Hunter Academy - Book 1

TRUTH AND LIES

Leonidas

"Would you like to try that again? I've never heard of The Academy."

I'm pretty sure if I hadn't been trained to hide my emotions, my jaw would have dropped. As it was, it took everything in me to school my features and hide my surprise. Where was Dane when you needed him? I decide to channel my inner Sam, and just look at her. Using my size as an intimidation, I cross my arms over my chest. Her breathing gets choppy, her eyes widen, and the beautiful vein on the side of her neck starts beating a mile a minute. I'm grinning on the inside. I guess if she isn't intimidated, then arousal will be a perfectly acceptable substitute, as long as it's working as a diversionary tactic. I clear my throat and those beautiful eyes fly to my face.

"So you feel like you know every single branch of every law enforcement agency in the country?
I assure you, there are way more than you can imagine," I say. I watch her shoulders deflate in defeat. I didn't really like doing that, especially if she really is who the psychic says she is. I don't want her to hate me later. There's a reason we are secret, especially our little branch. It's not easy knowing there are monsters out in the world.

"I guess you're right. You have some questions?"

"Yes."

She closes the door and disengages the slide lock, and opens the door back up. she waves her hand inviting me in. I walk through the doorway into her livingroom. I take a quick look around. three walls were a light tan, while the fourth is a burnt orange color, which went well with her dark brown furniture. Everything looked really expensive and high end brands. One wall contained a glass door, leading to an outside patio. My perusal is interrupted by her voice.

"Go ahead and have a seat. Would you like something to drink?"

"No, no, I'm good thanks."

I take a seat on her love seat and she sits on the couch, tucking her feet up underneath her. She gestures toward me, as if to say "go ahead." I reach into my suit jacket and pull out my notebook and pen, then clear my throat.

"So did you know Michael Buchannon?"

"Who?" she asks, clearly confused.

"The man that was hit by the bus."

"Oh! No. I didn't know him."

"Okay. So, can I get you to walk me through that day?"

She takes a deep breath, and begins her story, her sweet voice calm as she talks about what can only be described as horrific. I continue to jot notes, nod my head and encourage her to keep going. She finally stops speaking and takes a deep breath. I finish writing my notes and realize forty-five minutes have flown by. I look up at her and her eyes hold a note of sadness.

"I'm sorry you had to witness something like that," I tell her sincerely.

"Honestly," she hesitates a moment, the same look on her face that she had at the bar, "it really sucks, but I've seen worse." This breaks my heart a little. Nobody should witness something like she did the other day, much less something worse.

"Well, I'm sorry about that, too." I clear my throat, trying to get my emotions under control so I can keep asking her questions. "So, can you remember anything else about that day? Anything weird, beside that guy going crazy, happening?"

"I'm not sure what you mean?"

"I mean, anything out of place. Sounds? Smells? Temperature?" there was a quick look of confusion on her face before she started to think. I patiently waited.

"Well I don't know about sounds or temperature, but it did smell like rotten eggs. It was probably just the guy. He was pretty gross." She scrunches up her nose, as if to ward off the offending smell that isn't there.

"Rotten eggs? Like sulfur?" I'm piqued. This is something.

"Yes. It was pretty strong. Like I said, the guy was gross."

"Okay, anything else you can remember about that day?" She considers this for a moment, thinking.

"No. Nothing."

"Okay. Well, I appreciate everything," I say as I stand. I put away my notebook and pen, and pull out a business card and hand it to her. "This is my contact information. If you remember anything, no matter how small or weird, give me a call." She takes the card from me, and our fingers touch for a split second and a zing shoots up my arm. I glance at her face and her eyes are wide, which tells me she felt it too. At the same time the temperature drops about 20 degrees, just for a couple of seconds, but it was enough for me to know this girl has a ghost. Unfortunately, there's nothing I can do about it right now.  I can't just be like, "Hey! Mind if I bust out my EMF reader to confirm you have a ghost?" I'll have to figure out another way.

"Static electricity," I say with a laugh. She giggles, her cheeks tinting to a very appealing shade of pink.

"I guess so," she says as she moves toward the doorway to let me out. She opens the door, and looks up to my face. "I hope I was able to help you out some. I know I didn't really have much information."

"You were a great help, thank you very much." I really don't want to stop looking in her pale green eyes. I reluctantly walk out the door. "Thank you again, Miss Matthews." I shoot a text to Same and Dane telling them they are never going to believe who I just talked to.

Kriss

See what I did there? I caused sparks! 

Jessica

I lock everything back up after watching Sparta walk away, and what a fine sight that was. I sigh as I lean against the door, with what I'm sure is a dopey look on my face. Good lord! That was tough. Trying to talk to him about that stuff without letting him know how attracted I was to him.

I head to the kitchen table, where my laptop is. I might have let him believe that I believed him about "The Academy," but I didn't. If it really is some government agency, then there has to be something out there about it. So I'll just do a little Google search. After about an hour of searching around 70 Google pages, the only thing I can find is the local sports stores, and some super private school that has branches all over the country, with a few scattered in other countries. By the end of it, I had more questions than I had answers. I guess I'll table it for another day. I grab my phone and shoot Matt a text as I walk to my bedroom to get ready for bed.

Me: Are we still on for pool and drinks tomorrow?

It takes a few minutes for him to text me back, in which I have changed into sleep clothes, washed my face and brushed my teeth.

Matt: You know it, Sweet Cheeks! I'll come over at 8 and we can grab a cab from there.

Me: Sounds good! Love you!

Matt: Love you, too!

I love my friends.

A/N: I'm sorry this was so short. I was getting so much better at writing longer updates. And then I made you wait so long. This was posted without a beta, so I own any and all mistakes. Love you all for reading what I write, I really appreciate all comments and votes. This story has almost 2k reads, which is more than I could have hoped for. Muahs!