Hunter Academy (Edited)

Chapter 16 (Edited)

Chapter 16

“What did you find?” I asked breaking the silence. I tried to see what was written on the slip of paper but failed. Alexandria folded up the piece of paper and slipped it into a pocket of her jeans. My eyes narrowed, was she going to try to hide information from me?

“An address but the slip of paper was hidden among everything else so I’ll bet it’s important,” she replied. We both glanced at Erik wondering if he would join the conversation but he just sat there with a pale face staring at the pile of papers. “Is everything alright?” Alexandria asked casually.

“Of course why wouldn’t it be?” he asked as he flipped his phone closed and got up. “There is just something I have to do so I trust you will wait for me to get back before you do anything important and most likely reckless?” I nodded my head concealing my worry; Erik seemed to be acting strange. I knew saying anything wouldn’t change his mind.

“Hey, how do you know we’re going to do something reckless?” Alexandria complained.

“Well I know Damien and you seem reckless so the combination of you two is definitely going to end up in a disaster.”

“You don’t know that,” Alexandria replied. Erik shrugged.

“I will see you later then,” he said to me purposely not replying to Alexandria’s comment. Then he was gone shutting the door hard behind him.

“You’re not actually planning on waiting for him are you,” it wasn’t a question but rather an observation. I shook my head as I stuffed all the sheets back into the bag to be looked at another time. “Do you need help?”

“Why would you help me?” I asked unsure of her real purpose. Somehow I had known she would want to come along.”

“I still don’t have anything to do and if you’re not going to wait for Erik you might as well still have protection. That is unless you think you’re above it. I’m also the one with a car so that means you don’t have to take the bus highly armed; people would think you were a terrorist.”

“You bring up good points,” I said as I hid stakes and other weapons among my clothing. “I probably shouldn’t be showing you where hunters hide their weapons.”

“Why? It’s not like we can’t think of spots that are good for hiding things. Even though vampires don’t hide weapons like hunters, we do hide things so we know basically where its possible to conceal things,” she replied coolly as she threw her car keys up in the air for a few times.

“I suppose, now let’s go,” I told her as I ended up following her out of the room. As soon as Alexandria started the car she turned on the radio and increased the volume, obviously in no mood to idly chat about things. I was never one to respect people’s silent wishes, especially a vampire’s.

“So what is the building we’re going to?” I talked not bothering to raise my voice over the music, she would hear either way.

“Well, once upon a time, it used to be a place where people did drugs and stuff now it’s simply an empty building in the bad part of downtown, I think,” she sighed.

“You think?” I asked as I strained to hear her over the music. She had vampire hearing but I didn’t and I didn’t think that Alexandria would like it much if I turned down her music.

“Well I don’t go there often, and the times I do I don’t go and see what it’s being used for. Plus, there are ways of concealing what a building’s purpose and inhabitants are.”

“Is it pretty much safe?” I inquired as I stared at the numerous taxies all blurring into one due to the speed Alexandria was driving, which happened to be way over the speed limit. “Aren’t you driving a bit too fast?”

“Scared Damien?” she said as a smirk grew on her lips. “Don’t be scared, driving fast is thrilling but you have nothing to worry about,” she said and to prove her point she accelerated. “As for the building, I imagine its safe, but one can never be sure. We’re here by the way,” she stopped suddenly making the seatbelt stop me as I went forward with momentum. “Oops, sorry, forgot you’re not like me.” Funny, Alexandria didn’t sound one bit apologetic.

“It’s fine, what’s one more bruise,” I muttered mainly to myself.

“Glad you feel that way,” she laughed hearing my muttering easily. “Now come on and get out of the car.” She grabbed my arm and pulled me up the stairs and into the dark and deserted old brick building. As soon as she stepped past the threshold my wrist slipped through her grasp as she was wrenched away and slammed into the wall.

A force pulled me into the building and slammed the door behind me leaving me trapped. I looked at Alexandria with wide eyes; I didn’t yet understand what was happening. I looked around the big foyer with a massive staircase not seeing anything that was causing this problem.

“Witches,” she spat struggling to move away from the wall she was being held to. I swore, witches were not something to mess around with while you don’t have a partner. Witches made their own rules and were quite hard to take down. What had I gotten myself in to?

“Something we can help you with boy?” an ageless lady with silver hair cackled, for lack of a better word. “Perhaps you have unknowingly come to join the festivities.”

“He’s not here for anything but information so I would let him go if I were you,” shouted Alexandria.

“I would not be so bold to make threats in a situation in which you have no advantages vampire,” replied the silver haired witch using her power to throw a chunk of wood at Alexandria that narrowly missed her head. Then the witch picked up her big skirts of her grey old fashioned dress and walked down the stairs. As she walked down many cats of different colours and kind moved from under her skirts and scattered in different directions. When she finally had descended she walked up towards me and simply stood before me regarding me closely.

“I do not think you should kill him,” said a demure voice coming from a young blond girl in her teens. She too was strangely dressed in old fashioned clothing. “There is no benefit in killing him at the moment and the vampire said he was only looking for answers.” She ended her little speech by bowing her head respectfully. The silver-haired witch stared at her for a moment before replying.

“I suppose you are right,” replied the ageless witch just as many other witches filled the room lining up from side to side across the room. “Do tell, what questions were you hoping to have answered hunter boy? I’m afraid I can’t contain my curiosity, it’s not everyday I have a hunter unknowingly discover our presence.”

“It’s a coven, and a powerful one at that,” remarked Alexandria still immobilized near the wall. I barely stopped myself from showing my surprise. Covens were rare and thought to be extinct; nowadays witches didn’t trust each other enough to commit to the serious principle that was being in a coven. The silver haired witch was likely the leader, leaders of covens were amazingly strong so that explained why she could do incantations and spells without speaking words aloud.

“Enough, I tire of these games, ask your question or you shall be forced to leave and never come back regardless of what answers we might posses,” the head witch commanded. Did that mean they knew something about Tristan?

“I’m looking for my brother, Tristan Sullivan. He disappeared a few days ago and we found something in his apartment with this address on it. Do you know what he was doing or where he might be?”

“It is true, Tristan came here, but we can not disclose the nature of his visit, nor do we know where he was taken or why.” Well, that was a waste of time. “However I can tell you that some people close to you are not at all they seem to be.” At that comment Alexandria looked away but I didn’t have time to analyse it at the time.

“What do you mean by that?” I asked her as she began to turn and go back up the stairs.

“You will have to figure that by yourself, hunter boy,” the leader of the witches called over her shoulder. That was the last thing she said before mysteriously vanishing along with the rest of her coven. I stared around for a moment but then a gust of power picked Alexandria and I up and threw us out the door of the old building and shutting the door so we couldn’t go back.