The Recruiters Read Free Page A

demand had been made.”
    And the next one: October 23 - Mexican priest vanishes from parish. “Father Alfonso Morales of the St Mary’s Parish near Guaymas, Mexico has disappeared. His suitcase and belongings are gone as well, so authorities are not treating this as a missing person case yet. But his parishioners are pushing for an investigation, insisting he would never leave without notifying someone.”
    “ Oh no. Sarah?” Matt whispered. “What do you think it means?”
    “ What does it mean?” I stared up at Matt. “It means they’re tying up loose ends. It means they’re silencing everyone involved. It means that they never had any intention of letting us live.” I dropped my head to the table and started sobbing. “I knew something was wrong, I knew they let us off too easily.” A shiver ran through me as I recalled the torturous pain that the Elders had inflicted on me when they held us captive. Before they had decided that what we had done – discovered how to create another vampire and done it without their permission or knowledge - wasn’t something that was punishable by death, the pain and terror that we had gone through was agonizing.Too easily?!?” Matt said. “You’re kidding me, right? Don’t you remember the pain they put you through?”
    I winced. I remembered it all to clearly.
    “ Do you really think that was letting us off too easily?” he said as he wrapped his arms around me.
    I whirled around, panic filling my face, “CARLOS!” I gasped. “You HAVE to warn Carlos right now! He helped us too, Matt. God, I hope they don’t go after him too. Call him, please. Tell me he’s okay. I have to know that he’s okay.”
    Matt flipped open his phone and dialed as I continued in the background, “Then try to reach Miguel, Bahiti, Omoruyi. PERU! We have to go to Peru to warn the villagers. And ANDREW! We have to talk to Andrew while he’s still on his honeymoon. They’re not going to let Janine survive. Oh my God, this can’t be happening,” I sobbed.
    Matt came over and tried to soothe me by stroking his hand down my hair while he whispered into the phone. But I felt the shaking in his hand. He was just as scared as I was. And I knew in my heart that there was only one thing that would save us now. But how could we go up against them? How could we possibly stop them?
     

 
     
    Chapter Four
     
     
     
     
    We lay in each other’s arms for a long time, not sure what to do next, afraid of what was going to happen, afraid to let go. I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to gather some strength… but my strength was Matthew and if I moved I wouldn’t have that, right? No, I tried to tell myself. He’s in your heart Sarah, he’s in your soul, you don’t have to be touching him to feel him. I pushed myself up. “Okay,” I said, “tell me how bad you think it is.” I rested my head on my knees and looked at him.
    He propped himself up on his elbow and replied, “I can’t lie to you Sarah. It’s bad, really bad. No one’s ever considered going up against them, I wouldn’t know where to start.” Though he winced slightly I felt a little relieved when he said that; at least I knew we were on the same page.
    “ Well, maybe we should start by finding out if it’s just us. Maybe there are others out there who have problems with them. Who aren’t happy with the way they ‘run’ things. Do you think we should try to find out?” I whispered but then I quickly shook my head. “Wait, no. Forget I said that.”
    “ Why, Sarah?”
    “ Because I don’t want anyone else to get hurt because of us,” I said as I turned and pressed my forehead to my knees.
    Matt came up and wrapped his arms around me. I turned my head again to look at him. “We can’t possibly face them alone. We have to go into hiding don’t we?”
    Matt nodded his head and whispered, “We might have to.”
    “ But we can’t hide forever, can we? They’ll find us eventually, they always do, right?”
    He