Hunter (22 page)

FIFTY-THREE

Sam

           
Even
without using my additional senses, Jason’s feeling of defeat was obvious. As
soon as I saw the collar around his neck, the cause of his surge of fear and
pain earlier was clear. I wanted to kill Hunter for making my brother go
through this again. Jason seemed unable to think past the drugs and pain in
order to understand what Hannah was saying. He definitely wasn’t with it enough
for me to explain my abilities to him, which was my plan once I knew Hunter
caught Jason.

           
“Okay,
Hannah,” I said. “I get what you’re saying, but there is no guarantee that
extra confidence will give us any kind of advantage.”

           
She
shook her head adamantly. “Overconfidence
is
a weakness. At the very
least, it’s worth a try.”

           
Shaking
my head at the long shot, I agreed. “Okay. It’s worth a shot.”

           
After
agreeing to her plan, there was no point in waiting. I closed my eyes, ignoring
the sluggish flow of fear and angst coming from my brother, in order to focus
on the more sadistic glee coming from Hunter. His confidence level was already
high, so dialing it up took almost no effort on my part. Neither of us was
surprised when we heard his footsteps clomping up the stairs only a few minutes
later.

           
Hunter
swaggered in, looking like the cat that caught the canary, and sent a smug smile
in the direction of my drugged and traumatized brother. I wanted nothing more
than to wipe that conceited look off his face, and hoped the plan would work
well enough to do so.

           
“I’ve
decided to be generous today.” The cockiness in his voice made me want to punch
him, but both Hannah and I sat up slowly. We wanted to pay close attention to
what he was about to say. He knelt by Jason, tapping his cheek to get his
attention. “Jason, you need to pay attention to this part,” he said in a sing-song
voice.

           
“Maybe
you shouldn’t have drugged him then,” Hannah sneered quietly.

           
Hunter
glared at her, but otherwise ignored the interruption, waiting while Jason
blinked sluggishly up at him from his kneeling position. “What?” he managed to
hiss, and I was proud of my brother’s ability to still show his contempt for
the man holding us captive.

           
“Like
I said, I’m going to be generous.” Hunter pointed at Hannah and me, and
continued. “I’m going to let you choose.”

           
Even
drugged, Jason understood what Hunter was saying more quickly than I. “I won’t
let you hurt either of them,” he spoke slowly but with force, showing the truth
of what he said.

           
“You
can choose, or they both die. Pick one to set free, and one for me to hunt.
It’s up to you. I’ll give you a few minutes to decide.”

           
Hannah
and I exchanged a look as Hunter left the room. Jason should pick Hannah to be
set free. I have no idea what the limit to my manipulation abilities are, but
using it against Hunter would be easier if we remained in close proximity.
Looking away from Hannah, I tried to get Jason’s attention. His gaze was aimed
at the floor as if contemplating what would happen if he just let himself drift
forward enough to choke. “Jason!” I snapped, and he looked up in surprise.

           
“Don’t
even think about it,” Hannah said before I could. Neither of us missed what
Jason was thinking about doing.

           
“It’s
okay, big brother,” I soothed. “We have a plan. You need to tell him to let
Hannah go.” He shook his head, not wanting to sacrifice me, but he couldn’t do
it to Hannah either. “Trust me, Jase. I’ve been around you for years, and I
know what to watch for with the ground motions before you let your power loose.
I can do the same for Hunter. Besides, I’m quick and light on my feet. If we
can manage to get Hunter distracted, I might be able to get away.”

           
Hannah
was wide-eyed, and her hair was a tangled mess. The look made her appear
slightly (okay,
extremely
) terrified,
but she nodded to Jason. “You need to trust us, Jason. We’re figuring things
out. You need to get your focus back so you can kick this guy’s butt.” She
tried to smile, and in that moment I knew why my brother loved her. Even
terrified for her own safety, she was willing to set aside her own feelings to
motivate Jason into action. She could be fierce in her own way.

           
Still
looking doubtful, Jason nodded as much as he could without choking himself.
“Trust you,” he affirmed, leaning back against the wall for support and closing
his eyes.

           
Exchanging
another look, this one of concern for Jason’s ability to work through the drug
enough to see an opportunity to strike, we grasped at each other’s hand like a
lifeline. “It will be okay,” Hannah told me. “Jason gave me some idea where he
suspected Hunter used hunt, and I think he’ll probably go back there now. I should
be able to get help out to you once I’m free.”

           
I
nodded, and motioned for her to be quiet when Hunter returned to the room.

           
Now
we had to hope Jason was lucid enough to follow our plan. Everything hinged on
it.

FIFTY-FOUR

Jones

           
Furious was too mild a word for how I
was currently feeling. Both Jason and Alice’s siblings were abducted. And now
Jason, a man I counted as a friend, was missing as well. With Jason’s
disappearance came my desire to find this killer and pound on him until my
fists bled. For putting people I care about through this torture, he needed to
suffer.

           
Alice
put on a brave face, but her confidence was shaken by Jason’s vanishing act. It
was only made worse by the fact that it seemed Jason left willingly. The
crumpled note on the porch told us
why
he left, but not
where
he went. We
headed to the police station hoping to dredge up more information about
possible locations.

           
“We
need him.” Nickels managed to sneak behind me unnoticed until he spoke. “He has
a knack for tracking people down, and we need him.”

           
I
gave a sharp nod of agreement, and we went to the desk where Alice was scouring
the case files for about the millionth time. “Anything?”

           
She
shook her head. “Nothing. Since neither Jason nor anyone in the department here
has seen anything, I’m probably wasting my time.”

           
“Okay.
Let’s go over everything we know again, and see if anything new shakes loose,”
I suggested.

           
About
an hour later we were no closer than before. “He obviously began targeting
Jason at some point,” I said. “But for what reason? He never acted like this
for the other victims. He took them, and killed them, but never contacted
anyone else. So what drew his attention to Jason?”

           
Alice
shrugged like the answer should be obvious. “They have the same, or at least
similar, abilities. Maybe something to do with how those powers work drew him
to Jason.”

           
“Okay,
so why take Sam? Or Hannah? Why set up all of this if his true target was
Jason?”

           
“He’s
scared of him,” Nickels said, sounding sure. “Most likely he’s never come
across another person with abilities, let alone one who has as much raw power
as Jason. If I were him, I’d want Jason off his game and desperate, not focused
and driven.”

           
Alice
threw her hands up in a sudden show of frustration. “Fine! He was scared! Does
that help us find them? NO!”

           
Nickels
and I exchanged a quick glance. There was a slight smile on his face, which
made me frown as I turned away from him. What was he smiling about?

           
“Alice.”
I put my hand on her shoulder, and ushered her out of the room to speak to her
privately in the alcove by the door. “Don’t give up. You know Jason will do
whatever it takes to keep Hannah and Sam safe. And we need to do whatever we
can to bring all three of them home. It will be okay, because I believe Nickels
is right about one thing: Jason has a lot of power. And while I don’t know much
about this killer, I can bet he hasn’t been through half as much as Jason.
Jason can and will come out on top. We’ll worry about the repercussions later,”
I said, stalling what I knew would be her concern about Jason’s mental and
emotional well-being if he had to take yet another life.

           
She
took a shaky breath and nodded. Alice was about to speak when Nickels burst out
of the room, interrupting our talk. “We have a tip,” he said urgently. “Some
kid was walking by a house that was supposed to be empty, and he said he heard
voices inside and saw a car in the garage that doesn’t belong.”

           
Alice
gathered herself and nodded once. All business again, that’s my girl. “Let’s
check it out.” We were already moving to the car, with Nickels calling for
backup.

           
The
house in question was at the opposite side of the woods as Jason’s house, and
took a while to get to from the police station. By the time we arrived, at
least twenty minutes had passed. “I’ll check the garage,” Alice said. “Jones,
take the front, and Nickels, the back. Call out if you find anything.” We
nodded to confirm, and split up.

           
The
first call out, once we breached the unlocked doors, was from Alice. The car
was gone.

           
“So
the kid was right. Someone has been here, taking advantage of an empty house,”
I said, meeting the other two at the bottom of the staircase once we cleared
the lower level.

           
Continuing
up the stairs, we split, Nickels and Alice to the left and I went to the right.
Even knowing this could be the place where my friends were kept, I wasn’t
expecting anyone to be there. I was wrong. My eyes swept over the room quickly
before focusing on the girl chained to the bed and unconscious.

           
“Hannah!”
I exclaimed, calling loudly, “Alice! Nickels! Hannah’s here!” Holstering my
weapon I checked her vitals, and let out a breath of relief when I found a
strong pulse and normal respirations.

           
Alice
rushed into the room, and I moved aside. “She’s okay. I think he drugged her,”
I assured the clearly worried older sister.

           
Sam
and Jason were not in the house, but there was an empty manacle on the bed by
Hannah and a metal ring in the wall with a length of rope attached to it that
told me all three had been in the room at some point.

           
At
Alice’s continued urging, Hannah finally groaned and squinted her eyes open.
She was unable to focus before drifting off again, but Alice seemed calmer once
she’d tried.

           
“We
need to know what she knows,” Nickels urged. “Jason and Sam are still in the
hands of that killer!”

           
Alice
turned to glare at him, but I spoke before she could. “We will find out as soon
as we can get her awake. Did you call for an ambulance?” He nodded, and we
waited impatiently for help to arrive. I watched as Alice stroked her sister’s
hair and muttered softly to her.

           
A
Crime Scene Unit, or CSU team, arrived along with the ambulance. The techs
began working as soon as they helped us get the chain off Hannah’s wrist so we
could get her out.

           
Alice
went with Hannah in the ambulance. Nickels and I followed after leaving the CSU
team our contact numbers and strict instructions to call with anything they
found.

           
“This
guy still has two hostages,” I reminded them. “Be thorough, but be quick.”

           
We
were all thankful when it took only about half an hour for Hannah to wake from
the drugged sleep. She was frantic with worry for Sam and Jason. “He made Jason
choose,” she sobbed, grasping at her sister’s arm. “He chose to let me go and
have Sam hunted. Jason was hurt and drugged, and I don’t know how he’s going to
win.” She continued sobbing into her sister’s shoulder. Alice held her, gently
rubbing her back and smoothing her hair.

           
“Any
idea where they would have gone?” She shook her head then said, “Hunter was
going to hunt them, and I think he was going to bring them to his normal
hunting grounds. From what Jason said, I think it might be somewhere near the
river in the woods. I think he mentioned feeling something odd there and Sam
said something about being followed while out there.”

           
“Jason
was all over those woods,” I stated.

           
Alice
spoke up. “Jason could have gotten too close. Almost caught Hunter. So Hunter
needed to move before his hunting ground was discovered. Hence the use of the
house on the other side of town.”

           
“That
could be how Jason appeared on Hunter’s radar. Let’s go.”

           
Alice
and I stood, and I looked around. Nickels was nowhere to be found. “Where’d
Nickels go? Wasn’t he just here?” Alice voiced what I was wondering.

           
Calling
the precinct didn’t help us find Nickels. But we did find out a tip was called
in by the now ex-wife of a man she thought could be the killer. “Yeah, she said
he comes out here to a cabin on hunting trips all the time. We checked some
dates against our case files, and he fits.”

           
“What’s
his name? And where exactly is the cabin?” The receptionist relayed the
information to me. After hanging up I turned to Alice, who was driving. “We’ve
got him!”