by Terry Spear
Danai smiled. “Yeah, we can. Why hadn’t I thought of that?”
“I didn’t even realize we could do that,” Zachary said.
“I’ll do it,” Adonis said. “You and Zachary stay here,” he said to Danai. “We still don’t want Crichton to know how many hunters he has to contend with.”
“I’ll do it,” Zachary said, as if he had to prove to Pasha his worth as a hunter turned. “They won’t know me, and it would probably be better if Crichton doesn’t learn you’re here yet.” When Adonis opened his mouth to object, Zachary raised his hand to silence him.
Pasha smiled, not used to seeing another male hunter silence her brother.
“I know that if I’m able to control them, or you had done so, you could have told them you weren’t here, but if Crichton is really controlling them, none of us would be successful and Crichton will know you’re here. I think it’s to our advantage to let him think Pasha is the only one alive. He might even believe she is the one who has been killing his vampires,” Zachary said.
Adonis agreed.
When Zachary and Pasha joined Michael and Rachael and the policemen in the living room, O’Connor smiled all-knowing like that Pasha had more hunters with her. She sure hoped this worked. Then Crichton wouldn’t be able to control the men afterwards. Wouldn’t Crichton be surprised to learn vampires he didn’t know were siding with the hunters?
Zachary was honored to get the job of convincing the policemen they worked for Adonis and the other hunters, and no one else. He couldn’t believe that was another ability he could have while being a vampire. He was eager to show off his all-important skill to Pasha, that might just help them turn the tide against Crichton and his minions.
In a million years, he didn’t think he would appreciate being one of the vampires. But some of the vampire abilities sure made him think differently.
He went to speak with O’Connor first and telepathically said, “You will take only orders from Adonis and his family, and the other hunters here. Crichton will have no power over you.”
O’Connor nodded.
“You will tell him or any of his people nothing of what went on here.”
O’Connor again nodded.
Zachary saw that Michael and Rachael were busily talking to the other men in the room, keeping them distracted so they didn’t notice that Zachary was talking to O’Connor in a vampire way without words.
Pasha was watching the two of them, but Zachary wasn’t sure if she was horrified, or fascinated by what he could do. Maybe still shocked that he was one of the vampire kind now and could do what they could do.
Then he released O’Connor to continue with his work, and Zachary repeated his orders to each of the other policemen there. When he was done, Pasha took Zachary aside. “What did you tell them?”
Zachary told her what he had said to each of the policemen on the scene.
“Well, if it works, that will be great for us.”
Despite her comment, Zachary had no illusions that she would change her mind about him courting her. But he did feel he’d made some headway in her accepting him as a hunter friend who could help them get things done. And he was feeling better about himself, not as ashamed of being part vampire, but believing he could be a real help to the hunters. Certainly, while he was fighting, all he had thought of was eliminating the rogues and protecting the hunters there.
After the policemen finished hauling off the bodies, they all returned to wait for Zachary to give them orders. He was just as shocked as he was certain his brother and cousin and Pasha were. He smiled. “Return to your regular jobs unless we call on you for further assistance.”
The men all nodded and left the house.
“Wow,” Pasha said. Then she smiled. “Now that’s something Adonis would have loved to have done—had a whole police force at his beck and call.”
“Just the ones who were here today would be affected,” Zachary warned her.
Adonis and Danai joined them in their vampiric way.
“Then I will take care of the rest of them,” Adonis said. “You get Carissa and the baby. In the meantime, I want the rest of you to remain with them at the hotel we’re staying at.”
“I’m going with you,” Danai said to Adonis. “You’ll need my help in commanding the police to do our bidding. With two of us, it will go faster.”
“I’ll get hold of our grandparents,” Pasha said, “once we’re back at the hotel. And Carissa’s sister and brother-in-law. Maybe Carissa can take care of the baby and toddlers if her sister and brother-in-law want to help us fight.”
“Her brother-in-law, yes, but the mothers need to protect their kids. I’d rather they leave here and stay with our parents for the time-being,” Adonis said.
“You’ll have a fight on your hands.” Danai patted his shoulder. “Carissa won’t leave.”
“All right, well, let’s do this.” Adonis and Danai took one of the vehicles while Michael drove the others in the SUV to the condo where Carissa was staying.
When they arrived, Zachary and Pasha knocked at the door. A human male answered the door, and Zachary telepathically said, “We’re friends of Carissa’s, taking her and the baby home to Rochester, New York. She is as human as you are, and you will remember nothing else.”
The man allowed them to enter and Pasha quickly said to the human female, “I’m Carissa’s cousin. Danai told us she was here.”
Carissa hurried out with a sleeping baby swaddled in her arms. “Ohmigod, Pasha. I’m so glad you’re all right.”
Pasha gave her and the baby a combined a hug.
Zachary was telepathically telling the human woman the same as he had her husband so she wouldn’t remember a hunter and her baby had been staying with them. “Her name is Rebecca. The baby’s name is Fred.”
“What’s he doing?” Carissa asked Pasha under her breath.
“He’s a hunter turned like Danai and Adonis,” Pasha said.
“Oh, oh, they can control minds like the vampires can?”
“Yeah, just like that. Zachary told the police clean-up crew that he’s in charge of them now.”
“Oh, that is just too insanely cool.”
Zachary was glad to hear that at least Carissa was fine with him being a vampire now.
“Adonis and Danai went to the police department to do the same with all the rest of the officers they can find.”
“Great.”
Zachary told the husband and wife, “You won’t remember that we came to get Rebecca and the baby.”
The couple nodded, and then Zachary helped Pasha carry a suitcase and bags of baby items out to the car, while Michael helped Carissa into the backseat of the SUV.
Rachael told Carissa she’d mated Adonis, and Carissa smiled. “I didn’t think he’d ever settle down.”
“Believe me, it was a challenge for both of us because he’d already been turned and he was supposed to hand me over to the head rogue vampire in Dallas,” Rachael said.
“No,” Carissa said.
Rachael ran her hand over the baby’s cheek in a soft caress. “Yeah, but Danai and Adonis needed my help in freeing the rest of their family from his imprisonment.”
“Which is how Zachary was turned. He was helping to free me and my family and it was all my fault,” Pasha said.
Carissa shook her head. “Your friend was your best friend.”
“And she died anyway before I could even come to her aid. Look at what I did to the rest of my family because of it!”
They all climbed into the SUV and Michael drove them to the hotel.
“Crichton did that to our family. He had already amassed his vampires to strike. We were in chaos when he and his followers attacked, but maybe we would have been anyway, whether your family had been here or not. Who knows?” Carissa let out her breath. “I know what you want to do with me and the baby. You also know how I feel about this and avenging my mate’s death. I won’t be stopped in helping to rid ourselves of the menace here now.
My sister will take care of Chelsie, along with her twins.”
“What about you, Pasha?” Zachary asked. She’d been so weak after having been imprisoned by Piaras for so long, he thought she might need time to recover.
Pasha gave him a look that said she’d consider adding him to the termination list Crichton was on. He figured she’d feel that way, but he thought he would mention it just in case she wanted to stay with the baby and let Carissa fight since she was going to no matter what.
“My cousin Rachael is pregnant.” Zachary hoped she’d have enough sense to stay home and maybe watch Carissa’s baby, but he was certain she wouldn’t.
“Oh, my,” Carissa said, her eyes round. “Is it—”
“A girl or a boy? We don’t know,” Rachael said. “It’s only been two months. Beyond that? We don’t know what the baby will be. Vampire? Hunter? A little of both?”
“A new world is upon us,” Carissa said.
“I’ll say,” Zachary agreed. He and the other hunters who had been turned were living proof of it.
“What about your mom and dad?” Carissa asked Pasha. “Are they returning to take over?”
“No,” Pasha said. “They are broken. They would have led the charge here if they’d been all right. It doesn’t mean that given time they couldn’t return and help the clan. They might.”
“So who’s going to be in charge?” Carissa asked.
Pasha scoffed. “You have to ask?”
“Adonis.” Carissa smiled at Rachael. “I hope that’s okay with you. I mean, if we can kill Crichton and his rogues, you don’t mind settling down here.”
“It will be fine with me. I’ll be happy wherever we can be together. What about you?”
“I don’t know. Losing my mate here is still fresh on my mind. Fighting the monsters, seeing my own parents fall to their killing spree. I don’t know. I trust in Adonis to lead, but I’m just not sure I can stay.”
“The Dallas clans would take you and the baby in,” Rachael assured her.
“I could go there to see how my aunt and uncle are doing and maybe we could all get over this together.”
They arrived at the hotel, and Zachary began to take the suitcase and other bags out of the car. “Do you want a separate room, or do you want to stay with Danai and Pasha?”
“It depends on what they want,” Carissa said. “The baby can keep me up nights.”
“Let’s see what Danai wants to do. With being newly turned, she’s been rather on edge. No matter what though, one of us will stay with you,” Pasha said.
“Thank you. Oh, and I got in touch with our grandparents. They’re on their way to help.” Carissa smiled. “They were furious that the younger generation told them to stay away and not come to assist. Grandpa said they’d fight the good fight until the end. Retirement is for humans.”
Pasha sighed heavily.
“And my sister and her husband are arriving in an hour at the airport. If someone could pick them up, that would be great.”
“Pasha and I can do it,” Zachary quickly said. Pasha would need to go because she knew them. He would be her and her relatives’ additional protection.
“I’ll stay here with Carissa and the baby,” Michael said, waiting for Rachael to declare what she would do.
“I’ll remain at the hotel with you both also.”
Then Pasha got a call as Carissa sat on a chair and proceeded to nurse her baby. Pasha put the call on speakerphone. “Yeah, Danai?”
Danai asked, “Are you at the hotel?”
“Yeah, we’re just settling in. I just need to know if you can handle trying to sleep with a baby at night. We might need to get another room for us anyway.”
“I’m fine with staying with Carissa.”
“Okay, we’ll reserve a couple of more rooms. The others are coming to help us.”
“Grandma and Grandpa too?”
“Yes. Carissa wants to fight. Maybe Grandma can take care of the baby.”
“I will,” Danai said.
Pasha looked surprised to hear it.
“Listen, the baby and the twins will need a good fighter to protect them if we have any trouble. We’re at the hotel. Adonis and I are brainwashing the hotel staff that they follow only our orders. We’ll be up to the rooms in a bit.”
“All right, Danai.” Pasha sounded relieved, to an extent, that Danai would stay with the kids.
Zachary knew that it would cost them a good fighter too. Still, the children were their future, if they lived through this. He glanced at the mom nursing her baby and was certain she must be grieving for her mate. All of them would be grieving for family they had lost.
He hadn’t considered that Adonis would take over the clan here and Rachael would stay with him. That Danai and Michael, if he could live with what she’d become, might stay here too. That Pasha would also. He realized this wasn’t just about taking revenge and killing those who had murdered their family members but starting over for this group of hunters. Their numbers had been decimated, but with the new blood from the Dallas pack, they could become the new order—a mix of vampire hunter and hunters. It might even work better for them than returning to their own clan in Dallas where some of the other hunters most likely wouldn’t like what they’d become.
Here, they would prove to their own people that to get rid of the threat with so few of them to fight, they needed the edge and maybe the others would accept them. If they didn’t, they might just have to start up somewhere new where another hunter clan didn’t already exist.
Chapter 9
As soon as Danai and Adonis joined them in the ladies’ hotel room, Pasha asked her sister, “You said you were following Crichton. What happened?”
“He turned down a street and disappeared.”
“Did he realize you were following him?”
“I don’t think so. He was just being super cautious.”
“Okay. The police officer in charge of getting rid of vampire bodies said that Crichton had been moving from place to place. Maybe because Carissa has made him jumpy,” Pasha said.
“Or because you all weren’t here when the fight began,” Carissa said, “and he knew once you learned of it, you’d be back to terminate his ass.”
“You said you’ve been hunting his men down. How do you know where to find them?” Adonis asked as Danai picked up the baby, cradling her in her arms, and walked her.
Pasha was surprised to see the change in Danai. Usually, she let any other women who wanted to hold the baby do so. Was it all because of what had happened to Danai? Pasha thought so. Or maybe Michael had something to do with the change in her. Pasha hadn’t thought she’d want it to happen, that she didn’t believe Michael should be saddled with her sister, but she was beginning to believe he was good for Danai and he seemed to truly care for her, no matter that she was a vampire.
Carissa picked up some of the hotel note paper and began drawing on it. “The vampires are scattered all over the city. They’re making it harder to hit a bunch at once. It’s worked well for me because I can go after a lone vampire one at a time.”
“An ancient even.” Pasha was surprised and glad Carissa had killed the vampire without getting herself killed.
“Yes, well, that one was a surprise. I had taken down a newly turned vampire and then suddenly, the ancient one showed up. She looked young, of course, but she had blood staining her lips and I could smell the blood on her. She wasn’t from here, so she didn’t recognize me as a hunter with the family they’d murdered. I think I so stunned her that I was here and fighting them alone, I was able to stab her in the heart with my sword before she could react.”
Which was a good thing since ancients were usually much harder to kill.
“She didn’t let anyone else know she was squaring off with a female hunter?” Adonis asked.
“I can’t know for certain, but I suspected she didn’t have time because I killed her so fast, and then I was out of there. Nobody was around, and no one followed me
.”
“Good,” Adonis said. “Who called in the killings?”
“A woman and her teenaged son. I would have done so myself, but I didn’t know who Crichton was controlling—the police or others? I just didn’t know. But these are all the locations I’ve found them at.”
“How did you know where to look for them?” Adonis asked.
He and Zachary studied the drawing.
If nothing else, Adonis was thorough, like their father was, about learning the details of a case. One slip up on the hunters’ part could spell their doom, if they were as outnumbered as they thought they were.
“At first, I was studying the family’s homes and I’d follow a lone vampire out of one of them and learn where they were staying. I did that so no one would realize I was watching the homes. I took out all five that way. Though I hadn’t expected the one to have an ancient come meet up with her.”
“Do you think they suspected someone was going after the vampires that left any of the families’ houses?” Adonis asked.
“No. When the first one left a family’s home, I waited until he slept in another house after that. As soon as he left that second house, I eliminated him. I did that with three of them, waiting one or two days after they’d left the families’ homes. That way if anyone was trying to determine how they were being watched, it hopefully wouldn’t lead back to our places. As for the last two, I had waited for three days before eliminating them.”
“Okay, good,” Adonis said.
Pasha was proud of her cousin. She wasn’t sure she would have done as well at keeping her identity secret. She probably would have tackled all the vampires in her parents’ home first. But Carissa had a baby to raise too, so that probably made her a little more cautious.
“So what are we going to do now?” Pasha didn’t want to sit and wait. She wanted to strike and strike and strike until they had eliminated all the threat.
“We wait for everyone to get here,” Adonis said, the voice of reason.
Pasha folded her arms and looked cross at her brother. “And then?”
