The Hunted (26 page)

ULTIMATUMS

‘
W
hat are we going to do with you, Elena?’
Susan said to me as she took my hand, leading me out towards the car.

‘What? I told you already—she just fell.’

Lucas choked on a laugh and gave me an apologetic look, covering his mouth with his hand.

‘That’s not what Sarah said,’ she continued, ignoring Lucas’s theatrics.

I shrugged. ‘As there were no witnesses other than Lucas, I’m going to just say that the alleged ‘shoving’ is merely hearsay.’

‘That’s not how Sarah described the incident at all.’

I clicked my tongue. ‘In her version of events, was I wearing a white cape and carrying a flaming crucifix?’

She frowned at me and released my hand. I suddenly felt stranded in the sea of invisible cars. ‘There really are no words to describe you, Elena.’

‘I could think of a few,’ Lucas said, grinning.

‘Shut up, Lucas, and get in the car.’

I chuckled lightly at her agitation. We were so nice to each other in this family.

Susan and George both stormed ahead of me, quickly getting inside the vehicle and closing the doors behind them, once again shrouding the car in invisibility.

Okay, so they’re going to play that game.

I knew the general location of the car, but Susan had dropped my hand a fair distance away and I was going to have to feel my way to the door handle.

Lucas, of course, was providing zero help, merely standing back and watching me play hide and go seek with the door handle. To the left of me Vincent, who had come back to the IMI a little after lunch, gave us both a cheery goodbye and then disappeared inside his own invisible car.

Kim and Sarah had long since gone, Sarah nursing a dislocated shoulder from her ‘fall’. Peter, Martha and Malcolm, as well as the two kids, were the last to enter the parking area.

Lucas gestured with his hand towards our car impatiently. ‘Chop, chop.’

I poked my tongue out at him and took a few tentative steps forward, holding my hand slightly in front of me in case I unexpectedly hit something. Unfortunately a well-timed horn blast from Vincent’s car as he drove past was enough to make me jump, sending me scattering straight into the side of the car door.

My forehead cracked into the glass window with a loud
thud
and my right knee cap banged against the rear door, sending me reeling backwards into a filthy, old steel drum. It didn’t hurt much, but my pride was a little wounded.

Karina, Lisa, and Lucas cracked up laughing, my legs dangling over the edge of the steel drum as I, firmly wedged inside, waited for someone to pull me back out.

Nice …

‘Sure, sure, make fun of the blind girl,’ I muttered, groping at the edge of the drum and trying to heave myself back out again with little success. Lucas was practically coughing up a lung he was laughing so hard.

Bastard.

When he finally managed to get a grip on himself and everyone had finished having a good laugh at my expense, Lucas gripped my hands and yanked me out of the drum. I was covered in rust stains and dirt.

‘Enjoy that, did you?’ I said to Lucas as I scrambled for the car door again and got inside.

He nodded, still laughing. ‘I just wish I had a camera on me.’

I groaned.

*          *          *

The rest of the night slipped by just as quickly as the day, and by nine o’clock I found myself yawning out loud before bidding everyone a good night and heading upstairs to bed.

I laid awake for a short while, thinking about what Sarah had said today and hoping that she was alone in her thoughts. I’d come to expect insults as a part of her nature, but I couldn’t concur with her description of vampires as a disease, and I wasn’t about to go and kill myself just because one day I’d prefer to drink blood over Diet Coke. My future turning was entirely beyond my control.

Surely my integration with the IMI proved that vampires could at least attempt to live peacefully with the human populace? Granted, I was not a fully fledged vampire yet, but I knew in my heart I would not and could not hurt the ones that I loved, even though my penchant for blood appeared to be growing stronger and stronger with every passing day.

The only thing that I could gather from her comments was that her feelings about vampires and vânâtors were based more on personal opinions than actual fact. But then again, what if I was wrong and she was right about everything? What if the bloodlust I would feel after turning was stronger than my willpower? What if I could not control my urges any more than I could control my temper?

I grabbed at my pillow and punched it hard. I didn’t know. I had no one else to ask about such questions. My family wouldn’t give me the answers. The worst part was that I had a sneaking suspicion I was never going to truly know who or what I was. At least not until after I had turned.

Scary thought.

I sighed deeply. I didn’t even know if all the information I had absorbed over the years was true or completely bogus. I was so used to being treated like a mushroom—being fed shit and kept in the dark, that I tended to listen to everything that was said and push together the missing pieces myself until I came up with a plausible answer. This included everything that I believed to be true about vampires. What if all the information I had gathered about vampires in the last four years had somehow been falsely fed to me, forcing me to view my own species exactly as The Protectors had intended?

As enemies?

Did any of them truly care for me or was I simply an experiment that they had reared from birth and moulded into a soldier for their own causes? Whether by choice or not, vampires were a part of my past, present, and my future and I could not ignore what was a part of me, even if the IMI desired it.

So there was no need to keep bitching and moaning, and wondering about things that were beyond my control. I just had to accept that the past was unchangeable, the future was undetermined, and the present was a gift. Anguish, regret and self-pity were for people who couldn’t move forward and change their own circumstances for the better. And I had decided a long time ago that I was not going to be one of those people.

I shook my head and wondered how many other sixteen year olds lie in bed at night and think about drinking blood, fighting werewolves, and contemplating the delicacy of the human soul. Not many I imagined.

Argh! When did the questions end and the answers begin?

I punched the pillow a few more times to help ease my frustrations, as well as iron out the lumps that had formed, before I rolled over onto my side to get some sleep.

Sleep didn’t last long.

I awoke sometime in the middle of the night, sitting bolt upright in the bed and rubbing at my tired eyes, trying to figure out what had woken me.

I glanced around, my sleepy eyes zeroing in on the darkness outside of my window. Without thinking, my hand retrieved the blade that I kept hidden underneath my pillow at night. You never could be too careful.

I yanked it out, the tip of the knife tearing quite a large hole in the side of my fitted sheet. I poked my finger in the hole and cursed.

Those were my best Egyptian cotton sheets!

I encircled the handle of the blade tightly with my fingers and quickly looked back at the window, at the view of the garden and beyond. There appeared to be nothing going on out there—just the sway of overgrown grass in the evening breeze, and the rustling of leaves in the trees. So what had woke me up?

Probably nothing.

Perhaps I’d just realised that I had algebra tomorrow morning and had given myself a mini-panic attack in my sleep.

If I didn’t get back to sleep again soon, algebra class wasn’t going to be the only horrific thing that occurred at the IMI tomorrow. The walking dead would soon follow—namely me.

*          *          *

‘Why don’t you understand what I’m trying to show you?’ Susan said in frustration.

I slammed the math book shut in front of me. ‘Because I don’t understand how the alphabet can be added together! What the hell is wrong with just sticking to numbers?’

‘Because algebra requires using equations that involve both letters
and
numbers, Elena.’

I scowled. ‘Who made this crap up anyway? Does anyone even use algebra?’

Lisa giggled beside me. Sure, it’s extremely amusing to everyone
else
who can fathom why A equals B plus C.

Susan sat down on the chair beside me. Lucas and Karina smirked from behind their English books.

‘Okay,’ Susan said, tapping on my math book. ‘Would it help you understand better if I changed the letters in the equation to something else?’

‘Would that help me spell out an answer?’

Lisa collapsed into a fit of giggles.

‘Susan!’ a voice yelled behind us. ‘Could you come with
me, please?’

We all spun in our seats to look at George pacing frantically in front of the passage door.

What was going on?

‘What’s wrong?’ Susan said, rising to her feet. They were my sentiments exactly.

He frowned and motioned with his hand to come. ‘It’s important.’

She started pacing towards him and all four of us rose to our feet to follow. ‘No, kids,’ George bellowed from across the room. ‘Stay here and continue with your studies, please.’

The others sat straight back down. I remained standing as I watched Susan and George quickly whisper something to each other and then disappear from sight.

‘Come on, guys, what are we waiting for?’ I said, pointing over my shoulder at the library door.

‘Elena, you heard what George said,’ Lisa said quietly.

I snorted. ‘It sounded like an invitation to me.’

All three of them rolled their eyes. ‘And you wonder why you’re always getting into trouble,’ said Karina.

I sat down again. ‘Aren’t you all just a little bit curious as to what is going on right now? I mean, didn’t you see the look on George’s face? He looked … panicked.’

‘All the more reason to stay put,’ Karina chided.

I looked over to Lucas, who was glancing between me and the passage door. If anyone would be up for a little snooping it would be him. ‘Come on Lucas—how about it? Would you come with me?’

He glanced at the door and then back at Karina, who was shaking her head from side to side. ‘Yeah, alright. I’m in.’

I grinned at him and he smiled back.

‘Lucas, you can’t,’ Karina pleaded. ‘You’ll get into trouble.’

‘Not if we don’t get caught,’ I replied.

She rolled her eyes again. ‘Elena, this may or may not come as a surprise to you, but you
always
get caught.’

I looked back at Lucas and frowned. ‘Only because people can’t keep their mouths shut.’

He shrugged. Karina sniffed. ‘Whatever. It’s your skins.’

‘I won’t say anything,’ Lisa piped in.

I smiled and tugged on a piece of her long red hair. ‘Thanks, Lisa. I knew I could count on you.’ I glared at Karina. She really was a goody two-shoes.