___________________

Tearing her eyes away from him, Ana whispered to Brad, “Come on.  Let’s get out of here.”

Brad looked like he wanted to argue, then he sighed and shoved a hand through his hair.  “Okay. Maybe we can go to get a snack—I’m starving.”

“That sounds like a good idea, Ana,” Kelsey said, an edge to her voice.  But when the witch looked Ana, her gaze was kind, so kind and so gentle and it made Ana feel even more pathetic.

Silence fell as the brother and sister headed for the door. Kelsey lingered in the doorway, watching them with that enigmatic gaze.  The witch’s gaze softened as Brad passed by and she reached out, ruffled his hair.  “You’re a bottomless pit these days,” she teased.

The lighthearted words did nothing to ease the tension in the room.  As they left, Ana breathed a little easier.  Every passing step made it easier, every inch of distance helped.

Get away—she had to get away from that anger.  Her shields were stronger, but anger was always harder to shield against.  Always.

*

As Ana and Brad disappeared from sight, Kelsey stepped back in the room.  Somebody slid the door closed behind her.  All around, people were staring at her.  Watching with avid, intent interest and making no pretense otherwise.

Some of the people in the room would become Hunters.

Many would not.

Even though they were told when they came to Excelsior that not all would join the Council, not all of them believed it.  Kelsey could understand in a way.  The older ones that came to them, more often not, were victims of a vampire attack, survivors of a were’s bite.  Their entire lives changed, and little understanding of why.  Time and again, many of them had to leave their old lives behind—their lives, their families.  Faced with a long empty stretch of life, they latched onto anything that might give their new existence meaning.

Being a Hunter had meaning.

But that mindset crippled them—doing it because it had meaning was the last reason to do it.

In more cases than she could recall, Kelsey had seen it happen.  In more cases than she could recall, it was the ones who didn’t want to be here, the ones who didn’t want to be a Hunter that were called to it.

For some fucked up reason, Kelsey ended up being the one dumped with the responsibility of saying No.  I’m sorry, but no, it can’t be you. Most of the instructors at the school were perfectly content to let her have that not-so-happy job.

“Are you going to make this harder than it has to be?” she asked, weary.

Neal glared at her.  “I’m not making anything hard—you’re the one throwing some kind of tantrum because that bitch can’t handle her own problems.”

“The bitch,” Kelsey said, getting more annoyed by the second.  “Isn’t the problem.”

Neal, stupidly, thought she was referring to Brad.

Rolling his eyes, he said, “I already told you.  I wouldn’t hurt a kid.  And I wasn’t going to hurt her, either.  I just wanted her to get out of the way.”

“But you had your hands on her—that’s what started this, isn’t?  You had your hands on her, touching her, when she didn’t want you touching her.”

It was Duke, of all people, that spoke.  Separating himself from the crowd, he stalked towards Neal, his pale gray eyes swirling, the pupils spiking and flaring as he fought the rage inside him.

___________________

Just a quick reminder on the contest:

• Runs through 12/1.
• Read the complete rules here.
• Comment @ my blog (Not via facebook, amazon, myspace, etc) to enter. Each comment gets you one entry. You can enter via blog comments once each day.
• If you post a link to the contest and then email me @ contest4shiloh(at)gmail.com, that will get you an additional ten entries. Put link in the subject line.
• If you preorder and forward the receipt to contest4shiloh(at)gmail.com, that will get you an additional twenty entries. Put receipt in subject line. Please remove all sensitive personal data.
• You can enter each way-if you post a link, comment and preorder, that is 30 entries, as well as one entry for each day you visit the blog to comment. You could get up to fifty entries for the grand prize.
• Names will not be shared/sold/traded/spraypainted on a billboard.
• Please note, to enter for the small daily giveaways done during the week, you must comment @ my blog.
• Daily giveaways will be Monday-Friday. Winners will either be posted here or notified via email so please make sure you check back often.
• Please do not cheat-trying to comment more than once a day, using different names/emails, is cheating and you’ll likely end up disqualified and barred from entering future contests.
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• Each (daily) contest thread will be closed within a day or two of its original posting.  So enter while it’s open!