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The hunters went straight for the bodyguards as a horde of vampires came barreling into the room from other parts of the house. Not wanting to get caught in the crossfire, I stayed where I was with Rem, waiting for the inevitable moment when Alec would come for them.
“Friends of yours?” Remington asked, arching a brow.
My lips twisted in annoyance. “Not really.” I watched as the hunters and vampires attacked one another, piles of dust increasingly decorating the floor. “It seems like we’re out numbered.”
“So, it appears.” The irritation in Rem’s voice made me glance back at him. “Oh, don’t worry, dear. Everything is going according to plan.”
My brows furrowed at his words just as a hunter, surprisingly not Alec, came at us. He pointed his gun in my direction, and it took me a moment to realize he didn’t know who I was. With a disbelieving snort, I stood up and faced him, keeping Remington at my back.
“Die, vampire bitch.” The hunter, a teenage boy hardly old enough to grow a beard let alone be hunting this big of a nest, sneered at me.
Before he could let off a round, I grabbed the barrel of his gun and whipped it up and out of his hands in seconds. His eyes followed his gun with disbelief but then he pulled out a knife and growled.
“You’ll pay for that, bitch.”
“Oh, God, get some better material,” I snapped, dodging him as he ran at me and then jerking my hand up to hit his arm. The hard impact made his knife skitter across the floor before I unsheathed mine. In the blink of an eye, I held it at his chin, lifting his eyes up to meet mine. “You really should be respectful to your elders.”
“Just kill me, I’d rather die than be one of you,” he spat which caused Remington to laugh hysterically.
I shot him a look. “Really?”
Wiping a hand over his mouth, Rem grinned at me. “You have to admit, it is a bit ironic. He thinks you’re a vampire.”
Turning my gaze away from the laughing vampire who only seconds away from getting my knife in his chest, I glared at the kid. “How old are you?”
The teenager didn’t answer, staring me down like I was some disgusting thing sent to kill him. Rem was right. It was funny, but in a bad way. If they were sending out kids to fight without the basic training to spot vampires, then things have gotten even worse than I’d feared at the guild.
“Ned, get back here.”
My head jerked toward the sound of Alec’s voice. Alec stomped toward us, his boots pounding on the wooden floors. I noticed then that most of the vampires were gone or had been turned to dust, leaving only Remington behind.
Alec’s lips were pursed in a frustrated line, his eyes narrowed behind his glasses. When neither Ned nor I backed down, his gaze turned to me. “Adara, leave him alone. He’s just doing his job.”
“Yeah,” I agreed but I didn’t lower the knife. “Badly. Are you so hard up for bodies that you had to bring recruits into this? He didn’t even know I wasn’t a vampire.”
The sound of my name at least caused a reaction in the kid named Ned. His eyes widened and his mouth dropped open. This time when he looked at me it wasn’t in disgust and rage but admiration and... ew... fucking horny teens.
Alec’s gaze swiveled to Ned, making the teen flush and stutter. “But she was all over that vamp. I saw it. How was I supposed to know she wasn’t one of them?”
Shaking his head, Alec stepped between us, daring me to either lower the knife or stab him. I admitted I hesitated which caused Alec to give me a curious look before I lowered my knife down.
“You have to use more than just your eyes to sense vampires,” Alec explained to Ned, placing a hand on his shoulder. “You can’t just see them here.” He pointed at his head before pointed at his chest. “You also have to sense them here.”
Remington made a short of impatient snort, drawing Alec’s attention.
“Look at Adara,” Alec instructed him. Ned, for what it was worth, did as he was told except the way he looked at me made me want to put on a burly coat. “Now, look at him.” Alec pointed toward Remington. “Do you feel the difference?”
Ned’s brow lifted and his eyes squinted. “I think so?”
“Good, now, remember her face.” Alec clapped his hand on Ned’s shoulder. “Because she’s a pain in the ass and might not stop next time you pull a knife on her.”
Remington did laugh this time. “He has you pegged, pet.”
I glowered at the vampire over my shoulder. I sure as hell did not liking being made fun of. However, when Alec moved toward Remington, his hand making the telltale sign that he was going to lift his gun, I side stepped into his line of view.
“What are you doing?” Alec asked, his brow furrowing. “He has the director.”
“I know,” I told him, lifting my knife up in front of me as a warning.
“You’re protecting this vamp now?” Alec scoffed and glanced between Rem and me. He seemed to put two and two together pretty quickly. “Oh, I get it. He’s one of your toys, is that it?”
I glanced back at Remington and saw the evidence of our kiss still smeared on his face. My own lipstick probably was quite a sight as well, but I wasn’t going to give Alec the satisfaction of seeing me fix it for him.
“So, what if he was?” I snapped back without thinking about it. I didn’t know why I did it. Rem and I were far from dating, let alone fucking, but I didn’t like how Alec thought he could just follow me and then take over my operation without asking. I wasn’t one of his hunters he could bark orders at.
There was an uncomfortable silence in the room as the other hunters crowded around us, waiting and watching for how he would respond. Instead of responding to me, he turned to one of the hunters who had come in through the foyer. “Did you find the director?”
Shaking his head, the hunter, I think his name was Larry, crossed his arms over his chest. “We’ve searched the whole house. All targets have been eliminated with no sign of the director.”
“Where is he?” Alec’s head whipped back around to glared at Remington.
Rem didn’t even look the slightest bit worried, amused maybe but not worried. “Now, why would I tell you that?”
Alec tried to move past me, but I stopped him again with my presence. Letting out a huff of annoyance, Alec bit out, “Because you are surrounded, and all of your flunkies are dead. You have no choice.”
I snorted a laugh.
“You think this is funny?” Alec growled, getting close enough to me I could feel his body heat. “He kidnapped your father and here you are, making moon eyes at him. Of course, I shouldn’t be surprised. You always did have a soft spot for the undead.”
I didn’t take offense. I just sighed, a long, drawn-out dramatic sigh. “Well, I’m not the one who busted in on someone else’s plan without warning and fucked everything up, now am I?” Alec opened his mouth to argue but I cut him off. “I had it under control.”
“It didn’t look like it to me,” Alec snapped, anger boiling in his eyes. “It looked like you were about to get naked with this evil monster.”
“Really?” I arched a brow and peered over my shoulder at Rem. “Because so far, from the outside viewer, it looks like you’re the one who broke into his house and killed all his friends who only fought you in self-defense.”
“But they’re vampires,” Ned said hesitantly, almost as if he wasn’t sure despite his training.
My eyes jerked over to Ned’s confused face. “Sure they are, but that doesn’t mean they deserve to die just because of what they are, now does it?”
Ned’s face filled with even more confusion, and he looked to Alec for guidance.
Jaw clenched, Alec rumbled, “That’s not how we do things. You know that.”
“And therein lies the problem.” I held my hands out to my sides with a small smile. “You are all shoot first, ask later, or in your case, you don’t care enough to even ask. But I’ll have you know,” I tapped Alec’s chest with my finger, making him fall back a bit at the force I put into it, “Rem here was just about to show me to dad before you ruined everything, and I never once had to resort to violence.”
“Only dry humping him,” Alec spat out.
My lips curled up in a nasty grin. “No, that was just fun.”
Remington stood behind me, making the hunters around us shift and point all their toward him. Adjusting the cuffs of his jacket, Remington lifted his eyes to the heavens. “Now that our evening is ruined as well as my Persian rug, I’d like to get this over with and head to bed.”
“Then tell us where the director is,” Alec demanded, trying once more to push past me.
“Why?” Rem smirked. “So, you can kill me right after? I don’t think so. He’s locked in a steel room that only opens with my thumb print. If you kill me, then he’ll stay locked in there forever.”
My lips quirked at the sides. He’d thought of everything. Alec and the guild couldn’t use force to get Remington to do what they wanted, because he simply didn’t care enough about dying to give them what they wanted, or maybe he just didn’t like them that much. I could understand that.
“Fine.” Alec jerked his head up and down. “Then lead the way.”
“Oh, no.” Rem smiled, tucking his hands into his pockets. “We’re doing this my way, not yours. Send all your hunters out of here and then I’ll show...” he trailed off as his eyes moved to me. “... Adara where her father is.”
Alec moved so quick that I didn’t have the chance to block him as he shoved me past me and pointed the barrel of his gun at Remington’s heart. “That’s not going to happen.”
“Well, then I guess you’ll have to take that up with our girl because those are my terms.” Rem wasn’t looking at Alec but me, trying to make me understand what he was trying to show me.
The Phoenix Hunter Guild were killers. They lived for the hunt and would never choose the easy way out. I knew that. I was once one of them. I think Remington was trying to make me understand that in his strange twisted way.
And I agreed with Remington. I was tired of this, tired of the fighting and talking it to death. They weren’t going to change overnight, and I couldn’t make them. However, I wasn’t going to let them kill Rem for this.
“Agreed.”
Alec’s gaze bounced from Remington over to me. “What? No, you can’t.”
“I can and I will,” I announced, lifting my chin. “It’s my decision and my dad.”
“But he’s our director.” He acted like his declaration trumped my words. It didn’t, but it was cute to think he thought so. Instead of having a childish back and forth fight, I did the only thing I knew would make them understand how serious I was.
Lifting a hand, I allowed the pool of fire inside of me to bubble up to the surface. The light from the flame engulfed my hand and glowed off my skin which made my dress clash horribly, but it had the intended affect. More than half of the hunters backpedaled out of the room.
There was a reason the Phoenix Hunters were named after the majestic legendary bird. Stories say that the first hunter was born from the ashes of one of those firebirds and created our race. However, there were only a handful of us who ever come into their full powers.
Alec was one... and so was I.
It was why we were such good vampire hunters. We didn’t need weapons or fancy gadgets to take them out. One little nip of our fire, and the whole nest would burn until there was nothing but ash left behind.
Unsurprisingly, Alec didn’t so much as flinch. Remington, I had expected to be afraid or at least a bit wary, but he watched me like I was some kind of goddess ascending from the ocean with clam and all.
“Well, looks like some of your hunters know what’s good for them at least,” I mused as I took in the few that were left hanging around. I noticed one of those was Bolt who only looked tickled pink by the whole thing. Freaking idiot.
“Really, Adara?” Alec gaped at me. “You’re going to protect this thing after taking your father? He threatened you.”
I let the fire on my hand spread to my forearm and coolly replied, “That’s between him and me. You’re not welcome here.”
“You heard her, old chap.” Remington patted Alec on the shoulder, earning the vampire a glare. “We have business to attend to.” He shifted out from Alec’s grasp and offered me his arm. “Shall we, love?”
With a flick of my skirts and a wave of my hand, my fire retreated, and I looped my arm with Remington’s. “Lead the way.”