The Rogue Hunter (6 page)

"I believe the one with the ponytail stepped on something," Decker said smoothly, his expression becoming concentrated on Samantha Willan's face. When her expression smoothed out, losing its confused look, Mortimer knew he was slipping into her thoughts and soothing her worries about her sisters' odd behavior. For some reason, that bothered him. He didn't particularly want her for his life mate, but didn't want anyone messing with her thoughts either.

"They're coming now though, see." Decker's words made Mortimer glance toward the trees to see that the other two women were indeed moving forward now. He and Bricker were obviously bringing them along and probably giving them the thoughts that the ponytailed sister had stepped on something that held them up. Oddly enough, Mortimer didn't care that the men were controlling the other two women. It wasn't that he liked Sam better, but if she did turn out to be his life mate, he didn't want anyone playing with her head.

"Are you all right?" Sam asked the girl with the ponytail as the pair reached them.

"Yes, fine. I just stepped on something," Jo assured her vaguely, and then offered a smile to the men. "Hi, I'm Josephine Willan."

"And I'm Alexandra," the last sister announced.

"It's nice to finally meet my neighbors," Decker said calmly, and Mortimer just managed not to snort at the lie.

"Things change," Decker muttered, letting Mortimer know he was still reading his thoughts.

The knowledge just made him scowl. He thought it incredibly rude of the man to take advantage and read him when he was vulnerable.

"I'm Decker Pimms," Decker said, doing the honors and introducing them. "And this is Justin Bricker and Garrett Mortimer."

Mortimer forced himself to stop scowling and nodded a grim greeting to the women.

Helios were offered back and forth, and then Alex commented, "We heard your generator start up and thought we'd come ask you about it. We've been thinking of getting one for our cottage too, but…" She shrugged and then said, "They're very loud, aren't they?"

"This generator came with the cottage. I don't think the newer models are as loud," Decker said quietly. "I'm sorry if it disturbed you."

"Oh, not at all," Jo assured them. "It's no louder than the lawn mower, really. It just got our attention, and we thought we'd come say hello and share information."

"What information?" Bricker asked curiously.

"You know, about the power outage." Jo smiled, her eyes moving over the younger immortal with interest. "The official word is that the power should be back up again by eight o'clock tonight."

"Mind you," Sam said wryly, "the official word when we first got up this morning was that it would be up by four p.m., so I wouldn't count on having power before tomorrow morning."

"Is it always so unreliable up here?" Bricker asked with surprise.

There was an exchange of glances and wry expressions among the three women, and then they all turned back and said as one, "Yes."

"Hmm," Bricker muttered, and then asked, "You couldn't direct us to the local grocery store, could you? We thought we could pick up groceries here and didn't bring any."

"Oh." Sam frowned and glanced at her sisters before saying, "I'm not sure it would still be open. Our grocery store back home is only open until four on Sundays and it's past that now."

"They might stay open later because it's cottage country," Alex pointed out.

"True, but I doubt they opened at all today if their power is out too," Sam countered.

"Oh, they have to have generators in the grocery store," Jo protested. "Otherwise the food would go bad every time the power went down."

"Yes," Sam agreed. "But they may only have generators hooked up to the refrigerators and freezers and not for the lights and cash registers. I'd think it would be terribly expensive to run the whole store on gas-powered generators."

Jo clucked her tongue and muttered what sounded like "Gawd, you're such a lawyer."

Sam rolled her eyes as if this was an oft-heard comment. She then forced a smile, grabbed her sisters by an arm each, and backed away saying, "Excuse us just one moment."

Mortimer and the others exchanged glances as the women huddled together a few feet away and began to whisper frantically. It was a short powwow. Within seconds they were back to stand before the men.

It was Jo who offered a wide smile and said, "We'd like to invite you to a power outage party."

When the men stared back blankly, Sam explained, "We brought food with us. We always do and usually it's fine. The power rarely stays off for this long, but this time…" She shrugged. "It's probably better to eat it all than hope it lasts in the cooler until they manage to get the power back on. There's a lot of food. You're welcome to join us."

"A lot?" Alex echoed with a snort, and then told them, "A week's worth. We have sausages, hot dogs, hamburgers, steaks, pork tenderloin… We have
a lot
of food."

"I'm sure we won't eat a week's worth of food," Decker said with amusement.

"But we'd be happy to join you in a power outage party," Bricker said quickly, obviously worried the man was about to do him out of a meal. "And you're welcome to store your meats and such in our refrigerator. After all, we didn't bring provisions up with us so there's plenty of room."

"Oh. That's so sweet," Jo said, wide-eyed.

"Yes, sweet," Mortimer said dryly, scowling at the younger man. He fully expected Decker to stomp on the offer, but he didn't.

"Yes, it is sweet," Alex agreed, and turned to her sisters to say, "We could throw the milk and cheeses and tenderloin in their fridge and then cook up the sausages, hamburgers, hot dogs, and such tonight."

"We have the three steaks too," Jo suggested. "We could cook those up and split them in halves or something so everyone gets a bit."

"I'll double the amount of potato salad I was making," Sam decided.

In their excitement the trio had started walking back toward their own cottage as they planned. They were nearly to the trees when Sam apparently realized how rude they were being and paused to glance back. "Sorry. We'll be right back. We just have to get stuff."

The other two women nodded in agreement, and then the trio rushed off through the trees.

"A power outage party," Bricker said with a grin. "Potato salad, hamburgers, sausages, and steak. It could be fun."

"And their food right alongside our bags of blood in the refrigerator," Mortimer said dryly, mildly satisfied by the way the reminder wiped the smile off the younger immortal's face.

Decker, however, didn't look upset at all. "I have two refrigerators here. One is upstairs and one down. Both are set to two degrees right now like ABB recommends for bagged blood, but we can bring up the temperature on the one upstairs and let them store their food there."

"See," Bricker chided Mortimer. "It's fine. We have the two refrigerators. We can help the girls out."

Grinding his teeth, Mortimer nodded. "There are two spare rooms upstairs, one with bunk beds. Shall we offer them those as well so they don't have to sleep in a cottage without power?"

Bricker merely grinned. "You've obviously spent too much time with Lucian. His grumpiness is wearing off on you. Come on, Mortimer," he chided. "This could be fun."

Mortimer narrowed his eyes on the man and then turned away to head back into the cottage with an irritated "hrrumph."

Chapter Four

"Hurry up, Mortimer. It's nearly seven and we still have to feed."

Mortimer finished tugging his T-shirt into place, and then reached for the door handle, jerking the bathroom door open just as Bricker would have knocked again.

"Oh. You're ready," the younger immortal said, letting his hand drop back to his side.

"Yes," he said dryly. "And stop chivvying me. You are the one who spent more than an hour in here. I haven't been in the bathroom ten minutes."

"I like to soak in the tub," Bricker said with an unapologetic shrug. "Come on, we can feed while Decker takes his turn at the shower."

Mortimer just grunted with irritation. It seemed the shower upstairs had a leak or something, so they'd had to take turns with the lower washroom.

Muttering under his breath, Mortimer followed the younger man out into the rec room and to the refrigerator where the blood was stored. His eyes slid over the sky outside as he went, noting that while it was still light out, the sun at least was no longer in view. It would be safe enough for them to go out, but he still thought he might have an extra bag of blood just the same.

Mortimer accepted the bag Bricker handed him, waited for his fangs to descend, and then slapped the cold bag to them even as the younger immortal did the same with his own. The need to feed prevented speaking, and that was fine with him. He didn't wish for another lengthy discussion about how life mates were rare and to be cherished and he shouldn't be so resistant about accepting Samantha Willan as his. Both Decker and Bricker had had a go at him one after the other after the women left. He was heartily sick of the topic, mostly because he was torn on the subject himself. Mortimer was very aware of how rare not being able to read a mortal was.

"Here." Bricker handed Mortimer a second bag as he removed the now-empty first.

They stood in continued silence through three bags each, debated, and then had a fourth before deciding it was enough to counter any ill effects the remaining light of day might cause.

"I'll just go check on Decker and see if he's ready," Bricker said, taking the empty blood bags with him to throw away in the kitchen.

Mortimer nodded in acknowledgment and then moved to the windows and peered outside. The clack of a screen door drew his attention to the neighboring lawn. Mortimer slid the screen open and stepped out to see Alex and Sam huddled over a pot on the barbecue. Mortimer didn't know what was in it, but he'd seen them put it on the barbecue to boil when Bricker had first gone into the bathroom to take his bath.

Mortimer had found himself repeatedly drawn to the screen doors to watch the activity next door. Even as the men had lectured him, he'd stood grumbling suitable responses as he watched the women hustle about, preparing for their "power outage party."

Unfortunately, doing so had only made him more certain than ever that Samantha Willan was not for him. The woman was unbearably clumsy. She'd lost her balance countless times, dropping two drinks, a plate, silverware, and Lord knew what else as they'd rushed about setting the table and working at the barbecue. She couldn't possibly be meant for him.

The clatter of Bricker's feet on the stairs made him sigh heavily and turn back to move inside. He was pulling the door closed when the younger immortal stepped off the bottom stair and announced, "Decker is just getting out of the shower. He said to go ahead without him; he'll finish up and bite a quick bag or two and then follow."

"Why don't we just wait for him and go together?" Mortimer suggested.

"Because it's seven o'clock and that's when the girls said to be there when they brought their food over to put in the refrigerator. We'll just go over and tell them Decker will be right along." Bricker moved past him as he spoke and slid through the still-open screen door. "Come on, buck up. Parties are supposed to be fun."

"Right," Mortimer said on a small sigh, and followed reluctantly.

Sam was gone from the deck when they reached the Willan cottage, as was the pot that had been on the barbecue for the last hour or so. Alex was still there, however, hovering over an assortment of burgers, sausages, and strips of steaks grilling on the barbecue.

"Welcome." She greeted them with a bright smile as they stepped onto the deck and then frowned slightly as she saw there were only the two of them. "Isn't your friend coming?"

"Decker will be right along," Bricker assured her. "We had to take turns at the showers and he's still getting ready."

"Oh." A crooked smile curved her lips, and then she shrugged. "I hope he doesn't take too long. This stuff is almost done."

"He'll be quick," Mortimer assured her, and then added, "Bricker is the only beauty queen in the bunch. He takes forever about his toilette."

"I do," Bricker admitted with a shameless grin. "I like to soak until my skin is nearly falling off."

"So does our Jo," Alex said with amusement, and then offered, "Would the two of you like a beer?"

Mortimer hesitated, his glance slipping to Bricker. Alcohol didn't have the same effect on them that it would on a mortal. Rather than give them a buzz, it merely forced their blood to work harder at removing the chemicals that caused that effect in mortals, which made them thirsty for something else entirely. Still, he knew it was a social drink and expected at barbecues. It might seem odd if they declined. And they
had
consumed extra blood.

"They're cold," Alex added temptingly, and when they both glanced at her in surprise, added, "We've been using Mother Nature's cooler. The lake," she added when that didn't clear their confusion. "It was Sam's idea. We put some pops and beer and such in fish baskets and sank them in the lake off the dock."

"That's clever," Bricker said with admiration. "Isn't that clever, Mortimer?"

"Yes, it's clever," Mortimer agreed, just managing not to roll his eyes at the man's obvious ploy to point out the woman's good points. It was going to be a long night.

"We'd love a couple beers," Bricker decided for them, moving toward the steps. "Which side of the dock did you sink the fish basket?"

"I'll get them," Alex offered, closing the lid on the barbecue.

"Where is Sam?" Bricker asked as she started down the steps.

Alex glanced back, a slightly surprised expression on her face, but she answered, "Inside draining the potatoes for potato salad. Jo's in there too. She's cutting veggies to go with the dip."

"Thanks." Bricker smiled, and when Alex nodded and turned to continue off the deck, he immediately turned to Mortimer. "Sam's inside making potato salad."

"So I heard."

"Well… ?" the younger immortal said grimly.