The Hunted (33 page)

‘So what caused it to happen?’

‘Well that’s the tricky part,’ he muttered. ‘We know that when a vampire turns another human into one of them, it has to occur from the transference of blood. We aren’t sure of the method, because our allies have never been willing to part with the information. We’ve conducted experiments at headquarters pertaining to the injection of Vampiric blood into various subjects, but transformation does not occur. We’ve tried everything, but now we are wondering if the subject has to be bitten first before they can receive Vampiric blood in return. In your case, given that you were already expected to be a vampire, we can only draw one conclusion.’

‘And what is that?’

‘That you are in fact half-Vânâtor.’

I leaned forward in my seat and tried not to scream at him. ‘Are you saying that I’m going to be a bloody werewolf?’

‘Whoa,’ Lucas said, looking at me edgily. ‘There aren’t any girl vânâtors, at least none that we’ve seen or heard of.’

‘And I don’t want to be the first,’ I snapped back.

He held up his hands in surrender. ‘And that is why they call female dogs … bitches.’

I punched him hard on the side of the arm. The last thing I needed right now was to be referred to as a dog.

He gasped with pain and rubbed at his arm, glowering at me.

George shot us both a look and Susan threw her arms into the air in exasperation. ‘Elena, I know this is a lot to take in,’ George muttered, throwing Lucas a look as he went to hit me back, ‘but don’t count your chickens before they hatch. You’ve shown no outward or behavioural signs of vânâtor behaviour. There is a good chance that, given how perfectly blended that extra chromosome is in your system and the pure quality of your blood, that you may only project certain traits of the Vânâtor, not actually become one.’

‘What do you mean by the pure quality of my blood?’

He bit his lower lip as if he had said something he shouldn’t have. ‘Did I not mention that?’

I shook my head.

He coughed uncomfortably and looked away from Susan’s annoyed expression. ‘Well.’ He hesitated. ‘Upon further analysis of your blood we noted some interesting results. There are absolutely zero defects in your blood.’

‘Yeah, what does that mean?’ I said impatiently.

‘For lack of a better word Elena, your blood is perfect, more so than is humanly possible.’

‘Perfect,’ I echoed.

‘Yes. Everything about you is perfect. Have you never
noticed before?’

I scoffed. ‘Well I like to think that I don’t have my head up my own ass, if you know what I mean.’

His body shook with derisive laughter before he smiled warmly at Susan, who still looked agitated.

‘Seriously, I’m not perfect,’ I said.

‘Well your attitude isn’t,’ George agreed. ‘But Elena, physically, inside and out you
are
perfect.’

I snorted and turned away, trying to hide the rising wave
of embarrassment that was washing my face in a cherry red. ‘So the Vânâtor blood in my system—was that injected during the pregnancy or was it a result of the attack on my mother?’

‘We’re pretty sure from the attack. Your mother was bitten while she was still alive and while you were still alive and growing inside of her. When the Vânâtor was stabbed by The Protector, some of its blood must have mixed with your mother’s flesh wound on her neck, travelling into her bloodstream and dispersing through her to you. After all, you were a Vampiric baby. It only makes sense that you ingested it.’

‘But given that a vânâtor bite does not spread the disease and nor does the injection of their blood, how is it possible?’

‘We can only assume it’s because your body was feeding off your mother’s to sustain your life. In the two days you spent inside her womb, you absorbed every ounce of her blood into your body. Her blood was mixed with vânâtor blood, and given that you have the Vampiric gene, there is an excellent chance it merely bonded with your own perfect blood.’

I kicked my legs out from under me and rose to my feet. I needed to move around.

‘Where are you going?’ Susan asked me.

‘I think I need some air.’

‘Don’t you want to stay and finish the conversation?’

‘What else is there to say? My mother is dead, my father is AWOL and I’m a vampire that could possibly turn into a werewolf at any stage and devour everyone around me. I think that pretty much sums it up.’

‘It won’t be like that, Elena,’ Lucas said quietly. ‘You’d never hurt anyone intentionally.’

I stepped around the coffee table and collected my backpack. ‘But none of you know that for sure. Let’s face it, even the IMI want to keep me close because they are afraid of what I might become.’

George and Susan exchanged relieved glances. ‘That’s not true,’ George answered, almost mechanically.

‘Don’t lie to me, George. I heard Sarah and Kim talking in the passages earlier. They said I might become useful one day. That’s why I’ve been training for the last four years. It was because it was easier to keep an eye on me if I was close. Then you could train me to be a weapon against both vampires and vânâtors because, in the end, I would never fit in with either of them. I’m neither human, Vampire, or Vânâtor. I’m a mixed breed and therefore an ideal piece of arsenal for the IMI.’ I paused, looking at the shock on all three of their faces. ‘I’m just an experiment to everyone here, aren’t I?’

‘Elena, you need to stop this,’ George growled. ‘Surmising the intentions of the IMI will get you nowhere. We trained you so that you could defend yourself. We knew that you might never fit in with the Vampires and possibly end up becoming one of the Vânâtors, so we wanted to arm you with as much personal defence as possible. There is no other reason other than that.’

And the air grew thick with lies.

I just didn’t believe him. I stared back into his sombre face. ‘Is that why you tried to keep me away from the Vampires just before? Were you worried they would scent the Vânâtor in my blood and try to kill me? Or were you more concerned that they might accept me as one of their own and take me away from the prying eyes of the IMI?’

George and Susan exchanged a panicked look that came and went quickly as my eyes narrowed upon them.

Choosing his words carefully, George continued. ‘Elena, can you imagine what the Vampires finding out that you were a half-breed would mean for mankind, and for you? Sure there are enough of us here today to bring them down if they discovered your secret and decided to attack, but what if they got away? What if they told every vampire they knew about you and then all of a sudden, every coven conceivable rained down upon us? And what if they all died and then others came looking for them? What then? They hate the Vânâtors as much as we do. They would not accept you as we have done. They would attack and consider this a violation of the alliance.’

For once, I had no witty comeback.

Susan stood up, walked around the coffee table and placed her hands on my shoulders. ‘We aren’t hard on you because of some strict IMI regime. We are hard on you because we want to protect the interests of the human race. Exposing you to vampires could mean an all out war.’

‘I want to believe you,’ I said, looking down at my feet. ‘But I just don’t know. I always feel like both of you are lying to me. I have to try and figure this one out on my own.’ I looked back up her again and I swear that I saw regret in her misty blue eyes.

‘Do you know what the sad thing is?’ I whispered as I watched her face for a reaction.

She shook her head and blinked back what I thought looked like unshed tears. ‘No, what’s that?’

‘If it turns out that you are lying to me, and the IMI do have an ulterior motive for keeping me alive, then there’s absolutely nothing I can do about it. Because despite all my threats, smart mouthing and obnoxious attitude, I have absolutely nowhere else to go. I have no choice but to trust you. My life is literally in your hands.’

Something inside of her broke. ‘Oh, Elena,’ Susan murmured as she wrapped me fiercely in a bear hug. She hadn’t touched me like that since I was a little girl.

I pulled away slowly. ‘I don’t need a hug, I just need some air.’

‘I’ll come with you,’ Lucas said, jumping to his feet.

I shook my head and smiled. ‘No. I want to be by myself for a little while.’ I adjusted the backpack to sit more comfortably on my shoulders. ‘I’m going to walk home if that’s okay. I’ll see you all later.’

I didn’t wait for a response.

I spun on my heels and made my way quickly out of the library, stumbling slightly on the staircase as I took the stairs two at a time. After that, I all but ran down the passages, through the junction, past Kim and Sarah’s surprised faces as they re-entered the IMI, and back to the trapdoor where I knew I would finally be alone, be able to breathe again.

CHAPTER NINE:

INTRUSION

I
kicked at a stone by my feet, scattering it a few metres into the distance before I came back up to it for the umpteenth time and kicked at it again. Cars roared past me on the highway, some of the traffic from the after-school rush finally starting to disperse as it neared four o’clock. Hundreds of people flew past in their cars, completely ignorant to the fact that they were passing by someone that could one day soon be a very real threat to their existences.

A car horn honked. A pimply teenager leant his head out the window as he passed and wolf-whistled at me. I wondered if he’d still be doing that if he saw me turn into a hairy wolf with sharp fangs before his eyes, with breath that reeked of blood and death.

I sucked in another deep breath. It was slightly tainted by the smell of exhaust fumes, but still a welcomed reprieve from the stifling air of the IMI. I’d needed to get out, needed the time to think and gain some perspective about what was important. I didn’t want to wallow in self-pity and I didn’t want to give it all too much thought either. I always knew that I was different, and I had so easily accepted that I was going to be a vampire, but this? This was something else entirely. There was no manual for how to be a half-breed freak, and I wasn’t exactly sure what to make of it either. There was no one to turn to.

I was completely alone on this path, with no guide rails for support.

I’d reached the rock again. I kicked it harder this time, sending it flying out onto the highway and underneath a passing car. It was truly an accident. I guess I didn’t know my own strength at times.

The car’s passengers honked their horn loudly as they passed and threw me the one finger salute out of the window.

I took a left into a road that I’d never particularly noticed the name of before, and still didn’t, while continuing to follow the familiar footpath that led all the way back to our street and straight to our house. It would take no longer than ten minutes before I got home. Not that I was in any particular hurry to get there. But trudging around kicking rocks at passing cars could hardly constitute a favourable activity, even if it did make me feel slightly better. What would really make me feel better right now was a good sparring session with Peter or Vincent, but I didn’t want to go back to the IMI today. And most of all, I wanted to avoid the pity on everyone’s faces.