Vampire Redemption (Heart of the Huntress Book 5)

by Terry Spear

  Which made Zachary think of the Van Helsing hunters.

  “But then I had such an urge to train, like it was in my blood that I had to do it. I had my mother’s weapons and used them to train with. After my parents’ deaths, you know what the worst of it was? The hunter community didn’t even avenge my mother’s death. She’d been one of them! Her parents had died before she met and married my dad, but at least her two brothers could have avenged her death. Their inaction really pissed me off. Not to mention the vampires got away with it, as if the hunters felt the vampires were justified in killing my parents!”

  “Your uncles.”

  “Yes. Though I won’t acknowledge them. My uncles, and the hunter community that banned her, are dead to me.” Alex glanced at his arm.

  Zachary shook his head. “Hunter families are close, but man, when you break their rules, you’re out on your own. I know it well. I just managed to keep from being kicked out of the family myself. I used to visit Michael when he had been kicked out of the family for butting heads with our father one time too many. That helped me to express my frustration and Michael kept me from doing anything too stupid. My duty was to watch over Rachael at the end, but Adonis was really keeping me from doing that too.”

  Alex smiled. “Adonis adores her. That much is evident.”

  “He does.”

  “Do you ever worry about the baby she’ll have?” Alex asked.

  “I think all of us do, to an extent. Probably Rachael, most of all. But she loves Adonis and she’s excited about the baby, just like any huntress mother would be. I think once this is all taken care of here, they’ll settle down, and be like any other hunter couple who are raising a family.”

  “I think that’s the worst thing for me about being turned. I’d just broken up with a woman and now I’m damn glad I had. But dating now is out for me.”

  “Maybe not. There are women who love the vampires. Even when they’re huntresses. Don’t sell yourself short. You just never know when the woman you can’t live without unexpectedly turns up in your life.”

  “Like Pasha did for you?”

  “Yeah. I knew if I wanted to find a huntress mate, I’d have to search some other location. Like Adonis had done with Rachael, though he’d been turned, the others thought he was an out-of-town hunter, which he was, looking for a mate. The local hunters don’t like it when an out-of-town hunter shows up to steal their females though.” Zachary shrugged. “If it’s to be, it will be. There’s nothing they can do about it.”

  Alex nodded. “Because there’s a shortage of females. Which is why my mother was so ostracized. The other eligible hunter males were furious that she wasn’t available any longer. Are you glad now that you were turned since you have the additional powers to defeat the vampires, but you still got the girl?”

  “No. I wouldn’t say that’s the right word. Glad. I’m just relieved that Pasha loves me. And I’m glad I don’t have the sunlight restriction that full vampires experience. But like you mentioned about being a human, part hunter for all those years, I feel the same way as a hunter. Being a newly turned vampire takes some getting used to.”

  “You’re not just a hunter, but something more now.” Alex took a deep breath. “That’s how I have to look at it. Not just a human/hunter, but a man with even more abilities.”

  “That’s a good way to look at it since we are what we are and there’s no going back.” Zachary really liked Alex, and again hoped he was truly on their side and not working for Rutherford, gaining their trust, and telling him all about them. Zachary could see Rutherford striking at them to try and win back what he’d lost since the arrival of all the hunters.

  Alex looked at his arm again, but it was just as before. Maybe a tiny bit pink. He’d have a tan in the form of an irregular circle if he stayed out in the sun much longer. “I feel stronger in mind and body. I feel like I can set the world straight, and help fight against the rogue vampires, unlike how I used to feel. Meek and vulnerable. But I need more training.”

  “We can all help you with that.” Zachary was even thinking that if everything was resolved here, he could help Alex eliminate the vampires who killed his parents. He glanced at the time. He wished he could telepathically communicate with Pasha already. He called her on his cell phone. “Let’s swap places. Alex is doing great. But I’m sure you need a break.”

  “I think we might just have some business to attend to. There are five men headed to the front door of my parents’ house.”

  “In broad daylight?”

  “Yeah.”

  Zachary didn’t say anything else but appeared next to his mate. He loved being able to think of her in that way now.

  He didn’t expect Alex to leave his sun-tanning post, but he appeared right next to Zachary. “Who are they?” Alex asked.

  Zachary shook his head. “The Van Helsing hunters. They’d better not be thinking of killing the Crichton vampires. Come on, Pasha. Alex, you stay—”

  “No way.” Alex pulled off the tape and wash cloths, but he was still wearing his work gloves and the long sleeves.

  Pasha found a hat for him in the closet. “If you get immediate sunstroke, don’t blame us because we warned you.”

  Alex only smiled at her. “You’re the one who said—”

  “To do this slowly.”

  Then the three of them headed out of the house, and the men across the street all turned to see who was coming. Zachary couldn’t tell by their expressions what they were thinking. Surprised? Or did they realize they’d be faced with hunters if they came to Pasha’s family’s house?

  “Hey,” the one man said. “We wanted to meet the Crichton vampires for ourselves.”

  “At this hour? When they’re asleep?” Zachary asked, closing in on the human hunters.

  “We wanted to see them so we wouldn’t mistake them for any other,” the man insisted.

  “Again, I ask, at this hour?” Zachary eyed them with suspicion.

  “We felt it would be, uh, safer for us if they were sleepier, not ready to fight us, if that was their intent.”

  “We told you to leave them alone,” Zachary said.

  “We want to see them so we can be sure not to harm them,” the man said again.

  “All right.” Zachary telepathically told Daemon, “The Van Helsing hunters are here to see who the Crichton vampires are so they won’t kill them by mistake. Sorry for disturbing your sleep.”

  “Come in. If they want a fight, they’re dead.”

  Zachary opened the front door. “Come in.”

  Pasha and Alex followed them in while Zachary led them to the living room where Gregory and his hunters were playing poker. They all looked up to see what was going on and Zachary wished he’d texted him to alert him to the situation also.

  “Gregory and his hunters,” Zachary briefly said. “They’re here to protect the Crichton vampires. These are some of the Van Helsing hunters.”

  Gregory bowed his head slightly to them in greeting. Most hunters didn’t care much for the human hunters, but if they could help, Zachary was willing to give them a chance to prove it.

  Daemon appeared suddenly in the room.

  The Van Helsing hunters instinctively reached for their swords.

  “Prince Daemon of the Portland, Oregon vampires,” Zachary announced, ready to pounce on the first man who took a step toward Daemon, though he knew the vampire would be able to show the hunters what a mistake it was to threaten him.

  Ephraim sauntered in, looking none too pleased to be awakened in the middle of the day.

  “Lord Ephraim, our Highland lord from Maryland. Both of these men are ancient vampires, but the good guys.” At first, Zachary hadn’t thought having the Van Helsing hunters meet the vampires was a good idea, but when he saw the astonished looks on the hunters’ faces, he suspected this was a good educational lesson. Adonis had meant what he had said. The newly turned vampires were under their protection, both hunters’ and law-abiding vampires’.

>   “Do you still want to see the sleeping vampires?” Daemon asked, though the question came out more like—are you sure that you want to see the sleeping vampires?

  “Uh, to make sure we don’t draw our swords on the wrong vampires,” the one human hunter said.

  “Hunters say the ancients are cross when they’re awakened at an ungodly hour. Newly turned vampires can be just as disagreeable,” Ephraim said.

  “Yeah, we do still want to see them,” the human hunter said, as if this were a test and if he didn’t show some metal, the mighty ancient vampires with royal titles would think less of them. Which could be true.

  Zachary called out to the Crichton vampires. “We have Van Helsing hunters here who are wanting to see you so they don’t mistake you for the enemy later. Do you mind coming out and showing yourselves? Then I promise, you can go back to sleep.”

  One by one, the seven vampires came down the hall and into the living room, looking tired and annoyed. None of them bared their teeth at the human hunters, thankfully. But Zachary wouldn’t blame them if they did. They were new at this, and they had to learn to control that side of their new nature.

  Three folded their arms across their chest. The other four glanced around the room to see who all was there.

  “Did you get enough of a look? Let’s let everyone get back to bed that needs the sleep,” Zachary said.

  “Yes, thanks. We’ll be sure to know you, but we also wanted you to know us,” the one man said, surprising Zachary.

  So they were afraid the vampires might mistake them for the enemy also?

  Now Zachary understood the situation a little better.

  The vampires seemed to appreciate the human hunters’ concerns, and they all said goodnight in a conciliatory way, then one by one, they plodded down the hall, but Ephraim and Daemon vanished with a flourish.

  “We…” one of the Van Helsing hunters looked at the others, and they all motioned for the spokesman to get on with what he had to say. “We heard some men talking about Rutherford. They had to have been hosts. We figured it couldn’t be anyone but the Rutherford we’re all after.”

  “Yeah, so where is he?” Alex asked, sounding eager to find him and eliminate him. Though Alex couldn’t personally eliminate his maker.

  “He’s staying at a house in Ferry Pass, north of the Pensacola City limits,” the man said.

  Zachary wanted to take a bunch of hunters with him, not human hunters, but since they had the intel, he couldn’t very well exclude them. “All right, we’ll gather some more hunters, and go as a unit.” He knew when they exchanged looks with one another, they weren’t pleased they’d call up hunters to go with them as if they couldn’t do the job. Why then had they told Zachary where Rutherford was supposed to be?

  Because, if this was really Rutherford, he had set a trap for them? Drawn his loyal vampires to him and they would have a big fight on their hands? Maybe they intended to turn the men?

  Alex looked like he wanted to go, but Zachary shook his head at him. “We need a couple of Gregory’s men to housesit across the street while Victor and his brother are sleeping. You can stay there or here, your choice.” He didn’t want him involved in this, just in case they did meet up with Rutherford and the bastard could control Alex.

  “All right,” Alex reluctantly said. “I’ll stay here since someone needs to protect the Crichton vampires.”

  “Don’t you need to sleep?” Gregory asked.

  “No, I’m good.”

  “We’ll leave one of Gregory’s men here,” Zachary said, as if he was in charge of the whole operation.

  Gregory nodded, and Zachary was certain as long as Gregory got to fight, he was fine with it. Hell, they might all get to fight. Who knew if this was a ruse? And when they pulled their hunters from other areas, the vampires would go after the ones who weren’t as protected?

  Three cars of hunters were going to meet them at the house, coming from different directions now, way before the sun set.

  Pasha rode with Zachary, Gregory with Adonis, and Michael with the grandfather, who insisted on going, and Danai. The Van Helsing hunters split up and three rode in each of the vehicles. If Rutherford was truly there, the family wanted to take him down.

  Chapter 24

  “I was thinking that we could help Alex take out the vampires who murdered his parents when all this is over with here,” Zachary told Pasha on the drive over to the place where Rutherford was supposed to be staying.

  “The local hunters didn’t take care of it?” Pasha was shocked.

  “No.”

  “That’s really awful. It’s like saying that the rogue vampires were justified in murdering a human and his huntress mate. It would serve the hunters right if they had lots more trouble from the rogue vampires.”

  Zachary turned onto another road. “I was thinking the same thing.”

  “Of course I’m all for helping him out with this, though we don’t go on revenge hunts. But we do take down rogues who have murdered innocents.” Pasha got on her cell phone to look up Alex’s parents’ story. “When did it happen?”

  “Thirty-one years old, and it happened when he was seven.”

  “So twenty-four years ago, last name Matheson. Here, at Halloween.”

  “Figures,” Zachary said.

  “All right, so the verdict was that vampires did kill them, but no one ever figured out who the vampires were.”

  “Bullshit,” Zachary said. “If they have a viable hunter force there, they’d know. And they’d search the rogues out and destroy them because rogue vampires don’t just murder people on a one-time basis. Alex’s mother wasn’t hunting vampires, was she? And a vampire or group of vampires was out for revenge?”

  “No. It says in the news article that she wasn’t. She was a stay-at-home mom, actually, and her husband was a computer programmer. As long as Alex is being truthful about not feeding Rutherford any information about who we are and our numbers, as far as he knows them, then I’m willing to help him take out the rogues.” Pasha pocketed her phone.

  “He might not be able to fight Rutherford’s control all the way.”

  “Adonis did. Well, to an extent, I guess.”

  “Exactly. And your brother is a full hunter. Alex isn’t.”

  “True.”

  Then Zachary changed the subject on her. “I want to get married and take you on a honeymoon. A vacation. We’ll be due one.”

  Pasha smiled, not believing Zachary would be a romantic at heart. “I’d love that. After everything we’ve been through, yeah. Hawaii. I like warm-weather places. We can go swimming at the beach, take in a tour of the lava fields, island hop, just all kinds of things. We’ll have a blast.”

  “I’ll make all the arrangements when this is all done.”

  They finally reached the house and saw that Adonis and Gregory were already there. They got out of the car and spoke with them.

  “We’re waiting on our grandfather, Danai, and Michael, right?” Pasha asked.

  Adonis suddenly said, “Danai said they got held up by a marathon run and they’re having to find a different route here.”

  “Great.” Pasha eyed the house, wanting to get on with this.

  “I want to go in too and check it out but going in without the rest of our backup would be foolhardy,” Adonis said.

  Zachary kept mum, to his credit.

  Gregory moved to the windows to try and peek in, but they were all covered in curtains.

  “The curtains go, first thing,” Pasha said. “I always like working in the light.”

  Gregory agreed with her.

  Suddenly, the door opened and every hunter there had their swords out.

  Alex stood in the doorway and motioned to the house.

  What the hell? Pasha was furious with him. Not only because he had disobeyed Zachary, but because he could have killed himself in the intense sunlight if he had any issues with it. Not to mention, he could be in league with Rutherford.

  No one sa
id a word to him, but he was looking at Adonis, and Pasha was sure he was giving him a telepathic order. Alex bowed his head slightly and disappeared inside the house.

  “What did he tell you?” Pasha asked, her temper rising.

  “Rutherford and four of his minions are sleeping inside. I told him to open the drapes to the living room. The vampires are in the bedrooms.”

  “Why is he here and not—”

  The drapes opened, spilling sunlight inside. Alex waved out the window for the hunters to come in.

  “He was the only one who could identify Rutherford for sure,” Adonis said.

  Adonis and Gregory went in first, Zachary and Pasha following, and then the Van Helsing hunters came in last.

  Pasha expected to be met with tons of vampires, not just four and one ancient. She didn’t trust Alex now, as much as she’d wanted to, or had.

  Adonis and one of the Van Helsing hunters checked the first door, a bathroom.

  Zachary and Pasha opened the next door on the opposite side of the hall. A bedroom, two vampires sleeping. Where was Rutherford?

  Alex motioned to the end of the hall.

  They had to get Rutherford first. Not the newly turned vamps. Adonis and the human hunter rushed down the hall while Gregory and a couple of the human hunters went with him to check out another bedroom.

  Zachary and Pasha couldn’t leave their post, having to kill these two vampires if they woke while the others checked out the remaining rooms.

  Zachary shook his head at Pasha, which had to mean that Adonis telepathically conveyed to him that Rutherford wasn’t here.

  Angered at the news, Pasha yanked open the bedroom curtains and the vampires had a rude awakening, scrambling to tear into them, and Pasha and Zachary fought them, overwhelming them, and finishing them off. They were newly turned vampires.

  Then Zachary and Pasha rushed out to help the others, but Gregory had let the Van Helsing hunters kill the other two newly turned vampires while Adonis pointed his sword at Alex’s chest.