Vampire Hunters, #1

by Trudie Collins

  The four hunters from 14 thanked those from 5 and walked back to the front of the house, looking out for any surprise attacks as they went.

  “Are you alright?” JD asked as soon as he saw Sarah. She nodded and he hugged her tight before knocking on the door. “It’s us,” he said loudly and he heard the door unlock from the inside.

  Once everyone was securely inside the Sanctuary, JD noticed Simon’s arm and Doc took him away to clean and dress the wound.

  As soon as she saw him, Natalie grabbed hold of Craig and clung to him like he was about to take his last breath at any moment. Everyone was discussing the attack when the hunters from 5 entered the house. No more vampires had been found and Sanctuary 1 were dealing with the bodies.

  “How did they find this place?” someone asked.

  “I have my suspicions,” JD said, looking around the room as he spoke. “But I’ll keep them to myself until I have proof.” Sarah knew what he was thinking. Christina was nowhere to be seen. “I managed to get one of them to talk before I killed him,” he continued. “Someone provided directions on how to get here, but he had no idea who.”

  “So we have been betrayed,” Scott said. The words made Sarah shiver.

  “Not necessarily,” Craig said. “A friend or acquaintance of a hunter from any Sanctuary might have overheard something and then been turned.” It was a possibility, but nobody believed it.

  When Sanctuary 5 left, Jane remained behind.

  “The sooner we get Christina moved, the better,” JD said once the visitors had gone.

  “Speaking of moving,” Simon said. “Jane and I have been talking. JD, we want you to put in the official request.”

  “About time too,” he said. “I’ve had the paperwork drawn up for months. It may take some time to get it processed, but I will speak to 5’s leader and trainer to see if we can rush it through.”

  “Who’s going to be transferred?” Scott asked. “Jane I hope.”

  “Yes,” Simon said.

  “I’ll warn Silvia that we will need one of the spare rooms made ready in the near future then,” Doc said, then he saw the look on Simon’s face. “Or maybe not. I’ll just let her know we’ll be having another mouth to feed shall I?”

  He didn’t wait for an answer before exiting the room.

  “Do we get a say in this?” Scott asked, but the look he was giving Simon told him he wasn’t being serious.

  “Of course you do,” he said. “Does anyone have any objections? Before speaking, bear in mind that I will kill anyone who does.”

  Nobody said a word.

  Jane did not like the way JD was smiling at her when he next spoke. “I take it you’re staying here tonight.”

  “Yes,” she said. “Simon will drive me back in the morning.”

  “Good. You can experience your first 5am training session.” He heard her groan as he took Sarah’s hand and they left the room.

  “Do you really think Christina betrayed us?” Sarah asked once they were in bed.

  JD nodded. “I don’t want to, but it is the most likely explanation.”

  “But why would she do it? She’s been making an effort to fit in better recently.”

  “Maybe it’s all an act. Anyway, it’s not something we need to think about now. How are you feeling?”

  It was her trainer asking, not her boyfriend, so she gave him an honest answer. “I feel absolutely exhausted. My muscles ache, but no worse than they did after a long training session before I was shot. A few more weeks and I will be back to my full fitness.”

  “Good,” he said, then kissed her. “Now get some sleep.”

  Sleep was the last thing she wanted, but her body told her it was needed, so she obediently closed her eyes and was soon dreaming about what she had wanted to do with JD had she not been so tired.

  Please don’t ask me to do this

  The following evening, JD saw Sarah coming out of Katie’s room. Katie looked upset.

  “Is Katie alright?” JD asked once they were alone in their own room.

  “Yeah, she’s just got a personal issue she needs to deal with.”

  “Anything I should know about?”

  Sarah gave the question serious thought before replying. “Yes, but it’s not my place to say anything.”

  JD frowned at her. “Sarah, if I need to know, you have to tell me.”

  When Sarah looked up at him, her face was filled with distress. “Please don’t ask me to do this.”

  JD wanted to drop the subject, but, as Katie’s trainer, he couldn’t. “It’s not a request, it’s an order.”

  Sarah tried to argue with him. It was unlike her, even when they were alone, and it had JD really concerned. “She told me in strictest confidence. I can’t abuse her trust.”

  “That’s not how this works and you know it.” He took her in his arms. “I love you and I don’t want to make you do something you don’t want to, but I can’t let this go. Not if it affects my role as her trainer.”

  “I know,” she said. “All I’m asking is that you give her the chance to tell you first.”

  “Alright. That sounds fair.” It wasn’t what he wanted, but it was a compromise he was prepared to accept, at least for a while.

  The next afternoon, JD decided to push Katie into speaking with him. He found her in the TV room with Sarah, Scott and Simon. They were watching some sort of science fiction show, but he had no idea what. “Katie. Come for a drive with me. There’s something we need to discuss that I don’t what the others to overhear.”

  “Is that an order?” she asked.

  JD glanced at Sarah, who shook her head. “No, it’s a request,” he said.

  Katie shrugged her shoulders. “I wasn’t really enjoying this anyway. Just let me get my bag.”

  JD waited patiently while she ran up the stairs. Sarah left the TV room and closed the door behind her. “Be nice,” she said.

  “I’m always nice,” he replied as he placed his arms around her.

  “Others will argue about that.” He kissed her to stop her saying anything more. They were still embracing when Katie returned.

  “Don’t let me interrupt,” she said, grinning.

  JD released Sarah, then escorted Katie to his car. He had only just driven through the gate when he started the conversation he knew that she did not want to have.

  “What’s going on Katie? Sarah says it’s something I need to know, but she doesn’t want to tell me.” He kept his voice mild so he sounded only curious. The tactic didn’t work. Silence greeted him and she turned her head to stare out of the window.

  “Are you going to tell me,” he continued, “or are you going to make me force my girlfriend to against her will?”

  She snapped her head around to stare at him. “That’s unfair.”

  “Yes, it is. On her. So what’s it going to be?”

  “You’d better pull over,” she eventually said. JD found a suitable place, brought the car to a stop and put on the hand break.

  “Well?”

  “I’m pregnant.” That was the last thing he had been expecting to hear.

  “Jonathon?” She nodded. “Does he know?”

  “Not yet.” The tone of her voice and the tenseness in her body told him that she really did not want to be discussing this with him. He pushed on regardless.

  “What do you plan to do?”

  “Right now I have no idea.”

  There was more, as her trainer, that he needed to know. “How are you feeling? Do I need to adjust your training at all?”

  She shook her head, then breathed out, forcing her muscles to relax. “No, physically I’m fine.”

  “Do you still want to go hunting? I can find an excuse for you if you want me to.”

  “I’ll be fine hunting for a while yet.”

  “You know Sarah and I will support you no matter what decision you make, though I should point out that you need to discuss this with Jonathon.”

  She ran her hand through her ha
ir. “I know. I will when the time is right.”

  “Does Doc know?”

  Katie nodded her head. “He ran the test for me.”

  “Alright. I won’t say anything to anyone or treat you any differently unless you tell me otherwise. If there’s anything I can do to help, just let me know. Right now, your health and wellbeing is all that’s important.”

  As soon as JD started the conversation, she had been afraid that he was going to be angry with her, but she should have known that wouldn’t be the case. “Thank you,” she said.

  “I appreciate you telling me, though you should have come to me, not the other way round.” He kept his tone mild, letting her know that, while he was reprimanding her, he wasn’t going to punish her.

  “I know. I just wanted to get my own head around it before discussing it with anyone else. It has kind of knocked me sideways. The only reason I told Sarah is because she noticed that there was something wrong and I really wasn’t coping very well keeping it to myself.”

  “Want to talk about your options? I can take you home if you would feel more comfortable discussing it with Sarah.”

  Katie thought for a minute. “No, it’s okay. You might actually be the better option. I think I need a more clinical opinion, rather than an emotional one.”

  “Oh no,” JD said quickly. “I’m not going to be offering any opinions. I’ll discuss facts, but you have to make up your own mind about what to do. I won’t influence you in any way.”

  He drove to a café and they talked while drinking coffee. Well JD had coffee, Katie was avoiding caffeine. They talked about every possible option for Katie, with JD playing devil’s advocate by always pointing out the cons while Katie concentrated on the pros. After an hour, the only thing that Katie had decided on was that it wasn’t something she could decide on her own; Jonathon had to be involved.

  When they got back to the Sanctuary, JD found Sarah in their room, lying on the bed, reading one of his books.

  “How did it go?” she asked once he had closed the door.

  “You were right,” he said. “I did need to be informed and it needed to be Katie herself who told me.”

  “Has she said anything about her plans?”

  JD shook his head. “She doesn’t know what she’s going to do yet. It’s not going to be an easy decision for her. She has, however, agreed to talk to Jonathon.”

  He sat on the bed and took his shoes off. “Out of curiosity, what would you have done if you found yourself in her situation? Before we got together I mean.”

  She grinned at him. “That’s easy. If I found myself pregnant by Jonathon, I would kill myself.”

  JD frowned at her. “I was being serious Sarah.”

  “What makes you think I wasn’t?” She then let the smile drop from her face and answered him properly. “If I had fallen pregnant before Alex died, we would have both been overjoyed. Money would have been tight, but we would have managed somehow. If you mean after I had started training, that would depend on who the father was and how serious I was about him. What about you? What would you have done if one of your flings announced you were going to be a father?”

  He laid down next to her and placed his hands behind his head. She snuggled up beside him and waited for him to answer. “There’s no way I would want to bring a child into this world unless I was in a stable relationship with the mother. I always took precautions whenever I slept with someone, even if she told me she was on the pill.”

  “So why did you never do so with me?”

  He kissed her. “Because I am in love with you.”

  The next morning, JD told her they were going to do the long hike again. He wanted to see if she could do it in under five hours. He also wanted to test her fitness. Craig asked if he could join them. Initially JD said yes, but as soon as Sarah had left the room to change her shoes, he asked Craig to see him in his office.

  “Find an excuse not to come,” JD said. It was not a request.

  “Why?” Craig asked curiously. He didn’t expect JD to explain, but there was no harm in asking.

  A strange look crossed JD’s face that Craig couldn’t place. He glanced up, making sure the door was closed, then took a small box out of his pocket and placed it on the desk in front of Craig.

  “Is that what I think it is?” JD nodded. “Congratulations.”

  “Don’t congratulate me yet. She may not say yes.”

  Craig laughed. “I don’t think there’s really any doubt there.”

  “Now do you understand why I don’t want you coming with us?”

  Craig nodded. “Don’t worry. I’ll take care of it. May I?” he asked, pointing toward the box.

  When JD nodded once again, he opened it and gasped. The ring inside was a sword, the hilt containing a row of tiny diamonds and the blade wrapping around to form the band.

  “I’ve never seen anything like this,” he said. “It’s perfect for her.”

  “I had it specially commissioned. Do you think she’ll like it?”

  “She will love it,” Craig said. Then he left to find Natalie. “I’m taking you shopping,” he told her.

  “I thought you were going hiking with JD and Sarah.”

  Craig told her about his conversation with JD and she agreed to tell Sarah that she had requested Craig not to go. She also swore she wouldn’t mention anything about JD’s plans to anyone.

  Sarah accepted the lie at face value. She was secretly pleased that she would be alone with JD. She had loved doing the walk with him the last time and thought it would be even more enjoyable now they were an item.

  JD set a fast pace and they were ahead of schedule when they reached the waterfall they had eaten at last time. He told her to find somewhere to sit while he unpacked the food.

  She was looking at the water trickling down when she heard him say, “Sarah, there’s something I need to ask you.”

  She turned to face him and noticed he was sitting strangely, with one knee on the ground. He took a small, red, velvet-covered box out of his pocket and opened it, revealing the diamond ring inside. “Will you marry me?”

  Her eyes widened, but not in shock or excitement; it was a look of fear that crossed her face. Tears formed in her eyes and she had to look away.

  “No,” she said. “I can’t.”

  Ice stabbed at JD’s heart and his mind tried to comprehend what he had just heard. He hadn’t been certain she would say yes immediately, and he had been prepared for her to ask for some time to think about it, but he never thought she would say no, especially so quickly.

  Something was wrong, very wrong, and he didn’t think it was the fact that he was a vampire that was the problem. He swallowed, took a deep breath and gently took hold of her chin. He moved her head around so that she was facing him, then said softly, “Talk to me.”

  A tear trickled down her cheek as she looked him in the eyes. “I love you. Nothing would make me happier than being your wife, but I can’t be engaged to you. I just can’t risk it.”

  He released her chin and sat down opposite her. He didn’t try to touch her. He just watched her, focusing on the tears which were flowing freely down her face, while he processed her words.

  Eventually he spoke. “You lost Alex while you were engaged and you’re scared the same thing will happen to me.”

  Sarah nodded. “I know how stupid that sounds, but I can’t help it.”

  He then took her hands in his and squeezed them gently. “It’s not stupid. So, just to be clear, if I organise a wedding, without us actually getting engaged, you will agree to marry me?”

  “No.” For the second time JD was taken aback. “I can’t know anything about it,” Sarah said.

  JD smiled. “Alright. I will organise our wedding without you being involved in any way. I’ll rope the others in to help and Katie will sort out a dress for you. The first you’ll know about it is when you turn up on the day.”

  He saw her eyes light up, so he continued. “But it won’t be th
is year. And maybe not next. I was planning on having a long engagement.” He was lying, but she didn’t need to know that. If she thought nothing would happen for a few years, she wouldn’t worry.

  She removed her hands from his and launched herself at him, knocking him backward.

  “Now that is the sort of reaction I had been hoping for,” he said when she stopped kissing him. “I would still like you to wear the ring though. The jeweller went to too much effort for it to stay in its box.”

  She didn’t object as he slipped it onto her right hand instead of her left and for a long while she just stared at it, her eyes drinking in every detail. “It’s perfect,” she said. Then she looked around her. “You certainly chose the idea spot for this didn’t you. Sorry I ruined all of your plans.”

  He placed his arms around her. “It’s okay. I understand. I won’t have a big announcement to make at dinner tonight, but I know how to get what I want now. And I know that you want it too. That’s a pretty good outcome for the day as far as I’m concerned. Now I hate to say it, but we should eat then get moving.”

  Reluctantly Sarah agreed.

  JD was in his office by the time Craig and Natalie returned. Craig entered and closed the door behind him.

  “How did it go?” he asked, a knowing smile on his face.

  “Not quite how I imagined,” JD said.

  The smile dropped from his face. “She said yes didn’t she?”

  “Actually, no, she didn’t.” Craig was confused. JD didn’t sound upset, but he couldn’t believe he would be winding him up about something this serious. “You had better take a seat.” Then a thought occurred to him. “On second thoughts, can you get Jonathon in here as well. And Katie.”

  Craig left and returned a short while later, with Jonathon and Katie in tow. They closed the door and, as there were only two spare seats, the two men took the ones in front of JD’s desk, while he offered his own to Katie. While pacing up and down, JD quickly explained what had taken place.

  Craig looked upset. “Sorry. I should have suspected something like that might happen.”

  “It’s not your fault,” JD said. “At least I know what I need to do. How quickly do you think we can get a wedding organised?”