Page 30 of A Hunter Born
“If I get enough of the right players involved, I think it can.”
Travis nodded, but the wolf alpha was far from appeased. “You tell them, Hunter, that if the vampires go to war with the witches, they’ll be fighting the packs as well.”
“Fair enough.” With a squeeze to Travis’s hand and a last sharp nod of understanding to the alpha, Morgan walked away, scrolling through her contacts as she went.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Morgan’s first thought was to call Thane Stroud, but as the vampire was now out of the loop with the Born and facing his own set of problems, she imagined there was little he could do to help. Thane’s father was another option. Isaiah Stroud held California and had massive influence but he also didn’t particularly care for Morgan, saw her as a corruptive influence on his daughter, had accused her of filling Blythe’s head with radical ideas about women’s roles in society. He’d be unlikely to help with any request she put to him.
Scrolling to her contacts, she selected the entry marked Texas 1 and immediately began pacing a path into the grass. Kane would probably want to kill her for this, but Big Jim Fletcher was a Born with a huge amount of influence as well, not to mention the burly vampire was a big gossip, able to get the word out through his network lightning-fast.
“Tell me my boy’s okay,” was said in Big Jim’s distinctive Texan drawl, laced with worry when the call connected.
“He’s good, Big Jim,” she quickly assured him. “This call isn’t about Kane.”
“Woo, girlie,” was said on a relieved exhale. “You trying to give this old man a heart attack?”
Considering Big Jim didn’t look much more than mid-thirties, nor did their kind suffer human ailments such as heart attacks, Morgan’s lips lifted in an amused smirk at the Born’s theatrics before she got down to business. “An order was put out from the Court of Elders calling for the extermination of witches. Are you aware of this?”
“I am,” he confirmed. “The question is,” he slowly drawled, “How are you aware of it? Last I checked, Hunters weren’t on the need to know list.”
“I have my methods.”
“Hm,” was the dry response. “And by methods, you mean Jamie. How is she? That girl ready to come work for me yet?”
Not wanting to get into what Jamie had so recently suffered, Morgan went with her standard joking reproach of, “Stop trying to poach my people, old man.”
“Me? Look who took my son,” was Big Jim’s laughing response.
“And he’s thriving for it.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Rub it in why don’t you.”
Clearing her throat, Morgan got the conversation back on track. “Listen, Jim, about that order…”
“A bullshit order,” Big Jim interrupted. “And I don’t know if you’ve heard, but Achaeus is dead and as far as I’m concerned, that order died with him.” A loud scoffing sound was followed by, “The Elder obviously lost his brains before he lost his head, wanting to stir up trouble with the witches. Best we keep our distance I’ve always said.”
Hearing Big Jim’s opinion came as a relief that left Morgan smiling. “That kind of sense is what makes you such a fine leader.”
Her attempt to stroke his ego made the Born snort. “Okay girlie, what did you do that makes you think you need to butter me up?”
“I didn’t do anything,” she assured him, deciding not to tell him that she’d kind of technically betrayed their kind when she’d taken a side job with the Order of Witches. “But I’m afraid Olivier Rodolfo didn’t share your sense when it came to that order and thanks to his carelessness, he was killed last night.” Needing to protect Travis, she also didn’t bother to tell Jim that it was a dragon shifter that had killed the Born of Louisiana, letting the vampire assume it was the witches taking revenge.
She could picture Jim shaking his head as he let out a disgusted sigh. “I never did like that frog-licking Frenchie. Good riddance, I say. But what are you guys doing in Louisiana? Rodolfo never puts contracts out on his runners.”
“We were in the mood for some jazz.”
“Bullshit. You guys are up to something, don’t bother to deny it, and honestly, I couldn’t give a rat’s ass. Just keep my boy safe. You hear me?”
“On my honor,” she told him sincerely. “But listen, Jim, the reason I called was that I saw what happened when one powerful witch,just one,” she stressed, “went up against Rodolfo’s army. It was a slaughter. Please. I need you to get the word out to the others. Warn them before we’re all under attack.”
“I can do that,” he told her to Morgan’s relief, and because she did not want to have to contact her father for any reason, she tacked on, “The other countries as well?”
“I will, though I doubt you have too much to worry about on that score. With Achaeus dead, every ass-kisser and boot-licker is too busy either trying to grab a spot on the Court or keep their existing seat under the new regime. It’s doubtful they’ll pay much attention to an order handed out by a dead man. Not to mention the idiots here in the states scurrying around like headless chickens thinking their territory is the next one that will fall to the angels. Did you hear about that, girlie? The Angels took New York. What is this world coming to?”
“It’s crazy,” she agreed rather than being sucked into one of Jim’s gossip-fests by confessing she’d heard about it directly from Thane Stroud.
“So, Louisiana is without a Born, hm?”
