When he returned, he asked someone to stop the film. They had paused it for him, but he needed it switched off.
“Who feels like coming on a hunt?” he asked. “It’s optional. Patrick has asked if we can check something out for him.”
Everyone looked at him in puzzlement. They had never been asked if they wanted to go on a hunt. Usually the alarm went off and they all automatically got changed.
“What’s going on?” Jonathon asked.
“Patrick says they keep getting readings of a vampire feeding at an address not too far from here. There is only ever one and it doesn’t last long enough for a hunting team to be sent, but it is regular. Once every week or so. It just happened again and Patrick wants it investigated.”
“Should we put on our hunting suits?” Katie asked.
“Yes. We have no idea what we’re going to find. There may be nothing there, or the house might be crawling with vampires. We’ve no way of knowing and I am not taking any chances.”
Natalie and Craig were cuddled up together on the sofa. Starting over again had been a good idea and they were now hardly seen apart when they were at the house. Other than at night. They still slept separately and were somehow managing to keep their hands off each other, though for Craig it was getting harder and harder to do so.
“Sorry Natalie,” he said. “I have to go.”
“I know,” she said then kissed him goodbye.
“If you keep kissing me like that,” he whispered to her, “I’m not going to be able to hold back.”
“That’s the idea,” she said quietly in his ear. He gaped at her as she left the room.
Despite them speaking quietly, JD had still managed to hear every word and he was grinning as he and Sarah ran up the stairs to their room.
“What?” Sarah asked as soon as they were alone.
JD told her what he had overheard.
“About time too,” Sarah said.
They got changed into their hunting suits then collected their swords from the arena. The gaps on the wall told them that everyone else had already got theirs. When everyone was by the front door, JD told them where they were going.
“Millionaire’s row,” Scott said. “One day I’m going to earn enough to live in one of those houses.”
“In your dreams,” Jane said.
JD then gave them the usual instructions about being careful. “This one is different. We’ve no idea what to expect. Don’t become complacent and don’t take any chances. If in doubt, don’t do anything. Call out for me.”
As there were no longer signs of a vampire feeding, there was no rush to get to the location, so JD drove much more sedately than he usually did when on a hunt. Scott, in the other car, liked to drive fast and JD could see in his mirror that he was itching to overtake him and race off.
When they arrived at the address, JD saw that a security gate was blocking the driveway. The wall surrounding the property was low enough for them to climb over without any difficulty, so he parked on the grass verge in front of it. Scott pulled in behind him and the seven hunters armed themselves before entering the grounds.
They followed the driveway up to the house. Lights were on inside, indicating that someone was home. JD signalled that they should split up, one pair going to the left and another to the right, while he stayed with the remaining two hunters and approached the front door.
He had only taken two steps when floodlights came on, bathing them all in light. Inside the house, JD could faintly hear an alarm ringing. “They know we are here,” he called out. “So let’s stick together.”
————————————-∞————————————-
Anna and Luke were in one of the lounges, playing cards with Helen and Paul, when an alarm sounded.
“What’s that?” Paul asked.
“Security alarm. Trespassers are approaching the house.”
A moment later, Gabriel entered the room. He was grinning broadly. “Hunters,” he said. “They must have picked up on Luke feeding on Anna.” Then he turned his attention to the pair. “Come and look at the security camera. You’re going to find this very interesting.”
They followed him to the room where the monitors for the security cameras that surrounded the house were and pointed to one of the screens. Seven figures were slowly approaching.
“Look closely at the person just to the left of the leader,” Gabriel said.
“Holy shit,” Luke exclaimed. “That’s Sarah.”
“JD is next to her,” Anna said.
“And Craig is over on the left,” Gabriel said.
“JD is a hunter?” Anna was having trouble getting her head around that. “A vampire is a vampire hunter?”
“So it seems.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Invite them in of course. This is going to be fun.”
‘Fun’ was not the word that sprang into Anna’s mind.
Before doing anything, they informed Gavin who the intruders were and obtained permission to handle the situation however they saw fit, as long as he got introduced to JD and Sarah before they left.
Gabriel was grinning broadly as he approached the front door. Beside her, Anna could see how tense Luke was. He wasn’t sure what was going to happen, especially if his cousin was in charge.
“Hello hunters,” Gabriel said loudly as he threw the door open, making the visitors freeze.
Sarah was the first to recognise him and relaxed her stance. “Gabriel?”
He flashed her a smile. “Welcome to my home,” he said. “Why don’t you come in.”
Sarah glanced at JD, silently asking for instructions.
“Who is he?” JD asked.
“I work with him,” Sarah said. Then she noticed Luke and Anna standing in the doorway. So did JD.
“Let me handle this,” he said quietly. He slipped his sword into the sheath on his back and the other hunters did the same.
“Sorry,” he said as he approached the house. “It looks like we have been given the wrong address.” He turned to Anna and Luke. “It’s good to see you again.”
He held out his hand and Luke shook it. When JD touched Anna, he got what felt like an electric shock and quickly withdrew his hand.
“Actually, you have the right address,” Gabriel said. “I presume Sanctuary 7 sent you.”
Behind him, JD heard the sharp intake of breath. “I have no idea what you are talking about,” he said.
“Cut the crap,” Luke said. “We know everything about your hunting teams and the Sanctuaries they live in. Now you can either come inside and discuss this or we can make you. The choice is yours.”
Six swords were drawn once more. JD remained unarmed. He could draw his sword fast enough should anyone standing in front of him give him cause to do so.
“We don’t discuss things with vampires,” he said.
Luke sighed. “You really don’t know what you’re getting yourself into.”
“And you don’t know just how good we are,” JD said. “Am I right in presuming you are a vampire?”
“You are,” Luke said. “As is Gabriel. Anna and her brother are still human. We have eight vampires in total living here currently.” He didn’t mention they were all greater vampires. He wasn’t sure the hunters knew there was a difference between what he was and what JD was.
JD smiled. “We’ve faced worse odds than that.”
“Only in regard to numbers,” Gabriel said. He smiled wide enough to show his fangs.
Anna rolled her eyes. “Sarah, you know me. You know I would not put you in any danger. Trust me. You really don’t want to fight these guys. Come in and let’s talk. They will even let you keep your weapons.”
“Let us?” JD asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Then again, maybe not,” Gabriel said. He glanced at Luke, saw him nod his head, then they both moved.
They were much faster than any vampire any of the hunters had faced before. Not only were they able to
take all of their swords, they got their knives as well. Though they couldn’t be seen, they knew where to find them. Every hunting suit was identical, with a hidden pocket for a knife, and other hunters had told them about it while under their mind control.
Luke and Gabriel dropped their stash on the floor near the door. “You can pick them up on your way in if you want,” Luke said. Then he turned his back on the hunters, took Anna’s hand and went into the house. Gabriel followed them.
The hunters stared after them.
“How did they do that?” Jane asked.
“I don’t know,” JD said. “But I would like to find out. Stay here.”
“No way,” Jonathon said as JD walked toward the still open door. “You are not going in there alone.”
JD was too curious as to what Luke and Gabriel were to argue. They couldn’t be ordinary vampires. He wasn’t worried about his safety, or that of his team. If the two vampires wanted them dead, based on how easily they had disarmed them, they already would be.
He held out his hand and Sarah took it. Together they walked into the house, leaving their weapons where they were. The vampires had demonstrated how useless they would be.
“We’re through here,” Gabriel’s voice rang out from the dining room.
“How did he hear us come in?” Sarah whispered to JD. “Would you have done so?”
“No. I don’t think so. I have a feeling this is going to be a very interesting evening.”
“I would like to see your definition of the word ‘interesting’.”
She wasn’t nervous. She, too, believed that if the vampires wanted to harm them in any way, they wouldn’t be inviting them into their home.
The dining room was much larger than any of the hunters had been expecting. In the centre was a huge wooden table with fourteen chairs around it. Five were occupied.
“Take a seat,” Anna said. “This is my brother, Paul, and his girlfriend, Helen.” Paul now spent more nights in Helen’s bed than he did his own so she had earned the right to be called his girlfriend. Danielle had already moved out of the house she had shared with Paul, but he had yet to move back in. Anna sometimes wondered if he ever would.
As the hunters entered the room and took seats, Anna introduced those she knew. “Sarah works for me and this is JD, her husband. Craig, on their right, also works at my company.”
“And apparently they have come to kill us all,” Paul said, not even attempting to keep the amusement out of his voice.
“Not all of you,” Sarah said. “Only the vampires.”
Helen burst out laughing. “I’d like to see you try.”
JD made the rest of the introductions. Gabriel’s eyes lit up when he heard that Katie was Jonathon’s wife. That meant she was unavailable and was therefore a challenge. Anna caught his eye and shook her head in warning.
“Anything to drink?” Luke asked.
“Got anything other than blood?” Scott asked, earning himself a glare from JD.
Luke ignored the comment. “Why don’t we start by telling you everything we know about you, then we can go on to everything you don’t know about us.”
“This should be good,” JD said and relaxed back in his chair. Under the table he was holding Sarah’s hand and she could tell by how tightly he squeezed it that he wasn’t as relaxed as he appeared.
“Let’s start with Sanctuary 7 shall we?” Gabriel said. “We know that they can track us when we feed, but not how. Unfortunately, nor do any of you.”
He enjoyed the surprised looks on the hunters’ faces. Only JD did not react. “Go on,” he said.
“I’m not sure which Sanctuary you’re from. I know it’s not 2, 5 or 9.”
“It’s 14,” Helen said. “I recognise some of them.”
Between them, the three vampires then reeled off the address of every Sanctuary they knew about. Most of the hunters went pale.
“If you know where we live,” Jonathon said, “why haven’t you attacked us?”
“Because we have no interest in doing so,” Helen said. “As far as we’re concerned, you are doing the world a favour. Lesser vampires are vermin that deserve to be wiped off the face of the Earth.”
“Lesser vampires?” JD asked, leaning forward. They now had his full attention. While they had been speaking about the Sanctuaries, part of his mind had been occupied in working out how to get his people out of the house alive, should they be attacked.
“We’ll get to that later,” Luke said. “I’m guessing you’re paying us a visit because you are picking up me feeding off Anna.”
“Maybe,” JD said. “I can’t answer that. All I know is that Sanctuary 7 only ever picks up one vampire feeding at this address. With so many of you living here, why don’t they pick up more?”
“Because the rest of us are not stupid enough to feed where we live,” Gabriel said. “Luke and Anna are a special case. He seems unable to resist taking her blood. I’m sure you know how that feels.”
Sarah felt JD tense beside her. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“We know you’re a vampire, JD, so there’s no point in denying it.”
“How?”
It was Anna who answered. “Every time you touch me you feel pain, kind of like a shock from static electricity.”
She reached across the table and JD took up the challenge, placing a finger on her outstretched hand. He immediately pulled it back as he felt pain run up his arm.
“Why?”
“Luke has claimed me. It means that every vampire, other than him, who touches my skin will feel the same pain. It protects me from others. They can’t bite me or feed off me. Why do you think Gabriel never touches me in any way?”
The question was aimed at Sarah. “I assumed it was because you are dating his cousin and Luke would kick his head in if he ever tried anything with you.”
“I knew what you were when we went out to dinner and you reacted to touching me,” Anna continued, turning her head so she was addressing JD. “Working with Sarah and not being able to say anything has been very difficult.”
“So how did Luke claim you?” Craig asked. Curiosity had overcome any apprehension he felt about being in a house full of vampires. If Luke and Gabriel were telling the truth, that is. It was possible that they and Helen were the only blood suckers who lived there.
“I pumped venom into her,” Luke said.
“Bullshit,” Scott exclaimed. “If you put venom in her she would have turned.”
“Oh how little you know,” Gabriel said. “Put a little venom in a human and you can temporarily control their mind. Put in more and you can claim them. More still will heal them. Too much and they will be turned.”
Scott opened his mouth to say something, but JD held up his hand. Gabriel had said something he didn’t like the sound of. “What do you mean ‘control their mind’?”
“We can make them do anything we want,” Luke said. “Though usually we just make them give us information then alter their memories. How do you think we know so much about your hunter society? Between us, we’ve bitten a lot of you.”
Craig unconsciously put his hand up to his neck. He could still remember how he felt when he found out he had been bitten but had no memory of it.
JD noticed and understood his reaction. “Alright,” he said. “I can accept that you can extract information and alter memories, but I don’t believe you can make any of us do something we don’t want to.”
“Then I think a demonstration is in order,” Gabriel said.
“Don’t even think about it,” Anna started to say, but before she got to the end of sentence, Gabriel had moved close to Katie and bitten her neck.
Kiss me the way you kiss your husband
“Gabriel,” Anna yelled out, but it was too late.
Seeing that his wife was being attacked, Jonathon leapt to his feet, knocking over his chair in his haste.
“Take your hands off her,” he snarled and Gabriel stepped back, licking his lips as he
did so.
“She tastes exquisite,” he said and JD had to grab hold of Jonathon before he punched Gabriel.
“Please let me apologise for my cousin,” Luke said in a pained tone. Then he addressed Gabriel. “If you’re going to demonstrate, get on with it. And don’t do anything outrageous.”
“Outrageous? Me?” His voice was filled with sarcasm.
He took hold of Katie’s hand and pulled her closer to him. “Katie. Kiss me. Kiss me the way you kiss your husband.”
JD was glad he still had hold of Jonathon.
Everyone watched as Katie kissed Gabriel passionately. Their hands were all over each other.
“That’s enough Gabriel,” Luke called out.
Gabriel released his hold on Katie then stepped away from her. He turned toward Jonathon. “I’ll let you decide if she was doing that against her will or not.”
“For God’s sake Gabriel,” Luke said in exasperation. “Why can’t you behave like a decent human being for once?”
“Where would be the fun in that?”
“Just sit down. I think they have seen enough.”
“I disagree. Katie, how do you fancy coming up to my room for a while? I’m sure we can find something to do while the others talk.”
He held out his hand to Katie and she took it.
Luke launched himself across the table, slamming into Gabriel and pushing him away from Katie. He shoved him against the wall, his arm across his throat, cutting off his oxygen supply.
“Don’t make me kill you,” he said. “You know I can. I’ve done it before.”
Gabriel held his arms up in surrender. “Alright. I’ll behave.”
Luke released him and both of them returned to their seats.
“Now where were we before Gabriel decided to act like a child?”
“Some of us doubted what you said about being able to control people,” JD said. “I think you have convinced us.” He then whispered in his brother’s ear. “Can I release you now?”
Jonathon nodded and as soon as he was free from JD’s hold on him, he took Katie in his arms. “Are you alright?”
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