Stalked By The Game

Chapter 6 - The Gal With A Plan

::ARI::

'This is a problem,' John said.

Tell me something I didn't know. Looked like for the moment, any plans I had of leaving town were on the back burner. I was seated in one of our safe houses, surrounded by others. John had listened while I filled him in, ordering me back and to stay in town until further notice. Now, I had just finished filling the others in. The others, meant every hunter who was in the city limits at this point in time and even for us, it looked like a damn convention.

We were hitting double figures, including John and his wife, Francis. Hannah, Paul and Eddie who had been there the other day were also there. Some of them, I recognised. Marvin, who looked as if he should be somewhere playing bingo instead of staking vampires and his family were there. His son Andrew and grandson, Jeremy. The other family I knew was the Benitez family. Carlos and Teresa, with their five kids. The younger three weren't present, they were in another room being looked after by their fourteen year old daughter. Karmen was allowed to sit in, but warned by her mother she was not involved with any action that was to follow seeing she wasn't eighteen yet. The eldest, Antonio was my age. Between John asking for suggestions, he winked across at me.

'You ho,' Hannah whispered in my ear.

I just grinned and shrugged my shoulders. I'd known Antonio since before I could walk. The relationship between our fathers went back even further than his friendship with Hannah's father. He was a good bloke, loyal and reliable in a tough situation. He was also a friend with occassional benefits, which Hannah didn't really approve of but had given up trying to change me. She didn't see the point considering I just ignored that crap. Hey, we were both adults, who cared what we did in our downtime when we actually had some?

I clicked back into the conversation when Andrew voiced an oppinion that I knew others would be thinking. Hell, I would have thought the same thing if roles were reversed. In fact, I probably would have been louder and ruder.

'Is it safe for her to be here?' Andrew asked.

I laughed. 'Of course not. I have a big bulls eye in my back.'

Hannah glared at me. She'd been furious at first that I intended to leave without saying a word to her and had refused to look at me when I first rocked up, which is why I'd let her ho comment slide. That had changed to her usual concern when I'd repeated what Benny had told me. We had our moments, but when it came down to it, I was like a sister to her. She wanted me safe and by the time John had taken control, she was back to her usual self. Sometimes, I really didn't know what to do with the girl. Give me a vampire, I was fine. Give me an emotional Hannah? Ppfftt, forget it.

'You can't go out there. What's to stop this vampire from getting someone else to do his dirty work now that his first go failed?' someone else asked.

'The difference is,' I began, 'I won't fall for the same trick twice. And something tells me I won't be alone in that thinking.'

No one mentioned his name but we all thought it. McConnell. Benny had said we were both on the hit list with a bullet beside our names. I wanted him dead. I owed him for what he did the other day but that would all have to wait and I knew it. There was a bigger picture here, one that involved a new power that none of us knew about. It was an unknown quantity that we had to get information on. We had to try to fill in those blanks as soon as possible.

'What makes you think that?' Jeremy asked.

'Because he's not stupid,' I instantly replied. I could tell that despite being close to Hannah and I in age, Jeremy was new to most of this. His eyes seemed to be searching for more information, things that the rest of us felt didn't need to be explained. 'Vampires, look after themselves first and foremost. You don't survive as long as McConnell has by being stupid. If we underestimate them, that's when we lose,' I explained to him.