him interfering.
She thought he was mostly going to ask about the vampire who might have bitten her, but instead he asked, "We're looking to determine if anyone living outside the clan has lost anyone due to rogue hunters killing their loved ones."
That was a good in. Rather than focus on a rogue vampire, concentrate on someone they might have lost.
A vampire suddenly appeared, and she thought she'd seen him watching them from a second-story shop window. He was black-haired and eyed, and his anger was directed at Atreides. She was glad the man was leaving her out of it for the moment. But she realized if he took an angry step toward Atreides, she would be showing her baby fangs to him. When here she thought she would flee in the face of imminent danger that she knew she couldn't win at.
"What do you care about those of us in the border towns?" the man asked.
They didn't call themselves fringe vampires, but border town vamps. The hunters who didn't live by League rules weren't allowed to hunt, and they considered themselves free hunters. But if they hunted a vampire down, they were considered rogues by the League.
"We've had word that possibly a vampiress living in a border region was murdered by a rogue hunter. Some of ours have been too. We're searching for the hunters who have done this," Atreides said.
"And what does the League say about his?" the man asked, motioning to Selena.
"She's a huntress and protected one of our own."
The man finally turned his attention to Selena. "The one who killed the hunter?"
"Yeah, and one of our kind turned Selena, and in a vicious way," Atreides said. "It would have been one thing if she hadn't protected one of our own and was even in alliance with the rogue hunters who are killing our people. But what the rogue vampire did to her was unconscionable."
"Maybe she asked for it," a vampiress said, that Selena hadn't seen until now.
"Maybe you know who did it and are in collusion with him," Selena said, when she hadn't planned on speaking a word! What was wrong with her? But both her huntress and vampiress strengths were influencing her and she wouldn't be cowed by some snip of a vampiress.
The vampiress smiled, her canines on full display, but Selena didn't advance on her. Now wasn't the time.
"So why do you want to know if we have lost any vampiresses to the rogue hunter threat?" the man asked.
"Like I said," Atreides reiterated, "they have already killed some that we know of. Selena and her sister and brother and his friends are helping us to locate the hunters. We'll—"
"Kill them?" the man asked. "A rogue hunter should be dead at our hands if he murdered our kind without provocation."
"I agree," Selena said. "And if I can't turn them over to the League for their disposition, because believe me, they don't want to have a civil war between our people and yours—"
"She's still a huntress," the one woman sneered.
"I am both. But I've been a huntress for a lot longer than I've been a vampire so it's hard for me to think in terms of being one of you. But rest assured, I would never allow a hunter to kill a vampire who isn't a rogue," Selena said.
"What about the one who bit you?"
"I could have died. I made it to the club where Atreides and his friends saved my life, no thanks to the vampire who savagely tore into me. There was a wolf at first. I thought I'd hit him with my car. Well, I wasn't sure what I had hit. But I couldn't leave a wounded animal, or person, on the side of the road. He stalked me. And then I was attacked. That's not right in any way you want to think of it."
The other vampires seemed to agree, a few nodding, no one speaking for a moment.
"Atreides, you have always been welcome. You've always cared about our welfare. We know you have always wanted us to join you, but you've reported back to Daemon, letting him know we're fine as we are and living in a peaceful existence. Selena, you are right. No vampire would be considered anything other than a rogue who had bitten you and left you to die. There's no call for it. If we determine he is one of us, we'll deal with him ourselves. We will speak among ourselves and learn if any of our women