The Hunted (28 page)

Forcing us backwards, she stepped in front of us in one quick movement that neither of us anticipated until it happened, and then smiled cheekily as if she knew that her movements were making us uncomfortable.

We followed her carefully with our eyes, both of us a little too awed and too scared to even return her greeting.

She smiled at the both of us, purposely flashing a set of pointed white canines our way before darting back into the training room.

‘Did you see that?’ Lucas whispered. ‘That was a Vampire.’

I nodded, still unable to formulate words. I had just had a preview of what I was going to become, and so far, I liked what I saw. Sure, I wasn’t a fan of the pasty white skin, but the rest of her physical presence was mysteriously enticing.

‘It might interest you all to know that you have two spectators standing in the corridor,’ she said merrily to the group, as she looked back at us and winked.

Lucas and I both flinched again at the sight of her flashing teeth, and shrunk backwards towards the stairs before the screaming and shouting could begin. It would only be a matter of seconds before our parents busted us.

Oops—too late.

George popped his head around the corner in an instant, his hands automatically at his hips and his brows furrowing in ire. ‘Didn’t you two hear me when I said stay in the library?’

We both stuttered, searching our addled brains for a genuinely good answer. We didn’t have one. We were both still grappling for a view of the other two vampires while at the same time trying to make our feet move backwards. The task was not simple.

George stalked forward into the passage like an angry bear. We tripped over our feet trying to get away from him and ended up falling in a pile against the bottom of the stairs. He grabbed both of us by the scruff of our necks and began dragging us upwards and back towards the library with considerable force.

I turned my head awkwardly around in his grip and looked back towards the training room so that I could get one last glimpse of the vampires. To my surprise, I ended up getting more of an eyeful than I had intended, because there, standing near the open door way, was William Granville.

‘You!’ I shouted in surprise while stumbling along in George’s grip. ‘I had a feeling you were a vampire!’

He smiled at me, revealing a set of perfect white teeth along with a conspicuous set of long sharp canines.

Cool.

George halted abruptly in his tracks, swivelled my head back around in his grip to face him and narrow his eyes at me. ‘You’ve met this man before?’

Uh-oh.

I nodded slowly and took the opportunity to shake free from his grip on my neck. My affirmation seemed to send him into some kind of vein-popping, blood pressure inducing all out Elena inspired rage, destined to bring about a meltdown. I was going to have to choose my words very carefully if I didn’t want George to break me or the vampire standing only a short distance away.

As he continued to stare at me, bug-eyed and confused, I took a tentative step back towards the training room and towards the vampires to get a closer look.

He snapped out of his reverie almost immediately, stepping in front of me and effectively blocking my view of William and his companions. I tried to sidestep him, but he shadowed my every move. Why was he trying so hard to keep us apart?

‘When did you meet?’ George asked me, gripping my chin in his hand to hold my face steady, even with his.

I tried to look away, but he held on tightly, squeezing my jaw painfully between his fingers. I swallowed. ‘I met him at the rave.’

He turned around to look at William and then slapped Lucas in the side of the head when he realised that he too was trying to head back to the training room for a closer look.

Lucas rubbed the side of his head, giving George a filthy look, but he said nothing and went no further down the passage.

‘Did he hurt you?’ George continued.

I only vaguely heard the question, as I suddenly became aware of William’s smell, his essence of sandalwood and spice teasing at the corners of my nose. All I wanted to do at that moment was drink in the sight of him. I didn’t care if I had spectators. It was the same strange sensation that had enveloped me at the rave.

I stretched up onto my tippy-toes so that I could see over George’s shoulder, but all I got was a clip under the ear for my trouble and a rough shake of the shoulders.

‘Answer me, Elena. Did he hurt you?’ he said, sounding more desperate than angry.

I shook my head from side to side, trying to free my mind from the scent. ‘No,’ I said pulling a face, and remembering the vice like grip that William had placed on my wrist as I had tried to leave. ‘Why would he want to hurt me? I’m going to be a vampire too, remember?’

He clamped his hand down hard over the top of my mouth, crushing my lips beneath his fingers as I looked back up at him in surprise. ‘Hush now, Elena,’ he continued quickly. ‘You’ve said more than enough foolishness for one day.’

My eyes widened. Why would they be keeping my Vampirism a secret from others of my own kind?

I looked over at Lucas who also appeared slightly confused. He shrugged his shoulders as if to say,
‘Like I know what he means
’.

George spun me around on the spot, keeping his hand clamped tightly around my mouth and tucking me under the crook of his arm so that I couldn’t turn back around again, couldn’t get away. I thought about biting down on his fingers, but then I thought better of it once he grabbed Lucas just as roughly. He held him around the neck and pushed him down the passage ahead of us. Lucas and I kept silent.

I tried to turn around to get another look, but George had me tucked so tightly underneath the crook of his arm that all I could do was stumble forward and up the stairs. He hung onto me like that all the way back to the library.

He suddenly released me and pushed the both of us inside the room. We staggered forward and came to a stop against the back of a sofa.

Karina and Lisa looked up from their studies, concerned, watching as George stepped into the room. He blocked the exit door, raising his hand in front of him in a threatening gesture. ‘
Levitartium!
’ he bellowed, pointing his hand directly at me and Lucas.

In an instant our feet left the ground and we were both floating up, higher and higher, until our bodies were easily a good couple of metres above the floor, almost to the point where we could touch the ceiling if we stretched our arms above our heads.

‘There,’ George said, more calmly now. ‘That ought to hold you until we are finished.’

‘What!’ I shrieked, cringing.

Note to self—do not shriek, you sound like a banshee.

I lowered my voice to a more acceptable level. ‘Are you just going to leave us here, in midair, after what just happened?’

He nodded, his eyes narrowing. ‘That’s exactly what I’m going to do.’ Without waiting for a reply, he spun on his heels and left the library.

I crossed my arms in front of my chest and looked over at Lucas. ‘This is just brilliant.’

He looked uncomfortably at the ground, before looking back at me and shrugging. ‘Hey, it’s not my fault.’

‘I didn’t say it was. Don’t you know a spell or something that could get us down from here?’

He shook his head. ‘I only just started learning the practical application of magic. I’ve only been doing theory the past five years.’

I looked over to Karina. ‘Do you?’

She held up her hands in surrender and grinned. ‘Don’t ask me. I told you both not to go snooping. I said you’d get caught.’

I snorted. ‘We only got caught because a vampire heard us.’ She blinked in disbelief. ‘There’s a vampire inside the IMI?’ ‘Three, actually,’ Lucas said, all smugness. ‘You’d know that if you guys hadn’t been such pussies, and had come and had a look with us.’

I smiled inwardly at my brother’s new found bravado.

‘I’m sorry,’ she retorted, ‘but look who’s suspended in midair right now?’

I looked at Lucas again and rolled my eyes. If she hadn’t been Malcolm’s daughter I would have flushed her head down a toilet by now. She was too self righteous for her own good.

‘I can’t believe you already know one of them,’ he said, grinning. ‘Why didn’t you tell me you’d met a vampire?’

‘I didn’t really know that I had until just then. I mean, I suspected he was different, but I couldn’t know for sure.’

‘How did you meet him?’

‘Like I said to George, we met at the rave. He was watching me dance.’ I frowned. ‘At least, I think he was watching me dance.’

‘That’s right,’ Karina muttered sarcastically, ‘because everything’s about Elena.’

I pointed my thumb at Karina. ‘What’s her problem?’

‘She’s just jealous that all the interesting stuff happens to you.’

I looked down and saw Karina shaking her head as she immersed herself in her studies. ‘Anyway,’ I said, enunciating each syllable for her benefit. ‘When he looked at me I started to get this weird feeling, like I had no control over my body, that he was somehow calling me with his eyes and with his mind. His scent washed over me—it was cloying, but sweet. I think he might have been trying it again just before George started questioning me. All I could smell was him and all I wanted to do was look him in the eyes. The lack of control was … weird.’

‘I’ve heard about that,’ Lucas said, nodding. ‘Peter told me that vampires can hypnotise their prey. They have the ability to completely incapacitate their intended victims with scent alone. Apparently it’s supposed to seduce your senses, lull you into submission, and then wrap you up in a wave of pleasure that’s impossible to resist.’ He looked at me sideways, grinning like the Cheshire Cat. ‘Were
you
wrapped in a wave of pleasure, Elena?’

If I could have reached out and slapped him I would have. ‘No, not really,’ I lied. ‘It was just weird, like every part of me wanted to lose control and surrender. The only reason I didn’t was because I figured out what I was feeling wasn’t normal, and bailed him up on it.’

‘Do you think he wanted to bite you?’

I shrugged. ‘I don’t know.’

‘I wonder what would happen to you if he did.’

‘Nothing, probably.’

He pursed his lips, sucking a corner into his mouth thoughtfully. ‘Maybe. I wish we knew more about them. The IMI isn’t very forthcoming with information, are they?’

I shook my head. ‘Speaking of information, before I pushed Sarah from the grandstand yesterday she said some strange things to me. This encounter with the vampires has brought some of those things back to the surface. Did you hear anything before she fell?’

‘Oh, so you are admitting that you pushed her?’

I frowned at him. ‘Trust you to hear only my admission of guilt in that sentence.’

‘It’s just so rare.’ I gave him a stony look. He grinned. ‘Okay, okay. I heard her say that you were a sinner and a disease all that kind of nasty stuff too.’

I shook my head again, looking down at Karina and Lisa
again, and lowering my voice so they wouldn’t hear us. ‘No, before that.’

He scratched at his chin and then sniffed. ‘Sorry, I don’t remember.’

‘She asked me how I was taking the new information.
The new information I’d learned about my blood lines.’

‘What new information?’

‘Exactly.’