Read Online A Hunter By Any Name by Sheila Wireman - Free Book Online

night I had been wandering around downtown Jackson. As a precautionary practice I never go directly to the place I am sleeping. First, I wander around for an hour or so checking my back trail frequently to make sure I am not being followed. Then I always have a route that I can duck down an ally or through a culvert quickly and sneak back to the abandoned building I am currently sleeping in.
    That night, I had turned a corner and stopped abruptly to look in a corner store window at a display. This was a maneuver that I had done numerous times to make sure no one was following me. I was not really looking at the window display but through the glass corner back at where I had come from to see if anyone was walking down the side walk behind me. The two men, one from Goodwill and the grocery store were walking on the sidewalk behind me. They had nodded a casual distracted greeting to me and continued walking.
    They had spooked me. I could have sworn they were following me. I wandered around Jackson for another hour checking my back trail to make sure I was not being followed. If they had been following me they had realized they had been made and left. Eventually, I made my way back to the abandoned factory and slept for the night, but not very well.
    Now, there they were standing on a street corner in Chelsea together. This could not be a coincidence. I had not gotten any vibes from them that led me to believe that they were wizards and you can be sure I had examined the blond guy closely. He was simply too beautiful not to suspect he was a wizard.
    The timing of this could not have been worse. Tonight was the night before the Litha Sabbat. If my prey followed the pattern he had established in his previous ritualistic sacrifices he would abduct his victim tonight and take her to a rundown barn in the middle of nowhere. There he would tie her up and hold her until the following night when he would perform the ritual sacrifice.
    I needed to wait until he started his ritual to attack. His energy and focus would be on the ritual and I hoped he would be distracted. His distraction was the only hope I had of actually getting out of this without being seriously hurt or killed. Still I had a small hope and small hopes were all I ever allowed myself. Big hopes were distracting and dangerous.
    That was why I had no hope that the two men showing up here together was a coincidence. That would have been a very lucky coincidence and therefore, a big hope. No, they were following me and I had to figure out why and stop them if I wanted to salvage this hunt.
    I steadied my nerves, buried my fear down deep and resigned myself to killing the two men that followed me. I allow myself to hope that I could find out why they were following me before I killed them, even thought that was pushing the boundaries into the big hope side of things.
    I walked with a purpose as I turned the next corner and walked down the sidewalk I wanted to get away from the crowded downtown to a quiet residential neighborhood. Instead I found purple lights and a theater with a bustling crowd waiting go inside.
    I noticed an alley and turned abruptly down it. It led behind the buildings to a parking lot and more people. Was there nowhere in this town that was not crowded on a Saturday night? I kept walking and came out on the next street over. This one looked much less crowded and I walked away from downtown. I kept walking and made my way into a residential area that was filled with really old houses. The kind that looked like witches should live in which made me nervous all over again. Where there are fake witches there might be real wizards.
    I picked up the pace and made it to the next block in only a few minutes. I really wanted to turn around and make sure the two men were following me. As I walked I quickly took in the funeral home off to my left. I was looking for something that I could stop and fake interest in, giving myself the chance to check my back trail.
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