"Like he hated huntresses with a passion but wanted to turn us and leave us as one of them. Maybe he thought our own people would shun us and so would the vampires," Eliza said. "I was out late, making a run to the grocery store. I was already a member of the border town here, but the closest grocery store was in League territory and near a vampire club. I was supposed to make a cake for an event the next day. As soon as I left my car, I was attacked."
"But you were both near a vampire club, by yourself." Selena explained what had happened to her. "Did you have any indication why he would go after you?" Selena figured he had to have some motivation. Or maybe not. He just wanted to build a huntress army for himself. "Did he ever tell you to do something?"
"He just said he'd tell us what to do when he was ready, otherwise, just go about our business. I suspect he wanted us to be part of a community before he had us doing his dirty work for him and giving huntresses a bad name," Brittany said.
"We killed his triplet sister, Feather," Eliza said. "She wore black feathers on the collars of her outfits, black feathers in her hair and when she was strolling down the street, five young men, early twenties, we guessed, taunted her, ridiculed her. We were just coming into the area, looking for a hunter club when we saw the scene begin to unfold before our eyes. We raced to stop her—wishing we had vampiric movement like the vampires do because we couldn't get there soon enough before she had killed all the humans. We reached her and killed her. She was the worst sort of rogue. She was on the League's list to terminate, but we weren't League hunters. We were also in League territory when it happened."
"I remember Feather being on a list of rogue vampires to take down. No one could ever locate her, and she'd killed humans before. She'd always left her signature black feather behind to mark the kill. So you didn't report it," Selena guessed.
"No, since we weren't members of the League and sanctioned to put her down, but we'd actually witnessed her murdering the humans, so we knew, as huntresses, we had to do it. She had two brothers. The one bit us and turned us, two weeks apart, like we had told you," Brittany said. "We figured it was payback for killing their sister."
"And the other brother?" Selena asked.
"He wanted to kill us, but the one who turned us was in charge. If the other could have, he would have killed us," Brittany said.
"But you killed the bastard who bit you?" Eliza asked Selena.
"It doesn't sound right to me," King said.
"What if someone else killed the rogue vampire?" Brittany asked.
"Like who?" Selena asked.
"The wolf. What if he, shifted, grabbed up your sword when you were passed out, and killed the vampire for what he had done to you?" her brother asked.
"That could be. The wolf didn't attack me when I was trying to make my way to the vampire club. He was steering me that way. Maybe he had killed the rogue vampire." Selena hoped that was what had happened. That the rogue was truly dead and the other one? Hadn't been a rogue at all. But if that was the case, there had to be another—the one who had said she should have died. "How are you feeling about what has happened?"
Eliza sighed. "I never thought that this would happen to me in a million years. Die at the hands of a vampire during battle, sure. But be turned? Never. I've found acceptance. It has been a learning curve for me. The teeth extending, hearing telepathic conversations when I shouldn't be able to when I'm near vampires. At least when I'm with hunters, I don't hear any of that."
Brittany agreed. "Same for me. I've been turned a little longer than Eliza, but I was so glad when we were able to commiserate with each other about it. I had known her as a huntress first, so it was a shock to learn she'd been bitten also. And we were certain it was the same vampire who had bitten both of us. The problem was we couldn't report it to the League. They wouldn't help us when we live in the border towns. It didn't matter that it happened in their territory. Idiots."
"I agree with you there," Selena said. “And it’s wrong.”
"But you're not with a border town, are you? You're with the League," Eliza said.
"I was. We don't have any hunters turned working for the League, so I don't know how effective that will be." Selena figured she would be teamed up with the vampires not the League anyway.
"You can join us," King said again.
Selena smiled. "I'm with the vampires."
The women looked shocked. King shook his head.
"They took me in, protected me, cared for me when I was so badly injured. My own kind wouldn't help me."
King glanced at her brother as if accusing him of being worse than a rogue. But her sister hadn't helped her either. Still, her brother should have been there for her, and she still was irritated with him for kicking her out of the hunter club when she hadn't had her car and she was still recovering from her injuries. Then again, if he hadn't kicked her out of the club, she might not have seen Atreides again. So she had to give her brother that.
"I love one of them," Selena said.
That surprised all of them. They were hunters and that still probably didn't sit well with them.
"If that makes you both happy," Rosa said, "then I'm happy for you. It's Atreides, isn't it?"
"The prince of the vampires? Brother to the leader of the clan?" King asked, still looking astonished to hear the news.
“Yes.”
The turned huntresses looked astounded.
Selena wasn't surprised at their response. If anyone had told her she would have fallen in love with a vampire? No way. And for him to be the sub-leader of the vampire clans in their area? Really, no way.
King sat back on his chair. "Well, his brother does have a huntress turned mate also. So I guess it runs in the family."
Except his brother didn't know anything about it.
"Wow," Eliza said. "I don't know how I would feel about being with the vampires after one nearly killed me and because of all the training I’ve had in hunting down the rogues."
"I feel the same way," Brittany said.
"We're looking for hunters who have been killing vampiresses indiscriminately," Selena telepathically told them, realizing that she had the advantage here. That she could connect with the women on some level because they'd been hurt by the same vampire. She believed. Maybe the hunters on the fringe wouldn't care anything about the murdered vampiresses, but maybe Eliza and Brittany could help her convince them that it was a just cause and to turn over hunter rogues if they knew anything about them.
King was asking her brother about why he hadn’t helped his sister, berating him for being with the League and not being there for family in the meantime.
Which helped Selena conceal that she was speaking telepathically with the women. She noticed Rosa watching her and she smiled a little. Her sister knew what she was up to.
"You want us to learn what we can from the hunters living in the border towns?" Eliza asked Selena.
"If the rogues are here." Selena explained about the one she killed and that the rogues might be League members, but if they weren't, they needed to cover all bases.