Page 3 of Huntress Unleashed
“Sure, great. Let’s take a seat then. Okay, so unless you want to talk, I’ll go first,” Anne said.
“Yeah, sure, go ahead.” With just the two of them there, Jacqueline felt more comfortable with the notion of sharing how she was feeling about all the changes in her life. But then she wondered about the huntress and her baby. “Oh, what’s the situation with the woman with the baby? Had the mother been turned while she was pregnant? Is the baby a mix of hunter and vampire, or just a hunter, if born before the mother was turned?”
“Doreen’s baby was born before she was turned. The baby is nearly a year old. So the baby is a hunter, not a vampire mix.”
“Wow, that’s scary.”
“Yeah. She said when her daughter is an adult, it would be her choice if she wanted to be turned or remain a hunter.”
“Oh, sure.” Jacqueline just couldn’t imagine a situation like that. “What about the baby’s daddy?”
“He’s out of the picture.”
Maybe if he hadn’t been “out of the picture,” the huntress wouldn’t have been turned.
Jacqueline and Anne took seats opposite each other, but then heard footfalls headed their way.
Jacqueline let out her breath in annoyance. Just when she was feeling like she could do this, when she normally wasn’t afraid of anything, more participants would be listening in.
“Looks like some more folks found us,” Anne said, sounding cheerful.
A woman was saying to the other person, “Well, I know what you’ve been doing.”
A man laughed. He had a lovely, deep laugh that sent a whisper of a thrill up Jacqueline’s spine, which annoyed her. Hadn’t she gone through enough of an ordeal with her ex-fiancé? She wasn’t about to show any interest in a man after that had happened. She had enough to deal with now that she was a vampire and a hunter.
The young woman came bouncing through the doorway first and smiled. She was a pretty brunette, dark brown eyes, tall, model-like, in good shape, perfect for fighting vampires. “Oh, good, we’re not too late. I’m glad I didn’t skip the meeting since just the two of you showed up. I’m Stacey.”
“Welcome, Stacey. I’m Anne.”
“I’m Jacqueline.” She couldn’t help that she didn’t sound enthusiastic to greet the newcomer.
Then a dark-haired man of about thirty walked in with a limp, wearing a shredded shirt, where he’d been clawed—most likely by a rogue vampire—blood on his black button-down collared shirt, but the man’s cuts appeared like they had mostly healed. “Sorry, I didn’t have time to change. I’m Dane.” He had a wet rain jacket slung over his shoulder, wearing cargo pants and boots meant to fight in.
“You could just remove the bloody shirt, if anyone’s bothered by the blood,” Stacey said, giving him a sexy smile.
He cast her one back.
“It would be fine with me,” Anne said, winking at him.
Jacqueline hoped he wouldn’t hear her heart beating triple time at the sight of him. He was gorgeous. All six-foot, one of him. He appeared to already have an admirer in Stacey, and Anne was smiling just as brightly at him. He appeared to be alpha to the max.
“What about you?” he asked Jacqueline.
“It’s your call.” But Jacqueline didn’t smile or wink at him. She gave him more of an evil eye, annoyed he would even ask her as if she cared one way or another. She wasn’t interested in getting to know him beyond these meetings and maybe not even here.
“Who did you fight, and did you take him or her down?” Stacey asked.
This wasn’t supposed to be a “show and tell” about taking down rogue vampires!
“Astrophel, and yeah, he’s terminated,” Dane said.
Jacqueline’s jaw dropped. That was one of the men she was after! Hunters were hired to take down rogue vampires and she didn’t think a ton of other hunters were searching for him. Though she was exaggerating, but still…
Dane noticed Jacqueline’s reaction right away. “Uh, were you after him too?”
“Yeah. He was on my list.”
Dane nodded. “I was told there were four hunters hired to take him down because he was so…slippery and difficult to eliminate.”