“Exactly.”

  “What about human clubs?” Zeke suggested. “I mean, I don’t see that anyone would even know what you are if you went to one of them.”

  “We’ve actually been to one and really enjoyed it,” Jacqueline said, “but like Dane commented, we don’t feel that we should be shunned from a hunters’ club when we had only been doing our jobs and ended up getting turned. Though I guess it counts for those hunters who fall in love with a vampire and then are turned also. They still fight the rogues.” She realized that she hadn’t really thought about them because they were in a different category. Just like babies born of hunters turned would be even another category of hunter-vampire combos.

  Then they heard someone park in the driveway and Jacqueline vanished, reappeared, and peered out the peephole in the front door. “It’s Danai and Michael.” She got the door for them.

  “Hey,” Michael said, “Tobias is so pissed off about the hunters who are friends of Gregory who are planning to eliminate hunters turned. Aren’t there enough rogue vampires to get rid of? Asses.”

  Danai was quiet but came inside the house and petted Princess that eagerly greeted all the newcomers.

  “Okay, so Tobias is coming to get your statement and the recording you had made,” Michael said. “After that, we’ll move you to our compound. It won’t take long before the word gets out that the hunters have been added to a list to arrest and be dealt with.”

  “Dealt with,” Zeke said. “I hope that means they’ll be terminated because that’s the only way any of you will be safe, well, and us included.”

  “We’ll deal with it,” Michael said. “Rest assured. We can’t afford to have them come after one of our own, or honest citizens like yourselves who are working on the side of good.”

  Then someone knocked at the door and Michael hurried to get it. “It’s Tobias. Come in, Dad.”

  After Tobias discussed the matter with Zeke and his friends, he asked Jacqueline if she had someplace private that he could use to talk to the league council members.

  “Yes, in the den.” She led him in there.

  “Thanks.”

  Then she left him alone so that he could conduct his business.

  Once he contacted the other council members concerning the matter, he returned to the living room. The human hunters seemed a little on edge, shuffling in their seats, and she was sure it was because they worried about what the upshot of all this would be.

  “We’re taking care of it,” Tobias said.

  “We have a little problem with time.” Dane explained about what Zeke and his team of hunters were supposed to do.

  “Then we stage it. Probably somewhere that we can easily mop up the blood from the scene afterwards,” Tobias said.

  “Maybe the back patio?” Jacqueline suggested. “That way I can hose off the patio after we spill some blood there.” Though she hated to waste the precious commodity that she had purchased.

  “What about your clothes? Do you want to change into something that you don’t mind ruining if we can’t get the blood out?” Tobias asked.

  “Yeah, I’ll be right back.”

  “But it needs to be light-colored enough that they can recognize the blood on you in the photo,” Tobias called after her.

  To her surprise, when she appeared in her bedroom, Dane followed and took her into his arms and kissed her. “I’m so sorry about this.”

  “You needn’t be. I was the one who wanted so badly to go to the hunters’ club to prove we had a right to be there.”

  “Well, you were right, and we deserved to be there. I’m just sorry that the hunters have decided to try and terminate you, but I want you to know I’ll always be there for you.”

  “If you’re proposing to me…”

  He smiled.

  “Okay, yes, I’ll marry you. Do you have a ring?”

  He laughed.

  She sighed. “First I’m engaged to a hunter who deserts me and now one who doesn’t even want to give me a ring.”

  “First chance we have to get one, I’ll take you to a jewelry store, but first, we have to stage your death and keep you out of the public eye.” Then he kissed her soundly.

  And she kissed him back. “You are so the one for me.”

  “That’s the way I feel about you.”

  “Okay, let’s get my death over with.” She rummaged through her clothes, found a white shirt that she’d worn that had speckles of yellow and blue paint on it when she had been trying to paint some garden decorations and splattered a bit of paint on it. She pulled it out and yanked off her shirt and replaced it with her painted shirt. Then she found a pair of green jeans she had never liked. They were too tight in the waist, too baggy in the legs, and too short. She should have gotten rid of them a long time ago.

  She stepped out of her jeans and then pulled on the green ones. “Let’s do this.”

  They both vanished and ended up on the ground floor in the living room. No one was in there, but then they heard voices on the back patio and went out there. It was still storming out, so much for the weather report saying it was going to end, but she had a large-covered patio and so they were protected from the rain.

  Everyone watched while Dane helped Jacqueline lie down on the patio, making sure she was in a position that looked natural for a huntress who had just been felled by a hunter. “What do you think?” Dane asked.

  “Just have her clutching her sword,” Zeke said.

  “But wouldn’t it be more realistic if she hadn’t been able to grab her sword?” Dane asked. “Otherwise, she might have killed the human hunters.”

  “No sword then. She was defenseless. But we need to show what she was doing out on the patio when it’s raining,” Tobias said.

  “I could be watering my potted plants over there.” Jacqueline motioned to a watering pitcher. “They like the patio shade, but it means I need to water them.”

  “I got this,” Zeke said, grabbing the water pitcher and filling it with water from the hose next to the patio. Then he returned with it. “How do you want me to do this?”

  “I’m right-handed. You can put it next to me on the patio, but maybe throw up your arm like I might have and let the water rain down on me, then lay it down on the patio where I might have dropped it and let the water spill out.”

  “I’ll drop it from the height you probably would have been holding it when we startled you,” Zeke said.

  Michael moved the plant stand near where she was lying so they could capture the picture of both. “You could have grabbed the plant stand or knocked it over and⁠—”

  “No. I’m not destroying one of my plants for them,” she said.

  They all smiled at her. She figured they were thinking that she was more important than her beautiful bougainvillea was.

  19

  “I have a better idea.” Dane helped Jacqueline up off the patio floor and handed her the water pitcher. “You’re watering your plant, and I come at you with a sword to your heart. React like you normally would and Michael will catch you when I pretend to cut you and set you gently down on the patio.”

  “Okay got it.” She began watering the plant, and Dane pretended to thrust his sword at her. She threw her arms up in defense, the water splashing on her shirt and pants, getting them wet, and then she fell. Michael caught her and laid her out on the patio.

  Tobias poured some blood on her chest, letting it spread naturally across her shirt and it mixed with some of the water on the fabric. She’d dropped the water pitcher nearby and the contents were spilling out, puddling next to her shoulder.

  “How about some blood under her head, like she cracked her skull when she fell?” Zeke asked.

  “Yeah, that’s a good idea, or that one of the other hunters hit her in the back of the head at the same time the other came at her from the front. That would make it seem more doable for them to take her out without having a fight on their hands,” Michael said. “And a reason for her not having time to disappear and arm herself.”

  Then Dane lifted her head and Tobias spilled some blood on her head and underneath it.

  “How does that look?” Dane asked, stepping back from the scene. He hated having to stage this because to him it looked too damn real, though he could hear her heart beating, which grounded him in the moment.

  “It looks good to me,” Tobias said.

  Danai agreed.

  “I think we’re ready for pictures before everything dries,” Michael said.

  Zeke pulled out his phone and took several photos from different angles. Then he showed them to the hunters while Jacqueline waited for them to decide if everything looked realistic enough.

  “That looks good to me,” Dane said, though he waited for everyone to agree before he helped Jacqueline up. He knew she had to be uncomfortable while lying on the hard, cement patio.

  “Yeah,” Tobias said. “This should be perfect.”

  Everyone thought it looked real.

  “Which photo do you want me to send to X?” Zeke asked.

  Dane pointed to the one that showed the spilled water can and all the other details. “This one.”

  Then Zeke sent the message, and everyone waited. It seemed like forever before X responded.

  X texted: Take out Dane…now. The money for the hit on Jacqueline Anderson is being wired to your account.

  Zeke texted: On it. Then he checked his bank account. “The money is in the account. What should I do about it?”

  “It’s your money. Share it with your hunter partners,” Tobias said.

  “What if Dane went to her place and finds her like this and we killed him? Well, for pretend,” Zeke said.

  “It’s not a bad plan,” Tobias said, “but it might look a little suspicious. I say we wait on the second hit to stage it and do it at Dane’s home.”

  “Can I get up now?” Jacqueline asked, sounding like she didn’t want to mess up the scene if they needed her to stay there.

  Dane helped Jacqueline up and she said, “I’m going to wash up and get changed.”

  “We’ll get this cleaned up for you,” Zeke said.

  “Thanks.” Then she vanished.

  Dane got her a bloody cocktail from the kitchen and took it to her bedroom in a flash. “Just in case you had the need after being soaked in blood.”

  “How did you know?” She drank the cocktail, then handed it back to him, removed her clothes in the bathroom, and turned the shower on.

  “I was feeling like that. I’ll go back and get one for myself.”

  “Thanks. I’ll be down soon.” She stepped into the shower and closed the door.

  Then he returned to the kitchen to fix himself a glass and drank it before anyone returned to the house. He still didn’t like having to drink it in front of hunters or humans if he didn’t need to.

  He went out to the back patio to see if he could help with the cleanup, but nobody had done anything yet.

  “So I was going to have Michael and Danai take the men to the hunter compound to protect them until X and the others are captured, but I guess we need you for a while longer to stage another killing,” Tobias said.

  “Do you think X and his friends will come here to see if Jacqueline’s dead on the patio?” Zeke asked.

  “Hell, I hope not,” Jacqueline said, coming out to the back patio, her hair freshly washed and wet.

  “We need to move our cars, unless,” Tobias said, “we learned that she was dead.”

  “Okay, that works. How about a scenario where I went to see her,” Dane said. “I can get into her house freely.”

  “I can too, though I always knock first. Maybe I was worried when she didn’t answer because we were supposed to be getting together. We have keys to each other’s homes, Mom and Dad, mine, Jacqueline’s,” Robert said.

  “The way we’ll handle this is Robert came to see his sister for a prearranged get together and Robert called Dane and me to tell us that Jacqueline had been murdered,” Tobias said. “Then Dane and I arrived at her home.”

  “What about killing Dane?” Zeke asked.

  “You can tell X that you can try to locate Dane at his home later tonight because he wasn’t at his home when you last checked,” Tobias said. “Speaking of which, if you have any idea that they are tracking your vehicle, you might want to drop by Dane’s house first before you call him.”

  “Wait. We killed Jacqueline on her back porch. How will we be able to explain how we reached the backyard if X asks?” Zeke asked.

  “The gate isn’t locked. I have a yard service so I never lock the gate,” Jacqueline said. “But how did you get in through the security gate at the entrance to the development?”

  “X gave us the code.”

  “Then he might know someone in the development. What if he has the friend or associate, most likely a hunter, watching my place?” Jacqueline asked.

  This was getting more complicated by the minute, Dane was thinking.

  Everyone was quiet.

  “That could be a problem.” Tobias rubbed his chin in thought.

  Michael said, “Zeke, you and your friends go to Dane’s house, pretend to gain entry into his home, then leave and go to the compound. But before you do, leave your phones off somewhere.”

  “At home. We’ll go there after we drop by Dane’s house as a ruse first, then go home to pack the stuff we’ll need and leave our phones, then go to your place. Oh, and we’ll make sure we don’t have any tracking devices on the car,” Zeke said.

  Michael said, “Other hunters in the group can shop for you if you need anything else that you might forget to get once you are settled in at the compound.” He gave them the address.

  “Okay, thanks,” Zeke said.

  “I’ll join you all at the compound later. I need to meet personally with the members of the council about all this,” Tobias said.

  Then Michael and the others left the house, and they heard them drive off. Dane sure hoped all of this worked out like they had planned, as much as they kept having to improvise.

  “What about the police? Wouldn’t you and or Tobias call the police when you found me dead?” Jacqueline asked.

  “Uh, yeah,” Tobias said.

  “I have a police detective friend who often handles these cases. I can call him, and we can see if he will keep our secret,” Dane said.

  “Hopefully that will work,” Tobias said. “After we speak to the detective, if the two of you think you’ll be all right until these scumbags are picked up, I’ll leave. But if you believe you would be better off at the compound, you’re welcome to join us.”

  Dane and Jacqueline shared glances. “I’m good here or with Dane,” Jacqueline said, “if he feels the same way.”

  “Yeah, we’ll stick together,” Dane said, assuring her he was going to be there for her. “We can call Adonis, who can be here in a flash.”

  “And Stacey and Anne,” she said.

  “Zachary, Pasha, Michael, and Danai too. They’ve been on standby all this time. If you change your mind about joining us, just let us know and we’ll have a house set up to accommodate you. We don’t want to lose any of you. And we don’t want you to get yourself into trouble because they come after you and you have to terminate them,” Tobias said.

  “Right, but if they do, we will. It will be self-defense,” Jacqueline said.

  “I totally understand. But we would prefer it if hunters who haven’t been turned take them down should they come after you, just to keep you safe,” Tobias said.

  “But they’re going on a list, right?” Dane asked, frowning.

  “Yes, with a warning to apprehend them at all costs to begin with. We want them for questioning. If they fight any of our hunters⁠—”

  “Who haven’t been turned?” Jacqueline asked, irritated. She understood why Tobias and the council would want to handle it this way, but she was used to being a huntress who could terminate a hunter who went rogue.

  “Yes. But if we go to arrest them and they fight us, we eliminate them. That way the two of you, and any other hunters who have been turned, will be in the clear,” Tobias said.

  Dane agreed. “All right. Thanks, Tobias. If we get into trouble here, we can always use our vampire skills to vanish and leave and not fight them.”

  Jacqueline pushed her hair behind her ear and scoffed. That wasn’t the way of a hunter, but to keep themselves from getting put on a rogue’s list… Then she frowned. “The ruling needs to be changed. I mean, the one where vampires can’t eliminate rogue hunters. It should be that hunters turned vampire can still kill a rogue hunter, if a rogue puts him or her on his list for no reason.”

  “It’s something we’re discussing,” Tobias said, surprising her. “It has been in the works since Adonis, Danai, and Zachary were turned against their will and Gregory tried to kill Adonis. Also because Michael, Pasha, and Rachael chose to become vampires to be with their mates. There was a lot of resistance to the idea at first, but the council members are slowly coming around. When they see all the good you are doing, all of you, and that you’re not suddenly becoming rogues, the hunters on the council will come around given time, though we hope it will be sooner than later.”

  “Well, at least that’s something,” she said.

  “Yeah, I agree,” Dane said, rubbing Jacqueline’s back and she instantly felt a little calmer, a little more relaxed.

  “Those of us who want the ruling changed continue to work on getting it amended. The thing of it is, if the holdouts had kin who were turned, I’m sure they would feel differently and it would be approved right away,” Tobias said.

  “We could do it,” Jacqueline said, just kidding because she knew that if they did something like that, they would automatically be branded rogues.

  Tobias and Dane both smiled at her, and she was glad they got her dark humor.

  “I’m going to call the police detective,” Dane said.

  Dane called Patrick, put it on speakerphone, and said, “Jacqueline and I have a situation that needs a delicate touch. Human hunters came here to warn us that they were hired by hunters to kill Jacqueline.”