“I’ll go where you need me to,” Robert said. So did his brothers and Crystal’s.
“Okay, we’re on our way,” Daemon said.
Then Zachary explained to the non-telepathic hunters what was going on.
“I’m with you,” Pasha said to Zachary. Again, he was surprised that she would choose to be with him and not someone, anyone, else. “I’ll just call for clean-up.” She quickly did that and the police would come and take care of the bodies.
“Let’s go then. We can show you the way,” Zachary said, and then Crystal and Tezra went up to the room to be with Danai, while Robert and his brothers and Crystal’s brothers went with Zachary and Pasha.
“So what’s the deal with the two of you?” Robert asked. “We heard Zachary was turned, but, Pasha, you’re still a huntress.”
“Yeah, that’s the truth of the matter,” Pasha said. “Zachary was trying to rescue me and my parents. We understand Crystal was turned.”
“A vampire believed he could start a whole new race of hunter vampires he could control. Except it backfired on him. Crystal can infiltrate their lairs before they even know what hit them.”
“And you stood by her,” Pasha said.
“Against our better judgement,” one of Robert’s brothers said. “But he had already fallen hard for the huntress before she became a vampire. She…was unusual to say the least. She had an aversion to fighting vampires. A couple of ancient vampires were after her and we were afraid she’d get our brother killed. She no longer has an aversion to killing the rogue vampires now though.”
“A huntress with an aversion to killing vampires?” Pasha asked.
Zachary was as surprised as Pasha to hear it.
“Yeah, it’s rare, but it happens,” Robert said. “I thought she was a vampire at first because she wouldn’t fight them and because two rogue vampire brothers wanted her so badly. But I was just as attracted to her and I had to protect her in the end. Now, she protects me.” Robert smiled.
Pasha looked at Zachary. He was glad there were more of the hunter turned vampires that hunters fell in love with and mated, and found the situation worked well for them.
“Are you going to blood bond with Crystal?” Pasha asked Robert.
“Yeah. The family has accepted that she’s one of our best hunters. Even so, I don’t like the risk she takes ever time she crashes a vampire bash, pretending to be one of them to learn how many of them there are. I want to be there with her when she does it, to protect her.”
“But you have to be a vampire to pull it off,” Pasha said.
“Correct. What about you?”
She glanced at Zachary and smiled. “Some of their abilities really come in useful, like the telepathic communication. I feel left out when I know Adonis, my sister, or Zachary are talking to each other, or to vampires and I want in on the conversation.”
“Same here. And moving from place to place like they do is really handy. The longevity issue is really the biggest one. We can’t live with the idea that one of us will age and die so much earlier than the other. We agreed we’re going to do it when we return home.”
“Well good luck with that. It’ll be a brand-new world for us, and I hope none of us will regret it.” Zachary was hoping that Robert’s decision to be turned would help convince Pasha that they could be together like that. Once they were finished with their conversation, he explained what they were doing concerning the houses they were monitoring.
“Crichton is going to figure this out sooner than later and begin turning more people,” Robert warned.
“Yeah, but we haven’t located where he’s staying so we can stop him,” Pasha said.
“I think we need to set up bait and draw him out,” Robert said.
“He sent one of his men to check out a house where we eliminated the vampire threat at a bash and didn’t go himself. He’s seems super cautious, not about to put himself in harm’s way,” Zachary said.
“I can’t believe the vampires aren’t warning him of the trouble they’re facing with the hunters hunting them,” Robert said.
“Like one of the ancients said, they’re not his men. So they don’t feel an obligation to treat him like he’s in charge,” Pasha said. “That doesn’t explain why his newly turned vampires don’t warn him.”
“Maybe he didn’t turn them. Or they’re told to get the job done and not bother their master over it,” Zachary said. “There was a man named Rutherford mentioned.”
“Someone else who is charge maybe? Unless Crichton gets wind of what we’re doing to his minions, we still might be able to take him down before he turns anyone else,” Robert’s brother Thomas said.
“Yeah, but that’s a big if,” Zachary said.
Adonis called and they put the call on speakerphone so everyone could hear what was going on. “We have a battle on our hands at my house. If you can get here quickly, we’d appreciate it.”
“We’re on our way. Just minutes from there.” Zachary was thinking they needed some sleep tonight. He hoped after this was done, they could get some sleep, taking turns watching each other’s backs. He was just glad they had more help to do it now.
Chapter 13
As soon as Zachary and the others joined Adonis and more of the hunters, Pasha suspected they wouldn’t be able to keep this under wraps any longer.
After killing two newly turned vampires, she pinned a third against the wall, her sword at his chest. He could have vanished. She should have skewered him right then and there. But it was as if he wanted to end this life as a vampire, not having been turned by choice and he just waited for her to finish him.
He bared his teeth at her, a natural reaction to being threatened, but she wished she could let him go, if he’d leave the city and become one of the good vampires. He couldn’t think for himself until Crichton died, if he’d been the one to turn him in the first place though.
“Who turned you?” Pasha asked the vampire.
The vampire’s eyes widened, looking astonished that she’d ask him about that, instead of just finishing him off. She poked the blade at his chest again. “Who turned you?”
“Rutherford. He turned all the vampires you see here. The ones who aren’t ancients, that is. He wanted to start his own army.”
“Not Crichton?” she said, frowning. An army of rogue vampires? Sounded like he had wanted to start more of a war than just with her hunter family. Maybe this was a test, to see how well the outcome would be and then progress from there. Though she recalled that was the name Zachary had mentioned before.
“No. Rutherford. Crichton knew him back in the old days, but Rutherford was in charge.”
“Was? Where is he? Rutherford?”
“Crichton thinks he killed him.”
“Crichton killed him? A hunter didn’t do it?” This was a surprising turn of events. The word the family had was that Crichton had been in charge and responsible for the massacre. “You think Rutherford’s still alive?”
“Yeah. I…I hear Rutherford’s voice in my head sometimes. Faint. We haven’t seen him since the big hunter battle, but I sense him since he turned me. The others do too.”