Page 34 of Huntress Unleashed

“At least we took two down on my list,” Matt said, “though more than anything, I wished we could have taken down Jacqueline’s vampire.”

Everyone agreed.

Then Dane got a call from Zachary Bremerton, and he wondered if he’d heard Dane had been turned. Zach had and had been so distraught when he had been turned that he had wanted to die. But that had all changed for him when he met the huntress of his dreams. “Hey, I’m putting this on speakerphone. My brothers are all here and so are two of my friends who are huntresses who have likewise been turned, if that’s what you’re calling about.”

“Yeah. Adonis, Rachael, Pasha, Michael, Danai and I are back in Dallas, and we learned what had happened to you. How are you and the huntresses doing?” Zachary asked.

“Well, we kind of have a problem. Jacqueline’s maker is still alive.” That’s all Dane needed to say. Adonis had mated Zachary’s cousin, Rachael, and had been a hunter before he was turned. He couldn’t kill his maker either, who had been trying to force him to hand Rachael over to him, but with Zachary and other members of the family’s help, they had finally eliminated Adonis’s and his sister’s maker and rescued his parents and younger sister. But his older sister, Danai, was dating Zachary’s older brother, Michael. So Adonis and his older sister had known just how hard it was to be hunters who were turned and then forced to do their maker’s bidding.

“We’ll help you with this,” Zach said.

“Thanks,” Jacqueline said. “I’m Jacqueline and met Dane and Stacey at a group therapy meeting to deal with being hunters turned.”

“We heard about that too. We’ll be at the next meeting to share our experiences, though I think for the most part, we’re dealing with it the best way we can. But if we can speak about what happened to us, maybe it will help others to realize what we have become doesn’t have to be a curse,” Zachary said.

“We were talking about going to a hunters’ club and getting drinks and dancing,” Jacqueline said.

“We will be there to back them up,” Matt said.

Zachary laughed. “Well, we haven’t tried that since all this happened. We’ve been in Florida taking down rogue vampires for the family, so, yeah, sign us up. I’m sure Adonis and the rest of us would all be for it. What’s the worst that could happen? A bunch of narrow-minded hunters kick us out? Maybe someday we’ll have a club of our own. But until then, we’re still hunters, right?”

“That’s exactly what we were saying,” Dane said.

“Well, my family will be there backing us too and they have a lot of sway in Dallas,” Zachary said.

“Okay, we’ll make it a date. Though Jacqueline wants to wait until we take down her maker,” Dane said.

“We’ll help you with that too. What’s his name?” Zachary asked.

Dane said, “Heskel.”

“Hell, he was Piaras’s friend. When Rachael killed Piaras, she had ended the rogue vampire’s reign of terror. Piaras was the one who had turned Adonis and his older sister, Danai, and had wanted to turn Rachael to be his own mate. Heskel wasn’t at Piaras’s house when the hunters went there to eliminate him. It appears, Heskel didn’t have designs on Jacqueline, like Piaras had on Rachael, since the time that she was a youngster.”

“Yeah, she had killed Heskel’s twin brother, and he caught her at it. Instead of killing her, he turned her. We’ve tried twice to take him down, but he just vanishes before we can do it,” Dane said.

“We’ll add him to our list.”

“Okay, thanks. We can use all the help we can get on this,” Dane said.

“You’re welcome. We’ll talk soon.” Then Zachary and Dane ended the call.

“That’s great news about the other hunters helping us,” Jacqueline said. “I’ve never met Zachary or his family, but his family are well-known in Dallas.”

“Yeah, when some of them were turned, it really rocked the city. Some hunters still were their friends, and others dropped them,” Dane said.

“Like what had happened to us,” Jacqueline said.

“Oh, yeah, the same with me,” Stacey said, then finished her margarita. “Thanks for helping me take down my rogue.”

“Thanks to you for helping to take down one of our rogues,” Matt said.

“If you need any help with anyone else, Stacey, just give me a call,” Jacqueline said.

“Thanks. I will.” But Stacey glanced at Dane as if she fully intended to call on him, not Jacqueline. “Oh, and if you get an idea where Heskel might be, call me and I’ll go with you. We have to free Jacqueline of the curse.”

“Do you need one of us to follow you home so you get their safely?” Trey asked.

“No, I’m good, thanks so much!” Then Stacey gave everyone a hug, Jacqueline last, of course, and then she left.