Page 26 of A Hunter Turned
“Nope. I’m looking forward to the show.”
Archer gave a little growl of approval, his smile nearly feral. “You don’t know how many times I dreamed about driving a bulldozer through those gates.”
“Now’s your chance.”
With a final word to his daughter to be good, Archer gave them a wave and strode away, placing a hardhat on his head as he went. Jamie’s eye followed him the entire way, thankful for the work lights that lit the area as if it were daytime and perfectly highlighted the alpha’s form. She’d never thought the sight of a bright yellow hardhat and matching reflective vest would be sexy but on Archer Langley… damn.
His wide shoulders, those sun-bronzed biceps on display beneath a vividly white T-shirt, faded blue jeans hugging his hips and backside with each long-legged stride…
“Jamie?”
Reluctantly tearing her eyes away from Archer, Jamie focused on Cady who was shooting her an odd look. “Hm?”
“Are you okay?”
Jamie felt her cheeks heat. Shit. Had she been obvious? “I’m okay. Why?”
“You were making a noise. Kind of like Daddy does when he growls but you’re not a wolf. Do vampires growl?”
Her hot cheeks went nuclear and she had the urge to bury her head in her hands. Coughing, she shook her head. “Just thinking about how happy I am to see this place get torn down,” she offered as an excuse.
Cady nodded, accepting Jamie’s words as truth. “Daddy said the man that lived here was a bad person.”
Jamie grimaced. “He was, but that man’s gone now. My friend Kane took over for him and he’s going to turn things around. You’ll see.”
∞∞∞
Much later, after the demolition was finished, the crew had gone home for the night, and Archer had collected a sleepy Cady, Jamie met with Morgan and Kane, both women eager for an update on how he was settling in as well as the situation with the witches and the rogue vampires.
Kane grimaced. “I managed to track down two of the five vamps I believe responsible and delivered them with a big bow to Jourdain, but I had to put the hunt on hold when my father showed up.” He shot a pointed look at Jamie. “The scarred one you’re looking for is still at large.”
“Wait, hold up,” Morgan cut in. “Big Jim was here?”
Big Jim Fletcher, or Big Jim Jerky as Jamie liked to call the Born that held the sprawling state of Texas with the help of his elder sons, was a bold, blustering, cigar-smoking vampire with a thick western drawl that looked like he would have been right at home on the set of the old TV showDallas. Big cowboy hat and cowboy boots, massive belt buckles, and western-style shirts. Big Jim was a rancher, perfectly at home wrangling both the spread of cattle he owned as well as the vampires under his watch. What he couldn’t seem to do, was make peace with his youngest son and bring him back into the fold. Kane’s animosity toward the Born that had sired him was legendary.
“He and my oldest brother showed up to witness my blood oath.”
“You should have called us,” Morgan chastised. “We would have stood with you.”
Kane shook his head. “You know you can’t. You guys are Hunters. My newly appointed seconds had to bear witness and take their own vows.”
Both Morgan and Jamie grimaced, still finding it hard to come to terms with being excluded.Theywere Kane’s family, so much more than Big Jim and any of Kane’s brothers ever would be. Blood may be immutable, but Morgan and Jamie were Kane’s family by choice.
Shaking it off, since complaining would do no good, Jamie asked, “Doesn’t someone from the Court of Elders usually do all that blood oath crap? Pomp and ceremony, stamp it with an official seal, yada, yada?”
“Normally, yes, but according to my father, the Court of Elders is one giant shit show since Achaeus lost his head in New York. They passed down their final command, pulled the Hunters out of New York and its bordering states, and then left those territories to drown. They’re too busy trying to fill the power vacuum left behind from the Elder’s death to deal with the chaos they’ve caused. Several of the territory-holding Born have gone missing, fearing their territories are next on the angels’ takeover list. They just jumped ship to save their own necks, their Turned left unsupervised, and with no one to help bring them back in line, bloodlust is inevitable.” Kane shook his head. “It makes the problems I’m facing here seem like a cakewalk.”
Running a hand through her hair, Morgan blew out a frustrated breath. “No wonder the Hunters’ Society wants to fast-track a new training facility.”
Kane nodded. “From what I understand, some of the elders that make up the Society are trying to patch some of the damage, stepping in where they can in the territories that need it the most but their numbers are too few and the damage is already too far gone. Clean up on this scale could take years.”
Jamie swallowed hard as she tried to imagine the repercussions. Entire territories under siege by Turned vampires in bloodlust, the existence of vampires would be exposed, the military most likely mobilized to wipe them out. As Kane had said, this made a potential war with the witches and a few rogue Turned seem like child’s play.
Chapter Seventeen
Archer fiddled with his spoon instead of eating his cereal. Usually, he was the one telling Cady to sit still and eat, but today, it was he who was antsy. He’d barely slept after returning home last night, too preoccupied with his thoughts to get any rest. He could no longer deny it. He wanted Jamie Wilson to stay, wanted her with him, in his house, in his bed, by his side – if she’d have him. But as a father to Cady and as an alpha to his pack, the implications of that decision wouldn’t just affect him.
“How would you feel if I asked Jamie out on a date?”
