Haventon Born (The Haventon Chronicles Book One)

Haventon Born Chapter Four

"Yeah." She rifled through her shoulder bag and handed him a spiral bound notebook. He read through the scribbled pages carefully and was relieved to note that she at least had the sense to use the Order's special code so the contents would seem innocuous to anyone untrained.

By the time he finished, he had to concede it looked like she really had found a vampire this time. He'd been growing suspicious of the occupant of that address himself, and her notes just confirmed it. He waited for a while as if considering the matter; then, looked around to check that no one had wandered into earshot before nodding.

"You're right about this one, so you have my approval. Good hunting, Anna."

"Well, thank you!" she said. "I suppose that we'd better meet up again tomorrow. I have some more suspects."

"More?" His lips twitched. "I don't know. This bloody town you can't turn around without tripping over a vampire. Give me your notes, and I'll tell which ones I approve tomorrow." He paused. "Here? At the same time?"

"I guess so." She nodded grudgingly, handing over three sets of notes. Then, an uncertain look swept over her face, and she drew a fourth book out of her bag. "Erm... and could you please tell me where I went wrong with this one? I still don't understand how he could have turned out to be human." She sounded plaintive, almost like a different girl. "I'm sorry I was so snippy. I really want to know what I missed."

"Of course, I'll look it over." He frowned at her apparent mood swing. She wasn't dissembling. He'd stake his life on that. But, somehow he found that even more alarming than if she'd been faking it. It was just another reminder of Sarah at that age. He didn't want to deal with that again.

If Anna noticed his concern, she gave no sign. Her posture relaxed, and she gave him a smile as she placed the book on the bench beside him. It lit up her face making her much prettier. "Thanks," she said. "I'll see you tomorrow then."

David retrieved his sketchpad and pencils as she strode away. The family he'd been drawing had moved on, but he had enough detail on them anyway. As he began to sketch in the rest of the pond and the surrounding trees, he listened to the children laughing on the swings.

***

Leisa frowned as she watched the girl David had been given charge of leave the park. She'd gone to watch the meeting only on a hunch, but she was very glad she had. This could be very bad. Someone was messing with the girl's mind; she'd been able to pick that much up before the girl left. She'd need to take a more thorough look soon, to see if she could identify the culprit. The mental fingerprints were familiar.

Whoever it was, they were planning to use Anna as some sort of weapon against the Order. If the girl was lucky, it might just be as a spy, but Leisa doubted that. Not with the anger she'd sensed being stirred up.

Then, there was David; she hadn't expected what was happening to him either. She should have done. It was always a possibility, after all, especially in Haventon. The combination of grief, stress, mental exercises he'd been doing and the nudging of his mind had awakened the latent psychic abilities most humans had.

Apparently he was an empath and he'd been picking up Anna's intense emotions without realising. She'd have to handle him carefully now. The mind of an emerging psychic could break all too easily even without someone pushing them. That was why most humans subconsciously repressed their powers – they were far too dangerous for the untrained and training was hard to come by.

Well that was one good thing about the Order. They might have become a bunch of maniacs who'd lost sight of their original purpose for the most part, but over the centuries they'd learned the hard way to train their psychics. The problem was that they still weren't especially good at spotting them before it was too late.