Free The Witch and the Huntsman by Rod Kierkegaard Jr J.R. Rain Page B

cotton candy in the snow. The moment I touched it, my vision blurred and swam, and the world turned to darkness. Frigid cold surrounded me.
    Just as in my dream, I was being hunted once again, running for my life through the night, my heart pounding in my chest. The torches bobbed and flamed behind me, sending crazy living shadows across the snow, and the ground shook beneath my feet from the hooves of the hunters’ horses. If that was even what they were...
    The hunting horns and cries of my pursuers rang in my ears. I turned and caught an impression of glowing eyes and mouths, of monstrous horns and antlers growing from helmets, or maybe heads—and then I fell. The riders halted in a circle around me, and I could hear their slobbering breath, their evil laughter. I didn’t dare look up, but that didn’t save me—I felt a terrible piercing pain penetrating my body, and then I opened my eyes again to find Eric’s gray ones gazing deeply into them with concern.
    “ Allison! Are you all right?”
    I shook my head to clear it. My vision had been so...real.
    “ Sure,” I said. “But this isn’t animal blood. It’s human .”

 
    Chapter Twelve
     
    On the way back to the lodge, Eric and I got into an argument about calling the police.
    “ I don’t mean to question your belief or whatever that blood was human, but I’m an expert hunter and tracker—it’s what I do for a living. And we see traces like that all the time where game is killed, either by other hunters coming in from outside or by wild animals. I don’t want the guests upset by needless visits and questions from the police. You’re a city girl, and you—”
    “ Eric! It’s evidence ! You’ve just had one of your employees disappear under mysterious circumstance—Sergeant Doberman was up here looking for her just the night before last.” I took out my phone. “I have him on speed dial. Why don’t I—”
    “ No, I’d better do it,” said Eric. “When you’re right, you’re right, Allison. I totally apologize. I was thinking like a businessman, not like a normal human being. I’ll put in the call from the office and then go back up there and tape the area off so that nobody disturbs it.”
    Again with that sweet, soulful smile. Whenever he did that to me, I nearly forgot whatever it was I’d been talking about.
    But I was reminded of it again pretty fast when I walked in the front door to the lodge, which, because of the snowdrifts, had been extended out into the parking lot by inflating a huge cylindrical padded vinyl tunnel over the walkway. Regina Jaeger, looking infuriatingly gorgeous and elegant, not to mention slender and tall in an expensive Claude Montana designer skirt, was pacing back and forth across the six-sided lobby like a caged panther hissing at somebody on her cell phone.
    “ Next week ? I don’t care how early in the week it is! I need someone now— half an hour ago. Someone poised, confident, and attractive. As well as youthful and physically fit. No, a female, please. Very well, that is the last of my business you will have. I will try another agency at once. Ah, there you are, Allison.” She pronounced my name like ‘Alley Zone.’
    “ I should have known you would be prompt and early for your work. I am beginning to think you are a most excellent hire. And really so presentable, too.” In long strides, she had covered the distance between us and was brushing a few stray hairs back from my face with two long, cruelly nailed fingers. She stared at me with such naked hunger, I thought for a second she was about to bite me. Or kiss me, which might have been even worse.
    “ You know what I am thinking? I’m thinking that if we should dress you in Ivanka’s clothes, you would be perfect for the position.”
    I tried to edge away from her, as politely as I could. “What position? And who’s Ivanka?”
    “ Our reception manager. Receptionist ,” she added, when I looked blank. “She has completely