The Hunted (48 page)

There were a couple of moans and a ‘Jesus save us,’ as she backed quickly out of the room and disappeared down the passage.

I smiled. The only thing Jesus needed to save us all from was stupid questions, cucumbers, country music, and her.

‘How’s your day been?’ Lucas asked, slinging his backpack over his shoulder.

‘Pretty crap. What about yours?’

He shrugged. ‘Same old.’ He tugged at my hand and pulled me down into the passageway. He leaned in close, whispering: ‘Have you heard from the Vampires yet?’ He asked me that question just about every hour on the hour.

I shook my head and looked around conspiratorially as Lucas de-cloaked the trapdoor that lead to the outside. We both ascended the ladder.

‘No. Not a word. I’m really starting to worry.’

‘You think the Alpha got him?’

‘I really don’t know, Lucas, but I hope not. William is very fast. Faster than me and I still managed to get a couple of good shots in.’

Lucas reached the top, pushed the trapdoor open and climbed out. He leaned back down, offering me his hand. ‘Then why hasn’t he contacted you? I thought he liked you?’

I took his hand and climbed the last ladder rung and hauled myself out of the hole. ‘Well, I kind of yelled at him the last time that we spoke.’

He raised an eyebrow. ‘You yelled at a vampire?’ He re-cloaked the trapdoor again. ‘Geez, Elena, you really do have big brass balls, even for a girl.’

I gave him a light shove that sent him stumbling backwards and into the edge of the dirty kitchenette counter. He rubbed at his hip and frowned at me.

‘What’s wrong with you lately, Lucas?’ I said, hefting my backpack and helping to steady him with my other hand. ‘I know you’re skinny and everything, but lately every time I touch you, you seem to stumble, fall over, or cry like a baby.’

‘I don’t cry,’ he said indignantly and frowning. That was true. I just couldn’t help myself. ‘Besides, it’s not like you’re being gentle or anything. You just shoved me pretty hard then.’

I screwed up my face. ‘Hardly. I barely touched you.’

‘I’m not the only one, you know. Even Peter has a couple of bruises from where you’ve landed punches on him during training last week.’

‘What? Our training hasn’t been up to his usual standard. We’ve been doing more martial arts theory than practical application, and when we do Peter has been showing me in slow motion. I’ve been more of an observer this week than I have been the entire time that I’ve been with the IMI.’

Lucas scratched at his head and frowned. ‘So there’s been barely any physical contact?’

‘Nope. We tried it last Monday after we got back from Mackay. After a few minutes in, Peter called a timeout. We haven’t tried again since. At first I just thought he was being a total pussy, but now I just think he doesn’t want to touch me.’

Lucas led the way out of the restaurant area and across the parking lot to the gaping hole in the fence that we sometimes used as a shortcut to get home in a hurry. He held the wire to the side for me, and I ducked my way under. I waited for him to join me but he seemed to be pondering something. His brows were heavily furrowed and his eyes were darting backwards and forwards across the ground, as if there was something deeply disturbing about the grass.

We walked for a short while, leaving the drive-in and cutting down past the side of the convenience store. He still hadn’t said anything.

‘What are you thinking about?’ I said finally, when I couldn’t take the silence any longer.

‘I’m just piecing a couple of theories together in my head.’

‘Such as?’

‘Well, they’re just theories of course. They probably mean nothing, considering your test results were inconclusive.’

‘What?’ I yelped, my voice raising an octave. ‘How do you know about my test results?’

He gave me a sly grin. ‘I listened in on the conversation that Malcolm, Vincent, and dad were having this afternoon before my training session. They thought I was in the other training room with Martha, Kim, Karina, and Lisa, but I wasn’t.’

‘So tell me!’ I hissed. ‘What did they say?’

He dragged the moment out for a little bit longer than necessary and I resisted the urge to punch him. ‘It was all very hush-hush,’ he continued. ‘Apparently headquarters did a full work up on your blood. They couldn’t find any notable changes in your added chromosome and your blood test gave the same result as when you were born. It appears that your blood is still as perfect as it was the day you were born. According to dad, they said it was like nothing had even happened to you.’

‘Then why did I drink the blood in the first place?’

He shrugged. ‘I don’t know. Why is the sky blue? Why do vampires even exist? I don’t have an answer for you and neither does anyone else apparently. But I do know that dad’s been ordered to watch you and check for any other changes. They all seem to agree that you drinking of blood helped you survive, replenishing your own.’ He suddenly looked confused all over again.

‘But you’re not convinced?’ I stated.

He shook his head from side to side. ‘You have changed. I may be skinny, Elena, but I’m not exactly a push-over. I think the blood that you took may have altered your physicality.’

‘What are you saying? I haven’t noticed any difference physically.’

‘Are you sure about that? You
were
born with the extra chromosome, born with perfect blood. What if by you consuming some of what is already embedded in your system you’ve somehow awakened certain traits that are supposed to remain dormant until you turn?’

‘Lucas, are you saying that I’m going to want to drink blood from now on?’

He shook his head again. ‘Not necessarily. You’re still human right? Your body is still technically alive and growing, so you still need nourishment in order to survive. So my theory is that maybe some of your other Vânâtor and Vampiric senses might be starting to come to the surface. What if by drinking that Vânâtor’s blood your strength has increased?’

I laughed nervously. ‘Seriously?’

He nodded. ‘How else do you keep injuring me so easily?’

‘I told you, you’re not eating enough protein.’

‘Elena, I’m being serious. I think the blood may have altered your abilities slightly.’

I frowned and then threw him a sceptical look.

‘Think about it,’ he continued. ‘You were born with a self-healing power and that hasn’t changed, otherwise you’d have teeth marks in your collar bone right now. You’ve also been able to scent blood since you hit, um, puberty, and now it seems that you’re capable of greater feats of strength than you’ve ever had before. Why do you think Peter’s resorted to theory instead of practical application? They must know something has changed within you, despite what the results of your blood tests say. If dad’s been ordered to watch your development then the IMI must have an inkling about what you’re capable of.’

‘Do you think it’s permanent?’

‘Maybe. Who knows? Perhaps that’s why everyone’s keeping their distance from you at the moment? Maybe they hope that with a little time it might just go away.’

‘So they’ve had suspicions since my training lesson last Monday, but no one has thought to tell me that I’m the subject of an internal experiment?’

Lucas snorted. ‘Since when do the IMI ever reveal useful information to us? We’re just kids to them and you, well, you’re something else entirely. If I were you though, Elena, I’d try to keep this to myself.’

‘Why?’ I asked, my eyes narrowing.

‘Because I reckon that if headquarters ever found out what you could be capable of, now,
before
you turned, they might want to ship you off to Bucharest for further study.’

‘Bloody hell, are you serious?’

‘Deadly. Mum and dad talk to Chester, the head of the lab there, all the time. You would definitely be of interest to him if your powers unleashed themselves ahead of schedule.’

‘Lucas, you don’t even know if we’re right. I gave Peter a few bruises, nothing I probably haven’t given him in the past. So what? And as for you, you’re so skinny you’d blow over in the next wind.’

He puckered his lips in disapproval. ‘Care to test the theory then before you refute the evidence?’

‘What did you have in mind?’

‘How about a little exercise?’

‘Ugh, don’t you know I’m allergic?’

‘Yeah, but this will be fun.’

We crossed the road after the traffic had cleared, made our way onto the footpath and picked up the pace until we got home. By the time we reached the driveway, I was already starting to sweat. It wasn’t winter anymore. It was early September now, the third day in to be precise, and although the nights were still relatively cool, the days were not so forgiving.

I dropped my backpack as we entered the house and headed directly into the garden behind Lucas. The patio doors made their usual scraping sound of protest, the glass door whining along its aluminium tracks.

Lucas disappeared into the backyard and told me to wait where I was. I stood on the patch of dirt just below my window, waiting for him to reappear from behind the jungle of bushes, weeds, and trees.

He returned a few seconds later, his palm extended out in front of him using the same magic spell that George had used on us in the library a fortnight ago to levitate a bar bell and several weights from the shed.

‘What do you think?’ Lucas asked, letting the weights float gently onto the ground in front of me.

‘Are you going to get into trouble for using magic like that?’

‘Dad shouldn’t have showed me the levitation spell if he didn’t want me to use it.’

‘He didn’t show you, he used it on you. There’s a difference.’

He smiled at me and gestured towards the bar bell. ‘You’d be surprised what dad tries to show me when no one else is around. Now why don’t you give it a go?’

I looked down sceptically at the barbell. Lucas had stacked four, twenty-five kilogram weights on either end, two hundred kilograms in total, plus the weight of the bar.

Was he high?

George had gone through a phase about six months ago where he wanted to look like Bruce Willis from the
Die Hard
movies. He’d bought the barbell and all the weights expecting that a couple of repetitions and a few protein shakes would transform his lean body into a muscle machine. He’d tried it once, tore a ligament in his shoulder and hadn’t touched any of the equipment since.

‘Come on, E. What are you waiting for?’ Lucas grinned.

‘A forklift.’

He rolled his eyes and grinned. ‘I don’t see one, do you?’

‘Thank you, Captain Obvious,’ I mumbled under my breath. ‘Just what do you think this is going to achieve besides severe muscle strain and a brain aneurysm?’

He laughed. ‘We’re trying to prove whether or not your experience has given you greater strength.’

I looked down at the bar bell again. ‘It looks freaking heavy.’

‘Well,
duh
, that’s kind of the point.’

I screwed my face up at him. ‘It’s too heavy, Lucas. I’ll strain something just trying, it’s going to hurt.’

‘So does constipation, but we all suffer through it at some point.’

I stared at him blankly. ‘I’m not sure I see the connection.’

He grinned. ‘Come on, just do it. If you can’t lift it, then we’ll rule out the whole extra strength thing and just go inside and watch Sponge Bob.’