A Hunter Within (The Alliance of Power Duology, Book 1) Read online

  “This decision involved interaction and cooperation from the hunters and a treaty and pact was created. It was called the Alliance of Power and was prosperous for both sides. The vampires would take more responsibility for our own kind, and the hunters would be called in, or forced into action, if things ever got out of hand. The young vampires, the rogue vampires, those who seem to be out of control, those are not the majority of our kind anymore. Just like murderers and rapists aren’t the everyday kind of human. My parents were some of those vampires who were part of the initial treaty and as part of it, they were named leaders and given a territory to control. They led North America. The hunters in charge of that same area were the Van Helsings.

  I blinked a few times, wondering if I heard him right. “Like the Van Helsing, Vampire Slayer, Van Helsing?” I didn’t want to snicker, but the whole thing still sounded a bit absurd.

  “Yes, the same.” Seeley kept talking, but his eyes held a scold for me that stopped my smirking.

  “The Van Helsings were wonderful people. Under my parents’ rule, and theirs, we had an incredible amount of peace and prosperity. We developed a friendship that we thought would remain intact for years to come. Falcone Industries… ”

  My ears perked up even more, waiting to see what this connection could possibly be.

  He noticed and smiled at me. “Falcone Industries has always been a front for the Van Helsings and the hunter organization. Not all hunters have to be directly from one of the hunter lines. While true descendants are the most powerful, and possess the actual innate abilities, hunters can also be trained, and under Falcone there was a slew of them who had been. They simply needed a cover. The Van Helsings were incredible scientists and found all sorts of cures using various scientific methods that they had learned from their travels, and from being in touch with the more paranormal side of the world. But something happened.”

  Seeley’s voice grew darker, and his eyes started losing their blue. It was like he was reliving a terrible memory. “The Van Helsings and their daughter died about twenty years ago. When we were told of the Van Helsings’ death, we thought it was suspicious. They had died in a car accident, and for powerful hunters to somehow have poor reflexes when it came to driving, it wasn’t sitting right with my family. We investigated on our own and determined it was murder.

  “When they were destroyed, Marissa Malcovey took over the organization and began to lead with a faction who did not like the treaty with the vampires. When we had our official peace treaty meeting, to review the terms under this new leadership, Marissa brought a band of hunters along that murdered my parents. My brother and I escaped, and we have been in hiding from Marissa and Falcone ever since, only trusting Rebecca and Kellan to get close enough to us to know all the details. Our kind know how to get in touch with me if they need to, and they have been, more and more frequently it seems since there have been so many disappearances recently.”

  I wish I could be shocked about Marissa being bad, but from what I’d seen and my brief interaction with her, I’d been uncomfortable. With how she handled the patient I had encountered, I knew she couldn’t be fully trusted. But this was a bit frightening. Orchestrating the death of the founders of Falcone? I’d never seen or heard any mention the Van Helsings in relation to Falcone. Marissa had made it seem like the company barely existed before her.

  “With these disappearances, we’ve been trying to track down what has been going on with our vampires, with my people. So far, we’ve traced it back to a drug that Falcone has created. They are trying to make it seem like vampires have become lethal and out of control again. Which we think in turn, makes it more incumbent upon their benefactors to support the hunter side of the organization and the slaughter of vampires.”

  I didn’t realize how heavy my breathing had gotten. This story was awful. To think that Seeley’s parents had been murdered in front of him, so soon after losing their friends, and all by a woman who the world celebrated as a strong, intelligent voice for good. “And you really think there’s a drug they’ve created to do all this?” I asked, in shock.

  “You saw it in action for yourself. Everything you told me about that man lines up with what has happened to others. What I saw, that’s on par with what we’ve been told. Think back to what you witnessed, and think how he reacted to things,” Seeley encouraged.

  I took a deep breath in, closed my eyes, and nodded. I didn’t need time to remember. Those memories had been eating at me. His resistance to what the technicians were doing. His threats to them about not getting away with it. He had been okay, and then he wasn’t. Some part of what Seeley was saying rang true with me. Falcone was up to something. And while I was struggling to grasp the mythological vampires aspect, I knew that all of this revolved around something dark.

  “And they have your brother,” I said, looking at Seeley as I became increasingly concerned for how distressed he must be. How awful to know that they could be doing the very same thing to him.

  “Yes, but that’s a bigger problem,” Seeley said, starting his pacing again. “My brother is royalty, and it’s only our line and direct descendants who have the ability to walk in the sun. It’s something we’ve been blessed with, but my parents never told me how or why before they died. Falcone Industries having my brother means they can study his DNA, study his genetics, and if they can find a way to break that code and get it in to some of the vampires they are making unstable, they would not only be a danger at night, but all the time. They would be releasing the most dangerous creatures into the world and could become who knows how powerful. The outbreak that would cause, and the scare, would be unprecedented. She’d have more money, and more power. They would be the only company who could protect humanity with their ‘cure.’ The creatures people would fear the most would be both created and destroyed all at the same time by Falcone, with no one ever knowing.”

  I thought back to my meeting with Marissa and how she had blatantly lied to me. Her plastic smile, which for so long I had admired, seemed so obviously fake now. Being in person and face to face with her, hearing her lie, I started to realize she was a manipulator. And a master manipulator, at that. If what Seeley was saying was true, and she had overtaken an organization by murdering those who were supposed to have run it, who knows what she was capable of.

  “So the Van Helsings are gone?” I asked, unsure why I was so concerned and sad about these people who were killed off in Marissa’s power rampage. “Does that mean there’s no one to stand up to her?”

  Seeley got a faraway look in his eyes. “They only had one child, and the child was killed with them,” he said, sounding saddened. “There are other hunter lines, like I said, but this area was run by them, and the other hunters have their own issues in their respective territories they are working with. Marissa had somehow built up enough power within the organization to take control and run it. We don’t know how many are truly loyal to her within, and how many were and are true to the Van Helsings and their ways. But I can tell you that the organization has never been run as maliciously as it is being handled now. For generations and generations, hunters strived to protect people, not put them in harm’s way to make money. That’s exactly what she’s doing,” Seeley concluded. He sounded disgusted. I felt it, too. I worked for her. I blindly worked for her and had taken what she had sold at face value.

  There was a stirring in me I hadn’t felt in a long time. “What can I do?” I asked suddenly.

  “What do you mean?” Seeley looked at me and frowned.

  “I work there, Seeley. I’m inside every day. Maybe there’s something I can find out,” I clarified.

  “No,” he said shortly and abruptly.

  “What?”

  “I’m not asking you to join our cause. I’m trying to explain what you’ve stumbled upon, accidently.”

  “I mean, if she wants to try, why stop her?” Rebecca said too innocently.

  Seeley shot her a look that very clearly told her to shut it.<
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  “Can I talk to you for a minute?” I said to him, standing up from my chair.

  “Oh joy, more sexual tension. Barf.” Rebecca stormed out of the room, and Kellan tried to hide his smile as he followed after her in amusement.

  I watched Rebecca stomping off, and once I was sure Kellan was gone too, I asked, “Why don’t you want me to be a part of this?”

  “Because it’s dangerous. You barely believe we are vampires, so why would you get involved on our behalf? Especially after what Rebecca said,” he accused, his voice wavering with guilt on his last comment.

  “I believe in you,” I said, surprising even myself. But I realized as I looked him in the eyes that I did. “Seeley you saved my life, multiple times. If what you’re saying is true, and that man was a vampire, or just turned into a bad man, something awful could have happened to me and you prevented it. You watched over me and helped me. I owe you. Plus, regardless of why we began our friendship or whatever this is, this all seems much bigger than that.”

  “I will not ask you to do this,” he said, sounding worried.

  “You’re not asking, I’m telling you I’m going to help. What other opportunity do you have to be on the inside except me?”

  He didn’t have an answer.

  “When I was with Marissa the other day, she said she selects one or two interns for a special project close to her heart. If I can keep my head down and get in good with her, I can find out her secret project,” I said, getting excited and thinking my plan sounded perfect.

  He looked away, crossing his arms over his chest and running his hand over his face. “It’s too dangerous. We’ve already started discussing ways to infiltrate.”

  “Ah, so that’s what you were really doing at Falcone when I met you.” I wasn’t backing down. “It is not too dangerous for me. I already work there. All I would be doing is keeping my eyes open and doing my job. I’m very good at what I do, Seeley. Work is all I’ve ever had. I’d be selected for this project easily and could get a better lay of the land from the inside than whatever you could come up with from the outside.”

  He leaned his back against the wall and folded his arms, watching me intensely. My stomach knotted up when I saw how strong and in control he looked.

  “Look, if someone told me I had the opportunity to find the only family I had and save them, I would do it in a heartbeat no matter what. I might be the only chance to find your brother and save him, and if that’s how I can repay you for my life, I’ll do it. I’m not afraid.”

  “I won’t risk your life,” he said quietly.

  I walked up closer to him. “You don’t have to feel guilty about me. I understand why you were pretending to get close…”

  He glanced up at me and frowned. “I know it started off like that, but something happened, especially tonight. You… I haven’t felt like someone understood, but now…” He struggled, shaking his head.

  I didn’t know what he was trying to say. Perhaps this whole thing hadn’t been as one-sided as Rebecca’s punch in the gut comment made me feel. I couldn’t dwell on that right now, though. One thing at a time, and right now Falcone was the bigger fish to fry, so to speak. “I understand the risk here.”

  “I don’t like this,” he said, shaking his head.

  “Tough.” I shrugged.

  He sighed heavily and looked hesitant. “There is something else we need to talk about,” Seeley said. “I don’t know how Henry knows what I am, but he does.”

  I huffed. “Right. He’s been acting so strange since you came around.”

  “Be careful. There’s no way he could possibly know what I am unless he was knowledgeable about vampires through personal experience, or maybe even trained as a hunter.”

  I burst out laughing at his implication, breaking the sadness, anger, and tension that seemed to have been flooding the house in waves since Seeley had been brought in unconscious. “Henry a hunter? Henry? My best friend who works at a library and is a scientist is a vampire hunter?” I laughed again.

  Seeley looked angry. “Just be careful.” He gritted his teeth.

  I rolled my eyes. “You two really should get to know each other before you start warning me against the other.”

  He touched my arm, and our familiar connection excited me. I looked into his eyes, remembering the lust-filled moments we shared on the bench outside as Seeley brought me back to life tonight. He thought it was blood lust, but it seemed like so much more than fleeting emotion that could be triggered so easily.

  “Jules,” he said with a heavy breath, and I tilted my head up closer to him. He started to bring his lips closer to meet mine, but stilled before he backed away. “Maybe you should sleep on everything that’s happened.”

  I cleared my throat and took a step away from him. I had no idea what I could handle with this vampire, but I knew I wanted him now. And apparently, wasn’t going to get it. Perhaps that blood lust was real, because I should be angrier at a guy who only began talking to me so he could use me for information.

  “Right. I should get home,” I said, heading for the door.

  It was blocked before I could get to it. “Stay for tonight. I’d feel better knowing you were here.” He took my hand and led me to a room toward the back of the house.

  “Rebecca might kill me in my sleep, though, if she finds out I stayed,” I said, only half-joking.

  “She’s just overprotective,” he said with a smile in his voice.

  He flicked on the lights, and I saw a bed. I turned and raised an eyebrow at him. “You sleep in a bed?”

  “Were you expecting a coffin?” He grinned. “Yes I sleep every few days. I’ll take the floor.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous, you were hurt tonight.” I sighed in mock frustration. Although given his resolve to not touch me, it might turn into actual frustration. “We can both take the bed. Just don’t try anything.” Not that I mind if you do.

  “I think I’m the one who needs to say that to you.” He chuckled.

  We climbed into bed, and his lips pressed gently into the back of my head. “Goodnight, Jules.”

  “Goodnight,” I whispered. I was asleep before I even had time to think about how much the world around me had changed that night.

  CHAPTER 7

  I woke up to the sound of my phone ringing, in an unfamiliar bed, alone.

  “Hello,” I answered groggily, looking around me curiously at the heavenly soft sheets and down comforter I was wrapped up in.

  “Jules?” Henry’s voice came from the other end, sounding anxious.

  “Henry, hey.” I cradled the phone to my shoulder and slipped my legs over the bed, shutting my eyes shut firmly before opening them in an attempt to wake myself up.

  “Where are you? I was trying to catch you before work, and the girls said you never came home. Are you okay?” Forget anxious, Henry sounded downright panicked.

  “Yeah, I’m fine. I’m…” I looked around again, and the memories from the night before came back to me quickly. I was at Seeley’s, but he wasn’t in the room with me. I remembered his confession, the attack, and being back here to learn that there was an entire world inside my little protected shell I had never known a thing about.

  “We need to talk,” I said. It came out harder than I’d meant it to, but Henry had known what was going on and not only had he threatened Seeley about it, but he hadn’t told me sooner. For that, I didn’t know what his excuse would be.

  “I know. I came over to see you, but we’ll have to catch up later. There’s a lot that I need to tell you, but it has to be done safely. It has to be done right.”

  “What are you talking about? What has to be done right?”

  Silence.

  “Henry?” I pressed.

  He continued, ignoring my questions. “Where are you?” he asked.

  Now it was my turn for silence.

  “Did our friend Seeley tell you anything interesting about himself?” Henry questioned after an awkwardly long pause on my
end.

  “Yes, as a matter of fact he did,” I responded smugly. Although I had nothing to be smug about. Seeley was a vampire. It’s not like he told me he was too old for me or leaving town soon like normal relationship hurdles people face.

  “Are you with him now?” he asked.

  I was growing more irritated by the line of questioning I was under, when it should be Henry answering my questions. “Not right now,” I growled out.

  “So, a guy tells you he’s a vampire and you stay the night with him?” Henry’s voice slid out like a hissing accusation.

  “Don’t you dare start with me. If you were so concerned, you should have come to me and told me yourself. You’re supposed to be my best friend. If I was in any actual danger, I would have assumed you would have told me immediately. Instead, you just thought you’d use it as some bait to force him into an admission he wasn’t ready to give.”

  “You do realize how crazy you sound, right? You’re defending someone who is a fucking vampire that had no intention of telling you? But clearly it must just turn you on more if you’re sleeping with him now that you know.”

  My mouth opened slightly, but I snapped it shut immediately. I didn’t know what to say, or do. Henry never raised his voice and, come to think of it, I wasn’t sure I’d ever heard him utter a curse word before this moment. He had never really even got angry with me. He was level-headed, kind, compassionate. He was always the calming presence in my life, and somehow he was acting like someone else entirely.

  “At least I know who the real monster is, now,” I said quietly and hung up.

  I sat there on the bed, staring at the phone in my hand in shock for a few moments before I could even react. Tears stung at my dry, sleep-heavy eyes as I heard his comments in my head again.