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Then they saw him stop at a home in a nice residential area.
“No,” Jacqueline said.
“Yeah, blood bonds come from all walks of life,” Dane said.
A woman came out of the front door wearing a silky, red nighty and smiled at Franklin. She was about thirty, her brown hair streaked with blond strands, and she didn’t know what she was getting herself into.
Franklin parked his car while Dane parked curbside a few houses down. “What if Franklin takes part in the killings? Maybe just his mate is blamed for them, like she’s jealous he would see another woman behind his back?” Dane said.
“That would be even more insidious,” Jacqueline said. “But it could give the human woman more of a sense of security if she thinks she’s only going to be with a male for a good time.”
“Do you think she might not even know that Franklin is a vampire? I mean, he’s a good-looking guy and she might just think he’s human,” Jacqueline said. “It would be easy for him to convince her of it.”
“Let’s make sure that he isn’t the one who is responsible for killing the victims,” Dane said.
They left the pickup and headed for the house, skirting around the right of the one-story stucco house with a large water fountain out front, a green boxwood hedge all around, until they moved to the back door. Matt had a lockpick and unlocked the door. He carefully opened it.
They heard a man and woman talking in the living room and they headed in that direction to make sure the woman was okay. The thing was, they couldn’t do anything to him if he was just having sex with her, just biting her, and giving her pleasure. But if he did it against her will? That was another story.
* * *
When they saw Franklin kissing the woman, Jacqueline felt like a voyeur. She glanced at Dane. He was frowning at the couple. Suddenly, the front door was thrown open and Italia flew into the room with murder in her eyes. Jacqueline thought Franklin would stop his mate from hurting the woman, but instead he stepped back and the human woman screamed. Then the human collapsed on the couch in a faint. At the same time, Jacqueline appeared in front of the woman to stop the vampiress from hurting the human. Both Italia and Franklin looked shocked to see the group of hunters in the living room and then Dane transporting himself like a vampire.
Stacey had finally moved in the same way to reach Italia, and she quickly shoved her sword into her heart. Italia turned into a wrinkled, dehydrated prune. Franklin jumped away from the human woman and his mate’s body, throwing up his hands as if he wasn’t doing anything bad, and that he had nothing to do with hurting anyone.
Now Jacqueline wondered if he was just as involved but when she had stopped Italia from ripping the human’s throat out, he decided to play the innocent.
Matt was texting on his phone and then he said, “You’re lucky this time. You’re not on any termination lists, but if you hook up with another vampire who kills humans that you’re luring into a situation like this, you’re going to be eliminated.”
Franklin glanced at his girlfriend’s body, then vanished, not waiting for the hunters to change their minds. They heard his car peel out of the driveway. The police would have Italia’s car towed and impounded. A couple of officers were coming to take their statements.
Jacqueline revived the human woman, who looked horrified to see the dead body on her floor and the hunters peering down at her. “Did you know Franklin was a vampire?”
She shook her head vigorously.
“Have you met him before?” Jacqueline asked.
“On a dating site. Don’t tell my husband, please.”
Jacqueline raised her brows.
“He’s always away on trips. I know he’s seeing other women. It’s…it’s the first time I even tried anything like this.”
“It would have been your last if we hadn’t intervened on your behalf,” Jacqueline said.
The police and two homicide detectives arrived then and everyone, including the woman, gave them their statements.
“We’ll keep an eye out on Franklin and if he’s involved in any more cases of murders of women, we’ll add him to a list,” the homicide detective said. “And, miss? You’re lucky these hunters have been following the rogues’ movements. You can never be too careful.”
Lipstick was smudged around her mouth, and her mascara was running down her cheeks in black rivulets.
That’s when Jacqueline saw a dollhouse sitting in the corner of the living room against the wall. “Do you have children?”
“A boy and a girl, age seven and nine.”
“You’re lucky we found you and rescued you before the vampiress killed you. No telling what she would have done to the kids,” Jacqueline said, wanting the woman to realize the danger she had put them in even if she didn’t care about her own safety.
Then the police finished up with them, and one of the detectives said to the woman, “Do you have anyone you can call to stay with you? We’ve notified your husband, but he can’t get here any sooner than tomorrow night on a flight home.”
