The Hunted (25 page)

‘Isn’t there a spell that will just kill them instead of having to incapacitate them? It would save time.’

Peter shook his head and glanced quickly between Susan and George. ‘That’s dark magic, Lucas. We never use dark magic. It’s not the way of The Protectors.’

Lucas nodded in apparent understanding and then began to concentrate on the task before him, more enthusiastic than before. A couple of small blue sparks erupted from his hand again, but then fizzled out in front of him as they had done previously.

I could tell he was concentrating pretty hard. His brow was slicked with sweat and his T-shirt was marred with the wet patches of heavier perspiration, but I admired his determination. This was even through the constant baiting he was receiving from the annoying man grunting down in the front row. If I had popcorn I’d throw the whole bucket at the back of George’s head.

‘Focus, Lucas,’ Peter repeated.

George grunted even louder than before.

Susan slapped him on the arm.

I tried not to laugh.

Lucas struggled again, throwing his arms out in front of him with the full force of his physical strength and yelling ‘
Hevannatara
’.

This time the magic worked. A massive ball of blue flames seemed to lick at his fingers as if they were coated in gasoline, before lashing out in front of him, like a flame thrower shooting forth blue fire. The fire slammed hard into the stone wall with a massive crash.

‘Well done!’ Peter cried, furiously clapping his hands in encouragement.

The rest of us jumped to our feet, yelling our congratulations.

Lucas breathed a quick sigh of relief, as he glanced at George and wiped the sweat from his brow with the collar of his shirt. He was looking rather pleased with himself. He tried the spell again, and this time success came more easily.

I was secretly pleased for him as I watched the blue light hit the wall repeatedly, watching his confidence grow. I continued to watch in complete silence as Lucas eagerly continued to practice both spells over and over, again and again until he appeared to have mastered them both.

Susan and George both looked proud as punch.

It started to get even more interesting when people began to duel each other, testing their powers. Peter and George won most of the duels and then waited patiently while Lucas and Susan regained their sight or the use of their limbs again. The most interesting part was when their magic intertwined. It would twist and contort in mid-air, the streams of light connecting and pushing against the other until one was victorious.

‘So how are you taking all this new information?’ Sarah said to me as I watched Lucas practising the Light of Mellar again.

‘Sorry?’ I said, shaking my head, barely listening to her. I sat transfixed, watching the duel between George and Peter down below.

‘You know … your blood lines.’

‘Hey?’ I said, spinning around to look at her in bewilderment. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘Oh,’ she said daintily, folding her hands in her lap and crossing one short pudgy leg over the other. ‘Perhaps they haven’t discussed that with you yet. It would certainly explain why you don’t know you’re a half-breed.’

‘What? What are you saying, Sarah? Discussed what?’ I eyed her suspiciously.

‘It’s probably a good thing,’ she said, ignoring me. ‘It’s bad enough that you’re going to be a vampire.’ She shook her head, ‘Deplorable creatures, really.’

I looked back over at my family as they practised their magic, hoping that Sarah would stop talking before my temper got the better of me. Sure she could turn me to stone and blind me if she wanted to, but she’d have to be quicker than a roundhouse kick to the face.

Lucas had stopped what he was doing and had started listening to our exchange. He could see my furrowed brows and the uncomfortable set in my shoulders, and had seen me try and distance myself from the hateful woman sitting next to me.

The other adults had stopped their duelling and now appeared to be embroiled in a mini-debate on whether or not to show Lucas the Defenacus charm. They were completely oblivious to the conversation I was having with Sarah.

Sarah forged on with her character sledging, regardless of the fact that she was clearly upsetting me. ‘For now at least you are human. But later … when you become a creature of the unknown, I should think you would take matters into your own hands, ensure that you don’t become an emotionless blood drinker just like the rest of them.’

I stiffened.

Was she saying that she wanted me to kill myself?

‘I don’t want to talk about this with you, Sarah. My parents are the ones who need to answer my questions,’ I said, staring down at the arena and trying not to let my agitation show. ‘You’re too biased in your opinions.’

‘I beg your pardon? Tell me how
your
knowledge overrides
my
vast experience with the Vampires?’ she asked with a slight mocking tone, as she tapped her foot on the back of the stand in front of her.

I could tell that I had pissed her off and that this conversation was going nowhere fast. Still, I never could learn when to shut up. ‘You’re a bigot, Sarah, who is too narrow-minded to have a rational conversation with about this subject. I’m sorry, but I have no intention of talking to you about anything about my life that does not relate directly to the IMI.’

I could see from the corner of my eye that she was watching me, ire on her face and no doubt dreaming up ideas of strapping me to a church pew and slamming me in the face with the Book of Revelations.

Her foot was still tapping impatiently on the chair in front of her, her arms now folded in front of her massively inflated chest, all defiance.

She sure had big boobs for such a short person.

‘Well, I can see that you are intent on tearing my character to shreds rather than heeding sound advice,’ she hissed, her teeth clenched. ‘But make no mistake, my dear, although the Vampires are indeed our allies at this point in time, this will not always be so. As a species they are somewhat of a virus, a plague to this planet much like their creations, the Vânâtors. So you, sitting there, calling me a bigot when you are on a course towards a path of eternal damnation is indeed a sin. You should be
begging
me to save your soul.’

I bit back an angry retort. It was difficult because I didn’t really come with a censor button. I really wanted to say to her—that she was a fat, nasty, big breasted woman, but that was the anger talking. Insulting her would change nothing, but smacking her in the head? Tempting.

I could see Lucas watching me from down in the arena. He did not look pleased. His hands were balled into fists, blue light dancing across his knuckles.

I shot him a look, with a quick tilt of my head in her direction. I wanted him to rescue me from my current plight before I did something we both might regret, because my foot was sure as hell itching to have a meeting with her face.

He understood, because he nodded his head back at me, a small smile spreading across his face, as he yelled out ‘
Hevannatara
!’

A blue bolt of electricity shot from his hand and hit Sarah square in the chest. She instantly went still, her foot still in mid-tap and her arms still curled in front of her chest.

I grinned.

Nice one, Lucas.

‘Lucas!’ Susan yelled at him. ‘You cannot do that to other Protectors without asking their permission first—it’s very rude. Anyway, we were practising the Light of Mellar.’

He lowered his head, trying to hide his smirk.

She clipped him over the back of the head. ‘Silly child. Apologise to Sarah at once.’

I watched as he lifted his head again, the smile gone. He shook his head. ‘I’ll apologise to Sarah when she
apologises to Elena. She just called her a virus!’

God bless him. I take it back. He’s not a total dumb ass.

‘Sarah did what?’ George asked, looking up at me and frowning.

Why did everyone always look at me as if it was my fault?

‘It’s fine, Lucas,’ I said, smiling lightly and giving him a wink. He relaxed. ‘Sarah and I were just having a little disagreement and Lucas was just being a gentleman and jumping to my defence.’

‘Well,’ Susan started, looking helplessly between me, Sarah and Lucas, ‘perhaps we can overlook the random spell casting, if you were defending your sister’s honour. Quite admirable, really, but I must insist that you ask a Protector’s permission in the future before using magic against them. Regardless of what has happened while our backs were turned, issues in here should not be resolved with magic, but with words.’

Lucas nodded to our parents before they both turned around and launched back into conversation with Peter. I smiled widely at Lucas and he grinned back, winking in reply. The spell had done its job rather well.

I swivelled around on the spot so that she could quite clearly see me, and then raised my hand and rapped on her stiffened forehead with my knuckles as if she was our front door.

Knock, knock, anyone home?

I snorted lightly and bit down on my tongue before any laughter gave me away, though the huge smile on my face could not be mistaken. ‘Oh, you
poor
thing,’ I said, lowering my hand and patting her gently on the shoulder in an overly-condescending manner.

Her blue eyes swivelled around in their sockets to look at me.

‘It must be awful when something completely unexpected happens to you, something that is beyond your control.’ I touched a finger to my chin like I was deep in thought. ‘It’s a bit like you turning into a stiff just now. It is surprisingly just
exactly
like me being born a Vampire. It happened without my consent or my control and there was absolutely nothing that either one of us could do about it.’

I grinned again, watching her blue eyes staring at me from behind a fixed mask. ‘It’s also a bit like you falling backwards over this grandstand.’ I paused, my smile widening as I saw fear enter her eyes. ‘There was nothing I could do to stop that either.’

She squeaked something in rebuttal from in between her stiffened lips before I gave her an ‘accidental’ push backwards, her whole body toppling over the edge of the grandstand and landing with a loud
thump
on the stone floor behind us. It wasn’t high enough to break anything, but she was bound to have a bruise or two, not to mention and even bigger grudge against me when she was fully mobile.

Lucas practically convulsed with fits of laughter as Susan, George, and Peter spun around in dismay and surveyed Sarah’s rigid body in horror.

She was frozen in her previous sitting position with her arms across her chest and her legs up in the air, one crossed in front of the other. It was a good thing she wasn’t wearing a skirt today otherwise we’d all be seeing a side to Sarah that we’d sooner rather forget.

I looked up from Sarah’s rigid body lying across the cold stone floor and turned reluctantly to the awaiting jury. Three sets of accusatory eyes were pointed directly at me.

‘What?’ I said, shrugging my shoulders innocently. ‘She’s top heavy.’

CHAPTER SEVEN: