you trying to fail your evaluation so you could get a desk job instead of a hunting job?”

“No. I wanted a seat on the Council.”

I couldn’t stop myself from laughing. “It’s not royalty. You have to work your way up the ranks. No one makes it onto the Council without years of hunting behind them. Not even a Councilman’s son. Besides, there are no openings right now. All ten seats are full.”

“I know that. Do you really think I’ll be considered for the Council in the future when I couldn’t even pass my own evaluation without help? They’ll never consider me for a seat now, no matter how hard I work.”

“It’s not your fault things went the way they did. I don’t know why they made you fight a hellhound, but that’s not normal,” I said. “They’re only supposed to test your ability to use magic under pressure and make sure you’re a competent fighter so you don’t get yourself killed out there.”

“They told us it wouldn’t be dangerous, so I wasn’t prepared for a hellhound,” he admitted. “What did you have to do for yours?”

“It was a maze. We had to get through a few challenges and find a hidden key to get out. The year after mine, they set up a weird test with enchanted lights that swarmed the recruits. Never anything dangerous.”

I adjusted the knob for the air conditioning, but nothing happened. As I rolled down the window,