Page 61 of Huntress Unleashed

The two guys were intent on trying to find something of value, and then one found a sword under the bed and pulled it out. “Hey, Jimmy, look at this. Here’s one of them. What if this isn’t a collector’s sword though?”

“Shit, you mean what if that’s a?—”

“Hunter’s sword?” Dane asked. “Like these?” He showed his sword to the men.

The two men hadn’t even been watching the doorway where Dane and Jacqueline were standing and observing them. But as soon as Dane spoke, the two guys whipped around. He swore they nearly peed their pants as their eyes widened, their jaws dropped, and their skin drained of color. Their hearts were beating triple time.

“It doesn’t pay to break into homes when you don’t know who owns them. Just a clue. Many of the homes in this development are owned by hunters. And some are even vampires.” Dane showed off his canines.

Then the other two guys came out of the guest room. Dane figured they had heard what he had said, and they raced down the stairs. Forget helping out their friends. They were on their own.

The two in Dane’s bedroom were just standing there, frozen in place, smelling of fear. Dane and Jacqueline were blocking the doorway, until Jacqueline wasn’t. Damn, he wished she had stayed with him, even though he felt confident in her abilities. But he was worried now too.

“Okay…okay, we’ll…we’ll leave,” the one guy finally managed to say, his voice shaking, his knees knocking.

“You can’t turn us, or you’ll be a rogue and hunters can terminate you,” the other guy said, defiant, all knowing, threatening.

The nerve of the bastard! “We’re hunters. Sit on the floor.” He said it in a way that controlled a human’s actions. He’d never tried doing that before, but both men immediately sat down on the floor. “Stay.” He hoped this worked like that and then he vanished to see what had happened with Jacqueline with the other two men, wanting to provide backup for her.

She had the other two men lying on the floor in the living room with their hands behind their backs while she was making a call on Dane’s home line. “I’ve called the police. They’re on their way.”

He loved her and was glad she had the same thought of doing the same thing as he did. “Another ability we haven’t used, eh?”

She smiled at him. “I’ve used it before.”

Now that had surprised him. “Oh?” She was such an open book, but also such a mystery.

She kissed him. “Yeah, I told the driver of the big pickup truck following behind mine, hugging my bumper, to back off on the highway one day and he did it! I couldn’t believe it.”

Dane laughed. He was glad it wasn’t something that was, well, rather roguish. He had never thought of trying to do that with someone who was tailgating him.

“How did you get through the security gate?” Dane asked the two men.

“A guy gave us the code,” the one man said.

“What guy?”

“The guy who sent us to this house.”

“Who is he?” Dane had thought this was just a random robbery.

“I don’t know, man. He gave us each fifty dollars to steal all the swords in the house. He said that you’re a sword enthusiast and he was supposed to sell the swords. He was going to give us another two-hundred-dollars each after he sold the swords.”

“And you believed that he would really come through with the money? Was he a hunter or a vampire? You didn’t figure that maybe I am one or the other since I ‘collect’ swords?” Dane was skeptical, but these guys looked a little strung out on drugs so they might have believed about anything the guy told them.

“No. He said you just collect them. We figured he was going to resell them on the hunters’ market or maybe they’re collectables and rarer, worth a lot more.”

“And you were meeting him where?”

“We’re supposed to call him once we have the swords, and he would pick them up.”

“Call him then.”

The guy called the number he had, but no one answered.

“Give me your phone and the number,” Dane told him.

The man did both.