Summary – Hunter arrives in Widows Vale with his mentor Ciaran MacEwan. There he meets his half brother Cal and his girlfriend Morgan, whom he feels strangely drawn to, and is sucked into a cat and mouse game that has played between Ciaran and Selene Belltower for years and on top of it all he is reunited with his cousin Sky who is a Seeker for the International Council of Witches and has been hunting him down for years.

Disclaimer: These are all Cate Tiernans toys. They're just in my playground.

A/N: I'm trying my best to churn these out as fast as possible so that I can FINALLY finish this story! However I have an 8 month old son who is at the stage of crawling around eating anything in sight and its terrifying so I'll do what I can, when I can I'm afraid! I hope there's still people out there reading, this is probably the most well thought out and well written Fanfic to date. Although I suppose you get better at writing the more you do it. Anywho let me not keep you from the next chapter. Enjoy and Review xx

There was so much drama when I walked through my door this morning, as I suspected my folks were waiting up for me arms folded and scowling. Screeches of "Where the hell have you been all night?" and "We were worried sick," were still ringing in my ears.

I apologised a hundred times over and told them that Cal and I got into a huge fight and we broke up so I stayed at Bree's but forgot to call them before I fell asleep as I was exhausted from all the crying.

My mom and dad seemed upset for me but grounded me for just a week, that was them being sympathetic but also their way of letting me know not to scare them like that again.

When I got upstairs in the shower I was finally able to grieve Cal, I burst into tears and sank to the bottom of the tub letting the water run over me, trying to let it wash away my heartache. I felt dirty, used and sick to the stomach how could I be so stupid believing that someone like Cal could actually love someone like me?

And then there's Hunter, he keeps warning me that he's no good for me, and has something important to tell me. I'm scared to know the truth. I don't think I could face anymore heartbreak. He believes wholeheartedly that he's not a good person, I can't understand how that could ever be true after all he's done for me and the way he makes me feel.

Even though I loved Cal, I know I've been lying to myself about my feelings for Hunter, I am in love with him. I felt awful being in love with two people at once, but there's something about him that keeps drawing me in and it's something more powerful than I ever felt for Cal, and if I lost him too I don't think my heart would ever heal again.

Morgan

Several hours and several failed attempts later, we discovered the Taibhs had become far too powerful to be contained by an inanimate object. I could feel its joy, it was laughing at us.

"It would seem that the spirit requires a powerful host to contain it" Sky said, "what if we could transfer it to another person?"

"Great idea, any volunteers?" I replied sarcastically, "Anyone we transfer it to will be controlled by the taibhs and will become dangerous,"

"What if we transferred it to one of the Amyranth witches? After we've caught them, bound them and then strip them of their powers with it contained? Wouldn't it then be trapped within a body with no power unable to do anything?"

That might work, I considered the possibility and the idea had merit, but... "Stripping the witch wouldn't necessarily strip the spirits powers but if someone non magickal contained this spirit it would burn them out from the inside and the spirit with die taking the host with it,"

"Would we really care if that host were either Ciaran or Selene?" Sky raised her eyebrows

"That all depends on whether we are willing to risk adding this power to either one of them before we get the chance to strip them," I replied

"It's an option, one we can plan for if we do manage to capture and bind them," Sky started amending one of our earlier transfer spell attempts and together we began to flush the specifics of the it out when I heard Killian's voice in my head.

Hunter you're going to want to get your ass over here something big is going down.

I froze, What's going on? I replied, I waited several minutes but no reply came

"Hunter? Giomanach, what is it?" Sky picked up on my alarm

"Its Killian MacEwan," I replied

"Ciaran's son?"

I nodded, "Don't worry he's not like his Dad he's on my side, something's going on back at the house and by the sound of him it's not anything good"

"What's your plan?" She asked

"I'm going home to see what's happening, stay put until I know what's going on and I'll message you with any new information we can't afford to expose what we're doing here if there's no immediate threat,"

Sky nodded in agreement, "Good point, stay in contact and I'll keep trying with the council to see if they can send help,"

I ran out to my car and headed home.

When I walked through the front door I saw that Killian was right there was a lot of movement going on, the house was crawling with Amyranth members, and suddenly it occurred to me. They were moving in to do the big spell, which meant immediate danger for Morgan.

Quickly I sent the witch message to Sky, Protect Morgan, she's not safe. But the words seemed to echo in my head and I know Sky didn't get the message. My magick was being blocked? What was going on?

I turned around and headed straight for the door, I needed to get to Morgan, I had to make sure she was safe. But the door was being guarded by Tomas Blackwood, one of the more notoriously dangerous men that worked for Ciaran. He was built like a brick shit house and he had always put me on edge. "Going somewhere?" his gruff voice boomed.

"I left something in my car," I replied automatically, Tomas folded his arms and smiled at me like a predator cornering his prey.

"It can wait," he said, "Ciaran, wants to speak with you,"

This wasn't good I swallowed the lump in my throat and turned back around and headed to Ciaran's library, sensing that's where he was. As I entered the room, he was sat at his bureau, as I expected, waiting for me with Selene and Cal stood on either side. Cal was glaring at me with burning hatred and yet he looked smug.

"So a little bird told me you've been working against us," Ciaran said

How did he know? How much did he know? I had to play it cool until I found out.

"I don't know what shit that little bird has been dropping on you but I can assure you that's all it is, Ciaran. Shit. Big fat stinking bullshit," I had to be flawless in what I said and not give any of my emotions away nor let my lies be easily read.

"Is that so?" Ciaran asked

"Because I heard that you broke Cal and Morgan up, alerted her she was in danger and you're trying to protect her from us,"

My eyes darted to Cal, of course he told them! I didn't think his jealousy would put Morgan in danger I believed we were on the same page about keeping her safe. What a sore loser and a complete jackass!

"That's not true," I said

"Are you calling my son a liar?" Selene hissed

"Selene, please, I am handling this," Ciaran dismissed her, he was letting her know who's in charge, she slunk back, clearly not happy to have been made redundant.

"It is only partially true" I admitted

"Do elaborate for me, Giomanach," Ciaran linked his fingers together and rested his hands on the desk.

"It is true I don't want to see any harm come to the girl, I've become quite fond of her I think she would be a better asset to us alive rather than dead," I explained, "I alerted her of nothing but I did play a part in her breaking up with Cal," I acted just as smug as Cal, I had to sell it.

"You son of a bitch," my half brother growled. The man looked crazed, he was completely unstable

"What's the matter Cal? Sore loser? You can't have her so no one else can? Pathetic,"

"Just you wait and see who's the pathetic one, Niall," he spat

"Children, please" Ciaran rose from his chair, and strode across the room towards me.

"Giomanach I might have been inclined to believe you if you hadn't tried to call out to your cousin, the seeker, when you walked through my front door,"

"You hijacked my witch message?"

"I intercepted it, yes,"

Suddenly it occurred to me what brought me back here "Where's Killian?" I asked

"You think that spineless coward could or even would stand up to me? He's sitting this one out anyway for good measure" he gestured to the wall behind me where Killian was slumped over like a doll, bound magickally, his eyes were wide and tried to convey his apology through them but he couldn't move, couldn't speak.

I feared for Morgan, I tried to message out to someone, anyone, to get out to Morgan to protect her but it was only the echo in my head and Ciaran smiled he was still intercepting them.

I tried to counteract his block but I could feel my magick slipping away from me he was binding my powers. That was Ciaran's expert area, binding magick, I was struck down by fear, not for myself, for her.

The Taibhs growled angrily it didn't like being suppressed. At least I knew now that the binding was working on the Taibhs, for now at least.

"You're in love with her," Ciaran stated, he could sense fear stronger than any other emotion, like a predator he thrived on it, "Well that explains how you managed to defy me and the Taibhs,"

"You knew about the Taibhs?"

"Of course I knew, I could smell it on you the moment I first laid eyes on you," he confessed, "the power from that Taibhs proved so useful over the years, just as I knew it would."

It shouldn't come as a shock to me, this was Ciaran MacEwan after all, but somehow it did and it bothered me, he was using me all this time. All my remaining sense of loyalty to him was gone in an instant and I was left with my hatred.

"If that's all you wanted from me why didn't you just take the power for yourself?" I growled

"Because I wanted to be in control of my own actions and have the Taibhs work with me, not control me. A dark spirit wants what a dark spirit always wants which is more power and as we have that same goal in common why not play nice with it?"

"You're not playing nice now, it's pissed" I warned him

"Interesting," Selene purred, "he now recognises it as a separate being within himself"

"Love is a powerful thing" Ciaran said, then a cruel smile crossed his face "and speaking of," he looked at me, "we're just about to procure yours now"

As he said those words I felt Morgan's fear screaming through every fibre of my being, it was the spelled Morganite doing its job to alert me when she's in danger.

I looked over to Killian and I could tell by the look in his eyes felt her too.

I turned back to Ciaran just as he clenched his fist and I crumpled to the floor.