Vicky had removed Nathan’s newspaper articles from the wall and spread them across the floor around her. She’d spent the past eight hours trying to find some thread of a connection between them. Despite her rapid healing ability, her neck and back ached so bad from sitting hunched over for hours, that she was a little afraid she’d never walk again.

Shifting some of the newspaper clippings around, she examined the dates before pushing them back to where they’d been.

Leaning back, she rubbed her eyes and yawned. Her gaze fell on her phone, plugged into the wall. It was already six thirty. Nathan texted earlier to say he didn’t have to hunt tonight and would meet her here, but he didn’t say what time.

She wished he’d get here soon; she couldn’t deny she was eager to see him again.

Her attention returned to the clippings once more. She’d tried arranging them by dates, then locations, and even by similar words in the articles. She was sure Nathan probably tried all the same things, but she was resolved to find some pattern to reveal what Joseph was doing.

This may have started as Nathan’s mission, but she would help put an end to Joseph’s torment of others. She was determined to make it so no one else suffered as she had while in captivity.

Rising, she cracked her back before pacing away from the articles. The clear plastic she’d bought at a hardware store and hammered into place over the broken kitchen window crinkled in the slight breeze blowing outside. She tucked the strands of hair falling free from her ponytail behind her ear as she pondered a new way to look at everything. Stopping, she gazed across the sea of newspapers as an idea struck her.

Grabbing her phone, she started separating the missing people articles from the violent deaths and googling the names. Another two hours passed before she heard a key sliding into the lock.

Vicky looked up from the mess surrounding her as the door swung open and Nathan stepped inside. She almost jumped up and hugged him before recalling their relationship was strictly business.

You’re so doomed! Not yet, she told herself.

Nathan’s heart lurched when his eyes met Vicky’s. With her face flushed and a smile lighting her emerald eyes, she looked irresistible. Seeing her again eased the strange constriction growing in his chest since they’d parted. He stood and savored her before his gaze fell to the clippings surrounding her. His eyebrows shot up.

“Don’t worry,” she said in response to the irritation and disbelief flashing across his face. “I’ll put them all back exactly the way you had them.”

“Really?” he asked as he looked at the hundreds of clippings and the numerous thumbtack holes in the wall.

Vicky laughed and shook her head. Hair fell free of her loose ponytail to brush against her shoulders. “I’m more than a pretty face and a rocking body.”

“I have no doubt,” he murmured, but her words caused his eyes to dip to her full breasts. “But that is a lot of articles.”

The ravenous gleam in his eyes caused her breath to hitch.

“It is, but I’m a genius, or at least my phone is.” She held it up. “I took pictures.”

He smiled at her as he closed and locked the door. When he turned back to her, Vicky held his gaze for a second before lowering her eyes and nervously licking her lips. The arousal he’d rid himself of earlier, blazed back to life when her tongue ran over her luscious lips. He badly wanted to replace her tongue with his, or better yet, feel those lips running over the length of his shaft.

And that easily, he was rock-hard again and pretty sure walking would be impossible.

Vicky rubbed her palm nervously on her thigh before concentrating on the articles again. She recognized lust on a man when she saw it. If she looked at him, she’d forget all sense of reason, lay down on this floor, and let him take her.

Damn him for being as affected by her as she was by him; it only made her want him more.

So you’d prefer it if he considered you as desirable as a toad? A voice in her head taunted. No. Yes. No. YES!

Ugh, he had her so wound up she’d lost all sense of reason.

“I… uh… I tried organizing the articles all differently and looking for similarities, as I’m sure you already have,” she said.

“I have,” he confirmed.

“Then, I decided to separate the missing from the dead—”

“I’ve done that.”

“I’m sure,” she said and chanced a glance at him. It relieved her to find him more focused on the articles than her. “But did you ever search for the missing people?”

“You mean go out and try to find them myself?”

“No, I mean Google.” She waved her phone in front of him. “Did you ever search to see if they were found?”

“No. I just assumed they were gone for good.”

“So did I, at first,” she said and brushed aside an annoying strand of hair.

With a sigh, she undid her ponytail and pulled her hair back into another one. She froze when Nathan’s gaze fastened on her neck. For a second, the hunger burning in his eyes was that of a vampire ready to feast.

Demon DNA, she reminded herself. Still, she’d never expected to see such a look in the eyes of a hunter. As fast as it came, the hunger vanished, but she knew she hadn’t imagined it. This hunter was more vampire than he realized. What that meant, she didn’t know, but it intrigued her.

“But then, I thought, wait a minute,” she continued. “Joseph has been smart enough to evade Ronan all this time; strong and capable enough to take down your dad—sorry about that.”

Sadness tugged at his heart at the reminder of his loss. Every day, he pondered what he should or could have done to prevent Joseph from killing his dad. His father was tougher on him than Kadence, but Nathan understood why. From birth, Nathan was groomed to one day become the leader.

Often, he wondered if he was failing in his role.

“It’s the past,” he murmured.

“I hate when someone says that. Just because it’s in the past doesn’t mean it stops hurting.”

“True,” he admitted. “Continue with what you were saying.”

“Anyway,” Vicky said. “Joseph has managed to elude so many for so long. He’s growing an army of Savages and stashing them in places no one can find. Except for Kadence, with that one vision or whatever she had of the warehouse location.”

“She told you about that?”

“Yeah. We’ve been living on the same property since January, and there aren’t many girls there, so we talk. She said the location of the warehouse came to her in flashes and she still occasionally gets those kind of flashes, but most times they’re too fast for her to decipher.”

“She tries to hide it, but it’s hard on her that she can’t always figure them out.”

“She’ll handle it until the day she learns how to control whatever ability she has. For someone who was repressed her entire life, she’s a tough chick.”

“You think she was repressed?”

“Don’t you?” Vicky retorted. “I’m aware all you hunters like your women virginal and dressed like pilgrims. They don’t get out in the world, barely have access to TVs, and don’t know computers. Talk about a step back to the Dark Ages, or did the hunter traditions never leave the Dark Ages?”

“Our traditions aren’t stuck in the Dark Ages, and the women are not repressed,” Nathan grated from between his teeth. They lived a far more old-fashioned way of life than most, especially at this time in history, but he wouldn’t consider the female hunters repressed.

“Then what are they?” Vicky inquired.

“I admit our way is outdated, but we’re working on educating the women more. They’re receiving weapons training and learning fighting techniques in case one of them happens to get out again, like Kadence.”

“Now you make them sound like zoo animals locked in cages.”

“I can’t change everything at once!” The whiplash of his voice startled him. Typically, it took a lot to ruffle him, but this woman had a way of getting under his skin in every way.

Vicky’s eyes widened then narrowed at him. Nathan took a calming breath before speaking again as she looked ready to claw his eyes out, and the last thing he wanted was to fight with her.

“During the short time I’ve been leader, my twin escaped the stronghold and became a vampire, we moved from a place we were planning to stay at for hundreds of years, the women are being taught more and learning to fight, and we’re working with vampires. If I keep shoving changes down the throats of people who haven’t experienced any changes in their society for centuries, they’ll oust me, or they’ll kill me.”

“They wouldn’t do either!” she gasped. “Your family has always ruled!”

“They would,” he assured her. “If they think it’s best for them, and necessary to preserve our ways, they’ll have someone else take over rule until I produce an heir, or they’ll kill me.”

“Kadence would hunt them down and destroy them!”

“I’d still be dead, and no, she wouldn’t. She knows as well as I do how important hunters are to the survival of all our species. Not all vampires in existence hunt Savages. Every male hunter is taught from birth how to fight and kill vampires. I’d like to make it so one day the women fight too, but with our low birthrates, I doubt that will ever happen. It might be the death of our species if women are killed in battle as often as the men. However, things will change for the women.”

Like their marriage choices. Nathan would make it so one day men and women weren’t coerced into marriage with someone chosen for them, but that change would come too late to save him.

“You have a lot on your shoulders, Nathan,” she murmured.

Vicky studied him in a new light. Before, he’d always been the one to avoid and the one whose bones she often fantasized about jumping. Now, she saw him for a what he was, a young man with the entire well-being of his species resting on his broad shoulders.

She didn’t want it to happen, but it made her like and respect him more.

“No more than any of my ancestors,” he replied.

“Your ancestors never possessed the knowledge that not all vampires are your enemy. They never tried to change things for the women, and they never had to contend with a Savage who is trying to build an army, like Joseph is. Kadence said you are the youngest hunter who has ever ruled.”

“Kadence talks too much.”

Vicky chuckled. “She’s proud of you.”

“I’m proud of her. She’s done what no other hunter has ever succeeded in doing.”

“Become a vampire?” Vicky quipped.

A small smile curved his mouth. “That, and forged her own path in life.”

Vicky hated the sadness she sensed in him. “Do you want to forge your own path?”

Lifting his head, he held her gaze as he admitted, “Every day, but I’m on the path I was meant to walk.”

“You’re far too young to have that already set for you. Have you ever heard of a fork in the road or a detour? What happens if you come across one of those?”

“I’ve veered off too many times already. I can’t afford any more detours, too many count on me. I was bred and raised to lead the hunters.”

It sounded like such a lonely path to tread. “How old are you?” Vicky asked.

“I turned twenty-four on March fourth. You?”

“I’ll be twenty-two June fifteenth, but I became a fully matured vampire, stopped aging, and came more fully into my abilities when I was twenty.”

“I see. Now that we know when to exchange birthday cards, are you going to reveal to me what you think you’ve figured out with the missing people, or are you just going to insult my kind some more?” he teased.

“Oh yes,” Vicky said and turned her attention back to the clippings.

She could spend days learning more about him, but this conversation had confirmed what she already knew; he could never be hers. His path was unwavering and far different than the one she would follow. Still, she had to swallow the lump in her throat a few times before she felt capable of speaking again.

“Anyway, so far, I’ve managed to Google and Facebook stalk about half the people who were reported missing in these articles. About three quarters of them returned home. Out of the quarter still missing, half of those were found dead, and the other half are still unaccounted for. I have a feeling if I search the remaining missing names, I’ll get almost the same results,” Vicky said.

“Okay, so what does that mean?”

Vicky rested her hand on the stack of articles she’d piled on top of each other. “I believe looking at the missing people is a waste of time. At least 90 percent of the horrific, unsolved homicides you have here are probably related to a Savage, but there’s no way of knowing if that Savage was Joseph, someone working for him, or a rogue killing on their own.”

“So you think those are a waste of time too?”

“Yes and no. There is no pattern to any of these killings. If we could pin Joseph’s MO down, it might be different, but we don’t know how he works, so how do we tell which of these might be Joseph without knowing how he works?”

“We can’t.”

“No, we can’t,” she agreed. “I get what you’re trying to do here, I was hoping to find something linking them together too, but they’re too random.”

Nathan leaned against the door as Vicky’s words sank in. Maybe he’d been like a dog chasing its tail this entire time, but it was something for him to focus on rather than randomly searching the streets every night in the hopes of stumbling across Joseph.

“My brother-in-law, Brian, has been using his weird GPS-like ability to hunt for Joseph, but he’s had a difficult time pinning Joseph down because he travels a lot and tends to stay in large crowds.”

“Brian’s the vamp who’s trying to help Ronan search for some of the vampires who once trained with Ronan and that Joseph might try to recruit?”

“Yes. Brian’s located some of them but had no luck with the others. They could be working with Joseph now, or they could be dead. I’m not sure how Brian’s ability works, but he said he can’t locate the dead.”

“Interesting,” Nathan murmured.

Vicky hopped to her feet and groaned when her sore back protested the movement. “So, let’s go.”

“Where?” he asked. After what she’d revealed, it seemed as if any kind of coordinated search effort for Joseph would be impossible.

“Oh, yeah, I didn’t tell you what I thought of.”

He couldn’t help but smile at the way her mind seemed to go in a hundred different directions at once. “No, you didn’t.”

“Joseph is taking people and turning them into Savages, but he’s not taking people who will be missed. There would be far more missing people articles if that’s what he was up to, and too many reports would draw attention to what he’s doing from humans and us. The humans may not figure out exactly what is taking those people, but they’ll be more alert, and he can’t have that. He’s going to take people and vamps from a population where they won’t be missed, such as the homeless, people who are less fortunate, or a subculture few know about.”

“We’ve spoken with the homeless while on hunting missions. They’re missing some of their numbers, but nothing abnormal, and most didn’t know if the missing moved to a new location, died, or were arrested.”

“I know; I’ve heard the reports.”

“Okay….” His voice trailed off as he tried to figure out where she was going with this.

“I also said an unknown subculture,” she reminded him.

“Do you really think there’s a group or groups out there we don’t all know about?”

“Yes. I know of one.”