Page 53 of Huntress Unleashed
“With you, I just feel it. I swear you really bring it out in me.”
“That’s good. You do that with me too. Van always said I was out of step with him half of the time, but he would throw me off balance. With you, I have no problem.”
Then five hunters came into the club, glanced at those of the hunters who had been turned, and immediately voices were raised. “Hell, who let them in?”
Dane and Jacqueline immediately glanced at the five men. But Dane noticed the other hunter-turned vampires were also observing the men.
Not only them though. Even Stacey’s brother had seen her dancing and then was watching the men who had made the comment. The tension was palpable. Things had been fine until those men had shown up. Even Moose hadn’t said anything, and Dane suspected he was glad Dane had been turned so that Moose had a chance to be with Dane’s fiancée.
The five men got a bunch of beers and got a table as close to Dane and his friends’ table as they could. They were itching to start a fight and drinking would certainly help to get that going.
Dane thought about taking Jacqueline home, but he hated to look like he was afraid of a little confrontation. Plus, the whole business of showing his fangs off if he got riled wouldn’t be tolerated in a hunters’ club or anywhere else, unless he was fighting a rogue vampire, he figured.
Jacqueline slid her hand over his shoulder. “Ignore them.”
“Do you want to stay?”
“We came to enjoy the company of our friends while having drinks and dancing. Are you worried they’ll start real trouble?”
“I’m worried I’ll show off my fangs and then cause real trouble.”
She sighed. “Yeah, that could be an issue. I hadn’t thought of that. How about we stay here unless they really become a problem?”
“All right. But the first sign of real danger to you, I’m whisking you out of here.”
She chuckled. “Unless I do it to you first.”
“I’ll go along with that.” He kissed her again.
They heard a couple of taunts from the men at the table next to theirs. “Go suck blood somewhere else.” “Man, when a hunter club turns into a vampire club, it’s time to find a real hunters-only club.”
Then go somewhere else, Dane wanted to say.
Tobias glanced at the men, and Dane was afraid he would walk over there and start a real scene. Tobias had a lot of clout in the city since he was the head of the League of Hunter’s Council. Ever since his son Zachary, his son Michael’s fiancée, Danai, and his niece Rachael’s mate, Adonis, had been forcibly turned against their will by rogue vampires on hunters’ terminal lists, he had advocated for the hunters. Tobias had realized that it could happen to any hunter on a case. And Rachael had asked Adonis to turn her, and their baby was a hunter-vampire mix. So far, the baby didn’t need to drink blood, but she wasn’t affected by sunlight at all. They wouldn’t know whether she would have telepathic communication until she was older and could really speak to them as a human to begin with. It was all such a new phenomenon.
Tobias and his brothers, Brent and Curt, were all glowering at the five hostile hunters.
15
“If one of us forces a vampire to show his or her fangs, we can terminate them,” one of the five hunter rabble-rousers said, which so irritated Jacqueline, mainly because she was afraid it could be true.
“Who are these hunters? Do you know them?” Jacqueline asked Dane.
“Yeah. Friends of Gregory Devine, a hunter who wanted to marry Rachael until Adonis fell in love with her and she wanted Adonis to turn her. Gregory attempted to kill Adonis. Gregory was banned from here, but then he helped Adonis and his family to eliminate the rogue vampire threat to the rest of his family in Florida, where he made some amends. Still, some of Gregory’s friends are still here and itching to cause trouble,” Dane said.
“Why weren’t they banished also?” she asked.
“They hadn’t done anything like Gregory had with trying to kill Adonis. The other hunters that had stood by Gregory, left with him, looking for places that they could still work as hunters and ended up in Florida. They didn’t realize they would end up fighting for Adonis and his family at first. But a few of Gregory’s friends, who had kept their noses clean until now, stayed behind.”
“Hmm. It appears that they still feel like Gregory had felt about hunters who have been turned,” Jacqueline said.
“Yeah. Sore heads. I would like to see how they would feel if they were in our situation.”
Then one of the hunters rose from his chair and started across the dance floor with a beer bottle in his hand. Immediately, Van jumped out of his chair at the table he was sitting with Lettie and Michael released Danai while dancing with her as they both headed for the beer bottle wielding hunter.
“If you know what’s good for you, you’ll return to your seat with your friends or even better, you should leave before you get hurt,” Michael said, his voice dark with threat.
“Or what?” the guy said.