Reunion - Felicity Heaton (best books for 7th graders .txt) 📗

Marise growled.

Tynan followed suit.

“We move,” Marise said.

Jascha obeyed her command. She was superior to him and this was her mission, not his. He was just lucky enough that she had finally allowed him to help her. All he wanted was to protect her. He kept pace with her and his brother, his senses sharp and searching for any sign of another attack. Wherever the hunter had gone, he had been concealing a weapon there.

How many other weapons did the hunter have in the cemetery grounds?

They broke through some bushes and came out in a wide open space scattered with graves. They were exposed but it might be their only way of drawing the hunter out of hiding. He reached with his senses, trying to find the hunter. Another bolt flew at them and Marise growled as she caught it.

“He’s toying with us if he thinks these stupid bolts will kill us,” she muttered, snapping it and dropping it to the floor.

Jascha felt like reminding her that one of those stupid bolts had come very close to killing her, but he didn’t. Her words were a revolt against the fear the sight of the slim shaft of holy wood so close to her chest had caused. He had felt that fear too, as though it had been his heart the bolt had almost pierced.

Another bolt shot out of the darkness and narrowly missed them. Marise was already running in the direction it had come from by the time he had figured out the hunter’s location. He chased after her, dodging each bolt and catching any that posed more than a passing threat.

Tynan caught up with him, falling into line beside him and Marise. He glanced at his brother, trying to silently convey something that was on his mind. If something happened to him, Tynan had to protect Marise in his stead. He looked at Marise and then back at Tynan. His brother nodded in understanding.

Marise leaped over a low tomb and then rolled to dodge a bolt as it flew past her head. Jascha followed her and then grabbed her and dragged her down with him, causing another bolt to narrowly miss them. He pulled her to safety behind a tomb and nodded to Tynan who was hiding behind another one close by.

“This man is playing by tactics.” He looked at Marise.

She frowned and then nodded. He had spent years as a special operative for the Russian government. Both he and his brother were trained in this kind of combat. Was Marise? He didn’t know what kind of training she had undergone when becoming a Law Keeper. He stared at her, trying to read in her eyes whether she was thinking along the same lines as him or whether her thoughts were running along a different path.

She swallowed hard and looked out from behind the tomb. He pulled her back when a bolt zipped by.

“Trying to get yourself killed?” he said with a frown.

She met it with a dark look.

He signalled to his brother, telling him in code what he planned to do. It only took a glance at Marise to see she wasn’t following at all. Her eyes were wide with confusion.

He gestured in the direction of the next tomb over. She looked there and then back at him. He motioned with his fingers that they were going to run there. She nodded.

Taking hold of her hand, he pulled her up so she was crouched beside him on the grass, ready. He signalled his brother and watched as he ran in the other direction, drawing the hunter’s fire. He counted, waiting, always patient as he needed to be.

The second Tynan was almost at the point he had planned, he ran with Marise, silently slipping from tomb to tomb. He stopped behind one, pressing his back against the cool stone. Poking his head out, he smiled when he saw the hunter behind a tomb, still firing at Tynan. This hunter wasn’t as clever as he had first thought. Any vampire hunter worth his salt knew that a vampire could easily run at a speed human eyes would find difficult to register, meaning Tynan was toying with him by running at an almost human pace.

He released Marise’s hand and motioned for her to come closer. She did, her body pressing close to him, making him ache to touch her. He nodded towards where the hunter was hiding. She frowned and then grinned, revealing sharp canines.

Jascha watched Tynan’s progress and the second the hunter had his back fully to him, he ran with Marise tailing behind. He had precious few seconds before the hunter realised what was happening. It would be enough to get Marise the chance she needed to kill the man.

He just hoped it wasn’t going to hurt too much.

Keeping in front of Marise, he blocked the hunter’s view of her, just as he had planned, giving her the best chance possible.

Marise’s eyes widened when Jascha growled in pain and stumbled forwards, his hands coming up. Her heart clenched and her throat tightened. She choked on her feelings and pressed on, shutting down her breathing. Jascha growled again and she sprinted past him, not even glancing at him as she attacked the hunter.

The hunter’s face was a mask of shock as she appeared from nowhere. She roared and launched herself at him, slashing across his throat. He fell into the gravestone and went to reach for the crossbow but she knocked it away with her foot. She grabbed his throat, digging her claws in until blood flowed from the wounds. Bringing her hand away, she licked the scarlet liquid off her fingers and frowned hard at him.

It didn’t taste human. He tasted almost like a vampire.

Someone had changed him, done something to him, but who and what?

Jascha moaned behind her and her anger came back full force, mixing with her fear and intoxicating her until she lost all restraint. She stared at the man in front of her, his dark eyes full of certainty with a hint of satisfaction that only fuelled the feelings inside of her. Growling, she slashed across his throat, unleashing all of her feelings. The surety in his expression turned to alarm as the blood began to spill in rivulets, trickling down his neck and pooling around his collarbone before sliding onto his chest.

“Where did you come from?” she said, hoping he would be more willing to answer her questions now that he was sure he was facing death. “What happened to you?”

He smiled in a way she didn’t like.

It was full of ‘you’ll see’ and it sent a shiver through her.

Anger getting the better of her, she grabbed his neck and choked him, trying to get an answer out of him. He continued to smile calmly, staring straight into her eyes, his expression unwavering.

“Tell me!”

There was an almost imperceptible twitch in his look and then he slumped against the headstone.

His eyes went glassy, fixed on her in a sightless stare.

She pushed him away from her and released him. Her gaze dropped to his chest and she frowned at the knife protruding from it. He had killed himself. She couldn’t believe it. He had killed himself to avoid answering her questions. Her hands shook uncontrollably as she glared at him. What kind of human was he? If he was human.

Her eyes widened when she remembered Jascha and she turned on a pinpoint to face him.

Her heart lightened and warmed when she saw that the bolts had missed their target, and walked over to him. She eased down to kneel beside him where he rested against a gravestone. He grimaced and clenched his jaw as he yanked a bolt out of his left shoulder. She pulled the one in his right arm out and tossed it to the floor.

She didn’t look at Tynan when he stopped beside them.

“You all right, little brother?” he said, concern in his voice.

Jascha nodded. “Better than I’d expected.”

Marise realised that he had planned to be her shield, to hide her and protect her from the vampire hunter. She sighed and brushed the backs of her fingers across his cheek, letting him know that she was grateful for what he had done but at the same time he had worried her sick. She had feared that she was going to lose him now that she had just found the courage to love him again.

She helped him to his feet and then looked down at the body of the vampire hunter.

“We need to get it to headquarters for an autopsy... we need to know what we’re dealing with,” she said, her eyes unmoving.

Tynan bent over and picked the body up, slinging it over his shoulder. Blood spilled from the hunter’s throat onto the ground. She took the bandage from her arm and tied it around the wound to stem the bleeding. They would need as much of his blood as possible so they could run tests. It soaked the bandage and slowed to a steady drip. It wouldn’t be long before it stopped bleeding completely. It was best they waited so they didn’t leave a trail back to their home.

Marise looked at Jascha, raised her hand again and tentatively touched his wounds. Her eyebrows furrowed and she met his eyes, not hiding how concerned she was about him and how scared she had been. He smiled and brushed his fingers across her cheek.

Her earlier conversation with Tynan came back and she realised she had never made a decision about what she was going to do. Could she be a Law Keeper and a lover at the same time? Would the others accept it? She stared into Jascha’s violet eyes, willing him to make up her mind for her. A single look or word was all it would take to bring her to a decision.

His smile widened, his eyes brightening with affection and tenderness.

She had missed the way he could do that, look at her and show her all the love he held for her. She had missed his smell, his taste and his touch. She had missed all of him.

She couldn’t continue on alone anymore. She had to at least try and see if she could balance being a Law Keeper and a lover.

Holding her hand out to him, she waited for him to take it before speaking.

“Come with me.”

He frowned.

“When I take the body to headquarters,” she said. “Come with me.”

He continued to frown for a few seconds and then the confusion in his eyes became incredulity. He opened his mouth but she answered his question before he had voiced it.

She kissed him.

When Marise had left the Venia mansion it had been with a lighter heart and a new found love for her home. The return journey to the Law Keeper headquarters near Vilnius had been shorter than the outward one. With Jascha there and so much catching up to do, it had passed like minutes rather than hours.

She looked across at him as he walked beside her, carrying the body of the vampire hunter. They had placed it in a body bag back at the mansion and had kept it in the boot of the car during the journey. Jascha’s gaze slid across to meet