Chapter 11

When Jacqueline’s ex arrived at Heskel’s house, Dane wanted to slug Van for abandoning Jacqueline after she had been turned when she’d needed him the most. But now Dane realized that since Heskel had been eliminated, Jacqueline no longer had a reason to stay with him at his house. He was disappointed about that. Though getting rid of Heskel had been tantamount.

Once they were done there, Van learned who all they had taken down, and looked mighty pissed for missing out on so many bounties. Jacqueline’s former best girlfriend appeared sheepish, trying to avoid eye contact with Jacqueline all the while. Dane and the others with him left the house.

Stacey shook her head. “Boy, if that had been my fiancé, I would have had some choice words to say to him.”

“He’s not worth it,” Jacqueline said.

“Was Lettie your best friend?” Stacey asked.

“Yeah, she isn’t worth another thought either.”

“She needs to be turned,” Stacey said.

Jacqueline smiled. “Wouldn’t Van be upset? And Lettie too.”

Stacey shook her head. “She wouldn’t be welcome in our meetings either. Not after betraying you and taking up with Van.”

Dane didn’t want Stacey bringing all this up if it was upsetting Jacqueline, but she didn’t seem bothered by it, for which he was thankful. He guessed it was such a relief to get rid of Heskel, nothing else mattered at the moment.

“See you at the club,” Adonis said, and he and his kin left in their van.

“See ya,” Stacey said.

Then Dane and his brothers and Jacqueline got into his truck.

“We’ll grab our bags from your house and head to our homes then,” Matt said.

“Yeah, and we’ll see you all at the club at five,” Trey said.

“Everyone did a great job. We need to go on more hunts like this as a group,” Ryan said, everyone agreeing.

Dane didn’t bring up Jacqueline returning to her house, but when he drove into his driveway, Matt said, “We can help you take all of Princess’s things to your place, Jacqueline.”

“You can just grab your own bags and I’ll help her,” Dane said to his brothers. “It won’t take any time at all.”

“Thanks to everyone for all your help with this,” she said.

“We wouldn’t have left you alone to deal with this on your own,” Dane said.

When they arrived at the house, his brothers helped him pack the cat’s things into her car while she was gathering her clothes upstairs. Dane really figured his brothers would just grab their own bags and leave, but they wanted to help more.

Dane figured he would just ride with her, help her get everything settled, and then use the vampire way to get back home. He had to keep practicing at it.

While Jacqueline was upstairs, Princess had gone up there with her.

“She needs time to be one with what she’s become, just like you need to before you get into a relationship that means forever,” Matt said to Dane.

His brothers didn’t understand that Dane and Jaqueline had a connection that no one else would have unless they’d been turned against their will. And both had lost their future mates over it.

Then again, Dane didn’t need to prove anything to his brothers. They would eventually see that he and Jacqueline were really suited to each other, hopefully for the long term.

“And then there’s Stacey,” Trey said, chuckling.

Smiling, Dane shook his head. The woman might be interested in him, but the feeling wasn’t mutual.

Then Jacqueline appeared next to her car with her bag in hand. He swore he would never get used to her vanishing and reappearing like that.

“We’re dressing formally for the club, right?” she asked.

“You better believe it.” Dane would love to see Jacqueline in a slinky gown, and he really wanted to dance with her.

“We’re dancing all the dances, right?” she asked Dane.

He smiled, but before he could say anything, Matt said, “I would be happy to dance with you when Dane gets tired.”

Dane quickly said, “I won’t get tired.” He wanted to be the only one dancing with her. On the other hand, it wouldn’t hurt for other hunters to see that his brothers, who were purely hunters, would be interested in being with her. Not that he really wanted anyone else to be with her. He realized how possessive he was already feeling about her, but still, for her own feelings of acceptance and fitting in, he wanted her to be able to dance with hunters and prove she wasn’t a blood-thirsty vampiress now. He would do anything to help her feel accepted by hunters again, if that was something she really needed.

Trey smiled finally and said, “I’ll dance with you.”

“So will I,” Ryan said.

She laughed. “Good. I’ll hold each of you to it.”

“Hot damn,” Ryan said.

They agreed to meet them at the club at the appointed time and they gave her and Dane hugs, then left.

Dane said to her, “I’ll go with you and help you unload your car at your place and then return home, via the vampire way to get in some more practice.”

She agreed to the deal. “You know I only want to dance with your brothers at the hunters’ club to prove how nice they are to us when other hunters might not treat us well.”

“Yeah, and I want you to dance with them for that reason too.”

“But no other hunters, right?”

Dane laughed.

“I’ll grab Princess and then we’ll head over to my place.” She vanished and returned with Princess in her arms, then she handed her to Dane.

They climbed into her car and drove over to her place. “I won’t lie about it. After no one came to your aid, I feel the hunters don’t deserve you,” Dane said.

She smiled. “If it hadn’t been for your brothers being so helpful and to prove a point to the other hunters, I wouldn’t be dancing with anyone but you tonight.” Then she glanced at Princess curled up on his lap. “She’s going to miss having you to cuddle with her tonight.”

Dane smiled. “You might be right, but I believe it was only because both of us were there together.”

She scoffed. He laughed.

Then she drove into her garage, and he took Princess into the house while she rolled her bag inside. He carried the cat supplies inside while she put everything where it belonged. Princess was checking the place out as if she hadn’t been there in eons and something might have changed.

After they were finished, Jacqueline pulled Dane into her arms. “Thank you for saving me earlier today.”

“Thank you for not skewering me.”

She sighed. “I really was fighting Heskel’s commands. I think it made him even angrier that he didn’t seem to have the control over me that he thought he would have.”

“Adonis was the same way. He couldn’t kill Piaras, but the rogue vampire had told Adonis that he couldn’t fall in love with Rachael, that she was Piaras’s. Of course, Adonis was in love with Rachael from the moment he laid eyes on her and Piaras had no control over it.”

“Wow. I didn’t know that.”

“Yeah, so I don’t think they can completely control hunters like they can humans. But it elevates them in the rogue vampire community to say they have a hunter at their beck in call. In Piaras’s case, two, Adonis and his sister, plus he was holding their parents and younger sister, Pasha, hostage. Non-rogue vampires, had they have known, would have wanted to have taken Piaras down themselves. They don’t want their reputations sullied by a rogue like that. But the rogues? They really looked up to him,” Dane said.

“I would have helped them if I had known.”

“Adonis couldn’t tell anyone. Not even Rachael’s family. They were all hunters, and they wouldn’t have been happy if they had learned a hunter turned vampire wanted her for his mate. Worse, that he was supposed to turn Rachael over to Piaras who promised to release the rest of his family.”

“But I suspect Piaras wouldn’t have,” Jacqueline said.

“No, you’re right. He would never have released them. He figured Adonis and his family didn’t have any hunter friends here, no one knew anything about them since they were from Florida, so no one would come to their aid. You know how it is. Hunters are territorial just like vampires are. So when they came here looking for a friend who had disappeared and they had gotten involved with Piaras, they hadn’t had the local hunters’ approval.”

“Ahh.”

“Anyway, I’m sure Adonis felt the same way about you when he heard what you were going through. Danai also.”

“She’s dark, and sultry and beautiful,” Jacqueline said.

“Yeah, she seems to have come out of her shell for Michael, though she’s still cautious about meeting people she doesn’t know.”

“I can understand that after all they had gone through. Well, I hope she comes to the dance tonight too. I would love to get to know her. Maybe she would come to the therapy sessions too.”

“Maybe. Well, I’m going to let you get on with your day. I need to check into some things.”

“More vampires on your terminal list?” She wondered why he wouldn’t take her with him. Maybe he wasn’t comfortable fighting with her as a team on all the cases he was going after.

He shook his head. He looked so serious, she wondered what would be more important than that.

“My parents,” she finally said.

“Yeah. I’ll let you know how it goes.”

“Do you want me to go with you?” she asked.

“No. Unless you insist you have to go. But I would prefer talking to them alone.”

“Okay, just don’t make them so mad that they’ll want to terminate you because they believe you’re a rogue.”

“No one else will believe it and they’ll be up on charges of killing an innocent vampire.”

“Just don’t make them too mad.”

“I’ll try not to.” Then he kissed her and said, “Off I go.” And he vanished.

She loved surprising him and rogue vampires by doing that herself, but she realized she didn’t like it when he did it with her. But he needed to so that he could protect himself better. Then Princess was meowing, telling her she hadn’t fed her yet.

“Demanding kitty, aren’t we?”

Princess continued to talk to her until Jacqueline poured some food into her bowl, and she filled up her water dish too. Jacqueline headed into the laundry room to do a load of wash, and prayed Dane didn’t really aggravate her parents too much. Though she had to admit a little bit was fine with her.