A van pulled up to the curb next to where they were walking and Atreides and the hunters suddenly stopped in their tracks, wary of a potential threat.
"What do you think?" Selena said as they eyed the van.
Then the side doors opened, and the front passenger and driver's doors did, and eight hunters got out of the van.
"Daniel told us Cliff was prowling the red-light district. We're here to help track him down," Bernard said. He was Tezra’s former investigative partner.
Selena smiled. "Thanks, Bernard."
"We didn't want you to get all the glory. The council has named Cliff and his buddies the League’s Most Wanted. They respect you and know that Cliff and the others want your head, so they want you protected at all costs." Bernard inclined his head. "I worked with Tezra, I will work with you."
Atreides couldn't believe this turn of events. He really hadn't thought the League would be this serious about helping them out and really, making a pact with the vampires to take down rogue hunters.
"Where is he?" Bernard asked.
Atreides respected him and was glad he was here to help.
"I have a couple of my men scouting ahead. We don't know how big their force is," Atreides said.
"Okay, we're going to split into groups of four. We'll keep in touch." Bernard led one group, another man leading another as they split off and started to roam the streets, the call girls trying to solicit them while they were searching for Cliff and his cohorts in crime.
"Do you think we'll spook them with so many hunters suddenly descending on the area?" Selena asked.
"We might," Atreides said.
Selena lifted her nose and smelled the air. "I smell Cliff's scent. Over here."
"That was the car he was using," Atreides said.
Daniel pulled out his sword and sliced up the tires. "He won't be getting away in this vehicle if he gets spooked."
"Would they have come in different cars?" Atreides asked.
"I doubt it. They always rode together," Selena said. "Though they could steal a car. Why would they be down here? That's what I wonder. They're not into prostitutes. Hunters usually don't frequent these areas. Vampires either. And if they're looking for vampiresses to kill, they probably won't find them here."
"I don't know. Unless they're here because they don't think anyone would believe they would be, citing the reasons you just gave," Atreides said.
"I smell their scent down this alley," Selena said.
Everyone drew their swords and walked down the dark alley, the mist floating in the darkness. A cat scampered out of the alley and into the next street.
Then they reached the next street and looked about. He hoped they weren't being led on a wild goose chase. "Which way?" Atreides asked.
"To the left," Selena said, glancing back at her brother and sister who both agreed.
Atreides broadcast telepathically to his friends, "We're on the scent trail of Cliff and his friends." He told them the street they were on and the direction they were headed.
"We're on our way," Colt said.
The mist thickened into a light rain and they continued to follow the men's scents. They were fresh so Quail had been right about the men being here. Which made him wonder if Quail was here now, following them himself.
"Quail, do you know where they are?"
"I lost them. They were at a tattoo parlor when I saw them going in. I waited for them to come out, but they didn't. They'd taken so long, I finally went inside and they'd slipped out a back way."
"But they didn't know you were following them?" Atreides was afraid the men had taken off in another vehicle.
"I can't be sure."
"But they didn't ambush you when you came out of the tattoo parlor," Atreides said.
"I was mist."
Atreides told him where they were now.
"I'll meet you there," Quail said.
"Don't engage them. The hunters need to do this. We have more hunters on the scene to help take them down."
Selena got a call and said, "Bernard said they tracked down Lonnie. He fought the hunters and they had to kill him."
"Have they split up then? Cliff and his buddies?" Atreides asked. If that was the case, they would be looking for individuals and not a group of rogue hunters. It would make it easier for those hunting them down in a way, but one or two of them could slip away.
To their surprise the two huntresses turned showed up.
Eliza said, "Selena told us you needed help."
Brittany said, "We're here to offer our support."
"We're on the trail of Cliff and his men." The scent trail was leading them to an apartment complex and Atreides wondered if they had a safe house of sorts there. He was thinking if Cliff and his men had split up, with the extra help here, they could split up too. But the fringe huntresses turned weren't sanctioned by the League, so he figured they'd better stay together and if anyone of them had to resort to killing Cliff and the rest of his men, they would give the credit to Selena and her siblings.
Daniel entered the building first and invited Atreides and the others in, though the huntresses turned didn't need an invitation. They heard yelling in a couple of apartments, people fighting, a baby crying. An elevator was straight ahead, but to the left was the door to the fire stairs. Selena pointed to the door.
To keep in shape, the hunters would use the stairs.
Daniel went first, though Atreides had wanted to. Then they all headed inside.
Atreides didn't like that they were bunched up in the narrow stairs as they climbed one flight after another until they came to the fifth story of the five-story building.
Daniel opened the door, and they all went into the hall and found it clear.
"Okay, let's split up here," Daniel said quietly, when they smelled that the men had split up and moved in both directions down the hall.
The two fringe huntresses turned stayed together with Daniel, and Atreides, Selena, and Rosa went in the opposite direction.
They glanced back at Daniel and the other women. They were standing beside a door and waiting for Atreides and Daniel’s sisters to be in place before they broke in the doors.
Atreides and his party were standing at the door down the hall where they smelled Cliff and the others had been. "Ready?" he whispered, though he would have telepathically spoken just to Selena, he had to let Rosa know what he intended to do. He did telepathically say the same to the others in the hall because the two huntresses turned could tell Daniel what Atreides had said.
Daniel inclined his head and then both he and Atreides slammed into their respective doors and broke them in. That was the problem with cheap doors when hunters, and vampires, used their power to break them in.
Cliff was off the couch in an instant, but instead of coming at them with a sword, he began shooting at them.
Atreides whipped Rosa out of the room’s entryway using vampiric transportation. Selena vanished. Weapons were discharged in the other apartment and Atreides saw that Eliza had moved Daniel out of the apartment he'd entered.
Neither hunters nor vampires used guns. It wasn't done. These men were rogues of the worst sort.
"Hell, we've got to get out of here," one of the other men yelled to Cliff.