The Recruit (Book Three) (25 page)

“Hannah, I –
“

He stopped as a
familiar scent drifted to them on the wind.

“Why is Douglas
back?” Hannah asked.

“I don’t know.”
Will began to build up the fire as Hannah ducked into the tent to
get dressed.

When the old
wolf loped into the campsite, Will tossed him a pair of pants.
Douglas shifted and pulled the pants on as Hannah emerged from the
tent. She took one look at his pale, drawn face and hurried toward
him.

“Douglas?
What’s wrong?”

“There was a
hunt last night. No one has returned.”

“What?” Will
frowned at him. “No one?”

Douglas shook
his head. “Jordan is sending out a team to search for their
bodies.”

“Why is he so
certain they’re dead?” Hannah asked immediately. “They may still be
alive.”

“Maybe. But why
have they not called in? Even if only a few of the babies escaped,
they all know the protocol. You call in and confirm your
status.”

“The babies?”
Hannah whispered. “Douglas – who went on the hunt last night?”

Douglas gave
her a grim look. “Mannie and Constance were the team leaders.
Selena, Leanne and Alex were there as well.”

“The babies?”
Hannah whispered again. “What babies did they send?”

Douglas’ face
was so pale that Will reached out and placed a steadying hand on
his arm. He was afraid the old Lycan was going to pass out.

“There was a
group of eight recruits sent on the hunt. The twins were a part of
the group.”

“Shit!” Will
cursed as Hannah took a staggering step backward.

“No.” She
whispered. “No.”

“Why the hell
would Jordan send them on a hunt?” Will asked. “They’re not
ready.”

“Mannie and the
others tried to tell him that but he insisted.”

“I’ll kill
him.” Will muttered.

Douglas shook
his head. “I don’t think Jordan wanted to send them either. Mannie
said that Jordan admitted he didn’t think they were ready but the
Board disagreed. He said if he refused to send them on the hunt,
the Board would simply dismiss him and bring someone else in.”

Hannah, her
face pale, took a deep breath. “We have to go back, Will. We have
to go back right now.”

“Of course.” He
kissed her firmly on the forehead. “We’ll find them, honey.”

* * *

Natalie opened
the door of the apartment and stared in numb surprise at the woman
standing in front of her.

“Hannah?”

“Hi, mom.”

Natalie’s face
was pale and her eyes were puffy and red, but a smile broke out on
her face and she gathered Hannah into her embrace and hugged her
tightly.

“I’ve missed
you.” She whispered.

“I’ve missed
you too.” Hannah kissed her cheek before moving toward her dad. He
hugged her as Natalie wrapped her arms around Will and hugged him
firmly before ushering him into the apartment.

“I’m so glad
you’re back.” Natalie sighed. She took Jim’s hand and squeezed it
as Hannah and Will sat down at the island.

“Tea. I’ll make
us some tea.” Natalie said distractedly.

“How did you
know to come back?” Jim asked.

“Douglas hiked
to our campsite.” Will replied.

“Dear Douglas.”
Natalie said fondly as she pulled mugs out of the cupboard. “He’s
such a sweet man. He came to tell us as soon as he heard the news
that the twins and the others were – were…”

Her breath
hitched in her throat and she turned away quickly as Jim stood and
took the mugs from her trembling hands.

“They’ll be
alright, Nat. They’re smart boys.” He said quietly.

Natalie shook
her head. “They’re dead. I know they’re dead. I can feel it, Jim,
and so can you.”

“They’re not
dead!” Jim said fiercely. “They’re still alive, Nat. You can’t give
up hope like that. We thought Hannah was dead twice now, and she’s
always come back to us. The boys will too.”

She shook her
head again and wiped her streaming eyes with a tissue as Jim gave
Will and Hannah a helpless look.

“They’re not
dead.” He repeated.

“We’ll find
them, dad.” Hannah said quietly.

“Are you going
with the search party?” Jim asked.

Will nodded.
“Yes. We just got back but Hannah wanted to see the both of you
before we join the others in Jordan’s office. Douglas said they’re
meeting in about ten minutes.”

“I want to come
with you.” Jim sat down beside them as Hannah shook her head.

“No.”

Her father
scowled at her. “I’m not some student you can tell what to do,
Hannah. I’m your father and those boys are,” he hesitated, his
voice cracking, “special to your mother and I. I’m going with you
and you can’t stop me.”

“You’ll slow us
down, dad.” Hannah reached out and grasped his hand. “You have no
training, no skills for killing vampires, and I can’t be watching
out for you. You know that I’m right.”

He sighed
loudly as Natalie leaned against him and kissed the top of his
head. “Hannah – “

“We’ll find the
boys.” Hannah interrupted before standing. “We should go, Will. I
don’t want to be late to the meeting.”

With a final
kiss to her mother’s pale cheek, the two of them left the
apartment.

Will captured
her hand and gave her a grave look as they hurried down the hall.
“Honey, the odds of the twins or any of them still being alive is –
“

“I know.” She
interrupted. She stopped in the hallway and gave him a look of such
smoking anger that he recoiled. “The twins are dead. Selena is
dead. Mannie and Constance - the babies - they’re all dead, and I’m
going to find the fucking leeches who did it and kill every last
one of them.”

Her eyes
glowing, she bared her fangs at him before turning and striding
down the hallway.

* * *

Jordan stared
solemnly at the others gathered in his office. “The five of you
need to understand that the Board is considering this a body
recovery, not a rescue mission.”

“Big fucking
surprise.” Reid said bitterly.

Jordan gave him
a look of compassion. “Do you really believe they’re alive?”

Reid didn’t
reply and Chen leaned forward. “When are we leaving?”

“As soon as
we’re finished here.” Jordan replied. “Are you sure you’re good to
go?”

“I’m fine.”
Chen answered shortly.

Jordan nodded
and turned to face the image on the wall behind him. “This,” he
tapped a red x on the map, “is the area of the hunt. We’re assuming
their bodies will be in a five mile radius.”

“What if they
didn’t kill them but turned them?” Chen asked quietly.

“All of you
know as well as I do that vampires rarely turn humans, unless they
are looking to increase their numbers or suspect the human has
information they want. Since we’ve crushed the vampire uprising, I
think it’s safe to assume that our team was killed not turned.”
Jordan answered.

“Didn’t you
tell us the Board isn’t so sure we’ve ended the uprising?” Reid
asked.

Before Jordan
could reply, there was a brief knock on the door and Will and
Hannah stepped into the room.

“Hannah.” A
small smile crossed Chen’s face and he crossed the room quickly to
hug her tightly.

“Hello,
master.”

“It is good to
see you.” Chen smiled warmly at her and Hannah gave him a faint
smile in return.

“Hi, Paul.”
Hannah squeezed the young man’s shoulder and he nodded to her as
Jordan regarded her steadily.

“Hello,
Jordan.” Hannah took a deep breath and faced the older man squarely
as Will stepped to her side.

“Welcome back,
Hannah.” He studied her carefully. “Did it work?”

“Yes. I have
control over it.”

He continued to
study her, his head cocked to the side, before nodding. “Good. Have
a seat.”

Hannah sat
down. She was surprised by Jordan’s quick acceptance and she gave
Will a look of confusion. He shrugged slightly as he pulled up a
chair next to hers.

“I’m assuming
you and Will are going with the others?” Jordan asked.

“Yes.” Will
confirmed. He rested his big hand on Hannah’s knee, stroking small
circles, as she gnawed on her bottom lip and jiggled her other leg
restlessly.

“We should get
going. We’re losing the light.” She blurted out.

“As soon as
we’re finished here, the team will leave. Now that you’ve returned,
Will – you’re team leader. I was just telling the others that the
Board considers this a body recovery, not a rescue mission.”

When neither
Will nor Hannah responded, he turned back to the map. “We suspect
the bodies are within a five mile radius of the hunt. There isn’t
much in the area so there’s little worry that other humans will
catch you when you’re removing the bodies. That being said, I’m
expecting you to move quickly and quietly. We don’t need a bunch of
civilians on some damn nature trek stumbling on to you.”

He turned and
gave them all a grave look. “You go in, you find the bodies, and
you bring them back. No hunting. Do you understand?”

They nodded and
he rubbed at his forehead before frowning. “And for God’s sake,
keep your eyes open for more leeches. It had to be a much larger
group than Intel suspected, to have killed our entire team.”

“Or more
powerful.” Chen said quietly.

“Powerful
enough to kill a Lycan?” Will asked.

His face pale
and his voice strained, he continued. “Constance was a skilled
hunter, Chen. She’d been killing leeches since she was a teenager.
It would have to be very powerful leeches to kill her. It’s more
likely that it’s a large pod of them. If there were enough of them,
they could have overpowered her.”

“You don’t know
she’s dead!” Ryan suddenly shouted.

The others
jerked in surprise as he jumped up and knocked his chair backwards
before stalking toward Will. “Constance
is
a skilled killer,
not
was
. Stop acting like she’s fucking dead when you don’t
know if she is or not, you asshole!”

He was standing
over Will now, his face red and his fists clenched, and Will
squeezed Hannah’s leg when she growled warningly at Ryan.

He glared at
her. “What? You want a piece of me, Hannah? You think your stupid
swords are faster than my gun? Is that it?”

Mallorie stood
and hurried over. “Ryan, knock it off.”

“Stay out of
this, Mallorie.” Ryan said without looking at her. “No one asked
for your opinion.”

“Ryan – “

“It’s fine,
Mallorie.” Hannah stood and gave Ryan a look of sympathy. “I’m
sorry, Ryan. I know you love her.”

Ryan’s
shoulders slumped and he took a deep breath before backing away.
Hannah stood and touched his shoulder gently. He jerked away from
her and shook his head. “I’m fine. Let’s just go, already.”

As the others
filed out of Jordan’s office, he touched Will’s arm. “Can you stay
behind for a moment, Will?”

Will nodded and
squeezed Hannah’s hand. “I’ll be right there.”

“If this is
about me, then I want to stay.” Hannah said.

“It isn’t.”
Jordan replied.

She stared
suspiciously at him before leaving the office.

“Does she have
control over it?” Jordan asked when the door was shut firmly behind
her.

“I thought you
said it wasn’t about her.” Will frowned.

“I lied.”

Will snorted in
disgust. “Yes, she has control over it. If she didn’t, she would
have turned and killed you the moment we found out the twins were
dead.”

Jordan winced.
“If I’d had a choice, I would never have recruited them. You know
that.”

“Yeah, I know.”
Will muttered. “Hannah’s learned to control the shift. You don’t
have to worry, Jordan.”

“Good.” Jordan
replied.

Will started
toward the door, stopping when Jordan cleared his throat. “One more
thing, Will. This is a body recovery mission only. No hunting. I
know people are upset and I understand why, but I can’t have them
going off searching for the leeches who did this. You’re the team
leader, I’m expecting you to keep your team under control.”

“They’ll want
their revenge.” Will said quietly.

“I know. And
they’ll have it - just not tonight.” Jordan answered.

“Why?”

“The Board
doesn’t want another hunt so soon after this one. They’re worried
about more losses.”

Will shook his
head angrily. “What the fuck is going on with the Board, Jordan? Do
they even care that their “losses” are human beings? That the
teenagers they recruited are dead?”

“They’re
worried, Will.” Jordan said quietly. “They’re certain that a second
uprising will happen sooner than later. They’re convinced that the
vampires are becoming bolder and more willing to work together to
achieve what they desire most. If that happens…”

He trailed off
and Will sighed loudly. “We’ve always stopped them before, Jordan.
And we did it without using
children
in our battles.”

“I don’t know
what to tell you, Will.” Jordan said. “If I refuse, the Board will
just find someone else to – “

“Yeah, I know.”
Will interrupted. “I need to go – it’s getting late.”

“Good luck.”
Jordan held his hand out and after a moment Will shook it
firmly.

Chapter 20

Will held his
hand up and the others stopped immediately, staring into the woods
that surrounded them. Although the sun hadn’t set yet, the entire
group was uneasy and on edge, and they waited as Will sniffed the
air.

“What?” Reid
finally asked with a touch of impatience.

“Blood.” Will
replied. He stared briefly at Hannah. He had been smelling leech
blood and ash for the last half hour but he had picked up a new
scent. One that was making his stomach roll with fear and anger.
The blood was Lycan and by the look on Hannah’s face, he knew she
could smell it too. She turned to study Ryan and he frowned at
her.