Page 68 of Huntress Unleashed
“You don’t need to thank me for anything,” Dane said. “I did it for her. I would have done it for anyone who was in that situation.”
“Well, I should have been there for her,” Robert said.
“Yeah, you should have been. You and your family and her ex-fiancé.” Dane went to the kitchen and got some water to drink.
“So I guess you all had something to prove by going to the hunters’ club last night,” Robert said.
“That we’re still hunters? Yeah,” Dane said. “We could go to a vampire club, but I believe we would be less welcome there.” He retook his seat next to Jacqueline.
“Uh, probably,” Robert said. “They might think you were there to hunt a rogue.”
“Exactly.”
“What about human clubs?” Zeke suggested. “I mean, I don’t see that anyone would even know what you are if you went to one of them.”
“We’ve actually been to one and really enjoyed it,” Jacqueline said, “but like Dane commented, we don’t feel that we should be shunned from a hunters’ club when we had only been doing our jobs and ended up getting turned. Though I guess it counts for those hunters who fall in love with a vampire and then are turned also. They still fight the rogues.” She realized that she hadn’t really thought about them because they were in a different category. Just like babies born of hunters turned would be even another category of hunter-vampire combos.
Then they heard someone park in the driveway and Jacqueline vanished, reappeared, and peered out the peephole in the front door. “It’s Danai and Michael.” She got the door for them.
“Hey,” Michael said, “Tobias is so pissed off about the hunters who are friends of Gregory who are planning to eliminate hunters turned. Aren’t there enough rogue vampires to get rid of? Asses.”
Danai was quiet but came inside the house and petted Princess that eagerly greeted all the newcomers.
“Okay, so Tobias is coming to get your statement and the recording you had made,” Michael said. “After that, we’ll move you to our compound. It won’t take long before the word gets out that the hunters have been added to a list to arrest and be dealt with.”
“Dealt with,” Zeke said. “I hope that means they’ll be terminated because that’s the only way any of you will be safe, well, and us included.”
“We’ll deal with it,” Michael said. “Rest assured. We can’t afford to have them come after one of our own, or honest citizens like yourselves who are working on the side of good.”
Then someone knocked at the door and Michael hurried to get it. “It’s Tobias. Come in, Dad.”
After Tobias discussed the matter with Zeke and his friends, he asked Jacqueline if she had someplace private that he could use to talk to the league council members.
“Yes, in the den.” She led him in there.
“Thanks.”
Then she left him alone so that he could conduct his business.
Once he contacted the other council members concerning the matter, he returned to the living room. The human hunters seemed a little on edge, shuffling in their seats, and she was sure it was because they worried about what the upshot of all this would be.
“We’re taking care of it,” Tobias said.
“We have a little problem with time.” Dane explained about what Zeke and his team of hunters were supposed to do.
“Then we stage it. Probably somewhere that we can easily mop up the blood from the scene afterwards,” Tobias said.
“Maybe the back patio?” Jacqueline suggested. “That way I can hose off the patio after we spill some blood there.” Though she hated to waste the precious commodity that she had purchased.
“What about your clothes? Do you want to change into something that you don’t mind ruining if we can’t get the blood out?” Tobias asked.
“Yeah, I’ll be right back.”
“But it needs to be light-colored enough that they can recognize the blood on you in the photo,” Tobias called after her.
To her surprise, when she appeared in her bedroom, Dane followed and took her into his arms and kissed her. “I’m so sorry about this.”
“You needn’t be. I was the one who wanted so badly to go to the hunters’ club to prove we had a right to be there.”