A Hunter's Challenge [The Hunters 3] (Siren Publishing Allure)

by Suzy Shearer

  She stopped walking and looked at Anthan. She peered up into his face, her anger obvious.

  “Do you understand what I am saying? Bloody hell! I know I’ll die if one catches me. I’m prepared to take that risk. Now, what I do want is for you to leave me alone. I don’t want, nor do I need, a Hunter in my life.”

  She stood waiting for him to answer. Anthan honestly couldn’t think of what to say. She had stunned him with her reactions. She cocked her head, an eyebrow raised, as if to say good-bye and started walking off again.

  Anthan stood and watched her. She headed away from the station and into the car park. He watched as she walked among the cars before climbing into a small red hatchback. He saw her drive out the carpark, not even bothering to glance his way. He memorised the registration number then he raced between a few park cars and transformed. Flying above the car, he kept pace as she drove through the streets before pulling into a driveway. Anthan took note of the address and sent a message to Martin.

  “Martin, we have a problem. I’ve found the woman.”

  “That’s great! What’s the problem?”

  “She is.”

  “What?”

  Frustrated, he said to Martin, “Just get here.”

  “Okay. I’ll be there in about ten minutes.”

  Anthan flew into a nearby neighbour’s tree where he could keep watch on the woman’s house. He went over the conversation in his mind but couldn’t make any sense of it.

  By the time Martin arrived, it was close to 7:15 and Anthan was still no close to figuring out what was going on. Martin folded his wings and settled on a branch alongside Anthan.

  “She’s in that house opposite.”

  “So what’s the problem?”

  “We are. She knows about Hunters, she knows about strigoi and basically she told me to get lost.”

  “What? How could she know about us?”

  “Good question. She also wants no protection, no help. In fact, she definitely wants nothing to do with us.”

  “That’s crazy! She’s a psychic, she’ll draw any strigoi to her and there is no way she can defend herself.”

  “I know.” Anthan was exasperated. “Told her that. She still said ‘get lost.’”

  “Man that’s weird. What do we do?”

  “Well we have to protect her regardless. Apparently there’s a strigoi following her.”

  “She knows about one? What the hell does she think she’s doing?”

  “I have no idea. I told her what it would do to her if it catches her, she said she knew and she was prepared to take her chances without any help from a Hunter.”

  Anthan thought for a while.

  “Okay. This is what we’ll try. You see if you can make her see sense. You’re younger, she might respond better.”

  “Er, Anthan, we both look the same age. I doubt she’ll appreciate it if I say ‘the old guy you spoke to before is ancient whereas I’m only nine hundred. Please listen to what I say.’” Martin shook his head. “Not going to work.”

  “I know.” It was irking Anthan to think she had rejected his help. “Still she might listen, now she’s in the safety of her home. She wouldn’t listen to me. Just try.”

  The two flew into her carport and changed. Martin shook his head as he walked to the door. Anthan saw him take a deep breath and knock. He heard footsteps coming close to the door, then it opened.

  “Fuck!”

  Martin staggered backward, almost falling. Anthan raced toward him. The woman stared at Martin then swore as well.

  “Bloody fuck!”

  Before anyone had a chance to say anything, she slammed the door closed. Anthan looked at Martin. The boy was a pale as a ghost and looked as if he may collapse.

  “She...” he stammered. “She...”

  “What the fuck just happened, Martin?”

  “She’s my One!”

  “What!”

  Anthan rocked back on his heels stunned. He looked at Martin again who was still staring in shock at the closed door.

  “You sure?”

  Martin looked at him and nodded.

  “Fuck.”

  Anthan went to the front door and began pounding on it. They both heard the woman behind the door. She was breathing rapidly and they could hear her sobs.

  “Go away. Please go away!”

  “I’m sorry but we can’t. If you know so much about Hunters you must realise what has happened. Please open the door.”

  “No. I can’t. I can’t be.”

  Her sobs were getting louder and Martin was equally distressed. He put his hand on the door.

  “Please, nîcimos. I beg you please open the door.”

  “Go away, you’ve ruined everything!”

  “No! No, nîcimos, nothing is ruined! Please let me in or at least open the door so I can talk to you.”

  Tears were running down Martin’s cheeks. He looked at Anthan with such agony. Anthan shrugged his shoulders. He had no idea how they could make her at least open the door. He spoke quietly.

  “I know this seems so strange but can we please talk to you? Even through the open door. You don’t have to let us inside. Leave the door closed if you want, but we have to talk!”

  Through her sobs, they heard her answer.

  “No. I know what happens now. I won’t be a Hunter’s mate. I won’t be discarded, thrown aside like my grandmother when she fell pregnant. Leave now before I call the police!”

  “What do you mean discarded?” Anthan was getting more confused as each minute passed. “No Hunter could ever leave his mate, it’s impossible.”

  They heard her snort in disgust.

  “That’s a lie and I know it! I’m ringing the police now.”

  The last thing they needed was to be arrested. Resignedly Anthan answered her.

  “We’ll leave. You don’t have to call the police.”

  “And don’t look for me! I’ll leave while you are asleep so you can’t find me ever again!”

  Anthan grabbed Martin’s arm and tried to pull him away.

  “No! No, nîcimos, please no.”

  He was sobbing and shouting as Anthan dragged him away.

  “Martin, stop! We can’t risk the police coming here. Come, we can sort this out, just come now.”

  “Anthan!”

  Martin’s voice tore deep into Anthan as he dragged the boy away. It was filled with such pain and agony.

  Finally, Martin allowed himself to be pulled down the steps and into the shelter of the carport. Anthan pulled him round to face him, his hands on Martin’s shoulders.

  “Listen to me. We must leave and we must leave now. We return to my house and work out a way to solve this.” He looked into Martin’s tearstained face. “We can’t risk the police coming. We can solve this. Understand?”

  Martin nodded.

  “Right. Transform and go now.”

  Anthan waited until Martin transformed and took flight. He followed him, staying as close as he could in case Martin turned back. This evening was a mess in more ways than one. He would have to speak to Viorel later in the morning to tell him what had happened and the curious way the woman had said her grandmother knew a Hunter. He would assure Viorel he would look after Martin and would investigate the woman.

  * * * *

  Amy slid down the door and sat on the floor. She couldn’t stop crying. Since she was old enough and could understand, she had lived in fear of two things—strigoi and Hunters.

  As she got older, she had become blasé thinking neither would find her. Then a few weeks ago, she heard a strigoi calling her. She knew instantly that was what it was from her grandmother’s descriptions. She had begun to recite the mathematical sequences in her head her older sister had taught her to use if she was outside at night. So far, she had been able to resist the callings.

  Now things were much worse. Now there was a Hunter—no two Hunters—to contend with and one was her destined mate!

  She got to her feet and began pacing
up and down the hallway. She would go to Erica’s house first thing tomorrow, too risky to attempt to drive there tonight. The Hunter had said they would go but Amy knew they would be watching her from now on. On top of that, if the strigoi was still in her area it would be stupid to go out at night and risk it finding her. The only time she could escape was during the daylight hours when they were all asleep.

  She went into the spare room and pulled down a small suitcase. Taking it into the bedroom, she packed a few changes of clothes into it, and then threw in some toiletries. Erica would know what to do—she was older and wiser.

  Amy was shaking as she packed. Her life was fine and now, now everything was ruined.

  How on earth did they find her?

  They must have been hunting the strigoi. Somehow they had stumbled across her. Why oh why did one have to be destined for her? How was she going to escape the feelings now they had met?

  Her grandmother had told her and Erica that once met, there was no escaping the love that overwhelmed between mates. Somehow, she would have to learn to live with the pain of being apart from the man she knew she would very soon be deeply in love with.

  Thank goodness for Erica. She would think of something.

  * * * *

  When Anthan landed, Martin was bent over in a chair on the deck, his hands covering his face.

  “Right. Let’s figure this out. Did you get her name when she opened the door?”

  “No. I connected with her mind as I knocked, she wasn’t bothering with the numbers and I was able to enter it. I wasn’t completely sure until she opened the door and I saw her. I felt her scream in her mind but then she slammed the door and started those fucking numbers again. I tried to get back into her head but it was impossible with that fucking number thing.”

  “Okay. I’ve got her registration number. We can hack into the database and find it out that way.”

  Anthan walked into the house, leaving Martin with his thoughts.

  Anthan wasn’t that good at getting into other databases so he contacted a Hunter he knew who might help. He told him to “speak” with Elisa Mayberry, who was working on computer programs for the council and might be able to help. He gave him a few other names in case Elisa wasn’t able to help. Anthan contacted her. She asked him for the information he had and what he needed. She told she would get back to him as soon as possible.

  Anthan walked out to Martin.

  “I’ve just spoken to Elisa Mayberry. She is going to see what she can find out and let us know. I’m okay with police databases but useless at trying to get into any others.”

  Martin just nodded. Anthan didn’t know what to do. For the first time in his many long years he was at a loss. He was still turning over the words in his mind.

  What on earth could she have meant by saying her grandmother had been discarded?

  Hunters could no sooner ignore their Ones than ignore strigoi. He racked his brain trying to think of any scandal, any strangeness with mates but couldn’t recall anything.

  “Martin, what’d you think she meant with that remark about her grandmother?”

  Martin looked up. He shrugged his shoulders.

  “Never heard of anything remotely like that.”

  “Me neither. I don’t understand it at all.” He was about to continue when he heard Elisa link with him.

  “Okay, Anthanasius. I have a name and address. Amy Collins, the address is the same as you gave me.”

  “Amy Collins. Thanks, Elisa.”

  Anthan tapped Martin on the shoulder.

  “Her name’s Amy Collins. Let’s check the phone directory.”

  Martin leapt to his feet and followed Anthan into the house. He watched as Anthan logged onto the telephone directory and called up “Collins.”

  Martin groaned when he saw there were over sixty names in the region. There were six A. Collins but one was the same address. Anthan grabbed his mobile phone off the table and rang the mobile number listed in the directory. He put the call on speaker.

  “Hi, it’s Amy. I’m not here at the moment but if you leave me a message and a number I’ll get back to you. If it’s urgent, try Erica’s.” Anthan hung up and dropped the phone back onto the table.

  “Erica?”

  Martin ran his hand through his hair.

  “This is a mess, Anthan, a fucking mess!”

  “You’re not joking.”

  Martin grabbed the phone off the table. He pressed redial and when the message finished, he left his own message.

  “Amy, this is Martin, Martin Blackbird. Nîcimos, please ring me. I need to speak with you. I need to help you, you can’t fight strigoi. Please, please let me help you. The number is...” He looked at Anthan who scribbled the number down. “0456 786 8739. Please ring me, nîcimos.” He hung up and looked at Anthan.

  “At least she’ll know we have her name. Maybe she’ll ring.”

  * * * *

  For the rest of the night Amy wandered around, occasionally lying in bed and dozing until finally she fell into an exhausted sleep. She heard her mobile phone ring a number of times but didn’t bother answering. If it was important they would ring back. When she woke, it was 9:20. Quickly grabbing her phone, she rang her boss and told him there was a family emergency and she would need to take the rest of the week off. Fortunately, she had been with the company for many years, rarely taking time off except for holidays. Her boss accepted her word, telling her to take as much time as she needed.

  She noticed there were several messages for her and a lot of missed calls from Erica. The first, third, and fourth messages were from her. Basically they all said the same thing—“What’s happened? Ring me, I know something bad’s happened!”

  She was tempted to ring her back, but decided she would just turn up on her doorstep and tell her exactly what had happened rather than trying to do it over the phone.

  Listening to the second message, she gave a groan. Might have known they would have ways to find her. She was about to erase it then had second thoughts. Instead, she saved the number and the message then replayed it a few more times.

  Martin, his name was Martin.

  She wondered what the word he kept using meant. His voice sounded wonderful—so strong, so masculine. She shook her head. Damn, she was falling under the Hunter-mate spell already.

  Carrying the suitcase out to her car, she drove to her sister’s, nine kilometres away. She raced to the door and bang loudly on it.

  “Amy! What on earth are you doing here?” Her sister flung her arms about Amy. “I’m so glad. I’ve been worried all night. Why didn’t you answer your phone or ring me? I’ve been tempted to ring the police. I was coming over to your house this morning if I didn’t hear from you.”

  “Oh, sis...”

  With that, Amy burst into tears. Erica helped her inside, looking out into the street before closing the door. She led her into the family room and sat her down on the couch, sitting alongside her.

  “Whatever’s the matter, I know it’s bad, Amy?”

  “They found me!” she sobbed.

  “Who found you?”

  “Hunters.”

  “What! Hell that’s the last thing I expected. Hunters? Here? You sure?”

  “Yes, here. They found me last night.”

  Erica got to her feet and started walking up and down in front of her sister.

  “Are you absolutely sure? I mean how could you tell? What happened?”

  “They’re Hunters all right! They have those sparkling bits in their eyes, drop-dead gorgeous, super tall, muscles, long hair—and it gets worse.”

  Startled Erica stopped pacing to look at her sister.

  Amy was sobbing louder now as she wailed. “One is my mate!”

  Erica looked at her sister in amazement. She knelt down in front of her, her hands on Amy’s knees.

  “Amy, tell me everything from the beginning. What happened?”

  Amy sniffled and tried to stop crying. She looked at her sister.
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  “Last night.” She sniffed. “Last night I caught the train and I was walking to my car when this Hunter appeared. He said I was in danger and wanted to protect me. I told him to get lost.”

  “Oh, Amy, you know they won’t just go away. Gram told us that.”

  “I know. Anyway, he went on about strigoi and I told him I knew all about them. I walked away, just got into my car and drove home.”

  “He followed you.” Erica’s voice sounded flat.

  “Yes he must have. About half an hour later, there was a knock at the door. I wasn’t thinking straight. I opened it. He...” she stammered. “He was there.”

  “The same Hunter?”

  “No another one. He was with the first one.”

  “Oh, Erica,” she wailed. “I knew as soon as I saw him, I felt him in my head and in my heart.”

  Erica sat back onto her heels. She was trying to understand what it all meant. She settled down crossed-legged in front of her sister then she asked, “Did you let them in the house?”

  “Are you kidding! No! I slammed the door shut and I told them to go away or I’d call the police.”

  Erica covered her face with her hands, trying to think what to do. She and her sister were both psychics, although she was the stronger of the two. She had known when Amy panicked last night that something bad had happened but had never considered this. She looked up as Amy spoke.

  “I told them I knew what Hunters were like. Told them I knew how they just discarded their mates. Said to leave me alone. I told them I was leaving and they wouldn’t find me.”

  “Okay.” Erica took a breath. “Okay. They won’t know where to find you here. Did you tell them your name?”

  Amy shook her head but her voice cracked as she tried to answer.

  “They—they figured it out. He rang me. He left a message on my phone.”

  “Okay. They won’t find you here. You never said anything on your message about ringing me?”

  “No I just said if I didn’t answer and it was urgent to ring you but I never gave a number.”

  “Good. I’ve kept my mobile phone number private so they won’t be able to track you that way. Anyway, I’m only renting this place.”