Tempest (4 page)

Back at school, I had
the full intention of keeping away from Adriana Alexander. That was,
until I saw her pull into the parking lot that morning. Luke and I
had been arguing, of course, and I had the full intention of humoring
him today by avoiding her.

I smiled at her as she
drove by, remembering our forbidden time together on the ferry. Luke
hit the horn, and I turned to him harshly. But he wasn’t looking at
me, instead at Ana, leaving no doubt in her mind that he hated her.

The action sent all my
senses into fight mode. “You tell me to avoid talking to her, yet
you give her a look that says you want to murder her?”

He didn’t bother
offering an explanation. He was so naïve. I didn’t know why I had
bothered listening to him in the first place. “I’m out of here.”
I grabbed my bag and jogged to catch up to Ana.

“Good morning.” I
reached her easily, and decided to try to melt some of the ice left
by my brother by being unfriendly.

She nodded but didn’t
speak. In fact, she seemed angry. I wished I could just start fresh.

“I apologize for
being rude the other night. I wasn’t myself.”

“You’re forgiven,”
she stated without any real truth to her words.

I had underestimated
her anger. Maybe Luke was right. Maybe she wouldn’t want me. If
that was the case, then I wanted her to understand, to realize the
situation we were in. “You have to understand, I—“

“Well, I don’t
understand Hayden. You give me no explanations and avoid all my
questions.” So she was not only talking about how I happened to
find her in the French Quarter, but how I knew where she lived. I
could hear the whisperings of other students and did not like the
accusations they made at all. I took Ana off to the side.

“We can’t be seen
together.” I looked into her eyes, wishing she would just guess
what was going on. Maybe after Luke’s hostility she would sense
something was off.

“Oh?”

“People can’t see
me with you.”

“I...You don’t have
to say anything else. I get it.”

Shock overcame me. “You
do?” Did she really understand the danger we posed and that we
couldn’t be seen together if all-of-a-sudden she went missing? I
didn’t think so as she tore herself from my grip and walked away.

I made a move to follow
her. “Leave. Me. Alone.,” she turned and said to me one last
time.

I cursed to myself.
That was not how I planned for things to happen. I had wanted to
rectify the situation and now I only made it worse. I didn’t bother
attending the rest of my classes as I headed back to the car.
Apparently I couldn’t think or act straight when Ana was around. I
left Luke at school as I went for a drive to clear my head.

I hesitated with my
phone, already knowing whom I’d call.

“Father,” I said as
he answered.

“
Hayden.”
He
spoke but then hesitated, as if waiting for the news on how we
handled the situation. If only he knew.

“We are still
watching the girl. No one seems to know about her yet but I fear if
we continue to delay our response, someone will. We do know that it’s
Delphine LaLaurie who is after her. She was compelled to her house;
luckily I had been following her and got to her in time.”

"It sounds like
you two are handling things fine and I’m glad you didn’t make any
hasty decisions."
He knew there was more I was trying to
tell him.

“So, that’s about
it.”

"Ok, just let
us know if you need us for anything. Oh and your mother says hello."
I smiled as I heard her directing him in the background.

“Thanks. Speaking of
my mother, you know, funny thing is, I was just thinking the other
night about how y’all met.”

"Oh really?"

I cringed. I was being
too obvious. I should just tell him what I wanted to know. “Tell me
again how you knew she was the One.”

Every Hunter had One.
We were created to live forever with one mate; they would eventually
give us the heir a Hunter needed to be relieved from duty. My father
found his within fifty years, Luke’s father took three times that
long. Every Hunter was different and some spent centuries trying to
find theirs.

My father exhaled into
the phone. He had told me this countless times before, except only
then I hadn’t cared to know.
"I knew because no matter how
hard I tried to stay away from her and to fight it, I couldn’t,"
he said simply.

“But I barely know
her. I mean, you didn’t even have the chance to get to know her
before you knew she was the One?”

"Hayden, the
Hunter's heart chooses before our mind does."

And it wasn’t the
first time that everything in my existence confirmed Ana would be
mine. I would focus on the fact that Ana was a human later.

Ironic how I was
supposed to be the one avoiding her and now she was the one avoiding
me. Well, all bets were off now.

“Hello, Ana.”

She must have been lost
in thought or extremely unobservant this morning because I was able
to surprise her.

“Hello.” Her tone
implied that she had not forgotten our previous conversations.

“
The Heart is a
Lonely Hunter
? That’s not standard high school reading
material.” I examined the books she was carrying, and was pleased
to see a familiar classic. “But my heart is a lonely hunter, that
hunts on a lonely hill.” I quoted my familiarity with the novel.

“You’ve read it?”

“It’s one of my
favorites.” I smiled, pleased that she had opened up.

“It’s my third time
reading it,” she admitted. I wanted to ask her more about it but
she quickly recovered with another question. “And your other
favorites?”

“Actually, I’m
quite eager to know yours.”

“I asked you first.”
There was a playfulness to her tone and I could do nothing but answer
her. “Frankenstein, Madam Bovary, Great Expectations…,” I said
without thought. Those were all books I had remembered growing up, no
need to tell her they were also just released then.

“Hiya Hayden.” It
wasn't until we were interrupted by someone else that I realized how
engrossed I had become in our conversation.

I was caught a little
off guard as I looked away from Ana to the source of the noise.
“Hello,” I replied with the correct conversation skills to the
unfamiliar girl that had tried to wedge herself between Ana and I. I
turned back to Ana, thinking the conversation was over.

“How are your classes
so far? That English quiz was so hard.”

“My classes are fine.
Some are a great deal better than others.” I smiled wickedly at
Ana, letting her know just
which
classes of mine were better.
Her cheeks tinted pink at my response. Just then, the girl fully
stepped between us, forcing me to look at her.

She said something
about a pep rally and then touched me. The hand that was on my
shoulder made all my instincts flair to life. Hunters only claimed
One, and it wasn’t this girl. My body was rejecting every attention
she gave me. I fought to maintain normal, polite responses.

I looked around her at
Ana. I searched my memory for the girl’s name. “Stephanie,” I
removed her hand from my shoulder with relief, “if you’ll excuse
me, I was talking to Ana.” What had she wanted again?

“Well, I'd better get
to class.” Ana was starting to walk away from me.

“Wait,” I called
out before I knew what I was going to say. I wanted to talk to her
more, but I couldn’t just expect her to miss class with me. “Are
you going to the pep rally?” I had remembered something Stephanie
said.

“Yes?” she answered
questionably.

“Great, I hope we can
talk more then.” I smiled as I watched her walk away.

I had anticipated
seeing Ana again. Everything new I learned about her came out as a
pleasant surprise. All the years I spent worrying about what it was
going to be like when I had I found the One were slowly disappearing.
All the fears and anxieties of who, what, when and where meant
nothing now. In its place was surety that I would do whatever it took
to protect Ana, including sacrificing my eternity.

* * *

“We need to talk.”
Luke caught me before I could lose myself in the crowd going into the
gymnasium.

“Can it wait? I’m
on my way to the pep rally.”

Luke looked at me
disgusted, “And I’m sure I know exactly whom you’re meeting
there.”

“We’ll talk later.”

“Ok, I guess I’ll
just wait until later to tell you who broke into Ana’s house.”

I whipped back toward
him. “What?”

“I just thought I’d
let you know what your
behavior
is causing.”

“Let’s talk in the
car.”

“But I wouldn’t
want you to miss our little Ana at the pep rally.”

I hated how he said her
name. “Shut up and let’s go.”

Luke had the honor of
telling me the details regarding the break in at Ana’s house. The
Vasquez were a clan of mortals who tried to be what we were. They
carried out the dirty work of the Underworld but went where we
wouldn’t—killing humans. They were in it for the money and power;
they had a choice. We did not. I knew they would be after Ana if they
got wind of the situation. LaLaurie must have changed her incentives.
I wonder what she had offered them; what was Ana’s life worth to
them? I was killing mad.

I shook my head. “They
must not be sure it’s her. Otherwise, it would have been done by
now.” How stupid I was to leave her unprotected.

“And yet you continue
to put a big red X on her. How kindly do you think the Vasquez will
take to your new friendship with their Hunted? They’ve always hated
us; I’m sure it will make the kill that much sweeter.”

Hated
, was not a
strong enough word. Our families had been enemies for centuries. My
fists threatened to break the steering wheel. “They will not touch
her,” I spoke through clenched teeth.

“I tried to warn you,
but you just couldn’t stay away from her could you? So what’s
your genius plan now?”

“They don’t know
we're here yet, right? We watch her from afar from now on. I will
stay back this time, for her safety.”

He shook his head in
disbelief and wonder at what was going on with me. My lips smirked;
he would find out soon enough when he met his One. Maybe in the next
millennia or so.

I still had access to
the school but Luke and I didn’t attend any of our normal classes.
I kept up my end to stay away from her. I had gone into the school
early to do a search and was pleased that I had come up with no signs
that the Vasquez had been there. I stayed inside while Luke patrolled
the outside. With the first sense of the Vasquez, we would have to
change our plans.

I had left, heading
towards my car well before school let out for the day. I would make
sure she arrived home safely, then Luke and I could take shifts. I
couldn't have been more surprised when I sensed she had followed me
out of school. She left class early? I diverted my attention, hoping
I could make it to the car without a confrontation.

“Hayden,” She must
have jogged to catch up because she was touching my arm now. It went
against everything in my body to slip away from her. Of course
nothing went as expected when it came to her. She had been
practically ignoring me before this and now the one time I wished she
would have…

I offered her a ‘hello’
and picked up pace at human-speed toward the car. I prayed she would
not hold this against me and just believe I had somewhere to be. An
appointment, perhaps? Normal people had those.

“Hayden, wait a sec.
What is going on with you?” There was a slight pleading to her tone
and I lost my resolve.

“You don’t get it
do you? I told you we couldn’t be seen together.” This was truer
now than ever.

“Now you’re back to
this?”

“What are you talking
about, Ana?” I looked nervously around the parking lot trying to
utilize several of my senses at once. I couldn’t properly
comprehend her accusations while searching for any signs from Luke or
the Vasquez. “Why are you acting like this, Hayden?”

I saw Luke from between
the trees in the far lot. Why was he watching me? Had he seen
something? Was there something he had to tell me?

“Ana, please, you
just have to leave me alone.”
For now.
I had no other option
than honesty as I hopped in the car to get as far away from Ana as
possible. If someone was watching, then all they would see was me
trying to duck the attentions of a girl.

I fought the urge to
knock out Luke as he jumped into my car.

I was seething as we
sat waiting down the street for Ana’s truck to pass. “There was
no reason you flagged down my attention in the parking lot?”

“I didn’t ‘flag’
down your attention; I was just watching to see who Ana was talking
to.”

“You knew it was me,
do you know how you made me look?”

He shrugged
nonchalantly, “Why do you care?”

Because she was made
for me.

I thrust the gear in
drive as I pulled two cars behind Ana. It was needless to even waste
a breath speaking to him for the rest of the day.

We learned from our
sources that a storm was going to hit New Orleans. That was going to
complicate things. Sure, we could protect Ana from wherever she
evacuated to but that would mean I would be forced not to have any
contact with her. If she saw me, I wouldn’t be able to explain the
coincidence.

There was still school
that Friday; the humans didn’t have our resources and couldn’t
predict yet where exactly the hurricane would hit. Luke and I still
kept the routine we’d been following these past few days and I was
even able to attend a class or two. There was still no sign of the
Vasquez and we couldn’t exactly go looking for them. It was like a
ticking time bomb, something I normally wouldn’t have to worry
about, but I couldn't afford to let this one go off.