Changed (The Hunters #1) (32 page)

Lisa smiled weakly. “Me too.” Her eyes
went to Rosa’s injured shoulder.

“
You’re hurt,” She noted
and looked at her anxiously.

“
It’s not that bad,” Rosa
put her off, although she was feeling slightly dizzy and her
shoulder pounded like her heart was in her shoulder.

“
Let’s go
back.”

Rosa nodded and they started walking.
Rosa wondered what Lord Constantine would do after Lisa had won the
game.

Suddenly dizziness seized
her. She stumbled and almost fell, if Lisa hadn’t caught her
wrist.

“
Are you okay?” she asked
worried.

Rosa nodded and blinked a few times,
but her world was still turning.

“
You’re awfully pale.”
Lisa placed her arm over Rosa’s shoulder and embraced her waist
with her arm.

“
Let go back
quickly.”

Rosa only nodded, because
she could not do anything else. She felt the dizziness increased as
her legs threatened to give away beneath her.

All the way back, Lisa
supported her. Without her, Rosa wouldn’t have made it back
safely.

When they arrived at the clearing,
Lord Constantine was waiting for them. His face betrayed nothing as
he watched Lisa and Rosa.

They stopped before him. Rosa tried to
stand upright without Lisa’s help. She did not want to show any
weakness in front of Lord Constantine. Lisa’s hand let her go after
she was sure that Rosa could stand on her own.

“
She has found the
dagger,” Rosa said Lord Constantine, her voice husky.

He nodded and stepped forward to Lisa.
“You will die anyway,” he replied to Lisa, and his eyes fixed with
her eyes. She held his gaze and showed no fear.

“
What?” Rosa exclaimed.
“You cannot do that! She has found the dagger!”

Lord Constantine smiled smugly. “She
found it, as did you. You’ve let her win, although I have said you
should win.”

Quick as a flash, he stood behind Rosa
and pressed his heavy hands one her shoulder. He squeezed her
injury.

Rosa moaned and writhed in
pain.

“
Again you rebel against
me,” he said. His voice was low and dangerous. A shiver ran down
her spine. “I always thought you were a good hunter, Rosa. Well, I
was wrong.”

He let go of her shoulder. Rosa gasped
and touched her shoulder, which had begun to bleed
again.

“
I’m a good hunter,” Rosa
replied firmly and glared at him.

His hand that was smeared with her
blood, grabbed her roughly by the chin, forcing her to look into
his dark, deep eyes.

Anger
flickered through them. “You are
not
a good hunter!” he growled. “A
good hunter doesn’t refuse the orders of the Master and doesn’t
break the rules.”

“
Everyone makes
mistakes.”

He laughed. “And especially you.” He
released her chin and walked over to Lisa.

“
Give me the dagger,” he
ordered, holding out his hand.

Lisa looked over at Rosa before she
handed him the dagger. Lord Constantine grabbed her arm and dragged
her in front of Rosa.

“
Watch how they died,” he
said, smiling wicked.

“
No!” Rosa yelled and
wanted to run to Lisa, but two strong hands grabbed her by the arms
and pulled her back. She struggled against the person who held her,
but she was too weak to free herself.

Lord Constantine grabbed Lisa by the
hair and held a dagger to her throat.

“
Would you like to say
something before you die?” he asked. Lisa shook her head and looked
at Rosa.

I am so
sorry
, Rosa said with her
eyes.

Lisa smiled faintly and closed her
eyes. Rosa’s heart pounded in her chest. She hated to feel
powerless.

“
Isn’t it exciting to
watch a person give up their life?” he asked.

She stared at him incredulously.
“You’re crazy,” it slipped out of her.

He shook his head. “No respect and no
manners. Sergei did not teach you well.”

“
I have respect and
manners, but not toward people who kill other people senselessly,”
Rosa said. She was conscious that her behavior only increased the
tension between her and Lord Constantine.

At this moment, she didn’t
care.

Lord Constantine snorted. “Really,
Rosa? Then you do not have any respect towards yourself. You kill
people senselessly. Every day.”

Her mouth fell open. “What? That is
not true! I do not kill people senselessly. I—”

He arched his brows. “Yes, Rosa? You
do not kill people senselessly?”

Oh my
god!
Rosa realized that she did
kill
people
senselessly
. The shadow
creatures had never done anything to her. She just followed hunter
clan’s instructions.

As if Lord Constantine knew what was
going through her mind, he said smiling, “You are an evil girl,
Rosa. No better than me.”

Then in a quick movement,
he cut Lisa’s throat with the dagger. Lisa cried out and fell
lifeless on the floor. Rosa stared open-mouthed at Lisa’s lifeless
body. She could not say anything or do anything. Even if she had
known Lisa only for a few minutes, Rosa had liked her. They both
shared the same fate. Pain spread through her chest. Guilt welled
up in her.

She should have done something to
rescue Lisa.

Dizziness captured her, this time
stronger.

Then blackness enveloped
her.

Jason walked silently
through the deserted streets. It was past midnight and he was on
his way to the hunter clan.

After Gabriel had dismissed him, Jason
had immediately started looking for the hunter clan in Boston. He
had to know if it was true that Jasmine was in Boston.

The hunter clan resided on the
outskirts of town, which was surrounded by a huge forest. It was a
gloomy place and fit perfectly with Jason’s mood.

He stopped before the high lattice and
searched the area for hunters. When he assured himself that no
hunter was watching him, Jason summoned his wings and flew over the
lattice.

Quietly, he landed on the ground and
his wings disappeared. Lights were burning in the building, so he
had to be careful that no one could see him from the window. Once
more, he looked around before he approached the
building.

From previous searches, Jason knew
exactly where he had to look. The dungeons—where he wanted to
go—were in the basement. These dungeons were dark and there were
many hunters. Jason had searched every single prisoner and
discovered the prisoners looked as if they were more dead than
alive. He hoped that Jasmine did not look like them.

Protected in the shade of the trees,
Jason moved to the back door. He quickly reached the wall and crept
on quietly.

Suddenly he heard something.
Instinctively, he crawled deeper into the shadows. The noise was
like a growl that came from the street.

Jason pressed himself flat against the
stone wall and held perfectly still. His eyes darted across the
area and he cursed inwardly when he could not see the
road.

The sound came closer and he could now
identify it—the hum of an engine. Hunters appeared on the railing,
opening the lattice to let in the car. Jason pushed himself deeper
into the shadows. If they would find him, they would thwart his
plan to search for Jasmine.

It was a normal car. Jason couldn’t
tell what brand, but it didn’t really matter. The two hunters, who
had opened the lattice, ran to the car and opened the car door.
Jason had expected that the hunters awaited a high visit, but what
he saw there was far from it.

A hunter pulled a girl roughly out of
the car and beat her when she resisted. One other hunter got out of
the car and turned around.

“
Bring her into the
dungeon,” he ordered, and disappeared into the building. The two
hunters grabbed the girl and dragged her to the
building.

Jason knew he had to help
her somehow, but he couldn’t risk being discovered.

The girl did not resist at first, but
then suddenly she tore herself away and punched the face of the
first hunter. He screamed and staggered back. The girl kicked the
other hunter in the stomach, quickly defeating him.

The first hunter grabbed her by the
arm and struck her in the stomach. The girl delivered a good
fight.

Finally, she succeeded and the hunter
let go of her as he fell to the pavement groaning. At the same
time, the alarm of the hunter clan rang.

Jason flinched. What was
happening?

The girl looked around and then ran
straight toward Jason.

Rosa woke up in pain. Her body was
burning and her eyes didn’t open, no matter how hard she
tried.

Only after several attempts, she could
open her eyelids and stare into darkness. She blinked, but the
darkness did not disappear.

Am I blind now?

Or dead?

At that moment, she realized that she
was lying on something hard and cold. Rosa sat up and moving her
hands along the rough surface.

Where am I?

She rubbed her eyes, but still saw
nothing but darkness.

Panic
rose in her.
What is going on here? Why
can I not see anything?

Rosa tried to remember what had
happened. The memory of the game, Lisa and her death hit her like a
bomb.

Lisa.

Lord Constantine had killed
her.

The pain came back. How much Rosa had
wanted to be able to protect Lisa from the death, but she had
failed.

Rosa sighed again and was aware of the
pain that had awakened her.

When she lifted her hand to her
shoulder, she heard a rustling, and felt something cold on her
wrist. She lifted her arms and attempted to feel at her
wrists—handcuffs.

Then she understood where she
was.

In the dungeons of the hunter
clan.

The place where traitors were
captured, imprisoned and tortured.

“
Shit!” she swore, and she
put her face in her hands.

Rosa had never thought that she would
ever end up down here. She had never thought that she would rank
among the traitors.

How easy it was to be
fooled!

Rosa knew the dungeons; she had been
down there several times. She knew the cells had a floor made of
large stone slabs, and three of the walls were built of hewn stone
blocks while the fourth side consisted of a tight grid with solid
bars deeply embedded in the masonry, and had a door on the right
side. She also knew that the chains were attached to a metal rail,
enabling her to move a little in the cell.

How long had she been sitting there?
Was it already the next day? Rosa didn’t know. Her sense of time
had left her.