Chapter 3 #2
“You know, I’m telling Allister,” I added, hoping to stay off the topic they brought me here for. “He will be heartbroken that you didn’t say his was the best.”
Mom started to respond, but Darren cut her off this time.
“Piper.” The soft, stern tone of his voice was much different from Antoine’s no-nonsense, clipped one. Antoine made the term ‘control freak’ something to strive for.
“Jaquelynn,” Antoine breathed out, his gaze settling on me. “We wanted to readdress the discussion we had before.”
“No.”
Antoine arched a brow as my mom griped. “No? You can’t just say no. You don’t know what we’re going to say.”
“Yes, I can ‘cause I know what you’re going to say. You want me to go to that stupid college, and I’ll tell you what I told you before.” I levelled a glare at them all. “No. I’m a hunter. It’s as pointless for me to go as it was a few months ago and will be in a year from now.”
“But you can’t just be a hunter,” my mom argued, her eyes filled with distress. “You’re too young. You haven’t experienced enough to commit your life to this.”
“Why not?” I cocked my head. “You did.”
Her expression hardened. “I only did what I had to do to protect this family. And I don’t even hunt anymore. Not since I had you.”
“That’s your fault, not mine.”
“Jack!” Darren snapped, his usual calm demeanor cracking. “Watch your tone.”
My mom held her hand up. “It’s alright, Darren. She’s right. It was my choice. Because I found something else worth fighting for, and that’s all I want for you.”
“I am, though,” I argued with a frown. “I’m keeping rogue vampires and other supernaturals off the streets. Isn’t making the world a safer place something to fight for?”
“Jackie,” my mom’s voice grew somber, “if you would just take a year. A year to try other things. To see what the human world is like, or even to go to the supernatural academy. Get a taste of life outside of hunting, then you would see there’s more than just death and whatever it is you are running from. ”
I swallowed and didn’t respond.
“I don’t want to bury my only child before she’s thirty.” Her voice cracked.
Marcus stepped across the room and wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her into his chest.
While Marcus comforted my mom, Antoine turned his attention back to me.
“I understand where you are coming from, Jaquelynn, and I commend you for being so dedicated to the cause, but your mother is right too. We blame ourselves for sending you down this road. After the kidnappings, we thought learning to fight with the hunters would give you a sense of strength, but now it feels like you are hiding behind it.”
I shoved up from the seat, my mouth open to object.
Antoine held a hand up. “If you would indulge me for a moment, I believe we have come up with a solution that will make all parties happy.”
I sank back down in my seat and waited for him to explain. This was an age-old argument, one that had only gotten more heated every time we had it. If Antoine had a way to let me hunt and keep mom off my back, then I was all ears.
Antoine pulled out a file and pushed it across the desk.
“There have been reports, whispers, of a growing unrest among the supernaturals. Those who don’t like how the different councils are joining together to change the way we handle the supernatural communities.
Many who want to go back to the old ways, where humans are nothing more than food or worse. ”
I leaned forward, all my attention on him.
“We need someone to go undercover and look into these rumors. See if there is any legitimacy to them, identify those involved, then report back with that intel.”
He didn’t have to continue; Antoine already knew he had me hooked.
“And you want me to do this?” I asked, wariness in my voice. There had to be a catch. This sounded like exactly the type of thing I wanted to do. Something that made a difference. That proved I wasn’t just a liability to them.
My mom sniffed, rubbing her nose before turning her gaze back on me. “I’ve already discussed it with Tristen and Mizuki. They have agreed to let you handle this for us.”
“But you won’t be going in alone,” Antoine added with a firm look. “They will assign a hunter to help you. They’ll pose as a professor, and you’ll be assigned to them for your course mentor.”
“Wait a second.” I blinked at them. “A professor?” I glanced between the four of them. “Don’t tell me this mission is at the academy?”
“Exactly.” Antoine smirked as his hands laced in front of him.
“You will go undercover at Durand Supernatural Academy and discover these rebels for us. It’s precisely what you asked for, isn’t it?
To hunt down rogue supernaturals? Now, you have the chance to do so while also experiencing life outside of being a hunter. ”
“Two birds, one stone,” my mom quipped with a gleeful grin.
They had me. I couldn’t even find a reason not to do as they asked. I should have known better than to think they would just drop it, eventually. While my mom was barely over fifty, my dads had centuries on me.
It had hardly been a fair fight at all.