Page 32 of Huntress Unleashed
Matt was in the lead with Ryan.
They heard loud laughter and talking inside.
How many were inside? And were they a mix of vampires and blood bonds? But mostly, would they fight the hunters and put their own necks at risk?
Matt used the lockpick and carefully opened the door, and they were all glad it didn’t squeak. Dane couldn’t stand squeaking doors and was always putting grease on his when they did that. But in a way, a squeaking door could act as an early warning system.
The laughter and talking was coming from deeper inside the house. The back door led into a den, and it was beautiful, the lights on in there showcasing oil paintings of ranches and cowboys, of cattle drives, and fields of Indian paintbrush. The couches were all brown leather and marble-topped tables with wrought iron legs.
Then they moved toward the room where all the conversations were coming from. They kept Dane and Jacqueline in the middle to begin with and Dane knew they were trying to keep anyone from hurting her.
“That’s him,” Jacqueline whispered to Dane, but Matt turned to look at her too. “In the room up ahead. I recognize his voice. It sounds just like his telepathic voice,” she said.
“That’s who we’ll concentrate on then,” Matt said.
They went slowly though, not wanting to alert everyone they were coming. Though it was killing Dane not to be able to rush in and kill the vampire to free Jacqueline from his control.
They reached the end of the hall where Matt could see what was going on, the rest of them holding back. Matt moved back to speak to them privately. It was so noisy in the living area that no one could hear them speaking.
“Five vampires—two on my list besides Heskel,” Matt said. “The one kind of in the middle of the whole group is Heskel. And it looks like about seven blood bonds are here. Ryan and I will go straight into the mess of them and target Heskel. Romanoff is off to the right near the fireplace holding a bloody cocktail and wearing a black tux. He’s a vampire on my list. Vandenburg is off to the left of the group feeding on a blood bond, both sitting on a forest green couch.”
“We’ll take out Romanoff,” Dane said, Jacqueline agreeing.
“We’ll aim for Vandenburg,” Trey said, and Stacey was ready for it.
“Let’s go,” Matt said, and he rushed into the room before anyone even noticed he shouldn’t have been there.
Stacey and Jacqueline vanished and appeared right next to their targets. Dane had to get with the program when it came to moving like that and quickly joined Jacqueline as she aimed her sword at the tux-clad vampire.
Trey was racing to catch up to Stacey as three of the blood bonds screamed out and ran away. They appeared eager to get out of the hunters’ path and live another day. As soon Romanoff saw Jacqueline with her sword aimed at his heart, he disappeared and came around behind her. But that’s when Dane came behind him and thrust his sword into the vampire’s heart. Dane was beginning to think this was a winning way for him to team up with Jacqueline. Romanoff turned into a baggy skinned skeleton while Matt was fighting Heskel and Ryan was fighting an overzealous and loyal blood bond.
Dane immediately flew to help Matt to take Heskel down, knowing he had to be their prime target.
Ryan killed the blood bond he was fighting, and the rest of the blood bonds rushed off through the front door and left. Trey and Stacey had managed to eliminate Vandenburg, the other three vampires who had been there quickly vanishing. Then Dane cut Heskel’s arm, and he immediately disappeared. “Damn it.” Dane looked around for Jacqueline, but she had vanished too.
Hell. “Jacqueline!” Dane tried to contact her telepathically then. “Jacqueline!”
The house had been vacated except for the dead body of the blood bond and the remains of Vandenburg and Romanoff. Matt was immediately on the phone with the police to verify the two rogue vampire kills.
“I’m at the house,” Jacqueline said to Dane. “Heskel was trying to make me turn on you. I had to get as far away from you as possible.”
“I’m coming. We didn’t kill him.” Dane said to Matt, “Jacqueline’s at my house. I’m going to join her in the vampire way.”
“I’ll drive your vehicle home when we’re done with the police here,” Matt said.
“I’ll go with you, Dane. Trey can drive my car there. What’s your address?” Stacey asked.
He told her the name of the residential area and gave her the address. She looked at her phone and found the directions for it. “Okay, I’m going with you.”
Then they both vanished and when they reached his place, he saw the whole house was dark. He didn’t like the looks of this.
He went inside and called out, “Jacqueline?” Then he tried telepathically communicating with her. “Jacqueline? Where are you?”
“At home.”
“Your home?”
“Yes, that’s what I said.”