Chapter 16

Early the next morning, Dane and Jacqueline woke to Princess purring and pawing at him. He chuckled. “I take it she wants to eat.”

“Yeah, sorry. I’ll get her food for her.” Princess would do the same thing to Jacqueline when she didn’t get up early enough for her liking. She hadn’t thought she would bug Dane since he didn’t usually feed Princess. She hoped Dane didn’t mind that Princess was plaguing him to get her food instead of Jacqueline. From the very beginning, Princess had bonded so much with Dane.

Dane leaned over and kissed Jacqueline. “No, I’ll get it. That way she likes me better.”

She laughed. “As if she doesn’t already. Go for it.” But she wouldn’t let Dane go until she gave him another deep, toe-tingling kiss.

Princess was insistent that she got fed, but Dane was totally locked into the kiss with Jacqueline, and it took him a few minutes to finally let go. “Damn, Princess, I hope you know how much of an inconvenience this is to your momma and me.”

“Nope,” Jacqueline said, stretching in bed. “She’s all about wanting you to herself, as a means to an end.”

“Food.”

“Yes.”

“After I feed her, I’ll make us breakfast.”

“Add bloody Mary cocktails to the meal.” She was so tired. She felt she didn’t have any energy at all. Sure, she’d been up all hours of the night and several hours during the day fighting vampires or dancing with a hot and sexy one, but she wondered if it was due to not taking in enough blood over too long a period. It was something she had to remember to do. She would feel fine, and then suddenly, not. It was just hard getting used to that part of the business of being a vampire.

* * *

“Gotcha.”Dane had been feeling like he needed some blood, and he was glad he could share that need with Jacqueline. He couldn’t imagine being with a huntress who wasn’t a vampire like him. And with them both being more newly turned, they had the same needs. He reached into his bag and pulled out a pair of boxers, then put them on, all the while Princess was rubbing her furry body against Dane’s legs.

“She’s persistent.”

Dane agreed. “See you in a bit.”

“Wait. Take Princess with you if you’re going to teleport or she’ll bother me mercilessly, believing you abandoned her and now I have to feed her.”

Dane laughed and finished dressing. He lifted Princess off the floor and held her close to his chest. “Okay, your royal highness. Ready for a trip out of this world?” Then he teleported.

In the kitchen, Dane put food out for Princess, and then she was happily chowing down. Dane made ham and cheese omelets, toast, and bloody cocktails. When Jacqueline didn’t join him by the time he had finished making breakfast, he took the tray up to the bedroom using his vampiric transportation.

When he reached the room, he believed she looked pale, and he realized she really did need her cocktail. She must not have had much blood during the last couple of days, if any. “Hey, are you okay?”

“Yeah, just feeling really tired.” She perked up when she saw the Bloody Mary.

He helped her sit up and then gave her the drink, but steadied her hands until she was able to take a couple of good sips from her glass. “You must not have been drinking enough.”

“I forget about it,” she said.

He drank from some of his too then. “I was too, until my brothers found me passed out on the floor of my living room when they couldn’t get hold of me. When I have a craving for blood, I often ignore it. I want to have control over my life like I was used to.” He sat next to her on the bed and stroked her pretty red hair.

“Oh, yeah, don’t I know it. I just can’t stand feeling that it controls me.”

“But it doesn’t. Not all the way.”

She finished her cocktail. “Thanks so much. I feel so much better already.”

“Yeah, me too.”

“So what happened when your brothers found you passed out in your home?”

He chuckled. “Well, of course they were truly upset. They thought I had died! So they made me drink some blood and I was doing great, but they also made me set up regular feedings on a phone app so that I wouldn’t miss them. Of course, sometimes I’m in the middle of a fight or—” He winked at her.

“Dancing with a huntress and making love to her?”

He smiled. “Exactly. So that means drinking earlier before we’re off to do some new adventure, or right after. It’s hard to think of it when?—”

She leaned over and kissed his lips. “When we’re in the moment.”

“Absolutely. So we’ll have to make sure that we don’t neglect that.”

“If we had been at a vampires’ club, we could have ordered bloody cocktails,” she said. “But of course not at a hunters’ club.”

“Yeah, so before we go to the hunters’ club, we’ll have to have a refreshment. Otherwise, my brothers—should they find us both passed out—will give us both hell.”

She laughed. “At least they care about us. My family would never even know that I was blacked out at my home.”

“Yeah, that’s scary. You know we should probably mention that in the therapy group, especially for those who don’t have any family or friends’ support.” He began eating some of his omelets.

She was eating some of hers and smiled. “You are a great cook.”

“Thanks. My mother always said it was important for all her sons to cook well so they could prepare meals for their huntress mates also. Dad loved to cook too. His mother hadn’t insisted on him learning to do so, but our mother did.”

She smiled. “Even breakfasts in bed?”

“Absolutely. After having four sons, she needed a break, and he was proud of her for being a great huntress too. They fought together on hunts and trained all of us. Some hunters and huntresses have private instructors, but my parents wanted to teach us. Plus, my brothers and I had each other to practice fighting.”

“My brother felt I wasn’t enough of a challenge when practice fighting. He wanted to fight with all his male friends. So I understand that. On the other hand, I needed to fight males too so that I could fight male vampires. Though females can be just as powerful and difficult to fight. That’s why I like practice fighting with males in addition to females.”

“Well, you’ve got four of us males to do workouts with.”

She ate some of her strawberry-coated toast. “I will take all of you up on it.”

“I might have to fight them just so I get in enough time to playfight with you,” Dane said.

She laughed.

Then Princess jumped up on the bed and Dane grabbed the tray of their empty dishes and left the bed. “I forgot about her.”

“I know. She’s not used to me eating in bed. She’ll think this is a regular routine.”

“It could be.”

She smiled. “We’ll have to shut her out of the bedroom then when we do it, or she’ll think that she can join us for a second breakfast.”

Dane smiled. “Yeah, I agree with that. I’ll take our dishes downstairs.”

“I’ll join you in a moment.”

Holding onto the tray, he vanished. He really liked that part where he could move like this with a tray of food and not spill anything. He didn’t think he could have managed the stairs otherwise. Not with two full glasses of bloody cocktails when he carried them to the bedroom in the first place.

He ended up in the kitchen and was cleaning up the dishes when she suddenly wrapped her arms around his waist and kissed his back, his neck, and he loved it. He dropped the pan and scrubber in the sink. And turned around in her arms, leaned down, and kissed her mouth, his hands cupping her face. “You are not conducive to cleaning up the kitchen.”

“Hmm, neither are you,” she said, kissing him again. But then she pulled away and started putting the dishes in the dishwasher. “It feels so strange to be doing such normal things as vampires, when we did all these same things as hunters.”

“Yeah. Some vampires have staffs to do the minimal tasks. I haven’t felt any need to hire anyone to do housework or anything else.”

“Me either. But then I’m not interested in having blood bonds.”

“I don’t want blood bonds either. Picking up blood at blood banks works for me.” He finished scrubbing the pan he’d cooked the omelets in. “What do you want to do today?”

“We could check for some postings for rogue vampires. Then we can sign up for one of them and do some research to find where he or she is located. But I was thinking for tonight we could take a moonlit walk in the park?”

“I should have suggested it first.”

“No way. We can both plan intimate outings,” she said.

They finished cleaning up the kitchen and for the first time ever, he and she got on her computer to search for rogue vampires the police had posted for elimination. They found listings for all of Texas and the nearby states, though they could search for anywhere in the event they wanted to travel that far or had trips planned and wanted to eliminate a rogue while on a vacation.

Before they could pick a viable rogue, she said, “On second thought, let’s go to your pool and swim.”

Now he hadn’t expected that. He was glad she wanted to just spend some more time with him and not just go on another hunt. He enjoyed the time he was spending with her.

“Yeah, that sounds great to me.”

“Good. I’ll change into a bathing suit and be right down.”

“What about Princess?”

“She can stay at home. We can return home for lunch and feed her.”

“All right.”

Then she vanished and he found a furry mouse toy and pulled it along the floor. Princess immediately started to chase it. Princess was too fast and caught it with her claws extended. “You are quite the hunter,” Dane said.

“She is,” Jacqueline said, appearing near him wearing a teal bikini, and carrying a beach bag that probably had her change of clothes in it.

“Man, you look great. I’m so glad Van is history with you.”

She smiled. “Yeah, he’s the past.” Then she pulled Dane into her arms, and they were suddenly in his living room.

“I’ll be right back,” he said, needing to change into his swim trunks.

“I’ll be in the pool.”

“Meet you there.”

He was in his bedroom, tearing off his clothes as fast as he could, and then he threw on his swim trunks and appeared in the swimming pool room. She was in the middle of the pool swimming a lap. He dove into the pool and swam to her as fast as he could. She was smiling at him and that encouraged him to enfold her in his arms.

“You are the light of my life when I thought I was living in darkness once I had been turned,” she said, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him.

He loved this with her. His ex-fiancée didn’t care for swimming in the pool. She didn’t like getting her hair messed up. With Jacqueline, she was like a water sprite, diving under the water, coming up, swinging her hair like a wet whip, and smiling. He loved the water too so this was a fun way to enjoy the day with her when they weren’t working.

He chased her in the pool and just when he was about to grab her, she vanished. Holy shit! That was cheating!

Then she was behind him and grabbing his hips. He twisted around and wrapped his arms around her. “You tricked me.”

She laughed and kissed him. “We’re different people now that we are vampires. We can do numerous things. We can experiment and have fun doing it.”

“Yes, I love being with you. I love that you are always challenging me with your vampire moves, surprising me, but in a fun way. I love it. You’re always a step ahead of me when you’re using your vampire abilities.”

“I’m glad you’re not annoyed with me.”

“With you in my arms like this, no way.” Even now the intensity between them was through the roof blazing hot.

They kissed each other, but then the rain began pouring down heavily on the top of the roof of the pool room and she said, “Ohmigod, I didn’t know it was supposed to rain. I wonder how long that’s going to last.”

“Knowing Texas, it could be over any second. Or last for days.” He smiled at her.

“Then we’ll have to do something else if it’s raining tonight when we planned to walk in the park.”

“I’m sure we’ll come up with something.” Then he began kissing her again because this was what he really wanted to think about for now.

But then they heard a noise in the house. That was the thing with their hunter and vampiric hearing. It really was greatly enhanced. They didn’t say anything to each other for a moment.

Then they remembered they could talk to each other telepathically. “Did you hear someone in the house?” he asked.

“I…I thought I heard voices.”

“I’m going to check it out,” he said.

“I’m going with you.”

They got out of the pool, and he grabbed towels for the both of them. As soon as she was standing on the pool patio, he wrapped her in a towel. She quickly dried herself off as they heard drawers opening in the upstairs bedroom.

“Break-in,”she said.

“Yeah. I have a couple of swords behind the pool bar. I have them everywhere in the house.”

“In case a vampire or his or her minions break in,” she said.

“Right.” He vanished and reappeared behind the bar.

She joined him. “Me too.”

“Let’s go.” He handed her a sword. “If they’re armed with guns, vanish. Nothing I have in the house is worth getting shot over.” If she had been human, he wouldn’t have wanted her with him, but she was a skilled huntress, so he knew she would do great.

Then he took her hand, because he wanted her with him even so and not off on her own. “My bedroom.”

“Yes.”

Then they transported there and found two young men dressed in jeans, sneakers, one in a gray hoodie, the other one’s was black. But they could hear a couple more people in the guest room, looking through the drawers. “Hell, nothing in here,” one of the guys in the other room said.

Dane wanted to tear into them like a vampire, scare them to pieces and change their mind about doing crime. Permanently.