Chapter 1
Thomas
The heat of the Dallas summer sun and humidity was starting to irritate me. “Where is she,” I thought to myself, tapping my foot impatiently against the concrete sidewalk, looking at my watch. She was late for work, which made my job so much harder. Patience wasn’t my strong suite, but when you were in my line of work, it was necessary to have. My name is Thomas Grey and I’m a Hunter. My job was to find and capture people for hire and I’m not the only one out there. There are certain qualifications to this job though, such as being able to sense the unique chemical compound that each individual leaves behind, being capable of enduring more than the average human body was capable of handling and healing rapidly when you are injured. Let us just say that I am not your average human. I am gifted, as are all Hunters, with abilities that make me an amazing tracker and a better than average fighter, much better. And now I was stuck waiting for a young woman that I had been hired to kidnap.
I looked around, hardly paying attention to the consistent stream of people that was walking along the sidewalk, probably heading to places like work or home, to be with their families, I didn’t know nor did I really care. Some may call it cold, but I call it focused. My gray eyes followed the occasional head of blond hair, though it only disappointed me when it was not the one I was after. I reached into my backpack at my feet to pull out a folder, her file. I skimmed through the individual papers, looking over the facts that I had almost memorized. Katherine Neelson, 18 years old, homeschooled, 5 feet 6 inches, 125 lbs., blonde hair with blue eyes. She was, well, unremarkable. Kidnappers, murderers, thieves, I’ve caught them, and this was a supposed thief as well. She didn’t seem to fit the regular profile, but there were always a few odd ones out there. I placed the file back where it belonged, scanning the crowd once more.
A smirk grew on my face as I finally caught sight of her, she looked exactly like the photo that had come with the rest of the information. I looked away as she looked in my direction, I could feel her eyes on me and I could see the confusion on her face through my peripheral vision. Perceptive, that was something that one could only find out from observation, not a file. I did my best to appear nonchalant as I lifted my backpack, looping one of the straps over a shoulder as I headed into building she just disappeared into, a bookshop. The smell of paper hung in the air. I took a deep breath, looking around. I had gone into the shop earlier, mapping it out. There was a backdoor, an emergency exit, though I had quickly disarmed the alarm. I had to somehow get her to cookbook section, it was right next to the exit and it was one of the most secluded places in the store.
The plan ran through in my mind as I put it in action. I came up to the girl, asking her where the cook books were. She gave me a slightly surprised look, possibly because I was just so quiet or there was the chance that it was because I didn’t seem to be the cookbook type, and honestly, I wasn’t. I had never been a good cook, never really wanted to learn either.
“Right over here,” she answered, her voice calm and pleasant, leading the way. Her movements were smooth as she moved between the shelves, making me think that she was probably a dancer, something that hadn’t been mentioned in her file, a surprise; I hated surprises.
“Here they are,” she said, turning around on her toe, a slight smile on her face.
“Thank you,” I replied, stepping forward as if I was going to look at the books, but made a quick lunge to the right, wrapping one arm around her waist before my other hand quickly moving over her lips, holding her close, my head over her shoulder so that she could not throw her head back into my nose. I could feel the quick beating of her heartbeat and the quickness of her breath as the damp exhale hit my hand.
I quickly turned, pushing my back against the bar of the door, dragging her back out with me into the humid air of the alleyway, the heat contrasting with the air conditioned shop. I moved my hand away from her waist, quickly moving up to behind her neck. Placing my thumb and middle finger against a specific nerve cluster on each side of the neck, I added slight pressure. I could feel her pulse slow down a bit, though the sudden pain in my diaphragm interrupted my train of thought. I gasped for air, stumbling back a bit when the air whooshed out of my body, trying to get some back in.
Another surprise. Did I mention that I really hated surprises? There she was, standing in front of me, crouched slightly into a fighter’s stance. There was an angry fire in her eyes, a determined set of her brow. She didn’t seem to be the type that would just back down from a fight.
Recovered, I smirked a little bit. She was clueless as to what I was, which would make this all the more interesting. I haven’t had someone that actually fought back in a long time. I crouched lower a bit, straightening my left leg in front of me and bending the right one underneath me, feeling the muscles tighten a bit in preparation. I watched as her blue eyes shot toward the exposed leg, quickly sweeping her leg around in an attempt to sweep it out from underneath of me. I pressed against the ground hard with my bent leg, turning so that we would be back to back, throwing my elbow back. I grazed her, but she twisted to miss the full force of the hit, though it still set her slightly unbalanced. I turned, wrapping my arm tightly around her body, pinning her arms to her side as I once again pinched the nerve clusters in her neck, feeling as she struggling grew weaker until they stopped, feeling the breath still move into her lungs as I let go, her weight slumping against me.
No one screamed, there was no gasp or cry for help. The scuffle had lasted maybe two minutes and had, thankfully, gone unnoticed. I took a deep breath, reaching into my pocket, feeling a narrow, plastic tube and the hard case of a cell-phone. I pulled them both out, moving her elbow up and putting the tube against the inside of her arm, looking like your average sugar tester, though there was a mild tranquilizer within it that would soon be flowing through her veins, keeping her unconscious for the next few hours. Pushing a little button on the top, I held it down for about fifteen seconds before my attention turned to the phone. Replying to my last text message, I sent my current employer a message, “Got the girl.” I had spoken to him of my plan, of kidnapping the girl while she was at work, he knew where she worked. I had yet to meet the man face-to-face, he seemed to like his privacy, though he wanted me to escort them to where he was bringing the girl. I didn’t mind, it wasn’t far from the safe house that I was staying at, then I would be back with a few familiar faces, other Hunters, for that was the purpose of a safe house, there for Hunters to stay between jobs, a place where they could rest, train, eat and sometimes heal. Sometimes it was a good place to learn about what was going on in the world.
My thoughts were straying off to what I would do when I got back to the safe house when I felt the small phone in my hand vibrate in announcement that my message had been replied to. “Here,” that is all it said. I shrugged, I hadn’t expected him to get through the traffic of Dallas so quickly, so he must have been parked a few blocks away in order to have time to receive the message, drive here and then send one in five minutes. I stood up, then bent over to catch the girl around the waist, lifting her almost slight frame over my shoulder as I headed out of the alleyway.
One would be surprised with just what one could do when surrounded by a crowded. I had gotten used to the fact that, while one would get a few strange looks from people when you carried someone over your shoulder down the street, people didn’t really seem interested enough to do anything and, if anyone asked, the excuse that they have occasional fainting spells usually sufficed. It was much easier to do this when in a big city, much easier than a small town when there was usually a fairly high chance of someone recognizing who you were carrying. As I expected, only a few looked our way, others were probably in a hurry to get to lunch or in a hurry to get back to work from lunch. I did get a few odd looks, mostly curiosity mixed with confusion; one was wide-eyed with what I would almost guess to be awe.
I knew what car to get in, it was like most of the ones that I encountered on missions such as these. Black, dark-tinted windows, though unlike most the backside was slightly elongated, which meant that there were probably two sets of seats that faced each other, it wasn’t quite as long as it would be in a mini-van, but longer than most cars. A driver was standing next to the door, ready to open it. I looked at him a bit; he had one of those faces and body types, just average. There was nothing exactly remarkable about him, nothing that most people would be able to identify him by.
The car door opened almost soundlessly as I approached the vehicle, the driver’s hand motioning toward the door. I nodded at him a bit before I gently slid the girl into the vehicle, sliding in after her myself. The door shut right behind my foot, the bright sunlight that was once shining through it becoming muted, making the vehicle dark for a short time as my eyes quickly adjusted. There were two others in the vehicle with me, a man that I would guess to be about forty and a younger man, maybe twenty. They looked like father and son, having similar features to one another. Both had blond hair, though the older man’s hair was darker with a little bit of silver in it. Both had green eyes, the same strong chin and both had a slightly cold, calculating, lustful look, though the kinds of lust were different. There was something more...power hungry in the older man’s, though the young man’s eyes showed his obvious physical attraction to the young woman who was unconscious next to me.
I raised my eyebrow at the younger of the two, suddenly very wary of these two men. I couldn’t think of what this woman did. I had been told that she had stolen something, though now I was interested about what she stole. I had seen earlier that she was surprisingly adept at defending herself, for a mundane that is. The younger man caught my look, his eyes narrowing a bit, a look that I could almost consider disgust on his face. The thought was laughable to me, the boy seemed to think that he was better than me, he was angry and disgusted by the fact that I had made a reaction to his look, or maybe it was because I was the one that was putting on her seat belt.
Hearing the sound of a clearing throat, I turned my head toward the older of the two men in the vehicle. “Thomas? Correct?” He asked, his voice deep and clear, reminding me of a low note on a piano. A simple nod was my reply, my gaze not leaving the man’s face as I felt the car accelerate, quickly strapping on my own seat belt. “Excellent job, about when will she wake up?” he asked me.
“Give her a few hours, maybe three, four maximum, two minimum, depends on how fast the tranquilizer goes through her system,” I replied, my tone neutral, plain.
“Good, don’t want her out too long.”
I just nodded once more. “What’s left to do? Just make sure she gets back to wherever you plan on taking her and leave it at that?” I asked. The man just nodded his head. “What did she steal?”
A slight smile grew on his face. “Something precious, and I should be getting it back quite soon.”
His answer made me frown a little bit, but I shrugged off the troubled feelings that were starting to settle. Now was not the time to have a conscious. I gave a few slow nods before pushing back against my corner, resting my head against the window as I shut my eyes, letting my mind wander a bit to the lull of the road underneath the vehicle.
Chapter 1
Thomas
The heat of the Dallas summer sun and humidity was starting to irritate me. “Where is she,” I thought to myself, tapping my foot impatiently against the concrete sidewalk, looking at my watch. She was late for work, which made my job so much harder. Patience wasn’t my strong suite, but when you were in my line of work, it was necessary to have. My name is Thomas Grey and I’m a Hunter. My job was to find and capture people for hire and I’m not the only one out there. There are certain qualifications to this job though, such as being able to sense the unique chemical compound that each individual leaves behind, being capable of enduring more than the average human body was capable of handling and healing rapidly when you are injured. Let us just say that I am not your average human. I am gifted, as are all Hunters, with abilities that make me an amazing tracker and a better than average fighter, much better. And now I was stuck waiting for a young woman that I had been hired to kidnap.
I looked around, hardly paying attention to the consistent stream of people that was walking along the sidewalk, probably heading to places like work or home, to be with their families, I didn’t know nor did I really care. Some may call it cold, but I call it focused. My gray eyes followed the occasional head of blond hair, though it only disappointed me when it was not the one I was after. I reached into my backpack at my feet to pull out a folder, her file. I skimmed through the individual papers, looking over the facts that I had almost memorized. Katherine Neelson, 18 years old, homeschooled, 5 feet 6 inches, 125 lbs., blonde hair with blue eyes. She was, well, unremarkable. Kidnappers, murderers, thieves, I’ve caught them, and this was a supposed thief as well. She didn’t seem to fit the regular profile, but there were always a few odd ones out there. I placed the file back where it belonged, scanning the crowd once more.
A smirk grew on my face as I finally caught sight of her, she looked exactly like the photo that had come with the rest of the information. I looked away as she looked in my direction, I could feel her eyes on me and I could see the confusion on her face through my peripheral vision. Perceptive, that was something that one could only find out from observation, not a file. I did my best to appear nonchalant as I lifted my backpack, looping one of the straps over a shoulder as I headed into building she just disappeared into, a bookshop. The smell of paper hung in the air. I took a deep breath, looking around. I had gone into the shop earlier, mapping it out. There was a backdoor, an emergency exit, though I had quickly disarmed the alarm. I had to somehow get her to cookbook section, it was right next to the exit and it was one of the most secluded places in the store.
The plan ran through in my mind as I put it in action. I came up to the girl, asking her where the cook books were. She gave me a slightly surprised look, possibly because I was just so quiet or there was the chance that it was because I didn’t seem to be the cookbook type, and honestly, I wasn’t. I had never been a good cook, never really wanted to learn either.
“Right over here,” she answered, her voice calm and pleasant, leading the way. Her movements were smooth as she moved between the shelves, making me think that she was probably a dancer, something that hadn’t been mentioned in her file, a surprise; I hated surprises.
“Here they are,” she said, turning around on her toe, a slight smile on her face.
“Thank you,” I replied, stepping forward as if I was going to look at the books, but made a quick lunge to the right, wrapping one arm around her waist before my other hand quickly moving over her lips, holding her close, my head over her shoulder so that she could not throw her head back into my nose. I could feel the quick beating of her heartbeat and the quickness of her breath as the damp exhale hit my hand.
I quickly turned, pushing my back against the bar of the door, dragging her back out with me into the humid air of the alleyway, the heat contrasting with the air conditioned shop. I moved my hand away from her waist, quickly moving up to behind her neck. Placing my thumb and middle finger against a specific nerve cluster on each side of the neck, I added slight pressure. I could feel her pulse slow down a bit, though the sudden pain in my diaphragm interrupted my train of thought. I gasped for air, stumbling back a bit when the air whooshed out of my body, trying to get some back in.
Another surprise. Did I mention that I really hated surprises? There she was, standing in front of me, crouched slightly into a fighter’s stance. There was an angry fire in her eyes, a determined set of her brow. She didn’t seem to be the type that would just back down from a fight.
Recovered, I smirked a little bit. She was clueless as to what I was, which would make this all the more interesting. I haven’t had someone that actually fought back in a long time. I crouched lower a bit, straightening my left leg in front of me and bending the right one underneath me, feeling the muscles tighten a bit in preparation. I watched as her blue eyes shot toward the exposed leg, quickly sweeping her leg around in an attempt to sweep it out from underneath of me. I pressed against the ground hard with my bent leg, turning so that we would be back to back, throwing my elbow back. I grazed her, but she twisted to miss the full force of the hit, though it still set her slightly unbalanced. I turned, wrapping my arm tightly around her body, pinning her arms to her side as I once again pinched the nerve clusters in her neck, feeling as she struggling grew weaker until they stopped, feeling the breath still move into her lungs as I let go, her weight slumping against me.
No one screamed, there was no gasp or cry for help. The scuffle had lasted maybe two minutes and had, thankfully, gone unnoticed. I took a deep breath, reaching into my pocket, feeling a narrow, plastic tube and the hard case of a cell-phone. I pulled them both out, moving her elbow up and putting the tube against the inside of her arm, looking like your average sugar tester, though there was a mild tranquilizer within it that would soon be flowing through her veins, keeping her unconscious for the next few hours. Pushing a little button on the top, I held it down for about fifteen seconds before my attention turned to the phone. Replying to my last text message, I sent my current employer a message, “Got the girl.” I had spoken to him of my plan, of kidnapping the girl while she was at work, he knew where she worked. I had yet to meet the man face-to-face, he seemed to like his privacy, though he wanted me to escort them to where he was bringing the girl. I didn’t mind, it wasn’t far from the safe house that I was staying at, then I would be back with a few familiar faces, other Hunters, for that was the purpose of a safe house, there for Hunters to stay between jobs, a place where they could rest, train, eat and sometimes heal. Sometimes it was a good place to learn about what was going on in the world.
My thoughts were straying off to what I would do when I got back to the safe house when I felt the small phone in my hand vibrate in announcement that my message had been replied to. “Here,” that is all it said. I shrugged, I hadn’t expected him to get through the traffic of Dallas so quickly, so he must have been parked a few blocks away in order to have time to receive the message, drive here and then send one in five minutes. I stood up, then bent over to catch the girl around the waist, lifting her almost slight frame over my shoulder as I headed out of the alleyway.
One would be surprised with just what one could do when surrounded by a crowded. I had gotten used to the fact that, while one would get a few strange looks from people when you carried someone over your shoulder down the street, people didn’t really seem interested enough to do anything and, if anyone asked, the excuse that they have occasional fainting spells usually sufficed. It was much easier to do this when in a big city, much easier than a small town when there was usually a fairly high chance of someone recognizing who you were carrying. As I expected, only a few looked our way, others were probably in a hurry to get to lunch or in a hurry to get back to work from lunch. I did get a few odd looks, mostly curiosity mixed with confusion; one was wide-eyed with what I would almost guess to be awe.
I knew what car to get in, it was like most of the ones that I encountered on missions such as these. Black, dark-tinted windows, though unlike most the backside was slightly elongated, which meant that there were probably two sets of seats that faced each other, it wasn’t quite as long as it would be in a mini-van, but longer than most cars. A driver was standing next to the door, ready to open it. I looked at him a bit; he had one of those faces and body types, just average. There was nothing exactly remarkable about him, nothing that most people would be able to identify him by.
The car door opened almost soundlessly as I approached the vehicle, the driver’s hand motioning toward the door. I nodded at him a bit before I gently slid the girl into the vehicle, sliding in after her myself. The door shut right behind my foot, the bright sunlight that was once shining through it becoming muted, making the vehicle dark for a short time as my eyes quickly adjusted. There were two others in the vehicle with me, a man that I would guess to be about forty and a younger man, maybe twenty. They looked like father and son, having similar features to one another. Both had blond hair, though the older man’s hair was darker with a little bit of silver in it. Both had green eyes, the same strong chin and both had a slightly cold, calculating, lustful look, though the kinds of lust were different. There was something more...power hungry in the older man’s, though the young man’s eyes showed his obvious physical attraction to the young woman who was unconscious next to me.
I raised my eyebrow at the younger of the two, suddenly very wary of these two men. I couldn’t think of what this woman did. I had been told that she had stolen something, though now I was interested about what she stole. I had seen earlier that she was surprisingly adept at defending herself, for a mundane that is. The younger man caught my look, his eyes narrowing a bit, a look that I could almost consider disgust on his face. The thought was laughable to me, the boy seemed to think that he was better than me, he was angry and disgusted by the fact that I had made a reaction to his look, or maybe it was because I was the one that was putting on her seat belt.
Hearing the sound of a clearing throat, I turned my head toward the older of the two men in the vehicle. “Thomas? Correct?” He asked, his voice deep and clear, reminding me of a low note on a piano. A simple nod was my reply, my gaze not leaving the man’s face as I felt the car accelerate, quickly strapping on my own seat belt. “Excellent job, about when will she wake up?” he asked me.
“Give her a few hours, maybe three, four maximum, two minimum, depends on how fast the tranquilizer goes through her system,” I replied, my tone neutral, plain.
“Good, don’t want her out too long.”
I just nodded once more. “What’s left to do? Just make sure she gets back to wherever you plan on taking her and leave it at that?” I asked. The man just nodded his head. “What did she steal?”
A slight smile grew on his face. “Something precious, and I should be getting it back quite soon.”
His answer made me frown a little bit, but I shrugged off the troubled feelings that were starting to settle. Now was not the time to have a conscious. I gave a few slow nods before pushing back against my corner, resting my head against the window as I shut my eyes, letting my mind wander a bit to the lull of the road underneath the vehicle.
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