Vampire Redemption (Heart of the Huntress Book 5)

by Terry Spear

  "I'm going to the police station," Adonis said, ending the call with the police chief, but he was still watching the situation on the TV before he left.

  "Sure," one of the men said to the police officer on the news. Then all seven men left with the police officers, trying to make their way through the crowd of new reporters, three more of the men baring their extended canines when the reporters shoved mics in their faces.

  The reporters were trying to quickly get out of their space and stepping on others who were bunched up behind them.

  Then the seven newly turned vampires climbed into several of the police vehicles and the policemen took them to the station for interviews.

  "I shall return." Adonis vanished.

  "Don't you think someone should go with him?" Pasha asked.

  "No, if there are too many of us, we might be seen by some of the ones we're after," Danai said. "We'll wait for Adonis to tell us what to do next."

  That was so unlike Danai. Usually she was as stubborn as Pasha about listening to what their brother had to say.

  "All right, well, I guess all we can do is sit and wait." Pasha took a seat on the sofa.

  "Crichton was lucky he wasn't feeling a buzz after taking the men from the pub like that," Danai said.

  "Maybe he has one." Michael and Danai sat down to watch the reporters speculate about what would happen next. "Ten years ago, we had an issue with an out-of-town vampire coming here and turning three men, but back then, we had a whole clan of hunter families living here who took care of the job, their turf, their way. No more problem. So what happens now? Some vampires come in to take over and they kill off the hunter population. No one does anything. Why didn't the police call in hunters to take care of the infestation right away? The vampires hadn't been turning us, that's why. Now look what happens."

  "Exactly," Pasha said. "Though we wanted to take care of this too, as soon as the police found the vampires had decimated our families, they should have checked into hiring hunters to come in and do the job. Especially if none of us had been able to return. It would have been the perfect pest control before it got even worse."

  "Right, but they didn't want to spend the money. Hunters are costly if they come from anywhere else. We took care of the threat ten years ago and it didn't cost the city much to hire our parents and grandparents and the others," Pasha said.

  "At least Adonis is learning what he can from the newly turned vampires and from the police chief about who they're planning to hire. You know, it's even possible they're not hiring anyone else, but just saying so to appease the populace," Rachael said. "Since the police know we're here already fighting the vampire threat."

  "True, and they might say so just to throw the vampires off our trail," Michael said.

  "Or try and scare them into leaving." Which Pasha didn't want. She wanted to eliminate every last one of them who had killed her family members. Otherwise, it was like letting serial killers get away with it and possibly do the same thing elsewhere. Pasha listened for any sign Daemon would be up and about, but she didn't hear anyone in the back bedroom. "Where's Daemon?"

  "Daemon and Ephraim and their mates are searching for any signs of vampires who could be in on the killings. Since Daemon and Ephraim are vampires from the early days, they have to do this during the night or on cloudy days." Boniface brought in water and sodas for everyone.

  “Okay, so what do we do?" Pasha was wired. She wanted to do something more.

  "Go to bed," Zachary said, smiling.

  She frowned at him. She didn't want the whole world to know she and he were getting it on in bed.

  He cleared his throat. "To sleep. We'll get up early and do this all over again. If we have a battle in the middle of the night, we'll be more rested."

  "Right." She felt her face warm. She was sure her expression had clued everyone in as to what they were doing more than Zachary's comment had. Though the fact they were "rooming" together probably was enough to send the rest of them the message. She was glad they were staying in the same room so Daemon and his mate, if she joined him, could have one of the other rooms and the other hunters had the last two. "Well, I'm already for another fight, and to get some rest, after Adonis returns to tell us what he's learned."

  "I agree," Zachary said.

  Everyone was eager to hear what he had to say.

  But it took some time for Adonis to return and when he did, the rest of them were watching a sci-fi thriller and so engrossed in it, they barely wanted to stop.

  "What's the news, Adonis?" Pasha asked as Zachary turned off the TV.

  "The police chief isn't hiring hunters but used that as an excuse since he knew we had several here working on the situation right now. He just wanted the people to realize he was doing something about it. We'll continue to do what we're doing. In the meantime, he said he's had a ton of inquiries from hunters wanting to take care of the vampire threat," Adonis said.

  "Was Gregory one of them?" Rachael asked.

  "No. But another hunter could have sent in his offer for the group and not Gregory. Also, they will probably know we're down here to deal with this if they still have friends with your clan," Adonis said.

  "True," Michael said. "Will the chief keep us informed about Gregory or any other hunter from Dallas coming here?"

  "Yes. I told him the trouble we had back in Dallas. Not all the trouble. The chief doesn't understand that some of us are vampires. We sure don't want anyone to realize we are—either the human population or vampires," Adonis said.

  "Agreed," the hunters said in unison.

  "Okay, as to the men who Crichton turned, they want to live in peace with the hunters and humans.”

  “That’s good news,” Pasha said, everyone agreeing with her.

  “I agree. The rest of us are going to retire to our staging sites while whoever needs to get some sleep does. We'll get together again for the day crew, though some of you will now be staying back at the houses, while the others hunt," Adonis said.

  Pasha really wanted to hunt down vampires tomorrow, house-sitting didn’t appeal, but that was only fair so the other hunters could search for the vampires’ lairs.

  She and Zachary said their good nights to the others who were leaving and then they retired to the bedroom. Zachary closed the door as Pasha went into the bathroom to shower.

  "You know we have to discuss this...thing between us," Zachary said from the bedroom.

  She had to use the shampoo, conditioner, soap that belonged to the homeowners, which reminded her that they needed to pick up more of their clothes at the hotel.

  "Hey, someone dropped off our bags while we were out hunting," Zachary called out.

  "Oh, good." Well, it was too late to do anything about using her own toiletries for now. She shampooed her hair and soaped up her body and rinsed off, enjoying the sweet scent of tangerine and strawberries.

  She didn't want to discuss the thing between them. Yes, she knew it was inevitable. She didn't think she could look at another hunter and feel the same way as she did about Zachary. The push-pull in their relationship was getting to be more of a pull-pull. But one of the things they hadn't discussed was the issue of longevity. If she mated with him, she would always want to stay with him. She would age and he wouldn't. She would die and he'd be left in mourning. Not to mention she would become so unappealing as a mate, more like his mother, grandmother, then great grandmother at the end. She couldn't help but feel it wouldn't be fair to him.

  She did like many of the abilities he had as a vampire, but she could see how difficult it would be too, with convincing other hunters she was one of them and a good guy. Still, she wasn't sure she wanted to do the whole drinking of blood, though she figured it would come naturally to her once she was turned. She didn't really want vampire canines that would extend if she was annoyed or angry. She wanted to feel normal. Though she could see Zachary had a real advantage fighting the vampires.

  When she left the bathroom, Zachary went in with his s
having kit, already stripped down to his boxer briefs and ready to shower. She thought he was totally buff and very appealing, though she needed to think about nothing more than sleeping so she'd be ready for any fight that might come their way.

  Once she put on her long T-shirt, she climbed into bed and pulled the covers over her. She meant to close her eyes and try to sleep, but all she thought about was Zachary soaping up all those muscle groups like she'd love to do.

  He finally came out of the bathroom all squeaky clean, towel-drying his hair, and wearing a fresh pair of boxer briefs. "I'm serious. We need to talk."

  She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "We need to sleep. Neither of us will be any good for the other in battle if we don't get enough rest."

  "All right. But we still need to discuss this business between us."

  She agreed. Just not tonight. "We will. I promise." Then she turned on her side and he joined her in bed, but he wasn't put off by her insistence that they only sleep, and pulled her into his arms, spooning her. This felt nice. No matter what, she couldn't deny she really loved being with him. She still wished he wasn't part vampire. It made their life much more complicated. "Night."

  "Night, Pasha. Sweet dreams."

  If she dreamed about him, they could be sweet indeed. About the fight ahead? That was another story. She didn’t think he’d really want to sleep, but they were tired, and she realized that she had fallen asleep after all.

  When something woke her.

  She felt like she hadn't hardly slept at all when she heard someone shout in the living room. Boniface! The vampire fight had come to them!

  Chapter 19

  Boniface was warning Pasha and Zachary they had a fight on their hands in the living room. She jumped out of the bed and threw on her cargo pants and a T-shirt. Zachary was only wearing boxer briefs when he seized his sword and fought a vampire that had appeared in the bedroom, their swords striking each other’s. She grabbed up her wrist blades and hurried to put them on. Having no weapons on her meant a vampire could make quick work of her. She seized her sword and stabbed the vampire in the back, penetrating his heart.

  Once the newly turned vampire fell dead to the floor, she and Zachary raced down the hall to find four vampires fighting Boniface and his brother.

  Two of them turned to face the new threat, one going after Pasha. He probably figured she would be the weak link. She wasn't. Well, she wasn't as strong as the male hunters, but she could be rather devious to make up for it. Vampires were too, so she didn't feel guilty about not fighting fair. She slashed her sword at him, their weapons clanging in the night. Zachary was fighting an ancient and she wanted to help him, wanted to end this vampire's reign of terror quickly, but she had to concentrate on the one she was battling now and not what was going on around her. Boniface took down the vampire he'd been fighting and turned to help Zachary.

  If they'd been playing a video game, the ancients would be considered "Big Bosses," the ones with more strength, skill, and defenses, much harder to defeat. Unless they were caught off-guard like the other ancients were when they thought they were seeing some of Rutherford’s vampires and not a band of hunters. The newly turned vampires were just learning how to use their vampiric condition to their advantage. Even Zachary was. She’d seen how he’d hesitated to use his vampire abilities, the hunter’s skills coming into play so much more naturally since he’d been born with them.

  As soon as the fight was over, a new vampire showed up, but he immediately held up his hands when he saw the four hunters. "I'm not here to fight anyone," he said. "My name is Alex Matheson and Rutherford turned me, trying to force me to kill the hunters, but I didn't. I hid every time they were battling it out. I know it sounds cowardly, but I didn't want to kill anyone. I didn't want to be turned. Many of the others did. They were offered power and the abilities that would make them feared and somebody that people obeyed. But they didn't realize how much they'd be owned and operated by Rutherford like they were his puppets. Still, we were turned by him and we can't fight his orders.

  "Until now. He's too weak. If I knew where he was, I'd tell you."

  "Why are you here?" Boniface asked, his hunter wariness at an all-time high.

  "I wanted to warn you that Crichton, one of the ancients in on this, has started turning vampires. He wanted me to go to the hunters' homes to search them to see if any of you were there."

  "By yourself?" Pasha asked.

  "Yeah. Since we were all turned, I’ve made friends with the others. We ended up here as part of Rutherford and the other ancients' big plan to destroy the hunters. I knew we'd be massacred. The ancients don't care. They just figure they'll make more of us as if were some kind of clone army for them to have at their disposal."

  "So you came here to...?" Zachary asked.

  "I don't want to fight you or the vampires. I can't fight the ancients. I definitely can't fight Rutherford since he made me. But I wanted to see if you knew a way out for us. For all of us who were turned against our will and don’t want to fight for the vampires. I know that vampires live peaceably with everyone else in other communities. I want to learn to live with what I am now, since there’s nothing much else I can do about it. But I don't want to die for something I had no control over," Alex said.

  "You say you didn't kill anyone," Pasha said. "Can you prove it?"

  "I can tell you the closet I hid in when the killing went on. I wanted to help the hunter family because they were the underdogs."

  Pasha raised her brow at him.

  "I mean, they were living peaceably there and didn't know what hit them. I couldn't even join the army because I didn't want to ever fight anyone. I just can't."

  "It's in your blood now," Zachary said.

  "Only as far as Rutherford controlling me, but I've been getting by without him knowing any better," Alex said.

  "Believe me, he'd know," Zachary said. "You won't have blood staining your teeth, blood on your clothes from sword fighting, if you were fighting that way."

  "I did have blood on me. I smeared some of a vampire's blood on me, figured it was less sacrilegious since the vampires were the ones at fault for killing the hunters. Crichton keeps trying to get hold of me, to learn what I've discovered with respect to the hunters in the homes, but I just 'vanished' and wouldn't respond."

  "So why are you here after a wave of your brethren attacked us?"

  "That wasn't my doing. I didn't want them to go with me. I told you so. I guess either Rutherford told them to, or Crichton did."

  "Is Rutherford dead?"

  "Half dead. I thought I was a coward, but he won't even call on any of us to come to his aid."

  "Because?" Pasha asked.

  "He thinks we'll be followed, and Crichton will kill him."

  "Okay, so why come to us? We can't trust you. You could be here with this story and it's just that. A story. It could be you're just counting hunter heads," Zachary said.

  Boniface and Victor agreed.

  "I could be. But I can tell you that we had seventy-six newly turned vampires and we're down to around forty." Alex glanced around the room. "Minus five more."

  "Six," Pasha said. "There's a big one in the bedroom."

  "Okay, so we suspected you've got more than just one or two hunters killing us. I want both Crichton and Rutherford dead. The word is out Crichton is turning people so he can take out both us and Rutherford and then he'll be in charge. So why should we fight for the vampires and kill hunters? When vampires are out to get us too?"

  “What was the motivation for them coming here in the first place?” Zachary asked. “Just by chance? Or for some deeper reason?”

  “A couple of the older hunters here killed Rutherford’s brother, Loren. He’d gotten angry in a pub because a hunter saw Loren trying to get out of paying the bill by using his vampiric persuasion and he called Loren on it. Another ancient was there and attacked the hunter—”

  “My Uncle Patton,” Pasha said.

  “Uh
, he didn’t know the name, but two older hunters were there too—”

  “My Grandma and Grandpa, and the three of them killed the two vampires. Loren had attacked my Uncle Patton too. The vampires didn’t think the older hunters could fight. They were mistaken.”

  “Right. So when Rutherford heard of it, he wanted revenge. Not that he was close to his brother and he didn’t know his friend. But Crichton did. He was a friend of Hopkins. So Crichton was agreeable to come here and get rid of the hunters also.”

  "Not just the ones who terminated the two vampires. And they did kill four humans who got in their way. Where is Crichton?" Pasha asked.

  "He's in a condo. Some of the other vampires saw him coming out of it. And I spoke to him right in the same area. It's just a walk down to the pub where he grabbed those men and turned them. He had to have done it at his condo. I'm sure if anyone saw the security videos, they'd see just where he went," Alex said.

  "What about the vampires he's controlled?" Pasha asked.

  "They'll be free to make their own choices and if we take him down now before they kill anyone and forever have that on their conscience, and have earned a death warrant, he won't be able to turn any more people. The other ancients aren't doing that."

  "You'll take us to his condo," Zachary said.

  "Sure. I will. Because I want this. He's sending men to kill me, so I don't feel anything but the need to make sure he doesn't, and he doesn't do that to anyone else. If we can kill him—"

  "We?" Pasha asked. "I thought you didn't want to kill anyone."

  "It's just a matter of speech. If you can kill him, then those men might be able to have a life. The ancients won't bother them. Not with all the notoriety this case has gotten. Not only that, but you might have heard the police are hiring hunter assassins to take out Crichton. Next, they'll go after the rest of us. And I didn't do anything. I don't want to pay for a crime with my life that I didn't commit."