Hunted (Scarlet Dawson Book 1)

by Nicola Chadwick

  “I’m already in the middle of a case, so why don’t I just take the money from that case and give you the information that you need and you help me with what I want for free. If we do agree to help each other I need an assurance from you that we will remain equal partners on this. It seriously affects my investigation and I will not be directly responsible for actions you take that I don’t know about screwing this up.”

  The others get in and Steve starts the engine moving the truck along the dirt track.

  “Agreed. However, I don’t take orders from anyone and any of my people involved report directly to me not you.”

  “Fine, one last thing I’ll need a place to stay for a while, the bastards are having my office and apartment watched.”

  From the front seat Cain turns to Bastian. “She could stay with us at The Hotel.”

  “I suppose she could, but we have our own rules and you’d need to stick to them with no exceptions. I wouldn’t want you inadvertently causing a disaster by ignoring my rules.” I nod at this and he seems to be okay with it.

  “Now that’s sorted I’ll tell you some of what I know. At the end of March I was approached by my clients to find their little sister, she’d been missing about a week and they had tried all the places they could think of. When you saw me at The Pit the first time I was trying to find out if Montego, her apparent love interest knew anything about her disappearance, you where there when he told me I needed JT so I came back. After a while I realised that JT was luring girls out to the Caves and when I got up there they caught me snooping around.

  “They took me immediately to Warren, the Council representative for the Lazarus. As soon as he saw me I could see he wanted me, it was like all his Christmases had come at once.” I shudder at the thought, remembering the feel of him pressed against me.

  “He didn’t do anything did he?” Bastian practically growls the words out, his face tense and angry. I really didn’t want to be sat this close to a Lycan that looked like he was about to rip someone’s head off.

  “Just torture, nothing sexual, his Demon Lord told him he could only have me in that way after he had finished with me, and the guy had a real fetish for cutting me. Warren did tell me everything in detail he was going to do to me when they had finished with me though. After my torture sessions they waited for me to heal and while I healed I heard things and saw some things. I figured even if the girl was in there I needed to get out and bring back help.”

  Steve slowed and turned onto an actual road. “If you headed out the last time we saw you you’ve been gone just over three weeks.”

  “Well damn! It’s a good job I’ve paid up my rent till summer.”

  Thinking for a minute I said. “I need help because I need to go back for that girl. I can’t do it on my own. They need to be stopped but most Demon Lords work in politics and are affiliated with the big organisations both here and in Faerie, no one will believe what they are planning.”

  We were now on the main road heading back towards the city. I look out of the window and think about a nice warm bath I hopefully could have one once we got back and a real bed would be bliss. Three weeks, I couldn’t believe it had been that long.

  “How do you know this girl is still alive?” Roan asks.

  “I don’t, but there’s a lot more at stake now. However, I know your men were taken there as well. I’ve heard them talking. That’s why once I knew you were Pack I knew I could trust you weren’t working for them.”

  “But what would you have done if we hadn’t said we were Pack?” Cain said from the front.

  “Well I was going to come with you and if you made any motion to give me to them I was going to kick your ass and escape.”

  “And how may I ask we’re you going to do that?” Bastian enquires looking at me with a smug expression on his face that says he’d like to see me try.

  “I’m sure that while we’re working together I can find an opportunity to show you just how well I’d kick your ass.” Smiling I look out of the window and see that we are pulling up in front of The Manor. No matter how hard I tried I just knew I was going to have problems staying on the Beast Masters good side. I’d felt the need to challenge him at every point since I’d met him.

  Chapter Twelve

  The Manor Hotel was originally built just after the 2012 disasters, it had been one of the biggest hotels in the city but as the city grew bigger the hotel went bankrupt and was eventually bought by the Lycan’s, it’s location was perfect for them, in the city yet bordering the nearby forest and farmland. Even though it was still classed as a hotel the only people that stayed there were either visiting Lycan’s or those that wanted the safety of staying under the same roof as their King.

  Lycan’s could quite easily infect Humans when they were in animal form, one bite or scratch was all it took. So even though they lived in the Human realm they had strict laws in place to make sure that Humans didn’t become Stray and if that meant some of The Pack had to live under the watchful eye of their brethren then so be it.

  If a Human contracted the Lycanthropy disease they became more or less like the Lycan’s the only difference was their inability to adapt to their new animal natures, this is what made them Stray.

  A Stray would kill and maim others without thinking and found it difficult to integrate into a Pack society, the more people they attacked the more Strays were made. So unfortunately they had to be found and put down. Some Stray’s managed to adapt to Pack society and lived long happy lives unfortunately though that was very rare.

  “We’ll show you to your room and you can get cleaned up before we carry on.” Bastian said as we pulled up to the big courtyard in front of the hotel.

  I winced as I got out of the truck, my muscles protesting to the move after finally being able to rest.

  “I don’t suppose there’s a shop near were I could buy some new clothes?”

  “No, but for now you can borrow something.” He looked me up and down making me feel extremely uncomfortable under his scrutiny. “I’m sure you’ll fit into Raven’s clothes and she has plenty of them. Tomorrow I’ll send someone out for you if you give me a list of what you need.”

  Finishing my decent from the truck I eye Bastian and ask “Are you sure this Raven won’t mind?” Then again of course she won’t mind she would have no choice, if he told her to jump she’d probably say how high.

  “Yes I’m sure” His demeanour became suddenly icier as he lead me into the lobby with the others following behind us hauling items from the truck. The reception desk had been removed, the whole lobby was littered with sofas, tables and chairs and looked to be a big communal area. Off to the side was a Bar / Restaurant called Ricks I knew it branched off into the adjoining building from the photos I’d seen of the place. There were ten floors and The Guardians took up the whole of the ninth and tenth floors, the remaining floors were residential rooms for Pack members and visiting Lycan’s

  When we reached the top of the stairs I noted the layout was still just like a hotel, except the doors along the corridor didn’t have plaques declaring that it was a suite named after a president or an engraved gold disc holding a number. The doors weren’t all uniform though and some of them looked more like they belonged in college halls of residence. Some were even decorated with various adornments.

  “The rooms have en-suite bath facilities, relax for a while and I’ll come down with the clothing. When we’re ready to sit down and talk this through someone will come and fetch you. Roan will show you which room to take and I’ll go sort out the clothing.” He walked off down the corridor, Cain and Steve following him.

  Roan took me to the second room on the left. It was fairly big with a king sized bed, there was a door to the bathroom on the opposite side of the bed. At the foot of the bed a seating area was positioned so you could look straight out of the window at the mountains.

  Roan left me without saying a word, shutting the door behind him. I made my way over to the bathroom and too
k a look. It was perfect, a nice sized tub, sink, shower and toilet. I really wanted to use the tub but knew if I did I’d not want to get out. Turning on the shower, I stripped, looking in the mirror at the cuts and bruises that marred my skin, they would soon fade and weren’t half as bad after being tended to back at the truck. Naked I stepped into the shower, wincing as I let the water sluice over my body washing away the blood and dust. It felt like absolute bliss, once the stinging stopped.

  Using the soap I washed off as much dried blood and muck as I could although I didn’t want the deeper cuts to come anywhere near the soap, it would sting way too much. After washing my hair I got out and dried, wrapping the towel around me as I walked back into the bedroom.

  When I entered the bedroom I saw a man sat on one of the seats with a medical bag on the floor next to him. He was tall and lean and reminded me of the character Sherlock Holmes from the old books I had read as a child.

  He stood up and greeted me. “Hello. I’m the local Doctor or Vet whichever one is needed at the time my name is Gerard, you can call me Gerry.” He moved around to the foot of the bed.

  I knew The Pack had no respect for privacy but I never expected to walk out of the shower and find a strange man in the room, even if he was a doctor.

  “Now lets not be shy, I hear from Bastian that you have a lot of cuts and bruises that need dealing with.”

  I sighed and sat on the bed. “Fine Doc, do your worst.”

  He opened his bag and systematically cleaned all of my wounds dressing the deeper ones whilst I sat there despondently looking out of the window at the mountains.

  I didn’t notice he had finished until he said. “You really don’t like doctors do you?”

  “It’s not doctors, I just don’t see the point messing about when in a day or so ill be healed.”

  “Does the Beast Master know what you are yet?” He queried.

  “No and neither do you.”

  “I suggest you tell him, he doesn’t tolerate secrets very well, and not many people can sense that someone is Nymph, Fae and Human all rolled into one like I can.”

  I was shocked and taken back. I jumped to my feet clutching the towel around me. “How in the hell do you know that?” I practically shout at him.

  “Don’t worry dear, no one else knows, I may not be the person my father wanted me to be but as a teenager I developed a rather useful skill seeing other peoples auras. For some reason though it developed and I can now sense what a person is. It helps when treating The Pack I know which injuries to treat and what to leave to heal.”

  I stood there gaping at him, I’d never met anyone with a skill like that before, thankfully.

  He moved over to the door. “It’s alright your secret’s safe with me, patient confidentiality, but I would advise telling Bastian what you are. He left some clothes for you on the chair.”

  “Thank you Doc.” I gave him a small smile as he walked out closing the door behind him.

  On the chair were a pair of jeans, a vest and a jacket, I changed into them amazed they fit and sat on the bed using the towel to dry my hair a little more. I lay down on the bed for a second, it was so comfortable that within seconds the exhaustion caught up with me and I was asleep.

  A knock on the door woke me a while later; I rose from the bed in a groggy trance like state and opened the door. It was Cain he looked like he’d drawn the short straw. “We’re all ready for you if you want to come with me?”

  “Okay do I need shoes, only mine are dirty and I’m all clean?” I replied hoping not.

  “No we’re only going upstairs there’s a big communal area where we all usually relax and watch TV.”

  “That’s great, what time is it? Did I sleep long?” I said, following him out of the door and to the stairs at the end of the corridor. This place was huge, the floor we were on at the moment was dedicated to bedrooms.

  “Bastian said to let you sleep for a few hours, its nearly six now, we got back at two thirty five.”

  Cain was well built and had a young looking face his green eyes said he’d seen a lot more years than he looked, making me feel a little guilty for my comments in the forest. Walking up the stairs behind him, I tap him on the back stopping him and say “Look Cain I’m sorry about the stupid boy comment back in the forest, I hope I didn’t offend you. I have a tendency to get a little sarcastic at times.”

  “Your comment didn’t bother me, I usually get pegged for being young so don’t worry about it, I certainly won’t be.” At the top of the stairs he opens the door onto a very large space. It was filled with a dinning table and chairs, a few big sofas arranged around a big TV screen and a kitchen off to one side with various doors leading off to other places.

  Looking at the men and women lounging around I noticed there was another two people I hadn’t met yet both women. Bastian was sat at the dinning table on his own; the others were in various different positions on the sofa’s. On one sofa was a woman I hadn’t met sat next to Steve, next to them was Dante whom I met at The Pit and another woman I’d not met. Leaving Roan sat on his own on the sofa opposite the unknowns.

  Bastian looked up as Cain shut the door, coming over to us leaving whatever he was doing on the table. “I trust you slept well” He said to me. I couldn’t tell whether he was serious or sarcastic. “We’re going to get straight down to business if you don’t mind, then we can all go get a beer.”

  “That’s fine by me. But I need to make a phone call as soon as possible” I reply heading over to the sofa’s to sit next to Roan. I needed to contact The Guild and let them know that I was okay, being out of action for three weeks should have sent up a few red flags. I also wanted to get them thinking along the lines that the Lazarus weren’t who they said they were.

  “We can do something about that later, for now the people you haven’t met are Quinn.” Pointing to the woman with long blonde hair sat perched on the edge of the sofa’s arm next to Cain and Dante. “She and Cain are brother and sister their Dad Jeff is one of our missing men.” Quinn matched Cain in height and was quite athletically built, but still pretty and feminine.

  The other woman that I didn’t know sat really close together with Steve holding hands, I assumed they were mated or at least dating. “The lady sat next to Steve is Jessica.” They both nodded acknowledging me. Jessica had shoulder length light brown hair and watched everything, like she was taking in every detail and processing the moment to pounce. Steve looked relaxed, but I wasn’t fooled, I’d bet that he was taking in just as much as Jessica. “Now let’s get on with things, I’ll explain what happened with us and then you can fill us in on your case.” He sat down on the edge of the sofa that Jessica and Steve were sharing.

  “Over a week ago four of my Guardian team Jeff, Marley, Cage and Denver, went into the forest near the village you talked about, called Booth. We had received reports of a Stray hanging around the village being a general nuisance. Normally we wouldn’t send in four guys for one Stray but we had also received reports of people going missing and The Fallen had been heard close to Booth. We were not sure whether the Stray had anything to do with the missing but either way we are obligated by law to deal with any Strays. I sent my guys in, the last we heard from them was a check in saying they could hear strange things in the distance and they were about a mile, two at the most from the foot of the mountains and they still couldn’t find the Stray.

  We’ve been combing the woods for the last three weeks then this morning we went back to their last known location and walked through hoping to get a scent or trail, at this point they’d been missing nearly five weeks. Roan found blood and scratches on the roots of one of the big trees. The scratches were made by a puma and because they’re not indigenous to the area and we had two Pumas out there we knew it was them. We checked the blood when we got back and found it belonged to Denver. It looked like they had been taken by surprise and barely had time to shift into their Lycan form before they were dragged away.”

  “Whils
t checking out the area we heard those horrible screams and headed off into the forest in the direction of the mountains, I saw you first then The Fallen not far behind and moved to intercept. You passed out and the rest they say his history.”

  I moved on my seat, stood up then sat back down with my legs crossed underneath me. “I’m really sorry, they definitely have your Guardians, two pumas and a bear refusing to change. They have them in some sort of holding area, I never saw it, but one of them was killed. They kept him with me until they decided his body might force the other to change their minds and shift.” I watched Bastian gauging his reaction, you could see the anger bubbling under the surface and you could almost feel it in the room. They all bowed there heads for a moment, then the tension dissipated and it seemed like everything was normal again. I suppose they are like the Hunters I work with, you can honour the dead more by finding the killer.

  So I decided to carry on. “Did you fill everyone in on what I’d said in the car about my case and being caught?” I asked Bastian

  “Yes”

  “The Fallen aren’t a separate species or another race living amongst us, they are just like us, Human, Lycan, Witch, Demon.”

  “Hang on a minute what do you mean they’re just like us?” Quinn asked me her voice soft and gentle but still slightly outraged.

  “Well they were created by a Demon Lord as an army, he plans on using them to take over here, he just hasn’t perfected the process yet. The Fallen literally are our people that have gone missing; they have been forced to drink blood that has been cursed by the most powerful Demon Magic.”

  “What Demons are they?” Roan asked

  I squirmed a little under the scrutiny, would they believe me? “The Lazarus.” I held my breath waiting for a shocked out burst.

  Cain was the one to break the silence. “I knew there was something wrong about them, they are way too arrogant and trying too hard to be aristocratic.”