Hearts of the Hunted Read Online Free

"You may not usually have time for makeup, but I do, and
I want to play a little." She paused, then, and looked into my
eyes. Hers were green and sparkling like gems. "May I?"
    I was ready to fight her
right up until the second she asked so sweetly. She didn't have to
use her magic on me; I was helpless and hopeless in her spell. It
made me angry in a way, made me want to resist, but the greater
part of me just wanted to feel her hands on my skin. I nodded, and
her smile warmed me from the inside.
    "Okay, just stand
still..." The effect of the makeup was subtle but impressive. In
just a few moments she darkened my lashes and applied a neutral
color to my lids, making me appear a little more awake and a little
prettier without even looking like I was wearing anything. She
applied a light pink gloss that seemed to be the same color as my
lips, only more so, and she smiled at the result. "Beautiful. Now your
hair."
    Before I could even think
to resist, she'd squirted something into her hands and plopped it
down on my head. But when she was finished combing it through my
short hair, I had gone from looking boyish and moppy to feminine
and sexily tousled. "Impressive," I said. "I would have said it
would take a miracle to make me look like a real girl."
    I looked from the mirror
directly into her face and realized for the first time how close
she was standing. Now that my concern over what she might do to my
face was past, I was left with the awareness of her body nearly
touching mine. I fought the urge to close that last small distance.
She reached up and wiped a bit of her gel off of my face, and I
captured her hand, pressing it against my skin. Her warmth and
softness ignited something that had been sitting inside me, waiting
for a spark, and I started to lean toward her.
    An alarm went off on her
watch, making both of us jump. She stepped back and coughed as she
turned it off. "We need to get to that meeting," she
said.
    I nodded, mutely, but
inside my mind was whirling. This girl was going to get me into
some serious trouble before all this was over.
     
     
     

Chapter 3
     
     
    Jack Freeholm was already sitting at a table in the small
café when we arrived. He shifted uncomfortably in his uniform when
he saw both of us, but I only nodded and stepped to the counter. He
would be able to observe my companion and get a grip in the time it
took to get a couple of drinks; cops hate surprises.
    Sure enough, his
professional mask had resumed by the time we sat, though he chewed
his lip and shot glances at Hannah when she wasn't looking. "What
do you want, Camille?" he asked quietly.
    "You sent us a little
present." I gestured to Hannah, who was sipping at her coffee.
She'd pleasantly surprised me by eschewing cream, though she did
dump a packet of raw sugar in. "Sounds like she had some trouble
that you thought we could help her with."
    "Well, didn't
she?"
    Hannah jumped in before I
could answer. "He took control of my mind. He made me go with him,
and then he raped me while he forced me to hold still and let him."
Her gaze was unflinching, and I wanted to reach across and hold her
hand. "I'm... I'm different now because of him," she said, and his eyes
flicked down and back up again as he took it in. "We want to keep
him from hurting anyone else."
    "You know she was raped,"
I told him. "And you know that the city will go up in a hysterical
firestorm if they find out that one of us is attacking people."
Even in our quiet corner it would be foolish to use words like
Transformed aloud, but it still sickened me to call him one of us.
"We have to stop it. Quietly. Do you have anything ?"
    "You're sure he is? One of
you?"
    "Show him your eyes."
Hannah glanced at me, and then back at Jack, and her eyes faded
until they were clear. She stared at him for a moment, and then
blinked the effect away.
    Jack sighed and slumped
over his coffee, leaning in to us. "You were attacked a week ago
today," he said quietly. "Exactly one week before