our fair share of mental cases,’ Kaitlyn said, jerking her head in Evie’s direction.
Evie stood up abruptly from her seat at the computer, switched off the screen and snatched the piece of paper with the map on it from the printer tray.
‘No wonder he broke up with her,’ she heard Kaitlyn whisper as she strode past them.
Evie shook off her anger as she walked to her truck. Kaitlyn Rivers was not worth getting upset about. She had other things – other, far worthier people – to focus her anger on. She threw her bag into the back of the truck and turned over the engine. She needed to follow the trail on Victor before it got cold and there was no longer any point in hanging around in Riverview.
She had wanted to skip town even before Lucas arrived, before Victor had shown up, long before she even knew she was a Hunter. And she owed it to Lucas to find Victor. He would have done the same for her. In fact, he probably would have already found Victor and killed him. He wouldn’t have moped around for two months in a darkly fuelled depression, half-comatose on sleeping pills.
Her biological parents had tried to tell her, through a cryptically worded message, that she could choose not to be a Hunter – that she could choose to walk away. Yet here she was – she glanced at the map on the seat next to her – hunting. Victor had been right all along and they had been wrong. She couldn’t fight what she was. She didn’t get to choose. She was a Hunter through and through.
Though this time her prey wasn’t an unhuman. This time it was one of her own.
Chapter 8
Her mother was hosting the knitting circle. Today of all days, thought Evie with a sigh as she climbed the steps to the back door. The clatter of knitting needles and the bright murmur of voices stilled as Evie walked into the kitchen. You could have heard a stitch drop.
For an instant Evie was reminded of a picture she’d once seen of the women who used to sit at the bottom of the guillotine knitting while the nobles lined up to have their heads chopped off. It felt like the knitting circle ladies were waiting for her to climb the steps and kneel down before them.
She forced a smile onto her face and kept walking, hearing the clitter-clatter of needles start up behind her like so many gossiping tongues.
‘How did your schoolwork go?’ her mother called as she got to the door.
‘OK,’ Evie mumbled, jogging up the stairs. In her hand was Mrs Lewington’s rolled-up newspaper which she’d taken from the kitchen counter.
Once in her bedroom she threw her bag to the floor and sat down on the bed, unfurling the paper and scanning it quickly. The serial killer story was all over the front page. Two dozen people reported dead; over a hundred reported missing in the last week alone. No witnesses; extreme violence in every homicide. There was no pattern in terms of victims or time of death, no robbery or apparent motives. The police were at a loss, speculating only that it was the work of several perpetrators.
Evie got up and started pacing, a storm of adrenaline whipping up in her veins. She was shaking more than if she’d drunk two litres of coffee, and her stomach felt like it was lined with rock. Running her hands through her hair she crossed to the window trying to force herself to think straight.
The police were clueless because they had no idea what they were fighting. It was Thirsters, Evie was sure of it. Or maybe even Originals, the older Thirsters, the ones that made Thirsters look like fluffy, toothless kittens. Evie had killed one back in the Bradbury building using a shadow blade, the only thing that could make a dent in them. But what if more of them had come through before the gateway had closed? It was possible, wasn’t it?
For a brief moment Evie’s thoughts flew to Vero and Ash, the last of the rogue Hunters. What were they doing now? Were they still in LA? Were they still hunting unhumans? She didn’t know. She knew that Vero had wanted out but she had no clue where the two of them might be now. She hadn’t seen or heard from them since the day at the Bradbury building when Cyrus and Lucas had died.