“I’m fine,” she said. Anna detected a slight tremor in her voice and didn’t think it was from shock or fright.
She grinned at Katie. “He’s good, isn’t he.”
Katie didn’t answer, but her blush told Anna that she agreed.
“Can I ask a question?” Craig said before Jonathon could notice how red his wife was going. “How long does this control last?”
“Not long. Only a few hours.”
“And how old can the memories be? Can you alter my memory from a few days ago, for example? Or weeks. Or months.”
“No, the memory has to be fairly recent. Why? Did you have something specific in mind?” Luke asked.
Craig said that there was something that he wanted to forget and when he specified the date, it wasn’t the one any of the hunters had been expecting. They all assumed that he was asking if Luke could make him forget his kiss with Jane, but the date he gave was after that had happened.
“Sorry, no. I can’t help. What do you want to forget?”
“I just saw something I wish I hadn’t.”
He glanced at Katie and saw her blushing once more. She knew full well what he was referring to.
“So can Jason do that?” Sarah asked.
“No,” JD said before any of the other vampires could answer. “I can’t do that. There is no way I would risk putting venom in someone. And why would I want to? Why would I want to control someone’s mind?”
“He does a good enough job of controlling us anyway,” Scott said under his breath. He didn’t know that the four vampires all heard him.
“JD’s right,” Luke said. “He can’t do it. Only greater vampires can and he’s a lesser one.”
“You mentioned lesser vampires before,” JD said. “What’s the difference?”
Between them, Luke, Gabriel and Helen told the hunters everything about greater and lesser vampires. Both Anna and Paul had heard it all before, so they went to the kitchen and came back with trays full of coffee and cans of cold drinks.
All of the hunters were fascinated with everything the greater vampires had to say. They thought they knew almost everything about vampires and were disconcerted to find that this was not the case.
“Do you think Sanctuary 7 know any of this?” Craig asked.
JD shook his head. “I don’t think so. I’m sure they would have mentioned it if they did.”
“So are the vampires living here the only greater vampires that exist?” Jane asked.
“No,” Helen said. “There are many others around the world, but we don’t know of any others in the area.”
“And how do we kill you?” Jonathon asked. He wasn’t expecting to get an answer.
Luke smiled at him. “The same way you do a lesser vampire, though you don’t have a hope in hell of doing so. We are so much stronger and faster than you. You can throw every hunter you have at us and we will kill you all.”
“Prove it,” Sarah said. She couldn’t bring herself to believe that anyone could beat JD.
“Sure,” Gabriel said. “If you want to be humiliated. Just say where and when.”
“Gabriel,” Luke said. “Stop showing off.”
“Actually,” JD said, “I would be very interested to see how good you really are. Come to Sanctuary 14 tomorrow afternoon.”
“And how do we know it won’t be an ambush?” Helen asked.
“If you’re as good as you claim, do you care?”
“No, we don’t,” Luke said. “We’ll be there.” He saw the look on Helen’s face and clarified. “Gabriel and I will go, nobody else. Except for Anna, of course.”
“How many hunters have you bitten?” Sarah asked. If they wiped the memories every time they bit someone, she was curious as to why hunters returning from a hunt without seeing any vampires didn’t happen more often.
“Not that many really. We’re usually long gone before you turn up.”
“Why can we catch lesser vampires in the act, so to speak, but not you?” Jane asked.
“Because we don’t kill,” Helen said. “We take what blood we need, then leave. It takes a long time to completely drain a victim.”
“It has been a very long time since most of us have killed anyone,” Luke said. “Others have joined us more recently so have only just learned self-control.”
“And you expect us to believe that?” Jonathon asked.
“Believe what you like,” Gabriel said. “It makes no difference to us.”
“Please ignore Gabriel,” Luke said. “Yes, we expect you to believe us. We’re not monsters. You know vampires don’t have to kill. I’m sure JD manages to restrain himself. By the way, how does he feed? I can’t imagine him being able to kill lesser vampires for attacking people if he does the same thing.”
“Between us we all keep him supplied with blood,” Craig said. “Though he takes more from Sarah than anyone else. At least he used to.”
He stopped speaking when he realised what he had said. Sarah was still keeping her pregnancy a secret from everyone except for those who lived at 14 and Anna. Though she wouldn’t be able to do so for much longer. People at work were starting to notice her changing body shape, as were other hunters whenever they saw her.
“Used to?” Gabriel asked. Neither Anna nor Luke had spoken to him about Sarah’s condition.
“I’m pregnant,” Sarah said. “And Jason thinks taking my blood will be too risky now.”
“Pregnant?” Helen said. “By a vampire?” Sarah and JD both nodded their heads. “Gavin will be very interested in hearing about that.”
“He already knows and would like to meet you two,” Luke said.
“Who’s Gavin?”
“He’s our leader. He and his wife have been vampires longer than anyone else here so he lays down the rules.”
That statement had JD interested. If these so-called greater vampires weren’t free to do whatever they wished, he wanted to know what limits they set themselves. “What sort of rules?”
Luke told them everything. He saw no reason to hide anything.
“So how did you get turned?” he asked JD when he had finished telling them everything they wanted to know.
JD explained, not only what happened, but why he was still alive, then asked the greater vampires about what happened to them.
“So where do we go from here?” Craig asked when Luke, Gabriel and Helen had finished telling their stories. “We now know you are vampires and where you live and it appears you know all about us.”
“It’s simple,” Luke said. “You stay away from us and we will stay away from you.”
“We will have to tell others about you.”
“I know. If I thought that would be a problem we wouldn’t have told you anything. We would have simply taken away your memories of seeing us and sent you home.”
“And you have to agree to stop attacking hunters.”
“I’m sure we can get Gavin to agree to that and if he makes it a rule, everyone here will obey. But that works both ways. If a hunter attacks us, we will defend ourselves, though we won’t kill them.”
“Agreed,” JD said, though he had no idea if he would be able to get those higher up in the hunter society to back what he was promising.
“We should go,” he continued. “You have given us a lot to think about and I have no idea how I’m going to make a report on this.”
“Would you and Sarah mind staying for a little longer?” Luke asked. “Gavin really wants to meet you and it would be impolite to refuse.”
“Sure,” JD said, then turned to his brother. “Get the others home. Say nothing to anyone about what happened here. I’ll speak to Doc as soon as I return.” He then looked at Craig. “Not even Natalie.” Craig nodded. He would not disobey an order from JD.
“I think those two are going to be too busy to talk about anything,” Sarah said quietly enough for JD to hear, but not Craig.
It took all of JD’s will power not to laugh.
———————�
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“So it’s true,” Gavin said as soon as he saw Sarah. “A lesser vampire really can father a child.”
Luke and Anna had taken JD and Sarah to Gavin’s office. Why he spent so much time there and what he did, nobody knew, but it was always the first place anyone tried when looking for him.
“Yes, it is,” JD said and placed his arm protectively around his wife.
Gavin had lots of questions for them, all of which they answered. After a while, Anna took Sarah away, leaving the men to talk alone. She gave her a tour of the house, making sure the first stop was a bathroom, for which Sarah was grateful.
When they returned, the topic of conversation had moved away from lesser vampires and onto what JD had been told. Gavin wasn’t concerned that Luke and Gabriel had told the hunters so much. He didn’t see them as a danger to himself or his family and knowing everything might keep them away.
When JD and Sarah finally made it home, everyone except Craig and Natalie were still up.
“So what happened?” Doc asked. JD summarised and promised to make a full report first thing in the morning. It took a long time to convince Doc that he was not making anything up. JD could understand why. Even he was having a hard time believing what had happened.
“I’ll organise a meeting,” Doc said. “All of the trainers and Sanctuary leaders are going to want to hear this first hand.”
“Can you make it one evening next week?” JD said. “Luke and Gabriel are coming here tomorrow and I want to see just how good they really are.”
“You invited vampires here?” Doc did not sound pleased.
“Yes, I did. It will be perfectly safe. They mean us no harm. Is that a problem?”
“No, I just wish you had spoken to me about it first.”
“It wasn’t really an option,” JD pointed out.
Doc looked at his watch. “It’s late. Get some sleep. We can talk more about this in the morning.”
Jonathon had other ideas. As soon as he and Katie were alone in their room, he kissed her.
“I saw the look on your face when Anna said how good Gabriel was,” he said. “I’m going to prove that I’m better.”
They weren’t the only ones late for the morning training session. JD didn’t ask why and, for once, didn’t punish anyone. After all they had learned the previous evening, he could understand if nobody had been able to sleep.
Gabriel killed JD
Gabriel pulled up beside the gate and looked at his cousin. “Are you sure about this?” he asked.
“Yes. I trust that this will not be an ambush and, even if it is, we can handle ourselves.”
“Alright,” he said and pressed the buzzer. “It’s Gabriel, Luke and Anna,” he said when a male voice he didn’t recognise answered. He resisted the urge to say, ‘It’s your friendly neighbourhood vampires’. Luke didn’t seem to have much of a sense of humour this morning and he was bound to complain.
“I’ll open the gate for you,” the voice said. “The children are eagerly awaiting your arrival.”
“Children?” Anna said as the gate slowly opened. Luke shrugged his shoulders.
As they pulled up outside the house, the front door opened and JD walked out, accompanied by a middle aged man.
“Glad you decided to come,” JD said once they were out of the car. He shook hands with Luke and Gabriel then held out his hand to Anna.
“Really?” she said.
He quickly withdrew it. “Maybe not.” He then turned to the man standing next to him. “This is Doc, leader of Sanctuary 14.”
“I would say I am pleased to meet you, but I would be lying. What JD has told me has left me feeling uneasy, to say the least.” Doc shook hands with the visitors, but it was obvious that he was unhappy about doing so.
As JD led them into the house, Anna looked around her. “Where are the children?” she asked.
JD grinned. “Despite some of us being married, and one having a child on the way, Doc still refers to all hunters in his Sanctuary as children. I think it stops him feeling old.”
“I heard that,” Doc said from somewhere behind them.
JD went straight to the balcony level of the arena. All of the hunters were present, along with Natalie. “This is the arena,” he announced. “We do all of our training here.”
Gabriel whistled. “You have an impressive array of weapons. Can you use them all?”
“Jason can,” Sarah said, “and I am learning most of them. The others tend to stick to the swords, Bo and knives.”
“So how do you want to do this?” Luke asked.
“Why don’t some of my team demonstrate their abilities first,” JD said.
He nodded to Craig and Scott, who both slid down the pole to the arena floor. Neither were dressed in hunting suits, so they took their blunt swords from the wall.
They put on an impressive display, attacking each other without holding back.
“They’re good,” Luke said. “I can imagine them being effective against lesser vampires.”
JD whistled and the two combatants stepped away from each other. Jane then went down to the arena floor and Craig took on both her and Scott. He fought well and it took a while for them to get him on the ground with a sword against his throat.
“Your turn,” JD said to the two greater vampires. “Who wants to take me on?”
He waited until Scott, Jane and Craig were on the balcony once more, then somersaulted down.
“Impressive,” Gabriel said, then jumped straight down, landing on the balls of his feet with cat-like grace.
“Bloody hell,” Craig exclaimed. They were all used to JD jumping down from the balcony to the floor, but never thought they would witness someone doing it without the flip to slow them down.
“Stop showing off,” Luke called down to Gabriel. “Behave.”
“Of course I won’t,” Gabriel replied. Luke rolled his eyes.
“He’s even worse in his free time than he is at work,” Sarah said.
“Unfortunately, yes,” Anna said. “But you get used to him.”
“He won’t be spending enough time here for us to need to get used to him,” Jonathon said and possessively put his arm around Katie. Gabriel heard the comment, saw what Jonathon did and smiled. He would enjoy winding the hunter up later if he got the chance.
“Grab a weapon,” JD said to Gabriel and took down his own sword. “The ones on the left are for use by visitors. I suggest we use blunt ones.”
“I have no idea how to use a sword,” Gabriel said. “But I won’t need one.”
“Cocky, aren’t you,” JD said.
Gabriel grinned. “I’ll even let you use a sharp sword if you want to.”
JD didn’t take him up on his offer. Instead he walked over to the door and pressed a concealed button on the doorframe. Wooden panels slid down, hiding the weapons covering the walls. The Bo in the urn in the corner were now the only weapons Gabriel would be able to use, should he decide he needed to.
“I’ll start off slow,” JD said as he swung his sword around, loosening up his wrists.
“Don’t bother,” Gabriel said.
JD attacked before Gabriel had finished speaking, but Gabriel was ready for him and moved out of the way, allowing the sword to sail past him.
Swearing came from the balcony. The hunters had been hanging back, in relaxed stances, but now moved forward and leaned over the balcony to get as good a view as possible. They had been expecting JD to easily beat Gabriel, but seeing him move so fast changed their minds.
The fight was not very exciting to watch. JD threw everything he had at Gabriel, but never managed to get close to him. Gabriel made no attempt to attack or defend, he just kept moving out of the way. At one point JD thought he was going to manage to get him pinned against a wall, but Gabriel turned away at the last moment.
“JD is really good,” Anna said, impressed by how fast and strong the lesser vampire was with a sword in hi
s hand.
“None of us can compete with him,” Craig said. “Sarah came close, before he was turned. Now no hunter stands a chance against him.”
“I can understand why he is such a good hunter,” Luke said.
“I’m getting bored with this,” Gabriel said and the next time JD attacked, instead of stepping out of the way, he took hold of his arm and pulled the sword from his grasp. It happened so fast that if anyone had blinked they would have missed it.
Gabriel then pushed the sword into JD’s stomach with such force that, despite it being blunt, it easily tore through JD’s clothes and flesh.
Agony poured through him and Sarah screamed out, “Jason.”
Gabriel pulled the sword out and JD slumped to his knees. A stunned silence filled the room.
“Gabriel, finish it,” Luke called out. “You can’t leave him in that much pain.”
Gabriel looked up to the balcony and made sure he locked eyes with Katie as he took hold of JD’s head and twisted it sharply, breaking his neck. Colour drained from her face.
Sarah screamed and Anna took hold of her. “He will be alright. He’s not really dead. He will come back to life.”
“Get her out of here,” Craig said and between them Natalie and Anna managed to pull Sarah out of the arena. Tears flowed down her face and she was still screaming.
Luke jumped down to the arena floor. “Was that really necessary?” he asked his cousin.
“I thought so.”
Luke checked JD’s body, making sure there was no pulse, then he picked him up. Blood was everywhere. “Get out of the way,” he called up to those who were standing close to the edge, looking down at him.
When they backed up, he took two steps backward, then ran forward before springing into the air. He landed on the balcony, JD still cradled in his arms.
Nobody spoke. Nobody knew what to say.
“Where do you want me to put him?”
Craig was the first to recover, not only from the shock of seeing JD killed, but also from watching Luke jump so high while carrying JD’s dead body.
“Come with me,” he said and led Luke from the room. He went straight to the medical unit at the back of the house and instructed Luke to place him on the bed.
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