“Great.” Pasha eyed the house, wanting to get on with this.
“I want to go in too and check it out but going in without the rest of our backup would be foolhardy,” Adonis said.
Zachary kept mum, to his credit.
Gregory moved to the windows to try and peek in, but they were all covered in curtains.
“The curtains go, first thing,” Pasha said. “I always like working in the light.”
Gregory agreed with her.
Suddenly, the door opened and every hunter there had their swords out.
Alex stood in the doorway and motioned to the house.
What the hell? Pasha was furious with him. Not only because he had disobeyed Zachary, but because he could have killed himself in the intense sunlight if he had any issues with it. Not to mention, he could be in league with Rutherford.
No one said a word to him, but he was looking at Adonis, and Pasha was sure he was giving him a telepathic order. Alex bowed his head slightly and disappeared inside the house.
“What did he tell you?” Pasha asked, her temper rising.
“Rutherford and four of his minions are sleeping inside. I told him to open the drapes to the living room. The vampires are in the bedrooms.”
“Why is he here and not—”
The drapes opened, spilling sunlight inside. Alex waved out the window for the hunters to come in.
“He was the only one who could identify Rutherford for sure,” Adonis said.
Adonis and Gregory went in first, Zachary and Pasha following, and then the Van Helsing hunters came in last.
Pasha expected to be met with tons of vampires, not just four and one ancient. She didn’t trust Alex now, as much as she’d wanted to, or had.
Adonis and one of the Van Helsing hunters checked the first door, a bathroom.
Zachary and Pasha opened the next door on the opposite side of the hall. A bedroom, two vampires sleeping. Where was Rutherford?
Alex motioned to the end of the hall.
They had to get Rutherford first. Not the newly turned vamps. Adonis and the human hunter rushed down the hall while Gregory and a couple of the human hunters went with him to check out another bedroom.
Zachary and Pasha couldn’t leave their post, having to kill these two vampires if they woke while the others checked out the remaining rooms.
Zachary shook his head at Pasha, which had to mean that Adonis telepathically conveyed to him that Rutherford wasn’t here.
Angered at the news, Pasha yanked open the bedroom curtains and the vampires had a rude awakening, scrambling to tear into them, and Pasha and Zachary fought them, overwhelming them, and finishing them off. They were newly turned vampires.
Then Zachary and Pasha rushed out to help the others, but Gregory had let the Van Helsing hunters kill the other two newly turned vampires while Adonis pointed his sword at Alex’s chest.
“Where is he?” Adonis asked.
“He was in that room,” Alex said, motioning to the last room down the hall. “Sound asleep. I couldn’t kill him, or I would have. I swear it.”
They heard the garage door opening.
“Ah, hell,” Adonis said and vanished.
Alex vanished at the same time.
Zachary and the others ran outside to get into their vehicles.
An armored car roared down the street. It had to be driven by a host and Rutherford must have been in back of the vehicle that was perfectly windowless.
“You’re with us,” Zachary told Alex. To the other men who had ridden with them, he said, “Go with Adonis.”
Pasha knew Zachary wanted to know just what had gone on with Alex before one of the hunters terminated him.
As soon as they were in the car, they tore after the armored car. It had made a right-hand turn, but when they reached the intersecting street, they didn’t see where it had gone. The truck wasn’t barreling down the street straight ahead. They didn’t see it on the street to their left or right.
They went left. Adonis was behind them now and went right. Zachary must have told him they’d lost the armored truck.
“What happened that you were here against my orders?” Zachary asked Alex.
“I realized no one would know if Rutherford was truly in the house, or if it was some other ancient. At least the hosts didn’t set us up. They must want out of the bind they’re in,” Alex said.
“Except for the one who must be driving the armored car,” Pasha said.
“Right. I saw him when I first entered the house. He was surprised to see me because I shouldn’t be able to travel during the day into another place. From room to room, sure. I had told the host to leave the house. I heard him close the door, thinking it was the front door. It must have been the door to the garage instead. I didn’t mention him to all of you because I thought he was gone.
“I confirmed there were two newly turned vampires in each of two rooms, and in the master bedroom, appropriately, Rutherford was asleep. He didn’t stir. I quickly left the room, heard your cars out front, and went to the front door to tell you who all was here.”
“So Rutherford could have slipped away to the garage by vanishing from the master bedroom and reappearing in the truck,” Zachary said.
“Right. At any time. When you were killing the other vampires, when you were searching the rooms before that. He must have been waiting until you were preoccupied.”
“And you had nothing to do with waking and warning him?” Pasha asked.
“No. I know what you think. That he still controls me.” Alex folded his arms across his chest. “Telepathically, he asked me what I was doing there. He didn’t see me, just sensed me, I guess. I was scared. I couldn’t tell him I had just popped in because I shouldn’t be able to. I had to say I arrived just before dawn and was sleeping on the couch. He usually goes to sleep about an hour before that so I hoped I could convince him I had arrived after he fell asleep. The other vampires were sleeping, and he channeled his conversation directly to me.”
“Which is why I didn’t hear him,” Zachary said.
“Or Adonis either,” Alex said. “He asked me again why I was here. And I realized my mistake.”
Pasha nodded. “You weren’t supposed to know where he was.”
“Exactly. So I was in trouble. Should I tell him a host told me? Or should I tell him I just heard rumors he was here, and I wanted to see how he was doing?”
“But he didn’t trust you enough to have you stay at the home he was hiding out at,” Zachary said, stopping at the next stop sign and everyone looked for any sign of the armored truck, but there wasn’t one.
“Right. So I told him a host had told me.”
“So you did wake Rutherford up,” Pasha said.
“Uh, yeah, I guess so. But not on purpose. He told me to go to sleep and then I figured he went back to sleep.”
“But he was looking for an escape, figuring the host might have told others where to find him,” Zachary said. “Shit. We’ve really lost him.”
“Uh, yeah, I guess so. I’m sorry.”
“Sorry isn’t enough,” Pasha said. “As a hunter, we have rules.”
“Yeah, I know, like the one that got my mother and father killed.”
“Like the order you ignored that allowed for the ancient to get away,” Pasha said, irritated. She could scream, she was so mad. They could have had the bastard. “Why do you think Zachary told you to stay away?”