The Hunter quickly scrambled to his feet and switched his focus from Sam to whoever had run at him. Sam followed his glare to see, to her surprise, that Jamie had been the one who sent him flying.
Jamie glared back at the Hunter with such rage in his expression that it made Sam feel slightly unsettled. She’d spent so much time away from the Vampires that she’d forgotten how aggressive they could get.
The Hunter straightened his stance, and turned back to Sam. Raising his arm, he called his enchanted weapon to his hand. A crossbow appeared, the wood was adorned with runic symbols, and Sam knew without getting too close that the arrow was most likely laced with poison.
He aimed the weapon at her and fired.
Sam didn’t flinch. Instead she took a deep breath and concentrated all of her energy on creating a shield that would cause the arrow to rebound if it hit.
But the arrow didn’t hit her shield.
Jamie ran in front of her at a speed that only Vampires and some types of Faeries could manage, catching the arrow before it even came close. He stood with his back to her, his stance protective and territorial.
Sam stood there, watching Jamie with slight confusion. She’d always known that he was a terrible Vampire, he made himself too obvious in front of people . . . or perhaps it was just in front of her that he forgot to play pretend, she couldn’t be sure. But even so, exposing himself this much to someone who he believed to be human . . . Aleczander would have completely freaked if he’d known.
The Hunter made a guttural noise, that sounded somewhere between a growl and an exasperation. He looked at Sam, his expression making it appear as though he were about to attack her again. But then his eyes went to Jamie, and he slowly backed away, before taking off, running in the opposite direction.
Sam frowned, feeling a little insulted that the Hunter found a run of the mill Vampire more intimidating than her.
Jamie stayed standing in front of her, his arm extended to the side slightly as if blocking her from view. His head turned in either direction, checking to make sure there was no one else around.
Sam sighed internally, knowing that she’d have to play the damsel in distress in order to keep Jamie believing that there was nothing unusual about her. She squeezed her eyes tightly shut to make them water, then opened them widely and let a soft whimper, trying to make it sound, and look, as though she was scared.
“ . . . Is he gone?”
Jamie turned to face her, his mouth set in a harsh line. His eyes wandered over her, as if he was trying to assess her.
How much she knew, how much she saw, how much she understood.
Before Sam had a moment to say—or do—anything else, he was standing less than an inch away from her. He placed both of his hands on the wall, either side of her as if trying to hold her in place so she couldn’t escape.
Sam took a breath, and stayed where she was. Her mind racing through all the possible reasons for why he would be acting like this. If he was going to try kill her, she couldn’t keep playing human. If he was trying to figure out what she was, she’d have to erase his memory again. And if he was trying to do anything else, well . . . she wasn’t sure what she’d do. She didn’t exactly have protocols for what to do if a Vampire had her pressed against a wall.
Jamie didn’t speak. He just continued to stare at her intently as if he were trying so hard to figure her out and couldn’t quite understand. She let her bottom lip shake a little, trying to make it appear as though she was terrified and about to break down in tears.
His expression softened a little at that. He slowly, hesitantly, reached his hand up to her face and brushed her hair away from her eyes. He let his hand trail along the side of her face, and held it under her chin.
Sam had the strange thought that he might kiss her. Talk about taking advantage, she thought, trying not to let that thought show on her face.
He brought his other hand to her face, stroking the other side. He stood up straighter and looked down at her, not breaking eye contact. Then he leaned in and . . .
And then he froze.
His eyes broke contact with hers, and he stared at her forehead. Sam watched him carefully, balling her hand into a fist, ready to fight him if he even tried.
But then, slowly, he backed away from her, leaving about a foot of space between them. Sam took a step to the side, still with her eyes on him. She wasn’t stupid enough to turn her back. He was watching her, holding his breath, his hands clenched into fists. Sam saw streaks of blood run down through the cracks between his fingers.
She backed away from him and hurried to her car. Feeling better now that she knew he was making an effort to control himself.
She got in her car quickly and drove herself out of the parking lot. Knowing that Jamie was still standing there watching her.
CHAPTER 26
Jamie watched as Sam drove away, not moving until her car was out of sight.
Usually he couldn’t bear the sight of blood. The smell was something he was able to force himself to ignore, but the sight of it was a completely different matter.
Sam’s blood had scared him.
The sight of it caused his pulse to quicken, his muscles to shake, his teeth to ache with a familiar craving. And in that moment he’d known it was only a matter of time before his predatory nature would overtake his composure.
That realisation had caused him to feel dread, an emotion uncommon to him in this situation.
And once the dread had gotten a hold of his consciousness he’d been able to react. Pushing himself away from her, inflicting physical pain on himself in order to keep his mind distracted, hoping that the stinging in his palms would help deter from what his instincts demanded.
But his efforts only worked for a brief moment. The urge quickly became too much and he felt his defences crumble as his instincts obliterated his inhibition. He breathed in the scent of her blood which still lingered in the air surrounding him, hoping as he did that the urge would dissipate before he managed to catch up to her.
He wouldn’t kill her, it wasn’t as though he hadn’t fed in days, but the idea of using Sam to sate his hunger, to cause her that kind of distress, filled him with concern. He planned to see her again, and didn’t want to feel guilty every time he laid eyes upon her.
Jamie felt a brief stab of panic . . . before he finally realised the urge was no longer there.
In fact when he’d breathed in her scent it helped to calm him rather than incite him.
Jamie blinked, totally dumbfounded.
When he breathed in, it wasn’t the scent of blood, it was simply the scent of Sam. And Sam’s general scent didn’t fill him with a bloodlust, it filled him with an entirely different kind of lust.
With a sigh, he walked over to the wall where they’d been standing and slowly he let himself sink down, until he was sitting on the cold concrete ground.
He didn’t really know this girl, but he’d seen enough for him to learn that she didn’t make sense. She worked a human job. Lived in a human house. She had human friends. And today he was pretty sure she’d been shopping for school supplies.
Everything she did screamed human.
But everything else about her . . .
She was attacked by a man with a crossbow! Jamie couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen anyone use a crossbow. And not only that but he seemed to conjure the weapon from nothing. One minute his hand was empty, the next he had a crossbow.
He couldn’t make sense of it.
Everything was just . . . things just weren’t right.
Somewhere in his mind he knew that Claudio wasn’t just a paranoid, superstitious fool. He knew that he should back off, he should leave Sam alone.
But he couldn’t.
He had tried.
For a whole week he’d left her alone, not bothered her at all, he tried to forget about all of th
e things that didn’t make sense.
But he couldn’t.
The curiosity was keeping him awake every day. And the longing for her, someone he didn’t even know, it filled him with the urge to see her. To be near her. Even if she couldn’t see him, he needed to know that she was okay.
He’d started going out more and more during the day. He’d always known that he could, not in direct sunlight as his skin burned too easily and it was painful and took so outrageously long to heal, but going out while the sky was overcast had always been fine providing he stuck to the shade as much as possible. Even so, it was a dangerous habit to get into. Even with clouds, the sun was still there, waiting to make an appearance at any moment.
And on days when the clouds weren’t out he’d sit at home and stare at the clock, hoping that it would make the sun set faster.
And then when the sun had set he’d find her, no matter where she was. He’d keep safely to the shadows and be as unnoticeable as possible. If his parents could see him now they would have been ashamed to find him basically stalking a girl. Doing something people usually got arrested for.
He had never been the type to become obsessed over things, but with Sam . . . there were too many unanswered questions, too many confusing thoughts and sleepless days for him to simply ignore her.
He thought that it should be pathetic that the day he had met her was possibly the best day of his entire existence. Even though she’d made it painfully obvious that she didn’t return his affection.
There was just something about her that he felt drawn to. She was like a memory from a dream he’d had long ago, her presence living somewhere in the back of his mind. She was the most familiar thing in the world to him, despite the fact that he’d only met her recently.
I’ve lost my mind, he thought with a sigh. Sam was right . . . Claudio was right . . . I need to stay away from her. I mean, I almost attacked her! I just . . . I need to stay away. I’ve been coming into this town for years and never run into her, it shouldn’t be too difficult to avoid her. Maybe she’ll go to college and move away . . . I hope I don’t have to move away.
With a resolute sigh he stood, deciding that all thoughts of Sam would now be forbidden. It was for the best.
He pushed himself away from the wall, about to walk out of the car park, when he heard a small piece of metal fall to the ground. He turned and saw a glimmer in the light. Frowning, he walked back to where he had been sitting and bent down.
There was a necklace.
Jamie picked it up and turned it over in his hands. He remembered seeing it before. Sam had one just like it. But the stone in hers was a different colour. This one was clear, where hers had been purple. He brought the necklace closer to his face and inhaled.
It was definitely Sam’s, her scent still lingered on it. He looked at the stone again. He knew that Sam’s was a different colour. Perhaps it’s mood jewellery, he thought. That would explain why the colour changed.
But how did it get here?
He was sure that he hadn’t been sitting on it, if he had he would have felt it beneath him. He tried to think back to whether or not Sam had been wearing it when she left, in his mind he could clearly picture it around her neck as she walked away from him.
Again he frowned. Then how did it get here?
He turned slowly, assessing every inch of the car park he was standing in. Attempting to sense another presence.
There was nothing, at least not as far as he could tell.
Unless there was someone that he couldn’t sense.
“Is someone here?” he asked, feeling slightly foolish as he spoke to the empty space.
Silence.
He sighed and peered down at the necklace in his hand thinking it was typical that he would now have to return her necklace, right after he had decided to stay away from her. “Am I not supposed to stay away?” he mumbled, wondering if there was a higher power at work. He had never been one to have faith in such things, but he also wasn’t completely closed off to the idea that there was something else out there, watching over the world. “If I’m not, I’m afraid I may need a more obvious sign.”
He looked up, his eyes scanning the shadows once more. A shape emerged from behind one of the cars. Jamie stared in confusion as a small white cat strolled out into view.
He was sure that the car park had been empty of any kind of presence, both human and animal. Yet there stood the cat, walking towards the far end of the car park. Jamie watched it as it moved, taking a hesitant step towards it. He reached out his senses and probed at the cat’s mind, somewhere in the back of his head thinking that perhaps the cat could shield its presence from him as Sam had. But once he realised that the animal was just a cat, he couldn’t help but laugh slightly at his own foolishness.
The cat stopped walking and picked something up off the ground, holding the item sideways between its teeth. He looked at it curiously as it turned and began making its way over to where he stood watching it.
When it was less than three feet away, the cat stopped moving and dropped the item on the ground at his feet. Jamie stared down at it, realising that it was the arrow that had been fired by the crazy man with the crossbow.
The cat sat down and gazed at him with its large red eyes and meowed, before nudging at the arrow with its nose. He put the necklace into his pocket, thinking he would find a way to return it to Sam eventually, knelt down and picked the arrow up off the ground, staring at it as he absently stroked the cat’s head.
She’s in danger, his body froze as he was stuck with that thought. She was in danger. The man who attacked her was still out there. He had escaped and he could come back.
What if he hurt Sam?
What if he killed her?
When Jamie looked up he found that the cat was gone and his hand was stroking the air.
He shook his head, and tried not to think on how strange his life had become over the past few weeks. He couldn’t focus on that now, not when he had a job to do.
Jamie walked over to where the man had run out, his scent was still in the air. He wasn’t going to let anyone hurt Sam. For as long as he was living he’d make sure that she was safe. Even if it meant hunting down the people who wished her harm.
Jamie breathed in deeply, and followed the scent.
CHAPTER 27
Jamie followed the trail for miles, all the way out into the forest beyond the town, where even the furthest reaches of the suburbs disappeared behind a blanket of wood and leaves.
It didn’t take him long to find the cabin.
For a moment he studied it, wondering why the trail led here, to such an abandoned area.
The cabin’s similarities to his own home did not escape him, but he didn’t have any time to dwell on it now; his senses picked up movement, and he realised the property wasn’t as desolate as it had originally appeared.
There were three of them, sheltering inside the house, all of them male.
“I failed,” a voice spoke up. Jamie crept closer, listening intently.
Another replied, “Join the club . . . everyone fails.” He spoke with the tone of someone trying to be reassuring, but unable to hide their anger.
“I’ll inform Kraven,” the third sighed, the sound of his voice followed by the slam of a closing door.
“She had help,” the first man said, and Jamie realised it was the one who had carried out the attack. “A Vampire.”
With that, Jamie froze, stunned.
The man spoke those words as if Vampires were commonplace. With the air of someone talking about the weather. Why would he speak as though it was nothing unusual?
How could he possibly know?
Who were these men?
“A Vampire?”
“He protected her.”
“Aleczander?” the second man asked, the beginnings of fear creeping into his voice.
For a moment there was no reply, but Jamie coul
d hear the rustle of movement from inside the house. After a while, Sam’s attacker responded, “No . . . it was probably one of his though. I didn’t wanna hurt him in case it started anything with the rest.”
The other man sighed. “If they’re actively helping the girl then they’re already starting something.”
There was more sounds of movement from inside. Footsteps, then doors opening. “There was a Vampire,” the second man said, his voice quieter as he was now in a room nearer to the back of the house. “We need to know who he is, and who he’s aligned with.”
Jamie just listed, barely taking in the words that the men were speaking. Deeply shocked and incredibly confused, Jamie clenched his fists tightly. How could they know what he was?
Not to mention, Aleczander?
Was this the same Aleczander Jamie was looking for?
Why would they assume he’d be with Sam?
From the way these men were speaking, it was obvious that their attack on Sam was not just a random act. It was a part of some greater conspiracy.
There was a jumble of movement sounding from inside; sensing that his time was running short, Jamie didn’t waste another moment asking himself questions with no possible answers.
He darted towards the back door, where he sensed just one man, speaking into a telephone.
Moving swiftly, using his increased speed he barged inside the house and before the man even knew that Jamie was there, his neck was snapped and he was lying dead on the kitchen floor, the phone still in his hand.
After taking the biggest knife he could from the drawers, he silently made his way through the hallway to the door leading to the room where the other two men were talking in hurried tones.
Jamie paid no attention to whatever they were saying, he only listened to their voices to determine where in the room they were. Instinctually he knew their positions within seconds, he could see them clearly in his mind.
Gripping the knife tighter, he kicked at the door to force it open, splintering the wood and knocking what remained off its hinges, charging into the room. Both of the men yelled at each other in a sudden panic. The same man who had attacked Sam made a dive for the crossbow sitting on the floor.