Hunter's Curse (2 page)

The world darkened around me and the woman’s life flashed before my eyes. Anger and violence crept into my very being and I cried out as all the pain and torment she caused her very own mother washed through me. The woman—with a soul burdened with rage, guilt, and hatred—crumpled to the ground and died at my hands.

After my head stopped pounding and the visions faded, the woman’s soul, weighted by her ill-intentions and poor choices, felt pure and at peace within me. Then, after a few moments, it dissipated and I opened my eyes to Ronnie screaming and my sullen Nana. I never saw Ronnie again after that day, but that woman’s face still haunts me.

I pull from my thoughts and glance at my lavender eyes in the rearview mirror.
Don’t listen to Dominic. You do what you have to. People are better off in the end.

The air is thick around us and I roll down my window and let in some cool air. I wish I could just pull over and get out for a minute, but I know we can’t stop until we reach our next destination. It’s too dangerous traveling through an unfamiliar area, and the last thing I need is to have to worry about drawing attention to myself if I accidentally redeem a soul. It’s not my fault if people unintentionally look for me to find peace.

I watch Dominic in my peripheral vision and he leans against the door, putting as much distance as he can between us. It’s his way of giving me space when he thinks I need it, but what it really does is annoy me.

I switch lanes. “You know, Dom, I don’t get it. If you think I’m such a monster, then why do you put up with me? I’m an adult. I can take care of myself.”

He rubs his forehead. “Jackie...”

I glare at the road. “Answer me.”

“Because you’re my sister. You’re the only family I have left. I’m not going abandon you. I promised I’d always take care of you.”

My eyes flick to Dominic’s. “Well, maybe I don’t want you to. Maybe I want to rely on myself. I’m sick of running. I’m sick of everything.”

“Jackie!”

I swing my gaze to the road and grip the steering wheel while stomping the brake. A thick wall of traffic lies in front of us and I swerve to the emergency lane to avoid rear-ending a minivan. The tires squeal and the smell of burning rubber wafts through the air. The Mustang jerks to a stop, the seatbelt snapping hard against my chest, and I let out a small cry of relief.

I blow air through my lips. “Crap! That was close. You okay?”

Dominic doesn’t respond, but continues to stare through the windshield. I follow his gaze and my eyebrows knit together. He’s concentrating on something I don’t see. It’s just rows of slow moving vehicles.

“Get off at the next exit,” Dominic says after a moment.

“Okay.” Imaginary bees swarm in my stomach as the worry in his voice blasts anxiety through me.

I ease off the brakes and prepare to merge back into traffic. My fingers tremble on the steering wheel and my heart pounds in my ears. Dominic is acting more paranoid than usual and it doesn’t help that he won’t tell me what’s going on.

“Now, Jackie. Get off the highway now!”

I cringe as his deep voice echoes around me. Instead of merging into traffic, I accelerate and speed the mile it takes to get to the off ramp in the emergency lane. I exit the highway and race down the frontage road until we come to a traffic signal.

I ease my foot on the brake pedal and slow the Mustang. “What’d you see, Dom? You’re freaking me out.”

“An HPA van.”

Fear crawls down my back. “I thought Nana made up the HPA to scare us.”

Dominic touches my knee. “Why do you think we always move?”

“Because of who we are,” I say.

He shakes his head. “No, Jackie. We’re running from the people who’d give anything to see us dead. The HPA thinks we’re abominations, and if they catch us, we are dead.”

I lick my dry lips. “But they won’t catch us, right?”

He shrugs. “I hope—”

The sound of crushing metal rips through the air and I jerk hard on my seatbelt. The Mustang jolts forward and I peer in the rearview mirror at a white van. My heart beats against my ribcage, threatening to crack my bones, and my own screams echo in my ears.

A car door slams and I meet the eyes of a woman with chin length, red hair and chocolate brown eyes. She’s dressed in all black and her hand hovers over something on her hip. Without even having to touch her, I know she’s dangerous. She’s out for blood—my blood.

“Jackie, go!”

I swing my gaze to Dominic’s, but I can’t move. I’m frozen amid all the cruelty and pain this woman has inflicted on this world. I can’t force myself to drive. I can’t do anything.

All I want to do is save her.

3. KEEPING HUMANITY SAFE

HUNTER

“I heard you saw a super die,” Mason says, plopping down next to me at the dining room table.

I nod. “You should’ve seen the thing.”

“I wish I had. I don’t get why the board won’t let me yet.”

My mom sets down a pan of enchiladas in the middle of the table. “Because you’re not old enough. Give it a year and I’m sure they’ll offer you an intern position like they did Hunter. Don’t be in such a hurry. You have the rest of your life for this, Mason.”

Mason rolls his eyes and I chuckle while dishing rice onto my plate. It might sound cool that I got to watch Agent Chris terminate a super, but it wasn’t as cool as I imagined. I didn’t expect to be as scared as I was. I seriously thought Agent Chris was a goner and it almost made me change my mind about enrolling in the training program.
They’d think you were a coward.

I push the thought away. I’d never let anyone suspect how much it bothered me, but I’ve never really been around death. Even if the super was a snarling monster, I didn’t think it was cool to watch it die. Killing things never settled right with me, but I’d do it if I had to. My priorities are learning how the world works and keeping humanity safe. I figured after a while, I’d become numb to all of it. It would just be my job.

“Mom’s right, man. It’s not all fun and games. This is serious business.” I smirk as I say it, but wipe my mouth with my napkin so my mom doesn’t see it.

Mason steps on my foot under the table. “And I’m being serious. I want to save the world.”

My mom offers a bright smile as she looks between us. “I know you’ll both have a lot to contribute.”

The house phone rings and I jump up to get it. The rule is never let the phone go to voicemail. The board calls at all hours of the day and who knows how important it might be. My dad used to say my mom was married to the HPA and not him, and after a few years, I discovered he was right.

“Dr. Sullivan’s residence,” I say.

“Hey, Hunter. It’s Phillip.” The termination facility’s office manager doesn’t sound like his personable self. “Your mom home?”

“Yeah, man, let me bring the phone to her.”

“Thanks.”

I pad from the kitchen and into the dining room and hold up the cordless phone to my mom. She takes it from me and presses it to her ear and both Mason and I watch her quietly and eavesdrop.

“You’re kidding me,” my mom says into the phone. “Oh, how frightening.” She glances at us and frowns. “Who’s on the scene?”

I shift in my seat and look at Mason. “Sounds important.”

He waves his hand at me. “Shhh.”

“Okay, Phillip, thanks. I’ll be in shortly.” My mom hangs up the phone and sets it down on the table next to her plate. She sucks in a deep breath with her eyes closed, and then snaps them open to look at us. “There’s an emergency I need to attend to. Would you like to join me, Hunter?”

I shrug. “I guess.”

She turns to Mason. “Will you be okay?”

He waves his hand. “Go.”

JACQUELINE

The woman strolls closer and taps on my window. I swallow the lump in my throat and meet her brown eyes. Fear creeps through my chest and squeezes my heart. It hurts to breathe and the edges of my vision darken.

Dominic stiffens next to me. “Jackie, go.” His voice is low, commanding me to drive, but I can’t look away from the woman.

“She needs me,” I whisper.

“No, I need you. I need you to drive.”

The woman taps her nail on the glass again before waving. I shake my head and blink a few times before cranking down the window an inch. She tilts her head to the side, touching the handle of a gun on her belt, and then takes a step back.

The woman straightens her shoulders. “If you step from the car, I won’t hurt you.”

I bare my teeth in a fake smile. “You’re lying.”

“I have back up on the way,” she says.

“They won’t be the ones to save you.”

The woman rips her gun from its holster and jams the barrel into the crack of the window. She pulls the trigger and I cry out when a metal dart whizzes past, an inch from my face, and sinks into Dominic’s leg.

He curses under his breath. “Jackie, go! Now! You can’t save her.”

He’s wrong. You can.

I clench my fingers into a fist and thrust the door open. The woman pulls the trigger on her tranquilizer gun again, but I duck, expecting it. I charge at her and she unsheathes her knife. I grab her wrist and dig my fingers into her skin.

The world fogs around me and the woman’s life flashes through my mind.

“Come on, Becca!” A boy with golden blond hair grabs Becca’s hand and pulls her down a cement corridor.

The two children stop at the first metal door on the right and peer through a glass window. They watch as two men and a woman in white lab coats stick a long needle into the neck of a man.

“Get him, Daddy!” Becca says.

A shiver rolls down my back at the excitement the girl feels watching these doctors torture the poor pixie. Becca and the boy laugh when the man explodes into a cloud of glittering dust and they high-five each other.

The vision shifts and I see Becca just a few years younger than she is now. Her red hair is braided into a bun and she wipes blood off her knife on her black pants.

“Awesome job on your first kill,” a man says, patting her shoulder. He pushes his dark blond hair from his forehead. “How do you feel?”

“Like I want to kill ‘em all.”

My head spins as the scene changes and Becca looks like what she does now. She pants and looks at the same man from the last vision. He tenses next to her and a low, guttural noise echoes through my mind. Becca’s gaze darts from her partner to the noise and I see a shifter standing ten feet away. The shifter pounds his fists together and stomps closer.

He swings his thick, muscular arm at Becca and she jumps back, dropping her knife. Fear, anger, and guilt rush through me as Becca draws her tranquilizer and shoots the shifter, but he doesn’t go down.

Her partner swipes his knife at the shifter and blood sprays from a wound on his shoulder. Her partner jumps back, but the shifter follows the movement and rips the knife from her partner’s grip. He yells at Becca, but she just stands there.

“If you let me go, I won’t hurt him,” the shifter says.

Becca shakes her head. “Never.”

The shifter lifts the man by his head and twists, snapping her partner’s neck. Becca shoots another dart into the shifter and he slows down, dropping to his knees, and then he passes out.

The pain and disbelief Becca’s partner felt moments before he died washes through me. She could’ve saved him, but didn’t, and she didn’t even think twice about it. Becca’s soul swirls inside of me and I absorb all her wrong-doings, taking in the torment and evil that tarnishes her essence, and then I release my breath and her soul dissipates, free from everything that sullied it.

I open my eyes.

Becca collapses to the ground and I breathe deep in and out of my mouth. My vision clears and I turn to look at Dominic in the Mustang, but his door is wide open.

“Keep your hands up where I can see them,” a masculine voice says.

The deep sound pierces through my chest and I draw my gaze to a man dressed in the same uniform as Becca. He stands over Dominic, who moans and blinks on the ground, but waves a knife at me. The evil radiating from the agent is the darkest I’ve ever felt on a human.

“Let him go,” I say.

“And if I don’t?” he asks.

I dash the distance between us and open my arms. Just as fast, the man runs his knife along my brother’s throat and blood pools on the dirty pavement.

“No!” I scream. Rage consumes me and I lock my fingers around the agent’s neck and rip his soul free. Hot tears brand my cheeks as my vision darkens and I’m left to endure the pain, fear, and disappointment my brother felt as the agent took his life.

4. SURVIVING IS THE ONLY OPTION

HUNTER

“Wait in the car,” my mom says.

I sit forward in my seat and peer through the windshield. An agent redirect traffics while a tow truck idles across the road to collect the van while hiding the two sheet-covered bodies lying on the concrete.

My stomach churns when I watch my mom lift the sheet and uncover a red-haired woman. I can’t see her face from where I’m sitting, so I open my door and step from the Mercedes. I come up behind my mom and stare into the chalky white face of an agent I never met. Her eyes are wide open, but they stare right through me at nothing.

I touch my mom’s shoulder. “What happened?”

She jerks to look at me. “Oh, Hunter, I asked you to wait in the car. I didn’t want you to see Agent Rebecca like this.”

“So, what happened?” I repeat.

She sighs. “We’re still trying to figure that out. Agent Rebecca called in some suspicious activity on the highway and was fine when I received the call at dinner. We sent someone to investigate when neither she nor her back up Agent Kenneth checked in.”