Page 25 of A Hunter Turned
Her face scrunched in a frown as another thought occurred to her. Morgan wouldn’t have even bothered to show her these unless she was giving the offer serious consideration. “You’re thinking about doing this? But you love the hunt.”
“I do. But I’ve also been a Hunter for centuries, Jamie.” She lifted a shoulder in a shrug. “Teaching what I know, passing my knowledge down to another generation, there’s definitely an appeal to that.”
Morgan had been a Hunter since the seventeenth century. Jamie’s tenure was barely a blink of time compared to the Born that sat beside her and she certainly didn’t begrudge her the thought of taking a break. Besides, Jamie had been dreading taking on a new hunt and having to leave Kane behind. God, she missed him so much already. The annoying Born that had become like a big brother to her. She missed his obsession with food that was only rivaled by his love of video games. She even missed his ever-increasingly colorful profanity when he was getting his ass kicked in those games. He had no one to watch his back if they were in another state on a contracted hunt and these were dangerous times. If they were in the area permanently training, they would be able to be there for him if he needed their help.
Her head was nodding before she even finished that thought. “And Travis?” she asked distractedly, thinking of their newest recruit who had yet to even undergo any training. “He’s okay with this idea?”
“His focus right now is on his sister. Where it should be. Until she wakes, he’s not going anywhere.”
Another nod and Jamie murmured, “I like the idea.”
Morgan’s hand came to rest on Jamie’s forearm. “If you don’t want this, if you want to be transferred to another team –”
Jamie snorted before Morgan could finish. “This is my team. You, Travis, and despite what the rules might say, Kane. We stick together.”
The smile that lit up Morgan’s face was nearly blinding. “I’ll issue an acceptance, then?”
Jamie’s lips twisted with humor as she narrowed her eyes, “I’m not going to have to get approval from some pencil-pushing accountant at the Society nickel and diming me on my tech requests, am I?”
“Carte blanche,” Morgan said with a grin.
“Hell, yeah!”
Chapter Sixteen
The first taste of her peanut butter and banana sandwich had Jamie closing her eyes with enjoyment, and her mind flooding with nostalgic memories. She’d had a good childhood, a great childhood. Her parents hadn’t gotten divorced like so many of her friends’ parents, they’d showed up for every recital, every field hockey game, rooting her on. They had supported every choice she’d made.
They’d been a moderately well to do family so she’d lacked for nothing. She could still picture them, her mother with her sweater sets and pearls, with never a hair out of place, her father in his suits, smelling like Aqua Velva. It had been her father who had encouraged her with computers. “They’re the future,” he’d always say, and he’d been absolutely right. Of course, his idea had been Jamie writing code for a company like IBM or Apple, not hacking into supposedly secure government databases and sharing the information. God, how she’d let them down.
Shaking off the feelings of regret, she pushed the past away and smiled at Cady, “So? What do you think?”
“I love it,” Cady replied wide-eyed, the tip of her tongue snaking out to lick at the marshmallow Fluff marking both sides of her mouth.
They were currently having a picnic of Fluffernutters and peanut butter and banana sandwiches in the team’s SUV while they waited for the spectacle of Olivier Rodolfo’s Garden District villa to be torn down by the pack’s construction company.
Jamie’s original plan had been to spread out a blanket on the ground, but she’d changed her mind at the last minute. With so many members of the pack on hand, not to mention Kane’s and Morgan’s presence, they weren’t expecting trouble from the Turned vampires that had gone rogue, but when it came to Cady’s safety, Jamie found herself unwilling to take a chance.
The custom-made SUV was practically a tank. With its bulletproof exterior, no one was getting in unless Jamie chose to let them in. At the first hint of danger, Cady could be buckled in, and if need be, Jamie would drive over, under, or through anything to get her little charge to safety.
Kane had commandeered the vehicle when he’d moved into Travis’s place in the city, but Jamie had every intention of taking it back to the bayou with her tonight. Kane could either learn to love public transportation or find himself another ride. Unlike Jamie, he wasn’t currently living in the middle of nowhere should he get a craving in the middle of the night.
“Can I try a bite of yours?”
“You sure can.” Handing over her sandwich so Cady could take a bite, Jamie waited while the little girl chewed. “What do you think?”
Cady’s look of consideration was adorable and had Jamie grinning. “Good, but I like mine better,” she finally said before taking a big bite of her own sandwich.
A tap on the window had Jamie glancing over and then smiling before she lowered the glass.
“How’s everything over here?” Archer asked, leaning into the opening.
“IloveFluffernutters!” Cady told him enthusiastically.
Archer’s look of fondness went right to the heartstrings. “I guess I’ll add Fluff to the shopping list then.”
“Oh, yes, please.”
With a nod and another smile at Cady, Archer looked to Jamie. “We’re about to start. Are you guys okay here? Do you need anything?”
