The Hunted (36 page)

‘Give it back to me. Now.’

He pulled the sunglasses away from his face and tucked them in the front of his shirt. ‘Are you going to stab me with it?’

‘I honestly haven’t decided yet.’

He clicked his tongue as if in thought, shaking his head from side to side. ‘Then perhaps I should hang onto it.’

‘I don’t see how that’s fair.’

He raised his left eyebrow slightly. ‘Is that so?’

I nodded. ‘You’re the one breaking and entering here, and to top it off, you’re faster than I am and have sharper teeth. I think you should level the playing field and at least hand me back my knife.’

‘Touché. Perhaps you have a point.’ He deftly tossed the knife at a point above my head. I ducked, the blade splintering the wood of my door and lodging deep inside. He grinned. ‘If you can get it out before I get to you, it’s all yours.’

Shocked, I rose quickly to my feet and spun around, grabbing the hilt of the knife and trying to dislodge it from the confines of the timber. In the next instant, I was spun around and thrown up hard against the back of the door. William’s fingers, cold and uncompromising, gripped my hands tightly. He held them securely above my head, and with great strength—there was little protesting to be done.

I looked up into William’s face, his emerald eyes staring back at me as he pressed his cold, hard body against mine, pinning me more firmly against the door. He negotiated a wider stance, his hips now level with mine, his legs crowding me.

My breathing quickened and my pulse rate skipped ahead, but I was determined to show him that I was neither afraid nor slightly hot by the notion of his body being pressed so intimately against mine.

He leaned in close to me, his face only inches away from my own. His scent drifted across my skin and stirred the air between us.

I licked my lips at the taste of his essence and his gaze automatically dropped to my mouth. With his free hand, he brushed a lock of hair away from my face and tucked it tenderly behind my ear. It was something I had not expected. I had foreseen teeth, blood and my empty carcass soon to be sprawled across the floor—not the initiation of unwanted foreplay. ‘You’d better not kiss me,’ I said.

He pulled away, a strange expression crossing his face, almost as if the thought had never even occurred to him. I cursed silently.

Of course it didn’t occur to him. He’s a bloody vampire, not a randy teenager.

‘Kiss you?’ he said, now suddenly amused. ‘Why would I kiss you?’

‘Well then, what are you doing?’

He leaned forward again. I didn’t dare move.

His smooth face skimmed briefly past mine, his cold nose coming to rest on the pale flesh of my neck. ‘I was merely trying to get some answers,’ he said as his cool breath fanned my heated skin. ‘And since you’re not exactly cooperative, I thought I might as well enjoy myself while I took them … with or without your permission.’

Uh-oh.

I felt cool air race across my skin as he drew in breath. I closed my eyes, waiting for the moment when he ripped out my throat—it was bound to happen any minute now. Several seconds passed before I opened my eyes again. His nose was no longer at my neck. His hands still held me securely in front of him and his body was still pressed against mine, but he was looking straight at me now. His face was completely expressionless and I suddenly felt more scared than I’d ever been in my entire life.

He knows.

His skin was more pale and translucent than it had been before, a transformation that I had not seen take place until my eyes had re-opened. His skin was streaked with faint lines of blue and when I looked closer, I could see that they were pulsing just under the surface. His eyes were completely black, no trace remaining of the magnificent green that I had previously beheld. In fact, there was nothing but darkness, not even the whites of his eyes present. They were like empty pits of obsidian, completely soulless and expressionless.

I sucked in a sharp breath, trying to calm my frantic nerves. I was not afraid of the sight in front of me or the transformation from man to beast, and I was not fearful that my life may soon be ended. What I was most fearful of was not being accepted by the one creature that I was supposed to become. I was so afraid that the first vampire I had ever met, that I somehow felt connected to, was about to turn from me with disgust and loathing.

I held my breath and closed my eyes again, waiting for judgement. ‘Impossible,’ he murmured under his breath, ‘absolutely impossible.’

My eyes instantly flicked open at the sound of William’s voice. It was soft and confused, but I sensed no disgust or hatred. But the man in front of me was a predator and a killer and I was still nervous. He still held me close, his body hard against my own and unrelenting in its hold. His eyes were undeniably dark and dangerous, and his canines were slightly extended and ready to tear flesh.

‘When you kill me,’ I said in a voice barely above a whisper, ‘please make it quick.’

He blinked. It was the first real sign of animation I had seen in his face in the last few minutes. ‘Kill you?’ he whispered, releasing my arms and taking a few steps backwards. ‘Why would I kill you?’

I looked up at him in confusion. I watched the black of his eyes slowly begin to fade, returning to the brilliance of green and his pale skin turning back to a more acceptable opaque covering. His teeth retracted.

‘Because of what I am,’ I replied quietly, bobbing my head down in front of me. I wanted to avoid seeing the distaste in those vivid green pools. At least in the blacks of his eyes I saw nothing except for my own reflection.

I looked up when a few moments had passed and he had still not reacted. He had neither moved nor spoken.

I faltered slightly as he took a quick step forward, his hand reaching slowly towards my face to stroke the skin of my cheek. ‘Elena. I—’

Then we both heard the front door slam shut from downstairs. ‘Elena, it’s me. Are you home?’ Lucas’s voice drifted up the stairs and I heard him throw his bag on the floor by the bureau and start to make his way up the staircase.

My gaze drifted back to William. His hand dropped back to his side. ‘I should go,’ he said, turning on the spot and heading over to the window.

He grabbed the sunglasses from the front of his shirt and slipped them over his eyes. I stayed where I was, still pinned against the door. Although there was no one holding me there any longer, I still couldn’t move.

I heard Lucas almost at the top of the stairs, the thudding of his footsteps drifting down the short hallway to my bedroom. ‘Elena? Are you home?’

William turned to look at me. A faint smile tipped the corners of his lips. He nodded at me and then leapt over the framing and disappeared into the garden below.

At that point, Lucas walked into the room.

‘Elena? What are you doing?’ he said to me in a slightly breathless tone. ‘Who were you talking to?’ He looked at me from head to toe and then zeroed in on the knife still protruding from the splintered wood of the door. ‘Um, what’s your knife doing up there?’

‘Can you keep a secret?’ I whispered. He couldn’t keep a secret if his life depended on it, but I had to tell someone.

‘Depends. Does it have something to do with the knife?’

I nodded.

‘Does it have something to do with why you’re as white as a ghost?’

I nodded again.

‘Does it have anything to do with the Vampires?’

I nodded a final time.

He grinned. ‘Then, hell yeah, I can keep a secret!’

CHAPTER TEN:

MEETING

L
ucas stood on the spot, rooted in shock. He was gaping at me like a goldfish, his cheeks puffing and his lips curving, trying to formulate words. The shock must have worn off fairly quickly because he was soon slipping backwards onto the bed, gripping the mattress to steady himself. ‘He was here?’ he said, pointing at the floor, and then randomly pointing to portions of the room around him. ‘He was right here, in this room, with you?’

‘Ah-huh,’ I answered absently, finally managing to yank the blade out of the door after a steady succession of half-hearted attempts.

I ran my fingers over the indentation that it had left behind. The wood was badly splintered and was going to be difficult to patch proficiently, particularly given the door was unpainted timber. There was no way that the damage would go unnoticed and explaining how it happened in the first place was certainly going to be a little complex to justify to both Susan and George. I’d already started circulating through excuses in my head. They were all lame. The best one I’d come up with so far was ‘I thought I saw a vânâtor’, but that was so stupid that I couldn’t believe I’d thought of it.

I pushed the splintered timber into the hole, hoping to fill the groove with what had fallen out of it. It wasn’t working. The door still looked like it had been knifed.

‘We have to tell mum and dad,’ Lucas mumbled, breaking into my thoughts. ‘We don’t know enough about vampires to make this decision on our own. You heard what they said about killing us all and ending the alliance.’

I turned around on the spot and stared at him in horror. What the hell was he thinking? ‘No, no, no, Lucas,’ I said, hastily coming over to join him on the bed and shaking my head wildly. ‘Susan and George would flip out if they knew he had been here. It’d ruin our chances of ever truly understanding vampires, and me of ever being able to leave the house again.’

‘Yeah, but they wouldn’t be angry with us, they’d be angry at him. He’s the one who came here uninvited. You didn’t do anything wrong.’ He paused. ‘For a change.’

I rested my hands on his shoulders and resisted the urge to smirk. ‘Think about what you’re saying, Lucas. If we tell Susan and George about William’s visit, they’ll run the vampires out of town.’

‘What’s your point?’

‘We live in Cairns, Lucas. How often do vampires come to Cairns?’

He scratched his chin. ‘Never.’

‘Exactly. If our parents drive them away, when are we ever going to get the chance to talk to and learn about vampires ever again?’

He looked at me like I was crazy. ‘Um, aren’t you the least bit concerned that this guy might be after a little bit more than pleasant conversation?’

‘What? Like afternoon delight?’ I answered and then promptly began to frown when I remembered that William had considered the idea of kissing me as patently absurd.

Lucas snorted and then squeezed my knee. ‘Yeah, delight in taking all of your blood.’

I shrugged. ‘I guess I should be worried, but I’m not. Not now anyway. I’ve been thinking about this. He had his chance to kill me and he didn’t take it. That has to say something, doesn’t it?’