MARKED (Hunter Awakened) (23 page)

Our visitors temporarily forgotten, I turned
towards Elias, everything written across my face. I saw him take it
in and read the answer in his eyes before either of us said a word.
It took only seconds and I wasn't even sure that the hunters
realized what was happening.

“Yes,” Elias said. There wasn't a hint of
remorse, shame or regret in his voice. “I rescued you that
night.”

I wasn't sure how I was supposed to feel
about that. He'd beaten someone nearly to death. That spoke of a
level of violence that I didn't want to know. But, he'd done it to
protect me. Rufus had been intent on hurting me, probably killing
me. Elias had stopped him. If someone had been threatening Elias
and I had his abilities, could I honestly say that I wouldn't do
something similar? After all, Elias could've just as easily killed
Rufus, but he hadn't. That showed a level of restraint. Before I
could get too far into it, one of the men behind me cleared their
throat and I remembered that we weren't alone.

It was the girl, however, who spoke. “So, now
that we've established that your blood-sucking bodyguard isn't
actually the saint you thought he was, can we get on with it?”

Yeah, I was definitely going to hit that girl
before the day—or was it night?—was out. If circumstances had been
different, I probably would have taken at least an hour to think
about what Elias's actions meant to whatever this was between us.
The problem was, I had a feeling that if I just stepped aside, the
crazy hunter ninjas behind me would kill him, or at least try to.
That meant I'd either have to watch them kill the man that I was
falling for, or watch him hurt and possibly kill them. I wasn't
about to make that choice. Besides, I had a feeling that there was
a lot more going on than these people were letting on.

I turned back around to face the intruders
and reached behind me, hand open in what I hoped was an obvious
gesture. There was barely half a foot between us, so I rested my
hand against the small of my back. The moment I felt Elias slide
his hand into mind, I knew that he understood what I was doing.

“Whatever Elias did, he did for me.
Protecting me.” I had a feeling that declaring how I felt about
Elias wouldn't have a very positive reaction, and the ninja hunters
did still have weapons. Besides, I wasn't even sure what I felt.
Best to keep things simple. I squeezed Elias's hand, then released
it. “If it wasn't for him...” The shudder that went through me was
very real. “I don't even want to think about what that man would've
done to me if Elias hadn't stopped him.”

“That's sweet,” the girl said. I could hear
the sneer in her voice. “Can we go now? We obviously have the wrong
girl.”

“I have a better idea,” I said. “How about
you close the door because it's fucking cold and then you come have
a seat and tell me what the hell is going on.” Only after I said it
did I feel the chill in the air. I was even more pissed than I'd
thought. “Because I have a feeling that you're responsible for a
lot of the crazy that's been happening for the past couple
days.”

The four looked at each other and then, at
some unspoken signal, lowered their weapons and pulled off their
masks.

The big man had very short black hair, and
skin the color of cocoa. He looked to be in his late twenties or
early thirties and was easily as big as Elias. His dark eyes fixed
a stern gaze on me as he spoke to one of the others. “Eric, the
door.”

A tall, lean red-head nodded and headed for
the door, muttering something under his breath about classic
overreaction. I wasn't sure if he was talking about me or his
friends. I somehow doubted that any of them would want to come
further into a vampire's house, so I backed up to the stairs and
took a seat on the next to last step. I really was tired. Elias
stayed standing, slightly behind me, playing up the bodyguard
angle. After a moment, the four took seats on the floor in front of
me.

“Who are you?” Yeah, it was blunt, but I was
a bit cranky, seeing as I hadn't really gotten much sleep over the
last couple days, courtesy of being chased by these morons.

“Who're you?” The girl shot right back.

She looked like she was close to my age,
maybe a little older, though it was hard to tell since she had one
of those eternally youthful looking faces. Her hair was jet-black
and pulled back from her face. She was petite, barely over five
feet tall, and wore a scowl that I immediately recognized. I'd been
seeing it on Summer's face ever since we started filming.

“That depends.” I crossed my arms over my
chest. “Who did you think I was?”

The large African-American man held up his
hand before the girl could speak. “My name is Dale Cummings.” He
gestured towards the girl who was glaring at me. “She's Joanne
Cohen.”

“Jo,” she grumbled.

I had a feeling she would've snapped if
anyone else had called her Joanne. I made a mental note to do it as
often as possible.

“That's Eric Stewart.” Dale continued without
acknowledging Joanne's interruption.

The red-head gave a little wave. His green
eyes were much friendlier than Joanne's almond-shaped brown
ones.

“And Lucas Jacobs.”

I'd barely noticed the fourth member of the
team until now. With pale blond hair and cornflower blue eyes, he
was definitely striking. His expression was serious, but I didn't
sense any of the hostility I was getting from Joanne or the
disapproval from Dale. He inclined his head as his name was said,
but otherwise gave no indication that he was participating in this
discussion. I reserved my judgement on him. I didn't have a gut
feeling either way.

“Now that you know our names, may we have
yours?”

The question was casual enough, but Dale's
eyes said that my answer was important. I found that very strange.
I mean, I wasn't arrogant enough to think that everyone in the
world knew my name, but the chances of finding four people in my
key demographic that didn't at least recognize me, even if they
didn't know from where, well, those were some high odds.

“Teal Rhines.”

“Told you it wasn't Olivia.” Joanne
apparently couldn't help herself.

Dale didn't acknowledge her again, supporting
my theory that Joanne just didn't know how or when to keep her
mouth shut.

“Is that the name you were born with?”

Most people would find that question
surprising, but I grew up in Hollywood where half of the people
around had changed their name for one reason or another. While my
name change wasn't completely common knowledge, it wasn't a secret
either.

“No,” I said. “When I was adopted, my parents
changed my name.”

I watched the posture of each of the four
change slightly. They all sat up a little straighter, leaned
forward as if now on high alert. This was bordering on creepy.

“Your birth name, it was Olivia Harmon, was
it not?” Dale asked.

I shook my head. “I don't know what my birth
name was. My parents abandoned me at church when I was two months
old. The priest who found me named me Annie Snow.”

Apparently, something about that struck a
chord with them because they all exchanged knowing looks that were
infuriatingly superior.

“Look.” I could hear the anger growing in my
voice and fought to keep my temper under control. Usually I was
level-headed, but I hadn't had normal circumstances for a while.
“I'm tired and I've had a really stressful couple of days. Let's
stop with the runaround and someone tell me what the hell is going
on or I'm going to call the cops and have you arrested for breaking
and entering. And good luck getting them to believe your vampire
story.”

“She's got attitude.” Eric grinned at me. “I
like it.”

“Were you the ones who broke into my house
and my trailer?” I was tired of them playing games.

“Yes,” Dale answered.

Finally, a straight answer. Now to see if I
could go two for two. “Why?”

“To understand that, you must first
understand who we are,” Dale said.

The others settled into more relaxed
positions and I got the feeling that we were about to head into
story time. I wasn't wrong.

“In the early fifteen hundreds, a plague of
vampires ravaged Europe.” Dale's deep voice took on a rhythmic
quality that told me he'd told this story many times before.
“Village after village was decimated and sickness blamed. Survivors
were few and far between, but a handful from different villages
across the continent sought vengeance against those who had killed
their families. Six came together at the start. Edward, Amelia,
Anne, Charles, Patrick and Joseph. They banded together to become
the first hunters. As they married and had children, they trained
their spouses and children in the art of vampire hunting.”

There was an eerie quiet over everyone, as if
Dale's words were weaving a spell that no one wanted to break. I,
too, found myself almost holding my breath as I listened.

“For centuries, each generation has protected
the world from the threat of vampires. Over the last century, our
numbers have dwindled as fewer and fewer children were born, and as
more chose to leave this life to find another. Leaving behind our
way of life used to be as uncommon as one in two generations, but
it became two or three in each generation as we entered the
twentieth century, and soon, more were leaving than were staying.
Many no longer believed the vampire threat to be real. Even the
last remaining descendent of one of the founding families abandoned
the mission, fleeing from us, and taking her newborn daughter with
her.”

Now I was finding it hard to breath for
another reason altogether. My heart was pounding in my chest and I
heard Elias shifting his weight from one foot to the other, and I
knew it was because he could hear the change in my pulse. I
suddenly needed to feel his touch, a reassurance that my world
wasn't being turned upside-down again. It was all I could do to not
to reach for his hand.

“Olivia Harmon was only a month old when her
mother left.” Dale leaned towards me again, his dark eyes nearly
black. “Philip Harmon charged the hunters with finding his wife and
daughter. Six years passed and a pair of hunters claimed the body
of a Jane Doe they later identified as Stephanie Harmon. There was
no sign of her daughter. The trail went cold, and though hunters
would occasionally follow a lead, no one believed that Olivia would
ever be found. Even Philip himself lost hope.”

I was barely aware that I was digging my
nails into my palms. This couldn't be possible, could it? After all
these years, was this finally how I discovered what had happened to
my family?

“A rumor reached the ears of the hunters six
months ago, a chance that Olivia was alive. Seven of us were chosen
to track down the lead.” An unmistakable look of pain crossed
Dale's face. “While we were gone, a coven of vampires found and
attacked our home. There had been a hundred and twelve of us. Now,
seven hunters and five children are all that remain of a legacy
over five hundred years-old.”

I didn't know what to say. I had thousands of
questions, about my parents, about hunters, about what had
happened, but I could also see how near the grief was for these
four. How was I supposed to get answers without disrespecting their
loss?

“Now, more than ever, we must find Olivia
Harmon,” Dale finished.

Okay, now I knew how to direct my questions.
“Why? Why is finding her so important?”

“When the founders began their quest for
revenge, they knew they would need help.” Surprisingly, it was
Lucas who spoke now. “No one knows how they did it, so we can't
duplicate it, but somehow they managed to alter their biological
make-up so that they were faster and stronger than everyone else,
healed more quickly. It wasn't as drastic as a vampire, but it was
enough to give them an edge over everyone else. Of those six,
Edward and Amelia married, as did Anne and Charles.

“Patrick married an outsider. Joseph remained
single until his death. Whatever they did to themselves, they also
did to Patrick's wife, Deborah. Their children all inherited the
same abilities. Over the generations, however, at some point, the
hunters lost the ability to alter the genes of the people who
married in or joined the cause for other reasons. As marriages to
outsiders continued, the hunters became more and more normal, until
most have only a small fraction of an advantage over a regular
person.”

My head was spinning. This was all too much.
First vampires, then hunters and now genetically enhanced hunters?
What was next? Leprechauns?

“However, there were still those whose
families were still closely linked enough that the genetics were
able to stay dominant. The last of these were Philip Harmon and
Stephanie Bryant. Philip could trace his line back to Edward and
Amelia, Stephanie to Anne and Charles. Everyone else was at least
three generations removed from the founders, meaning that their
furthest back ancestor had joined the hunters when the founders'
great-grandchildren were in charge.”

“What are you saying?” I asked. I felt Elias
brush his hand across my back, a quick movement that I doubted the
hunters could have seen. Still, the fact that he would risk such a
gesture told me how worried he was about me.

“Olivia Harmon is the only surviving
descendent of the founders and, as such, she is the only one who
has a pure line of genetics,” Lucas said. “We are far too few to
continue on the work alone, without the benefit of the founders'
abilities.” He glanced at Dale who nodded. “And we think there's a
chance Olivia's blood could hold the key to rebuilding the
hunters.”

“And you think that I'm Olivia Harmon.” I
forced myself to say the words. I didn't believe them, of course.
How could I? There was no way I was descended from some super
warriors. Right?