Human Purity Alliance (Hypernaturals 4)

Just in Time to Be a Widow

"Those three have no one else but me. I have no one else but you all. I must help them. Sorry ass male Vampire that I am, my safety is in your hands. They need and trust me. I need and trust you."

They shifted and glanced at each other, but the frowns remained. "There is no time to fight about it, and there is nothing you can say or do to change my mind either."

My look to each of them, in turn, is not meant as a challenge. I need them to see I am determined. I dived into business, making it up as I went. "Anne and Denise: Where are we with tracing down their IP addresses and finding out where they are?"

Anne looked mildly surprised by my taking charge in this way but answered without any rancor "Working on it. Traces take time. This is not a cop show on TV."

Time I do not have right now, but maybe that ship will come in "It is only a data point. I doubt they took the three captives at their house. More than likely a motel room anyway. Knowing who they are would be ... helpful... I am sure."

I nodded to myself, turned to Helen "We need tracking devices. One for my car. One or more for me. I'm thinking cell phones, like what we used for Arnold's car. A couple of burners hooked up to the tracking software. You worked with me on that last time. Can you get that going?"

Helen studied me. Not angry because I am acting this way: She is mad I am putting myself out there at all. She never really got used to the idea that I will do things like this, even though she has seen me do it a number of times. It takes a while to undo over five hundred years of training and preconceived notions about the things a boy Vampire is good for. She sighed "Tell me again why I married you? Just so I can lose you? I can do it. No problem. I paid attention. It's not complicated."

That last was not an insult to me. Just a reassurance that she could do it.

Anne and Denise looked at each other.

"Say what?" Denise asked

"You what?" asked Anne to give it some variety.

"Not now. We got married. Helen had a brain fart and accidentally married Jessica and I while mentally deranged. We can discuss it later. Not the important thing right, other than if this goes sideways I will have two widows, not one." I waved at both of them.

Now I looked at the most painful one at all. Jessica is more than likely internally cursing her pregnancy and the need to stay out of sight. Jessica had not liked being helpless when she was a human and being thrashed by her spouse. Now she has a baby again, and it is in her way. Keeping her from protecting me. "You have the arsenal. We need everyone armed. Untraceable guns. Match grade ammo. Close in stuff. Distance weapons. If we find where they are, we might need a sniper. We have to be set if we do."

Jessica raised her eyebrows "Really? You went straight to ultimate solutions? That does not seem like you, my husband."

I shrugged "Anne. Denise. Tell me if you disagree. I could be full of it. I have them as dead humans walking. If I get my hands on them, they are dead. While I am loath to kill, if you won't, in this case, I will and I will not hesitate. I may feel bad about how I killed yet again later. That does not matter because human purists do not attack my friends and family and survive that. I apologize if that is a little aggressive, male Vampire-like. I don't care who kills them. You? Me? Does not matter. They are absolutely going to die, however."

Both shook 'no', and Anne added "No, Adrian. You are one hundred percent correct. These Purists must be taken out. This is full-on Cleaner territory now. The HPA is hunting Vampires. They are targeting an actual real Vampire. Hell, they kidnapped one already and don't know it. We have no idea how many HPA there are, other than the ones at the Oasis and you scented in Morgan's office. We hunt them, and we erase them. It is the only way."