The Hunted (43 page)

The only problem was, I still didn’t trust him, and I certainly didn’t trust my bodily responses around him either. So if I had to walk away, then so be it.

‘Lucas, let’s go,’ I said, grabbing his hand as I walked right past the other two and tugged him back towards the fence line.

‘Nice to meet you guys,’ Lucas yelled over his shoulder as he waved to Thomas and Marianne. I had no idea what their reaction was and I didn’t look.

‘What’s the rush?’ Lucas said as he fell into stride next to me and shook his hand free. ‘It seemed to us that you guys were just starting to get along.’

‘Listening in were you?’ I spat out.

He grinned sheepishly. ‘Only after the part where you frightened him off.’

‘I did no such thing.’

He touched a finger to my cheek and I slapped his hand away. ‘I didn’t know that you could blush,’ he murmured. ‘I thought you might have been missing that girly gene.’

‘Shut up, Lucas.’

He threw his hands into his pockets and hunched his shoulders forward. ‘Why are you upset with me? It’s not my fault you have a crush on the Vampire.’

I lurched forward and clamped my hand over his mouth. ‘Be quiet, they can hear you!’ I hissed.

‘I know,’ he mumbled through my clamped hand. ‘Great, isn’t it?’

I took my hand away and punched him lightly in the shoulder. ‘No, it’s not. So just shut up before you say something really stupid.’

‘But you do, don’t you? Have a crush on William, I mean.’

I didn’t answer. I was too busy deciding whether to punch him or just knife him instead.

He nodded and smiled. ‘Marianne said that you liked him. She said that you giggled.’ He laughed. ‘It must be true. You never giggle.’

‘You know what else I never do?’

‘No. What’s that?’ he said eagerly.

‘I never kill humans, but with you I’m willing to make an exception.’ I patted the knife blade in the pocket of my pants just to make my point even clearer. He looked at me, smiled and then bobbed his head forward, keeping any further thoughts to himself.

We neared the fence, sprinted forward, and then jumped it easily. I checked my watch. We’d only been gone for about forty-five minutes, but that definitely could have been enough time for George to come home, find us gone, and devise an even more hellish punishment.

I picked up speed, Lucas managing to keep pace easily as he fell into step beside me.

When we got to the driveway, we noted that the house appeared to be unoccupied. We both breathed a sigh of relief and then smiled at one another. At least that was one hurdle we didn’t have to jump this afternoon.

Lucas unlocked the front door and let us into the house. We both collapsed on the lounge, wiping away the sweat after the brief jog. I twisted my hair in my fingers and wound it around the back of my head, pulling it off my heated neck. Lucas tucked his behind his ears.

‘Well, I had fun. What about you?’ he said, throwing his legs over the arm of the chair and spinning around in the seat.

‘Fun?’ I said, narrowing my eyes at him. ‘For the first ten minutes I thought you’d swallowed your tongue and messed your pants.’

He scoffed. ‘You did leave me alone with two vampires remember? Not just one, but two. I think I did okay considering.’

‘So what are the health benefits of garlic, anyhow?’ I said sarcastically.

He flipped me off and then leaned back against the arm of the chair and closed his eyes. ‘Marianne’s very pretty, isn’t she?’

I snorted. ‘If you like that sort of thing.’

I sat up in my seat and Lucas flipped his eyes open as we heard a car pull up into the driveway. ‘Dad?’ Lucas asked, straightening himself up.

‘I don’t know.’

I got up from my chair, crossed the floor and glanced out the living room window. A white Mitsubishi Pajero was pulling into the driveway. Malcolm’s car.

I dashed back to my seat when I saw George jump out the car and head towards the house, a grim expression on his face. The keys rattled in the locks for a brief second before the door was pushed open and George pressed his way inside. He looked at the both of us sitting tensely on the sofa. We must have looked guilty but he didn’t appear to notice. He looked worried and a little frazzled.

‘Hi dad,’ Lucas said nervously.

‘Kids get your stuff,’ he said, dashing into his bedroom and then coming out with his backpack in his hands. We sat there looking at him for a brief moment, not understanding.

‘Did you hear me?’ he said, grabbing the car keys off the bureau and tossing the backpack over his shoulder. ‘I said get your stuff.’

‘Dad, what’s going on?’ Lucas said, jumping to his feet. I was a second behind him.

‘We have to go to Mackay immediately. There have been recent sightings of wild animals and numerous attacks specifically targeting women.’

‘You think it’s the Vânâtors?’ I said slowly.

He nodded. ‘It appears the Vampires were right. We have to leave immediately. Malcolm, Vincent, Peter, and Sarah are leaving straight away. I promised we would not be far behind them, so hurry up and get your stuff together, because we need to leave.’

‘What about William and the other vamps?’ Lucas asked. ‘Are they coming too?’

George gave Lucas a stern look, his eyes narrowing. ‘Why should that matter?’

Lucas shrugged, trying to appear nonchalant. ‘I just thought their heightened senses and fighting skills might help.’

George’s eyes closed off, looking like nothing more than angry slits. ‘We’ve always managed on our own and we will again. We don’t need
them
to do our job efficiently.’

‘George is right,’ I said as Lucas gave me a funny look. ‘We don’t need the Vampires. You’ve got me.’ I tapped the side of my nose. I could smell werewolf blood from miles away.

‘And you,’ George said, smiling lightly and pointing at me, ‘will be staying in the car.’

‘What?’ I barked. ‘Staying in the car? How can that be helpful?’ I saw Lucas biting back a laugh from the corner of my eye.

Dumb ass.

‘It will be helpful because it means we don’t have to keep an eye on you while you run around by yourself like G.I. Jane.’

‘I won’t.’

‘I know you won’t, because you’re staying in the car.’

‘George—’

He shook his head. ‘Don’t George me. Just go and get your stuff and both of you get in the car. I promised your mother we’d pick her up ten minutes ago.’

I flounced out of the room and dashed up the stairs behind Lucas. We were going on a hunt and I was going to miss the best bits. What possible good was I going to be to anybody sitting in the back of the car?

Bored. That was what I was going to be.

Bored and completely and utterly useless.

CHAPTER TWELVE:

BLOOD

I
kicked at the back of the chair in front of me in frustration and began to draw patterns in the fog of my rear window. Susan, George and Lucas had been gone for almost an hour and they’d left me in the car like a pet poodle. They’d even wound down the windows a quarter of an inch so that I could get some air. All I needed was a leash, some dog food, and a water bowl and I’d be set.

Ooh and a chew toy!

I scowled. At least then I’d have something to keep me entertained.

I wrote a couple of curse words on the steamed up window to mask my growing irritation at being excluded, and then wiped them clear again, feeling slightly foolish. I was still jacked off that my growing talents, not to mention my ability to self-heal, were going entirely to waste.

I stared, somewhat deflated, through my greasy finger marks and out into the alley where they had parked. It was completely deserted. I hadn’t seen a single soul walk down this alley the entire time that I’d had been here—not even a lone vagrant asking for some pocket change. It was strange to say the least.

It was a Saturday night. People should have been out, crowding the streets. But perhaps, given that the local paper had reported two mysterious sightings of large forest wolves and three local women going missing, people may have been a little reluctant to venture out. If The Protectors had just listened to the Vampires on Tuesday instead of procrastinating, the town’s residents might have had zero sightings of wolves in Mackay and only one missing woman on their hands instead of three.

I glanced at my watch. It was almost midnight. The trap would be set by now. I just prayed that, after an eight hour stint in the car getting here, the usual plan would work. We couldn’t afford for this new pack getting out of hand. If that happened, we’d have to call in reinforcements from other states and in all likelihood, enlist the help of vampires. But that was always going to be the last resort for the IMI. They were stubborn and narrow minded right to the very end.

Despite being left alone and desperately bored out of my mind, I hoped that the bait was going to work. If vânâtors were in fact in the area as everyone believed them to be, then it wouldn’t be long before the scent of blood that was weaving its way through the night air found them. Even I could smell its sweet, yet metallic undertone gliding down my nostrils. It was not as strong as it had been forty minutes ago, when they had first poured the warmth over Sarah (the bait for this evening), but there was no mistaking the somewhat enticing scent that flowed from her direction.

Her role in tonight’s hunt would be simple. I had seen it executed many times before and it generally worked. Her task was to sit alone at a bus stop or at a park bench, her clothes drenched in the blood that we specifically kept on reserve for situations such as this from a company known as Synth Corp. With warm blood covering her from head to toe, she would pretend to be injured or hurt. A vulnerable human was hard for a werewolf to resist, particularly a weaker female.

While she waited patiently for their appearance, The Protectors on the hunt would be hiding nearby with their cloaking spells, waiting to attack, with their individual aromas cloaked by the heavy scent of blood in the air. No matter where the Vânâtors were in the town or city that they were hiding in, they would inevitably follow the scent until they’d found exactly what it was they couldn’t ignore—food.

A hand rapped on the side of my window. I squealed out in terror.

What was with everyone sneaking up on me lately?

‘Whoa, Elena, it’s just me,’ Lucas said. He opened the car door and I punched him hard in the side of the arm as I climbed out.

‘You scared the crap out of me.’