The Recruit: Book One Read Online Free Page B

make
it.”
    Richard frowned.  “Give her a chance,
Will.”
    “I am.  Anyone else I would have kicked to
the curb by now.”  Will answered.  “I’m keeping her as a personal favour to you,
Richard.”
    “I appreciate it.”
    “I’m not sure how much you’ll appreciate it
when she dies at the hands of a vampire.”  Will replied bluntly.
    Richard sighed.  “Her sister’s death will
destroy her if she isn’t given the chance for revenge.  It’s better for her to
die trying, then to stand by and wish she had.”
    “I’m worried about your conscience,
Richard.  How will you feel if she dies trying for this revenge?”
    “We all die eventually, Will.”  Richard spat
at him harshly.  “I’ve never seen you care so much about the life of a human
before.”
    Will flushed.  “It means nothing to me if
she lives or dies.  But that doesn’t mean I enjoy leading a lamb to slaughter. 
We should cut her out of the program now before she starts to think she has a
chance.”
    “Give her another month.”
    “Richard, you’re making a –“
    “Enough, Will.”  Richard said starkly.  “I
have always trusted your judgment when it came to the babies.  Now I’m asking
you to trust mine.”
    “Whatever you say, boss.”  Will scowled.  “I
just work here.”
    ***
     
    Hannah cursed as the rice fell off her spoon
and scattered on the table.  Her hands were shaking so badly she could barely
hold the utensil and Selena, sitting beside her, gave her a sympathetic look.  Jeremy,
Frank, Tyler and Allison shoveled the food hungrily into their mouths and
ignored the two of them completely.  In the last month, Hannah and Selena had
bonded a bit, mostly over their mutual misery in what Jeremy called ‘Slayer
Boot Camp’.  Her bed was next to Selena’s in the women’s dormitory, and they
had begun the cautious process of getting to know each other.
    Now, Selena patted her leg under the table
and then continued to eat her dinner.  The recruits did nearly everything
together.  Mannie, one of their three instructors, had informed them that it
helped bond them as a team.  They rarely spoke during dinner.  The tough
physical training schedule left them all ravenous, and none of them wasted
precious eating time with casual chatter. 
    Hannah willed her hands to stop shaking and
carefully spooned rice into her mouth.  She shook nearly all the time from the
lack of sleep and the intense physical exercise, and it made it difficult to do
normal activities like eating.
    Her stomach growled loudly as the spoon
fell from her fingers and clattered to the table.  She was considering just
picking her plate up and tipping the food into her mouth, when she realized Will
was staring at her with a weird combination of pity and disgust.  She blushed,
stared fiercely at her hands until they went from a palsy-like shake to a mild
tremble, and continued to eat her dinner.
    “Five minutes, babies!”  Will shouted from across the
cafeteria.  Hannah flinched and ate faster.  She hated Will - loathed him from
the depths of her soul.  She could barely remember the Will from the hallway;
the Will that had told her she smelled like strawberries and had made desire
course through her body.  That Will was long gone, replaced by a shouting,
caustic hard-ass who seemed to enjoy breaking their spirits.
    She was convinced he was hardest on her.  Once, after a
particularly brutal morning run, he had yelled at her for five minutes while
she vomited helplessly.  She had felt only slightly vindicated when later that
evening, Selena had asked her in a quiet little whisper what she had done to
piss Will off.
    “He hates you, Hannah.”  Selena had said.  “I’m not sure why,
but he definitely hates you.”
    “Fuck Will.”  She had responded grumpily.  “I don’t give a
rat’s ass whether he likes me or not.”
    Now, as she stood with the other recruits and limped out of
the cafeteria, she could feel Will’s eyes