Pasha said, “Zachary wants one of us to kill him after we finish Crichton and his minions off. He doesn’t want to be a hunter turned.”
Zachary hadn’t expected her to tell her family that. He wasn’t sure he wanted anyone to kill him now. Some of his new skills were pretty cool. And he was beginning to think—right or wrong—he might even change Pasha’s mind about what he had become.
“No way. You gave us a real advantage back there. You stopped those men when they could have killed some or all of us. Before we got away, I saw that at least one of them was an ancient,” Jeremy said. “This could be a real boon to us.”
“Two were ancients,” Pasha said, sounding proud of Zachary. “The one I took out was newly turned.”
“Thank you for taking him down,” Zachary said to Pasha.
“So what’s the plan?” Jeremy asked.
“Adonis will meet with all of us and we’ll decide what to do. Grandma and Danai said they’d take care of the boys and Carissa’s baby if you want to hunt, Laura,” Pasha said.
“I do. Danai is really fine with it?” Laura asked.
“She’s worried about the kids. Being turned has changed her. She’s not the same as before.”
“In a good or bad way?” Laura asked.
“Bad, to begin with. Until she met Michael, Zachary’s older brother. That whole business between them is up in the air,” Pasha said.
“And Adonis?” Jeremy asked.
“He’s changed too, but the huntress Rachael has given him his life back. Danai is courting her cousin, Michael. We’re not sure if they’ll still mate or not. He didn’t know she’d been turned, but he’s really helped her to want to live again,” Pasha said. “And he seems to be accepting of her, even after he learned what she had become. He accepts Adonis mating with his cousin Rachael. And she’s pregnant.”
Jeremy said, “We’ll help them get through this. They’ll find acceptance with us. We need every advantage we can get in the coming years.”
“I agree,” Laura said.
Zachary realized that showing what they could do as vampires was the perfect way to gain the hunters’ trust. Killing the two ancient vampires had earned him that trust.
When they finally arrived at the hotel room where everyone was gathered, the introductions started all over again, and to Zachary’s surprise, Pasha eagerly told of his vampiric heroics to save them, not mentioning that she had taken the third vampire out on her own. Which he delighted in telling.
Adonis slapped him on the back. “We wouldn’t have wished this on you, but I have to agree these abilities really come in handy with dealing with the vampires.”
“They had no clue I was with the hunters. I think they thought I had a beef with the first vampire I killed, maybe the second one even. The new vampire didn’t react, waiting for the other ancient to make his play at first,” Zachary said.
“I think that’s the key to this,” Michael said. “These ancients probably aren’t all from the same place. They don’t all know each other. If they did, they would have realized Zachary didn’t know the first one he killed.”
Danai smiled. “Yes. I hadn’t thought of that. Even though all of you won’t know the skills the new hunters in our party have, the rest of the family knows how we react in a crisis. Adonis, Danai, and I know more how Michael, Zachary, and Rachael fight also. So we have that advantage. We’re like a family, some mated into the family, some blood family. A bunch of vampires from different locales who are more like mercenary soldiers wouldn’t have the same loyalty to Crichton and the others as we do with each other. If they thought it was an easy fight and over quickly, they might have felt it was a real boon. If they realize they have to continue to fight us to keep their holdings, they might think otherwise. I believe that if we take down the head of the group, the others wouldn’t feel the need to stay.”
“But we want to take down all of them who killed our family members,” the grandmother said.
“Yes. If any of them get away and we can learn where they’ve gone, maybe a small group of us can go after them. But for now, we need to stay here and take back our city and make it safe for our own kind and humans,” Adonis said. “That’s our focus for now. Carissa has been taking out a few vampires at a time. Since we don’t know how many of them there are for certain, we will do something similar to what she did. Killing a few at a time can rattle Crichton and the vamps that follow him. There could be trouble in the ranks if the vampires start to feel they’re being hit, day after day, night after night, without a chance to retaliate.
“Michael is keeping their family in Dallas apprised of the situation. We don’t want them to send a bunch more hunters and leave them in the lurch like what happened here, but if we desperately need more help, they’ll send it. As much as I’d just like to take down the whole bunch in an expedient way, we can’t afford to lose any of you if we’re way outnumbered. And I don’t mean it as hunter numbers either, but as family.”
Everyone agreed. Zachary just hoped they’d be successful and win all the battles ahead.
Chapter 11
Crichton paced across a condo he’d commandeered from an older retired couple, telling them to go visit with their grown kids in Albany, New York. Whether their kids would welcome their unscheduled visit was not his problem. They were just lucky he let them live.
His second-in-command, Dennison, a suave, business-suited type now said, “I’ve tried to get in touch with the three men you sent to the airport. I told you that some of these ancients wouldn’t take orders from you. They’re too set in their ways and not part of our original network of friends.”
“They’re all dead.”
“I know. All except for me. These guys have minds of their own. They’re independents. I told you that.”
Crichton growled at him.
Dennison raised his hands in defense. “What can I say? The ones Rutherford turned, he owned. Now that he’s dead, you don’t have control over them either. Though the hosts are spreading the word that you were the one who had turned them, like you wanted them to. The ancients? That’s another story.”
“We needed them. With as many hunters that had escaped, they could make short work of our newly turned vampires if they return.”
“I agree. Why don’t you turn people you can control, now that Rutherford is no longer in charge? Why not make enough of them to overwhelm the hunters should they return?”
“We have hunters killing our vampires already,” Crichton said, not responding to Dennison’s question. Crichton planned to turn men who would be loyal to him only as soon as he could. But he had to have just the right kind of person.
“Just one. We’re sure it’s the same hunter. The others fled and haven’t returned. Maybe they’re dead. From what we could gather, some of them went to Dallas before we struck the houses, concerning a huntress who got herself in trouble. Maybe they all died. Maybe we’re only looking for one hunter.”
“You know what they say about assuming things? It makes an ass out of you and me. Better to know for certain what’s going on rather than guessing.”