Hanna and the Hitman - Honey Phillips Page 0,60

but she pulled him closer, scratching beneath his almost nonexistent ears, and he settled down.

Aidon listened for a moment longer, tracking the scents and sounds of the jungle, and decided that there were two males present. They were heading toward the river, below where his home was located, but much too close for comfort.

“I’m going to draw them away from here,” he said softly. “As soon as I’m out of sight, head back to the house. Lock the doors the way I showed you and hide until I return.”

“But what about you?”

“I only detect two of them.” The blood rushed through his veins, and he felt his lips curl into a fighting smile. “I can handle them.”

“But what if something goes wrong?”

“Saachi, I’ve spent the last fifteen years fighting in one way or another. I don’t lose.”

“Maybe they’re not here to cause trouble,” she said hopefully.

“The only time strangers come into the jungle is when they intend to cause harm.” He gave her a quick, hard hug, then transformed into his public form. “Now remember what I said. As soon as I’m out of sight, head straight back to the house as quietly as you can. Can you find your way?”

She bit her lip but nodded.

“Good girl. Don’t worry—everything is going to be fine.”

Despite the fear he could see on her face, she nodded again, and when he turned away, she didn’t attempt to call him back. He took one last look over her shoulder just before the jungle closed around him. She was standing where he left her, her face pale but determined as she raised a hand in salute. He lifted his hand in return and started his search.

The jungle was thick around him, vines hanging heavily, but he had been slipping through these vines since he was a child, and he moved silently. The two strangers were up ahead, carrying on a loud-voiced conversation, and he shook his head in disgust. If they were trying to camouflage their presence, they weren’t doing a very good job.

As he got closer, he could tell that they were arguing about the right way back to the river. Fools. They deserved what he was about to deliver.

He thought he heard a faint sound behind him, but when he whirled around, there was no one there. Fuck. He hadn’t hunted in far too long if he was no longer capable of separating prey and predator. Beneath the normal sounds of jungle life, he caught the distant rush of the river. Good. He would take them on the riverbank.

As the water drew closer, he closed the distance between them. Trees were beginning to thin, and he could see the rocky bank that made up this portion of the river shore. Intent on catching up with his prey, he slipped more quickly through the trees. It wasn’t until the ground beneath him disappeared that he realized what a fool he’d been. His last thought as he tumbled into the pit trap was of Hanna.

Hanna stared after Aidon as he disappeared into the jungle. He didn’t seem concerned—he had even looked excited at the prospect of facing whoever was in the jungle with them—but her heart beat a scared pulse. What if there were more than two of them?

Should she go after him? Her fighting skills might have improved under his tutelage, but she suspected they would be completely inadequate against a trained fighter. As she stood there, trying to decide what to do, she caught the sound of another body moving through the jungle. Something big and heavy was following in Aidon’s path. Was it another spirin? But even as she wondered, she knew that no native Pardorian animal would ever make so much noise. She had to go after him. She couldn’t let him be ambushed from behind.

As soon as the sounds faded, she slipped into the jungle. Trouble peered over her arm, his whole body quivering, but he remained unusually silent. He seemed to understand that they were on the hunt. She tried to step the way that Aidon had shown her, looking for harder surfaces that wouldn’t rustle beneath her feet, sliding between vines rather than pushing through them. Each time her foot disturbed a leaf or she heard the vines scrape together, she quivered, sure that she was telegraphing her presence to anyone else in the jungle. Her hands were damp with sweat, and her knees shook, but she kept going. When she heard the sounds of the river up