Page 4 of Huntress Unleashed

She wasn’t told that other hunters had been tasked to take Astrophel down. From now on, she would ask to make sure that there weren’t a ton of other hunters trying to eliminate the same person. It was a waste of her time. Then she got a notice on her phone, and she checked it. The police force who had hired her notified her Astrophel was dead and they no longer needed her services. Great. She shoved her phone back in her pocket.

“Well, that’s great that you terminated him,” Stacey said, all smiles.

“Yeah, he was bad news.” Dane ran his hand through his wet hair.

“Okay, so we had four others who contacted me that they were coming. But they might not be showing up,” Anne said, “so we’ll get on with the meeting. Unless someone else wants to start, I’ll go first.”

“Sure, that sounds good,” Stacey said.

Dane agreed and glanced at Jacqueline, but she had already agreed that Anne was going first, and she didn’t feel she needed to do it again.

Anne said, “Okay, so like all of you, I was turned by a rogue vampire. Before I could kill him, he bit me and forced me to drink his blood. I was his to control. A hunter friend killed him thankfully, and I was free of the vampire’s will. Not only did I have issues with myself for being too slow in killing him, I hated the changes in me—the need for blood, that I was one of them and no longer strictly a hunter—I also hated the looks of sympathy from friends and family, who felt sorry for what I had become.”

“But don’t you love being able to vanish like vampires do? To be able to fly and leap into the air to fight? I love being able to do that,” Stacey said.

Then why was Stacey here if she was so happy with her life? This was a place to talk about their ordeals with dealing with this, not the wonders of being vampires. Jacqueline wanted to shake her head but caught herself before she did.

“I have to admit I enjoy the new feats I have. It has helped me to take down rogue vampires,” Anne said.

Jacqueline was ready to leave.

“What about anyone else? Does anyone want to tell us your story of how you were turned or the effect it has had on you?” Anne asked.

Stacey held up her hand as if she had to ask the teacher permission. “I do. Okay, so I was making out with this guy, and I didn’t even know he was a vampire.”

Jacqueline rolled her eyes, and wouldn’t you know, Dane caught her at it. He gave her a smidgeon of a smile.

Then Stacey said, “Anyway when he showed his fangs, I knew it was too late. I had my folded sword with my clothes on the floor beside the bed?—”

Way too much information…

“But I couldn’t reach it. I was furious when he bit me when I had thought he was just human. Then, as everyone knows, I couldn’t end his miserable life because he’d turned me. I ended up finally getting away from him. He knew he could let me go and call me to him anytime he wanted. But my brother came for him and ended him. Then I was free of the vampire’s control.”

“How do you feel about being turned?” Anne asked.

Other than great things, Jacqueline thought.

“Well, no one understands me. I mean my hunter friends and family,” Stacey said. “But what do they know?”

Anne nodded. “Do you want to go next, Jacqueline?”

Jacqueline motioned to Dane. “He can go next.”

“I was turned by a female rogue vampire.”

Oh, God, like Stacey was making love to a male vampire rogue, except he was fooling around with a female? Jacqueline didn’t want to hear about it.

“Yeah. I believed she was alone. In fact, a blood bond had told me she always went after homeless men alone, which made us believe she didn’t want any witnesses. But truly, I believe I was set up.”

“By the blood bond? Maybe the vampiress knew you were targeting her. Or maybe a hunter had it in for you?” Jacqueline asked, then chastised herself for wanting to know. But if she had been set up by either, they would be on her assassination list.

Dane smiled at her, but this time his smile had taken on a slightly sinister tone. “I’m still trying to learn the truth. Anyway, the vampiress had four male vampires with her. I wasn’t prepared to have to fight that many. I’m ashamed to say she got the best of me and turned me. But I was lucky my three brothers had been looking for me, were close by, and they came to my aid and killed the vampiress and the other two vampires. Not that my brothers didn’t have some choice words to say to me about going to fight the rogue vampire on my own,” Dane said.

Okay, so at least he was humble enough to tell his story and he hadn’t been making love to a rogue vampire when he was turned.

Everyone looked at Jacqueline, waiting for her to tell her story. She didn’t want to share, but she took a deep breath and let it out. “I was turned during a fight with a vampire where I lost control, like others have said here. My fiancé was furious with me when he learned I was turned. He dumped me and started dating my best friend, a huntress I had known since we were five. My parents are sad about it and can’t deal with it. I can’t be around them. They…make me uncomfortable. I make them just as uncomfortable. My brother hasn’t spoken to me since it happened except for telling me, along with my parents, to get some therapy. And my hunter friends that I’ve known for years no longer want to be around me. Yeah, sure, some of the vampire skills are handy to have, but it has changed everything for me. And not in a great way.” There, she said it. She wasn’t going to sugarcoat the way she felt.

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