by Terry Spear
“And then we make plans. If we could eliminate Crichton, that would help our cause. We want to eliminate anyone who was involved in the fight, but we need to get the leader of the vampires. The others might decide it’s too dangerous to bother trying to keep the region as their own. Without a compelling leader, that might be the end of it,” Adonis said.
“No. We have to terminate every bloody one of them,” Pasha said.
“I agree,” Zachary said.
Carissa agreed. So did Danai.
Michael nodded.
Rachael said, “If we don’t get Crichton early in the game, he can continue to make new vampires to fight us. Like Adonis said, if we can take him down, some of the vampires might make a run for it. I agree that we should terminate all of them who were involved, but we need to stop Crichton from creating more of a mess for us.”
Everyone agreed and then someone knocked on the door. Adonis looked out the security peephole and smiling, he shook his head. He opened the door and welcomed Grandma and Grandpa into the room.
Grandma had to hold Carissa’s baby first before she got lots of hugs.
Pasha swore the baby looked even older than the last time she saw her a month ago. She had woken, her red fuzzy hair longer, and when she’d been on her tummy before Grandma picked her up, she was raising her head and looking about. Her eyes were blue, but that could still change. Though Carissa's eyes were blue also, and her hair was just as strawberry blond. Pasha’s five-year-old nephews were both blonds, though their father had dark hair and the mother's hair was a light brown. All of them had brown eyes. The boys were tall for their age, just like their father had been. Pasha couldn’t wait to see them at the airport and help get them safely here.
Her grandparents were in their seventies, older when they had the kids and both were white-haired, distinguished looking, Grandma's hair long and in a tail, Grandad's hair curly and short. Both were consummate hunters with years of experience, and she was glad they were here to help. They often gave advice when Pasha's dad and mom were trying to decide a course of action for the clan. Nobody mentioned her parents. She assumed the grandparents didn't want to show any judgement about what had happened to the whole clan while her parents had been away. Nor about why they weren't here now to help in the fight against the vampires who had killed so many of their family members.
Pasha was glad the rest of the family was together now though. It gave her a sense of belonging, of camaraderie, and a feeling they'd come out the victors this time.
Adonis gave his grandparents hugs, and Danai, Pasha, and Carissa followed suit. Then Adonis introduced Rachael, as his mate, the coming baby, Michael, and Zachary.
They were thrilled to meet the new additions to their extended family.
“I’ll go down and have some people moved from their rooms so we can have them cleaned and the family can have them right next to our rooms,” Zachary said. “I’ll get one for the grandparents, one for Carissa’s sister and her family, and one for meetings and anyone to use while taking care of the kids, if they need to.” He figured that way they wouldn’t have to move the kids from place to place if someone else took care of them for a while.
“We’re going to take a nap before we have to hunt down vampires tonight,” the grandmother said as Carissa took her baby back to change her diaper.
“I was hoping you’d help me protect the kids since Carissa wants to fight and we’re not sure if her cousin will too,” Danai said.
Zachary wasn’t sure if Danai said it because she really did want help, and that was understandable if someone did learn they were in one of the rooms and came to terminate them, or if it was a way to keep the grandmother out of a fight she might not be able to win.
“Oh.” The grandmother looked at her mate and they held each other’s hands in an endearing way. “What do you think, Oscar?”
“I think the kids would love it if you stayed with Danai and helped to protect them. They adore you.”
“All right. If Carissa wants to fight, I’ll stay with the kids and Danai. She can’t be alone if we have trouble here at the hotel.”
Danai told them about how she and the others had been turned and what that meant to them.
Zachary expected the grandparents to be shocked.
“It’s a brand-new world out there,” their grandmother said, serious as could be. “Just the fact Zachary could get us rooms together and that he and the others could control the hotel staff and the policemen so that Crichton can’t get to them means we have a little better security.”
“I’ll say,” their grandfather said. “We sure need something to help even the odds. We can’t turn humans into hunters like Crichton can turn humans into vampires which gives us a decided disadvantage.”
“Do you have to drink blood?” the grandmother asked.
“Sometimes, yes,” Danai said. “But we can get it from the blood bank. We can hear their telepathic communication if they’re close by, so we can monitor what they’re up to. And we can communicate with them and with each other. They don’t know that we can do this so they’re not guarding their telepathic communication from us.”
The grandmother smiled. “They don’t know you’re hunters turned.”
“No, it gives us a real advantage,” Adonis said.
“All we have to do is show our canines and they think we’re one of them.” Zachary glanced at the time in the room at the alarm clock. “We have to get to the airport to pick up the rest of your family.”
He prayed they wouldn’t have any trouble while protecting the two little boys and their parents.
Carissa motioned to one of her bags. “I have an arsenal of hunter weapons in there that I took from my home. Take what you need to arm our cousins.”
Chapter 10
At the airport, Pasha anxiously watched for the arrivals heading for baggage claim. Since Zachary didn’t know what her family looked like, no one had any family photos on them, he was observing other people at the airport, searching for anyone who might be a vampire on the prowl, attempting to locate hunters with the intent to kill.
“We should have had them come earlier.” Zachary thought the hunter family would have been safer arriving during the day.
“This was the earliest and the last flight they could get on because there are four of them.”
“True. Though if I had been with them, I could have persuaded the airline to bump others so they could fly when they needed to.”
Pasha raised her brows at him. “Wouldn’t that make you a bit of a rogue?”
“Not when we have a hunter family to protect.”
She smiled at him.
He’d halfway expected Pasha to say something to him when he announced to everyone that she was going with him to the airport and not waiting for Adonis to say who went where. Zachary was well-aware Adonis was in charge of this mission, but Zachary wanted to help protect Pasha’s family, and prove to her how useful his vampire skills could be if they needed them.
He looked around again at the tons of people getting off the newly arriving planes. “They can’t carry their blades on the plane. I’m just concerned the vampires will be watching arrivals too. If they have any idea who they’d missed during the onslaught and what they look like—”
“There they are. They see me, but they’re not acknowledging me. They might be afraid someone would recognize either them or me. They’re headed our way. I’ve got Carissa’s extra blades for them.”
“Hell. Three men are walking straight for them. I’m intercepting them.” Not giving Pasha a chance to respond, Zachary disappeared, not something he’d planned to do at the airport because he knew when her family saw him vanish, they would believe he was a vampire and there to harm the family and not the other vampires. But he had to reach the rogue vampires quickly before they could hurt the family and in a way that told them he was a vampire, not a hunter. Though he suspected the rogues would have waited until they reached the parking tower where the security gu
ards wouldn’t be and fewer people would see what they intended to do.
Zachary appeared in front of one of the vampires, his long red hair pulled back in a tail, and stopping all three of them in their path. Zachary smiled. “You’re Josh Thompson from Virginia, aren’t you?”
The redhead frowned at him, the other two men pausing to see what Zachary had to say. “No, and we’ve got business to attend to. You’re interfering, whoever you are.”
At least Zachary had given Pasha time to arm her cousin and her mate and hurried them and the kids toward the parking tower, trying to avoid the danger. He assumed the redhead was in charge of these vampires because he was leading them.
“You’re working for Crichton, aren’t you?” Zachary telepathically asked as the three men shoved past him and attempted to follow their prey. They knew the family and now they knew Pasha was with them. “I heard he was getting rid of a hunter family and I’m game.” This time he spoke the words out loud.
The redheaded vampire turned and bared his teeth at Zachary in a way that told him to get lost. If the vampire had thought Zachary was a hunter, he knew the vampire would have gone for the juggler. But no hunter could vanish and appear like a vampire and they couldn’t telepathically communicate with vampires. Zachary had every intention of stopping the three vampires from going after Pasha and the others so they could make their escape.
Zachary extended his wrist blades and struck the redheaded vampire in the heart, killing him instantly. The vampire wizened up and collapsed on the floor, wrinkled, parched skin and bones, and clothes. An ancient. Good. Zachary was certain Crichton wouldn’t have as many ancients here as he did newly turned vampires and since the ancients were harder to kill, he was glad they had one less to deal with.
“What the hell are you doing?” one of the two vampires remaining asked telepathically, his black brows furrowed.
It really confused the vampires when one of “their own” attacked them, but Zachary assumed from the men’s inaction, they believed the vampire might have had it coming.
“I’m as rogue as they get,” Zachary said, and stabbed the second one in the heart. The vampire was like the other, an ancient, and his skin shriveled up as he collapsed on the floor. Like the other, there was no blood, the blood in their veins turning to dust. And then the rest of him turned into dust.
Several passengers hurried out of the building, not wanting to get involved or witness a vampire war. Three security guards rushed to see to the matter, but then waited a distance away to see the outcome.
If vampires wanted to kill vampires, more power to them. The police didn’t get involved. If hunters killed vampires, they had to have some proof the vampires were rogues. In this case, it would be easy to explain because of the killings Crichton and his men had done against the hunter families without provocation and law enforcement wanted it resolved in the hunters’ favor.
The last vampire lunged for Zachary, trying to grab him by the neck, his extended canines bared, ready to rip Zachary’s throat out. Zachary had hold of the vampire’s wrists, trying to keep him from biting him, unable to reach the vampire with his wrist blades. Pasha raced behind the vampire and stabbed him in the back with her hunter’s sword, all the way through the heart. When this one died, he looked just like he did in life, bleeding, like a normal human would, so he had been newly turned.
Zachary wasn’t surprised the last one was newly turned, though he wasn’t expecting to see two ancients out of the three.
Brows furrowed, the security guards still waited to see the outcome, since he was still a vampire and Pasha was a hunter. They weren’t telling the police or anyone other than the hunters they were working with that he and the other two hunters had been turned. Best to keep that information secret to use to their advantage.
All Zachary could think of was how Pasha had aided him. Still, he wasn’t sure what prompted him to hug her when he knew how much she hated that he was a vampire. But he wanted her to know how much he appreciated her assistance. She was stiff at first, then yielded and hugged him back.
For a moment, it was like holding an Olympic gold medal in his arms, a win like nothing he’d ever experienced. She was hot and soft and sexy, and he couldn’t help but love her curves, her whispered breath on his neck, and her arms wrapped around him.
He let out his breath. They had to take care of her family and he needed to talk to the officers. They released each other and Zachary explained the business with Crichton to the security officers. “These three men were after more of some of the hunter family,” Zachary said, while Pasha called O’Connor for a cleanup team at the airport.
Zachary used his vampiric persuasion to ensure the security police followed the hunters’ orders, not the vampires.
Then she and Zachary hurried to the SUV where the family waited for them.
“You know, you scared my family half to death when you moved like a vampire to confront the others. It isn’t my fault if my cousin’s husband runs you through with the hunter’s sword I just armed him with as soon as we reach the SUV,” Pasha said.
Zachary smiled wryly. “If so, then I will have set out to do what I had hoped to in the beginning when I learned I had been turned, though now the notion of falling in battle at the hands of a vampire appeals more.”
She shook her head. “After all you’ve done to help us already, don’t you see the good you can do?”
He was surprised she would feel that way. Maybe she was changing her mind about her sister, brother, and him being vampires. It didn’t mean she would want to be his mate ever though. He didn’t answer her. If the good he did always came under scrutiny because hunters couldn’t see which side he was on, then no.
When they reached the car, Pasha said, “I’m driving. You explain to my family how you became what you are.” She introduced them first, everyone wide-eyed as they watched him climb into the SUV.
“I was helping to save Pasha and her parents and ultimately Danai and Adonis from a vicious vampire in Dallas and his minions when I was turned. Believe me, I’m one of the good guys.”
Of course her relatives were shocked. But then Jeremy said, “Hell, we’re glad you’re on our side. We didn’t know what to think. First, you were with Pasha and we thought you were a hunter, come to join us in the fight. Then you vanished like a vampire, appeared in front of the vampires out to get us, and started talking to them. Not killing them. Just talking to them like you were all good buddies. We were certain you were telling them you had identified Pasha and the rest of us as the ones they were after. Imagine our surprise when we saw you killing the one.”
Pasha said, “Zachary wants one of us to kill him after we finish Crichton and his minions off. He doesn’t want to be a hunter turned.”
Zachary hadn’t expected her to tell her family that. He wasn’t sure he wanted anyone to kill him now. Some of his new skills were pretty cool. And he was beginning to think—right or wrong—he might even change Pasha’s mind about what he had become.
“No way. You gave us a real advantage back there. You stopped those men when they could have killed some or all of us. Before we got away, I saw that at least one of them was an ancient,” Jeremy said. “This could be a real boon to us.”
“Two were ancients,” Pasha said, sounding proud of Zachary. “The one I took out was newly turned.”
“Thank you for taking him down,” Zachary said to Pasha.
“So what’s the plan?” Jeremy asked.
“Adonis will meet with all of us and we’ll decide what to do. Grandma and Danai said they’d take care of the boys and Carissa’s baby if you want to hunt, Laura,” Pasha said.
“I do. Danai is really fine with it?” Laura asked.
“She’s worried about the kids. Being turned has changed her. She’s not the same as before.”
“In a good or bad way?” Laura asked.
“Bad, to begin with. Until she met Michael, Zachary’s older brother. That whole business between them is up in
the air,” Pasha said.
“And Adonis?” Jeremy asked.
“He’s changed too, but the huntress Rachael has given him his life back. Danai is courting her cousin, Michael. We’re not sure if they’ll still mate or not. He didn’t know she’d been turned, but he’s really helped her to want to live again,” Pasha said. “And he seems to be accepting of her, even after he learned what she had become. He accepts Adonis mating with his cousin Rachael. And she’s pregnant.”
Jeremy said, “We’ll help them get through this. They’ll find acceptance with us. We need every advantage we can get in the coming years.”
“I agree,” Laura said.
Zachary realized that showing what they could do as vampires was the perfect way to gain the hunters’ trust. Killing the two ancient vampires had earned him that trust.
When they finally arrived at the hotel room where everyone was gathered, the introductions started all over again, and to Zachary’s surprise, Pasha eagerly told of his vampiric heroics to save them, not mentioning that she had taken the third vampire out on her own. Which he delighted in telling.
Adonis slapped him on the back. “We wouldn’t have wished this on you, but I have to agree these abilities really come in handy with dealing with the vampires.”
“They had no clue I was with the hunters. I think they thought I had a beef with the first vampire I killed, maybe the second one even. The new vampire didn’t react, waiting for the other ancient to make his play at first,” Zachary said.
“I think that’s the key to this,” Michael said. “These ancients probably aren’t all from the same place. They don’t all know each other. If they did, they would have realized Zachary didn’t know the first one he killed.”
Danai smiled. “Yes. I hadn’t thought of that. Even though all of you won’t know the skills the new hunters in our party have, the rest of the family knows how we react in a crisis. Adonis, Danai, and I know more how Michael, Zachary, and Rachael fight also. So we have that advantage. We’re like a family, some mated into the family, some blood family. A bunch of vampires from different locales who are more like mercenary soldiers wouldn’t have the same loyalty to Crichton and the others as we do with each other. If they thought it was an easy fight and over quickly, they might have felt it was a real boon. If they realize they have to continue to fight us to keep their holdings, they might think otherwise. I believe that if we take down the head of the group, the others wouldn’t feel the need to stay.”
