by J. C. Diem
In response, I crunched the tasteless cereal loudly between my molars. Connor cracked a smile, but Quin looked heavenward as if she was searching for mental strength. I’d only been their prisoner for one night and I already knew I didn’t like Mirra. She was far too gorgeous and snooty. Compared to her, I was plain enough to be almost as invisible as Jonah. I comforted myself with the knowledge that most women would have been insignificant in her presence.
After breakfast, Quin gestured for me to follow her. Connor came as well, but Mirra sauntered off in another direction. “I’ve seen you fight hand-to-hand, but I want to assess your weapons training,” the leader of the H.E. said. I was sure Connor had already given her an account of my abilities, but she wanted to judge them for herself. It was what any competent leader would have done.
Once again, Quin was dressed in clothes that fell just short of being an army uniform. The veins in her biceps stood out and her white t-shirt was almost too tight around her shoulders. It wasn’t anywhere near as compelling as seeing Connor’s shirt straining against his muscles. At least, not for me. I was sure some people out there would find her strength and aggressive nature appealing.
At the end of the hall next to what was probably a servants’ staircase leading upwards, we reached a dead end. Quin pushed a nearly invisible button on the wall that I hadn’t even noticed. A hidden door slid aside to reveal an elevator. It was larger than the one that had led to the Archives and we didn’t need to cram together to fit inside.
We rode downwards for a few seconds before coming to a stop. When the door opened, I realized the basement was far larger than the house that lay above it. We emerged into a wide hallway that led left, right and straight ahead. Doors to unknown rooms were spread out regularly. It was much newer than the rest of the house and must have been built after they’d moved in.
Quin strode straight ahead and stopped at a door on the left. She opened it and we filed inside. A glance around told me it was a training room. Stationary targets were set up to the left. Made of metal, they could withstand most normal bullets. They were scarred and dented and had been set at different distances to offer variety.
To the right were punching bags and wooden martial arts dummies that would break my hand if I tried to punch one. Then again, I was much stronger now and it might not hurt as much if I hit something solid.
Weapons hung from metal hooks on a wooden board. They ranged from handguns, to rifles and other heavy weaponry. There was also a range of knives on display. I’d automatically belted my Ruger into place and my pockets held extra clips. I’d had to prove myself to the hunters who had trained me, but now I had an entirely different breed of monster killers to impress.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“Show me what you’ve got,” Quin ordered, pointing at the gun range. Taking a deep breath to calm myself, we all put earmuffs on to block the noise. I pulled my gun and fired at each target in turn, hitting the center most of the time. Quin grunted in acknowledgement. “Not bad,” she said grudgingly. “It’s good to see the regular hunters are giving their newbies adequate training. Connor will work with you to improve your aim.”
Sending a glance Connor’s way, I saw his smug grin. I’d accused him of being a newbie, unknowing that he was five hundred years old and had been a hunter long before my birth. I grimaced, knowing he would make me pay for my erroneous assumption. My few years of training were like the blink of an eye to them.
“How are you with knives?” Quin asked.
“Apart from using a machete to hack heads off, I tend to stick to stakes and guns,” I replied. Jake, Ray and the other hunters had worked with my strengths. Knives had always freaked me out a bit.
Striding over to the wall of weapons, Quin pulled a knife. She turned and threw it at me before I realized what she was doing. Instinct made me lift an arm to protect my face. The blade sank into my flesh until it lodged in bone. “What the hell?” I said angrily and yanked it out. My wound healed, but blood marked the blade. It was a far darker red than usual and it was thicker than normal.
“I wanted to see if you could think on your feet,” she said without a shred of emotion, then turned to Connor. “You’ll have to work on that.” He nodded in agreement. She gestured at one of the wooden dummies. “Throw the knife at the target.”
Copying how she’d held and thrown it, I was glad when the blade whistled through the air and sank into the wood. I’d expected to screw up and embarrass myself.
“Nice throw,” she said. “It’s good to see you have the capacity to learn. Connor can help you learn to control your emotions. Allowing anger to rule you is a sure way to get yourself killed.”
I was already sick of hearing how Connor was going to make me into a better hunter. His arrogant expression was bound to set me off rather than help me to master myself. “Why isn’t Mirra training?” I asked sullenly.
“Sirens don’t need to use weapons most of the time,” Connor said.
“Why not?”
“Sirens are weapons,” Quin said wryly. “They’re invulnerable to most forms of physical damage. Their beauty dazzles most species and their voice can either beguile, or tear almost anything apart. She knows how to shoot and I only make her practice once a week to keep her skills up.”
I made a face to hear Mirra was as dangerous as she was beautiful. “Why do you even need me on your team if you have someone as awesome as her already?”
“We didn’t plan on adding to our numbers,” Quin said. “But when someone like you comes along, we have a duty to attempt to train you to be useful.”
“I’m not a tool,” I said hotly.
“We’re all tools,” Connor told me. “Our purpose is to kill the monsters and save humans. Your life with us won’t be any different from your old life.”
“Except your new best friend is a ghost,” Jonah said, popping into existence. Smiling unwillingly at his quip, I shook my head.
“Did I say something amusing?” Connor asked, cocking his head to the side.
“It’s just Jonah,” I replied. I had a feeling it was a saying they would have to get used to in a hurry.
“You can watch,” Quin said to the apparition. “But don’t distract Arienna from her training.” She was looking in the wrong direction, but I didn’t correct her. Jonah saluted her smartly and I had to hold in a snigger. He might be insubstantial, but I liked him already. The others were going to take a lot longer to grow on me.
We spent a couple of hours testing my abilities. As I’d already known, I was far stronger now. Under Quin’s direction, I wrapped my arms around Connor’s waist and picked him up with barely any effort. His abs were rock hard and I was excruciatingly aware of my breasts pressing up against him. Glad his back was to me so he didn’t see how he’d affected me, I hastily put him down again.
“Now lift us both,” my drill master ordered.
That was going to be tricky since they were both much taller than I was. Circling them, I searched for a way to pick them up without embarrassing myself. In the end, I opted to grab them by their waistbands and lift them a couple of feet off the ground. Connor let out a strangled sound and clasped his groin when I hoisted him into the air.
Jonah descended into gales of laughter when I dropped the shifter. Connor collapsed to his knees, cursing me beneath his breath. “You just gave him an atomic wedgie,” Jonah said, wiping away spectral tears of mirth.
“Sorry,” I said lamely. “I probably should have given you some warning I was going to do that.”
“You can put me down now,” Quin said, still dangling in the air.
“Oops,” I said and hastily put her down. The blood I’d consumed yesterday must have recharged me.
Connor recovered and stood, glowering at me. “You did that on purpose,” he growled.
“I did not!” I defended myself indignantly. “I’m not in the habit of deliberately hurting people.”
“That was hilarious,” Jonah said, grinning widely. “I’m
going to have to watch all of your training sessions.” I shot him a look and pressed my lips together, refusing to rise to his bait.
“How high can you jump?” Quin asked, thankfully changing the subject.
“I don’t know.” When she just looked at me, I realized she wanted a demonstration. Looking up, I saw the ceiling was about fifteen feet above us. Crouching, I leaped into the air. Realizing I’d put too much power into it, I held my hands out to stop myself from smashing head-first into the concrete.
“We’ll have to test that one outside,” Quin decided when I landed.
Jonah burst into laughter again and I gave him a dirty look. This was already hard enough without his constant commentary that only I could hear to make things worse. “Do you have any spells to banish ghosts?” I asked.
“Why?” she replied. “Is Jonah distracting you?”
The ghost sobered and made a zipping motion across his mouth.
“A little, but I think he’ll behave himself from now on,” I told her. Apart from a few snorts and giggles, he remained silent for the duration of our first session.
While I wasn’t physically tired when we were done, I was emotionally drained. I’d tested as many strengths and weaknesses as Quin and Connor could think of. I was susceptible to all forms of weapons generally used against vampires, but not to the same extent. I could withstand the sun, silver, hallowed ground, holy water and even crosses for a while. Yet each one eventually began to make my skin smoke.
As the only semi-vampire in existence, I was an anomaly. Quin made notes in a notebook, jotting down each result. No doubt, I would end up in a book in one of the Archives eventually.
My only comfort during the often embarrassing testing session was that at least I wasn’t alone. Every member of the Hunter Elite was a supernatural creature of some sort. The only difference between us and the monsters we hunted was that we chose to protect humanity rather than to kill them.
It made me wonder about the other members who had been with the team over the years. I wasn’t sure if they’d washed out, or if something else had happened to them. Quin hadn’t told me anything about them, but they had to be paranormal creatures like us. Maybe once I got to know her better, I would dredge up the courage to ask. For now, I would keep my head down and do my best to show them I wasn’t harmful to people. If I failed, they wouldn’t just fire me. Being half-vampire, I wondered if I would turn to ash if I was decapitated. That was something I would be happy to remain a mystery.
Chapter Twenty-Six
After a week of slowly getting used to the house and my new routine of training sessions with Connor, something occurred to me. I’d always felt restless whenever staying in one place for more than a couple of days. For some strange reason, I felt at home here. I no longer had the wanderlust that had compelled me to move from one group of hunters to the other. It was a mystery why, since most of the H.E. still treated me like an outsider. Jonah was the only one who had embraced me as his friend. The reason for that was due to me being the only one who could see or hear him.
Mirra continued to be aloof and snobby. I couldn’t see us ever being friends. She looked down her perfect nose at me as if I was a peasant. Just to annoy her, I ate like I was with my friends and usual companions instead of pretending to have manners. It never failed to disgust her to see me scoffing down my food. “You act like someone is going to steal your lamb chops if you glance away from your plate for even a second,” she said while we were in the middle of eating our dinner.
“You’ve obviously never lived with real hunters,” I said with my mouth full.
Screwing up her nose, she looked away and shuddered. “The people you lived with aren’t real hunters,” she told me archly. “We are. We’re the elite. They’re just pitiful copies who wish they could be as good as us, or they would if they knew we existed.”
“They do pretty well against monsters even though they’re just weak humans,” I said on their behalf. Only a short time ago, I’d been weak and pathetic myself. “I’d like to see how well you would do against a vampire or a werewolf without your magic.”
“You have a point,” Jonah said, forgetting the siren couldn’t hear him. As always, he sat at the end of the table, enviously watching us eat.
“You have a point,” Quin said, echoing him and making him laugh. “Without our special skills, none of us would have an advantage over our human counterparts. Don’t disrespect our colleagues just because they lack our abilities.”
Suitably chastened, Mirra shot me a glare from the corner of her eye. She clearly didn’t like to be dressed down in front of everyone.
“If we’re supposed to be the elite, why aren’t we sent out on more missions?” I asked. I’d asked Connor why he’d joined Ray’s team for a while. Apparently, the H.E. sometimes helped normal hunters out when the monsters became too much of a pest. Quin and Mirra had been busy with other tasks, so he’d gone alone. He’d flown there and had hired a car for the duration of the mission. It had been picked up by an employee when he’d been done with it.
“We took a break during this past week to assess your abilities and to make sure you’re capable of keeping up with us,” Quin said. “Connor believes you won’t be a liability. We will be leaving in the morning for your first official mission.”
Nerves and excitement instantly flooded through me. “Where are we going? What are we going to be hunting?”
“We’re not going far this time. A sewage treatment plant a few hours away from here was shut down after a couple of their workers disappeared. The local Sheriff and his people investigated, but they didn’t find the missing workers. One of their people failed to report back in after their search. After another exploration, a second deputy went missing. The Master Archivist is sending us in to take care of the problem.” I still only had a vague idea of who the Master Archivist was. All I really knew was that he was in charge of our team.
“I thought we were supposed to keep a low profile when it came to cops,” I said uneasily. I’d been trained to avoid them whenever possible.
“Sheriff Robertson apparently comes from a long line of hunters,” Quin told me. “He won’t rat us out to anyone if he discovers what we are.”
I was curious about what was going on at the treatment plant. This would be my first mission with the team and I was eager to prove myself to them.
“Why does it have to be a sewage plant?” Mirra complained, pushing the remains of her meal away. “I just know my hair is going to be ruined.”
“You’ll live,” Quin said gruffly. “As the only member of the team who has an affinity with water, you’re going to have to take point.”
The siren brightened at that prospect and I groaned inwardly. She was already overbearingly self-important. Being in charge would make her insufferable personality even worse.
Jonah was grinning from ear to ear, reading my thoughts as they flitted across my face. “I really wish I could go with you,” he said. “I have a feeling this mission is going to be memorable. You’ll have to tell me every single detail when you get back.”
I sent him a dour look, but he just laughed at me. Mirra eyed me, waiting for me to protest about her taking point. I gave her a big, fake smile and remained silent. Quin and Connor exchanged guarded glances. They were well aware that trouble was bound to rear its ugly head. Despite being the youngest by far, I wasn’t going to act like a child. This would be just another job among the dozens I’d already undertaken. I’d taken orders from other hunters that I didn’t particularly like in the past. I would just have to do so again.
Since Quin insisted on us rising at six every morning, I’d taken to going to bed at a reasonable hour. I usually spent a couple of hours sitting with Jonah in the library after dinner. He couldn’t read the books because it took too much power and concentration for him to manipulate the pages. We took turns choosing books that I read aloud so he could enjoy them as well.
Quin addressed me before I could leave t
he room. “You should drink some blood. I want you to be in top form for this mission.”
They kept a stock of blood in the fridge for me. I nodded and we all headed for the kitchen. Waiting until everyone had rinsed their dishes off and had stacked them in the dishwasher, I took a plastic container of blood out of the fridge. I could drink it cold if I had to, but heating it up made it far more palatable. It went into the microwave for a short while, then I took it out and chugged it down.
“I don’t think I’ll ever get used to seeing that,” Connor said. He was leaning against the doorjamb, watching me wipe blood away from my mouth with the back of my hand.
“I saw you maul a couple of vampires to death in my dream,” I said defensively. “It’s not like you’ve never tasted blood before.”
“Even when I’m in animal form, I don’t feed on humans and supernatural beings. I’m in control and I don’t allow my instincts to take over.”
I heard the warning in his tone and turned away to wash the bloody container out. He didn’t trust me to control my inner demons once we came into contact with humans again. That was why Quin insisted I drink blood every few days. She didn’t want me to starve the evil disease that lived inside me. “I won’t hurt anyone who doesn’t deserve it,” I said tightly, keeping my back to him so he didn’t see how much his mistrust had stung.
“I know you won’t, because I’ll be keeping a close eye on you.”
Turning to face him, I met his eyes squarely. “This isn’t my first rodeo, you know.”
He smirked that I was using the same line he’d used on me. “It’s your first mission with the H.E., so in that respect, it is your first rodeo.”
“Then I’ll try not to fall off the bucking bronco and make an ass of myself,” I said.
His pupils dilated slightly and he seemed to be picturing something in his mind. Shaking his head, he turned to leave. “I’ll see you in the morning, Arienna Austin.”
Watching his butt as he walked away, I didn’t realize I wasn’t alone until Jonah loudly cleared his throat from right beside me. I jumped and put my hand on my racing heart. “Don’t do that!” I hissed quietly. “You just scared ten years off my life!”