Chapter 2

Jacqueline settled down on the couch with her cat, Princess of Maine. As soon as Princess curled up on her lap, waiting for attention, Jacqueline started brushing her beautiful, fluffy tortoiseshell coat. She was a Maine Coon cat and definitely looked and acted like a Princess at all times. She was quiet and affectionate, loved to sit in windows, and sleep on Jacqueline’s bed with her, something her ex-fiancé, Van, had problems with so it was just as well that things hadn’t worked out between them.

Jacqueline turned on the TV and started to watch the Matchmaker for Millionaires reality TV series. It was all made up, of course. Imagine her being on that show—a millionairess in her own right who was looking for Mr. Right, only he had to be…what, exactly? She had no intention of dating a vampire. And hunters were out. They didn’t trust her because she was one of the vampires now. And hooking up with a hunter who had just as many issues as she did over having been turned wasn’t going to happen.

She thought of Dane and about how Stacey was holding onto him when they had left the building. He hadn’t disengaged from her, so Jacqueline figured they were going to hook up.

She sighed. Who cared? They had to find their way through this somehow and if that’s what it took, so be it. At the next meeting, Dane and Stacey might be the most well-adjusted people there. Who knew?

Brushing a purring Princess on her lap while Jacqueline watched the show, she considered the women the male millionaire had been interested in. What he wanted was a blond, who was well-built, not after his money, and she had to be intelligent. The other millionaire was a woman who wanted a young, hot guy, funny, and smart, who could take her sense of humor. Both of the millionaires were in their mid-forties. Both wanted a partner who was in their twenties. Of course. Beautiful, sexy, and young—but for a meaningful, well-thought out, long-term marriage? Not.

“Not for us, Princess, eh? We know just how this will turn out. The man and woman will have a date with their respective partners and will find they are just gold diggers who will put on the cutesy charm and it’s all just meaningless and proves the matchmaker’s advice was right and they should have dated someone else and would have broken the pattern of dating whoever was wrong for them.” Jacqueline glanced down at Princess. “And you’re sound asleep. We sure dodged a bullet with the last guy in our life, believe me. Well, you especially did. He had insisted you wouldn’t sleep in our bed once we were married. Then again, what would he have done if a vampire had turned me while we were married? Insta-divorce for sure.” She changed the channel to one about vampires. “Nope, don’t want to see this.” Even though the vampires weren’t like the real ones, her current situation made her shy away from anything to do with them unless they were on her terminal list.

She turned the channel to a story about finding love in the wild. Couples would compete against other couples to see if they could find the right man or woman for them. It looked promising. Instead of blind love where they didn’t see each other and learned about each other’s wants and dreams, with this new show, the couples would be working together through stressful adventures in the wild—riding horses through the mountains on narrow, cliffside trails, and across rivers, pulling cantankerous donkeys carrying their crates filled with some kind of puzzle pieces, diving, swimming, rope climbing, rappelling, all of which most had never done. They might even end up falling in love. It was worth checking it out.

There were ten men and ten women to begin with and they had to choose someone of the opposite sex to complete the challenges. She really liked most of them, but she was amused to see how they navigated different obstacles and were still speaking to each other, working together to solve puzzles—at least some of them were. Some weren’t and they definitely weren’t meant to be together with all the bickering they were doing, mad at each other, blaming each other for not being successful. Then after they completed the rigorous challenge, they could keep their partners or change things up a bit, based on the order they came in during the challenge. She loved seeing the dynamics between the couples. Especially the five that were really doing well together and showed a genuine interest in each other.

She glanced at the clock. It was nearly midnight. Time to get back to reality and go to work. “I’ll be home in a little bit.” She hoped. She never knew how long the job would take her or if she would get it done when she headed for the location where she thought the vampire would be.

Princess got off her lap, leapt to the floor, and sauntered to the bedroom in her carefree way, like a little princess as if she knew Jacqueline would join her in bed when she returned and so she was going to be ready for her. Then Jacqueline got a call on her phone and looked at the caller ID. Dane Edmondson.

The guy from the meeting? What did he want?

“Hey, is this Jacqueline from the therapy meeting?”

“Uh, yeah, if you need a sponsor, it has to be a male.”

“No. I was calling because I’m going out on a job.” He paused.

So? What did she have to do with it? She waited for him to say.

“I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t going after someone on your list.”

Now that surprised her. “Who are you going after?” she asked, wanting to make sure of the same thing then.

“Axel.”

“No, damn it. How many hunters have been assigned this mission?”

“Just two. I guess you and me if you are also after him.”

She didn’t say anything. She was so annoyed. Not with Dane obviously, but with the police who had hired her.

“Okay, it sounds like you’re being hired by the same police agency. Let’s see if we have any more of the same names.”

“How are you learning there are other hunters who are actively searching for the rogues?” she asked.

“I asked. I’ve had that happen to me before. I was headed to the location where the rogue vampire was known to go, had surveyed the whole area, learned when he would be there, and when I arrived at the place, I found a hunter had just killed him. Then a few minutes later, I got a notification that the rogue was eliminated by a hunter. I thought it was just a chance happening until they told me that two other people also had the mission. From then on, I ask so I know what I’m up against. I also discover when the posting first came out and when the other hunters were given the job. They don’t give me the names of the hunters.”

“Great.” She didn’t say it in a cheerful way, more annoyed than anything.

“So if you’re willing to share, who are the rogues on your list?”

She let out her breath. “Besides Axel? Maggard, Quillon, and Paine.”

“Yep, we have the same list. I also have Mabon.”

“Good. I don’t have that one. You can take care of Mabon.”

Dane laughed.

She smiled. She didn’t think he would be agreeable, but she figured she would just toss that out there.

“I have another suggestion.”

She was sure she wouldn’t like it. She didn’t share kills and bounties with other hunters, if that’s what Dane was going to propose. Not even with her ex-fiancé. Neither of them worked well together on hunts. They’d tried it twice, but he had preferred hunting with his own brothers instead. He felt his brothers were stronger and faster than her, so they made a better team.

“Okay, how about we go together and take down the vampires who have the most hunters after them? Then we can both get credit, share the money, and go after the next one at twice the pace.”

She didn’t want to work with him, since she didn’t know his style of fighting or hunting. What if he and she couldn’t work in sync like her ex claimed he and she couldn’t? What if they lost the rogue because they were getting in each other’s way? Worse, what if either of them ended up getting killed because of it?

“Uh, you don’t like the idea. We could try it on this one assignment and see how it goes. I don’t want to mention it, but we both were hunting alone when we were turned, right?”

She didn’t want to be reminded of that. And she really didn’t want to try this with him. She could see him being just like her ex and then she would really be angry about it. “Did you ever hunt with your fiancée?”

“Yeah, but it didn’t work out.”

“What makes you think working with me would?”

“We both have new abilities we’re not totally used to, which is the reason I was a bit…well, scratched up before I ended up at the meeting. I mean, really, what could go wrong?”

“One of us or both of us could end up dead?”

* * *

What wasthe likely chance that Dane would have all the same rogue vampires on his termination list that Jacqueline had except for the one? He was glad he had touched base with her. He really wanted to try working with the huntress so they could at least share in the take downs and maybe even protect each other. He was certainly willing to give it a try. But he didn’t believe Jacqueline was going to be receptive to the idea no matter what he said. Still, he figured he would try to prove to her that he wasn’t out to get all her hard-earned bounties.

“Well, think on it. In the meantime, I’ll take care of Mabon, and you eliminate whoever you’re targeting next. We can revisit this talk when it comes to the other names, if you would like.” He really felt it would be a way of trying to reach the rogues before the other hunters could do it.

“Did you know the hunter who took down the rogue before you arrived on the one case?”

He was surprised she was still talking to him and hadn’t already shut him down. “Olson.”

“Van Olson?” She sounded more than surprised.

“Yeah, I take it you know him.”

“I don’t understand why they’re doing this. I mean, assigning so many hunters to eliminate the same rogues.”

“I know. It’s something new they’re doing so I was really surprised too and more than a little annoyed,” he said. “They could have at least told us.”

“I agree.” She was quiet for a moment. “Oh, and yeah, I know Van. He’s my ex-fiancé.”

Dane didn’t really know what to say to that. He suspected from her comment that she probably wasn’t on the best of terms with him.

“Okay,” she finally said.

Dane hesitated to respond, then he said, “Okay?” Had she wanted to take down her rogue and he would go after Mabon, and they would consider working together on a different mission?

“I’m after Axel. Meet me at…” Again, she paused.

“We could go together,” he suggested. “That way we would be more of a unified force, arrive together, and take him on at the same time.”

“You didn’t work well with your ex, you said,” she reminded him.

“Wendy canceled on me three times when I was about to go on a mission. And the one time she went with me, she held back and never really did any fighting. I was more worried about protecting her at that point and knew she was more of a hindrance than an asset. What about you? Did you ever hunt with your ex?”

Lengthy pause. Jacqueline cleared her throat. “Yeah. He preferred to hunt with his brothers. So, I mean it might not make any difference if we work together. We might not be suited to do it.”

“We’ll do great. If you want, I can pick you up at your place. I think it would be safer to be together, and after we take him down, we’ll go after Mabon.”

He tapped his foot on the floor, hoping to get an agreement out of her. He just hoped they could work well together, and they were able to take down the perps and come out unscathed.

“All right. My place.” She gave him her address.

“Lakeview Estates.” He smiled. He lived in her neighborhood. “I’ll be right over.”

It was a posh place to live where a mix of humans and hunters had taken up residence. No vampires, that he knew of, so he was hoping he wouldn’t have any trouble with anyone who took exception to a vampire suddenly living among them. And now there were two of them. That at least they knew about. Maybe more had been turned but they were keeping it a secret. What did he know?

He jumped into his pickup truck and headed over to her house that was just a few streets north of his place and parked in her driveway. Before he could get out of his truck to knock on her door, she was headed outside wearing a black leather jacket, black leather pants, and thigh high black leather boots. Her jacket was zipped up part way, revealing her black tunic underneath. Her beautiful red hair flowed as she walked, and he swore he was mesmerized by her beauty. She had high cheek bones and a sultry mouth, and her catlike eyes were narrowed a bit. She looked like a huntress who meant business.

“How did you get into my gated community without me giving you the passcode? Oh, you know someone living here and already knew the code.”

“I live several streets behind you.”

Her jaw dropped. Then she smiled. “There goes the neighborhood.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, two vampires in a mostly hunter neighborhood? I’m sure some wouldn’t be happy about it.”

He was relieved she wasn’t making a jab at him for some other reason and really didn’t like him. “I was thinking the same thing. I miss not being able to go to one of the hunter clubs. I’m not sure we would be welcome at a vampire club either.”

“I know. I guess we could go to a human club.”

He glanced at her, surprised she would say so.

She quickly added, “I mean, you know, like if you wanted to go to a club, you could go to a human one and nobody would know that you were a hunter or a vampire.”

“Ah.” He had thought she was saying she would go out with him to a club, and he was about ready to jump at the offer, if she had, so he was glad he’d used restraint. “Everyone at the meeting mentioned how family or a friend had killed the vampire who had turned them, but you. So what happened?” He hoped the vampire wasn’t still living or she could easily be influenced.

“Did I mention that my hunter friends dumped me after I was turned?”

“Yeah, hell. So you’re telling me the vampire that turned you is still alive?”

“Yeah. His name is Heskel, the twin of Moulson and when I dug further into his background, I learned he was the same as his brother as far as disposing of blood bonds that they got tired of. They were sharing them. But his twin brother had taken all the blame and was put on a termination list. Heskel hadn’t been.”

“Even so, he would be on a terminal list for turning you. He didn’t have to attack you. You hadn’t attacked him.”

“True. I expected it for revenge, but because of his action to take me down without me being able to call a truce, I didn’t have any choice.”

“Exactly. Has anybody gone after the vampire?”

“He’s on a termination list now, and the police said they would inform me when a hunter eliminated him, but he’s still out there as far as I know.”

Dane didn’t say anything for a while and then he finally said, “We have to take him down.”

“Yeah, but I can’t.”

“Right. But if I don’t do it on my own, I’ll solicit the rest of our therapy group members to help me take care of him.”

She frowned at him. “I…I don’t know. I mean, we only just met them. I don’t even know if the other two huntresses are still hunting.”

“Hey, we take down bad guys. If the ladies aren’t game or don’t feel they can do it, I’ll ask my brothers.”

She let out her breath in relief and suddenly brushed away a couple of tears. “Thanks.” Her voice was choked with emotion.

He reached over and took her hand and squeezed. “I’ve got your back.”

“That means a lot to me. Thank you.”

“Has he tried to contact you? Force you to do anything yet?”

“No, but I figure it’s only a matter of time.”

That’s what he was worried about. And being a rogue, he could very well force her to kill someone and then she would be on a terminal list.