The Nook Huntsville Al Novels & Stories

“Can you tell us where there is a practice range?” He’d been reading about the Horton Legacy 225 in his sportsman’s magazine and was actually considering getting one, so he was eager to try it out now and see if it was everything the articles and reviews claimed it to be. “Well now,” said the young, freckle faced clerk. “That’s a puzzlement. Let me think.” He scratched the sparse fuzz on his chin as he contemplated where to send us. Las Vegas was geared for gambling and party times and offered little for those who were interested in hunting and the great outdoors. “There’s a place near Pahrump that might let you practice.”

A faint pulse of magic passed through the page and climbed into my hand. The registration book recognized me. There would be no turning back now. The registrar released my wrist. “Maeve Cross of Cross Creek Pack, you are registered as a participant in the seventy-third Blood Hunt.” Someone behind me whispered my name. I picked up the small black card the registrar slid across the desk. The number twenty-seven had been stamped across the front in silver. “Your room is on the third floor,” she continued. “Participants are expected in the eastern ballroom at ten o’clock for the oath ceremony. The Hunt begins at midnight. Until then, you are forbidden from leaving the mansion grounds.”

"Have you heard anything about Jason? Is he alive or dead? What about Chloe?" I shook my head immediately. "No, nothing," I replied. "And honestly I don't want to know. Jason is in my past, Danika. Whatever is happening with him and Chloe and the entire Hunt family drama is not my problem anymore." Danika leaned forward with a conspiratorial expression. "Girl, you don't know?" she asked. "Know what?" I frowned. "Hunt Enterprises burnt down," Danika announced. "Like completely burnt down. The entire building went up in flames a few weeks ago. Ever since then, no one has heard anything from the Hunt family. They've gone completely silent."

They were still talking about Shelby and Madeline. Thankfully, Nolan was home again for the weekend from his internship. "I heard they're talking 'bout making a run out to the old barn on Skylight," he informed us with a big grin as he walked up to our group. "You know what happens up there, right?" I turned to see Madeline, her sister, and her friends climbing into the back of someone's pickup truck. Aside from kids going out to the Skylight barn to do some ghost hunting, it was also a well-known make-out spot. There were more girls than guys in the back of the truck. Mason was already starting up his bike, and Shane was walking back to his car.

At the safe house, they gathered around the laptop. Noah attempted to trace the video. Minutes passed. Then—"Got something." A location popped up on the screen. An abandoned factory on the outskirts of the city. Lena reached for her gun. "This ends tonight.

Maybe Kelsey should be a volunteer for a while so she could learn to care about other people. Knowing she was just bitter, Noelle tried to push those thoughts out of her mind. She continued to search the crowd for Pooch but still couldn’t find him anywhere. After twenty minutes of searching, she sent a text to Brady to see if he’d had any luck. He replied quickly. “No.” “Dang it,” Noelle muttered, her eyes still searching the crowd. She found herself near a parking lot and scanned the cars. No sign of any dogs. “Well, if it isn’t Miss Snow.” Mayor Jenkins’s voice grated on her nerves during the best of situations. At the moment, it sounded like nails on a chalkboard.

And shes there that night! “But strangely... though you are unconscious, you didn't have any internal wounds,” she added after seeing the suspicious in my eyes. She prove as he added the jade, “That contain our recent activity. The whole association hunts the rumored Lycan who cause chaos in the secluded island beneath the Thousand-Volcanoes-” I raise my brows upon the heard of it. “So what did you discover, then?” I ask just as I cut her off. She seems don't mind the cut off and continued with a strange expression, “This is confidential-”

29 WE AGREE TO put off our surveillance of the Anderson Klan’s town hall meeting—everything will be recorded and available for us to listen to when we come back. Settling things with Nick Jin is a far higher priority. And of course we don’t leave un-armed, we each sport a handgun, and I also have my favorite knife in a scabbard tucked under the waistband of my jeans. After a fifteen minute drive to Montgomery Bell State Park, we find a campground to park the Skank Mobile, and make the remaining trek on foot, following the directions on my phone to a quaint old log cabin-style church. A plaque outside reads ‘First Cumberland Presbyterian Church.’

I mutter. My stomach twists with impatience. I turn to Nolan, stepping closer. “Are you still unable to connect with him?” He presses his lips together, then shakes his head. A sick jolt of fear hits my chest. “Should we go after him?” I push, the words tumbling out fast. “It’s 11 p.m. Nolan. Knox isn’t back. You know how hunters operate — they flag the city around this time. They could’ve—” “Finn—”

RILEY The sun hadn’t even thought about rising when we were moving again, and just like yesterday, the tension hung between us like a loaded gun waiting for someone to pull the trigger. “I can’t smell anything. Are you sure this isn’t a dead lead?” Ronan’s voice cut through the quiet, low and gravelly, and it was the first time I’d heard him talk since we started the hunt.