The Hunted (The Coven Series Book 1)

by Destiny Hawkins

  My lips parted to take in air. Why did she sound like she knew exactly what we were running from? I mean, it’s obvious that we’re running from something. Two kids on their own had to be running away from home, but Ms. Jones sounded as if she knew more. Like she knew that we were running from Hunters.

  “See, I told you that it was safe here,” Felix said. “You guys have nothing to worry about. If you stay a little longer, you’ll see that there are a ton of other kids that live here. This really is an orphanage.”

  Triana beamed up at me. “See.”

  Ms. Jones cleared her throat, her brown eyes locking on my grey ones. “Felix, why don’t you go ahead and fix them something to eat. I could take them to get a clean pair of clothes, and maybe…” She looked us up and down, “…Showers?”

  “Yes, we could definitely use one of those.” Triana giggled. “Right, Raven?”

  I sighed, dropping my shoulders. “Sure.”

  “Great. Why don’t you two follow me?” Ms. Jones said before heading back for the steps.

  “I’ll go and get something cooked up,” Felix said as he headed back for the hallway. “Pancakes, Triana?”

  Triana grinned. “Yes. Pancakes would be lovely.”

  Triana and I followed Ms. Jones upstairs where she led us to a spare room with two twin sized beds against opposite walls. I mentioned that we wouldn’t be staying too long, but wasn’t sure that she could hear me. She walked over to a small wooden dresser and started searching through it for clothes, tossing the ones that looked like they would fit on the bed to her right.

  Triana and I were standing by the entrance of the bedroom, patiently waiting. Observing the small room, I was actually starting to consider the thought of staying here. I mean, these people were kind, and outside of this place, Triana and I would be on the streets until I could teleport again. Even so, there was a possibility that we would end up in Egypt.

  In my peripheral, I caught something floating through the air towards us. I thought that I was hallucinating at first, but when I turned to look, I spotted a magazine bouncing through the air for Triana.

  My eyes widened. Triana’s using her powers again.

  I nudged Triana to get her attention, and when she turned to me, she raised her palms with a panicked expression on her face. Just like me, she didn’t know how to control her powers, and that’s how the Hunters found us at Uncle Sam’s house. She was younger and clumsier with her abilities, so when she wanted something, she’d accidentally start to call for it with her telekinesis.

  “Okay. I think that I’ve found a pair of clothes for the both of you,” Ms. Jones said while holding up a pair of black sweat pants.

  I nudged Triana again two times, noticing the magazine coming closer.

  Triana palmed her forehead, not knowing how to stop the magazine from floating in the air. She side stepped towards it, and just as Ms. Jones turned around, Triana snatched it out of the air and pretended to flip through it.

  “So, I have t-shirt and jeans for the both of you. Now I’m just hoping that you can fit them.”

  Triana snapped the magazine shut. “Okay, that’s fine. We’re grateful for anything, Ms. Jones.”

  Ms. Jones grinned with her eyes dropping down to the magazine in Triana’s hand. When she brought them back up, she looked over to me. “Okay, well the bathroom is just across the hall, and you’ll find towels in the cabinet. I’m going to head back to my office at the end of this hall. Once you’re finished with everything, I’d like to speak with the two of you there.”

  I nodded, locking my eyes with hers. “Sure.”

  After a few seconds, she pushed her glasses back up her nose and walked out of the room. “If you need anything, you can find me in my office,” we heard her say.

  Triana tossed the magazine on the bed and sighed with relief. “That was a close one.”

  I frowned. “You really need to learn how to control your powers.”

  Triana giggled. “Say’s the girl who teleported us all the way to England.”

  ~ The Hunted ~

  Triana and I washed, dressed, and ate in good timing. I only glanced at the clock and noticed that it was in military time, so I didn’t bother trying to figure it out. I just knew that it was past one O’clock in the afternoon, and I was still trying to decide what I wanted to do. I mean, we could stay, but even if we wanted to, would they let us?

  Triana and I walked back upstairs to meet with Ms. Jones. Her office door was open at the end of the hallway where the bright sunlight shined back at us. It was so bright that we could barely see her figure sitting behind the desk. It wasn’t until we were standing in her doorway did we see that she was working on a stack of papers in front of her.

  “Um…” I lightly knocked on the door twice to get her attention.

  Ms. Jones brought her eyes up to us and smiled. “Oh, girls. Come in, come in.” She put her pencil down and sat upright as we went to sit down in the two cushioned chairs across from her. “Thank you for coming to see me.”

  I licked my lower lip, locking my hands together between my legs. “Why did we…have to come and see you?”

  “Well,” Ms. Jones sighed. “The two of you are under aged and were found sleeping in the woods. I didn’t want to get too personal in front of Felix, but do you mind if I ask where your parents are?”

  I could see Triana’s head lower. Thinking of my parents pained me as well. “We don’t know. They…abandoned us, I guess.”

  That’s far from the truth. They fought for us, and then…

  Ms. Jones pulled her eyebrows together in concern. “So, the two of you have just been wandering out there alone? What made you come out this far? There isn’t anything out here for miles.”

  I nodded. “The city…” I needed a lie, and a good one, but couldn’t think of any. “We just…” I sighed and shook my head. “I don’t really want to get into what happened to us on our way here. Just know that our parents…abandoned us, and we had to leave where we were staying. That’s all there is to it.”

  Triana sighed, her eyes still directed to the floor.

  Ms. Jones furrowed her eyebrows before chewing on her lower lip. “And you guys have nowhere else to go?”

  I shook my head no. At least that wasn’t a lie.

  Ms. Jones nodded. “Well then, why don’t you just stay here for a while?”

  Chapter Four: Freaks

  Triana and I decided to stay for a couple of days even though we told Ms. Jones that we would stay for longer than that. At least until we thought things through. Uncle Sam said that there was a way to find our coven, so that’s exactly what we were going to do. We just needed to figure out how.

  After our talk with Ms. Jones, we went back to our new room to get some sleep. Turns out, we were still exhausted since running away from the Hunters, and our sleep in the woods wasn’t enough to replenish our much-needed energy.

  I didn’t awaken until the next day when I heard stomping run past my open doorway. Fluttering my eyes open, I noticed that Triana wasn’t in bed, but I was surprisingly calm about it. There was just something about this place that made me feel safe, even when I told myself not to let my guard down.

  I cleared my throat and kicked my feet over the bed, then smoothed my hair back with my hands, wishing that I had a brush to detangle it. As of now, I just had long knots of cyan hair hanging over my shoulders.

  I walked out of my room and headed downstairs where I heard laughing, playing, the clinking of plates, the news on the Television, and arguing. It reminded me of our coven, but I didn’t remember ever hearing Triana argue with anyone.

  Walking down the hall that led to the kitchen, I heard a boy teasing Triana about her hair, and then I saw him. He was a round black-haired little boy about the same age as her, and had a group of other pre-teens standing behind him. The girl that we saw in the woods on our first night here was sitting at the table, laughing with them.

 
Triana was only standing there with a look of defeat in her posture and expression. She wasn’t used to Normals and their form of bullying. In our coven, we only teased about how others used or couldn’t use their powers, but even then, it was something that we could laugh off. This wasn’t a laughing matter.

  “Your hair is green. You’re a freak. Who on earth dyes their hair green? It looks like vomit,” the boy pointed.

  “Yeah, it is kind of weird,” another kid said.

  “Of course, it’s weird. Her family must’ve been a bunch of nuts. That’s probably why she’s here, right?”

  “No,” I answered, slowly walking into the kitchen with a raised brow.

  The boy’s eyes widened at the sight of me. I guess he wasn’t expecting someone bigger than him to come along. Girl or not, I didn’t look like someone to mess with. Before saying anything else, I glanced at the girl at the table. At first, she looked surprised, but then she frowned. I wonder why?

  “Our family wasn’t a bunch of nuts,” I answered, resting my hand on Triana’s shoulder.

  Triana took in a deep breath and raised her chin. “Right, they weren’t.”

  The boy’s face twisted. “Then why on earth would they let the two of you do that to yourselves? You both look horrible.”

  “Why do you care?” I responded.

  “I don’t,” he snapped back.

  “Besides.” I grinned down at Triana. “Would you believe me if I told you that our hair grew this way from the roots?”

  The girl at the table snorted. “If that was the case, then the two of you really are freaks.”

  I frowned, turning to look at her.

  “We should give you nicknames.” The boy chuckled. “You could be Vomit Hair, and your big sister could be…”

  I directed my attention back towards the boy. “If you start calling my sister names, I’ll refer to you as Fat Blob to keep things on equal grounds.”

  The boy only frowned, trying to hide his embarrassment from his friends.

  “Honestly, is that really mature?” the girl asked. “Bradly is only twelve. You’re too old to be arguing with him.”

  “Oh whatever, Beatrice.” Felix chuckled as he walked into the kitchen. He headed straight for the cupboard and started going through it. “You argue with your little brother almost every day, and you say even worse things than that.”

  Beatrice huffed with reddening cheeks, then looked back down into the book that she was reading.

  “All kids out while I start cooking. The cook has gone on vacation, so I have to fix the meals for today,” Felix said, sitting pancake mix down on the counter. “Hope you aren’t getting tired of pancakes already, Triana.”

  Triana smiled. “No, not at all. I’ll take three.”

  “Alright.” Felix’s eyes moved up to mine, and a smile pulled up on his face. “Care to help?”

  The boys walked out of the kitchen, each mumbling something under their breaths.

  My eyes widened. “Me? I’m not very good at that type of thing.”

  “What? Cooking?” Felix chuckled. “Come on, this is easy. I’ll show you.”

  A slight smile formed on my lips. “Are you sure? I have a few horror stories from cooking with my…” The thought of cooking with my mother pulled at my chest. “I’ve just had a few not so good experiences with cooking. Things tend to…blow up.”

  Felix offered an understanding smile, but he still wasn’t letting up. “Can’t be any worse than me.”

  Sighing, I decided to help. At first, things were a little awkward, but once he started singing, which wasn’t very good, I started to lighten up. He reminded me of Uncle Sam when he’d cook and sing to the loud speakers every Sunday morning. This wasn’t so different.

  Once Triana started singing with him, Beatrice left the kitchen with a frown on her face. Triana shrugged, and I chuckled. I had the feeling that Beatrice and I weren’t going to be getting along very well.

  After a few nights at the orphanage, I learned that I was right. Beatrice and I never really did much talking, but when we saw each other she’d frown, bump into me, or speak indirectly with one of the other kids while I was in the same room. I never paid her much attention, but she was starting to get under my skin little by little. When I actually confronted her about it, she told me that there was something not right about my sister and I, and she didn’t like freaks in her home. I responded with a nonchalant shrug, pissing her off even more than when she woke up. It’s not like Triana and I have used our powers in front of her, so I didn’t know what made her think that we were freaks. Maybe it was a Normal teen thing.

  Triana and I talked every now and then about how we would find our coven, but we could never come up with anything. Not even after two weeks, and after the third week, we stopped trying. I mean, we couldn’t use our powers to try and tap into a connection in fear that we would attract the Hunters, and there was nothing about witches in the library that could help us. We tried looking, but there was no point. What Normals kept witch books in their libraries?

  Chapter Five: Bubbles

  On my stay at the orphanage, I’ve come to notice a few things about the people here. For instance, Felix likes to sneak out. I wouldn’t really call it sneaking since he was eighteen years old, but he would tip-toe out of the mansion every other night when he thought that everyone was sleeping.

  Watching him from my window, I wasn’t sure of where he was going exactly, but I did watch him disappear into the woods. The next morning, he would either be in a chair reading a book, or locked away in his room. As charming as he seemed, he wasn’t a big talker, and mostly everyone grew quiet when he was around as if he was Ms. Jones. I actually didn’t see her much at all.

  Ms. Jones was always locked away in her office, talking on her phone or probably working on a stack of papers. She only ever came out to help the staff with the younger children, or to tutor others on what they didn’t understand during their homeschooling sessions. She gave us the option to do homeschooling as well, not forcing us for whatever reason. I never participated, but Triana was happy to join. My sister was always such a nerd.

  ~The Hunted~

  Three weeks and neither Triana or I have accidentally used our powers. It worried me at first, like we’d lost them somehow, but then I figured that we’ve just become better at keeping them in check. Maybe we didn’t ever have to worry about the Hunters again?

  It was the middle of the night when I heard the faint sound of a door closing. I got out of bed, one hundred percent sure that it was Felix leaving out for the night, and went to the window. After counting to ten, I saw him come around from the front of the mansion and start jogging towards the woods.

  “Where the hell is he going?” I whispered.

  I watched until he disappeared into the darkness of the trees, then backed away from the window. There was always something off about Ms. Jones and Felix, like they knew something that I didn’t, or that they knew more than they should. I was sure that Felix didn’t run out every night to smoke like we caught Beatrice doing the night we teleported. It didn’t even make sense for her to be doing that, but she’s just different. Felix, on the other hand, was up to something.

  I should just go back to sleep, I thought. What he’s doing is his business.

  I just couldn’t help myself though. It was as if my body was moving on auto pilot, and I was just a passenger going along for the ride.

  ~The Hunted~

  It was chilly outside, like the first night that Triana and I had slept in the woods, but it kind of felt good. The cold breeze blowing through my hair was relaxing, even if it did cause goosebumps to rise over my arms.

  I was walking across the large field towards the dark trees now. I wasn’t sure why I was starting to feel fear, because I wasn’t afraid the night that I was with Triana. Maybe it was that I felt like I had to protect her, so I was able to be brave, but since I only had to protect myself out here, I was start
ing to second guess my decision to follow Felix.

  Maybe if Felix wasn’t so jolly one day and mysterious the next, I wouldn’t feel the need to snoop around.

  My being out here is definitely all his fault.

  Finally reaching the woods, I blew out a deep breath before stepping inside. After a few more steps, I was completely engulfed in darkness, but then my eyes started to adjust and I was able to use the moonlight to see.

  The wind blew again, rustling the leaves and making it sound as if multiple people were running circles around me, but then the wind calmed. I folded my arms tightly, shivering in the cold.

  Where could he have gone? It’s so dark. I should probably turn back.

  I walked a little further, glancing over my shoulder every now and then to make sure that I could still see the exit of the woods, and once I couldn’t see it as clearly, I stopped moving. “I don’t get it. Where the hell could he have gone?” I looked from left to right and even tried to listen for him but heard and saw nothing. “Forget it. This was a dumb idea.” I started to turn around, but as soon as I did, I heard a sound that I probably shouldn’t have heard. Not in England.

  There was the sound of something growling behind me. It was deep, and it was the most intimidating sound I’d ever heard. On television, it wasn’t so bad, because the big cats were behind the screen, but right now, it sounded as if there was one right behind me.

  Slowly looking over my shoulder, I spotted two yellow eyes staring at me from only a few feet away. I was stunned, frozen where I stood. I didn’t get to see exactly what it was that was growling at me until it stepped into the moonlight.

  The feline had white fur with long black stripes going up and down its body, and its long tail flipped through the air as it slowly approached me. It was a tiger. A freaking white tiger had somehow gotten loose from the zoo and was ready to rip me into shreds.