The men all nodded and left the house.
“Wow,” Pasha said. Then she smiled. “Now that’s something Adonis would have loved to have done—had a whole police force at his beck and call.”
“Just the ones who were here today would be affected,” Zachary warned her.
Adonis and Danai joined them in their vampiric way.
“Then I will take care of the rest of them,” Adonis said. “You get Carissa and the baby. In the meantime, I want the rest of you to remain with them at the hotel we’re staying at.”
“I’m going with you,” Danai said to Adonis. “You’ll need my help in commanding the police to do our bidding. With two of us, it will go faster.”
“I’ll get hold of our grandparents,” Pasha said, “once we’re back at the hotel. And Carissa’s sister and brother-in-law. Maybe Carissa can take care of the baby and toddlers if her sister and brother-in-law want to help us fight.”
“Her brother-in-law, yes, but the mothers need to protect their kids. I’d rather they leave here and stay with our parents for the time-being,” Adonis said.
“You’ll have a fight on your hands.” Danai patted his shoulder. “Carissa won’t leave.”
“All right, well, let’s do this.” Adonis and Danai took one of the vehicles while Michael drove the others in the SUV to the condo where Carissa was staying.
When they arrived, Zachary and Pasha knocked at the door. A human male answered the door, and Zachary telepathically said, “We’re friends of Carissa’s, taking her and the baby home to Rochester, New York. She is as human as you are, and you will remember nothing else.”
The man allowed them to enter and Pasha quickly said to the human female, “I’m Carissa’s cousin. Danai told us she was here.”
Carissa hurried out with a sleeping baby swaddled in her arms. “Ohmigod, Pasha. I’m so glad you’re all right.”
Pasha gave her and the baby a combined a hug.
Zachary was telepathically telling the human woman the same as he had her husband so she wouldn’t remember a hunter and her baby had been staying with them. “Her name is Rebecca. The baby’s name is Fred.”
“What’s he doing?” Carissa asked Pasha under her breath.
“He’s a hunter turned like Danai and Adonis,” Pasha said.
“Oh, oh, they can control minds like the vampires can?”
“Yeah, just like that. Zachary told the police clean-up crew that he’s in charge of them now.”
“Oh, that is just too insanely cool.”
Zachary was glad to hear that at least Carissa was fine with him being a vampire now.
“Adonis and Danai went to the police department to do the same with all the rest of the officers they can find.”
“Great.”
Zachary told the husband and wife, “You won’t remember that we came to get Rebecca and the baby.”
The couple nodded, and then Zachary helped Pasha carry a suitcase and bags of baby items out to the car, while Michael helped Carissa into the backseat of the SUV.
Rachael told Carissa she’d mated Adonis, and Carissa smiled. “I didn’t think he’d ever settle down.”
“Believe me, it was a challenge for both of us because he’d already been turned and he was supposed to hand me over to the head rogue vampire in Dallas,” Rachael said.
“No,” Carissa said.
Rachael ran her hand over the baby’s cheek in a soft caress. “Yeah, but Danai and Adonis needed my help in freeing the rest of their family from his imprisonment.”
“Which is how Zachary was turned. He was helping to free me and my family and it was all my fault,” Pasha said.
Carissa shook her head. “Your friend was your best friend.”
“And she died anyway before I could even come to her aid. Look at what I did to the rest of my family because of it!”
They all climbed into the SUV and Michael drove them to the hotel.
“Crichton did that to our family. He had already amassed his vampires to strike. We were in chaos when he and his followers attacked, but maybe we would have been anyway, whether your family had been here or not. Who knows?” Carissa let out her breath. “I know what you want to do with me and the baby. You also know how I feel about this and avenging my mate’s death. I won’t be stopped in helping to rid ourselves of the menace here now. My sister will take care of Chelsie, along with her twins.”
“What about you, Pasha?” Zachary asked. She’d been so weak after having been imprisoned by Piaras for so long, he thought she might need time to recover.
Pasha gave him a look that said she’d consider adding him to the termination list Crichton was on. He figured she’d feel that way, but he thought he would mention it just in case she wanted to stay with the baby and let Carissa fight since she was going to no matter what.
“My cousin Rachael is pregnant.” Zachary hoped she’d have enough sense to stay home and maybe watch Carissa’s baby, but he was certain she wouldn’t.
“Oh, my,” Carissa said, her eyes round. “Is it—”
“A girl or a boy? We don’t know,” Rachael said. “It’s only been two months. Beyond that? We don’t know what the baby will be. Vampire? Hunter? A little of both?”
“A new world is upon us,” Carissa said.
“I’ll say,” Zachary agreed. He and the other hunters who had been turned were living proof of it.
“What about your mom and dad?” Carissa asked Pasha. “Are they returning to take over?”
“No,” Pasha said. “They are broken. They would have led the charge here if they’d been all right. It doesn’t mean that given time they couldn’t return and help the clan. They might.”
“So who’s going to be in charge?” Carissa asked.
Pasha scoffed. “You have to ask?”
“Adonis.” Carissa smiled at Rachael. “I hope that’s okay with you. I mean, if we can kill Crichton and his rogues, you don’t mind settling down here.”
“It will be fine with me. I’ll be happy wherever we can be together. What about you?”
“I don’t know. Losing my mate here is still fresh on my mind. Fighting the monsters, seeing my own parents fall to their killing spree. I don’t know. I trust in Adonis to lead, but I’m just not sure I can stay.”
“The Dallas clans would take you and the baby in,” Rachael assured her.
“I could go there to see how my aunt and uncle are doing and maybe we could all get over this together.”
They arrived at the hotel, and Zachary began to take the suitcase and other bags out of the car. “Do you want a separate room, or do you want to stay with Danai and Pasha?”
“It depends on what they want,” Carissa said. “The baby can keep me up nights.”
“Let’s see what Danai wants to do. With being newly turned, she’s been rather on edge. No matter what though, one of us will stay with you,” Pasha said.
“Thank you. Oh, and I got in touch with our grandparents. They’re on their way to help.” Carissa smiled. “They were furious that the younger generation told them to stay away and not come to assist. Grandpa said they’d fight the good fight until the end. Retirement is for humans.”