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Chapter 7

Dane woke to the aroma of eggs and bacon cooking in the kitchen, coffee brewing, a big fluffy cat sleeping behind him, and in front of him was the beautiful redheaded huntress whom he held in his arms in bed. He smiled. She was still sleeping, but she had moved against him as soon as Princess had left the bed. He was enjoying their deepening friendship and hoped it would continue.

Then he got a call on his phone on her side of the bed. He didn’t want anyone to disturb her!

It was too late. She sighed, turned, kissed his mouth, then moved over to get his phone. When she got it, she glanced at the caller ID, and said, “Oh, it’s Stacey.”

“From the meeting?”

“Yeah. It looks like she’s ready to hook up.”

Dane laughed. “It’s not happening.” He took the phone from Jacqueline and answered the call. “Hello?”

For a moment, Jaqueline stayed in bed, but then she left the mattress, grabbed some of her clothes, went into the bathroom, and closed the door.

“Hey, Dane. I was wondering if you would like to go on a hunt with me tonight,” Stacey said.

“Uh, I can’t. Sorry.”

Jacqueline came out of the bathroom, dressed in blue jeans, boots, and a blue floral shirt, raised her brows at Dane and smiled, waved, and headed out of the bedroom. She looked like spring and ready to have some fun today.

“My brothers and I are staying with Jacqueline?—”

“Jacqueline from the meeting?”

“Yeah. The rogue vampire who turned her is still alive.”

“Oh, no. I thought hunters had killed the rogue vampires who had turned all of us. I want to help take him down.”

“Good. We’ll sign you up. We need to locate him first. He went after her last night, so my brothers and I are staying with her until we get this done,” Dane said.

“Wow. Okay, should we get hold of Anne too? I bet she’ll want to help,” Stacey said.

“Sure, that sounds good. I had thought of our group, but when my brothers said they would help, I figured that might be enough.”

“What happened last night?” Stacey asked.

He explained what had occurred. He suspected since they were all so new at this business, she wanted to know how it would all go down. “She couldn’t kill him, but she did pull her sword on him, which distracted him.”

“Oh.”

“And when he told her to meet him at a house, she didn’t feel compelled to go. So maybe her hunter abilities have given her a little bit of an edge compared to a human who is turned,” Dane said, getting out of bed.

“That would be good. Okay, well, I’m on standby and if you decide you need me, or if you can help me with my mission tonight, just let me know. I’ll let you call Anne and tell her what’s going on. It’s best it comes from the horse’s mouth, rather than me pass along the news and get it wrong.”

“Sounds good. I’ll do that. Talk to you later.” When they ended the call, he headed for the bathroom and hoped that Jacqueline didn’t believe he was making date plans with Stacey.

After dressing in a blue T-shirt, jeans, and boots, he went downstairs and found everyone setting the table for breakfast. That was one of the things he was glad for. He could still eat regular food.

“So?” Jacqueline asked Dane.

“Stacey wanted me to go on a job with her tonight. I told her I was sticking with you because of the vampire issue you’re having.”

“You can go with her if she needs you. We can’t abandon others like us if no one wants to work with us—making an exception of your brothers, of course,” Jacqueline said.

Trey said, “A couple of us can go with her.”

“I told her we’re trying to track down Heskel, and she wants to help with that.” Dane had no intention of seeing Stacey except when it came to meeting her at the therapy session or on a mission to take down vampires to help each other out. He was sure she wanted more of a relationship.

Jacqueline poured a glass of orange juice for everyone. “If she has a vampire that she needs help with tonight, I’m all for going with her too.”

“All right,” Dane said. If Jacqueline wanted to help, he was all for it. But also, he needed to make sure she remained safe. He called Anne to see if she wanted to go with them.

“Oh, I’ve got a family issue to deal with, but I’ll be happy to help when that’s resolved.”

“Okay, we sure appreciate it. And if you need any help, just let us know.”

“I sure will,” Anne said. Then they ended the call.

“I did some research into Heskel to learn where he might go,” Trey said.

“Trey is our private investigator when we’re trying to learn all we can about a rogue vampire that we are after. What did you learn?” Dane asked.

Trey finished his slice of crunchy bacon and wiped his fingers off on his paper napkin. “The house we went to last night is owned by one of his blood bonds, a chef at a restaurant in Plano. He obviously wasn’t home at the time. Heskel might have told him to stay away. Heskel has five other blood bonds and I have a list of their residences. I’m also investigating the whereabouts of his three close vampire friends. None of them are on any termination lists, so hopefully they’ll stay out of it if Heskel goes to one of their places and his friends are there when we turn up.”

“Okay, that sounds like a good start.” Matt drank some more of his coffee.

“Call Stacey back and tell her we’ll go with her tonight,” Jacqueline said to Dane.

He smiled at her. “You know, I think you need to get in touch with her.”

Jacqueline chuckled. “I will.” She pulled out her phone and said, “Hey, Stacey, it’s me, Jacqueline, from the meeting. Dane told us you want some back up on taking someone down. We’re ready to help. Can you tell us more about the rogue?” She put the phone on speaker.

“Uh, yeah, and thanks. It’s a woman, Italia, an ancient vampire. She has an ancient vampire boyfriend who strays quite often and every time he does, Italia tracks down his new human lover and then kills her. The police have pinned ten crimes on her finally and I ended up with the case to take her down.”

“What about her boyfriend? Is he on a terminal list too?” Jacqueline asked.

“No. Franklin hasn’t done anything wrong but gotten his side interests killed because of his jealous want-to-be mate. They’ve been together for centuries, but he won’t agree to being her exclusive mate.”

“I’m surprised that she doesn’t kill him, instead of the women,” Jacqueline said.

“She still wants him. According to witnesses, she always has,” Stacey said. “I’m sorry about the situation you have with Heskel. I hope Dane told you that I want to help you get rid of him.”

“Yes, thanks so much for offering.”

“You should have mentioned it at the meeting. The rest of us had someone help to take out the rogues who turned us. We are a team.”

Jacqueline swallowed hard and smiled. “Thank you. Where and when do you want to meet to take down Italia?”

“Seven tonight. Franklin goes to a vampire bar—the Blue Moon—every Tuesday night and Italia does also, but they go in separate cars. Then he leaves the club, goes to a human club, picks up a woman, and drives to her place. Somehow Italia learns where he has gone, possibly tracking him to the human club and lying in wait, then follows him to the victim’s home,” Stacey said. “We can meet at the grocery store half a block from the Blue Moon. The police suspect she has killed more women, but they couldn’t prove it. They have proven she murdered the others.”

“Okay, we’ll meet up with you at the grocery store,” Jacqueline said.

“Then we have to go after your vampire once we take down Italia,” Stacey said.

“We’re trying to find any location he might be at and then sure, that would be great.”

Then they ended the call and Dane sighed. “I’m glad you called her.”

“Do you think she’s after you?” Jacqueline asked.

“Yeah.”

Trey laughed. “Here we were so upset that Dane’s fiancée ditched him and he already has a couple of huntresses interested in him.”

Dane gave his brother a look to cool it. He didn’t want to lose whatever headway he had hoped he was making with Jacqueline.

“Oh?” Jacqueline said.

Trey’s face reddened.

Dane suspected his brother thought that Jacqueline and he were already an item. He wished, but he had to take this slowly. He suspected all the changes to her life were making her hesitant to really get involved with another hunter who had been turned like her. He didn’t blame her for feeling that way. Also the business of both of them being recently separated from the ones they were engaged to would make a difference.

Matt laughed. “It seems you stuck your foot in your mouth again, Trey.”

Then Jacqueline smiled, to everyone’s relief.

“You know we were talking earlier about how you liked to go to hunters’ clubs for drinks and dancing. We shouldn’t be banned from hunters’ clubs,” Dane said.

“I agree, but I’m sure that we’ll have trouble if we go to one,” she said.

“Tell us when you want to go there and we’ll be there for you as backup,” Trey said.

“You took the words right out of my mouth,” Matt said.

“Yeah, I agree.” Ryan toasted them with a glass of orange juice. “Just say the word. Between the two of you and the three of us, we’ll change their tunes if anyone gets nasty.”

“Exactly. You’re both still hunters. You were born that way also,” Trey said. “Sure, you’re vampires now too, but you’re part of our community, still taking down rogue vampires, just with additional skills the rest of us don’t have. You’re the good guys, like the rest of us are.”

“But then if we wanted to go there, we would always have to go with you guys,” Jacqueline said. “That’s an imposition for you.”

“No, not at all,” Matt said. “The more you go there, the more they’ll get used to you being there and realize you’re not any different than you were before.”

Dane would like to take Jacqueline to a hunters’ club. If they hadn’t been turned and they hadn’t been engaged to other hunters, that was something he would have done without question. “I’m game.” But he didn’t want Jacqueline to feel uncomfortable about doing it if she wasn’t sure.

“Yeah, I’m willing.” She smiled at the brothers. “We’ll have fun. And maybe we’ll make new hunter friends who are more openminded.”

“Right. That’s who we’ll want to be around,” Dane said.

“Okay. We could go early when it’s not as crowded. But we probably should wait until we get rid of Heskel. I would hate to be at a hunters’ club and then worry that Heskel could control me and try to force me to hurt anyone. That would undo our effort at proving we’re still hunters and like the rest of them. And that we should be allowed to go to a hunters’ club.” Jacqueline drank some of her orange juice.

“It’s a date,” Dane said. They just had to get rid of Heskel.

“All right. That sounds good,” Jacqueline said.

After they finished breakfast, she said, “Okay, I need a tour of the house.”

“Uh, I didn’t make my guest bed,” Ryan said. “And I probably left my dirty clothes on the floor.”

She laughed. “Dane can show me the rest of the house, and not the rooms you’re staying in.”

“Let’s go.” Dane was proud of his home that he had purchased with the idea of finding a huntress mate and eventually raising a family there. He had bought it before he had met Wendy, his now ex-fiancée, so it wasn’t like they had purchased it together. Though she loved the home and planned to move in. She’d had the nerve to tell him he needed to sell the place and give her half the proceeds, as if they’d been married already and were getting a divorce. To which he’d said no way.

He showed Jacqueline the den and the sunroom which had windows that faced the swimming pool.

“Oh, I want to swim.”

“You’re welcome to anytime you want,” he said.

“Thanks. I brought my swimsuit.”

“Great.” He showed Jacqueline the laundry room and then his office. “And of course there are the three guest rooms my brothers use when we’re going on a mission together and want to watch each other’s backs.” Then he showed her the other two bathrooms.

“I guess your brothers believe we’re dating, but we both had relationships that had ended abruptly because of what we have become.”

“Yeah, but we are much more suited to each other because of it.” He truly believed it.

She shook her head. “Until Heskel is eliminated, I don’t feel anyone who is close to me is safe.”

“Yeah, but we always run that risk, even when we were just hunters.”

“Well, that’s true, but we still had control over our own actions.”

He couldn’t argue with that. He sure didn’t want her to feel unsafe and he didn’t want Heskel to control her. More than anything, he wanted to get rid of the menace to her. But until they found Heskel, they couldn’t do much about him.

“I’ll tell you if he communicates with me again,” Jacqueline said as they walked out to the patio and stood looking at the aqua pool.

“Good.” He knew she would, as long as she was able to and Heskel didn’t stop her from doing so.

“Is it…too early to go swimming?”

“Anytime is great for swimming. As hot as it is already in Dallas? No. And since it’s indoors, even if the sun is fully out, we’re fine.”

“Great. I’m off to change. Coming?”

“Yeah, I sure am.” He was thinking he needed to do some fun things with her and not just prove to her that he could make a great hunter companion on hunts. He was right behind her when she vanished. He chuckled, his brothers smiling at him.

“She’s tenacious,” Matt said.

“That she is. We’re going swimming.”

“Enjoy!” Ryan said.

He would.

To give her some time to change into her bathing suit, he headed up the stairs, instead of vanishing and reappearing in the bedroom. When he reached the bedroom, she was already changed, wearing a bright teal, high-waisted bikini and she smiled at him. The bikini top caressed her breasts, her bottoms fitting her shapely form beautifully.

Before he could tell her how much he loved the bathing suit on her, she vanished. He laughed. He would never get used to that. He hurried to strip out of his clothes and yanked on his swim trunks. He wanted to join her quickly, so he teleported himself to the indoor pool and found her already in the pool, swimming.

He jumped in so that he could be in her path, making a calculated strike. She saw him, just before she swam into him. He captured her in his arms and kissed her.

“Hmm, as a hunter, were you this persistent in dating a huntress?” she asked.

“Is it working?” he asked, kissing drops of water off her cheeks.

She laughed. “I think you are doing just fine, despite me trying to keep this on a more professional level.”

“Hell, yes! I was so afraid I wasn’t doing this right. As to dating others? I never was successful at dating and truly, I don’t know how I ended up with being engaged to Wendy.”

“She didn’t deserve you.”

“Yeah, in retrospect, I realize that’s true. The same with Van being engaged to you.” Then Dane kissed her again, and she deepened the kiss. Oh, yeah, she was incredible and way too good for the likes of any hunter like Van. “I can’t imagine anyone giving you up. And we truly make a great team on a hunt.”

“Oh, yeah, I was thinking the same thing about you.” Then they kissed again.

After they separated, they began to swim and tackle each other. Then his brothers came out to the pool wearing swim trunks, and Jacqueline and Dane laughed. He loved his brothers, and he knew they wanted to kind of slow things down between Jacqueline and himself because they wanted to make sure he wasn’t just having a case of rebound, just like she wasn’t after they were no longer with their ex’s.

He knew they would help them to be in the relationship, to back them, but just to take it more slowly. He hoped Jacqueline was okay with it, and she appeared to just be amused and happy to see them. Maybe she was thinking the same thing. He figured if it was meant to be between the two of them, it would be.

He chased after her, ignoring his brothers as Trey cannonballed into the pool, and Matt dove in. Ryan soon joined in, and the three brothers began wrestling each other in the pool, splashing water everywhere. But for now, Dane preferred playing with Jacqueline in the pool when he usually loved to horse around with his brothers when they went swimming together. Yeah, he wasn’t giving up on her that easily.

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