The Recruit: Book One Read Online Free PDF Page A

burning holes into her back.  She
straightened and forced herself to limp faster, breathing a sigh of relief when
she was in the hallway and away from his hot stare.
    * * *
     
    Hannah peered into the hallway.  It was empty, and she crept
silently through the maze of hallways until she arrived at one of the four
training rooms.  She eased the door open, moving confidently across the room in
the dark.  She reached up and grabbed the metal bar above her head, and with a
grunt of effort began to pull herself up.  Her already tired and strained arm
muscles screamed at her, but she fixed Sara’s sweet face in the front of her
mind and continued to haul her body up and down. 
    After a few minutes she let her body drop to the floor.  She
was panting harshly and her arms were shaking and burning, but she had done
nearly fifteen pull-ups – her best effort yet.  She gave herself five minutes
to rest, lying on her back on the soft mat and staring blindly up at the
ceiling.
    She forced herself to stand and move to the far side of the
gym.  She knew from past experience that if she waited much longer, her body
would seize up and the rest of her exercises would be brutally painful.  There
was a heavy bag hanging from the ceiling, and using touch only she located a
pair of gloves and fumbled into them. 
    She had been in the program for five weeks now and for the
last two weeks when the rest of the recruits had tumbled exhausted into their
beds, she would sneak out of the dormitories and return to the gym.  She forced
herself to run laps, lift weights, and practice her pull-ups and push-ups. 
Afraid of being caught, she did all of it in the total darkness.  The first few
nights she had tripped over exercise machines, stubbed nearly every toe on rows
of weights, and once even ran face first into a wall, but now it seemed her
night vision was improving and she could easily navigate in the blackness.
    She began to punch the heavy bag, the vibrations running
back through her arms and into her aching shoulders and back.  She ignored the
pain; even with her extra work at night she was barely keeping up with the
other recruits, and she knew that Will was dangerously close to kicking her out
of the program.  She could see it every time he looked at her.
    It wasn’t just physical exhaustion either.  When the
recruits weren’t training they were in classes with Isabelle.  Isabelle was in
her thirties with long blonde hair and a slender body.  She was gorgeous; her
eyes were an impossible shade of blue and she had the softest-looking skin
Hannah had ever seen.  Over the last few weeks she had taught them the history
of the vampire as well as, to a limited degree, other supernatural creatures. 
    Hannah could still remember the day that Will had joined
them for one of their classes, sitting quietly in the back as they had
discussed the various weapons that had been used against vampires over the
years.  Alison and Frank were in the middle of a heated debate over whether
make-shift weapons from household items would be useful in a pinch, when Will
had snorted loudly and stood.
    “If you find yourself weaponless around vampires, your
greatest chance for survival is to run.”  He had looked at each of them, his
gaze landing on Hannah’s face last.  “You run and you hide.”
    She shook her head, wiping his face from her mind, and
concentrated on hitting the bag with firm, hard punches like Mannie had taught
her.  She snatched gulps of air into her burning lungs.  She wanted to quit and
go back to her bed in the dormitory.  She wanted to soak her pillow with the
tears that were always so close to the surface, but she thought of Sara.  She
thought about Sara’s tenth birthday, and how excited she had been when her
parents had rented out the movie theatre for her and her friends.  She thought
about the first night that Sara had come home drunk.  Hannah had squirreled her
away to the bathroom before their parents could see