The Hunted (29 page)

He looked as confused as I felt. ‘Do you think there’s something mum and dad aren’t telling you?’

‘Oh my God! You don’t know? Shit, I forgot I’d been sour at you for the last two days. Before I went to the rave on Saturday night, Susan and George had a secret conversation in the back garden. They kept talking about telling me the truth and keeping me away from people who would reveal the things I needed to know. It was a little hard to understand, but the gist of the conversation? Susan and George know more about who I am than what they are willing to let on.’

‘And you think Sarah knows something about this too?’

I nodded. ‘The whole IMI probably knows more about me than they let on. At least Susan promised to tell me what I needed to know as soon as I could stop clowning around and act like an adult.’

‘Not much chance of that happening.’

‘I know, but I’m trying.’

He snorted his disbelief and then quickly changed the subject. ‘You know, all this must have something to do with those vampires. It seems a little coincidental for them to show up now after everything you’ve been hearing.’

I looked at him, more into this line of conversation. ‘I was leaning towards it.’

‘Well, I think dad’s actions pretty much confirm it.’

‘You’re right, it’s just that I was so caught up in William’s scent that I didn’t even really make the connection. I mean, I thought it was weird, but you are definitely right. It must have something to do with those vampires, or maybe there is something about me that they don’t want the Vampires to know—something more than just my vampirism?’

‘Of course I’m right,’ he answered smugly. ‘I’m very smart, you know.’

I ignored him. I was too focused on making a connection between the Vampires’ appearance and Susan and George’s late night interlude in the garden. ‘What should I do?’

He shrugged. ‘What can you do? You’re suspended in midair right now. You’re not going anywhere.’

‘You’re right.’

‘Wow, I’ve been right twice in one day.’

‘I know—it’s a miracle.’

George and Susan stepped back into the room. Susan looked worried. George just looked angry. ‘What do you think you two are playing at?’ George boomed angrily up at us. ‘When I said stay in the library I bloody well meant it!’ He looked over at Lisa and Karina, sitting meekly at the oak timber table, pretending not to listen. ‘You two can gather your books and head to the training rooms.’

They both obediently gathered their things and headed quickly out of the library without saying a word. I didn’t miss the look of satisfaction that was plastered all over Karina’s face as she left the room.

Lucas and I remained floating above the floor like idiots in space. We were doomed to endure another lecture before we touched down again. Like it or not, we were going to have to watch as George puffed his chest, clenched his fists, and went beetroot red as we listened to another sermon.

Susan coughed nervously and crossed her arms in front of her chest.

‘Now, how much of our conversation did you actually hear?’ George asked, calmer than before.

Was that a trick question?

‘All of it,’ Lucas answered.

I frowned at him.

Way to play the bluff big brother.

‘I see,’ George answered and looked to Susan. ‘How should we proceed?’

‘I have an idea,’ I said quietly, the two of them looking directly up at me. ‘How about you tell us why vampires have come inside the IMI and why you didn’t tell us about it. Then we can skip to the part where you tell us everything that the IMI has been keeping from me, including why you are trying to keep us away from the Vampires. We also want to know all about what you were discussing in the garden the other night and why Sarah seems to think we should have had a little conversation about my blood lines—oh, and the fact that she described me as a “half-breed”.’ I paused. ‘It seems like a good place to start.’

Susan and George exchanged a look.

‘Yeah,’ Lucas countered. ‘And while you’re at it, I want McDonalds for dinner.’

We all turned slowly and deliberately to look at him, frowning. ‘What?’ he said shrugging, ‘I’m hungry.’

George grunted. ‘We do have more important matters to
attend to right now other than your stomach, Lucas.’

‘What could be more important than not letting your child starve?’

I hissed at him and he frowned. ‘I think there is nothing more important right now than explaining what the hell is
going on here,’ I said. ‘You know I’m never going to let this go, so you might as well come out with it. And if you don’t start talking, Lucas is going to get hungrier and then we all have to suffer the consequences.’

‘We don’t have time to satisfy your teenage curiosities right now—there are other women’s lives that are at risk,’ George growled. ‘We need to do what we can to help the Vampires track the remaining pack members and kill them before we have a new den on our hands.’

‘And that can’t wait until tomorrow?’ Lucas commented. ‘No offence, but I don’t think the Vampires really need our help. They’re probably here more out of courtesy than necessity. It sounded to me like we are pretty damn useless in comparison to them, with their keen noses.’

Our parents glanced carefully at us, neither one speaking.

‘Come on,’ I said, more urgently this time. ‘I can’t be patient anymore, not now that I know there are so many truths to be uncovered. And I definitely can’t keep pretending to be an adult. I really suck at it.’ I paused, hoping for a new wave of confidence, because what I was about to say next was probably crossing the line. ‘But with that being said,’ I continued, ‘I’m sixteen, not too far off my seventeenth birthday, and I’m more than capable of taking care of myself, even should you decide that the information that I need isn’t worth me living under your roof anymore.’

The look on Susan’s face was something I wish I could forget. Her puppy dog eyes were starting to eat away at my conscience.

‘Are you threatening us, Elena?’ Susan said, steely determination in her voice.

I swallowed. ‘No, it’s not a threat, but a promise. You both tell me everything or I walk. No more secrets. I have a right to know what you’re keeping from me.’

Susan turned and whispered something quietly in George’s ear. He said something back to her and she nodded. ‘What if you don’t like what we have to tell you? We can’t take it back once it’s out in the open.’

I could see a small spark of fear in her eyes, but I remained undeterred. I tried lightening the mood by smiling and shrugging my shoulders nonchalantly. ‘Please,’ I said sounding offhand, ‘if I can get through my twelfth birthday after hearing,
P.S you’re going to be a Vampire
—how much worse can it be than that?’

A knowing look passed between them.

Uh-oh. That bad, huh?

CHAPTER EIGHT:

EXPLANATIONS

W
ith our feet back on solid ground where they belonged, Susan and George had agreed to have the discussion that they said would change my life. Neither one of them looked too pleased about being bullied, but at the same time I sensed a tremor of relief in the air. Their burden, the carrying of this secret for so many years, was finally going to be alleviated.

Lucas and I sat relatively patiently on the sofa next to each other, neither one speaking. Susan sat directly opposite and surveyed us both. She was edgy, nervous. Her fingers twisted into knots in her lap as we anxiously waited for George to return to the library.

George had headed back to the training rooms, presumably to see the vampires out and explain to Martha, Vincent, and Malcolm just exactly what was going to happen in the library. He also wanted to keep Karina and Lisa at a distance from the proceedings. Even Lucas had been told to leave, but I had emphatically insisted that he stay. He may irritate me constantly, but there had never really been any secrets between us. He was the one person on the entire planet that I actually trusted, probably with my life.

I chewed incessantly at one of my fingernails, tapping my foot upon the carpet as I waited. More than anything, I wanted to run down the passages and straight back to William. His scent was still resonating within me and it took all of my willpower to keep myself seated on the chair.

George stepped back into the room and we all looked up. Susan looked relieved. Lucas was rubbing a hand across his stomach, annoyed that he hadn’t received a Big Mac yet. I immediately dropped the tatty and chewed fingernail from my mouth. My bouncing foot stilled.

He sat down next to Susan and wrapped an arm around her shoulder, placing a tender kiss on her cheek. She looked up at him and smiled half-heartedly, patting the edge of his knee with her hand.

He turned to look directly at me, removing his arm from around Susan’s shoulder and sitting forward on the sofa. ‘Elena, I’m not exactly sure where to begin,’ he said anxiously, rubbing his hands and keeping his eyes lowered to the floor. I wanted to say something smart like,
Try at the beginning
, but I couldn’t muster the enthusiasm for it right now.

‘What about the vampires?’ Lucas said, setting the wheels in motion. ‘We both heard why they are here in Cairns, but dad, why did you freak out when Elena said that she had met that English vamp before? What was his name? William?’

‘I didn’t freak out,’ George said slowly. ‘I was merely trying to protect her.’

‘No, you freaked out and I think even the vampires noticed. William gave both you and Elena very funny looks.’

George frowned at him.

‘What were you trying to protect me from? That’s what I don’t understand,’ I piped in. ‘William is a vampire and I will be too in about a year and a half from now.’

‘That is
mostly
true.’

I shook my head. ‘You’re not making any sense, George. You told me four years ago that I was going to be a vampire—that I was born one. If that’s still true and you didn’t lie, then why do you need to protect me from people of my own kind?’

‘You were born a vampire, Elena—nothing changes that fact—but it’s not your vampirism that I worry about them detecting.’

My brow wrinkled in confusion. ‘Well then forgive me for sounding slow, but I really don’t understand what it is you’re trying to tell me.’

‘I know that you have questions, Elena, and I will answer them for you. But first, I need you to answer a couple of our questions. There are worries that we have and your answers might put our minds at rest, help us to better understand where it is that we all currently stand.’

He paused and ran his fingers through his short blonde hair. ‘You see the minute that you said that you and the coven leader William Granville had met, I have not been able to stop worrying if their appearance at the IMI does not have more to do with you than hunting vânâtors. As your brother so brazenly pointed out earlier, they certainly do not require our services in that regard.’