Tempest (2 page)

Like he knew about
either. There was more insult to his comment than truth. Hunters had
the ability to adapt to any language, any dialect. We had the ability
to blend in anywhere. It was all in what we were created to do. “Just
meet me at lunch.”

I thought we should
follow the schedules the school assigned to us until we found her. We
already knew that she’d be here, thanks to Sansha. She gave us no
name, no address. What we had was the name of a private academy in
Metairie, Louisiana along with a description of how to recognize the
girl. Cafeteria. Laughing, blue eyes. Lemonade bottle. Shouldn’t be
too difficult.

* * *

I walked into the
cafeteria with Luke. As we sat down, I thought a little too late that
we should have brought food with us. Luke didn’t care enough to be
sloppy, but I wasn’t about to jeopardize everything.

“We can’t risk
losing this opportunity or having someone beat us to it. Let’s just
do it here and now and we can worry about cleaning up later.” We
had been arguing all morning.

“I think your hat is
on a little too tight because you're being an idiot. We are not
killing her,” I emphasized.

“Right now…?” It
was almost a question.

“
For
now,” I
conceded with a sigh. “Can you just act normal while we’re here?”

“Hey, I’m the one
that’s really 18.” He rose an eyebrow at me. “Why is it so
important to you to be normal? What gives?”

I didn’t answer him
because I was too focused on the girl across the cafeteria. A feeling
of accomplishment and dread filled me from looking at her.
Accomplishment, because we had found her and dread, because she had
to be the one. I didn’t know why that made it harder. She was not
anything like what I had pictured in my mind. I had wondered if,
because I had seen so much evil in my time, I could successfully
judge a person based on this factor alone. And this girl wasn’t it.
No, she really was innocent. Which raised a thousand more questions
about who wants her dead and why.

I looked her up and
down, taking inventory. Long, unruly blonde hair framed a delicate
face. She had the most vivid pair of the blue eyes I had ever seen in
my hundred-and-twenty-seven years; a blue-green that reminded me of
tropical waters.
Those eyes are amazing!
And they seemed to be
fixated on me. Penetrating almost. As if she could see right through
me and my secrets. I realized then that the only reason I could see
her eyes was because she was looking right at me. In fact, she was
staring first.

My behavior hadn’t
gone unnoticed and now Luke was assessing the girl. He made a comment
about her staring at us and I laughed with him as an automatic motion
but still couldn’t take my eyes off her.

She parted her full,
pouty lips at the sound of our laughter and turned away with chagrin.
I watched her quickly take out her phone and longed to know what she
was looking at. A funny text from her boyfriend? The time, because
she had to meet someone before class? She put it away and as I was
still lost in my thoughts, she stood up to leave with her lemonade.
The lemonade bottle.
There was no uncertainty that I knew it
was the right girl, but each piece of confirmation was as startling
as the last because of what I originally came here for.

“Call Troy. We’ll
need accommodations for the night,” I delegated to Luke, unable to
tear my eyes away from her retreating figure. Troy was on the
Boudreaux payroll for whenever we were in New Orleans. Wherever in
the South Hunting brought us, we had people that got us whatever we
required. Troy was human, but very resourceful and never blinked an
eye at our odd requests. Hell, we paid him enough not to. Calling
Troy meant one thing; we would be staying for a while.

I knew I had decided
right then and there. We would still have to get answers from her,
but Luke and I now had entirely different reasons for doing so.

The sun started to come
through the un-shuttered windows and I looked at the brand new clock
in my room. 5:28am. Finally, it was dawn. I wasn’t going to kid
myself, I wanted to leave right then for school. It was like for the
first time in many years, I had something to look forward to. I was
excited
. No, excited was too strong a word. I was merely
looking forward to concluding this whole matter.

I had managed to wait a
few more hours but at Luke’s pace we were going to miss her. “Let’s
go, Luke,” I called up the extravagant staircase.

“Chill. Unless you’re
planning on running her off the road on the way, there is no reason
to follow her to school,” Luke called down after me.

I clenched my jaw. Luke
didn’t need to know my reasons. Frankly, I didn’t want to know my
reasons. I was becoming a little too interested in this girl. Beyond
the why-does-someone-want-her-dead interest, officially closer to the
I-want-to-get-to-know-her-better interest. And that wasn’t a good
thing, especially since she was Human and especially since someone
had sent me to Hunt her.

After lunch the day
before, I had worked out a plan. I found out in exactly which classes
Miss Adriana Alexander was and divided them between Luke and me. With
a little influence, the receptionist happily switched our schedules.
I thought I should have been the one to be in all her classes, but as
Luke was technically enrolled as a Senior, I let him have the AP
classes and gym. I was the one preaching about not causing
unnecessary attention so I guess I had to model it. The receptionist
was also kind enough to give me Adriana’s home address. Which, as
it turns out, was in the same gated community as a house that
Boudreaux Properties owned. It was newly acquired as of 4pm that day
thanks to Troy, but our house nonetheless. It was in perfect position
of the main gate to see everyone that entered and exited.

I was pleased that I
was able to plan everything so perfectly, now I just had to prevent
Luke from screwing it up.

I was relieved when
finally Luke graced me with his presence. I drove quickly to school
but Luke didn’t seem to notice. I was amused when we pulled in and
saw Adriana’s truck a few spaces down, with her still inside.

I watched in
fascination as she got out and rolled her eyes. She rolled her eyes?
That seemed to be directed at us; I couldn’t believe it. Why would
such an attitude be directed towards us? Sure, the whole reason for
us being here was because of her, but she didn’t know that. Could
she sense us? Did she know that we were after her? I shook my head.
Surely, she would not still be here if she knew. I cursed. This was
getting
very
complicated and I looked forward to being in the
next few classes with her.

When I walked into her
first class I felt the same feeling I had this morning, what was
that, excitement? Eagerness? I had given my new teacher the form for
the schedule change and managed to exchange a few pleasantries with
him. Later, I could tell you that he was an aging man who suffered
from diabetes based on the healing poke on his finger, he recently
separated from his wife based on the tan line left behind by his
ring, and that he was generally over-qualified for this position. But
right then, I was focused on only one thing.

The teacher told me to
sit anywhere I’d like and when I saw the desk next to Adriana’s
was empty, without even giving it a second thought I sat next to her.
I hadn’t realized what I’d done until I saw her face as I sat
down. She was surprised, and I almost saw a hint of suspicion. Was it
because I was staring at her yesterday, because I had pulled into the
parking after her, or because I was suddenly in her class?
Oh
well, too late,
I thought without an ounce of regret that I
should.
I
was becoming sloppy.

The class went by too
fast. Time was never an issue for me and days, even weeks, would pass
like nothing. An hour? That was a blink of an eye. When the dismissal
bell rang, I waited until she got up to leave the classroom. But she
didn’t. She was drawing out her actions so she wouldn’t have to
be the one to leave first. It almost seemed like she was trying to
avoid me. Avoid me of all things! I couldn’t understand why that
thought bothered me. I wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction,
so when she saw I wasn’t moving, she got up; all I got was a forced
smile as she made her way out.

I exhaled in
frustration and finally left my seat.

“You’re an idiot!”
was what I was greeted with when I went into the hall.

“That’s funny.
That’s what I usually call you.” I wasn’t in the mood to deal
with Luke’s accusations right now.

“Yeah, well even I
wouldn’t have been that obvious. You switched into most of her
classes and then you had to sit right next to her. I couldn’t
believe my ears when I heard people talking about Adriana and my
usually perfect brother.”

I looked at him now.
“People are talking about us?” My heart did a weird ticking thing
at the mention of ‘us’.

Luke shook his head and
looked at me like I had lost all reasoning. Maybe I had. “Yeah,
that’s not a good thing. How is it going to look when she is gone,
or have you forgotten your own plan already?”

Why did he care if
people were suspicious after her disappearance? “Did you forget
what you suggested at lunch?” But he was right. I was being
careless. “It won’t happen again,” I clipped.

Luke scoffed. “I
gotta go to class. See ya later.” He was shaking his head as he
walked away.

Adriana had wanted to
avoid me anyway and so I sat as far away from her as I could for the
next three classes.
That should please both of them.
My
thoughts were a little bitter. I would do my best to cover my tracks
but when it came down to it, she would be coming with us, and I
didn’t care how much suspicion it rose.

* * *

Luke had surprisingly
gone along with the idea that we would have to watch Adriana a few
more days until we could find out who or what had wanted Adriana
dead. I suspected Luke’s reasoning was because he wanted to see if
anything else would be after her, too. Luke never missed the
opportunity for a good fight.

It was an excruciating
rest of the week, trying to pretend to avoid Adriana. Finally, school
let out for the week and it bothered me that Adriana wouldn’t be
spending her Friday night at home. Her house would have been easier
to watch. We could protect her easier there than out in the open in
the most haunted and supernaturally-populated city in the world.

Hunters had territories
and ours was the South. It had been ever since the curse first
started with my father centuries ago. The year was 1828 and my father
worked as lawyer here in New Orleans. The Supernatural had always
been attracted to this place, even back then. 1828 was also the same
year that he met Claude, Luke’s father. My father was representing
Claude on charges of murder. He really believed Claude was innocent,
even after trial and jury voted him guilty. Claude was sentenced to
be hanged the next month. My father did everything he could in his
power to save Claude; he even led the investigation that proved his
innocence. Things were different back then and what they really
wanted was to teach a lesson. They didn’t care who hanged for it.
Claude’s fate was sealed but my father wouldn’t let it go. He
went to a young voodoun priestess named Marie Laveau and she gave him
the solution he asked for, just at a price he could have never
imagined. They would become Hunters, cursed to an eternity of service
to the Underworld that could be passed on to their heirs. If and when
they produced an heir, at the age of eighteen, that heir would become
a Hunter, transferring the duty from father to son but always
remaining immortal. I turned eighteen in 1896.

I turned my thoughts
back to following Adriana. I would keep my distance for now, but I
couldn’t leave her unattended. There was some kind of festival
going on that night and Adriana was going. Something centered around
food or music, I imagined, which took place practically all the time
in New Orleans. She had arrived at the fairgrounds with a group,
mostly family members I couldn’t identify. I made a mental note to
obtain a full background check later. I admitted I was a little
relieved; at least she was surrounded by humans and not in the dark,
mysterious streets of downtown.

I'd been following her
on foot and hadn’t realized I had lost her in the crowds until it
was too late. Luke had no idea what I was doing and I couldn't have
cared less what he was doing tonight. I was almost going to call him
to assist me when I discovered I was looking in all the wrong places.
I couldn’t find her in the crowds because she was no longer
in
them. She was walking toward downtown. I went back to my car and
followed her on a parallel street before parking. What was she doing,
walking on a deserted street in New Orleans by herself at night? Why
did she leave her family at the festival? I would continue to watch
her from a distance and only interfere if I had to.

I watched her take out
her phone. How amusing it was when she cursed at it for not turning
on. I smiled; perfect, I had the excuse I needed to give her a ride
home, to spend more time with her.

My smile died as I saw
she continued walking toward one of the old mansions. It wasn’t so
much as if she were walking there, but being propelled, by a force
that only I could see. It pulled her toward the house, enchanting her
with false feelings of euphoria. Only I could see the red cloud that
surrounded it, the evil that resided in it. She was standing in front
of the LaLaurie house and I understood just then who had wanted her
dead so badly. The thought filled me with rage. All my instincts
flared to life. It seemed ironic that the one of whom she should be
in danger was now protecting her. But I knew, with my entire
existence, that that is what I would do - protect her. The
realization was startling and before I knew it, I was next to her,
pulling her away.