Page 31 of Huntress Unleashed

“My…my mother.”

Jacqueline wondered how her mother would take this whole business. But that’s when she got a communication again from Heskel. “Where are you? I learned you took down a couple of vampires last night and then you just vanished. I know which vampires are on your target list still, but you haven’t gone anywhere near them.”

“It’s him, Heskel,” Jacqueline said to Dane. “He wants to know where I am again. He said he’s watching my target list of vampires, which he can’t do on his own, so he must have vampire friends or blood bonds watching them, waiting for me to show up.”

“Ask him where he is,” Stacey said.

Would it be that easy? Jacqueline doubted it. “I don’t want to communicate with him. What if he can learn where I am if I did?”

“Hmm, like GPS? Maybe. I don’t know,” Stacey said.

That was the thing. None of the turned hunters knew enough about it.

9

“I have Heskel’s home address,” Dane said to Jacqueline, Stacey, and his brothers. “We talked about his blood bonds and vampire friends—where their homes are. But what about his home? Maybe that’s where he is, believing we’ll be searching for him every place else, not believing he would be home.”

“Let’s go there,” Jacqueline said.

Everybody was agreeable. Dane sure hoped they could take the rogue down tonight.

Then they got into the two vehicles and headed to the house that Heskel owned. His home was surrounded by about five acres, half an acre in front, about four acres in the back and some land on the sides, but not that much between homes. His home was maybe about seventy-five-hundred square feet, all brick, lots of windows, but all were covered with beautiful hurricane shutters. Typical of a home that was owned by a vampire who had to keep the sun out when it was shining bright during the day.

Even Dane kept his blinds closed now that he was a vampire, and he had noticed that so did Jacqueline.

“Wow, what a house,” Jacqueline said.

“Yeah, these ancient vampires often have a lot of money. They’ve been able to save money for centuries, not like the rest of us,” Dane said.

“Yeah,” Matt agreed. “He’ll have security cameras since he can’t watch out the windows. Because there are three cars sitting in the driveway, and not in the three-car garage, I suspect those are blood bonds. Though they could be Heskel’s vampire friends.”

“I agree. And if they’re here, there’s a good chance that their master is also. At least I’m hoping so,” Dane said. “Let’s go.”

Trey, Ryan, and Stacey joined them at the car. Then they all discussed what they were going to do.

“We go in twos,” Matt said. “One person to watch each other’s back. Who wants to go with whom?”

Dane immediately said, “Jacqueline is with me.”

Trey said, “I want Stacey with me because she has some cool vampire moves. You’re on your own, Ryan.”

Ryan smiled. “I’m with Matt.”

“Did I just get picked last for teams?” Matt asked.

Everyone smiled.

“We don’t take out blood bonds,” Matt said. “If there are other vampires in the house and they stand back, we leave them alone. If they come after us, they’re dead. We’ll go in the back way together. Even though I like the idea of going in from different directions, and not getting backed into a corner, I want us to stick close to each other so we all have each other’s backs. But your partner is the one that you’ll be concentrating on. Does anyone have any different ideas?”

“We need one of those infrared cameras to know where everyone is in the house,” Stacey said.

“Yeah, we tried it once, but when we go into a fight, we often don’t have time to use one before we’re in attack mode,” Dane said.

“Completely understandable. Let’s go,” Jacqueline said, and Dane knew she wanted to get this over with if they could tonight.

They saw some security cameras, but the hunters skirted them, while the hunters turned vampires all vanished and reappeared in the backyard where they could check out the security cameras in the backyard. Heskel didn’t have any. Score!

But Dane couldn’t deny how much he worried about Jacqueline. He knew she was a good huntress, but she was also the one that Heskel could control—to an extent. They still didn’t know how much if he really put his mind to it, or how much she could fight against it.