Chapter 21

When Dane went to the door, he smiled to see his brothers had arrived. He should have known they would pop in even though he hadn’t called them to come to his aid. “Come in, brothers. I’m having a neighborhood meeting.”

Everyone got up to welcome the brothers. Hell, Dane wondered how poor Jacqueline was doing. He hated that she had to hide from their neighbors. If his brothers were the only ones here, she could join them.

“They’ve implemented a neighborhood watch,” Dane said as his brothers took their seats in his living room.

“That’s great. If you wondered, Dane’s on that hunters’ list also and that’s why we’re here even though he said he felt he could handle it,” Matt said.

All heads turned in his direction. “I hadn’t exactly told them that part,” Dane said to his brothers. “Yeah, the League figures since I was courting Jacqueline, I’m the next one on their hit list.”

“But we don’t know who they are, do we?” Josh asked. “We’re taking them on if they do.”

“You would have to ask them. They’re not telling us anything.” Not that it was a total fabrication on Dane’s part. The League hadn’t told them about the hunters. The Van Helsing hunters had told them instead.

“If you need any of us to drop by and even stay over, let us know,” Phillip said.

“Thanks so much, man,” Dane said.

“That goes for all of us,” Josh said, affirming Phillip spoke for all of them there.

“Thanks,” Dane said again, then walked them to the door. As soon as they left, he closed it and found Jacqueline had joined his brothers in the living room. He was glad to see her smiling and giving them all hugs.

“We’re damn glad you’re all right,” Matt said. “Those hunters have a death wish.”

“We were lucky the human hunters were willing to warn us and not just take the money for the job. If they had been successful, I mean,” Jacqueline said.

“It’s horrible being dead, isn’t it?” Matt asked. “I really think the two of you should go to Bremerton’s compound. Jacqueline won’t have to hide, and we don’t have to worry about hitmen coming for you. We would stay here and take care of them if anyone showed up.”

“You just want to enjoy the swimming pool,” Dane said.

“Yeah, really. But if you’re completely against leaving, we want to stay with you as a contingency force,” Matt said.

“We’ll need to park your car in the garage then.” Dane knew his brothers were dead set on watching his back. If anyone thought to terminate him tonight, they most likely wouldn’t be prepared for Dane’s brothers to be there unless they saw their vehicle sitting out front.

Trey hopped up from the couch. “I’ll do it.” Once he had parked in the garage, he and the other brothers went out to grab their bags.

Jacqueline squeezed Dane’s hand. “They are so sweet to do this.”

“You know they’re doing this mostly for you, to show you how chivalrous they are.”

She laughed.

Then the brothers entered the house from the garage and headed up the stairs to the rooms they had stayed in before.

“They seem to be used to staying at your place,” she said.

“Yeah. We have pool parties, and they bring the steaks, we take turns grilling and preparing the meals and drinks. Then they just stay the night. We do it for holidays, but also after successful multiple vampire hunts to let off some steam.”

“And tonight?”

“If they brought extra steaks with them…” Dane said.

Matt returned to his car and brought in bags of groceries. “We’ve got it covered.”

“What happened with your date?” Dane asked.

“Uhm, well, I told her you were in danger, and I needed to be there for you. She totally understood, I think,” Matt told him.

“You could have had your date first and just let Trey and Ryan join us first” Dane was glad they had brought some more food. He was certain he didn’t have enough for all of them to eat for an extended period of time.

“No, family comes first. We can go on grocery runs for us,” Matt said.

“We can grab some food from my house too,” Jacqueline said. “I should have thought of it when you picked up Princess and my clothes.”

“You and I can do it as vampires whenever we want to.” Dane knew they couldn’t just drive over there in case anyone was watching. To get the cat, sure. But once that was done, that was it.

Tobias called Dane then and he put the call on speakerphone. “Hey, what’s up?”

“The hunters are either on the run, hiding out, or doing a job somewhere. But they are not at their homes or anywhere that they regularly hang out,” Tobias said.

“So they could have gotten the word that hunters are closing in on them to take them in for questioning,” Dane said.

“Yeah. They’ll have friends who aren’t part of the plan to terminate you and Jacqueline, but they’ll still give them a place to hide if that’s what they’re doing. I suspect they’re not out hunting.”

“Can you learn who they have on their lists to hunt?” Dane asked.

“We found the police departments they were working for,” Tobias said. “It will take a while to learn where the rogue vampires are that they’re supposed to be targeting but—hold on, got another call.” Then he continued. “So two of the vampires they were supposed to be after have been terminated. Eight others are on their lists.”

“When did they terminate the other two vampires?” Jacqueline asked.

“Four days ago. So it was before they targeted you, Jacqueline,” Tobias said.

“Well, my brothers are here to stay with us for the time being,” Dane told him, wanting Tobias to know they had backup just in case.

“Good. I’m glad to hear it. Adonis, Zachary, Pasha, Michael, and Danai were planning to join you if you didn’t have anyone there with you. The human hunters have settled in here, so everything’s good as far as that goes.”

Then Jacqueline got a call on her phone and fumbled with it. As soon as she looked at the caller ID, she saw it was Anne from the therapy group. “I’m supposed to be dead. You answer it,” she said, handing the phone to Dane. But then the call ended.

Then Dane got a call from Anne. “Hey, I’ve been out of state and just saw what happened to Jacqueline. I called her, just not believing she could be dead. But since she didn’t answer, I guess I have to realize it’s the truth. We have more problems though. I’m calling for a meeting tonight to discuss this. The Bremertons are back in town, and I called them to come to the meeting. Do you know Adonis, Danai, and Zachary?”

“Yeah, they’re friends of mine. Same location? What time?” Dane asked.

“Fifteen minutes, same location. I believe all of us are targets. I’ve called Stacey and the others who didn’t come to the last meeting that we had.”

“See you in a few minutes, Anne,” Dane said.

“Okay, two of us are staying here with Jacqueline and one of us is going with you, Dane,” Matt said.

“All right by me,” Dane said.

Jacqueline sighed. “I wish I could be there with you all.”

“Yeah, me too, alive and kicking. I want to get these hunters taken down so you can be yourself again.” Then Dane hugged and kissed her and said to his brothers, “Keep Jacqueline safe.” But he wondered what was going on that Anne thought that all the hunters turned were now on a hit list. He figured just the ones who had been at the hunters’ club that night were. Then he and Ryan left in Matt’s car.

* * *

Jacqueline hoped allthe hunters would be all right. The thing of it was, that meeting place wasn’t that safe, she didn’t think. Then again, she assumed the hunters who would be there were good fighters.

Not long after Dane and Ryan left the house to go to the meeting, they heard a noise at a window in back of Dane’s place. “Someone’s breaking in,” Jacqueline said, her voice low. Then she grabbed her sword and vanished.

“Hell,” Matt said.

Then she was in Dane’s office, saw the window broken, but nobody inside yet. Matt and Trey came running up behind her, and she put her finger to her lips, and they all backed out, waiting for whoever it was to enter the office.

But no one tried to come in. Then another window broke, this one in the laundry room. “Laundry room,” she whispered. “One of you watch this window. I’m afraid they’re coming in from different directions.”

“They must have been watching Dane leave the house and probably think no one is here right now. Then they would ambush him when he returned,” Trey said, his voice hushed.

“Brother, you stay here and watch this window. Let us know if someone comes in. We’re going to check out the laundry room,” Matt said to Trey.

But Jacqueline wanted to get an eye on who was outside breaking the windows in the first place. She vanished and reappeared outside and was near a shed that would give her some shelter from whomever was breaking the windows. Then she saw them. All five hunters that had hassled them at the hunters’ club. They weren’t bothering to hire someone to do the job this time. She wondered how their neighborhood watch had missed seeing them. But then she saw four more hunters in addition to the five original men! All of them were dressed in black, but they weren’t wearing anything to cover their faces.

Then one of the hunters saw her and made a mad dash to fight her. “What the hell. You were supposed to be dead. Well, you will be now.”

Not this time either, if she could help it. She told Dane, “The hunters are here! I’m in the backyard by your shed fighting one of them.”

“Where the hell are my brothers?”

“In the house where the bastards broke the windows into your house. Laundry room and your office.”

Then she took on the hunter, a hefty blond-haired guy. She knew Dane would be there momentarily. But then two of the other hunters saw her fighting the one guy, and they raced toward her to kill her.

She was going to vanish because she couldn’t fight that many hunters when Matt and Trey rushed out through the back door once they realized she was outside in a fight.

But then the other hunters turned who had been at the meeting—Anne, Stacey, Dane were there, right in the middle of it. Right after that Adonis, Danai, Pasha, Michael, and Zachary joined them, swords swinging, striking metal.

No one had any time to say anything, but Zachary and Danai terminated one of the hunters while Dane and Jacqueline fought another. Adonis killed another hunter, who was not giving up for anything. Anne and Stacey worked to finish off another. Some were just not going to allow themselves to be taken prisoner. The goal really was to turn the hunters over to the League so they could deal with them but terminate them if the hunters were determined to kill the hunters turned.

Matt took out another hunter. Trey pulled out some zip ties for the hunters they’d been able to take down without killing them.

Another hunter fell, wounded, but still alive and Dane zip tied his wrists. “You’re a disgrace to our kind, Felix.”

“You are, as a vampire. You should have died rather than have been turned,” Felix said.

As if they’d had any choice, Jacqueline thought.

Four of the nine rogue hunters were dead. Two were injured, but their wounds would heal faster than a human’s would. The other three hunters finally dropped their swords and gave up, raising their hands above their heads.

Ryan showed up in his car and hurried to join them. “Hell, I missed helping out.”

Dane slapped his back. “Sorry we had to leave you behind.”

That was the great thing about moving in the vampiric way. The vampires had all arrived instantly, while poor Ryan had to drive from the meeting place to get there.

Adonis was on his phone to call Tobias, who would notify the League that they had caught all the rogue hunters. There was no doubt in anyone’s mind that these men were rogues, but now the League would take care of them in their own way.

Then Jacqueline took Dane into her arms and held him tight, never wanting to let go. She couldn’t believe there had been so many hunters who had wanted them dead. What was wrong with them? The hunters turned had only been after rogue vampires. They hadn’t once hurt a hunter. Not even one who was a rogue. Not until now.

They had no worry about killing the ones here that they did. Not when they were defending themselves against the threat on Dane’s property and they had other hunters who had witnessed the fight.

This would hopefully prove that hunters and those who were turned would stick together to fight against the hunters who thought to kill those who were now vampires.

The police were also called. Ambulances arrived, and the EMTs took care of the two injured hunters. Tobias finally arrived. “Has everyone been identified?”

“Yeah,” Matt said. “We have their IDs.”

“All right. We’ll take the ones still alive in for questioning to learn if there are any others that have the same mission as these hunters,” Tobias said.

“I can’t believe you didn’t kill me or the others who you gained the upper hand on,” Felix said.

“We didn’t want you dead,” Dane said. “We wanted you to be held accountable for your actions.”

Jacqueline said, “It will be up to the League to decide your fate.”

More hunters arrived, some of them who were neighbors in the neighborhood. One of them inclined his head to Felix and immediately, Adonis grabbed him and took him into custody.

“Get your filthy hands off me,” the guy said.

“You were in collusion with Felix. You were the one who allowed these men to come into the neighborhood. And you’re here now to try and see what happened to the hunters you were working with to take us down,” Adonis accused.

“Hell, I wasn’t. I just live here. And like the others here, I wanted to know what was going on.”

“You signaled to Felix. Don’t lie.”

“Yeah, I saw it too,” Dane said.

“Me too,” Zachary said. “You can try to dig yourself out of the situation, but the League will uncover the truth.”

Then the police cuffed the neighbor and took him with the others.

In the meantime, Dane’s good neighbors congratulated them for exposing the rogue hunters. “We can’t have murdering hunters like them among us. Any of us could face what you already had to,” George said. “None of you deserve this kind of treatment from our kind or from anyone else.”

The hunter neighbors all looked at Jacqueline, smiling. Josh said, “We’re glad you’re fine.”

“Yeah, it was the only way we could think of to make sure they wouldn’t try another hit on me. Then the human hunters told us they were going to eliminate Dane also,” Jacqueline said.

“Thanks to everyone. We appreciate it,” Dane said.

The hunters from the neighborhood there gave them hugs, wished them well, then walked back to their homes.

“I guess we can leave the two of you alone to take care of your own business,” Matt said to Dane and Jacqueline.

“Thanks so much for coming to help us,” Jacqueline said.

“Moving like you do as vampires sure is a great ability,” Ryan said. “When we were at the therapy meeting place, Dane told me the news. All the hunters turned left me, and I ended up jumping into our car to return here, but man, I wished I could have traveled like you did and gotten here a lot quicker.”

“Yeah, I was so glad to do that since Jacqueline and our brothers were in such a dire situation,” Dane said.

“We felt the same way,” Matt said. “We were in the house when she ended up fighting them. Hell, we didn’t know there were so many of them.”

“I didn’t either. I saw the one who suddenly observed me. The others were spread out at different locations on Dane’s property. I saw two others suddenly coming toward me, but I was trying to concentrate on the one I was fighting. But I also let Dane know I was fighting one at his home. I really thought there were only five of them, the same five hunters at the hunters’ club. I never expected them to gather more hunters who had gone rogue,” Jacqueline said.

“Two of them were already rogue hunters on an elimination list for hunting down vampires who aren’t rogues. I guess Felix knew them so they could do this hit with them,” Dane said.

Then everyone helped to make the steak dinner they had planned on making before all the craziness began, except that they had a few more guests and a couple of the guests brought more steaks to their place.

“I guess we’ll be packing up our things again,” Matt said.

Jacqueline and Dane laughed. “Well, thanks for coming to stay with us,” Dane said.

“We’re glad we were here for you when you needed us,” Trey said.

They all enjoyed their steaks, asparagus, and rice.

After they finished eating, Dane’s brothers packed up their bags and gave them hugs, then they left the house.

With promises to see them at the next meeting, Stacey and Anne left. The Bremertons said they would also attend the next meeting and they all vanished.

Then Dane and Jacqueline cuddled on the sofa together as Princess sat on their laps. “Love you, Dane.”

Dane said, “I love you, Jacqueline. I’m so glad this is all behind us.”

“I would say we could go for a moonlit walk now finally, but I’m more interested in joining you in bed. What about you?”

“Oh, yeah, absolutely.”

Then they vanished and ended up in the bedroom, poor Princess left back on the couch. But she didn’t need to participate in their next activity.

“We need to get your handyman in to replace the windows,” Jacqueline said, as they began removing each other’s clothes. “And we need to know if you were setup before Lucilla ambushed you.”

“Absolutely, but first things first.”

She smiled as she ran her hand over his chest. “Naturally.”