Changed (The Hunters #1) (50 page)

Rosa turned to Tamara. In the
darkness, she couldn’t see her face.

“
Tamara, listen to me now.
I need your help. I’m looking for a girl in these cells, and I want
you to help me.”

“
Yeah, okay. I’ll help
you,” she said.

“
Thank you, Tamara. I owe
you one.” Maybe she wasn’t as bad as Rosa thought.

“
Why are you looking for
the girl?” Tamara’s voice echoed in the dark corridor.

“
It’s just to help a
friend,” was Rosa’s answer. The less Tamara knew, the better it was
for her.

Rosa walked down the floor. She knew
that not all prisoners were gone. She stopped in front of a stone
wall.

“
What now?” Tamara asked
her.

Instead of answering, Rosa put her
hands on the wall and pushed. The wall didn’t move. She clenched
her teeth, pressed harder and harder, until finally the walls gave
way beneath her hands—but only slightly.

“
Tamara, I need your
help,” Rosa said. Tamara stepped beside her. “Push the wall with
your hands as hard as you can.”

“
Okay,” Tamara replied
even though she sounded wary.

Together they pushed the wall, until
an opening appeared on the edge

“
Come,” Rosa said and
slipped through the opening. Tamara followed her.

This corridor was dark, but not as
dark as the other corridor. A little lamp hung from the ceiling.
The doors of the cells consisted of heavy metal doors. Nobody
without the keys could open these doors.

“
Knock on every door in
and ask if she’s Jasmine. Quick!”

Tamara nodded and walked to the cells
on the left. Rosa worked through the cell on the right side. They
knocked, but no sound was heard.

Rosa almost lost hope, when
somebody answered her.

Thanks to her Nephilim
forces, she healed quickly, but she couldn’t do anything against
loneliness.

For days, no one had been
here. She only got her meal, but the voice never spoke to
her.

Loneliness was one of the
bad things that could happen to you. If you have people around,
then you wish they would leave so you could have some privacy.
Though, those who have the privacy want nothing more than to be
with people.

She was lying on her
blanket when she suddenly heard a knock at the door. At first, she
thought she only imagined it, but when she heard it a second time,
she was sure that the sound was real.

With difficulty, she
scrambled to her feet. She blinked several times and crawled to the
door.

“
Is anyone there?” The
voice came weakly over to her.

“
Yes,” she croaked. Her
voice was a harsh whisper. She hammered her fists on the
door.

“
Yes, I’m in here!” Oh
God! Had the time finally come for her to be saved?

“
Is your name Jasmine?”
asked the voice.

Her heart started to beat
fast. “Yes, yes! I’m Jasmine. Please let me out of here! Please!”
Tears welled up in her eyes.

“
Calm down,” said the
voice, which belonged to a girl. “I’ll get you out of here. Have a
little patience.”

“
Oh god,” she breathed.
She couldn’t breathe for the joy. The tears flowed like a waterfall
down her cheeks. Finally, she was rescued.

“
Your brother Jason has
been searching for you for months. We’ll get you out of here, but
you have to wait until tonight,” the girl informed her.

When she heard the name of
her brother, she cried even harder. Jason was looking for her! He
hadn’t given up on her.

“
Thanks,” she sobbed.
“Thank you so much!”

“
Thank me when you’re out
of here. I promise nothing, but I’ll do anything to get you out of
here.”

She whisked the tears with
her hand away.

“
Okay. I’ll
wait.”

“
When someone comes to
you, don’t let them know anything, okay? Have a little patience.”
At the end, the voice was soft and comforting.

She wanted to know whose
voice she was hearing.

“
Who are you?” she
said.

“
Only a girl that wants to
help your brother. I have to go now.”

She heard the footsteps
going away.

All those months she had
hoped and dreamed that she would get out of here.

Finally, her hope was
being fulfilled.

It gave her new
strength.

And with
this new strength, she would get out of here
.

Rosa had heard the desperation in
Jasmine’s voice and felt pity for her. She didn’t want to imagine
how it was to be captured for months in a dungeon.

Rosa knew she was doing the right
thing—even if it meant betraying the hunter clan.

She examined the lock. It was built of
massive steel with two locks. The only way to open the lock was
with the key or a gun.

And how would she get the
key?

Rosa turned to Tamara. “We can go
now.”

She nodded and followed Rosa. They
closed the door by pushing it from the other side.

“
Do you have any ideas on
how to steal a key from a guard?” Rosa asked Tamara. She didn’t
answer directly. “Why don’t you beat him up until he’s unconscious,
and then give him a drink to help him sleep for several hours.
While he’s unconscious you free your friend and put the key
back.”

Rosa looked at her amazed. “Wow.
That’s a great idea.”

Tamara smiled. “Thank you.”

They walked past the guard, smiling.
He nodded to them.

“
Tamara you can go to your
room. I’ll get the magic potion.”

She nodded. “Okay. Bye.”

After Tamara walked to her room, Rosa
went to Andrea’s room, but she was nowhere to be found.
Nonetheless, Rosa quietly slipped into the room and closed the door
behind her. She stopped before the shelf with the magic
potions.

With her finger, she searched the
bottles for the right magic potion. Finally, Rosa found what she
was looking for. She took it from the shelf and put it in her
pocket.

Rosa had a guilty conscience for
stealing from Andrea, but she would bring it back, after it had
fulfilled its purpose.

She left Andrea’s room and looked at
the clock. It was seven o’clock in the evening.

Not much longer, and Rosa would betray
the hunter clan.

“
Ice princess!” Colin
called and stepped through the door. Valerie followed him with a
cigarette between her lips.

“
It felt like a lifetime,
since we last saw you.”

Rosa smiled and hugged him. “It was a
lifetime, Colin.”

After she was back from Vancouver, she
hadn’t seen Colin or Valerie. It was a good feeling to see her
friends again.

“
Val,” Rosa said, after
she stepped out of Colin’s arms. “No smoking in my
house.”

Before Valerie can save her cigarette,
Rosa took it out of her lips.

Valerie glared at her. “I hate you,
Rosa.”

Rosa took a drag before she threw it
away. “I love you, too, Val.” Then they sat down on the couch in
her living room.

“
And Rosa how was
Vancouver?” Colin asked as he put his feet on the table. Valerie
laid her legs on Rosa’s lap and took a new cigarette out of her
pocket.

“
No smoking, Val,” Rosa
said to her again.

“
Come on! Just one,”
Valerie replied and smiled.

“
Okay,” Rosa
sighed.

She started to tell her friends what
had happened in Vancouver. She told them everything except the
things that happened between her and Jason.

“
Wow, Rosa. Now you’re a
full member. Congratulations,” Colin said and smiled. Rosa smiled
back at him.

“
When will you get your
license?” Valerie asked and blew her cigarette smoke into Rosa’s
face.

Rosa grimaced and waved with her hand.
“I don’t know. He just says I’ll get it soon.”

“
Then you should do it,”
Valerie said. “You will then get paid for killing the shadow
creatures.”

She would get money by killing shadow
creatures who were humans.

That didn’t sound very …
nice.

The
sentence that Lord Constantine had said to her in the forest came
to mind—
Really, Rosa? You don’t have any
respect towards yourself. You kill people senselessly. Every
day.

She hadn’t really realized it until
her punishment, but now she did.

She looked at Colin. “Colin, do you
think we’re doing the right thing by following the orders of the
hunter clan and killing humans?”

Colin blinked surprised, and opened
his mouth to say something, but nothing came out.

Valerie sat down and leaned forward.
“Where’s this question coming from, Rosa?” she asked.

Rosa faced her friend. “I’m just
asking.”

Colin frowned. “I really don’t know
what to say, Rosa. Isn’t it the right thing? The hunter clan always
tells us that we’re doing the right thing.”

Rosa nodded thoughtfully. “Yeah, they
always tell us.”

That was the problem. Since her birth,
Rosa lived among hunters and their opinions of the angels and
shadow creatures.

She hadn’t any other chance to share
their opinions. She didn’t learn anything else than what the hunter
clan had taught her.

The hunter clan practically brain
washed Rosa and her friends—and all the other hunters. She just
didn’t have any chance of escape.

“
Of course it isn’t the
right thing, guys,” Valerie said looking at Rosa and Colin.
“Hunters are killing humans because they don’t want
them.”

“
Why have you never told
us this?” Rosa wanted to know.

Valerie drew a tap. “Because the
hunter clan would have killed me for that. I wanted to tell you,
but I knew if I had told you I wouldn’t just put my life in danger,
but yours, too. I couldn’t allow that.”