Hunter Trials (The Vampire Legacy Book 2)

by Rita Stradling

  "He's not, and he doesn't hate either of you this much." Mitch tossed his pillow onto the floor and threw himself down on it. "Even I don't hate you this much, Amber, and Justin actually loves Dirtbag. If the vampires got help from the inside, it was from someone other than Justin."

  "No one is going to believe that. They came straight up to the fifth floor to kill her … probably to kill all of us." Mark stretched out along the wall. "Justin leaks the information about all of the Elites Friday, and then vampires attack the Elite level of the dorm Sunday."

  "Technically, it's Monday," Mitch said. "And Justin didn't do this."

  "Of course he did," Amber called over from the couch as she sat there with her head in her hands.

  "Up until now, they've had orders to capture him alive," Mark said. "I really doubt that's going to be true in the morning." From what I could tell, Mark was the kindest, most well-liked Elite of the group, and if he was saying that everyone was going to blame Justin for this, he was probably right.

  "Look, I can't fight with your stupidity. You want to believe it; then I can't fucking stop you. But Justin didn't send the plans for the school or the guard schedules. He copied our medical records," Mitch articulated the words. "That guard let the vampires in to attack us."

  "The dead guard whose blood is all over my pajamas, Mitch?" Amber called over. "Yes, he was definitely in league with the vampires,” she said in clear sarcasm. “Why wouldn’t he …” she made a choking sound, “Oh. I'm going to be sick." Amber stumbled away from my sofa and rushed over to my bathroom and slammed the door closed behind her.

  Convincing either of them of Justin’s innocence was a lost cause, anyway. Mitch must have come to the same conclusion because he grew silent, and eventually, his head ducked down, and his breathing grew even.

  Between the tension and lying on the floor, my whole body pulsed with strikes of muscle pain, but I didn't want to leave my apartment floor. I curled around Bailey and waited for the door to open.

  It took five more hours. The metal bars pulled back, and there was again a hole in my door with a face peeking through. Instead of red eyes, these were soft chocolate brown.

  All three of the drunkards were snoring around me, but I still sat there awake beside my dog.

  "The current occupants of this room are Mitchel Holter, Amber Davenport, Mark Yates, and January Moore?" a woman called through the hole in a militant-sounding voice.

  "Yes," I said, my voice coming out a croak.

  "Do you need medical treatment?"

  I crawled around, shaking everyone awake and asking if they needed a medic. Everyone in the room called that they didn't, even though I could see a darkening bruise on the side of both Mark and Mitch's faces where the vampire must have skimmed them as they punched through the door.

  “Good,” the soldier responded. “You can return to your regular rooms and get ready for class as usual."

  "You're not serious." Amber sat up and flung her red hair to the side. “We were just attacked by vampires.”

  "And you go to a school that teaches you to slay them,” the guard deadpanned. “Class schedules continue as usual."

  The day dragged on in a way no day had ever done before. I actually laid my head down on my desk next to Mitch's and fell asleep a couple of times. When I was awake, I wished I wasn't. The news was out. Justin Roberts had sent the vampires after the Elites, including his own cousin and girlfriend, out of jealousy for Elite powers. The Hawthorn Group now had a kill order out on him, and everyone was grateful. Justin was evil. Everyone knew it for a fact.

  By the time Sebastian Holter's driver picked me up, I was too exhausted and world-weary to keep my eyes open. Sebastian had me running the length of the gym again, and at one point I tripped, smacked my face into the mat, and just lay there.

  After that, Sebastian demanded I headed over to the medical facility, which looked an awful lot like an emergency room or trauma center. I sleepwalked through a full physical, something that I hadn't had done since I was eight. When they tried to draw my blood though, my eyes snapped open, and I refused point-blank. No amount of exhaustion would convince me to be their lab rat.

  I didn't like the gleam in the large male doctor's eyes when he said he was going to ask Mr. Holter how to proceed from here. I slipped off the examination bed, taking the paper liner with me. Quickly, I pulled on my jeans and t-shirt and headed out of the door. I walked through the hallways of the medical center until I found the medical records room.

  The stairwell that Justin entered when he talked to my father on the phone had windows on two sides, meaning that it had to be at one of the building's corners. It had taken exactly eight seconds for Justin to walk to the stairwell from the medical records room while the phone was in his pocket.

  Even though my entire body felt like it was weighted down with rocks, I walked down the hall from the medical records room, counting in my head one one-thousand, two one-thousand and on until I got to thirty-one thousand and I hit the first stairwell door. The guard standing by it eyed me warily as I turned and jogged back the way I came. The other stairwell was forty counts away from the medical records rooms. The last two corners would need me to cross twice the distance and cross through several doors. I then did it at a jog and then a run. Even at a run, it was fifteen seconds or twenty seconds, and I hadn’t heard heavy footfalls in the video.

  There was no way that Justin walked into a stairwell and made that call directly after copying the files.

  Fuck their evidence.

  When the doctor arrived to tell me that I needed to return to Sebastian, I was waiting for him on the examination table.

  As I stood before Sebastian and sunk my fangs into another blood bag, the word ‘liar’ repeated in my head, over and over. The moment I was done, Sebastian headed back into the apartment, and I pulled out my cell phone. My hands shook as I dialed Justin’s phone number. I didn’t even know why I was doing it. Perhaps I wanted to be reckless.

  The tone rang through the receiver, and a ringing sounded from the direction of the living room. Holding my phone to my chest, I jogged down the hallway and paused to listen. The ringing cut off abruptly, and my heart jumped in my chest as I lifted the phone back to my ear.

  “You have a phone?” Sebastian said, both over the receiver and directly behind me.

  I spun, finding him framed in the door of his hallway, holding Justin’s phone to his ear. A hot tear dripped onto my cheek and trickled down.

  “Stop crying.” Sebastian pocketed the phone. “My agents found Justin’s phone outside of Gregory Hall.”

  “Liar.” I could barely speak past the lump in my throat. “Where’s Justin?”

  A smirk lit on Sebastian’s lips. “We’re assuming that he’s with your father.”

  “Except he didn’t talk to my father that night, did he? Two different video clips were pasted together from separate times when the phone was in Justin's pocket. The phone call with my father was probably days before Justin stole those files.”

  “You’re imagining things again, January.”

  I had gone over the conversation between Justin and my father in my mind while I waited for the doctor to return. My father had only said that he got something—not what he got. For all I knew, it could have been my fake passport. He said he didn't want Justin to be caught before the escape. He asked Justin if I knew, and Justin said, "I’m not going to tell her until I absolutely have to.” He didn't say that he wasn't going to tell me unless he had to. He said until. Which meant that he planned to tell me whatever he was discussing with my father.

  “I must have quite an imagination then. My father said that he’d contact Justin with the extraction point in that video because vampires planned to attack the school. Justin told me Friday morning that we needed to move up our escape to this weekend, and you heard every word of that conversation. You were spying on us through Justin’s phone. You knew that we were planning to escape. My father wouldn’t have extracted Justin
and not me—not while the vampires were coming to attack.”

  “Clearly, your father prioritized Justin. Vampires are fickle.” Sebastian crossed his arms over his chest. “Your father must have moved up the escape plans to Friday.”

  “You’re telling me that my vampire father went to Blackburn Academy midday and got past hundreds of HG soldiers who were following Justin around that morning believing he committed treason.”

  “Justin did commit treason.”

  I pointed up into Sebastian’s face. “He took pictures of medical records. That’s it. He didn’t give them to my father.”

  Sebastian’s dead eyes seemed to look right through me like I wasn’t even there. “The evidence suggests otherwise.”

  Justin didn’t just want us to flee because of the vampire attack. He wanted us to escape because he discovered why Sebastian murdered his sister, and Sebastian probably heard all of that, too.

  “Do you have Justin?” I asked. “What have you done with him?”

  Sebastian stared at me, his expression like stone. “Win the Senior Hunt.”

  “What?”

  “Win the Senior Hunt, become Senior Huntress.”

  “Why does that matter to you?” I picked up a brass lamp from his end table, wrapped my hands around its heavy weight, and yanked the cord from the wall. I lifted it like a bat. “Is Justin alive?”

  “Careful, January. Remember our deal? You can only attack me if you drink from me, too.”

  “Wrong answer.” I leaped toward him and swung.

  Sebastian’s figure blurred, and then suddenly, the metal wrenched away from my hand so hard that my fingers exploded in pain, and then the metal slammed into the side of my head. My vision darkened as agony consumed me. The ground dropped out from under me, and my side slammed into the glass coffee table. There was a loud cracking sound, the table gave way, and then hundreds of sharp shards sliced into my skin.

  The world smeared together into a nauseating mess of gray and white as I attempted to raise my pounding head. “What did you do to him?”

  “Did you really think you could attack me without consequences, January?” Sebastian squatted down next to me.

  “Fuck you. Fuck your games. This internship is over.”

  “This relationship will be over when you’re dead and not a moment before.”

  Hot metallic blood filled my mouth, and I spit it at him. Blood dripped down his cheeks and nose. It looked so fucking natural on him.

  “Or maybe it’ll be over when you’re dead.” I pushed up on the shattered glass table I’d fallen into, and my hand closed around a shard. It slickened where blood dripped down as it sliced into my hand. I lifted the sharp point between us. “Tell me where he is.”

  Sebastian hadn’t admitted that he took Justin, not directly, but we both knew that he had. I could feel it in the marrow of my bones. He pulled over Justin’s phone, and my gaze fixed on it as he unlocked the screen.

  “Who are you calling? The people who have Justin?”

  “I’m setting a timer to see how long it takes you to heal. Drop the glass shard, or I’ll break your arm.” Sebastian dropped the phone again, and his hands snapped forward and wrapped around both of my wrists. His fingers squeezed, grinding my wrist bones together.

  I gasped, and my hand spasmed and dropped the shard.

  “Now we’re going to stand.” Sebastian yanked me up by my arms. I fought his grip, but he didn’t acknowledge my struggle in any way. I brought up my knee, but pain exploded through my leg as my knee hit bone instead of soft flesh.

  “I’m going to …” I trailed off as my whole body burned, and the side of my face scorched as if it was dunked in boiling water. Invisible flames licked over my skin. A thunderous thumping pounded through the room, and my teeth tingled. I needed blood, and I smelled it everywhere around me. My teeth ached, and burning lava coursed through my veins. My throat was drier than an oven and rougher than sandpaper.

  “Is this what you want, Sebastian?” I croaked. I lifted my head and peered at him through my blood-soaked hair. “You want me to attack you? Do you want me to drain you of blood?”

  I could.

  I knew it with absolute certainty. I could latch onto this man and consume his blood to the last drop.

  Maybe he could see it in my eyes because Sebastian released my hands and took a step back from me. “I’ll get you blood bags.”

  “Are you sure?” I took a step forward and savored the fear in his eyes. It felt like a victory. It felt like power. My mouth filled with saliva. I was ready to drink.

  “I’ve changed my mind about you feeding directly from me. Wait here.” Sebastian held out a hand like he was going to push me back, and his figure blurred. Then he was gone.

  For just a moment, I considered stalking him through the apartment. I could imagine myself, crawling silently toward him and leaping onto his back. I’d bury my fangs deep into his neck and latch on until his strength failed him.

  I squeezed my eyes closed.

  No.

  Scratch that. Fuck no. I would not become that, even if it got Sebastian to talk, even if I could rid myself of Sebastian’s evil forever.

  When he returned with the blood bags, I snatched them from his hands and drank deeply. The moment they were drained, I shoved the blood bags back at the guy and turned for the door. On my way out, I took one glance around, peering over the destruction of the table and the glass shattered across the living room. I looked as bad as the room. My shorts and shirt were shredded like someone went at me with a razor blade, but my skin didn’t have so much as a scratch.

  Squeezing my hands into fists, I pushed out of Sebastian’s apartment. Mitch waited for me as always in his muscle car. I fell into the seat beside Mitch and slammed the car door.

  “What the fuck happened to you?” he growled as he shifted into drive and headed down the road.

  “Mystery solved. Your brother framed Justin and kidnapped him.”

  Mitch slammed on the brakes, and I jerked into my seatbelt. The expression he turned on me brimmed with panic.

  I pointed behind me. “He knows I know. I called Justin’s phone, and it was in there. Then I tried to hit Sebastian with a brass lamp.”

  “Are you out of your mind?”

  I shook my head. “Maybe.” A hot tear ran down my face, and I scrubbed it away. “Your brother is fucking evil.”

  “When was that unclear to you?” Mitch threw up his hands. “Well, do you need to go to a hospital?”

  “No.” As we were turning out of the garage, I pointed to the right and tapped on the window. “Can we take a turn here?”

  Mitch didn’t ask questions. He drove where I directed him. When we got to the tail end of King Street, where there were more potholes than road, he refused to drive his precious car any further. We walked the rest of the way to my old house. We’d only been gone a month, but even in the low illumination from the moon, I could see several graffiti tags over the front wall. The few windows that I hadn’t boarded up were only jagged glass shards. Someone had ripped the door away, taking part of the doorframe with it. We crossed the stoop, and I used my phone as a flashlight.

  Inside the house was total destruction. The cupboards and counters were little more than tinder. Deep claw marks slashed across the walls. A dark liquid splattered up to the ceiling.

  “Vampire,” Mitch said as he peered around.

  I closed my eyes and covered my mouth with my hand. It had only been a guess, but if the thing my father got Justin was my passport and papers, then he had the opportunity to give Justin the extraction point before Friday. The note with my former address had seemed so odd with the other papers that I’d started to wonder if it had been our extraction point.

  Sebastian Holter must have learned that my father was supposed to meet us here before I figured it out. I reached up and touched the deep groove of a claw mark. I didn’t even know my father, but emotion choked up in my chest.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE<
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  The last thing I wanted to be doing the next day was chasing freshmen over a ropes course, but there I was. The guy in front of me was all the way to the next structure, and I was holding up a line of about ten freshmen who had lapped me and were trying to make their second round through.

  I gripped onto the coarse rope as sweat dripped down my face.

  Something in me screamed that Justin and my father were both still alive, but that scream could simply be foolish hope.

  "January!" Professor Whitney shouted from the grass. Her beefy arms crossed over her chest, and she glowered at me like I was holding up the class on purpose. Any other day, I would have given a crap about her scorn. Maybe. The professor definitely wasn't my favorite person. She was a tool of the Hawthorn Group who'd been willing to hold me down to force answers from me. Part of me knew that wasn't fair. They had thought that I could have killed someone in my year of being a dhampir. Maybe Mitch was right. Maybe I like to hold onto grudges.

  "As soon as you make it down, you're with me," she called through cupped hands.

  My muscles screamed as I gripped onto a knot in the rough rope and swung to the next structure. My legs took the impact as I collided with the wood. I knew that now I was supposed to climb up to the next structure by walking up the wall, but I slipped down to the ground instead, letting the rope slide through my fingers. My palms burned when my feet hit the ground, but I ignored it and walked the rope back so the next freshman in line could grab it.

  Professor Whitney's brows shot up as I came to stand before her. Rippling clouds blanketed the sky, giving us one of the coolest mornings that we'd had in months. Pretty soon the air would buzz with fall and each day would be cooler than the one before. It was my favorite time of year, and I wondered if I'd even see it.

  "When I said come down when you're finished, I meant that you should actually finish," the burly professor said. "I'm going to need you to run it again."

  I grabbed my cramping sides. My breaths were coming fast and heavy. "Can I go after they're all finished?"