The Recruit: Book Two (6 page)

She stepped back, panting harshly, and
stared at Selena.

The tears dropped down Selena’s face and she
looked silently at Hannah for a few minutes.  “You’re right.”  She whispered. 
“I’m sorry, Hannah.  I know I’ve said some terrible things and I – “

Hannah shook her head and hugged Selena
roughly.  “It doesn’t matter.  I love you, Selena and I just want you back. 
Okay?”

Selena nodded.  “Okay.”

“Are you good for tonight?  If you’re not,
it’s fine.  We have plenty of people around to take the sons of bitches down.”

Selena straightened.  “No.  I’m good.”

Hannah studied her before nodding.  “I know
you are.  You and I are the baddest motherfuckers in this bar.”

Selena burst out laughing.  “Yeah, we are.”

“That’s right, bitch.”  Hannah held her
fist up and Selena bumped it with her own.

“Now, let’s go Buffy this place the fuck up
and slay us some undead.”  Hannah grinned at her.

Will watched as Reid spoke briefly into his
cell phone and then made his way over to where he and Chen were sitting.

He sat down in the empty seat beside Chen
and stretched his long legs out in front of him.  “That was Ryan.  He and Greg
are still in the parking lot and they haven’t seen any signs of fangers.”

Chen sighed.  “Perhaps it’s time to call it
a night.”

“Let’s give it another hour.  It’s still
early.”  Reid replied.

He hesitated and looked at both Chen and
Will.  “You know this whole hunt thing with Hannah is pointless right?”

When neither responded, he continued.  “The
Board won’t care if Hannah doesn’t do well tonight.  They don’t need her to do
well to use her as bait.”

“We know.”  Will said shortly.

“Then why do this?”

“To give us more time.”  Chen said. 
“Vampires aren’t known for their patience.  Given a long enough time period,
they’ll attack her parents even without Hannah being there.  We’ve got a good
team keeping watch over them.  They’ll stop the vampire attack and possibly
even find this Marcus without ever having to involve Hannah.”

Reid tipped his head in admiration.  “Not
bad, boys.  Not bad.”

The three of them watched as Hannah and
Selena came out of the bathroom.  They walked by without acknowledging them and
joined the other women at their table.

Reid whistled under his breath.  “Jesus,
Hannah is looking good tonight.  I wonder – “

He paused as his cell phone buzzed.

He read the text and took a deep breath.  “We’ve
got a group coming in right now.”

They looked to the door as a group of seven
young men entered the bar.  They scanned the bar with an arrogant confidence
that set Will’s teeth on edge.  A waitress approached them and the biggest of
the group looked her up and down, licking his lips, before placing an order. 
He let his hand linger on her waist and the waitress stared mesmerized at him. 
He grinned down at her, his face pale and beautiful, and Will had no doubt that
if he had taken the waitress’ hand and led her from the bar she would have
simply followed him like a puppy on a leash.

“Here we go.”  Chen murmured.

The vampires had already noticed Hannah and
the others.  They looked at each other, a silent communication rippling between
them, and then approached the table.  Hannah smiled a bit stiffly at them as
Selena, her hands folded into a tight fist on the table, looked down and
breathed deeply.  Constance gave them a much more natural and inviting smile. 
Mallorie and April were already staring rapturously at the two vampires closest
to them.

Reid frowned.  “Are those two strong enough
for this?”

Chen nodded.  “They graduated from the
program six months ago and have been out hunting almost weekly since then. 
Trust me – they’re very good at what they do.”

“They seem a bit too smitten.”  Reid said. 

When they chose to, vampires had an innate
ability to hypnotize their victims into a type of warm and willing compliance. 
Will had seen it many times before and he knew why Reid was concerned.

“They’re excellent actors.”  He said
gruffly as he leaned further into the shadows.  He was more concerned about
Hannah and Selena.  They had never been exposed to this side of the vampires
before and although at least four of the group of vampires appeared to be
yearlings, the big one was definitely dangerous and he was looking at Hannah.

He watched as Constance laid one perfectly
manicured hand on the biggest one’s arm and smiled warmly at him.  She was
doing her best to distract him but he gave her a disinterested look before
turning back to Hannah.  He crowded against her, leaning casually against the
table and staring deep into her eyes.  Hannah returned his stare, her head
tipped to the side and a small dreamy look on her face.  She made no objection
when the vampire reached out and stroked her cheek with one pale finger.

Will could feel his blood heating up in his
veins, the objects in the room sharpening and the colours becoming more
vibrant.  He was acutely aware of the smells in the room, the sharp tang of
Reid’s sweat and the sour smell of old beer, and he took a deep breath, his
spine crackling as the power rippled through him. 

He would make the biggest one suffer, he
thought hazily, just for touching her, for infecting her with its scent.  He
would tear out its spine and gouge its eyes out before he ripped its heart from
its chest.  And when the vampire was dead, its body turned to ash, he would
take Hannah back to his apartment and fuck her until the only scent on her skin
was his.  Everyone - vampire, Lycan, and human alike - would know she belonged
to him and damn the consequences of it.  He didn’t care if -

“Will!”  Chen said quietly.

Will turned to him, his eyes glowing with a
kind of cold madness but Chen didn’t flinch.

“Control it, Will.”

Chen stared unblinkingly at him.  “Control
it or I’ll drag you out of here and chain you to the truck like a stray dog.”

Will stared down at the table, clenching
his hands into fists so he wouldn’t reach over and tear Chen’s throat out.  He
took breath after breath, clearing his mind until he was aware of nothing but
the steady rhythm of his breathing.  After nearly five minutes, he raised his
head and stared calmly at Chen.

“Jesus Christ.”  Reid was staring at him
with undisguised disgust.  “Do all Lycans have this much trouble controlling
themselves or is it just you?”

“Enough, Reid.  Now is not the time.”  Chen
said quietly.

“Fine.”  Reid snorted.  “But all I’m saying
is maybe you should think about learning how to chill out big guy.  I hear yoga
really helps with anger issues.”

Will ignored him, taking another deep breath
before looking back at the table.  April and Mallorie had dragged two of the
vampires to the dance floor and were dancing with them, pressing their bodies
against theirs and smiling vacantly into their eyes.

The biggest one had pulled a barstool close
to Hannah and was sitting next to her, one arm draped casually across the back
of her seat.  The others were crowded around the table, three of them hanging
off of Constance’s every word, and Will breathed a sigh of relief that Selena
had actually managed to relax and look like she was enjoying chatting with the
vampire standing next to her.

“So tell me, Hannah.  What’s a nice girl
like you doing in a place like this?”  The vampire grinned at her and moved the
arm draped on her chair to her shoulders.

She giggled, putting her hand over her
mouth before pushing gently on his chest.  “That’s original, Brent.”

He shrugged.  “The classics never go out of
style.”

Hannah giggled again.  “Next you’ll be
asking me if it hurt when I fell from heaven.”

He laughed, the sound so warm and inviting
that a girl walking next to their table actually stopped and drew close to him,
staring at him with unabashed delight.

He grinned at the girl, winking and
squeezing her arm before giving her a gentle push to get her moving again.

Hannah pouted at him.  “It would seem
you’re popular with the ladies.”

He shrugged carelessly.  “I do okay.”

“Maybe I should leave you to it then.”  Hannah
slid off the bar stool and the vampire grasped her arm and pulled her towards
him.  He cupped her face in his cold hand and rubbed his thumb over her
cheekbone.

“I don’t think you want to do that.”  He
whispered, staring into her eyes.

“No, I don’t.”  She whispered back.

He smiled and bent his head to kiss her. 
At the last moment Hannah turned her head and his lips slid across her cheek.

A look of anger flickered across his face
before he smiled down at her.  “Are you shy, Hannah?”

“A little.”

He brought her glass of beer towards her.  “A
little liquid courage perhaps?”

He urged her to drink the rest of it and
she obliged.  “Better?”

She nodded.

“Good.”  He waved at the waitress who
immediately came over, smiling and letting her body rub up against his.

“We’re going to be needing more drinks.”  Brent
purred at her. , “A lot more – for all of my new friends.”

Chen and Will watched as Hannah took
Selena’s hand and, weaving unsteadily, led her to the bathroom.  Reid had
returned to the table he shared with Mannie and for the last two hours they had
watched as the women giggled and flirted and drank with the vampires. 

“They’ve had too much to drink.”  Will said
worriedly to Chen.  “They’re both drunk.  It’s going to affect their ability to
fight.”

Chen nodded.  “It’s too late now.”  He
rubbed a hand across his forehead.  “I’ve never seen vampires do this before,
have you?  Why the hell are they getting them so drunk?  As far as they know,
the girls are already under their power.  Why get them drunk?”

“I don’t know.  Maybe because most of the
group is yearlings?  They may think it’ll be easier for the yearlings to lure
them in and feed from them if the women are drunk.”

Chen shook his head in disgust.  “Vampires
are so weak now.  Years ago they wouldn’t have needed to stoop to that level to
feed.”

Will actually laughed.  “Christ, Chen.  We’re
upset that the vampires are weaker.”

Chen allowed a small grin to cross his
face.  “Trust me.  The irony is not lost on me.”

He sobered.  “We need to move soon if the
plan has any chance of succeeding.  We have to assume that neither Hannah nor
Selena will be in any shape to hunt.”

Will nodded.  “As soon as they’re back from
the bathroom we’ll move out.”

Hannah and Selena stepped into the relative
quietness of the bathroom.  Bending shakily, Hannah quickly checked all three
stalls.  They were empty and she turned to Selena.

“Go to the stall and vomit – now.”

Without arguing Selena weaved to the first
stall and latched the door shut behind her.  Hannah, hanging on to the wall for
support, pushed into the stall beside her and knelt in front of the toilet.  As
the sounds of Selena retching started in the stall next to hers, she stuck her
finger down her throat and threw up repeatedly.  After a few minutes her
stomach was empty and she stood up, leaning against the wall of the stall
before wiping her mouth with her hand.

“Selena?”  She whispered.

“Yeah?”

“I’m really glad we could share this
beautiful moment together.”

Selena laughed weakly.  “I’ll cherish it
always.”

The two women left the stalls and stood in
front of the sinks.  Hannah bent and rinsed her mouth out before splashing some
of the cool water on her face.  Beside her Selena was doing the same and they
stared at each other in the mirror.

“Better?”  Selena asked.

Hannah nodded.  “Much.” 

It was true.  The fogginess in her head had
cleared and her stomach, which had been rolling with nausea, had settled down. 
She had lost track of the amount of drinks the vampire had pushed on to her;
she had only known that if she didn’t try and get rid of some of the alcohol
she would be useless later.

She held her hand out and stared fixedly at
it.  It seemed steady enough and she took a deep breath.  “I could really use a
mint.”

Selena dug into her purse and pulled out a
roll of mints.  “Always be prepared.”

Hannah smiled and popped a mint in her
mouth before straightening her dress and pulling down the front of it so that
even more of her cleavage was showing.

“What do you think?”

“Good.  Did you – was there a moment where
you just wanted to – to give in to them?  Sam was talking to me and his eyes
were so...” Selena trailed off.

Hannah nodded.  “Yeah, I almost let Brent
kiss me.  They’ve got some kind of ability to – I don’t know what – make you
lose yourself?  It’s better if you don’t look them in the eyes for longer than
a few seconds at a time.”

Selena nodded and she gave Hannah another
weak smile.  “I’m scared, Hannah.”

“Me too.”

“Really?”

Hannah nodded.  “Yeah.  Terrified
actually.” 

She was telling the truth.  She was scared
to death but she knew that the moment she started the hunt, the terror would
fade away and she would be left with nothing but a feeling of power and desire
to kill them.  Each one represented the vampire who had killed her sister and
she would stop at nothing to destroy them.

“Remember to keep acting drunk.”  She said
to Selena as they made their way to the bathroom door.

“So,” Constance smiled and wrapped her arm
around the vampire next to her, “what do you boys think about taking this party
somewhere else?”

Will, Reid and Chen had left the bar,
leaving only Mannie behind.  As agreed beforehand, Constance had waited nearly
fifteen minutes before setting the trap into motion.

“What did you have in mind?”  Brent asked
with a raised eyebrow.  He had his arm around Hannah’s waist, his cold hand
resting on her hip, and she leaned against him trying to appear as unsteady as
possible.

“Well,” Constance winked at him, “we girls
are just visiting for a few days and we’ve got rooms at a hotel not too far
from here.”

“Maybe you’d like to join us?”  April ran
her fingers through the hair of the vampire standing next to her.  “We could
maybe watch a movie or...” she bit her lip, “you know, stuff.”

Brent glanced at the others before
squeezing Hannah’s waist.  “I think that sounds like a great idea.”

“Good.”  Mallorie stood and picked up her
purse.  “It’s just a quick walk from here.  We can cut through the park.”

Constance frowned.  “I’m not sure about
that Mallorie – it’s late and the park isn’t well-lit.”

“Afraid of the dark are we?”  Brent grinned
at her and she pretended not to notice the way his teeth had lengthened and
sharpened.  “Don’t worry baby – we’ll keep you safe.”

Constance laughed.  “Promise?”

“Of course.  Let’s go.”  Brent led an
unsteady Hannah to the exit and the others followed.

* * *

“We’re being followed.”  Selena said
suddenly.  She was holding tightly to Sam’s hand as she walked slowly through
the park.

Hannah glanced behind her as Brent did the
same.  “There were a group of another ten vampires about fifteen feet behind
them, and she could feel her heartbeat increasing as adrenaline rushed through
her veins.

“Don’t worry about them.”  Brent smiled. 
“We’ve just invited some more of our friends to hang out with us.”

Mallorie frowned.  “You should have asked
us first.  I’m not interested in throwing some wild party.”

Brent shrugged.  “Oh it’s too late for
that.”

“What do you mean?”  Hannah whispered
weakly.

“I mean that you girls picked the wrong
group of boys to party with.”  Brent winked at her and she let out a breathless
scream as his teeth lengthened into fangs.

“What are you?”  She cried as the group of
ten quickly caught up to them and closed in around them.  The other women had
moved into a tight circle, clinging tightly to each other and Hannah could see
that April was actually crying and shaking.

Jesus
, she
thought,
I need to ask her for acting lessons.

Brent laughed.  “Don’t think I’m fooled for
one minute, gorgeous.  I can smell that you and the little brown bitch have
both been bitten before.  You know exactly what we are.”

He pulled Hannah against him and licked her
face, his tongue like a cold slab of meat against her skin.  “What?  You wanna
be a fang-banger now, baby?  They’re out there you know – girls like you who
can’t resist the thought of being fucked by a vampire.  I’m more than happy to
help you out with that.  But first, my friends and I are just going to have a
bit of a taste of you.   Fat Larry over there thinks you probably don’t taste
nearly as sweet as you look.”

Hannah glanced behind her at the fat,
white-haired vampire.  He was wearing a hideous plaid dress shirt, the buttons
undone to the middle of his chest so that she could see the carpet of hair on
his white, flabby chest.  Drool was running down his chin and he wiped it off
with a flick of his hand.  “You said I could try her first, Brent.  That’s what
you said.”  He whined eagerly.

“I’m nothing if not generous.”  Brent
smiled at her and then pushed her roughly into Larry’s waiting arms.

“Hello dearie.”  He leered at her, his
hands pinning her arms to her sides as he inhaled deeply.  “You do smell so
sweet.  I can’t wait to taste you.”

He tipped his head, his fangs starting to
protrude from his mouth and Hannah suddenly head butted him on the bridge of
his nose.  He roared with surprise and stepped back, releasing her arms.  Before
she could even take a step back, he had recovered and grabbed her roughly by
the shoulders.

“Stupid bitch!”  He hissed.  “I was going
to play nice but now – “

He hesitated and looked down at the muzzle
of the gun planted in his chest hair before looking at her in surprise.  “What
– “

“Goodbye Fat Larry.”  Hannah said softly
and pulled the trigger.  The bullet ripped through his flesh and he stepped
back, clawing at his throat as the blue light pulsed through his veins.

She turned away as Larry exploded behind
her, feeling the blood and ash splatter across her back. 

“What the fuck?”  Brent whispered.

Without speaking Hannah raised the gun
again and fired.  Despite his shock he was unbelievably quick, dodging out of
the way of the bullet as Constance lifted her face to the sky and howled loudly. 
Her red dress ripped to shreds as she shifted and April, a look of fierce
determination on her face, reached under her dress and ripped a wooden stake
from her leg.  Bits of duct tape still clinging to the handle, she turned to
the vampire closest to her and staked him through the heart.

More howling could be heard and Will burst
through the trees.  He leaped on to the closest vampire, his mouth opening wide
and his teeth glistening in the dim light.  There was a loud wet, ripping noise
as he pulled the skin from the vampire’s face before burying his snout into its
throat and tearing the flesh apart.

He howled as the vampire burst apart
beneath him, his snout covered in blood and ash, and Hannah watched as
Constance howled in response.  Together the two Lycans began to stalk the
suddenly terrified vampires.

“Hannah!”  Chen shouted.  She turned and he
threw her swords to her.  She snatched both from the air as he pulled his own
from his belt.

Just the familiar weight of the swords
brought a surge of confidence to her belly and, with a loud war cry, she turned
and waded through the mass of fighting vampires and humans towards Selena.

The small woman was lying on her back on
the ground.  Sam was on top of her and they were struggling for control of
Selena’s gun. 

Sam tried once more to wrench the gun free
from her hand, but Selena held on to it grimly.  He leaned over her.  “Bitch,
I’ll kill you!”

She tried to head butt him and he pulled his
head back.  “You’ll have to be quicker than – “

He stopped and Selena watched as his head
slid from his neck.  Hannah stood behind him, her sword slick with blood, and
pushed his body off Selena’s.  It landed on the ground with a muffled thump and
burst into ash as Hannah pulled Selena to her feet.

“Okay?”  She asked.

Selena nodded and then suddenly raised her
gun and fired over Hannah’s shoulder.  The vampire reaching for Hannah froze
and the two women skittered away.   It fell to the ground, a small black hole
burned into its forehead and the UV light pumping through the veins in his
face.

“Bad-ass bitch.”  Hannah grinned despite
the way her ears were ringing from the gun shot.

“Let’s finish this.”  Selena muttered.

Hannah nodded and, raising her swords, went
after a vampire that was closing in on Reid.  She stabbed it through the back
directly into its heart, yanking her sword out and turning away before it had
even fully died.

“Not bad, sweetheart!”  Reid yelled at
her.  He had both of his guns out and he raised the one in his left hand and
shot a vampire that was trying to crawl away, directly in the chest.

“Of course, guns are still better.”  He
shouted.  She flipped him the bird before heading towards Mallorie and April. 
Mallorie was struggling to hold down a wriggling, hissing vampire as April
raised the wooden stake high above her head.

Before she could reach them, there was
movement to her right and she whirled around, her sword slicing through the
air.  Brent screamed in pain as his left arm dropped to the ground and blood
flowed down his side.

“My arm!”  He screamed.  “You stupid whore!
 I’ll kill you for that.”

Grinning at him, Hannah raised both her
swords.  “Don’t be like that, baby.  I’m just looking for a good time.”

Brent swallowed hard and backed up a step.  “Listen,”
he whined, “just let me go and I promise I won’t come back to this town.  I – I
won’t even step foot in this state again.  Please, just let me – “