Page 69 of Huntress Unleashed

“Well, you were right, and we deserved to be there. I’m just sorry that the hunters have decided to try and terminate you, but I want you to know I’ll always be there for you.”

“If you’re proposing to me…”

He smiled.

“Okay, yes, I’ll marry you. Do you have a ring?”

He laughed.

She sighed. “First I’m engaged to a hunter who deserts me and now one who doesn’t even want to give me a ring.”

“First chance we have to get one, I’ll take you to a jewelry store, but first, we have to stage your death and keep you out of the public eye.” Then he kissed her soundly.

And she kissed him back. “You are so the one for me.”

“That’s the way I feel about you.”

“Okay, let’s get my death over with.” She rummaged through her clothes, found a white shirt that she’d worn that had speckles of yellow and blue paint on it when she had been trying to paint some garden decorations and splattered a bit of paint on it. She pulled it out and yanked off her shirt and replaced it with her painted shirt. Then she found a pair of green jeans she had never liked. They were too tight in the waist, too baggy in the legs, and too short. She should have gotten rid of them a long time ago.

She stepped out of her jeans and then pulled on the green ones. “Let’s do this.”

They both vanished and ended up on the ground floor in the living room. No one was in there, but then they heard voices on the back patio and went out there. It was still storming out, so much for the weather report saying it was going to end, but she had a large-covered patio and so they were protected from the rain.

Everyone watched while Dane helped Jacqueline lie down on the patio, making sure she was in a position that looked natural for a huntress who had just been felled by a hunter. “What do you think?” Dane asked.

“Just have her clutching her sword,” Zeke said.

“But wouldn’t it be more realistic if she hadn’t been able to grab her sword?” Dane asked. “Otherwise, she might have killed the human hunters.”

“No sword then. She was defenseless. But we need to show what she was doing out on the patio when it’s raining,” Tobias said.

“I could be watering my potted plants over there.” Jacqueline motioned to a watering pitcher. “They like the patio shade, but it means I need to water them.”

“I got this,” Zeke said, grabbing the water pitcher and filling it with water from the hose next to the patio. Then he returned with it. “How do you want me to do this?”

“I’m right-handed. You can put it next to me on the patio, but maybe throw up your arm like I might have and let the water rain down on me, then lay it down on the patio where I might have dropped it and let the water spill out.”

“I’ll drop it from the height you probably would have been holding it when we startled you,” Zeke said.

Michael moved the plant stand near where she was lying so they could capture the picture of both. “You could have grabbed the plant stand or knocked it over and?—”

“No. I’m not destroying one of my plants for them,” she said.

They all smiled at her. She figured they were thinking that she was more important than her beautiful bougainvillea was.

19

“I have a better idea.” Dane helped Jacqueline up off the patio floor and handed her the water pitcher. “You’re watering your plant, and I come at you with a sword to your heart. React like you normally would and Michael will catch you when I pretend to cut you and set you gently down on the patio.”

“Okay got it.” She began watering the plant, and Dane pretended to thrust his sword at her. She threw her arms up in defense, the water splashing on her shirt and pants, getting them wet, and then she fell. Michael caught her and laid her out on the patio.

Tobias poured some blood on her chest, letting it spread naturally across her shirt and it mixed with some of the water on the fabric. She’d dropped the water pitcher nearby and the contents were spilling out, puddling next to her shoulder.

“How about some blood under her head, like she cracked her skull when she fell?” Zeke asked.

“Yeah, that’s a good idea, or that one of the other hunters hit her in the back of the head at the same time the other came at her from the front. That would make it seem more doable for them to take her out without having a fight on their hands,” Michael said. “And a reason for her not having time to disappear and arm herself.”

Then Dane lifted her head and Tobias spilled some blood on her head and underneath it.