The Hunted Read Online Free

the fact that, despite the cold, I was sweating and my hair and perspiration didn’t exactly see eye to eye. I was almost surprised that my ringlets had not taken over and devoured my face entirely or turned me into something resembling Medusa.
    I looked around again. It was time to get on with the job and stop procrastinating. Where was the rest of my family anyway? Surely they should have found me by now, if for no other reason than for George to scream at me for running off—probably giving him increased blood pressure and a greater risk of heart attack in the future.
    I closed my eyes briefly, summoning a new wave of courage to wash over every nerve that was racing out of control in my body. I started to count to ten, hoping that it would be enough to calm my rapidly beating heart. I shouldn’t be scared. I had been training with the Institute of Magical Intervention, or IMI, since I was twelve years old. While regular kids went off to regular high schools, I learnt I would eventually become a member of the undead and was destined to spend the next six years studying how to destroy various members of the supernatural realm. So given that I had been trained to deal with these kinds of situations, there was no reason to be sweating bullets now, not when I knew how to defend myself in an attack.
    It wasn’t like I could actually get hurt anyway. Well, not unless someone decided to chop my head off, then I was really going to be upset. But I was seriously hoping that that was not going to be on anyone’s agenda for this evening. That would certainly put a dampener on my Saturday night plans, not to mention seriously piss me off.
    Perhaps I was just terrified and letting my nerves get the better of me because this was the first time that I had branched off on my own. The last time that we went hunting there had been backup all the way. But tonight I had no idea where everyone else was.
    Well, that wasn’t exactly true. I had a ‘vague’ idea where everyone else was wandering around, but they were going in entirely the wrong direction. That much I was sure of, hence why I’d ditched them all in the first place.
    I did try to tell them.
    Undoubtedly by now, Susan and George would have realised that I was ‘missing’ and already started stewing over just exactly how they were going to punish my obstinacy this time. I had to say that they weren’t very creative.
    I smiled, despite my current state of affairs. I’d probably be grounded again which was somewhat inconvenient for my social life, but never the less, only a slight obstacle in perverting my nightly activities. I wasn’t about to let a little thing like not being able to use the front door stop me from fulfilling my desire to have social interaction with people other than The Protectors. Besides, there was a rave happening this Saturday that I was determined to attend.
    Grounded or not.
    I suppose that meant I had to get out of this alive first.
    That would be super.
    I slapped my head mentally.
    Focus Elena.
    I wiped the sweat that was building on my upper lip and across my forehead, then grabbed my hair and quickly threaded it into a plait, and then tucked it down into my jacket so that it would at least stay off my face. I couldn’t afford to have it swinging about my eyes and blinding me from an impending attack.
    I skedaddled quickly down to the corner of the container and peered around the corner before flicking my head back around again, almost giving myself whiplash in the process.
    Geez, calm down.
    No one was there. My nose still told me that they were further ahead yet, but not by too much. I looked around the corner again, just to make sure that there was no danger.
    Taking a deep breath, I quickly dashed across the open path that exposed me to soft bathing of moonlight, and then ducked back against the next container, folding the shadows around me while I steadied my breathing. My heart beat seemed to quicken in my chest at the prospect of only