“But I have a beef with you, blood sucker,” he
snarled. “You killed a whole family right before
Christmas, and now you were going to kill this
guy, too. It’s taken me months to find you, but
now you’re dead!”
“I didn’t kill that family,” I explained. “I never
kill.”
“A vampire that doesn’t kill?” he growled.
“Impossible.”
“It’s true,” I tried to convince him. “Please, I
don’t want to hurt you.”
“You
hurt me?” he laughed. “Don’t be
ridiculous!”
“I’m not the one who killed those people!” I
insisted.
“Oh, yeah?” he leered. “Then who did?”
“I… I don’t know who did it,” I lied. “But I
saw the family. I was there that night.”
“Oh, so you admit being in the vicinity the
night of the murders,” he challenged me.
“I do,” I said. “I was there. But I would never
kill a human, and I would certainly never hurt a
woman or child.”
“Too bad I don’t believe you,” he said, glaring
at me.
He made a lunge toward me with his dagger,
but I stepped to the side. In a split second, I
jumped behind him and wrapped my arms around
his neck. He slashed at me with his dagger as I
held him tightly in a headlock. I screamed in pain
as the silver blade tore through my arm, but I
held fast. He struggled to pull my arms away,
clawing and slashing, but still I held on. In a few
moments, he slumped to the ground.
As he lay there helpless in the sand, I touched
my fingers to his neck. He still had a pulse. I ran
back to Kai’s car, where he was waiting for me.
“Thank God you’re okay!” he whispered,
embracing me tightly.
“We need to find a pay phone,” I said.
Kai nodded, and we hopped into his car. He
drove me down the street to a gas station parking
lot, and from the pay phone, I called 911. I told
the dispatcher I’d seen two men fighting on the
beach near the pier, and that one appeared to have
a knife of some sort. Then I hung up.
“That takes care of that,” I said. “Let’s get
home and warn Will and Mother.”
On the way home, I tried several times to call
Will, but he wouldn’t answer his cell phone or
the house line. Kai raced through the streets,
trying to get us home as quickly as possible. The
police would detain the hunter for a while, but it
would probably buy us twenty-four hours at the
most.
At home, I raced up the stairs and flew into
Will’s room. He was fast asleep, and he shot up
like a bullet when I burst into the room.
“What’s going on?” he gasped.
“Hunter!” I hissed, tossing him the clothes
he’d left hanging over a chair.
I knocked once on my mother’s door, and then
quickly burst in to shout, “Hunter!”
My mother was instantly on her feet throwing
clothing into a suitcase. She needed no further
prompting.
Kai had already started packing a bag for me,
and I told him to go pack a bag for himself while
I finished mine.
“The painting,” I gasped, and Kai nodded. He
knew exactly which painting I wanted to take
with us.
My mind was reeling. We had to get a head
start on this hunter. We had no idea what type he
might be. If he was a Zephyr, he would be able to
run faster than the wind, but he wouldn’t be able
to track us. He’d have the advantage in speed, but
little else.
I didn’t think he was a Psych. They could use
various psychic abilities to move objects, read
minds, and even force their victims to a
standstill. He hadn’t used anything like that on
me, so I assumed he wasn’t.
He might be a Viewer. They were the most
dangerous of all hunters. Viewers could see
through their target’s eyes, watching every detail
of everything they did at any moment. They only
needed to meet their target once, and they could
track them anywhere in the world by looking for
landmarks their targets saw. You could never run
away from them, because they could find you
anywhere.
Will peeked into my room and said, “Jamie’s
on her way.”
“What?” I shouted. “Why would you get her
involved again? Are you crazy?”
“She made me promise I’d call her if we ever
needed her again,” he explained calmly. “We
don’t know anything about this hunter, so we
need her.”
“I don’t like this,” I growled.
Unfortunately, he was right. If the hunter was
a Viewer, there would be nowhere we could run.
We’d need Jamie to see for us. We were helpless
without her.
“Wait, do we have time to rent a van again?” I
asked him.
“Jamie’s already taken care of it,” he said.
“When we got back last time, Mother gave her
the money to buy one just in case.”
“Why didn’t anyone ever think to mention this
to me?” I grumbled.
“Because we all knew you’d react just like
this. You wouldn’t want her involved.”
“Good point.”
Jamie showed up a few minutes later, and we
packed everything into the van as quickly as
possible. Kai had wrapped my favorite painting
in a blanket and placed it underneath the back
seat to protect it.
Kai had been painting it when we met. It was a
painting of a mother gently cradling a young boy.
Obviously, it represented the person he so
desperately wanted his own abusive mother to
be. That painting meant a lot to me.
This time, I packed my laptop and I
remembered my cell phone. In the van, I tried to
call Max, but it went straight to voicemail. I
opened up my email program.
Max,
I haven’t heard back from you. I’ve emailed
you a couple of times and your phone always
goes straight to voicemail.
I know you’re busy, but I really need you. A
hunter’s in town. He saw me. Please call me.
Alice
I didn’t want to get Max involved, but I was
hoping he’d know this particular hunter. If he
did, maybe he’d know which power he had, so at
least we’d know what we were up again.
Just moments after I sent the email, my phone
rang.
“Hello?”
“Alice!” Max shouted. “What’s going on?”
“Max, why haven’t you answered my other…”
“I wasn’t allowed,” he interrupted. “I’m not
supposed to have any outside contact during
training.”
“Oh.”
“Are you okay?” he asked frantically.
“A hunter saw me feeding,” I admitted. “I
&
nbsp; think I took care of it. I knocked him out and
called the police, so he should be in jail for
twenty-four hours or so.”
“He saw you?” Max gasped. “How could you
be so careless?”
“Kai and I caught this guy abusing his
girlfriend,” I explained. “We got her to safety,
and we thought we were alone on the beach. It
was the perfect time to…”
“Wait!” Max shouted. “He saw Kai, too?”
“Kai wasn’t feeding,” I said. “I think I
managed to convince him Kai was human.”
“You convinced him…” Max paused. “Kai
left you alone with a hunter?”
“I asked him to,” I explained.
“And he did?” Max shouted. “He just left you
there alone with a hunter? Are you fucking
kidding me?”
“Max, please,” I begged. “Don’t do this. I just
called because I need your help.”
“I can be home in twelve hours,” he said
quickly.
“No,” I said. “That’s not what I’m asking. I
just wanted…”
“If you’re in trouble, I’m coming home!” he
yelled.
“Max, no,” I insisted. “I certainly don’t want
your father mad at you or anything. I just wanted
to know…”
“I am coming home,” he said firmly. “I can’t
leave you alone with a hunter after you.”
Before I could object, Jamie slammed on the
breaks. The tires screeched loudly, and the van
began to spin. The world began to pitch and roll,
and everything became a blur. I heard the
sickening crunch of metal and the high-pitched
tinkle of thousands of shards of glass hitting the
pavement as the van rolled. Once on its top, the
van slid across the street before finally coming to
a stop against a tree.
“Alice! Are you alright?” I heard a muffled
sound.
Blood dripped into my eye, casting a red hue
over everything. Confusion flooded my mind.
What had happened? Where was I?
“Alice!” the voice shouted again. It was Max.
I fumbled in the darkness and located the
phone, pressing it to my ear. “Max?”
“What happened?” he yelled. “Are you
alright?”
“I don’t know, Max,” I mumbled. “Am I in a
van?”
“You don’t know where you are?” I heard him
ask.
Suddenly, I felt my body raked across the
shattered glass, and I was hoisted into the air. I
felt as though I was floating, and underneath me,
I heard the crunch of glass. Footsteps. Someone
was carrying me. I felt an unfamiliar stinging
sensation in my arm, and I fell into a deep sleep.
At some point later, I woke up in an
unfamiliar room. I shook my head, trying to clear
the fog from my brain. Through a blurry film, I
looked around. I was alone.
“Hello?” I shouted in confusion.
“Alice?” I heard another voice say somewhere
in the distance.
“Kai?” I yelled. “Is that you?”
“It’s me,” he called. “Where are you? Are you
okay?”
“I’m in a room,” I shouted back. “It’s… it
looks like a dungeon or something.”
“I think we’re in a hunter’s prison or
something,” Kai called.
I looked around the small room. The back
wall was concrete, like a basement, and the other
walls were brick. The door was wooden, but it
looked very sturdy.
“Can you break down your door?” Kai
shouted. “You’re the one who’s fed recently.”
“I’ll try,” I shouted. I backed up and ran
toward the door, thrusting the entire brunt of my
power against the door with my shoulder. “Ow!
Damn it!”
I lifted my leg and kicked at the handle, but it
would not budge.
“Hey, hey,” I heard a gruff voice say outside
the door. “None of that.”
“Who’s there?” I shouted.
“Just your friendly neighborhood hunter,” he
snarled.
“Hunter,” I mumbled, disgusted.
He didn’t sound like the same hunter who had
found us on the beach. This guy sounded much
older – and meaner.
“Just chill out, honey,” he said. “As soon as
my boss gets here, we’ll get you all sorted out.”
“What does that mean?” I asked. “Sorted out.”
“You’ll find out,” he chuckled.
I kicked the door again for good measure, and
he chuckled again. “You’re not breaking through
this one anytime soon.”
I had to find a way out of this place. My whole
family must be here. Kai, my brother, my mother,
and even poor Jamie. I was right to worry about
getting her involved. Suddenly, my stomach
lurched.
“Kai?” I called. “Jamie…”
“She’s fine,” he shouted back.
I heaved a huge sigh of relief. I knew my
vampire family could probably survive a car
accident intact, but a weaker human like Jamie
would be much more vulnerable. I was so glad
she was okay.
I spent hours trying to find a way out of the
room. It was sealed. The floor and back wall
were thick concrete, and the walls were brick,
reinforced with steel bars – which I discovered
after breaking a few of the bricks from the wall.
The wooden door was unbelievably strong, and I
couldn’t imagine how thick it must be for me to
be unable to break it.
brick wall gave me a line of sight to Kai. We
were able to fit our hands though the hole, and
his touch was enough to calm me a bit. He took
my hand and kissed it gently.
I knew we had to make an escape soon. The
longer we were in there without food, the weaker
we would become. If I had any chance to get us
out, it had to be done immediately.
The only thing in the room was a shabby
mattress on the floor and a small ceramic toilet. I
managed to detach the toilet from the wall to use
as a weapon as soon as anyone entered. I had to
incapacitate one quickly, because I assumed there
would be at least two. I just needed someone to
open the door.
Some hours later, I heard the jingle of a key
ring outside the door. I scrambled to my feet and
readied the heavy toilet. I raised it high above my
head and prepared to launch it.
The door creaked ominously, and a bit of light
filtered in, spreading slowly in an arc across the
floor. I readied myself.
Just as the head peeked around the corner, I
began to heave the heavy toilet toward the door.
Just as quickly, I stopped with a gasp. The heavy
toilet crashed down onto my food, and I grunted
in pain, choking down a shriek. It was Max!
“Alice!” Max gasped, running to me.
&n
bsp; “Max!” I whispered. “How did you find me?”
“I’ll tell you later,” he said. “Let’s get
everyone and get out of here.”
He put my arm around his shoulder and
helped me hobble into the hallway. My foot was
probably broken, but it would heal in a few
hours. I winced in pain, but we had to hurry.
Max opened Kai’s cell, and Kai glared at him
when he noticed my arm around him.
“Thanks,” Kai muttered, taking my arm away
from Max and putting it around his own
shoulder. Then he said to me, “What happened to
your foot?”
“I dropped a toilet on it,” I moaned.
“A toilet?” he asked. Then he added, “Never
mind.”
“Let’s just get everyone else,” I said, and we
moved quickly to open the other doors.
Jamie looked really banged up. She had
numerous cuts and bruises, and she was limping.
The accident had hurt her, but at least she was
alive.
“This way,” Max whispered. “Hurry.”
We all followed Max down the hallway to a
set of rickety wooden stairs. He paused briefly,
listening. When he heard no activity, he motioned
for us all to follow him.
At the top of the stairs, I noticed we were in
what appeared to be an abandoned warehouse. I
noticed two men slumped on the floor. Max
must have disabled them before he came to
rescue us. We made our escape out a small door
in the back. Max had his car waiting, and we all
squeezed in and took off.
“What is this place?” I asked Max.
“Hunter holding warehouse,” he said.
“What’s it used for?” I wanted to know. “I
thought
your
kind
always
killed
indiscriminately.”
“My kind,” he mumbled, shaking his head
solemnly. “Hunters do not risk human lives. We
only kill once we’ve verified our target is a
vampire. And we don’t kill all vampires.”
“Is that what we were there for?” I asked.
“Your hunter took you there for verification,”
he said. “It’s procedure when a verified vampire
is in a large group. We have to be sure there are
no humans in the mix.”
“Where are we going?” I asked Max.
“I have to get back to my father before he
realizes I’m gone,” he answered. “I’m going to
take you to the airport so you can get out of
town.”
“What about our stuff?” I asked him.
“I’ll go back and find the van after I drop you
off,” he responded. “I’ll take your stuff back to