The Hunted (16 page)

Inwardly, I cringed for the rest of the male population. It seemed every other man, regardless of how good-looking they actually were, might as well have been beaten with the ugly stick in comparison to him.

‘Elena!’ someone yelled out through the crowd.

I turned towards the sound of the voice. There was no doubting who it belonged to.

Stephen.

He pushed his way through the crowd until he was standing right in front of me, and right in front of William. I shunted the evil thoughts that ran through my head. After all, I still had a knife in my hand and I wasn’t afraid to use it.

‘What do you want, Stephen?’

‘I just wanted to come and say hello. It’s been a while since I saw you.’

‘And you think that was accidental?’ I said dryly, trying not to roll my eyes.

He snorted. ‘Why are you always like that?’

‘Like what?’

‘Standoffish. We could have been good together if you just gave us a chance.’

I resisted the urge to flick the knife to the left and relieve him of his manhood. It would certainly save other women the same hassle in the future. He’d tried to whip that thing out on me more times than I could count—his forceful nature was unattractive and was one of the reasons I’d slammed the brakes on our relationship indefinitely.

‘Maybe if you hadn’t tried putting so many demands on my time we might still be together.’

He shook his head. ‘Wanting to spend time alone with you is not a crime.’

I flicked William an irritated glare as he fought back a smile. ‘It is when it borders on me slapping a restraining order on you.’

‘I wasn’t—’ he said, mouth open in shock. ‘I just needed to know why you kept so many secrets from me and why you wouldn’t … you know.’

My face went red with both anger and embarrassment.

‘Everyone has secrets,’ William cut in, turning and looking purposefully out over the crowd as if there was something more interesting in the mass of people.

I frowned at his intrusion into our conversation, wondering why either of them was still in my personal space.

Stephen spun around on the spot and propped his hands on his hips, suddenly aware that there was another male challenging his rights at what Stephen probably assumed was still his territory.

Jeesh. Men!

William’s eyes met with Stephen’s briefly. He laughed lightly and looked out over the crowd again, purposely avoiding my gaze.

‘Who is this guy?’ Stephen spat out, waving a thumb at William. He looked at me in anger.

I shrugged. ‘A guy I just met.’

He looked at me incredulously, his eyes zipping backwards and forwards between William and myself. William appeared to be highly amused, despite the daggers that Stephen was shooting the both of us.

‘So this guy is your boyfriend now, Elena?’ Stephen said angrily, taking a step towards me and grabbing the top of my arm roughly. His fingers dug possessively into my flesh.

I looked down at his hand. ‘We just met, you frigging stalker. Now get your hands off me.’

Stephen gave me that mocking smile that I actually used to find endearing. Now it just pissed me off. ‘Or what?’

That’s it. Now you’ve pissed me off.

I tucked the blade back into my bag again so I wouldn’t do something totally reckless, and then ducked down low, sweeping my leg out to the side in one quick motion, knocking him off his feet.

I dropped down to one knee, I pressed one foot over the top of his arm and pinned it to his side, the other foot holding the other arm. I wedged my knee underneath his chin and firmly pressed the side of his face into the sand.

Shock and fear crossed his features as he squirmed underneath me, trying to catch the breath that had been knocked out of him.

‘Don’t ever touch me again, Stephen,’ I said, grabbing his cheeks and giving them a gentle squeeze. ‘What we had was supposed to just be a bit of fun and now that’s over. What I do with my life no longer concerns you. Besides, get a grip, we’re only sixteen.’ I pushed his face away from me, and then got up and stood off him. A small crowd of people gathered around to watch.

‘Anyone else want a piece of me?’ I said to the small crowd of insignificants. It was probably overkill, a line stolen from an action movie, but my point was perfectly clear.

The spectators looked at Stephen, still lying in the sand, and then hastily moved in another direction, as far away from me as possible.

Wise decision.

‘Well, that was enlightening,’ William murmured, as he finally turned back to look at me through narrowed eyes.

Weird. They looked darker than before
.

Free from my hold, Stephen scrambled to his feet. He shot me the stink eye and then took off into the crowd in a huff, showing me a perfect view of his erect middle finger.

‘Do you usually threaten everyone that crosses your path?’ William asked me, his brow slightly creased.

‘Only the ones who get in my personal space without invitation.’

He nodded. ‘You used to date that guy.’ It wasn’t really a question.

I shrugged. ‘You’re asking me about my love life? I hardly think it’s a relevant topic to discuss with a stranger, particularly a strange smelling stranger.’

‘You’re right,’ he said. ‘Are you here with anyone this evening or by yourself?’

I frowned. Avoidance was obviously his forte. ‘No, I came with my friend. Safety in numbers and all that.’

He smiled again, but just kept looking down at me expectantly, so I held my hand out and pointed towards the dance pit. Through the crowd of people I could see Kayla at the perimeter of the pit, mingling with the boys from earlier on in the evening. She was already holding another bottle of alcohol in her hand.

I grimaced. She really was a lost cause. ‘That’s my friend over there, the girl wearing the blue dress. You’ll probably see her on the five o’clock news tomorrow night getting arrested for being drunk and disorderly.’ I chuckled quietly at my own joke, waiting for him to join in. He didn’t.

Tough crowd.

His gaze never left my face, even to look in the direction I was pointing. I found it oddly unnerving. Why even ask the question if you didn’t really care what the answer was?

‘So,’ I said quietly, ‘seeing as how you don’t seem too good with important questions. Are you here alone? Or are you here with friends also?’

‘Yes, I came here this evening with two other friends.’ A smile cracked the corners of his mouth. ‘They are off somewhere having a drink.’ He chuckled to himself quietly—this was some private in-joke.

‘Why were you watching me earlier?’

‘Why were you watching me?’

‘So we’re back to that again, are we?’

He shrugged. ‘Quite probably.’

‘Whatever,’ I said, throwing my arms up into the air and turning to walk away. I couldn’t be bothered any longer. The mystery could go unsolved as far as I cared and I’d already spent a good fifteen minutes locked in a pointless discussion. That was fifteen minutes too long to spend with any guy, regardless of the delicious packaging.

He caught my wrist as I took the first couple of steps away from him.

I spun on the spot, automatically bringing my other hand down hard on his wrist, an instinctive reaction due to years of training in self defence. My attempt was merely to dislodge his grip, but it didn’t quite work out that way.

My fist connected with his arm and the brutal impact sent a shock wave rebounding up
my
entire arm and into my shoulder. He didn’t even seem to notice that I’d touched him.

I’d felt the bone in the side of my hand snap as my skin met his. His arm was harder than anything that I had ever felt before, harder than cement. I had to bite my tongue to prevent the scream of pain building in the back of my throat from escaping.

His eyes met mine and saw the pain and confusion that were written all over my face. I couldn’t even speak, I was so shocked. He couldn’t be normal. He was either a vân
â
tor in a skin suit, a vampire who’d wandered too far north, or some freaky offshoot of the undead realm—either way, it was disturbing.

He raised my hand—it was visibly shaking—and turned it gently from side to side, his fingers gently caressing the area that had been in pain only moments ago. I’d never walked unknowingly into a situation that I wasn’t prepared for before, and I most certainly was not prepared for him.

Instead of quivering like a lost puppy, I snatched my hand out of his grasp and held it against my chest, pretending to cradle the injury. I still had to protect
my
secret.

‘Elena, I think—’

‘No. Just stay away from me.’ I backed up a few steps and walked quickly towards the dance pit to find Kayla. It was time to go home.

I heard squealing coming from the edge of the water back near the rave and searched the crowd for its source. I was worried—was Kayla in danger? After all, the stranger had mentioned he had bought two other friends with him tonight.

I should have known better.

I could see her running towards the water’s edge with a couple of other people, all boys of course. She was pulling her blue sundress over her head, revealing the skimpy bikini she was wearing underneath. A couple of the guys closest to her wolf-whistled in appreciation, drawing the attention of other boys within the dancing crowd.

She flung herself into the lapping waves of the ocean and dived under the water, coming back up shortly after to start splashing the guys surrounding her.

Soon there were at least twenty people thrashing around in the warm waters, yelling and laughing at one another. Kayla, of course, was smack bang in the centre of it all, exactly where she liked to be.

I took a few steps in her direction, still falsely cradling my hand and then spun around to look for William as a feeling of unease washed over me. I blinked and looked around me.

He was nowhere in sight.

CHAPTER FIVE:

OUTPLAYED

T
here you are! I’ve been calling out your name—why didn’t you answer? Look, E, I’m all wet,’ Kayla said, gesturing towards herself, a slightly goofy grin on her face.

‘I can see that,’ I said, amused but still searching for William. ‘That’s generally what happens when you go swimming.’