Page 37 of Huntress Unleashed

She had been amused that Dane had been practicing moving from the bedroom to the bathroom and from the bedroom to the first floor, using the vampire way, as if he was trying to catch up to her using the ability.

“Are you really ready for this?” Dane asked her.

She smiled at him as he drove toward the estate. “You are practicing telepathically communicating with me too?”

He chuckled. “You’re so good at all this stuff. I guess I haven’t really been embracing the vampire abilities.”

“Because you were upset that you were turned,” she said, not asking a question. She had totally been unsettled by the whole business, but then she had decided that there was no way of going back to the way it was and she needed to just accept her new abilities. Maybe she could use them to her advantage in a fight against a rogue vampire.

“Yeah, but you’ve shown me how important they can be.”

“Well, just don’t get ahead of me when we’re in the house and see a rogue we need to take down.”

He just laughed and she knew then that was just what he planned to do. Not because he wanted the kill, but because he wanted to protect her. That was such a refreshing notion that she loved him for it. Van figured she could protect herself because she was a huntress. Even huntresses, and hunters, needed someone else to provide protection for them at times.

When they finally arrived at Heskel’s estate out in the country, she envisioned what it had been like when Adonis and his mate and family were there in the fight against evil. It was an overcast day, still early in the morning, and they saw six cars in the circular driveway.

An ornate wrought iron gate was open, as if it was sinisterly welcoming them in. The two-story, rambling Spanish-style mansion was surrounded by young pine trees that looked like they had been planted since Piaras’s termination. Beautiful boulders were scattered around the property. Since Piaras had been so malevolent, she had expected to see a dark, vile place, but it was light and airy looking, a large fountain spilling water into a basin in the center of the circular drive.

The sides of the home were coated in ivory stucco, but exposed areas revealed pink brick quarried nearby to give the impression of an antique building. An old spoked, wagon wheel rested against a live oak. The oak was so large, she figured it had been there for over a hundred years.

“Pretty, not evil looking like I thought it would be,” Jacqueline said.

“Yeah, when it comes to some of these rogues, they can really make it appear as though they are just like the rest of us. When it’s the furthest thing from the truth,” Dane said.

“Whereas others cloak themselves in darkness, whether it’s wearing Gothic garments or living in a house that looks like it should be in a haunted horror flick,” Matt said.

“Right,” Trey said. “One of the worst vampires I ever took down—a female—had a pink house, literally, from her furniture, walls, drapes, and even to the outside of the house with its gingerbread style roof and pink siding. Her neighbors felt it was an eyesore. Her garden was filled with pink roses. She wore long pink lacy dresses, pink lace gloves, pink flowery bonnets, pink high heels, or patent leather flats. Yet despite all outward appearances, she was evil to the core. After she had eliminated fifteen men who had looked at her the wrong way—her words, not mine—I terminated her. The neighbors wanted the house torn down and to leave the lot vacant. But the homeowner’s association wouldn’t go along with it. So some house flippers bought the house, repainted the whole place white, inside and out, and redid the entire inside with large windows, white blinds, very modern chic style. They’d had an open house, and we went in to see it. She hadn’t killed anyone there. Sometimes they raze a house where so many murders have been committed, no one wants to buy the house, and it would be condemned. But it was beautiful, and it sold right away.”

“I couldn’t even imagine a female vampire like that. The only ones I’ve taken down have been more femme fatales, wearing black or red, sexy, evil. But a vampiress in pink reminds me of a witch and her gingerbread house covered in sweet treats,” Jacqueline said.

“Yeah, that’s exactly what she was like,” Trey said.

They didn’t drive onto the estate but parked out of view of the security cameras. All the hunters got out of their vehicles. The Bremertons introduced themselves—Zachary, his brother Michael, Danai, her brother, Adonis, and their sister, Pasha—all of them ready to take on any friend of Piaras who was like him in turning a hunter.

“We need to go around the fence,” Adonis said, since his family had been confined here. He, Pasha, and Danai knew the layout of the estate the best, though Zachary and Michael had been there during the fight against Piaras and his friends and minions also. They skirted around the fence surrounding the property, looking for an easy way to get in, or at least for the hunters. For the hunters turned, they could just vanish and reappear on the other side.

“You can climb over here. No one can observe you from the house. Everything is shuttered and they don’t have any security on the backyard,” Adonis said. “All the cameras are focused on the front of the yard.” Then he vanished and reappeared on the other side of the fence.

Zachary, Danai, Pasha, and Dane quickly joined him. Stacey and Jacqueline appeared next to them while Dane’s brothers climbed over the fence. Then they all ran toward the back door of the house.

Urns sat on the entryway to the patio that was bare of furniture. Then Adonis vanished and the door opened. Jacqueline hadn’t expected him to do that.

They hurried into the house. It was quiet, even though there were so many vehicles parked out front. Were the occupants of the house sleeping?

Adonis said to Jacqueline, “They’re sleeping.”

She wondered then if he had told the other vampires that too, or just the ones who might not have known what was going on.

Then a man walked into the living room, and Adonis swiftly moved to him and put his fingers to his mouth, telling the man to be quiet, to not make a sound. Then Zachary joined Adonis and took the man outside.

What was he? A vampire? A blood bond?

Danai and Michael headed down a hallway. Zachary returned to the group of hunters and said to Jacqueline, “They’re checking out the wing where Danai’s parents and sister had been kept hostage.” He motioned to another wing. “That’s where vampire guests stay. Upstairs is the master’s suite.”

Dane nodded and Jacqueline realized he had told Dane, and probably Stacey, the same thing.

Jaqueline thought they should go upstairs first because they had to take Heskel out first and foremost.

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