A Hunter Within

by Anna Applegate

  “What do you want me to do?” I asked.

  Seeley ducked down, making sure he wasn’t seen.

  “Uh, never mind I’ve been spotted,” I said as one guard made eyes at me. I turned away, acting like the people I was dancing next to were friends.

  “I think I need some air,” I said loudly to my fake friends, pretending to fan myself. I headed off in the direction toward the guards.

  I kept walking, not wanting to slow down. The others would have to figure out the next part of the plan and keep up. I started toward the rear exit door and knew the guards we had spotted were on my tail. I slipped out and ran a few feet away from the door, looking around to make sure no one else was outside waiting for me.

  I was alone but only for a minute. I felt the urge to block something coming at me, before even knowing what it was that was heading my way.

  I turned and connected my forearm to the fist of one of Marissa’s guards, who looked probably as surprised as I did.

  He grimaced at me, annoyed that I had caught him off guard. My eyes darted around, and I saw four guards in total, making their way toward me.

  “Ms. Parker, if you could just come with us. Ms. Malcovey would like to have a word with you,” the non-descript guard who had tried to catch me unaware said.

  I snickered. “Well, Parker isn’t my name, so I think you’ve got the wrong girl.”

  “Whatever your name is. We can do this nice and easy now,” he said while reaching into the belt at his side. He pulled out a long black stick and jerked it in his hand once. It extended out into a longer object that lit up briefly, as if an electrical current was running through it. “Or we can make things very difficult.” He smiled evilly.

  I had zero fighting experience.

  In fact, if I had truly been alone, I would have been scared to death. But I knew my own vampires would be there soon, and then these smug guards would have something much worse than me to deal with. Still, I balled up my fingers into fists and stood, preparing to stand my ground as the four of them circled me, blocking my ways of escape.

  “Seeley?” I shouted, growing anxious at how long he was taking.

  The guard with the nasty mouth and electrical weapon was yanked away from us with not so much as a scream, and the remaining three guards looked at each other in total shock and confusion.

  “I suggest you get out of here,” I offered. But instead they moved toward me again.

  And then, chaos reigned.

  “Vampires.” Rebecca’s voice sounded the alarm among us. More men showed up, joining the three guards that Seeley and the others had begun fighting off.

  All of them were dressed alike, in darker colored clothes and the badges gave them away as Falcone. Kellan and Rebecca were pulled away by the new vampires who had joined in on the fight.

  The regular guards had been wiped out easily. I walked toward the one who had the weapon and picked up the stick in my hand, preparing to attack any additional guards who came my way.

  As if on cue, a uniformed vampire made his way toward me from the shadows.

  “Want to play?” he teased. He looked clean cut with a uniform on, but there was a crazed fire in his eyes that reminded me of the patient I had seen in my first few weeks at Falcone, and that scared me.

  “I’d like to see you try,” I taunted.

  The vampire lurched at me with teeth barred, but before he could get to me, a figure jumped in between us. The vampire’s teeth sank into the figure’s shoulder.

  Henry!

  “No!” I shouted and slammed the electrical stick onto the back of the vampire.

  He flung Henry to the ground behind him and started stalking toward me again. I glanced back, terrified at what I’d find with Henry’s body if the vampire was leaving him alone now. But Henry rose, looking fine, and the vampire looked back, a flash of surprise on his face. While he was distracted, I made my way toward him again, arms raised with my weapon until a flash pulled the vampire away from Henry and me immediately. A tearing sound and scream was all that remained of the vampire as Rebecca brushed her hands off in front of us.

  “Henry,” I said, rushing toward him. “Are you hurt? Will you turn? Let me see your shoulder.” I caressed his arm, looking for a mark or indication of where the vampire had gnawed at, but was having trouble finding anything.

  Henry pulled his arm away from me quickly. “He didn’t bite me. I’d be in trouble then, wouldn’t I?” he said.

  I frowned at him and went toward him again. “He did bite you, though. I saw it. You have to let me look at you,” I insisted.

  “I said I’m fine. There’s nothing there.” He pulled his torn shirt down and was right. There wasn’t a mark of any kind on him. I looked back up into his eyes and narrowed my gaze at him. His shirt was definitely ripped, so there should have been some kind of mark. “What’s going—”

  “Is everyone okay?” Seeley’s question interrupted my thoughts and conversation with Henry.

  I nodded and looked at everyone else around me. We were all intact.

  “We knocked most out. I’ll erase the human’s memories and get them back to Falcone. We don’t want them all to go missing. That would look bad. But I do have a key card.” Seeley flipped the card up into the air and then back into his pocket.

  Kellan leaned against the side of the bar building we’d exited from. “Now all we need is a plan to get back into Falcone,” he said,

  “I think I can help with that,” Henry spoke up.

  The vampires looked at him expectantly, and he had my attention as well. He certainly was full of surprises as of late.

  “Family dinner.” He sounded annoyed as he spoke and ran his hand along the back of his neck. He usually only did that when he was stressed out or frustrated. “We do an idiotic family dinner on Sundays. Marissa is always there. You can plan to sneak in tomorrow night,” Henry informed us. “She won’t be around Falcone, and I can let you know if she leaves in a hurry or gets a signal somehow that you’ve entered. The only problem is”—Henry paused, rubbing his arm thoughtfully, and looked back at me—“I wouldn’t be there to look out for you,” he said.

  “I think we can handle that part,” Seeley said.

  Henry nodded once. “Then there you have it. You can plan this rescue for tomorrow night.”

  “So it would seem. Thank you,” Seeley said to Henry before turning to the others. “It’s probably not safe to linger here. We have to clean up so perhaps…” Seeley looked to Henry.

  “I can take her back to the safe house,” Henry finished.

  The vampires looked at me briefly before they got to work on the humans.

  Henry put his hand on the small of my back and started leading me out of the alley and toward the front of the bar where his car was parked.

  “Are you all right?” he asked me quietly as we walked.

  I nodded. “Thank you for being here,” I whispered.

  We rode in silence back to the safe house. It hadn’t been uncomfortable. It was simply silent, and I let it surround me.

  We arrived only moments before the vampires, and we all made our way, wearily, into the house.

  “Jules?” I heard Seeley say my name before I entered my room.

  I didn’t even know where everyone else had gone. I had been so focused on just walking back to a bed that I hadn’t noticed I was alone again.

  “Yeah?” I replied.

  “You were pretty great tonight.” His perfect blue eyes pierced through the heavy weight of sleepiness that moments before had been threatening to overtake me.

  “Maybe I’m a hunter after all.” I smiled at him as I answered.

  “I’m sorry about your aunt. I’m sorry about how I’ve handled things. I don’t want you to think… I don’t know what you think. I’m just sorry.” His voice broke my heart. He sounded so torn.

  “The only person who should be sorry is Marissa,” I said. “But thank you.”

  I continued into my room, tilting my head
for him to follow. He did and I sat down on the edge of my bed. Seeley knelt down in front of me and took my hands in his. A warmth came over me, and my body relaxed in a way I hadn’t realized it needed to.

  “No, it’s not just Marissa who needs to be sorry. It was my fault. She came after you because of me. I was arrogant. Henry was right, I should have known better than to show up at the gala. If I had any idea who you were…”

  I removed my hands from his and knelt down on the floor beside him. “What is it with you men and thinking this is on you?” I asked, shaking my head.

  I brought my hand up to Seeley’s face and rubbed my thumb along his strong cheekbone. “Seeley, look at me, please,” I begged. His eyes met mine. “Is this why you were really pushing me away?”

  He pulled back, picking himself off the floor. “And for all the other reasons I gave.”

  “Amanda’s death is on Marissa and Marissa alone. Our actions have consequences, but this was her doing. And if we think any differently, it will eat us up. It will destroy us,” I said, approaching him again.

  “Seeley, so many other things have happened. I was the one who saw the vampire that first week. I

  saw Henry’s Dad last night, who introduced me as Henry’s best friend. She was curious about that. She took me on some impromptu tour, and I saw a picture of my parents and stopped to look at it. I know she tested me by trying to knock this china cup down, and I caught it. She commented on my reflexes. Whatever she pieced together was done through many small things, not a single action by any one of us.”

  My voice held a desperation as I tried to get through to him. Get him to snap out of whatever guilt he was holding onto so strongly that had him teetering in this limbo between what we could be and what he was struggling to end before we really got started.

  “Oh, Jules,” he said, grabbing me and pulling me into his body tightly. He held my head to his chest and clung onto me. “I didn’t mean to make you feel alone. Please forgive me,” he begged.

  I squeezed my arms around him. “Of course I do,” I said, earnestly.

  He pulled away to look at me again. “I want to be there for you more than I’ve ever wanted anything in my entire existence. I just want to give you whatever it is that you need.” He kissed my forehead. His actions seemed so hesitant, like he had no idea what he was doing. It was hard to believe given how gorgeous the man was in front of me. He must have had women fawning over him throughout his life, but he seemed so unsure of himself in this moment.

  “Everything else…” He sighed, backing away from me and rubbing his arm, looking suddenly frustrated again. “Everything else I said still holds true, though. I don’t know if now is the time for us to be an us.” He watched me carefully and quickly added, “I will be there for you, and we will get through this.” He looked at me in a way that made me believe every word. His eyes held the kind of promise I’d fear if I was on the opposing side of this vampire. “Perhaps we should, pause for a little bit.”

  I nodded, biting my lip and trying to hold back my emotions. He was set on what he wanted, or at least what he thought we needed to be, and with his responsibilities, he thought he was making the right choice. He might be right, even. I’d never had distractions before. With all the changes coming our way, now wasn’t necessarily the best time to start having one.

  “I understand,” I said, more bravely than I felt at the moment.

  He nodded and walked toward me one last time. He looked me in the eyes and kissed my forehead once more, lingering for a moment before backing away. “Get some rest. We have a big day tomorrow.”

  He turned and walked away from me without a glance back.

  He was struggling with what we were, just like I was. Whatever we were or were not, we needed to figure out the Falcone problems first. We all needed clear heads, and worrying about any sort of romance was only going to provide a distraction when we needed to be focused.

  I crawled into the bed, not caring to even change my clothes. I’d done a good job keeping my emotions at bay thus far, especially when thoughts of calling Amanda and telling her I was all right kept running through my head. There was no need to call her now, though.

  I clutched my pillow by my head and let a few tears out, before trying to stuff every emotion back inside. Perhaps once we had Gabriel, I’d have some time to recover. Perhaps then I’d have time to grieve the right way. My face was still wet when I fell asleep into a restless night of haunting dreams where Marissa played at center stage, controlling my life and taking everything away from me over and over again.

  ***

  I’d managed to avoid everyone for most of the day. I found that the room I had been put in was well-stocked with books that could entertain me and distract me. Books could always do that for me, which was probably why I never minded studying.

  I’d only left my room a few times that day to eat, and the conversations with the others had been few and far between. Perhaps everyone was thinking of our mission tonight, and what could potentially come next for our rag tag team. If that’s what we even were. At the end of the day, I had only just found out I belonged with them in any way. I was a hunter after all, and now, regardless of how Seeley felt of my involvement, I’d be involved in some way or another. And as long as Marissa was coming down at the end of it all, I didn't care how that involvement took form.

  I’d caught Seeley and Kellan in a conversation that startled me. I had just come back to my room, when I started hearing Seeley’s voice. He couldn’t have been too far from me, but I was sure he was far enough away where he thought he wouldn’t be heard.

  I was experiencing déjà vu, thinking back to the feeling of hearing Seeley and Henry arguing in the library. But that was before I knew that the reason I could hear so well was due to my quirky, yet useful hunter abilities.

  “Has it been heard of? For us to be immune to that side of our senses around each other?” Seeley was asking.

  “No. That’s the whole purpose of the senses. They are meant for survival. Hunters can sense who we are, and we can sense them. Jules was masked, but Rebecca and I sensed something different about her recently, which is why I brought it up the night of the gala. You didn’t. And we can’t ask her if she sensed you, since she didn’t know what she was,” Kellan answered. “Perhaps it’s your other sentiments getting in the way. Be careful there,” he warned.

  I closed my door and tried to ignore the rest of the conversation, but the bits and pieces I did learn told me hunters and vampires knew when the other was around. I reached for the back of my neck and started thinking of how many times I’d had goosebumps when vampires had been around. But my goosebumps from Seeley were always different than the warning ones I’d felt as of late. While I thought it was strange, I was in no place to start dissecting what that might mean.

  “We’re leaving in about an hour. We’ll be discussing the plan in ten in the living room.” Kellan poked his head into my room. “Sorry.” He smiled when he saw I jumped at the unfamiliar voice.

  “It’s okay.” I chuckled at myself. “I’m used to Henry or Seeley knocking down my door.”

  “They’re…” Kellan peeked behind him and then glanced back at me. “Busy.”

  I frowned, not sure what those two could be busy with together, but I let it go. “Thank you,” I said.

  He nodded and went back down the hallway from the way he had come.

  I threw together what I had planned on wearing for the night. More black. Even though it was a nice color for stealth, which apparently was all I needed these days, most of my closet was black items to begin with, so it wasn’t too much of a stretch for me.

  Everyone had their heads bent over some of the maps I had brought back from Falcone, studying them intently.

  “Thanks to Henry, we know this exit is the best option as far as getting out quickly once we have Gabe,” Seeley was saying. His eyes met mine as I entered the room, and I tried to give a reassuring smile.

  “Jules, you’ll
be using your key card once we get farther into the building, so we want to make sure we are in and out in as little time as possible. Can you remember any other details about the room Gabriel is in?” Seeley asked.

  “He’s strapped down to a table in a room off to the side of the main research area for the vampires. The door was shut but not locked when I was there before, and I’m hoping that’s the case again otherwise…” I trailed off, not needing to finish that thought.

  “We planned for that.” Kellan looked at me reassuringly and pointed to a duffel bag. I had no idea what it contained but nodded.

  “He seemed with it when I was there, but…” I looked at the hardened vampires in front of me, and knew I didn’t need to ease them into anything, but it was still hard thinking about telling them that someone they loved may be in pain, or in a position where they may not be able to get through to him. “Look, some of what Falcone is doing is inhumane at best. He might be extremely dangerous once he’s released from his straps. In which case, you’ll all need to be ready.” I was surprised at how easy it was for me to start thinking logically about this situation. Perhaps it was who I was truly shining through now that I knew my own secret.

  “We’ll be ready,” Seeley said with a grim look on his face. “Everyone set?”

  We all nodded around the table.

  “That’s my cue. I’ll confirm Marissa is at the house and whether she appears to be alerted in any way that you all are there while at dinner,” Henry said. He moved to leave but paused, touching my arm and watching me intently. “Be safe. They know what they are doing.” Henry nodded toward the vampires. “Stay with them,” he finished.

  “I will,” I assured. ”I’ll look for your texts.”

  Henry walked out the door, and I turned back to the others. Rebecca and Kellan grabbed the duffel bag and some papers and headed out to the car, leaving Seeley and me behind for a minute.

  Seeley approached me, tentatively and with concern in his eyes. “Jules, this will be dangerous. Please stick close to me.” He reached out, touching my face, and I inhaled his scent as I let his presence surround me.