Chapter 13

After Jacqueline arrived at home and greeted Princess, she got a call from Lettie, her former best friend who had taken up with her ex-fiancé. “Hello?” She was really surprised to hear from her. What did she want? Jacqueline still felt resentful toward her, but she thought if they could talk it out, maybe she would understand why Lettie had done it.

“I…I didn’t expect you to be at the house that was once owned by Piaras,” Lettie said.

“Would you have gone there if you had known I would be there hunting rogue vampires?”

“Uh, well, yeah, because we were after Paine. Well, maybe not, if we had known you would be there. You all would have probably gotten to him first, even though Van wanted the bounty.”

So all they cared about was the money.

“My friends made it their mission to go after the vampire who had made me.” Jacqueline wanted to know how Lettie felt after she’d been her friend since they were little girls and then just dumped her like that.

Lettie didn’t say anything for a minute. “Uhm, okay.”

“You knew about it, right? That Heskel had turned me?” Jaqueline figured the news would have been all over the hunter community. Especially those closer to her—like Van and Lettie—would have known.

“Uh, yeah.”

Jaqueline had figured that or otherwise Lettie wouldn’t have started dating Van.

“We didn’t know he was in the house though. We were after Paine.”

Jacqueline would have felt better if she had known that Van and Lettie had gone there to at least take Heskel down. “Sorry”—not really—“but Paine was on my list and I killed him.” Jacqueline smiled a little, glad—if nothing else—that she’d taken the bounty money from Van and Lettie.

“Uhm, I…I guess you’re upset with me for hunting with him, with Van, I mean.”

Hunting? Yeah, since Van didn’t like hunting with Jacqueline. Now he was hunting with Lettie? But she was more annoyed with that than that Lettie was dating Van after she had been such a good friend of Jacqueline’s and did it behind her back. She could have at least asked Jacqueline if it was all right with her. Jacqueline would have appreciated the heads-up. But instead, she had done it as if she didn’t want to be Jacqueline’s friend anymore. Since Lettie hadn’t called her once to see how she felt after being turned, that had confirmed it for her. She had felt so isolated from family and friends as soon as it had happened when she had needed them more than ever.

“Did Van give you a reason why he didn’t want to go after Heskel? I mean, my new friends tracked down all his blood bonds and his vampire friends to learn where he was staying and to terminate him. That’s proof that they’re loyal friends even though I had never even met them before.” Though she recalled that she’d seen Dane with a woman at one of the hunter clubs, but she hadn’t paid much attention to either of them because she’d been engaged to Van at the time.

“I’m sorry.”

“Answer the question. Why didn’t Van want to go after Heskel?”

“I don’t know. We didn’t ever discuss it.”

“And you? Why didn’t you want to go after Heskel? He’d turned me. He was a rogue. There was a bounty on him.”

Lettie cleared her throat. “I was dating Van by then and I wanted to go with him on hunts.”

“That was damn fast.” That’s another reason Jacqueline had been so irritated about it because they hadn’t let any time pass. It was like she had been turned, Van ended the engagement, and he was dating Lettie.

Lettie didn’t respond.

“Have you gone on many hunts with Van?” Jacqueline didn’t know why but she was even more pissed off about that than that he was dating her traitorous bestie.

“This was the first time. He brought his brothers also because he thought that Paine would have more rogue vampire friends there.”

Jacqueline hoped that Van wouldn’t like hunting with Lettie either and wouldn’t take her on his hunts. See how Lettie felt about that. “He didn’t know Heskel was there or that he owned the house?” She wanted to know the truth.

“No. Van had followed Paine to the house and that’s why the four of us went there.”

“So why are you calling?” What was the bottom line? Did Lettie want to clear her own conscience? Get Jacqueline to tell her she forgave her? Want to tell her she wanted to be her friend again?

“Van was angry that you were at the estate taking down vampires. I was kind of taken aback.”

Jacqueline wasn’t surprised. “Believe me, if you were turned, you would suffer the same fate, if I could call it suffering. Though I’m not glad that it happened, I realized once it had, Van hadn’t been the one for me. So I was relieved to be rid of him.” Jacqueline felt the same way about Lettie. That there was no sense in being friends with anyone who wouldn’t accept what she had become. At first, she thought she wouldn’t find anyone who would be there for her until Dane and his brothers showed up in her life. She couldn’t have been more grateful for their friendship.

“Yeah, well, I’m sure of that. You really don’t mind that I’m dating Van?”

“I don’t give a damn if you’re dating him.” Well, Jacqueline said it, but she hadn’t exactly meant to say it in that way. Yeah, she was still mad at her friend for dating him and not caring how she had been faring.

“My mother said you were at the restaurant where she was having lunch with your mother and their other friends.”

“Like Van’s mother? Yep.”

“Why?”

“We were celebrating. Why not?”

“You just happened to go to the same restaurant where you knew they were going to be.”

“What of it? If I hadn’t been turned, would it have been an issue for me to go to the restaurant at the same time?”

“It…they thought it was like you were trying to make them feel uncomfortable.”

Jacqueline scoffed. “Why should they feel uncomfortable? We were just eating and if they were bothered by something, it is their problem.”

“All right, well, I just don’t want things to get out of hand.”

“Why would they? You know, Lettie, I’m going to go where I want, when I want, just like I have always done. I’m not going to worry about whether you or any of my ‘old’ acquaintances are going to be at some of my old haunts. And I’m not going to stop going to them to appease you or anyone else like you.”

“You don’t mean you’re going to go to the Starlight Club for hunters,” Lettie said, as if she had to tell Jacqueline that’s who the club was for when she had been going there since she was old enough to legally drink.

Well, even before that if she was with a guy who got carded and not her. “Are you saying that I’m no longer a huntress? Really? Then how am I able to get bounties for taking down rogue vampires?”

“Vampires can take down rogues,” Lettie said.

Jacqueline sighed. “All right, that’s true. But vampires can’t take down hunters, and believe me, if one is a rogue, I can take him or her down legally.” Which suspected wasn’t true, but Lettie wouldn’t probably know that.

Lettie didn’t say anything in response to that.

“Okay, good talk.” Then Jacqueline hung up on her.

She suspected the real reason Lettie had called her was she was feeling guilty about having been her best friend and had started dating Van right away. But also that Lettie wanted to know why Jacqueline had gone to the same restaurant that their mothers had gone to at the same time. She figured she wanted to know if Jacqueline was going to continue showing up where Lettie and their acquaintances, family, and friends would frequent, and that was a big yes. If it made the hunters uncomfortable, so be it.

Though maybe she was pushing things a little bit too far, too soon after being turned. Yet, she wanted to get on with her life, and get back to something that felt more normal.

She saw Princess sitting in the window looking out front. Waiting for Dane to return?

Usually, once Jacqueline had taken care of the rogues on her list, she would go online and sign up for more. But…she needed some time off, she thought. Some time to learn how to cope with her new abilities.

She began to vacuum, and Princess made a hasty retreat to her bedroom. Other things might have changed in her life, but that was one thing that hadn’t. She tucked some of her hair behind her ear and said to Dane telepathically, “Do you think maybe I’m pushing things to go to the hunters’ club tonight, possibly too soon after us being turned. Or at least with me being turned?”

“Jacqueline?”

“Yeah, did I startle you?”

“Hell, yeah. I’m not used to having you speak in my head.”

She chuckled. “Sorry about that. We need to get used to talking this way. It’s a great way to talk to each other hands free, even when we’re doing something noisy like vacuuming.”

“Oh, I am too.”

She laughed. “Wow, like minds.”

“So why are you having second thoughts about going to the club tonight?”

“Lettie called.”

“Hell. What did she want?”

“To know if I was upset with her because she is dating Van, and she didn’t like that I was at the restaurant where my mother, hers and Van’s, and others were having lunch. Anyway, the final upshot was I told her that I’ll go where I please anywhere that I’ve been before.”

“Which is the way you should feel. No one should have the ability to dictate where you go or don’t go.”

“So you don’t think it’s too early to go to the hunters’ club? Or maybe we could go to one further away?”

“No. At least I feel we’re going in the right direction—if you want to call it that—in our recovery. Or at least trying to normalize the changes in our lives.”

“Okay, that’s what I was thinking, until I got the call from her. And then I thought maybe I wasn’t looking at this clearly.”

“Everyone’s coming tonight. We won’t be alone,” Dane said.

“Everyone would probably be disappointed that we didn’t go, don’t you think?”

“I’m sure they would understand if we didn’t go,”Dane said.

“Yeah, I agree. I think Lettie just made me feel unsure of myself.”

“Don’t let her, or anyone else like her, make you feel that way.”

“Okay, I’ll see you at five then.”

“See you then.”

She finished vacuuming, then put away the vacuum. She loved teleporting from place to place, but it sure confused Princess. She would see Jacqueline disappear in front of her and then she went looking all over the house for her. Jacqueline appeared in the bedroom where Princess had been sleeping on the bed, startling her. She meowed at her as if telling her not to do that to her, and then she came over and rubbed against Jacqueline’s legs to show her all was forgiven.

She petted Princess’s head and then began looking through her fancier club outfits. Because of her red hair, she preferred wearing black, emerald green to teal, any shade of blue, red, royal purple, and crisp white—like the wedding gown she had chosen to be married in.

But which of her dressy dresses were the best to wear to show off in tonight? Long? Short? Something in between? Lacy? Sequined? Velvety? Or satiny?

She decided to go with the long teal gown that had a lacey bodice, fitted waist and gown, showing off her curves, and a long slit up the side that would make it easy to dance.