Nate gave her one of those shy smiles that melted her and put his arm around her, his voice laced with excitement. “Please. I want you to meet my boss. I’ve told him all about you, and he can’t wait to meet you. He’s a great guy, you’ll see.”
To make Nate happy, she’d agreed.
When they’d arrived at the Garden District villa, the sheer number of vampires she could sense on the premises had made her uncomfortable, a discomfort Nate had mistaken for nervousness, and he’d attempted to reassure her with a squeeze to her hand he was holding and a murmured, “He’s going to love you. Wait and see.”
Her hopes that she was meeting someone on the kitchen staff were dashed when they entered through the front doors instead of the service entrance and strolled through an opulent foyer. She considered backing out, making her escape, but one look at Nate’s excited face and she couldn’t bring herself to disappoint him. She’d even mentally reassured herself with a how bad could it be?
Olivier Rodolfo was definitely not a chef. He stood above them on an interior balcony as they walked into the enclosed courtyard, the quintessential lord of the manor, and Sophia had to admit, he was incredibly handsome. A man whose face would have looked right at home on a billboard selling watches or high-priced men’s cologne. Dark hair, precisely cut and styled, chiseled, perfectly symmetrical features, swarthy skin, a lean, athletic build in a pristinely tailored suit.
It was only once Rodolfo had joined them, a smile on his face that Sophia discovered exactly why a dragon shifter should never be in close proximity to a Born. Perhaps if she’d had more information growing up, she would have been able to control her reactions, but she had never been battle-trained. She hadn’t been raised that way. Having been born centuries after the days her ancestors had aligned themselves with the Vikings and the mighty warlords of old set on conquering lands, fighting skills hadn’t been deemed necessary. She’d only been taught how to blend in with humans, not how to contain an instinctive reaction that was a roar in her blood.
Her response to Olivier Rodolfo’s nearness had been immediate, uncontrollable, and disastrously revealing as her eyes had shifted from pale brown to reptilian green, the pupil elongating in such a way that could never be considered human.
Rodolfo’s eyes had likewise shifted to demonic red and he had hissed at her, revealing massive fangs. The blow to her head that followed, Sophia never saw coming.
She’d woken, disoriented and in so much pain, her body swarmed with vampires, their fangs tearing at her flesh as they drank from her, growling and snarling like animals. Rodolfo himself had been at her throat, her blood dripping from his teeth as he smiled evilly in her face. “Legend tells that eating the heart of a dragon will give unimaginable power.”
She’d shifted. Her dragon bursting free at a speed she’d never before accomplished, fear and desperation guiding her, but the vampires had been prepared. Barbed wire, that had been used to restrain her in just such an event, burrowed under her scales, choked off the fire at her throat, and tore through one of her wings.
Rodolfo, a sadistic smile twisting those features that she’d initially thought so handsome, raised a dagger as Sophia let out a prehistoric screech of agony. The blade connected with her chest, the pain, bright and searing, was the last thing she remembered until she woke from her stasis within the rock that had kept her alive for five years while she healed from injuries that, had she not had the ability to encrust herself, would have killed her.
A warm drop of wetness splatted against her hand and Sophia blinked eyes that had grown hazy. Realizing she was crying, she swiped quickly at her face. The laptop sitting between her knees had since gone to sleep while she’d been up in her head, and the sun, she noted, was much further across the sky.
Her stomach grumbled in protest of her forgetfulness, or perhaps, she thought as she sniffed the air and smelled food, it was due to those mouthwatering aromas.
“We thought you might be hungry,” was said as Kane, with a big box in his arms, strode into the clearing leading the others. “I know I am.”
Jamie playfully smacked Kane on the arm. “When are you not hungry?”
His grin was unabashed as he told her, “Um, never.”
The sight, as well as the food, was a welcome reprieve and Sophia took a quick moment to make sure her face was free of the evidence of her tears and that her hair was still neatly tucked under her ballcap.
When they reached her, her brother waved a hand at the laptop she’d set aside. “Making any progress?”
Unwilling to admit that she’d barely even started despite the passage of hours, she went with, “There’s a lot to go through.” Which wasn’t a lie. There had been a lot of names in that file.
“Well, let’s get some food into you before you continue.”
“Hear, hear,” Kane said, shoving what looked like a hot sandwich wrapped in waxed paper in her direction, as well as a bag of chips.
“You should also probably stretch every once in a while,” Jamie suggested, unwrapping her own sandwich. “Set a timer if you need to. That’s what I do. I tell you, I know what it’s like to be bent over a screen for hours. You’ll thank me later.”
The conversation continued around her, and Sophia felt muscles she hadn’t realized were tense begin to relax. The sandwich tasted amazing, the company was welcome, and as they began to clear away the detritus from their meal, Sophia changed her mind about doing this alone.
“Can you guys stay?”
Every one of them nodded and settled back down, prepared to support her as she revisited her nightmare.
Chapter Eight
Taking a long drink from the Sprite she’d chosen among the assortment of beverages her friends had brought, Sophia ran her finger over the mousepad to wake her laptop back up. With a deep breath, she focused on the open file.
She had a vague recollection of Nate’s look of shock when all hell had broken loose, so he hadn’t known what she was, hadn’t deliberately lured her to Rodolfo, but she also couldn’t help but notice that upon the date of her capture, Nathaniel King, the man who she had thought she was in love with, had received a promotion out of the kitchens. No reason given, but an assumption wasn’t hard to make. He’d benefited from her pain.
Anger was a crawling, prickling heat up her neck, and a low, clicking growl rumbled in her chest.
“Did you find someone?” both her brother and Kane asked almost simultaneously.
“Nathaniel King?” Travis asked, his own voice decidedly growly. “Is he one of the bastards who hurt you?”
Sophia shook her head, unwilling to share with her brother – a brother who hadn’t wanted her to go to New Orleans in the first place, and who had warned her over and over again to be careful once he’d given in to her pleas – that because she thought herself in love, she’d stupidly walked right into the den of one of the Born.
“If he was, there’s not much we can do about it now,” Kane stated, extending a finger to point at the screen. “He was killed in the battle with Destin Jourdain.”
Sophia had heard about that battle from both Travis and Morgan. Destin Jourdain, the leader of the U.S. branch of The Order of Witches, had picked up the gauntlet Oliver Rodolfo had thrown down, and in one night, the powerful witch had pretty much decimated Rodolfo’s vampire army. By himself.
That was also the night that Morgan had found Sophia. Not that the Hunter had immediately known what she’d found in that walk-in cooler in the back of Rodolfo’s greenhouse. Morgan had assumed Sophia was a statue, an intricately carved piece of art, and while she may have thought it was odd to keep such a piece in cold storage, she hadn’t made the connection until Travis had told her about the way dragon shifters heal when gravely wounded.
Her eyes focused on the words Kane had pointed out and Sophia felt a twinge of grief mingling with her anger and feelings of betrayal. Deceased. Nate was gone. He may have been what led to her capture, may have even benefitted from it, but he’d been sw
eet to her and she’d thought herself in love…
Shaking off those thoughts with the conviction that she’d process her emotions later, she quickly exited Nate’s file and scrolled back up to the first entry on the page. This was about finding those who hurt her that were still out there and bringing them to justice. She needed to focus.
File after file, she pulled up, stared at the provided image, and then discarded. The sun continued its trek across the sky, more food and drink was brought in, low conversation buzzed around her. A few of the faces she recognized, only to discover they, like Nate, were dead. Two recently given over to Destin Jourdain for punishment for the death of his witches, one killed by Archer Langley for the kidnapping and forced Turning of the alpha’s now-deceased wife.
Sophia had openly winced at that one but then couldn’t help but chuckle when Jamie glanced over Sophia’s shoulder, saw the vampire in question, and gave the image on the screen the middle finger with a snarled, “Sadistic bastard. I’m glad he’s dead.”
Sophia was just beginning to think that all of her tormentors had been killed before her waking and that this was a useless time suck when she opened the file for a vampire named Kevin Thompson. She remembered him, remembered how he’d been tearing at her thigh with his teeth, her blood smeared all over his face and splattered in his blond hair. And Kevin Thompson’s status was listed as ‘Suspected rogue, currently at large’.
“Him,” she said, turning the laptop so everyone could see. “He’s one of the ones who –” her voice broke, and she stopped to clear it, finishing with. “He’s one of them.”
Sophia was suddenly surrounded by fierce faces, her brother’s eyes shifting to that of his dragon, the scent of sulfur thick in the air.
“I’ve been running facial recognition on this guy for Kane,” Jamie offered.
“That slippery little bastard’s been avoiding me, but I’ll get him for you,” Kane added. “We’ll stake him out right here if you want and let you burn him to ash.”
“I want to help with the hunt.”
That statement didn’t do anything to ease her brother, in fact, he seemed dangerously close to a shift as he narrowed those reptilian eyes on her. “No way in hell.”
Her own eyes narrowed in return as she stubbornly crossed her arms over her chest. “I have the right. Don’t try to stop me.”
Travis levered himself up and began pacing the clearing as snarled curses fell from his lips. Finally, he turned back and pointed at her. “Fine. Let’s say I forget the fact that we’re talking about a rogue vampire on the run who’s most likely desperate and will do anything to avoid capture and stupidly, I agree to let you help search for him. Let’s even suppose you find him, then what? What’s the plan, Sophia? You have no fight training – have you ever even held a gun?”
“I’m a dragon, Travis.”
Her annoyingly overprotective brother slapped his hand on his forehead. “Oh, I see,” he sarcastically declared. “So, if you find him on Bourbon Street the plan is to release your dragon so everyone can witness your badassery? Oh, my God, what a great plan.”
Sophia’s lips twisted with chagrin as she attempted to come up with a rebuttal only to hear Morgan state, “I’ll teach her.”
Both Sophia and Travis shot the Born Hunter matching looks of wide-eyed surprise. Morgan simply shrugged. “I’m about to open a school to train new Hunters, if I can’t teach one, I shouldn’t be teaching any.”
Travis sputtered. “She’s my sister.”
If Morgan was at all worried that she was upsetting her mate, she didn’t show it. Her face was calmness itself as she pointed out, “She’s also a dragon. One who lost five years of her life thanks in part to this asshole. She deserves vengeance.”
Okay. Sophia officially had a girl-crush.
Jamie nodded vigorously, in full agreement with Morgan. “We can both teach her.”
Kane chose that moment to stand and add his two-cents. “While I’m all for the woman power thing, I feel I should point out that Kevin Thompson is my responsibility and currently tops my list for an ass-kicking. I can’t stop the hunt to wait for you to be ready, Sophia. If I find him, I’m taking him down.”
Sophia frowned at Kane’s statement, but couldn’t argue the logic. “Fine, but I’m still going to train with Morgan and Jamie,” she said with a pointed look at her brother before turning back to Kane. “And whoever finds him first, he’s mine to punish.”
Kane’s eyes narrowed slightly in consideration before he nodded sharply. “Agreed.”
As they all stood up to take their leave, Sophia and Jamie were discussing a training schedule, but Morgan’s eyes were on her mate. Even if she hadn’t seen the stiff posture, the clenched jawline, and that little vein in his temple rocking its own beat, she would have known they were going to have words once they were alone.
And sure enough, as soon as they stepped foot in the house on stilts that he’d built as his sanctuary, Travis pulled her into their bedroom and shut the door.
“She’s my sister,” he practically hissed as Morgan made herself comfortable on their bed.
Pacing down at the end, Travis’s arms were flailing wildly about. “Do you have any idea how hard it was? She disappeared without a trace. Five years, Morgan. Five. Years. No body,” he said ticking the point off on his finger. “No clues, no leads, no suspects. Nothing to follow up on except a hunch. Do you know how many times I gave up hope? How much I grieved thinking her dead?”
Morgan’s heart clenched for him. She felt his pain, but… “You can’t wrap her up in bubble wrap and hide her away from the world, Travis.”
His breath hissed through his teeth. “Do you think I don’t know that? But I’m also not ready to watch her go off on some revenge mission with notions of fighting vampires.” Running an agitated hand through his hair, he finished with a snarled, “Jesus Christ. I just got her back.”
Sitting up on her knees, Morgan extended her hand and Travis took it with a sigh, settling down beside her despite his continued agitation. Massaging his shoulders to relieve some of the tension, Morgan added, “Look at it this way. This Thompson fellow was already part of an active hunt. Kane will probably bag the bastard by week’s end, long before Sophia would be ready to be out in the field.”
Travis dropped his head with a blown-out breath. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”
Digging her thumbs in a bit deeper, Morgan grinned when she heard Travis groan with pleasure. “Also, by training her, we’re giving Sophia another means of defense, so that what happened five years ago never happens again. She’ll know how to defend herself without having to unleash her dragon.”
Turning, Travis slipped his arm behind Morgan’s back and pulled her around him so she was straddling his lap. Nuzzling her face, he murmured against her lips, “How did I get so lucky to find you?”
Pressing her lips against his in a sweet kiss, she grinned. “I believe I found you first.”
Chapter Nine
Sophia woke, pumped for action, ready to train, but if she had thought her first day of Hunter training was going to start with some hand-to-hand combat action, or firing off a gun at some targets, she was sadly mistaken. Day one was apparently beginning with show and tell as Morgan and Jamie went through a lecture on weaponry.
“A Hunter’s primary weapon is a matter of personal preference. I like my SIGs,” Morgan said, showing Sophia the pistol before tucking it back into its holster. “While your brother prefers a Glock, and Kane swears by Heckler and Koch.”
“What about you?” Sophia asked Jamie.
“I’m mostly the brains of the operation,” the blonde vampire said with a grin, holding up a tablet. “Tech is my thing. When I’m not behind the scenes, I can hit what I aim at and prefer a Glock like your brother, but my weapon of choice in the field is knives.”
“Blades are close combat, though,” Morgan said. “And while we’ll get to that eventually, best to start with something that allows some distance betw
een you and your target.”
Made sense, Sophia mused, before Jamie pushed that tablet in front of her and said, “So, today we’re starting with the basics, how to clean and oil a handgun, the different calibers, and which ones work best for vampires, then we’ll move on to loading and unloading.”
Sophia watched the videos, putting the knowledge to use under the watchful eyes of Morgan and Jamie as she took apart and cleaned first one of Morgan’s SIG Sauers and then one of her brother’s Glocks. Once cleaned, she loaded each with the appropriate caliber bullets then unloaded them. She was eager to load at least one of them back up and head somewhere to squeeze off a few rounds, only to have that idea nipped in the bud when Morgan praised her for her work and removed the weapons with a murmured, “That’s enough of that for today. Time for some strength and endurance training.”
Sophia couldn’t hold back her groan, reminded of her P.E. days in school, and having to run laps. She hated running laps.
“We know you’re still recovering, so we’ll take it easy on you,” Jamie assured her.
“But vampires are fast, strong, and agile,” Morgan added, “so if you want any hope of bringing one down, you’ll need to be the same. Depending on where you are when you find your target, you can’t always pull a gun, just like you can’t always unleash your dragon.”
“Dragons are naturally pretty strong, aren’t they?” Jamie asked curiously. “I mean you’d have to be, right?”
Sophia shrugged. “In this form?” she said, motioning down her body, “I’m stronger than your typical human, I know that, but I don’t have access to the dragon’s full strength unless I shift.”
A Hunter Found: A Paranormal Vampire Romance (Hired Hunters Series Book 3) Page 5