Third Year Thrills (Hunter Academy Book 3), page 6
Joey thought for a moment and then dug in his desk for a notebook. He flipped through pages, his fingers scanning the notes. “The last known sighting of an Original Vampire was over three hundred years ago. That’s if you believe they existed. And if they did, then we assume that the father of all vampires also exists. Or at least existed.”
Crystal licked her lips. “I remember, when I was little…”
Joey looked up at her, meeting her gaze.
She hated talking about when she was a child. She’d shoved all those memories in a nice little box. “That when James would come to visit, he’d talk about the Father, promising my mother that she’d survive the massacre that the Father would bring when they raised him.”
Joey was silent, and Crystal took that as her cue to continue.
“He told my mother they had to hunt four things down, and that each of his friends was looking for those four things.”
“What were those four things?”
Crystal frowned as she tried to remember. Her mother had turned it into a nighttime story for her. About a little girl who helped the angels find the items they needed to become closer to their god… because that’s what her mother thought James was. An angel of some sort.
“A soul, a location, someone of his blood, and…” she frowned, trying to think. “I don’t remember the fourth. My mother was always vague about it, changing it each time she told me the story.”
“That’s an interesting list, because vampires don’t have souls. If you believe the mythology, the gods that created them took their souls in exchange for their immortality. And they cannot create children, so there would be no one of his blood.”
Crystal chuckled. “What if they changed their own mythology to suit their needs?”
“I hate to say this, but that’s a possibility. This Z vampire might have some wonderful insight, but I think you’re right. I think the better exchange would be to use him to get Isadora out of the trade. Assuming she’s still alive.”
Crystal nodded. “And if she’s not?”
“Then we get information instead.”
Lucius looked over at the torn notebook that Kassity had brought back the night before. Luckily for him, most of it was still readable. However, it wasn’t anything useful, just a collage notebook full of notes for a literature class.
A classic literature class at that.
Why would the cat pick this thing up? Sure, she barely had her human mind in cat form…
He stopped for a moment and wonder if she’d eaten a college student…
He hoped not. A college student wasn’t someone he planned for her to kill.
Not that he’d sent her off to kill anyone yet. No, she was still recovering from her brief trip home.
A knock came at the door, and Mae walked in. He shut the notebook and smiled at her. “You’re normally avoiding me. What brings you to my office?”
“Kassity’s awake. Tegan sent me to come get you.” Mae shrugged. “And now that I’ve delivered my message, I’ll let you be. Clearly, you’re busy…” she paused for a moment. “Studying?”
Lucius sighed. “It’s the notebook that Kassity brought back last night. It looks like notes from a Classic Literature class.”
“There’s a collage close to the club. Is there a name in the notebook?” Mae walked closer to the desk.
Lucius made sure he held still. Mae hadn’t been closer than five feet to him since the day he’d changed her, and this had been the softest tone his mate had used since then. “I didn’t look. Honestly, I’m worried that Kassity ate them.”
Mae gave him a droll look. “We’d see it on the news if she had. She has the scent of the stone, that’s what she’s following.” Mae snagged the notebook off the desk. “So I doubt she snagged this by accident.”
Lucius forced himself not to snatch it back like a child. None of his people acted with such an attitude toward him, but Mae… Mae was angry with him. Always angry.
And since she was his mate, she got away with a lot.
She flipped through the front of the notebook. “Most college students write their name in the front of the notebooks so that if they get left behind, the teacher knows who it belongs to.”
“College wasn’t a thing when I was growing up,” he said, sarcasm lacing his tone.
She glared at up at him. “Maybe you should have someone teach you about modern-day society,” she shot back. “Renee.”
“So we have a name.” Lucius waved a hand. “I’m sure there are many Renees running around this town.”
Mae tucked the notebook under her arm. “Technology is going to help us get an answer here. I’ll see what I can do, and you can go talk to Kassity.”
“You used to find people as your… old job? Right?”
Mae nodded. “Yes, I did. So let me do my job and see if I can find this Renee chick.”
Lucius hesitated for a moment. “Be careful. She may have something we need.”
“Yes, I know.” Mae walked out.
Lucius watched as the door shut behind her and then cursed himself for not saying anything more. He needed to figure out how to get through to her, douse her anger. He couldn’t stand the look of disdain she gave him every time she laid her eyes on him. She was his mate. She should feel the pull as well.
He stood and headed to the shifter wing of the mansion to find Kassity. He had Orion take her straight to her room last night when they arrived.
Lucius undid the lock on her room and walked in. Kassity leaned her head against the wall. Her dyed red hair was unkempt and dark circles were under her eyes. “You look like shit.”
“Didn’t sleep much during the day.” She let out a low growl. “I have nightmares every time I shut my eyes.”
“Did Tegan bring you food?”
Kassity nodded. “Yes, she did, just like the good little pet that she is.”
Lucius let out a snarl. “Tegan is not a pet, and you will not refer to her as one.” Speaking of, where was his human? “Where is she?”
“I sent her away because I didn’t want company. And isn’t that what everyone in this territory is? Your pet?” She rolled her head to meet Lucius’ eyes.
Her gray eyes flickered to the blue of her panther’s for a moment.
“Do I need to put the collar on you, Kassity? Or do you have your cat under control?”
She looked away from him. “You’d rather I didn’t have her under control, wouldn’t you? That’s what Josh told me. Because it would make my human side easier to control.”
“I don’t wish that on any shifter. It is true that if you are disconnected from your panther, it would be easier for me and my plans. I can separate the two souls inside you. But it’s a painful process. Most shifters spend years learning to control their inner beast, and to tear that control away from them takes a lot of power. But you barely hold yours by a thread. Why?”
She snorted. “I learned control through fear. Almost being killed by my family… it severed most of my control.”
“Do you want that control back?” Lucius asked. He couldn’t give her the control back, he didn’t have that power. But he could feel her beast below her surface, pressing against her, begging to be let out.
Kassity was silent for a few minutes. “I don’t want to be a panther anymore. I don’t want to have two forms. You should have left me to die.”
Lucius chuckled. “You’re too much of an asset to let die. I can sever your link, but if you ever want control back, you’d be starting from square one.”
“Would I remember when I shift?” she asked, her gaze searching his face.
“No. Your panther would listen to me. You’d know she’s there, just like you do now and when you first arrived in my territory, but just like when you were a new shifter, you won’t remember what she does.”
Kassity swallowed. “Do it. I’m tired of the nightmares.”
Crystal had told Z that she’d meet him after sundown when she had her answer. He’d picked the place, a playground at the bottom of a hill in a park in the middle of the town.
She could hear the squeaking of a swing as she crested the hill. Z sat on the swing set, pushing himself just enough to make the swing move and creak. Tonight, he’d thrown on a hoodie and had the hood up, so Crystal could only see a bit of his hair sticking out. He could have been mistaken for a college student.
She walked down and sat on the swing next to him. “Why a park?”
“There’s something calming here.” He glanced at her, his red eyes flashing in the moonlight. “You have information for me?”
“I want to renegotiate the deal.” Crystal looked out at the playground. “Isadora is currently being held in the human trade.”
“Nonsense. We abolished the human trade.” Z growled. “The Circle knows what would happen to them if they started it again.”
Crystal pressed her lips together. “You’ve been gone for three-hundred years, if you really are an Original. A lot can happen in those years. But trust me, I was there with Ayden and a couple of other hunters. It is a human trade, and that is where Izzy is.”
Z quieted for a moment. “I need to confirm who her family is.”
“And I need you to get her out of there. You get Izzy, you get information.” Crystal shrugged. “I know you vampires aren’t much for empathy, but Izzy has been under the control of a vampire named Markus for six months.”
“Markus,” Z stated. “She’s lucky if she’s still alive.”
“He bought her from James.”
Z bristled. “And if I get her back, you’ll give me the information I want?”
“Yes. I’ll give you all the information the Society has on Izzy and her biological family.”
Z stood. “Agreed.” He held his hand out and Crystal shook it. Something went through her, a shock that shot down to her toes. She pulled her hand away and met Z’s eyes.
“I… need to go.” He disappeared, and Crystal stood there staring at the empty spot.
What on earth was that about?
Her phone rang, and she pulled it out of her pocket. “Crystal speaking.”
“Where are you? You missed the meeting with Isaac.”
Crystal cursed. “Sorry, Sam. I was following a lead on something. I’ll be back on campus in about an hour.” She started toward her car. “What did Isaac have to say?”
“He wants to take us hunting tomorrow night. He said there’s been a lot of activity on the outskirts of Manitou.”
She climbed into her SUV. “Okay, I’ll meet you two after dinner, then. I’m going to head back.”
“What lead were you following?”
She forced a short laugh. “Don’t worry about it. It turned out to be nothing.”
“If you say so.”
The call disconnected, and Crystal drove back to campus.
Ayden flipped over the pictures he’d gotten from a contact that showed Markus’ house in the mountains.
There were clear images of a window at the top of the house, and in a couple of them a human-shaped shadow appeared. During the day, though, the shutters covered the windows. There would be no getting through the steel shutters to get Izzy.
Assuming that it was Izzy that was up there. His heart clenched as he thought about her up there alone during the day and with the vampires at night.
A knock made him look up from the file. He could sense Z on the other side of the front door, and he hesitated for a minute. He hated the vampire, but he could be useful. And if he wanted information on Izzy, then…
“I can hear you in there, Ayden.” Z’s voice came through the door. “Let me in.” After a moment, he added. “Please.”
Ayden got up and went to the door. “What do you want?”
“You said you knew where Isadora was?” Z walked past Ayden and stopped at the coffee table. “Whose house is this?” He picked up one image.
“That would be a house Markus owns in the mountains. I believe that’s where Izzy is right now.” Ayden shut and locked the door. “Why are you so interested in her, Z?”
“Because, if my suspicions are true, then she is the descendant of my lover. The woman whose family was supposed to be my keepers.”
Ayden frowned. “Your lover? That means… is Izzy is your descendant?” Thoughts rushed through his head. “Does Tegan know? Lucius?”
“No,” Z snapped quickly, but Ayden didn’t know what question he was answering. “It’s important that I find out more about Izzy’s family. What led you to her?”
“I was trying to hunt down the keeper families. Izzy was on my radar, but she knows nothing about her family’s past. I think that the Hunting Society is hunting down those who have ties to vampires.”
Z snorted. “We should have kept tighter reins on the Hunters in this country.”
“That would have been easier to do if you hadn’t been sleeping.” Ayden shot back. “Things have change, Z. We don’t have a relationship with any of the Hunters anymore. The Circle has gained power. This is not the world you knew.”
Z sat the picture down. “I will help you get Isadora back. I’ll find a way to claim her, to bring her back to you.”
“She’ll go back to the Hunters. You know that, right?” Ayden shook his head. “She will not see you as her savior.”
Z picked up another image. “She looks so much like my lover.” There was something in Z’s voice Ayden hadn’t heard before.
Sadness. Regret maybe?
Normally, the vampire hid his emotions better.
“Was she your mate?” Ayden asked without thinking.
“Yes.” Z ran his hand over the picture of Izzy. “And I would have changed her to get her to stay with me, but I had to go to sleep. I couldn’t stay with her. When I left, she was pregnant. I told her to stay with Lucius, to leave her village, but I don’t know if that happened.”
Ayden shook his head. “No one came over with Lucius except those you traveled with and the fae who rescued your sister.”
“Orion, correct?” Z asked.
“Yeah, I just met him for the first time the other night. Honestly, I hadn’t contacted Tegan again until two years ago.” Ayden shrugged. “You know my feelings about her and the danger she poses.”
Z tensed at that. “No one can kill her. She’s bound to Lucius. To kill a bound human is a death sentence.”
“Which is exactly why you had him bond her.” Ayden shook his head. “And if the Father comes back, you only have yourself to blame for it. We could have stopped all of this if you had just killed her.”
“Would you have killed your sister?” Z shot back, and Ayden felt like the vampire had slapped him. “So weak and near death. Wouldn’t you have saved her?”
“My sister was not a threat like Tegan.” Ayden growled. “Do not speak about her. You don’t deserve to.”
Z sat the picture of Isadora down. “I’ll scope out the mountain home, and then we’ll rescue Isadora.”
He walked out of the apartment without another word. Ayden sat down and put his head in his hands. Centuries since his own sister had died in his arms, and he could still see her face. The pain in her eyes, the bite marks on her body that marred her pale skin, the way she cried out when Zaaren entered the room.
Ayden looked down at the paper. He’d keep Izzy from that fate. He’d bring her back from the human trade, and if delivering her back to the Hunters was the best option, he’d do it. Because she deserved every chance to recover from her stay with those monsters.
“She needs to be taken out soon.” The vampire’s voice came from the other end of the phone. “She’s more likely to cause problems if she’s not.”
“The fire at the house failed, because I didn’t know they were going out that night. Had I, I would have informed you,” the Hunter responded
“Seems that she’s keeping you on your toes, and you don’t have control of the situation like you thought.” The vampire shot back. “Perhaps you are underestimating her.”
The Hunter stopped to think for a moment before responding to the creature. “Tomorrow night, she’ll be out there for you. You can pick her off while she’s hunting.”
“Bold of you to assume that I have time to do that.” The vampire laughed. “If I don’t make it, ensure that she dies. If she survives much longer…” the words trailed off. “We will fail at this. She’ll ruin everything.”
The hunter looked up as the door to his office rattled. “I have to go.” He hung the phone up without waiting for a response, but the rattling at the door stopped.
A figure moved by on quick feet without making a sound. Someone sneaking? He stood and went to the door, opening it and looking down the hall.
No one was there. Either the person ducked into another room, or he had been seeing and hearing things. He waited a moment to see if someone would come out, but nothing stirred.
He walked back into his office and shut the door. Hopefully, whoever it was hadn’t overheard his conversation.
Chapter Six
Crystal’s heart pounded as she took her evening run. It was almost time to meet Isaac and Sam to hunt, but she had so much pent up energy she needed to get it out and clear her head.
Her meeting with Z still weighed on her mind. She was trying to work through the information he gave her and decide what was true and what wasn’t.
She skidded to a halt when Joey stepped in front of her. “Whoah, I almost ran you over.” She put her hands on her knees and tried to catch her breath. Even in the cooling autumn air, the sweat clung to the back of her neck.
“You can’t go tonight,” Joey stated. “He’s going to have you killed.”
His words came out in a jumble, and Crystal held her hands up. “Slow down.”
Joey grabbed her arm and pulled her away from the apartments. “I know who’s having the hunters killed, and you’re next on the list.”
“Who, Joey?” Crystal had no choice but to follow him.
Joey’s gaze darted around. “Isaac. He’s working with a vampire. I caught him on the phone last night. The fire was supposed to kill you.”
