Darkness Rises(62)

Before everyone could start bitching at once, Étienne held up a hand. “Krysta came to my attention a couple of weeks ago. I was out hunting and saw several vampires tracking her with the clear intention of preying upon her. Much to my surprise, however, the vampires turned out to be the prey. Krysta is a vampire hunter.”
“No way!” Sheldon blurted.
Étienne scowled at him. “As soon as I realized this, I began to follow her.” As swiftly as possible, he caught them up on his adventures with Krysta.
“No wonder you’ve been so distracted,” Lisette said, studying Krysta curiously.
Marcus frowned. “By vampire hunter you mean . . . ?”
“She hunts vampires. She lures them into traps, then dispatches them.”
“That’s impossible,” Ethan said.
Krysta stiffened. “Then I’ve been doing the impossible for six years.”
Disbelieving stares.
“Mortals can’t defeat vampires in battle,” Edward said.
“This one can,” Krysta insisted.
“Ami can,” Sheldon pointed out.
“Melanie could, when she was mortal,” Bastien added with a proud smile.
“But Ami and Melanie didn’t take them on alone,” Ethan said. “They fought by Marcus’s and Bastien’s sides.”
Marcus leaned forward and caught Ethan’s eye. “Ami wasn’t fighting by my side when she kicked your ass in that sparring session. And you’re faster than a vampire.”
Sheldon laughed. “Burn!”
Seth sighed. “We’re getting off topic here. I’ve examined Krysta’s thoughts. She has indeed been hunting vampires for the past six years with the help of her brother. And, before you ask, neither of them are members of the mercenary groups who keep troubling us. Her gift gives her an edge”—he held up a hand to stay him when Ethan opened his mouth again—“which I will not disclose. If Krysta wants you to know, she’ll tell you herself.”
Ethan stared at Krysta. A teasing gleam entered his eyes, making Étienne narrow his own as his hackles rose. Offering Krysta a flirtatious grin, Ethan said, “I’ll show you mine if you’ll show me yours.”
In a heartbeat, Étienne drew a dagger and threw it.
The hilt struck Ethan right in the center of his forehead, snapping his head back. “Ow! Shhhhit! What the hell, man?”
Krysta gaped up at Étienne, who squirmed as everyone at the table stared at him.
He cleared his throat, but didn’t know what to say. He hadn’t really meant to do that. He had just reacted.
“Oh yeah,” Sheldon said. “He has fallen and he has fallen hard.”
Snickers and head shakes all around.
“Merde.”
David held up a hand and called for quiet. “Please continue, Étienne.”
Eager to change the subject (Why did it seem to return so often to his being smitten with Krysta?), he told them about defeating the vampires, then being set upon by mercenaries.
No one reprimanded him for not getting the hell out of there as soon as he saw that first tranquilizer dart. That’s what they were supposed to do to avoid capture, but all understood his desire to protect Krysta.
Cam leaned forward and braced his elbows on the table, his attention on Krysta and Sean. “Thank you. You don’t know what they would have done to him if they had gotten their hands on him. If these are the same people we dealt with before—”
“I don’t see how they can be,” Melanie interrupted. “That threat was neutralized.”
Étienne shook his head. “These soldiers were very reminiscent of the others.” He related the events that followed at Krysta and Sean’s home.
A steady stream of curses and exclamations of disbelief accompanied him.
Marcus looked ready to snap, his fury fairly heating the room. “How the hell is this possible?”
Chris shook his head. “It must be a different group.”
“They have the fucking tranquilizer!” he shouted.
Ami placed a hand on his arm.
Étienne understood Marcus’s rage. The last mercenary group had included some of the monsters who had tortured Ami. And they had been eager as hell to get their hands on her again.
Cam shook his head. “We must have missed something.”
Seth shook his head. “We didn’t. Every mercenary who knew of our existence was either killed or had their memories wiped. And David and I saw to the latter ourselves.”
David nodded. “Darnell worked tirelessly with the network’s techno-geeks to expunge all mention of us, of vampires, and of Ami from their computers and servers.”
“And replaced it with malware,” Darnell added. “There’s no way they could recover those files. I couldn’t even recover those files.”