Hunted

Chapter 2 - Leaving New York

"I was ...taken. I can't remember how, I think they must have drugged me, and the man, my owner, bit me."

"Not your owner. No one owns you." Nick interrupted, voice low, only to be elbowed by Antonio.

"Well, the man then. I haven't got his name."

"How did you survive though? Not many do." Antonio was sipping his coffee, looking calm, eyes focused on me.

"I know." I remembered that much. Dead bodies. Women. Girls, really, being wheeled down the hall past the cage door. Doctors bent over me as something happened. "He has doctors trying to keep us alive. I saw a lot of them die. Or get sicker." Mind jumped to Pav, again, sleeping in the bed, her face pale. She was sick. She had been sick for days. But at least she was sleeping and that might be more helpful than anything I could do.

"How many were there?" A flicker of something in his eyes. Surprise? Shock? I didn't know.

"I don't know. I was in a cage. Only saw a few around me, but I saw others, and …I can't say. More than twenty if you count the ones that died? I didn't see many people. Just heard them. There were about a dozen doctors. A dozen security guards. So..." A flicker of anxiety. Memories I didn't want to remember. "I don't really know."

"All right. Just one more question..."

"How did I get here? Or where was I?"

A nod, both pair of eyes boring into me. "Either question ,yes."

"I escaped. Grabbed the only girl that could run. We ran." I didn't go into details, didn't tell them what'd happened before I grabbed Pav, how I'd disabled guards, how I'd... guilt, horror, human horror, but the worst part was that the animal part, the part they'd forced into me, thought the deaths were necessary. That it was justified. I swallowed. "He sent a hunter after us. To bring us back. Pets only escape by dying but I wasn't ready to do that yet. I don't know where I ran from. I just ran."

Anxiety, breathing increasing, the urge to flee. It was so vivid that I felt it rising again, felt my eyes dart to the windows, swallowing as I saw how far it was to the city. I felt almost caged.

A hand closed on my shoulder, I jumped, hadn't noticed Antonio or Nick rise.

Nick was standing there, watching me, still watchful. Still quiet. His hand on my shoulder.

"We're going home soon. Driving. The car's already packed. It'll be a bit of a drive but you're used to that, I imagine, from Australia."

I blinked. Memories of laughter, teasing Americans who thought all Australians lived in the outback and lived no where near anywhere. Memories from when I had been the tourist here, on a tour of New York, a student who'd won a trip and couldn't quite believe it.

"I lived an hour from Brisbane. In a rainforest. So no real long drives anywhere." I replied, only half telling the truth, gazing up at him.

He smiled, a small tense smile. "Sounds nice."

"It was. Is. But I missed the seasons in the colder climates."

"Do you live with anyone there? A boyfriend? Husband? ...girlfriend?"

"No. I was studying full time so I only had enough money to rent a room, no boyfriend or anything to share a house with." It seemed distant now. I wondered what they thought when I vanished. The anxiety was fading again, as I talked, and his hand softened slightly. I got what he was doing there, suddenly, getting my mind off the anxiety that was building, and appreciated that. In captivity, the werewolves who sensed fear or anxiety taunted it, provoked it, making it a game. No one had tried to calm one of us down. Nick had though. It was nice of him and I added, "Thanks."