Hunted (Scarlet Dawson Book 1)

by Nicola Chadwick

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty One

  Chapter Twenty Two

  Chapter Twenty Three

  Chapter Twenty Four

  Chapter Twenty Five

  Chapter Twenty Six

  Chapter Twenty Seven

  Chapter Twenty Eight

  Chapter Twenty Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty One

  Chapter Thirty Two

  To Lee,

  My Love, My Life, My World.

  Chapter One

  I adjusted myself in the cramped confines of Aylesbury’s sport’s car. Lifting my legs to prop them up on the dash, groaning loudly as I moved around in the tiny bucket seats.

  “Did you really have to insist we bring this wretched piece of tin on the stakeout, a stakeout I might add that has gone on at least eighteen hours longer than any stakeout should?” I express as Aylesbury shoots me an annoyed look and shushes me. As if my squeaking around on his ‘mint’ condition leather interior and complaining about it was going to give away our position.

  We were tucked away at the back of an alley hidden in shadows, only passersby wandering into the mouth of the alley would see our position clearly, which was a good thing because a 1969 cherry red Pontiac GTO is not exactly inconspicuous in this part of town, where as my car would have looked the part even parked out on the street.

  “Oh quit your incessant complaining. I will only tell you this once more, we have brought my car because your pile of shit doesn’t start on a regular basis. How many times have I had to come rescue your ass because your wretched piece of tin doesn’t actually work?” He replies, swiping my legs off his dash causing me to jerk forward.

  I start to argue back then think better of it when I realise Aylesbury was staring at me like he could actually hurt me if I opened my mouth one more time. Instead I roll my eyes and stare out of the windshield feigning annoyance.

  The night wasn’t one of the best for this time of year and that was part of the problem with being cramped in a miniature tin can. It was hot, humid and definitely getting ready to storm, you could cut the pressure with a knife or so I had imagined for the last twelve hours. My imagination was starting to get the better of me.

  I hated stakeouts. They were boring, really unbelievably boring but unfortunately necessary, sometimes.

  Aylesbury and I were Hunters, at the moment we were currently hunting a repeat felon called simply ‘The Don’ he was wanted in relation to slavery charges and had managed to elude every Guild officer sent to haul him in. I just wasn’t sure what I had done to warrant the stupid ass task of being Aylesbury’s back up, this was his case, not mine. There was absolutely no point in me being here, I had absolutely no idea what the guy looked like, only Aylesbury did. The Don was apparently a two bit criminal who had gotten in way over his head, from his previous offences I was surprised he had the brain cells to put together a slave ring. Well I suppose he was only implicated at this stage.

  I sigh and roll my eyes at Aylesbury as he leans forward to watch yet another group of drunkards enter the club adjacent to our position. Aylesbury was tall and well built with messy looking dark brown hair and a cheeky smile that knocked the ladies socks off. He was usually easy going and a jester but at the end of the day he was one of the best Hunters I knew. Not that I’d tell him that even after working with him for the last six years.

  I waited for Aylesbury to tell me that we’d just gotten lucky; instead he sits back in his seat visibly relaxing again. I turn my attention back to the paper I was holding and continue to scan though its pages.

  “The Paranormal Journal, why are you reading that crap?” Aylesbury asks a little too much disgust dripping from his usually calm voice. I figure the heat and endless hours we’d been here were also getting to him.

  “It’s not crap and it’s not all aliens and conspiracy theories.” I express indignantly. “Sometimes they write the truth.”

  Aylesbury laughs then so hard he is bent over clutching his stomach, his head butting the steering wheel. I just gape at him until his laughter dies to a hiccup.

  “Aylesbury keep your eye on the club, I’m not waiting here a moment longer than necessary. I’ve got a business to run remember, a business I should have been working from yesterday when my shift ended at The Guild.”

  I wait for him to start breathing normally again and add. “Anyway think about this Aylesbury, over fifty years ago this very newspaper was reporting on stories with headlines like wolf boy sighted near city centre or even how to kill your deadly neighbourhood Vampyre. They also made the connection between the 2012 disasters and New World Order before it happened and even reported that the Fae were switching babies with changelings and taking Human prisoners before anyone even knew that they existed...”

  “Okay, okay, enough! I get your point but you’re wrong about the Vampyre’s though there’s no proof of their existence.”

  “Yet!” I reply.

  Between 2010 and 2012 hundreds of natural disasters had reduced the earth’s population and reshaped its civilization. The last disaster took place on December 23rd 2012 when the Vale between our world and Faerie ripped wide open. The Demon/Fae war’s spilled over into our world forcing many supernatural beings and creatures out into the public, except for the infamous Vampyre. Although I believe they had to exist. It was just a feeling, but still myth and legend hadn’t led everyone astray about all the other races out there.

  Vampyre’s were rumoured to be immortals that had tasted blood through bonding and could no longer live without the taste of immortal blood, kind of like an addict. Still there were no confirmed reports, then again would anyone live to tell the tale, if they were drained of their blood.

  It turns out the world didn’t end like many predicted would happen at the end of the Mayan calendar but it did change considerably, and while each race was old, the relationships between each race was raw and new. In the years that followed Lycan’s, Witches, Fae, Demons, Humans and other smaller minority’s banded together and formed The Guild, an interracial council that police and govern the races that now live both here and in Faerie.

  Of course each race still has their own law’s that must be adhered to, the Humans still have their Military, Government and Police they just work as a branch of The Guild, at the end of the day though The Guild was the law.

  I carry on scanning the paper when Aylesbury whips around suddenly, his face unreadable. “Please Scarlet tell me you are not looking for your family again?”

  I put on my most innocent smile and reply almost sarcastically. “Aylesbury I am not looking for my family again.” I pull the paper back up and begin scanning again.

  Aylesbury grabs the paper from me, balling it up, he unwinds his window and throws it out. “I’m serious Scarlet, don’t you remember what happened the last time The Guild caught you obsessing over those Nymph records that had just been uncovered in Europe?”

  “Yes I do remember I also remember what it was like growing up in that orphanage, with no friends and every family that thought they wanted me ended up turning awa
y from me in disgust.”

  “I was there Scarlet, I remember but you did have a friend. You were the one who pushed me away.” He always looked haunted when this subject came up but I wouldn’t feel sorry for him.

  I squeezed my eyes shut against the pain of that day remembering it like it had just happened.

  I was around twelve, I never knew my exact birthday but we usually celebrated it on All Hallows Eve, there were a few witches in the orphanage and they thought the date was fitting as it coincided with their celebrations and it was also the day I was found. Back then I used to call Aylesbury by his first name James. We were practically inseparable even though he was five years older. He was there the day I arrived and stayed with me every day for eleven years.

  Late one night I snuck into his room.

  “Red what are you doing in here, if you get caught you’ll be in trouble again.” James said to me but I knew he was happy to see me.

  I walked over to his bed and climbed in beside him, I snuggled up to him and he held me tight. He was the brother I’d never had, my only family.

  “James I’m too excited to sleep will you tell me a story.” I whined hoping he would.

  He sighed. “Try not to get too excited, I might start to think you don’t want to stay here and keep me company anymore.” He was sixteen already and it was unlikely he would get re-homed before he became an adult, he just had to wait it out a few more years then he was free.

  “It’s not that James I just really want to have a Mum and Dad like the other girls at school, then they won’t laugh at me anymore and I might even get a brother or sister to look after too, like you do me.”

  “If you promise to visit me then I’ll tell you a special story.”

  I untangle myself from him and slap him lightly on his belly. “Of course I’ll visit you silly, now tell me a story.” I demanded.

  He told me the story of the night they brought me in and how he looked at me with bright red hair and decided to call me Red, of course that was also why the witches that ran the orphanage decided to call me Scarlet. I fell asleep listening to the comforting sound of his voice and woke up the next day back in my own room. I knew he carried me back otherwise we would have gotten in trouble.

  Later that day I walked slowly into Mrs Harlem’s office where my perspective new parents stood ready to meet me for the first time. I felt a tingle all over my skin and saw a concerned look cross there faces.

  The man turned to Mrs Harlem and said “Is that normal?”

  They all looked at me as she answered “Yes.”

  That was when it happened, the tingle spread over my body again and the woman fled from the room crying. Mrs Harlem ushered me out of the room but instead of going to my room I hid in the hallway and snuck back up to the door.

  I didn’t need to press my ear to the door to listen to what they were saying.

  “She’s an abomination how can you expect that a family like mine would take on Satan’s very own daughter.”

  “We have had a problem finding couples that would take on the extra responsibilities that her shifting brings, it should settle in a few years. If you would give her a chance she’s such a lovely girl.”

  “A lovely girl ha, I will be recommending that her name be taken off the adoption list, with an obvious heritage flaw as hers you will be lucky to palm her off on her own people let alone anyone that lives this side of the Vale.”

  The door opened and the man stormed out coming face to face with me. The disgust on his face when he looked at me almost broke my heart. That moment was the worst of my life, the moment when I truly realised I would never belong.

  I turned and raced off down the hallway and into James’s room. He was sat at his desk when I ran in. “James it was awful the things they said.” I sobbed as he came up to hug me.

  “It’s okay Scarlet you’ll find someone else.”

  “No I won’t, even the witches look at me funny like I’m some sort of plague, why?”

  “They are scared because you are part Fae, they worry that you can hurt them, that you’ll bring the wars here”

  I stepped away from him and stared at him. “How do you know that, have you heard it?”

  “No but it’s what they think.”

  “You mean it’s what you think.” I said, backing away from him. How could he say that, think that?

  “No, that’s not what I meant Scarlet. You’re my friend. I love you.”

  “You’re not my friend anymore, I have no one. I’m going to find my own family one day where I’m not some freak of nature.” I turned and ran down the corridor vowing to my self that no one would ever hurt me again because of what I was.

  I didn’t speak to Aylesbury for another six years, at which point we were both working at The Guild as Hunters. He explained to me on our first assignment together that he didn’t mean it the way I had taken it, that I was upset and couldn’t see sense. He was also glad that they didn’t take me even if I never did speak to him again because he wanted me for himself, I was his only family. He told me that when I was brought into the orphanage he had decided there and then that I was his sister. I answered him by letting him know I still hated him and not to expect me to like him again.

  After another six years though we had slowly slid into a pattern where I try my hardest to hate him and he tries his hardest to pretend I’m not trying to hate him. I know I let my emotions get the better of me that day, but I still feel so hurt when I remember it. It makes it really hard to be friends with Aylesbury when he was a major player in a part of my past that I wished I could forget.

  Chapter Two

  I open my eyes as the memory fades and look back up at Aylesbury. “I know you were there and we’ve been over that day before but I wanted it so badly. At least your Human, I still have to hide who I am from everyone otherwise I risk...”

  “You risk what? People getting to know the real you, it’s been over fifty years since the first Fae came, people aren’t as prejudiced as they used to be.”

  “I’m not going to argue with you over this again Aylesbury. Yes I still look for anything that might tell me where my family is but I’m not obsessed anymore. I’m starting to understand why The Guild wanted me to leave it all alone, it’s practically impossible to find any connection to my mother. But still I have to look and if I hadn’t almost gotten fired for that obsession I would have never started my own business.”

  When The Guild caught me repeatedly trying get into their archives in the catacombs under The Guild building, I was suspended pending investigation. My boss Delaney had to report me to his superiors who offered me an ultimatum, stop searching for my family or lose my job. They told me they had already looked and found nothing so what makes me think I can find something after all these years if they couldn’t.

  I had been granted access to the files on my mother when I started at The Guild, so as long as I didn’t use Guild time to look for my family then I could keep my job. I asked for a part time case load and using the skills I had learnt becoming a Hunter, I applied for my investigators licence.

  “I suppose that’s one good thing but still Scarlet, it’s got to stop somewhere.” Aylesbury turned his attention back to the club.

  “It will.” When I find them, I add silently. I had become a Hunter to gather as much information as I could on my family but when you have nowhere to start a hunting is pointless. The first rule of hunting, gather as much information as possible.

  I turn my attention back to the club and after a few minutes of watching more drunks head into and out of the club I decide to pick up the file on The Don and re-read the notes on his case.

  “Aylesbury, it says here that The Don has frequented this bar every day since before he was first convicted of burglary, every time he’s had a warrant out for his arrest he’s been picked up here. Now if he’s stupid enough to carry on frequenting a bar after being arrested here over thirteen times, then why the hell has he not turned up here in the last 18
hours?” If you ask me it was all a little bit strange. Why would he not turn up now after all these years of idiotically getting arrested in the exact same place?

  “When you put it that way it does seem strange. I know this guy, I’ve been there on his last three arrests and he’s not exactly the sharpest tool in the box.”

  “Well then, why are we still sat here, lets go into the club and ask around, then I might be able to actually salvage the night and get some real work done.”

  I pull open the car door and stretch holding my arms all the way above my head, Aylesbury just gets out and stands with his arms resting on the top of the car looking at me.

  “How exactly do you fit in that car?” I ask, I barely stand a foot above the car and Aylesbury was a good six feet or so, I was barely five foot three.

  He grins and moves around to the front of the car.

  “Don’t you start looking all cryptic, I was utterly cramped and you’re taller and bigger and didn’t even need to stretch. Your abnormal is what you are!” I shout after him as he strides over to the club.

  I catch up and take a hold of his arm, turning on the drunken act for the bouncers on the door. As I get to the door I stumble a little and giggle looking up at Aylesbury as he catches me.

  Aylesbury turns to the bouncer on the left that is eyeing me suspiciously. “Women, never can handle their liquor. I figure a few more and she’ll be humping my leg.”

  The bouncers laugh and usher us through. When we are clear of the door I whack Aylesbury on the side of the head. “Humping your leg! What am I your prize dog?”

  Aylesbury laughs and leads me over to the bar. As we wander over I take in the look of the bar, it is a right hole but it was still packed to the rafters with people dancing, drinking and sloshing their beers over the already sticky linoleum floors.

  I could see at least three people already that I had hunted for various felons over the years, this club was just one of those places where the lowlifes swapped their stories and were treated like kings for their pathetic misdeeds.