Alex had a sword out now and was helping Adonis with fighting the other ancient vampire.
Zachary was concentrating on Rutherford, who didn’t seem injured in the least, and was swinging his sword one way and then another, whacking Zachary’s sword away from his chest, and then doing the same with Daemon’s. Neither of them could seem to get the upper hand with him.
Then Danai was there, helping her brother with the ancient, probably figuring Alex wasn’t as skilled as a hunter of vampires yet.
Pasha and Thomas soon ran into the lobby. Thomas went to help the wild Highland lord, while Pasha ran straight for Rutherford and threw hunter’s stars at the ancient’s chest. Rutherford screamed in agony, but the stars weren’t enough to kill him. They were a great distraction though.
Zachary plunged his sword into his heart at the same time Daemon did.
“Daemon, prince of the vampires, at your service,” he said, right before Rutherford’s body shriveled up and fell on the floor in a bony heap, then turned to ashes.
“Pasha,” she said, pointing her sword at the dead ancient, “avenging those I lost and loved.”
“Adonis,” her brother said, his brother pricking the ashes left behind, “leader of the hunter clan in the city, avenging those I lost and loved.”
“Danai,” their sister said, sticking her sword into the other ancient’s clothes, “sister to our leader and Pasha, avenging those I lost and loved.”
Zachary saluted the three of them with his sword. “Zachary, who will continue to fight your battles as Pasha’s mate.”
Ephraim and Daemon smiled. Adonis shook his head and slapped Zachary on the back and gave Pasha a hug. Danai hugged her sister too and gave Zachary one also. He was now officially part of the family.
Rutherford’s ten vampires sat on the floor cowering, waiting to die.
“You have a choice,” Ephraim said, taking charge of them. “You can either die at the point of a hunter’s sword, or you can make your peace with what you’ve become.”
Pasha immediately objected. “If they killed my family—”
Adonis put his hand on her shoulder. “They had no will of their own. Remember that. They were turned against their will, just as I was. Just as others were.”
“I will not fight the hunters,” Alex said, sheathing his sword. “They killed the vampire who turned us. You’re free to make your own decisions now. To accept what you are and to live in peace with the humans and hunters, other vampires as well, or not and end it here.”
“Are all the vampires accounted for?” Zachary asked Rutherford’s vampires, figuring they could still have a fight on their hands if they hadn’t finished all of them off, or had them agree to the terms. “Any other ancients?”
“Two ancients,” one of the men sitting on the floor said, rising to his feet. “I accept your offer. I’ll learn how to live in peace with everyone else.”
“Ten more vampires Rutherford made,” another man said, standing up. “We’ll call them here.”
That would make twenty newly turned vampires and two more ancients. Not good odds for the hunters or law-abiding vampires.
“Will they come if Rutherford is not ordering them now?” Zachary asked.
“I think they’ll be confused,” another of the men said, standing. “We no longer have Rutherford telling us what to do.”
“Do it,” Adonis said. Then he got on his phone and sent a text message: I’m having all the hunters come here. We’ll finish this one way or another. Rutherford is dead. Some of his vampires are standing down.
But they wouldn’t know if they all would or not. Or even if the ones here who were cowering in their shoes would stand and fight with the others when they arrived.
At least no one was in the lobby, and the night manager and a clerk had both disappeared into an office and appeared to be hiding. Zachary didn’t blame them. They didn’t need to witness this, though he could wipe their mind of what they’d seen so they wouldn’t have nightmares about it.
Suddenly, there was an influx of vampires and hunters coming in through the lobby doors after that. Robert and his three brothers, Michael, Grandpa, and Gregory and his hunters. And Zachary had contacted the Van Helsing hunters who arrived a few minutes later, their mouths agape to see so many people in the lobby armed with swords and not knowing which were the vampires, the good guys or the bad.
“Stand down,” Ephraim said to the newly arrived vampires, “and you will live to see many more days.”
“We’re not fighting them,” one of the men who Ephraim was keeping at bay said. “Don’t fight them. Rutherford is dead.” He motioned to the clothes and ashes at Zachary’s feet. “You’re your own men now. You can think for yourself.”
The two ancients hesitated, rethinking the situation? Now that the one who had gotten them into this mess was dead? And now that the newly turned vampires appeared to be reluctant to carry on the fight.
But Pasha wasn’t about to stand down where the ancients were concerned, and she rushed forward to kill one of them. Zachary was way ahead of her with a flying leap, not wanting her to get herself killed. He was all for taking down the ancients who had come to murder her family. They’d had a choice from the very beginning.
His sword swinging, he startled the ancient with his vampiric move and beheaded him. Adonis and Danai took care of the other, both flying in to stab him in the heart before he could make his exit.
Once the two ancients were ash, the hunters waited for the other vampires to agree to the plan. They were free to live their lives the best they could unless they began killing or turning humans or hunters.
There were still twenty vampires, but the hunters knew they could take them down if they had to, now that they had such a force of hunters to deal with them. Zachary just hoped they didn’t have to. Then Crichton’s vampires turned up. “We came to help.”
The Van Helsing hunters were awestruck when they realized the hunter giving the orders, Adonis, head of the hunter family here was also a vampire, and so was Zachary.
Then one of them shook his head. “No wonder you warned us about killing all vampires.”
Gregory was just as shocked to learn that Zachary had been turned and so had Danai.
“Those of you who want to come with me to Portland, Oregon where I have my estate, you can join me there and learn how to be with our kind now,” Daemon said.
“He’s the prince of the vampires,” one of the men said, as if that would give them some status if they joined him.
Ephraim shrugged. “I don’t usually take in newly turned vampires, but if any of you who want to come with me, I have an estate in Maryland. And a castle in Scotland.”
Zachary wanted to laugh. It sounded like the Scottish lord was trying to outdo the vampire prince.
“Alex, you can stay with us,” Adonis said, since he was part hunter and living among purely vampires wouldn’t suit him as well, he must have figured.
“And us?” Crichton’s vampires asked.
“The same goes for all of the newly turned vampires. After what happened here, I think it’s best the ones involved in the crisis in Pensacola don’t remain here, since you aren’t from here in the first place either. As to Crichton’s vampires, if you want to find a new home with either Ephraim or me, we’ll take you in. Or, since you didn’t cause the trouble here with the hunters, I’m sure you can stay here and try to sort things out with your family and friends. You can also try that and if things don’t work out, you can join us later. Some humans won’t be able to accept what you’ve become. The hunters will know you weren’t part of any of this,” Daemon said.