Hearts of the Hunted by Storm Moon Press Page A

framing clear green eyes and a pale face that glanced
nervously up and down the hall.
    My mouth went dry, and my
stomach did a highly annoying flip as I opened the door. "Can I
help you?"
    "I'm, uh... I need some
help with the..." she lowered her voice, "with the
Railroad?"
    I pulled her inside,
slammed her against the wall, and kicked the door shut in an
instant, my hand flying to bolt the door before I slammed the woman
against the wall once again, keeping her off balance. I pressed one
arm across the beauty's throat and heard the click behind me that
meant that Janelle had chambered a round in her Glock.
    "Who are you with?" I
demanded, my voice too cold and hard for only twenty years. It made
me sad to hear myself like that, but not sad enough to let up on
the lovely spy. And she was lovely. Just a hair shorter than me,
she was probably at least fifteen pounds heavier, curvy and soft in
all the right places, where I was rail thin.
    "You can put that down,"
she said, gesturing weakly to Janelle. Her already-pale green eyes
went almost transparent as she spoke. "It's okay; I'm not here to
hurt anyone. You can let me go." She looked so harmless and
innocent, and I felt bad for pinning her like that. I hoped I
hadn't left any ugly bruises on her beautiful skin. I felt myself
ease back from her and almost dropped my arm before instinct kicked
in and panic seized me.
    "What are you doing to
me?" I demanded, shoving up against her again. It was harder to
concentrate, and I wanted to be gentle. Suddenly, I was unable to
ignore the way her body pressed against mine, and how soft her
breasts felt against my arm. I wanted to shift and press my body
closer to let her full breasts brush against my small ones. "Shit.
What are you doing?"
    "I'm—I'm sorry. I guess...
I can make people trust me." Her eyes went back to light green, and
I lost the urge to hug her instead of throttle her. "I didn't mean
to. You scared me."
    I sighed and stepped back.
She'd proven herself to be Transformed, and now that the whammy was
off, she did still seem relatively harmless, at least physically.
"My brother jumped out and yelled 'boo', and I vanished right in
front of my parents and the neighbor. They had to send me away to
save my life," I said.
    "That's
terrible."
    "That's being Transformed
in the Midwest. He had no way to know. How did you find us? This
place is supposed to be a secret."
    She looked panicked and
choked. "I was raped, and he was—now I'm Infected."
    I may have snarled. She
jumped and said, "Transformed. Sorry. I'm fucking new to this,
okay?" And then she started crying.
    I turned helplessly to
Janelle, and she tossed me a look, and then put her gun away in a
lockbox in the end table drawer and came to lead the woman to the
couch. "I'll get you some tea," she said, setting a box of tissues
in front of the weeping girl. I shuffled uncomfortably until she
gave me another look and turned for the kitchen. Right! The old tea
ploy...
    In the kitchen, she put a
kettle on and turned to me. "Thoughts?"
    "She's definitely been
Transformed. I saw her eyes change, and she made me drop my
guard."
    "Mine too. She must have a
range. Voice, maybe? I lowered my gun, and I swear I was two
seconds from pulling you off of her when you made her stop. How did
you break through it?"
    "I was just scared. I've
been scared so much the past few years, and I have this instinct of
fighting or hiding. I guess it overrides pretty much everything.
But I still almost let her go. It was like... I wanted to protect
her."
    "I don't like that she
found us." Janelle set out three mugs and dropped a tea bag in each
one.
    "I don't either, but we
definitely can't just toss her out to tell everyone. They've never
been able to subvert one of us, Jan. Never. We just have to be
careful. If you see her eyes change, run, okay? Don't try to hurt
her; you'll never be able to. Just run."
    The kettle whistled, and
Janelle poured the hot water over each teabag. I grabbed one and
let it