Hunted (Scarlet Dawson Book 1)

by Nicola Chadwick

  “Hey, did you get them?” He asks me stopping midway up the steps.

  “Yeah, I got both my file and my mothers. You wanna come and sit in my room and look over them?” I figure everyone was going to be looking at the files sooner or later but I needed some space first. I also wanted to put a bit of distance between the reality of what I might find and my emotions before I had to face everyone else.

  “Yeah I’ll go and grab some coffee and snacks, you look like you need it.” He races off ahead as Bastian catches up to me on the stairs.

  “Are you going to hole up in your room and look over the files?”

  I carry on up the stairs with Bastian following me. “Yes and you’re not invited.” I say indignantly.

  “Why?” He asks grabbing my arms and stopping me before I reach the door.

  “I want space and Aylesbury has earned the right to look over the files with me.” I pull my arm out of his grasp.

  “Fine but you will report your findings to me as soon as you’re done, and under no circumstances is anyone sharing your room with you.”

  “Go jump off a large cliff.” I shout at his retreating back.

  I walk into the room and get comfy in one of the chairs; I pull the two files out and open the one marked Ivy with a date of nearly twenty four years ago.

  I flick open the file just as Aylesbury walks back in with a tray overloaded with stuff.

  “How much food do you want?” I ask him as he sits down and spreads the food and drink out on the little table.

  “Well you need to keep your strength up.”

  “I’m supposed to do that by eating food you have so obviously bought down for yourself and not me.” I eye the beef jerky he was about to take a big bite out of.

  “Oh this is all just for me, Bastian is preparing you something now. He said something along the lines of providing for his mate.”

  The door opens then and Bastian walks in with another tray balanced on one arm. He holds the other arm up as I was bout to speak. “Don’t worry I’m not staying and you don’t have to eat any of this if you don’t want. I wasn’t quite sure what someone who doesn’t eat meat would like.” He says the last part like he can’t believe he was stuck with a vegetarian. He puts the tray down and walks out.

  He’d done a good job, there were all sorts of little delicacies, feta with olives and crusty bread, an assortment of salads and some cold slices of mushroom pizza. He’d done a very good job. If I ate this was it saying I was accepting him, I’d already told him I was his so I tucked right in, savouring the taste. I didn’t realise how hungry I was.

  “I’m going to look at my mothers file, if you want to have a look through my file and let me know what you think.” I say to Aylesbury who was happily making a pig out of himself with the food he’d brought in. He grunts and picks up the file and starts reading, so I follow suit.

  Cranworthy, Alice. Case notes, investigation: Ivy (last name unknown).

  15 reports have been taken in four days from the victim, the stalker has still not been found however he has maintained contact with victim even with a patrol car remaining outside the victim’s place of residence. Through each of these interactions he has been unnoticed by the patrol.

  A child’s screaming was heard distinctly upon entry however once the room was secured it became apparent the child was under the floor boards.

  Well they told me one thing right. I read on.

  Once child was located and more officers arrived on the scene, a thorough check of the scene was conducted. The victim was drained of blood but under black light not one drop was found anywhere on the scene. Due to the victim never having left her place of residence we believe she must have been murdered on scene even though trace evidence cannot be found.

  Investigations have proved futile up to this point, however the marks found during autopsy may prove Demon involvement.

  Autopsy report shows that the victim was a pure blood Wood Nymph which in itself is completely rare, this maybe why the victim was drained of her blood by the unknown Demon faction.

  A Local demonologist tells me that the blood drained from the victim would have been for some form of ritual or spell. Without knowing what exactly the blood was wanted for we cannot pursue this avenue to lead us to the Demon faction. The Demonologist also stated that the faction may have actually been after the blood of the child due to its rare nature.

  They wanted my blood. They beat me on a daily basis for my blood. They had killed my mother to get to me, taking her blood and hoping that will suffice. I grabbed my file from a now sleeping Aylesbury, he must have climbed onto the bed a while ago and he’d never heard Bastian’s protests about him sleeping in my room. I cover him up and leave the room with my file.

  I sit down in the corridor and lean against the shut door, drawing my knees up and resting the file against them.

  Name: Scarlet

  Orphanage: Dawson’s

  Blood tests show that Scarlet has a full blooded Wood Nymph mother and a Fae/Human father; anomalies have been found in the blood but we have no basis for comparison.

  Scarlet has proved difficult to home, through our mainly human clientele wanting a child who will be easier to control. Scarlet has started shifting and shows no control over her appearance. Select members of The Guild senate are holding back Scarlet’s chances of finding a family by vetting clients before they come to us.

  I flick through the pages that detail each family that turned me down and skip to the records marked with The Guild Logo.

  Upon joining The Guild Scarlet was provided with falsified documents pertaining information on her mothers murder, hopefully this will stop any intention she has to connect with her past. Due to the anomalies found in her blood it has been decided that she must remain a member of The Guild staff so when such date comes and her condition progresses she will be under Guild control.

  Delaney has been warned that Scarlet must under no circumstance look for her family if any can be located. This is not only for her safety but that of her brother Jared (Also a Guild Hunter).

  Scarlet is proving difficult to hold back from aspects of her past that we wish to remain hidden.

  Blood tests show that the anomalies from previous tests have mutated. We are still unsure what these anomalies are.

  Why were The Guild covering this up? From what I’d read they didn’t even know who had killed my mother and the only significant thing in my entire file was the anomalies in my blood but why was it so important that I had to remain under Guild control? At least I knew it wasn’t me that had put prospective parents off, The Guild had deliberately set me up to be alone.

  I suddenly feel tired so I check each of the doors to the empty rooms, every single one is locked. Including the door to the lounge area. I’d bet that Bastian has done this purposely knowing that only leaves me with two bedroom options and Aylesbury is in one of them.

  I wander into Bastian’s room without knocking, he jumps off the bed and stands up. He is wearing jeans and nothing else, he looks really good with the lamplight casting shadows on his muscles. I’d read somewhere that he was 6 feet 5 inches and weighed 300lbs. He was rock solid muscle. At the time I’d thought he weighed that much because he was tall and chubby. What was I thinking?

  He smiles at me and I stop him there. “I need a room. Aylesbury’s asleep on my bed. I was going to sleep there just to piss you off but that guy snores really loud and someone’s locked me out of all the other rooms.”

  He smiles a really smug smile and advances on me. He backs me up against the wall and although he was almost touching me he stops short of coming into direct contact. He leans in and inhales deeply.

  I push him away. “What the hell are you doing?”

  “I wanted to see if he’d tried anything.” He replies simply.

  “Well next time ask, the only one that seems to want to finish what we’ve started is Roan.” He really was annoying, good looking but annoying.

  “I’ll ign
ore that, did you eat?” He moves further away and into the room.

  “Yes.”

  I look around at the room, even though I’d been in here yesterday I’d not really noticed it. It was fairly neutral and a lot bigger than all the others. I suppose being King you can’t really stay in the smallest room.

  He has a big bed, probably custom made, you could fit a number of people in it, and there was a sofa like one of the ones up stairs. Everything from the carpet to the walls and furniture was decorated in different hues of cream and brown.

  “You can stay in here. I’ll sleep on the sofa.”

  “Can’t you open one of the spare rooms?” I wasn’t sure it was a good idea if we stayed in the same room.

  “No and I won’t let you sleep anywhere else, I’ll sleep on the sofa.”

  There was a loud mewing at the door followed by intense scratching and more mewing. I open the door, picking Jinx up. She’d located me and wouldn’t be happy if I kept her locked out.

  I walk over to the bed and pull off my trousers before climbing into the covers. Jinx crawls onto one of the pillows and curls up. Bastian just stands there staring. I had actually shocked him.

  “No funny business Bastian.” I say leaving him staring as I turn off the bed side lamp, leaving the room in darkness.

  I lay there a while listening to Bastian move around before I finally relax enough to drift off. My last thought before I finally succumbed to sleep was, what’s so special about my blood that The Demons and Fae would go to so much trouble to get a hold of it?

  Chapter Thirty

  I wake up feeling extremely warm, comfortable and relaxed, considering the news I’d had recently that was unusual. As I come to my senses I realise I was anchored firmly to the bed by one big muscled arm and the heat was coming from behind me. I untangle myself and stand glaring at Bastian as he wakes up.

  “I thought there was going to be no funny business.” I fume at him as I pull on my trousers.

  He pulls off the cover and thankfully he’s got something on underneath it, he’d replaced his jeans for something a little more comfortable. I never imagined him as a pyjama man.

  “I never answered when you said no funny business and it just seemed natural to get into bed with you. You should be thankful that’s all I did, when I got in bed with you, you started moaning my name.”

  I ignore him and walk out, Jinx running after me. I head back to my room, Aylesbury was still fast asleep. I walk over and poke him. He stirs and rubs his eyes.

  “You could have brought me coffee.” He grumbles as he sits up.

  “Get your own coffee. We need to get together with everyone else and let them know what my files said.” I tell him as he throws himself back down in the bed while I grab some fresh clothes.

  “Excellent idea, I’ll gather everyone in the lounge.” Bastian says from the doorway before exiting.

  “He best not have been checking up on me.” I mutter to myself.

  “What do you mean?” Aylesbury asks.

  I head into the bathroom to change leaving the door open so I could still talk to Aylesbury. “It seems our unfinished mating is making members of the opposite sex want to finish the job for him.”

  I emerge from the bathroom as Aylesbury replies. “That’s just stupid, not everyone is going to fancy you. Although I can understand the need to protect what’s his. Have you thought finishing things with him might help relax him a little?”

  “I don’t know if that’s what I want yet.”

  “Then tell me this Red, where did you sleep last night?”

  Maybe he is right, I walk out and head upstairs carrying the files. Almost everyone was up there including Jared who was sat talking to Bastian. For someone that had an aversion to Fae he sure liked Jared and he was a lot more Fae than me.

  I sit down opposite Jared and he moves to come and sit with me, he picks up my file and starts to read through.

  “You can all look at my mother’s file at some point and give me your input but at the moment I’ll just give you the basics.” Aylesbury walks in and sits with Bastian, smiling at me as he sits down. Was he trying to make matters worse? There was still no sign of Roan either, perhaps he just needed some space.

  “According to the files my mother was beaten and completely drained of blood. The investigating officer Alice Cranworthy concluded that her blood was wanted by a Demon Horde for a spell or ritual, she also states that it may not have actually been my mothers blood they were after but mine due to its rare nature and they took my mothers because they couldn’t get to me.”

  Jessica turns to me. “But why is your blood so special there are plenty of other hybrids and half breeds out there? Sorry no offence.”

  “None taken.” I look at Jared he was looking at me really strange. “What?”

  “I know what the anomalies are in your blood. I also know why The Guild wants to keep you under their control.” He sighs and gets up, pacing the room. “All the other half breeds and Hybrids out there like me maybe few and far between but you’re definitely the only one of your kind. You were born not just of a Nymph mother and a Fae and Human father but you were also born of a Vampyre.”

  “What the hell does that mean?” I ask a little confused.

  “It probably means nothing but if there are any children born of Vampyre’s there have never been any reports, those that know they exist know they are made and driven by their blood lust. You may be the first ever born Vampyre.”

  “Great I’m now even weirder.” I mutter to no one in particular.

  “I wouldn’t say that, but you may develop other abilities that you wouldn’t have had before.” Steve said

  “What like craving blood? That’s just gross, I don’t even eat meat.”

  Bastian looks at me. “I really doubt that will ever be a problem for you, but if you want we can have Gerry run some tests and do some research, let you know what you can expect.”

  “We’ll see. For now we need to figure out how were going to get your men back and stop The Lazarus.”

  There’s a sudden commotion in the door way to the room and Roan stumbles in all bloody and weak. I get up and rush to his side. What had he done? Dante helps me lower him to a chair at the kitchen table.

  Bastian comes over shouting orders as he moves. “Get Gerry over here now! Jessica you go and fetch the first aid kit.” He seems concerned but did this have something to do with the argument they’d had.

  I go over to the sink and dampen a cloth passing it to Bastian, he starts to dab gently at the blood seeping from Roan’s head.

  “Are you going to tell me what happened?” Bastian asks trying not to sound too much like he was saying tell me or I’ll make you.

  Wincing as the cloth grazes over a cut on his head he says. “When I left I went to the caves, I wanted to prove that I could take care of you.” He says looking at me. Bastian swears but Roan carries on. “They overwhelmed me straight away, put me in silver cuffs. They let me go after they beat me. They said I’ve got twenty four hours to give you and Bastian to them or they come here and get you.”

  “Why do they want Bastian?” I ask.

  “Never mind that, there not having either of us, were safe enough here.” Bastian grinds out.

  Gerry walks in at that moment followed by Steve. “Everyone back off, let me have a look at his wounds.”

  We all move back a little and give him some space to work. He looks at the wounds and feel his arms and around his ribs.

  “I want to move him to the infirmary and get him cleaned up, he should be alright in a few hours.” He says, then turns to Dante. “You can help me support him.”

  They pick him up and head for the door that leads to the hospital.

  Bastian speaks to Gerry. “Do not let him leave until I’ve spoken with him. For the time being he is under house arrest.”

  They disappear out through the door. I turn on Bastian. “Why are you putting him under house arrest?”

  �
�He has not only put himself in danger but The Manor, The Pack and you.” He says to me his voice a low growl, okay he was angry again.

  “Who’s to say they wouldn’t have come here eventually anyway.”

  “They didn’t know where you where until he went and tattled.” He sighs trying to calm himself. “Look let me just deal with this, it may all be a power play to draw you out in the open.”

  It dawns on me then. I could get answers without going to the caves.

  “You deal with that I’m taking Jared and Aylesbury to do some more investigating.”

  “That was a little too easy, what are you up to?” Bastian demands.

  I give him a slow smile. “Nothing much. I’m taking the truck, there’s someone I want to see in the city.”

  Aylesbury grabs the keys from Dante who fishes them out of the cupboard when Bastian nods his agreement. I grab Jared and pull him to the stairs with Aylesbury in tow. When we are descending he asks. “What are you up to little Sis?”

  “I’ll tell you in the truck, I just know the big brute’s listening in.”

  We head downstairs and into the courtyard and jump into my favourite truck. Aylesbury drives, I called shotgun and Jared climbs in the back.

  As soon as we set off Aylesbury says. “Spill.”

  “Were going to kidnap The Demon they’ve put on my apartment building.”

  “You’re joking right?” Jared says.

  At the same time Aylesbury speaks. “Sweet, how are we doing this?”

  “I think if we pull up in the church parking lot and walk over to my building, he should be out front loitering around across the street. If you and Jared come up on either side and I walk right up in front of him, he’ll be to busy thinking he’s hit pay load to acknowledge that you two are about to pounce.”