Heartless

Heartless - Chapter Five

“Gee, thanks.”

Hunter sighed. “Come on. I know a way out. I’m parked near here.”

I raised an eyebrow. “You have a car now?”

He smiled. “Something like that.”

Before I could think much about what he’d said, he started to run down the alleyway. I followed, trying to stay close. He took a second to peer around the corner to check for any vampires, and then broke out into a sprint. I went after him, trying to keep up as best as I could. Pain was shooting through my leg and my sides were heaving, still exhausted after my fight with the vampires.

Hunter looked back and groaned. “Have you really gotten this slow, sunshine?”

“It’s not my fault that a few dozen vampires decided to use my legs as a scratching post,” I hissed through my teeth. “And its definitely not my fault that some of them decided that it would be great to try and break my legs as well.”

“Look,” he said impatiently. “These vampires are going to come down this street sooner or later and I’d really like to be gone by then. As much as I’d like to kill all of those bloodsuckers, it looks like my new hunting partner isn’t in the best state.”

I wondered vaguely where the other hunters that I’d met back in England were. Mort, Ant, Alex, Kyle, Blake…

“Then go ahead and leave me,” I said, glaring at him. Old wounds from three years ago were resurfacing. “You’ve certainly done that before.”

“Can we talk about that later? Only I think I hear some werewolves.”

Sure enough, the sound of howling was filling up the night. These werewolves were on the hunt, and if the alliance between the supernatural creatures was any indication, they were probably trying to find Luna and I.

All of my anger at him dissipated, my thoughts focussed on the sound of the wolves. I swore, running towards him. “Okay. You lead the way.”

“You’re still not quick enough,” he growled.

“Tough!”

With an exasperated groan, he ran over to me and picked me up, swinging me into his arms. “Let’s not go about making this a habit, okay?”

“I never wanted to in the first place,” I complained. “Put me down so I can run.”

“No way.”

The howls came again, closer this time. I groaned, wishing that I’d brought my gun with me, the one with the silver bullets that could stop any werewolf or shifter. It was still in the apartment, hidden inside one of the boxes. I hadn’t thought to bring it, thinking that the vampires would be alone. How stupid of me.

“Okay, okay. I’m not complaining. Just run,” I said. I had to admit that we would cover more ground if Hunter was carrying me, however humiliating it was.

Hunter made a grunt of agreement. I looked up to see him smiling; his dark eyes alight with excitement. It was ridiculous how much he enjoyed this sort of thing sometimes.

“Do you think its just werewolves?” I asked.

“I don’t know. Werewolves, shifters. It could be anything,” he muttered. “I think we should just focus on getting out of here for now.”

Shifters. “They can’t see my face,” I moaned. “If they see me…” The vampires from the alleyway had noticed me anyway, and they hadn’t even been close to Joseph. They knew that I’d been at Joseph’s parties. What was stopping the other supernaturals from recognising me, or coming to his next party and seeing me?