back with us. We have weapons.’ He glanced at the hunting rifle in Evie’s hand. ‘You’re not going to get very far against Victor with that. You know how well armed he is.’
Evie scowled at him.
‘You help us get the situation under control – help us wipe out all the Originals. And we’ll help you find Victor in return. Is it a deal?’
Evie didn’t say anything. She just chewed it over in her mind. She wasn’t going to be able to find Victor and kill him if she was dead, which was what was most likely going to happen to her if she agreed to this deal to hunt Originals.
‘Are you a Hunter or not?’ Vero asked, interrupting her thoughts.
Evie studied them both, her mind whirring. ‘You think the three of us can deal with Originals? You think we have any chance – at all?’
Ash held her gaze. ‘I don’t know. But I do know one thing – we have to try.’
Chapter 10
It took Evie two minutes to pack her stuff. Once she’d gathered her things she threw her bag over her shoulder and scanned the room. She knew she should go and tell her mother she was leaving but, unable to face the disappointment in her mum’s face or yet another argument, she grabbed her notebook instead and scribbled a few lines:
Dear mum, I have to go and help a friend who’s in trouble. I’ll be away for a few days. I’m sorry. Evie x
She left the note on her bed and ran down the stairs. Her mum had switched the radio on in the kitchen and didn’t even hear her as she slipped out of the front door.
Ash and Vero were waiting in Cyrus’s car at the end of the driveway. As she slid into the back, Ash glanced over his shoulder. ‘All good?’ he asked.
Evie nodded and he pulled out onto the road.
They travelled in silence, taking back streets out of town until they made it to the freeway, at which point Evie turned her attention back to Ash and Vero. ‘So, how many are there?’ she asked, her body tensed for the answer.
She couldn’t stop thinking that the Originals were supposed to have been massacred a thousand years ago, and yet here they now were, alive and happy and multiplying in LA.
‘About a dozen we think,’ said Ash, glancing at her in the rear-view mirror. ‘Judging from what we’ve seen and the number of new Thirsters on the street.’
‘If only they were new Thirsters,’ Vero said under her breath.
‘What do you mean?’ Evie asked, leaning forward.
Vero shifted in her seat so that she was looking through the gap in the headrest at Evie. ‘You know how most Thirsters, especially new-born ones, are young, dumb and full of …’ She stopped abruptly, pulling a face. ‘Well, these ones are young and they’re blood-crazed and they’re ten times stronger than a normal newbie.’
‘And they’re way more intelligent than your average unhuman too,’ Ash added, grimacing as he drove. ‘The only thing they can’t do is daywalk like Originals.’
Well, at least that was something, Evie thought wryly.
Evie slunk back in her seat and stared out of the window. The revelation law was the rule passed by the Elders forbidding unhumans to reveal themselves to humans in this realm. If there was no revelation law controlling them, then it wouldn’t be long before every unhuman in town – and there were still thousands – would start walking the streets, whether they were green or had a tail or could shift into wild animals. She didn’t want to imagine what kind of a bloodbath there would be.
She had thought that once the way through was closed it would all be over and the world would just go back to normal – that she could go back to being normal too. How much more naïve could she have been?
‘Why are the Originals making more Thirsters? I mean, what’s the point? Surely it just means more competition when it comes to meal times?’ Evie asked.
‘We think they’re creating an army to do their dirty work for them.’
The breath caught in Evie’s chest. ‘What dirty work?’
‘Bringing them food, hunting for us …’
‘What?’ Evie choked.
Ash glanced at her in the mirror. ‘They’re hunting us. Think about it. They’re here, in our realm. What are they going to do? Hide? Try to blend in?’ He shook his head, his eyes