~ Dakota ~
Dakota tried to get back to the regular rhythm of her life. She began reviewing reports from her private institute on her tablet. The small vampire, Squeaky, was doing a fabulous job of organizing the information she needed to review. He often read the longer reports and offered a very concise synopsis. After double checking the first few, she discovered he was very accurate at condensing the material she needed to review.
She met with Durk for lunch. He was pleased that her hunt had been successful. He noticed she seemed a little different but he could not put his finger on what the difference was. As they visited, he realized that normally she was a total mess after a hunt. Successful or not, she was always depressed and in need of a good night out drinking and dancing. Except this time, she just came off one of the longest and most difficult hunts of her life and she was calm and collected. She even seemed happy and contented. How could that be? He asked her out again, which was his standard operating procedure. She smiled and declined.
She spent an entire month reviewing reports from scientists and engineers at the institute, looking for individuals for her board of directors, and fleshing out the security team for the institute. She discovered, after intensive interviews with Josh and the Kalian, that Faran was better suited as a hand to hand combat instructor than private security at the institute. He seemed to like this option better because the pay was much better and it was a higher status job. In fact, she made him a department head. He was actually fairly well educated. Faran was a little hot headed but his skill set was exceptional.
Within a week, she received a consult on another missing person. This time, it was a child. She accepted the assignment and asked Jared to assist. She was pleasantly surprised that he agreed. The case was in one of the outlying counties. They surveyed the scene of the disappearance in great detail. It was a river bank popular with vacationing families, however, this was the off season, so no one but the one family was present. They walked up and back down the river bank, scanning for DNA. The wind was slightly chilly and the leaves were turning. There was no trace evidence to be found.
They went to visit the parents. They were human, had been married about a year, and the child was about five years old. Once Dakota saw pictures and met the parents, she knew. After speaking briefly with the parents, she got back into her car with Jared and asked him what he thought.
He paused for a long moment. “I think the stepfather should be the primary suspect. He made me feel extremely uncomfortable. The mother was extremely distraught and kept blaming herself over and over again, and begged us to help find her child.”
“Her husband was calm and did not show any grief at losing his stepdaughter. He even blamed the child for ‘wandering off’ at one point in the interview. The way he looked at me made me aware that he could pick up on my very subtle vampire traits and I felt strong disapproval from him, although he did not know me. I am worried that we will not find her alive but my gut tells me we might have a chance because he did not seem at all remorseful. That either means he is a sociopath or that he put her somewhere where she will die a slow, painful death but he doesn’t have to see it and if he doesn’t see it, he won’t have to feel responsible. To be quite honest, now that I have said it out loud, I am leaning toward she is stashed somewhere because as much as he hates our kind, he would want her to suffer.”
Dakota looked at him for a long, hard moment, thinking how very insightful her son was. “I think yo’re right on the money. We need media exposure and every single warm body we can get out there searching for her. Winter has not set in yet and that gives her about three days, if she doesn’t have liquid.”
Dakota got on the phone, called the local newspaper and television stations to explain that she was hunting the child, and asked for a press conference within the hour to round up volunteers.
Within the hour, they were both sitting in front of a dozen local and state media and one network reporter.
As the cameras rolled, Dakota spoke, held up the child’s photograph, and said, “This is Praise Williams. She is five years old, has a mixed vampire heritage, and I have reason to believe she is still alive. I would like to ask every single available man and woman to join the search. We need every pair of eyes out looking for her. Please call the number on your screen if you can assist, or if you have information pertaining to the disappearance.”
She put her arm around her son, looked directly into the screen before speaking. “Praise, if you can hear me, know that my son and I will never stop looking until you are back in your mother’s arms.”
Jared really didn’t mind her using him to give hope to the little girl. He’d been the one to suggest the benefit of showing that she had a child of mixed vampire heritage and that he was valued in her eyes might prove beneficial. He said that hearing those words of support coming from a hunter with a mixed heritage child would carry more weight than some strange human speaking.
The response from both the human and the vampire community was amazing. Although Jared was astonished at the response his mother could generate for a good cause, Dakota was not. She had done it dozens of times over the years. Good people always turned out in support of a good cause. Almost a thousand people showed up and it was a media frenzy.
Dakota kept her head down and her mind focused on the task. She poured over maps with Jared and they picked out several likely dumping sites within an easy drive. Some local businessman had put up a hundred thousand dollar reward and law enforcement was getting dozens of calls.
She did not like to have volunteers with her when she hunted. Local law enforcement made assignments to them and she and Jared got on with targeting specific sites based on proximity to the location disappearance. They had searched half dozen sites over a period of two days.
Dakota was methodical in her search because early on, she had felt the despair of missing a person because she did not search thoroughly enough and she never wanted that to happen again, especially with a small child.
They were searching an abandoned mine. According to the maps, the mine snaked back through the mountain about a mile. It was unstable and she thought about holding Jared back but finally determined that hunting was risky and she would just have to accept that if he wanted to hunt with her.
She pulled an oxygen mask and a tank from her trunk in addition to basic digging tools. Though her son and the child would not need them as they required virtually no oxygen because of their vampire heritage, she was almost purely human and that meant she did need oxygen to breathe.
Half way through the mine, they could hear something. Dakota held up her hand and Jared stopped. She was having a difficult time telling where the sound was coming from but Jared pointed the way. They found a small hole about four feet in diameter dropped about twenty feet down.
Jared shined his light down and Dakota called for backup with grappling line and instructed them to stay out of the mine because it was unstable. She stressed that multiple people running in there would bring it down on top of the child.
By the time she turned around, she realized that Jared had scurried down the hole and was sitting with the small child on his lap. She could hear him speaking to her gently and telling her that her mother was on the way. He asked her who had put her here and Dakota stood waiting with her heart pounding as they waited her to answer. As they suspected, she said it was her father. Clarification by Jared revealed it was, in fact, the stepfather.
Dakota could see Jared feeding the child from his wrist. Her heart broke for the little girl.
Dakota peered down at him. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine and the little one hungry but unharmed. Throw me down a rope.”
Dakota’s heart sank. “It’s not long enough, Jared. The police are on the way with grappling equipment, just wait for them.”
“Just throw down the rope. I will tie the child to me and just shimmy up the same way I shimmied down here.”
Dakota was reluctant but thought she would give him a chance. She doubted if law enforcement could refrain from tromping a bunch of people down there. The lesser risk was Jared bringing the child up himself.
She threw the rope down, watched the child climb onto his back. He tied her securely to his body. The little one looked so small and frail. Jared was quite strong for his age. He carefully climbed up the inside of the hole. As soon as he neared the top, Dakota grabbed the child and pulled them both to safety. Dakota untied the child but she clung to Jared.
He looked down at her and spoke calmly. “Don’t worry, this is my mother. We won’t let anything happen to you.” He picked her up and they made their way to the entrance of the mine.
Dakota was hopeful that they could slip out and into their vehicles before anyone showed up. Once she hit the outside, she realized there was no such luck. There were at least a hundred people outside and a small team was suiting up for climbing.
The child’s mother and stepfather were waiting, but the child just clung to Jared’s neck. The mother looked worriedly at the child, walked over, and gently took her into her arms.
The child whispered something into her ear and she turned to her husband and said, “My God, how could you?”
He walked swiftly toward the woman and the child, but Jared stepped out and nailed him hard across the face.
Dakota had been explaining to the detective what the child had told them and directed an officer to cuff the man.
Jared walked over to the child. “See, no more bad guys, just like I promised.” The child hugged him and then wrapped her arms around her mother.
Dakota stepped beside Jared, having a hard time concealing her pride. She put a hand on his shoulder. “Good work, son.”
He smiled at her, jerked his head up in one swift angry move. “This is one hunt I wouldn’t have wanted to miss.”
They slipped out of the mix and headed home. Dakota knew the detective would be expecting a report on his desk by the following afternoon, but, for now, she just wanted some sleep. Jared wanted to visit Selene so she dropped him there on her way.
She grabbed a quick shower but found she was too restless from the hunt to sleep so she went for a drink. Most everyone in the bar seemed aware of her latest hunt. That was strange because it was out of area.
Durk slid into the booth beside her. “Congratulations on another successful hunt. Do you make notches on your gun for every person you find alive or anything like that?”
“No, but I save a picture of every person I don’t find alive to remind me that regardless of the media circus surrounding these cases, I need to stay focused on the person. Here, have a look.”
She reached into her pocket and fished out a small, black book she used to make case notes in. There were three small pictures and one was of a child. On the back of each was their date of death, according to the coroner, and the date she became involved in the case. Two of the three were dead before she was even consulted.
Shoot her an disapproving look, he asked, “Why do you do that to yourself? You should be having the time of your life celebrating, not grieving over people you never met.”
Trying to keep the pain from being etched onto every crevice of her face, she refused to maintain eye contact. A large hand pulled her out of her seat and onto the dance floor.
They were both familiar with the dynamic by now. She always became depressed after a hunt and he was always there to pick up the pieces. She wondered briefly again why she was not hopelessly in love with him.
He brought her a huge alcoholic drink. They drank each other stupid and danced all night with different partners. At some point, she realized Durk was going for an all-time record for vast number of different partners he sipped blood from in one night. He sampled almost every dance partner and they giggled their approval. The ladies did not seem to be able to get enough of him.
She glanced up several times to find clips of her emerging from the entrance of the mine with Jared carrying the child, of Jared punching the vampire hating perp right in the face, and of the woman making a very public thank you. Durk was absolutely right. She had nothing to be depressed about, not today anyways.
Every vampire she danced with was gorgeous and for some reason, overly focused on her. Somehow, she found herself thinking of the one male she knew would not be showing up tonight. Why had she asked him to stay away for two whole months? That seemed like forever, especially tonight, when she would love nothing better than to be nursing her bad mood in his arms.
She had to admit that cuddling in his arms with his fangs in her neck would be the perfect way to forget all about a hunt. She couldn’t believe how much she missed feeding him, not to mention being in his arms. Trying to figure out why some totally screwed up person would do something like that to a small, vulnerable child was doing her head in. Durk shoved her in a taxi about 3 AM and she woke up on her sofa with an extraordinary hangover as her housekeeper bustled around doing her thing.
Dakota got her priorities straight in her head; shower, swim, and then actual food. Maybe then she would feel like a civilized person again. The shower was loud. It felt like she could hear every droplet of water hitting the shower floor. Funny how what seemed so necessary last night seemed so very unnecessary this morning. She really wished she had stopped at two drinks last night.
When Dakota walked out to the pool area, she was delighted to find Jared swimming with little Selene. She dove into the pool, swam over to them. “So how does it feel to be a hero?”
He just looked embarrassed and shrugged. “I would have preferred to get the child out before the media came.”
“Me, too, but I was referring to punching that perp in the face. You have to admit that must have felt good.”
He smiled. “Oh, I’m ashamed to say that part was fantastic.”
Selene chimed in, “My father said to tell you congratulations.”
Dakota thought for a moment. “Tell your father the reward he put up was a nice gesture and generated a lot of calls. However, your congratulations should go to Jared. You would have been proud of him. The little girl was down a deep hole and he climbed right down before I could even get turned around, fed her, tied her to his body, and pulled her right out of there. Honestly, it was like he didn’t even need me. If it weren’t for his age, he could hunt on his own.”
Jared looked embarrassed and slowly sank himself beneath the water.
Selene just beamed. “By the way, how did you know that my father put up the reward?”
“I didn’t until you just verified it. It just seemed like the kind of nice thing your father would do and not many people have that kind of cash lying around to donate to a good cause.”
“My dad said that because no one claimed the money, he was donating it to the woman and her child so they can start a new life.”
“I think your father is a phenomenal person.” Selene smiled at her. Dakota kissed her on the cheek and said, “I am guessing Jared is not coming back up until I stop bragging about him so I will get going. I hope you two have a nice day.”
Dakota swam to the edge of the pool and turned around. “Will you give your father a personal message from me?”
Selene nodded her head. “I would be happy to. I know he misses you greatly.”
“Please tell him I am sorry about the time out thing because I really would have preferred spending yesterday evening with him.” The girl smiled and Dakota climbed out of the pool and went to sketch with Edward.