Page 30 of Exes, Hexes, and Strategy
Rafe chuckled. “Do you think Cam would bail us out?”
“After he laughed his ass off for a couple of hours?” she returned with a grin. “Maybe.”
Her look turned thoughtful. “That’s had to have happened to a Hunter at some point, don’t you think?”
“Oh, absolutely. I bet if I asked Fletcher, he’d have some great stories.”
“How are things going with that?” she asked, righting her head before she got a crick in her neck. “The meetings with Kane Fletcher.”
“Good. Really good,” Rafe told her. “His style is so different from my father’s and the way people respond to him…” he shook his head in wonder. “He’sloved, Nina. Truly loved.”
Letting her knuckles graze the back of his hand, she adamantly said, “You’ll be like that one day. I know you will.”
The responding smile he turned on her was beautiful, and she added, “You’ll be a great leader.”
Sierra jumped down just then, landing silently on the balls of her feet. “Nothing,” she grumbled. “Let’s move on.”
So, on, and on they went, checking buildings as much as they were able to, and coming up empty. It was deflating. She’d been so sure, but they were rapidly running out of time. All three of them may be able to withstand the sun, but the parameters of the mock hunt were clear – they had to be back to the facility before the sun rose.
“We had to have missed something in the file,” she mumbled, more to herself than anything. “But what?”
“Let’s take a minute and look again,” Rafe suggested.
The information was meant to represent a standard file held by the Born for a Turned vampire, information that was given to a Hunter team when a contract was accepted. Name, date of birth, a summary of their human life, date Turned, contractual obligations agreed upon by both parties before the Turning, and so on. There was also a link to notes regarding the vampire in question and included any punishments earned or rewards given, as well as any observations about that vampire’s personality quirks.
“Click on that,” Nina said, pointing to the link.
Skimming the list of achievements and reprimands – some of them for ridiculous things like picking his nose or farting too loudly (obviously Cam’s sense of humor at play) – she found a notation about three-quarters of the way down that stated, Wolfy McWolferson is a momma’s boy.
“That has to be a clue.”
“But, if his date of birth listed is correct, wouldn’t his mother be dead?” Sierra asked.
“The cemetery,” Nina blurted, in a moment of realization.
Rafe groaned. “Do you know how many cemeteries there are in New Orleans?”
Nina groaned as well. He was right and they certainly didn’t have time to search them all.
“Wait,” Sierra piped up. “There has to be a list somewhere of who’s buried where, right?”
“There must be,” Rafe stated thoughtfully before pointing out, “but I doubt they’ll have fictional personas included on that list.”
Another roadblock. “I guess we’ll just have to call it a night and plan to check all the cemeteries next time.”
“No, no, no,” Sierra cut in with a bright grin. “Jamie Langley told everyone that since they didn’t have a proper tech person yet on any of the teams that we could call her if needed.”
Nina’s face scrunched into a frown. “I don’t see what she could hack into for this, like Rafe said, the target isn’t a real person.”
“I don’t think it’s about the hacking,” Sierra hurriedly explained, practically bouncing with excitement. “Cam said last night that we didn’t use all the assets at our disposal. What if the point is to make the call?”
Rafe shot the feline a smile of appreciation. “Smart. And it certainly can’t hurt.”
Biting her lip in anticipation, Sierra pulled out her phone and put the call on speaker. When Jamie Langley answered, she said, “Hey, Ms. Langley. Any chance you can find us the location of the McWolferson family plot?”
They could all hear the smile in the woman’s voice as she returned, “Gold star to you guys.” A moment later, they had the location and just enough time before dawn to locate their target sitting on the front steps of one of the larger mausoleums.
Jeremiah Durand – aka Wolfy McWolferson – stood, a wide grin on his face as he held up his fist so each of them could bump his knuckles. “Excellent job, you guys. Nicely done,” he said to them. “You made it through round one. Congratulations.”
