Hunter
I stare down at Sherese, who is the equivalent of a thorn in my side. She has been since the first moment I laid eyes on her in the vampire compound. She knows how to push every button I have and then some. And that’s saying a lot, because very few things in life bother me. But this vampire is a different story. From the moment she crashed into my life, she’s upended everything. Right now, I’m two seconds away from tying her up to something strong—maybe a pole in the basement—just to keep her from leaving. I know why she’s doing what she’s doing, even if she doesn’t.
I saw the look on her face when she saw Rizo tonight. I also saw the look on Ava’s face, and I get it. He’s the man of their nightmares. I’m not sure what he is to Sherese exactly. She never shows any emotion, but it’s not hard to guess what she’s thinking. She saw a very dangerous threat to Ava show up here, and she panicked. As much as Sherese panics anyway. “You’re leaving now because you think it will keep Ava safe.” I watch her carefully. Unlike her, I can see well in the dark. I may have left the lights off on purpose. She wasn’t kidding when she said I couldn’t stop her if she wanted to leave. All it would take is for her to just get past me. She has vampire speed. If she got past me and out the front door, I wouldn’t be able to stop her. I’m stronger than her, so I could stop her physically. But it would be a pretty good fight, and I’m not looking to hurt her. I don’t fight women; I’m not that kind of guy. So yeah, I really couldn’t stop her if she chose to leave.
She scoffs. “No, I’m not. I don’t care about anybody but myself. You, of all people, know that, Hunter.”
I refuse to react visibly to her words, but it’s hard to have my own words thrown back at me. I told her that days after she first started staying here with me. I regret it now, but I can’t take it back. At the time, she’d been driving me crazy, and I’d spoken without thinking. I can't take those words back, even though I want to.
I stare at the vampire in the dark. “You know that’s not true. Tell me that you’re not leaving because it will keep Ava safe.”
She looks me dead in the eye. “I’m not leaving because it will keep Ava safe.”
I cross my arms over my chest. “Lie.” I’ve always been able to detect a lie; it’s like I have a lie detector built in. I’m not sure how it works. I'm not sure if it has to do with my genetics, but it’s always been that way ever since I was a kid. I’m thankful for it in moments like this. “How many times have I told you, Vamp? You can’t lie to me. I always know.” My words are soft, but she has no problem hearing them.
“Well, maybe you should get that lie-detecting ability checked because it’s failing you right now.” She crosses her arms. “They’re not going to kill me. If they kill me, it kills Rizo. Remember?” Her words send a jolt through me. I hadn’t forgotten about that fact. Quite the opposite, in fact. “I said that when I left because I was panicking when we were running for our lives. But once I calmed down, I remembered the facts. The fact is, they can’t kill me.” She shrugs and grins. “I’m just that special.”
I absently wonder if I’ll ever see a real smile from her; it hasn’t happened as of yet. I stare down at her and wonder how I’m going to keep her here. They may not kill her, but they can do much worse to her. There are some things that are worse than death. “What do you hope to gain by going back?” She doesn’tanswer right away, and that’s just what I need. I step closer. “You don’t have a plan. You’re just going to...what? Return and hope they take you back? And then you can get back to helping them make more supercharged wolves?”
“Oh. Yes. You figured it out. I’m going back to help them make more super soldiers. Oh, and while I’m at it, maybe I can help destroy some more humans’ lives.”
“Are you ever not sarcastic?” I ask, already knowing the answer.
“Hmmm. Let me think. Nope. This is me; deal with it.”
“How about instead of going in without a plan and likely ending up in worse trouble…” I ignore her protest and keep going. “…You actually make a solid plan, one that does something to help the situation.” The look she gives me. If one could murder with their eyes, she’d be the one to do it. And yet, it doesn’t bother me. There’s no heat to it; there never is. She might come across as really tough, and she is, but she’s not a hateful person, no matter what she tries to portray. “Just wait. Don’t go out tonight without a plan. You don’t even have a way to get there anyway.”
“Yes, I do,” she argues.
“Are you just going to get an Uber across the country?”
“I can’t even do that because you still have my phone. By the way, can I get it back?”
“No, but you can have the brand new, latest model iPhone we bought you. They can track you or whatever else with that phone. It’s gone; you’re not getting it back.” I don’t even bother apologizing. We’ve been over this so many times. Besides, I know for a fact she doesn’t have a single text message, email, or voice message on there. Leo told me that when he searched her phone, it was empty. We got rid of it anyway. Nobody knows for sure what they could have done to her phone while she was withthe vamps. No use taking any unnecessary chances. “It’s late, Sherese.”
“Then go to bed; nobody’s stopping you.”
I stare down at her. “You are.”
“No, I’m not. You can go right to your bed. That has nothing to do with me.” She grins at me, but it’s cold. “Unless you going to beddoeshave something to do with me.”
“It doesn’t.” My tone is flat. I know for a fact she’s not serious. She can’t stand me, and the thought is mutual.Mostly. The she vampire drives me crazy and frustrates me every moment of every day. Yet, my wolf still hasn’t let go of the notion that there’s something to her. I’ve thought he was crazy. Yet, Ava’s words from tonight have stayed with me, and I haven’t been able to get them out of my mind.
“You’re a healer,” Ava says with a gasp.
Then Sherese answers softly. “I was.” There’s a pause. “Now, I’m a vampire.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Ava asks, and it’s easy to hear the pain in her voice.
My chest tightens when I think of Sherese’s reply.“Because any good that was in me is gone now, replaced with...what I am now.”
Even now, as I remember, my wolf paces restlessly. I assess the vampire, wondering how close to giving in she is. I really need to go for a run. My wolf is feeling edgy tonight and pushing at his boundaries, a sure sign he needs to run. I stand there a minute or so longer before I make a decision. She’s going to do what she wants, no matter what I or anybody else says to her. If she goes back, that’s on her. I ignore the tightening in my chest and my wolf’s anger at my train of thought.If that’s what she chooses, I can’t help her. I’m not going to force her to stay here.I send to my wolf, who simply huffs out a response.
“I need to go for a run. The smartest decision would be for you to stay here. But if you are going to go, be sure you make a good plan first.” Without another word, I leave her behind and head outside. I strip out of my clothes and let my wolf free. We head into the trees, and I give him the lead. It feels good to run and to hunt. My wolf needs this time. The past few weeks have been chaotic, and he hasn’t gotten to run as much as usual. A lot of that is the vampire’s fault. Being her glorified babysitter hasn’t allowed me much free time. But on a night like this, I have to let him run. I can still feel his aggression at seeing the vampire tonight. It stirs my own anger. There’s no reason a vampire should have made it onto pack property, let alone to a party. There were so many defenseless ones at the party. What makes it worse is that we can’t kill him. Being reminded that Sherese is linked to this vampire makes my wolf aggressive, more aggressive than usual. It’s an impossible situation that’s going to take time to figure out.
My wolf runs for hours, but every time we lap the area, he runs past the house. We can scent Sherese still inside. I’m not going to admit the relief that settles over me every single time we run past and still scent her. When my wolf is finally tired out, we head back to the house, shift, and head inside. I throw on a pair of sweats from the basket near the front door, so I don’t startle her if, for some reason, she’s still awake.
I thought originally that she would have an opposite schedule and be awake during the night and sleep during the day. I asked her once, and she said she’d spent too many years sleeping at night and staying awake during the day. It was too hard for her to change now. She handled it fine; she just had to be careful in the sun. But as long as she stayed out of the bright sun and drank her pouches of refrigerated blood, she was okay. The blood pouches were a tricky thing to keep stocked. But it’s crazy what you can buy if you offer enough money. I know she personallyhates drinking it; that was obvious the first time I watched her drink a pouch. She didn’t know I was watching, of course, but I could see clear as day that she hated it. But she has to do it to survive. It was amazing the things you’d do to survive. I knew firsthand.
