Atreides could imagine his friends all vying to win the huntress’s favor. Not that they would want her as a mate or anything, but just to be able to show off to the others of their kind that they had made inroads with a huntress. They would be the talk of the clans for years to come, just as Daemon had been when he took Tezra for his own.
Still, their point was valid.
“Until we sort this out, you can stay in the guest rooms.”
Everyone was grinning, but the huntress. She had fallen asleep in the farthest back seat in the van. If Atreides hadn’t been concerned he might need their help in protecting the huntress while they looked into this matter, he would have said no.
“What do you think this is truly about?” Renault asked.
“It could be anything from a vampire just being a psycho with no rhyme or reason for the attack, a way to get back at the hunters who have murdered some of our vampiresses with no just cause, or a way to start a war between our people and theirs. There’s just no telling.”
“And Twilight’s involvement?” Colt asked.
“She doesn’t like hunters. Yet when she came into the room to see Selena, she seemed more than interested in her. I thought it was just because the huntress was acting so out of her element and that intrigued Twilight, but then she’d said she’d intended to rendezvous with her,” Atreides said.
“I would love to hear the reason,” Renault said.
“I’m sure we all would,” Atreides said. “It was something to do with Selena looking for her sister, but we don’t even know who she is.” He realized he should have asked Tara Green if she knew who Selena’s sister was.
“I found Twilight sleeping at a hotel near the club. Do you want to have me take her to your house or the club?” Basil communicated to Atreides privately.
“My house. See you there in a few minutes,” Atreides said telepathically back. To his friends, he said, “Basil found Twilight. They’ll meet us at my house.”
“Maybe she’ll be able to shed some light on this,” Renault said.
“If she knows who the rogue vampire is and didn’t tell me already, she’ll be banned from all vampire establishments,” Atreides said.
“Amen to that,” Colt said.
When they arrived at Atreides’s home, lights illuminated the gardens out front of the two-story brick mansion and Atreides first noticed Iconia’s yellow Mustang sitting in the long, curved driveway. Hell.
“More trouble,” Colt said. “How about I carry the huntress into the house so Iconia won’t be quite as pissed about it. The huntress is still sound asleep.”
“Do so.”
Atreides left the van to speak with Iconia, to tell her that he had business to take care of, and they would make time for each other later. But as soon as she saw Colt carrying the huntress out of the vehicle and heading toward the front door of his home, he swore she was going to go into a feeding frenzy and spill blood, his, the huntress’s, and anyone else’s who got in her way.
“What is she doing here?” Iconia asked, her extended canines visible.
“She was injured by a rogue vampire and—”
“The way she came into the club, she deserves everything she got. Again, I say, what is she doing here?”
“She didn’t deserve being brutalized by a vampire. No one does.”
Renault opened the front door for Colt as he cradled the huntress in his arms and entered the house.
“I have some business to take care of. We’ll have to see each other later.”
“If you would mate me, we wouldn’t have to find time to spend with each other,” Iconia said, slipping close to him, wrapping her arms around his neck, pressing her body against his.
Yet, his body craved the feel of the huntress close, the impish expression she had worn when she’d danced with him, the subtle fragrance that was all hers.
“Later,” he said, kissed Iconia on the forehead, and vanished. He knew she would be even more pissed off now, but he wouldn’t tell her again that he had business to take care of.
Inside, Basil waited with Twilight in the living room with Colt and Renault.
“Where is the huntress?” he asked his friends telepathically.
“Sleeping in the guest room she used before,” Colt said.
“All right, let’s get down to business.” Atreides motioned for Twilight to take a seat on one of the velour couches.
She flopped down on one as if she didn’t have a care in the world. If he said she could no longer use any of the vampire establishments, would she be so carefree? As much as she loved them, Atreides didn’t think so.
“You asked to see the huntress through a human, Tara Green?”
All of the vampires were watching her, smelling her emotions, studying her reactions, subtle or not. Twilight twisted her lips in a way that said she was trying to figure out what to say that wouldn’t get her into trouble with the vampires, Atreides thought.
“Okay, what did you need to speak with the huntress about?” Atreides asked, getting down to business.
“Her sister Rosa has disappeared. She has done it before. She’s a huntress, wild, trying to find a hunter mate. No one believes she’s missing. The other hunters assume she just doesn’t want to be found because she’s fooling around with another hunter.”
“Rosa,” Atreides said. “All right.” He folded his arms as he looked down at her. “But you have word otherwise?” Twilight couldn’t have. Rosa was the huntress who had agreed to work with him. No one but the vampires who were guarding her knew about her.
Basil and Renault took a seat on a couch opposite her. Colt leaned on an arm of the sofa, his arms crossed over his chest. Atreides remained standing.
“Everyone has ignored the situation but her sister, Selena. She has been looking into her disappearance. Tara Green is a friend of mine. She’s a friend of Selena’s. Tara asked if I could check my vampire sources, that’s what she calls you all, and see if I might learn anything that would lead to a different conclusion. That the huntress is in trouble. That she had a bad run-in with a vampire or a group of vampires, and that she’s not with a hunter like the others believe.”
“And?”
“I didn’t find her. But I learned that Selena was outed by her kind.”
“Why?”
“She killed a hunter who was going to murder a vampiress who happened to be carrying his child. When he learned of it, he intended to murder her. Selena protected the vampiress, but the hunter wouldn’t stand down. He planned to kill both of them, huntress and vampiress. He couldn’t let a vampire-hunter child of his stain his reputation as a hunter.”
“Selena killed him,” Atreides said, taking a seat on a chair, surprised as hell. “And for that, she has been cut off from her kind, despite doing what was right.”
“Who is the vampiress?” Basil asked.
“Charlene. But she’s dead. The brother of the one who Selena killed went after Charlene, determined to finish what his brother attempted to do. Except this time, Selena wasn’t there to protect her.”
“The hunter’s name?”
“Cliff Kellerman. He’s a redhead, and he was close to his brother. Rumor is he intends to kill Selena next for murdering his brother, even though she was in the right, and he and his brother were in the wrong.”