Alpha's Legacy (Black Moon Saga Book 3)

26. The Vampire Hunters

Tian finally takes me to see Bria three days later. Like with the other visits we’ve made to important friends of his that live outside of werewolf packs, he teleports us there, so I have no idea where the vampire hunter hideout is located. Honestly, I don’t even know if they’d refer to it as a hideout, but it feels more exciting to think of it that way. The truth is they’re a legitimate organization that works pretty closely with The Council, so there’s not really anyone that they need to hide from.

Hideout or not, it kind of just looks like a normal house, reminding me of the packhouse back home with how large it is and how it’s quite obviously designed to house a lot of people. I can’t help noticing all the curtains and heavy drapes that do an impressive job of keeping out sunlight, though, so that’s different than I’m used to, and I imagine that the inside of their fridge is a lot different from back home too.

“Hey guys,” a voice says from behind us. It takes me a moment, but I realize even before I turn around to greet her that it’s Bria.

“Hello there,” Tian answers, smiling at her warmly.

But these two aren’t the sappy, affectionate type, at least not with each other, so other than exchanging some looks that show their mutual affection and appreciation, that’s as far as their heartwarming reunion goes.

“You remember Anna Jade,” he reintroduces me, gently grasping my shoulder and giving it a reassuring squeeze.

“Yeah, but it’s obviously been a bit since I’ve seen her. She was still a kid last time,” she says, looking me over and coming over to grasp a section of my hair so she can twirl it around in her fingers. “It’s good to see you again, Anna Jade, and I’m not sad to see you’ve grown up since my last visit. Children make me nervous. I always feel like I’m going to break them, and I hate worrying about accidentally cussing and all that stuff that parents expect you to be mindful of when they let you around their kids.”

I honestly don’t know how I’m supposed to respond to that, so I just smile and nod my agreement. I feel like I was maybe 14 or 15 the last time I saw her, so not really a kid, but maybe in her eyes I was, and I don’t think it’s worth arguing with her either way. I probably have grown and matured quite a bit since then, to her credit.

She eventually drops my hair and turns her attention to catching Tian up on everything that’s been going on with the vampire hunters lately. A lot of it goes right over my head because I don’t know any of the people they mention and lack the context to understand it all, but I’m used to that. Plus, I know that Tian never allows conversations like that to go on for too long before bringing me back in, so I don’t mind just standing and waiting for them to finish. Besides, I like listening to how brashly and bluntly Bria talks, especially now that she apparently considers me to be an adult and isn’t censoring herself for me anymore.

She’s not wrong about that, either. It’s just under a month until my birthday when it will finally be official, but I’m basically an adult now. I just don't have my wolf yet is the only difference.

“And Ella?” Tian asks her, which draws my attention back to their conversation.

That’s a name I do recognize. If I remember correctly, Ella was the mate of one of Tian’s progeny who died fighting off a powerful vampiric creation that Bria and some of her team like to refer to as “The Abomination.” I don’t remember all the details as they tend to get jumbled up with all the other war stories I’ve heard from my parents and read about in school, but the important thing about Ella's situation is that losing a true mate is harder on vampires than it is even for werewolves. Vampires lose their sanity along with their mates, and their insanity eventually leads to a slow and agonizing death.

Knowing that makes me curious about what these two have to say about Ella, who I assumed would have met that tragic fate by now.

“She’s been moved to another secure location,” Bria answers him. “We didn’t want to take the risk of her having one of her outbursts while your daughter is here, and none of us could bear locking her up in a containment cell. She doesn’t do well in isolation.”

“It’s probably for the best that you moved her then,” Tian agrees.

It kind of seems like she might still be alive just based on how they’re speaking of her in the present tense. I’m surprised to learn that, but if that’s the case, then it makes sense that Bria doesn’t want her here while I’m around. An insane vampire is probably quite a challenge to control, especially around someone that her nose tells her is food. And for the first time, I’m glad not to be an Alpha wolf. I’ve heard that vampires like Alpha blood the most, and I bet even having the scent of one lingering around here would drive Ella crazy once she returns.

Bria seems to get distracted by something and I realize there’s some sort of a device attached to her left ear that’s flashing now. Maybe it’s how they communicate around here, like an electronic mind-link. That’s kind of confirmed when I hear her mutter something that doesn’t seem to be directed at Tian. Then she glances up at me, beaming a huge smile.

“Well, Anna Jade. Are you ready to meet the rest of the crew?” she asks me enthusiastically, so much so that I can’t help wondering if she might be being sarcastic.

“Yeah, absolutely,” I answer her, though a bit hesitantly. I’m not used to someone like her, and I can’t tell if that was the right answer or if she’s about to mock me for it.

She turns on her heel and gestures for us to follow her, which I do. Then I feel Tian’s hand on my shoulder again just before he leans in and starts to whisper in my ear.

“She takes some getting used to, and her humor is dark and strange on a good day, but she’s good people. I wouldn’t leave you in her care if she wasn’t.”

“It’s okay. I trust you,” I whisper back to him.

“And you will come to trust her as well in time, I expect. She’s reliable, and if she says she has your back, then she means it. No one is fiercer about protecting her family than that one. And since you’re my family, that makes you her family as well.”

“She’s different than I remember, but I actually kind of like her humor. I’m just still figuring it out is all,” I assure him, turning to smile up at him when he slides his arm around me protectively and pauses with me outside the door Bria has led us to.

She turns to smirk at me, indicating that she's probably heard everything we’ve been saying about her. But of course she did. She’s a vampire.

“Just don’t grow to like it too much,” Tian retorts, seeming to aim it at her as he returns her smug expression.

“If I end up corrupting her, it will be by her consent, and I won’t apologize for it,” she interjects, reaching out to grasp my cheek for a moment in a surprisingly gentle and motherly gesture.

I’m pretty sure it’s meant in jest, though, which makes it even more misplaced. Or maybe that makes it perfectly placed, considering that her intent with it was probably to tease Tian.

“I’m back to rethinking this whole visit,” he mutters, but he follows us into the other room anyway.

I’m doing my best not to look as wide-eyed with wonder as I feel, but I’m pretty sure I’m failing miserably. This room kind of looks like an armory of sorts. There are various weapons and implements covering the walls and stored away in racks, and I imagine that whatever is in all the closed cabinets and wardrobes I can see will turn out to be of interest as well.

Then my eyes finally take in the fact that there are other people in here with us. Lots of them, in fact. Three are grouped around a small table working on some project that I can’t really see, and working at a much longer table is a larger group of people, who are kind of dirty and seem to be helping each other remove their soiled clothes. I can’t pretend like that doesn’t make me uncomfortable for a moment until I look closer and realize that what they’re actually removing looks more like armor than clothes, and one woman is taking off a tool belt or something like that, though it wraps up and around her shoulder as well as around her waist.

“Just returning from a hunt, I take it?” Tian asks the man closest to us, one from the larger group to the right. “Couldn’t even wait until you’d rinsed all the blood off to call us in here?”

Apparently, I missed that detail. But now that he mentions it, yeah, those people aren’t just dirty. They’re bloody. The scent should have given it away, and yet I don’t smell blood in here. I just smell vampires.

Now that I think of it, I haven’t really smelled vampire blood before. Maybe it smells a lot like the rest of them.

The guy Tian was talking to grins at him, which looks kind of sinister considering the blood all over his face.

“What’s the matter, Tian? Have you grown soft from living with the wolves too long?” he taunts him.

“I told him that you’d complain about that, but you know Bo. Never sticks around in one place for too long,” Bria explains. “Told me we’d better get down here and make the introductions now because he’s heading out again within the hour.”

“Solo?” Tian questions him, seeming concerned about that.

“Yeah, I prefer not to share my women,” the man who I presume to be Bo retorts, winking at me.

Tian charges across the room with superhuman speed and has Bo caught by the throat in a flash, bending him backward and pinning him to the table in a way that looks uncomfortable and maybe even painful, unless Bo is flexible enough to pull off being bent like that. I’m stunned by how quickly it happened and haven’t quite let it register before Bria comes to slip a reassuring arm around me, which I’m grateful for.

“My daughter is off-limits, even in jest. Do you understand me?” Tian threatens.

“Got it,” Bo acknowledges, his voice thin and strained from how Tian is pushing on his throat. “Sorry, Tian. That was stupid.”

“Yes, it was,” Tian agrees, though he releases his hold on Bo and steps back. Much more calmly he adds, “I presume that you’re alluding to taking personal leave, then.”

“Yep. I have the week off, and I plan to return home. But I’m only a call away should anything important pop up while I’m gone,” Bo assures him, just as calmly as Tian spoke to him. In fact, he’s gone back to taking care of his equipment like nothing even happened.

“Good,” Tian nods his approval, glancing over at me and giving me an apologetic look.

But I’m okay. It was startling, but I knew things would be intense with these guys. They’re vampires, and they spend most of their time hunting and a lot of the time even killing their own kind. Granted, they only hunt vampires who are a problem, usually just feral ones who haven’t learned to control their bloodlust, but I’m sure that it takes a toll on them, nonetheless.

I can’t even blame Bria for her strange, dark sense of humor because I don’t think I’d manage even half as well as she does. And if this Bo guy likes to go home and blow off steam doing Goddess knows what with some women, then I suppose I can’t fault him for that either. I’d appreciate if he leaves me out of it, though.

“Well, I suppose now is as good of a time as any for introductions,” Bria cuts in, keeping her arm around me and using it to turn me toward the group of three at the smaller table.

“Over here we have Shy, Elliot, and Mitham,” she tells me, and each of them raises a hand to give a small wave as she calls out their names.

Then she turns me back toward the other group, chuckling as she sees Bo over there hopping around with his hand raised.

“Me, me, pick me next,” he demands playfully.

“Nah, forget him. He’s not important,” she brushes him off with a wave of her hand, ignoring his protests of mock outrage. “So, over here we have Caz, Tucker, Fletch, Delia, and Aspen.”

They each continue the practice of waving at me at the sound of their names, and I do my best to try to commit them to memory so that I’ll remember who is who later. It turns out that Aspen is the name of the woman with the elaborate toolbelt, which is laid out on the table now as she works on removing its contents and components so she can clean it all, and Delia is the only other woman besides Bria, so those two should be easy enough. Plus, there’s Bo, who I’m not likely to forget anytime soon. The rest I’m sure I’ll inevitably get mixed up at some point.

“That’s not everyone, but that’s who is around currently, and probably who you’ll mostly be seeing this weekend,” Bria explains. “If any other stragglers make it in, I’ll be sure to let you know so you don’t get spooked by an unfamiliar face wandering around here.”

Then she and Tian spend some time helping me get to know “the crew” that’s assembled here and explaining more about the weapons they use. It’s all rather fascinating because until now, I’ve only ever heard about the infamous vampiric scythes that Bria and some of the others use, the only weapons that exist in the world which are guaranteed to kill a vampire, and they do it in one try more often than not. I didn’t expect all the guns, crossbows, daggers, and other various tools and weaponry that they pull out to show me, cautioning me not to touch anything.

“A lot of our weapons are poisonous,” Aspen explains that particular piece of advice to me. “Because as I’m sure you know, our goal isn’t always to kill on sight. Sometimes, it’s just to subdue and apprehend, which is a lot easier when they’re poisoned. And our poison expert is kind of a savant with this stuff, so he makes up some pretty nasty brews that really do a number on them. Doesn’t kill them, of course, but it keeps them under much longer than anything else we’ve ever used in …. well, ever. Simple as that.”

“Sounds like a talented guy,” I comment, a bit awestruck as I glance around trying to figure out which one of the crew members she might be talking about.

“Yeah he is, but he’s not here,” she chuckles, apparently catching onto my train of thought. “Which is too bad. I’m sure the two of you would have really hit it off.”

She winks at me and exchanges a look with Delia that tells me I’m missing out on some sort of inside joke between them. Tian is either as oblivious as I am or is just not amused, choosing that moment to clear his throat from behind us as he places a protective hand on my shoulder.

“I’ll be leaving shortly, but allow me this opportunity to remind you all that this is my daughter I’m entrusting to your care. She may essentially be an adult, but I still expect you to monitor your conduct with her. Show her around, teach her a thing or two, and tell her your stories, but never under any circumstances allow her to encounter any real danger. She’s a caster and doesn’t have her wolf yet, which places her firmly in the category of people who have no business hunting hostile vampires. Are we clear?”

I understand why he felt that every word of that was necessary, but I can’t help feeling a bit embarrassed by it anyway. I’m sure they can all tell by the heated flush I can feel taking over practically my entire face, but they’re gracious enough not to tease me about it.

After they’ve all given him their assurances, especially Bo and Bria, Tian finally seems satisfied and decides to make his departure. He embraces me tightly one last time and even kisses my forehead despite all the vampires watching us, who apparently don’t hold back when it comes to teasing him.

“Aww,” Delia and Aspen coo in unison.

“Old One, you’re getting soft on us,” Bo mocks him, making his voice much deeper and gruffer than usual, though if he’s doing an impression of someone, it’s not someone I know.

Tian ignores them as he pulls away from me, still holding the back of my head as his gray eyes meet mine with an intense expression.

“I love you, Anna Jade. You be sure and take care of yourself, and don’t let these miscreants give you too much trouble. Don’t hesitate to call us, either, especially if you need anything, or for any reason at all.”

“I won’t,” I assure him. “And I love you too. See you bright and early Monday morning.”

He smiles at me in response, adding another kiss to my forehead before stepping back and disappearing into his familiar swirl of vampiric mist. Once he’s gone, it suddenly hits me that I’m all alone for the first time since I left Black Moon. Well, all alone in a room full of vampires, anyway. I might not be alone, but it is the first time that I’ve not had any parents with me on my travels. That’s exciting, and yet surprisingly intimidating to think about.

“Good. Now that he’s gone, the real fun can begin,” Bo comments, wasting very little time after Tian disappears from the room before he starts winking at me again.

“Don’t listen to him,” Bria says, glaring at him as she pulls me away from the others. “But now that Tian is gone, the real fun can begin.”

Judging by how everyone laughs at that, I’m fairly certain that she’s joking but am maybe just a little bit worried that she’s not, though.

“You’re going to have to stop making it so fun for us to mess with you, Anna Jade,” she scolds me playfully, smirking at me again as her eyes twinkle with mirth. “I’m just going to give you a tour of the house and show you to your room so you can get settled in for now, but I do have some fun stuff I plan to show you later. Tian-approved, of course.”

“Oh, okay. Sounds good,” I tell her, doing my best to hold back and not sound too eager.

I don’t know what the “fun stuff” even is, but I’m already excited. I feel like I’ve learned a ton about their work just since I got here, and I can’t wait for more.

“My gosh, if you’re not the sweetest creature on Earth,” Delia gushes, and I think she might even mean it as a genuine compliment.

But I still don’t know what to say to that, so I just smile back at her until I realize that Bria is leaving. Apparently, when she said now, she meant right now.

I notice as she takes me back the way we came that my luggage is still right where I left it. She reaches down to pick it up, barely pausing on her way by.

“I guess we can take this to your room first, and then do the tour,” she amends the plan. “And just so you know, since I have no idea how you’re used to doing things, there are no servants here. No one’s going to clean up after you or tend to the things you need if you don’t do it yourself, so just be aware of that. And if you need something, ask, because I’m probably not going to figure it out any other way. Got it?”

“Yeah, got it, and that’s no problem.”

“Good. We’re off to a great start then,” she says, turning to smile at me.

A real smile this time, not just a smug or teasing look. And if I’m not mistaken, she might even look a little bit excited herself.

“You know,” she goes on, not even missing a beat as she starts climbing the stairs, “We do a lot of messing around and giving each other crap around here, all of us except Mitham anyway, who’s a pretty serious guy by nature. Or at least, he seems that way. He’ll get you when you least expect it, and his deadpan humor will make you laugh so hard you’ll cry. But yeah, other than him, we might seem like just a bunch of strange, quirky nutjobs who are out to make fun of everything and everyone, but that’s just one small part of who we are. We take our jobs very seriously, and we take the responsibility of caring for you seriously as well. You’re safe here, Anna Jade, and if any of us are bothering you, just say so. Or if you disagree or want to tell us no or anything like that, just do it. We want you to be comfortable, but we also want you to have some fun while you’re here.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” I promise her. “And thank you. Not just for all of that, but for agreeing to let me come in the first place. I’ve heard about your crew and what you guys do for most of my life, and I’ve visited with you at my home before, but this is different. This is your home, and your world, and I’m just so honored to finally be able to see it in person.”

“That’s the spirit. Now just hold onto that attitude as I show you around, and you’ll be just fine. It’s not as scary as it seems.”

Judging by how she’s back to using that playful tone of voice again, I think she’s kidding, but it’s hard to say with her. As long as she switches to sounding serious when she’s telling me something that I really need to know, I don’t really even care. Like I told Tian, I kind of like how she is. No one I’ve ever met has acted like that with me, not to this degree anyway, and I like that she just naturally started being her normal self around me from the moment that I got here.

She pauses in front of a door, and I’ve been through this routine enough times recently that I know that means this is the guest room I’ll be staying in. She steps inside, setting my bags down just beyond the doorway before bowing dramatically, an expression of mock seriousness on her face when she stands back up.

“I do hope that your quarters are to your liking, Miss,” she says in some sort of an accent that is so bad that I can’t even guess at which one it’s supposed to be, though it does make me laugh.

Then in her normal voice, she adds, “I’ll leave you to get settled in for a little bit, but I’ll be back in about fifteen minutes or so to give you the full tour.”

“Sounds great, thanks,” I tell her appreciatively, still chuckling at her antics as she does a silly little dance on her way out of my room.

Then I take a moment to appreciate what a glorious room it is. It’s huge, probably as big as my parents’ room back home, and it’s very tastefully decorated. There’s even a TV, though I don’t anticipate ever getting bored enough to use it. But the giant bed is the real treat, and I can’t resist the urge to flop back on it and test out the mattress, which is surprisingly soft and luxurious for something owned by people who rarely sleep.

Despite the fact that I can barely make sense of when anyone here is being serious or just playing around, I think I’m going to like it here and be quite comfortable. They’re fun, and Tian trusts them, so that’s pretty much all the recommendation I need to do the same. Plus, something about Bria and this place was calling to me the other night, and I’m bound and determined to stick around and enjoy myself as I figure out what it is.