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“Fiona…uh, Fairhaven. Glad to make your acquaintance.” She guessed.

“They are hunters also. So is Fiona,” Arman said, sounding like he hated mentioning it again to other hunters.

Both of the men smiled at her. She assumed they were bachelors, and that the guys might be interested in a huntress to date. But she was so hooked on a hot-blooded vampire, she really wasn’t interested in dating hunters. Go figure.

Her brother was swimming laps and didn’t hear the conversation or notice that anyone else had arrived. Talking about upcoming fights and hunters would really have him wondering what was going on.

Brett, Cadfael, and Llewellyn declined swimming and sat poolside having drinks. Later, it was time to get out of the pool for the rest of them, dry off, and change.

“Lunch, right?” Cadfael said. “Levka said your chef does a great job on meals, which was the main reason we came.”

Everyone laughed.

16

Arman couldn’t believe that all these bachelor hunters had shown up to help protect Fiona. He was glad for it as far as keeping her safe, but not as far as her finding someone else to be interested in. Which was not fair in the least to Fiona. She was a huntress, and she would do well to be with other hunters as much as Arman hated the idea. If she had a hunter in her life, he could continue to protect her until she had the fighting skills that she needed to protect herself.

Arman glanced at Levka, who inclined his head to him. Levka would know just what Arman was thinking, but he also acknowledged he understood. Arman sighed.

Fiona saw the exchange and took hold of Arman’s hand and squeezed it. She said to him, “Don’t worry. I’m not running off with one of the hunters. I don’t dream about them.”

He smiled at her, but still, he couldn’t help feeling that it wouldn’t work out between them. He would live well beyond her short life. He needed a vampire mate. But he didn’t want to turn her unless she practically begged him to.

Even so, he made sure that he kept Fiona as far from the hunters as he could at the table, and his friends had helped to make that happen too. He saw the smiles on Gareth and his brothers’ faces, indicating that they were totally amused to see the vampires protecting Fiona from them.

Arman wished Justin knew what was going on. He was the only human at the table and so clueless. It was going to be hard to keep the secret of what they all were from him, Arman believed.

Michail and Shelly showed up and sat down to eat at the table with everyone, while introductions were made all around. They told Gareth and his brothers how they had brought Justin here so he could see his sister and that he had won some money and the trip here.

Arman was sure Levka had filled the brothers in on all that was going on. But he was just as sure Levka hadn’t told Michail and Shelly that he had invited the hunters to the party, so to speak.

Once they had eaten fish and chips, they all headed out to do more weapons training.

“I’m glad we’re practicing sword fighting again,” Caitlin said. “I need to keep working at it just in case I need it for a fight in the future.”

“That goes for me too now,” Fiona said. “I guess. I mean, I took martial arts because I liked it and I thought I might be able to use it to defend myself, but not quite like this.”

“You’ll do great,” Arman said to Fiona, wanting to encourage her every step of the way.

Llewellyn said to Fiona, “As hunters, we can show you how we fight, but we think it’s just as beneficial or even more so to train to fight against vampires, since that’s who will most likely target you as a hunter. If you have to protect yourself against a hunter, you’ll still learn enough by fighting the vampires. Though we’ll be happy to put you through your paces.”

“We understand you have never been around hunters your entire life,” Cadfael said.

“Correct. I didn’t even know hunters or vampires existed,” Fiona said.

Justin was standing there listening to the whole conversation when Arman realized the mistake that was made. They’d been so careful not to discuss being vampires, or hunters, around him, but it was practically impossible. Earlier at the pool, Justin had been so far away and swimming laps so vigorously, he hadn’t heard their conversations about hunters. Arman had known this would happen!

“Vampires?” Justin said. “Hunters? You mean like Van Helsing?”

“No. Van Helsing was human,” Cadfael said. “And he’s only fictional. Some humans hunt vampires, sure. But mostly hunters hunt rogue vampires. Some hunters also take down rogue hunters.” He explained how hunters and vampires came to be during the time of the Black Death.

It was too late to keep Justin in the dark any further.

“No way.” Justin sounded like he thought they were just playing a game.

“I was born to vampire parents,” Jasmine said. “The princes were turned.”

“During the Black Death?” Justin smiled, like he knew they were joking.