Brother

Abel

 

Abel sat in the passenger seat of the SUV beside Callum in the early morning dark before dawn.

And he did it feeling shit.

He’d lied to Delilah.

He’d left her half-asleep in bed after he kissed her and he did this with her thinking what he’d told her the day before: that he was training with all the men somewhere on the property and he wouldn’t be back until noon.

Delilah wasn’t big on early mornings, and seeing as he left their bed before four, this meant she didn’t haul her ass out to watch him train. She also didn’t ask what was up and why the training had changed.

She trusted him.

Completely.

Which was part of the reason why he felt shit.

But he’d been feeling shit for a while, the entire lead-up to having to tell the lie, knowing he’d eventually have to do it.

So he felt more shit now having done it.

The only good thing that came from the last four days of planning this mission was Abel coming to the understanding that Lucien and Callum knew their shit.

With Callum, this wasn’t a surprise.

With nothing to do but fuck, train, and sit around chatting, Callum and Lucien had explained a great deal of supernatural history to him. And although vampires kept a choke hold on their kind after the last insurrection burned down half of London, wolves didn’t. Seeing as Callum explained wolves were passionate, lusty, and prone to quick tempers, this meant they skirmished often.

And that meant Callum had experience, including experience with the rebel wolves who wanted world dominance for supernaturals. The good news with that was he’d been successful in bringing them low during a recent battle.

The results of this were that even Gregor’s intelligence reported that the wolf part of the current rebel faction was few. This was because Callum and his army had recently kicked their asses in a way that any who might be leaning toward that would think twice. Losing a brother and his father to it, not to mention Sonia being targeted by the rebels, it wasn’t surprising he didn’t leave a lot of them breathing.

Lucien’s last experience was five hundred years ago as a general in the last vampire-on-vampire war, but he’d not grown rusty.

Abel had none of their strategic or battle experience, but even so, they were cool with him, explaining everything, sharing it all, asking for his input and opinions.

He didn’t have much to give them, and although it sucked not having anything to offer, so they’d get on with shit, Abel made it clear he was down with that. He wasn’t happy to be a soldier in this mess, but he’d do anything to ensure his future with Delilah, his mate, the one he’d waited lifetimes for, the only human who would be at his side for eternity.

So they had it all covered, including letting Gregor in on what they were planning and utilizing his resources.

Gregor had not done cartwheels after learning their plans. He even went head-to-head with both Callum and Lucien in an effort to put a stop to it. But the vampire was not on his game and gave in surprisingly quickly.

Abel got this, seeing as he’d finally shared what his son was up to, this being looking for the witch who’d cut Abel in order to find out who’d sent her.

Abel was mildly pissed about this as he’d have liked to have gone with Yuri mostly because he wouldn’t mind seeing that bitch again. That being so he’d have the opportunity to return the favor and give her a scar she’d have for a lifetime. One you could see, or one you couldn’t, he didn’t give a fuck.

But he hadn’t been given a choice, and even if Gregor wasn’t exactly a vampire prone to great displays of warmth and kindness, it was obvious he gave a shit about his son and was worried.

So they were off, all of them, on their mission. Free from their elaborate cage. Abel in the SUV with Callum, Hook in the backseat; Lucien driving the SUV they were following, Ryon, Calder, and Caleb with him; and last, there was a detail of security around them that included Wei and Xun on their bikes.

Moose had not reported back, another thing that prayed on his mind, as it did Delilah’s. Hook assured them his bud could win a medal at squeezing all he could get out of a bender. But that was before anyone who meant anything to one of The Three was in danger.

Poncho had reported in that he’d bested the goat and snake test, but apparently, that wasn’t enough for his aunt, so something involving cactus juice and a visit with his ancestors was up next. Again, Poncho didn’t go into specifics and Abel didn’t ask.

His cell went, taking his mind off all that shit, and he leaned forward to pull it out of his back pocket.

He checked the screen and took the call.

“Yo.”

“Reporting in. All in place. We’re a go,” a man said, then disconnected.

Abel took the phone from his ear and told the windshield, “They’re in place. It’s a go.”

“Good,” Callum muttered.

“Fuck,” Hook also muttered.

Abel looked to the backseat. “You all right?”

It was a pertinent question. Hook looked wiped, hungover, and worn way the fuck out.

Then again, Hook had decided to spend last night with his vampire and it was written all over him they both gave it all they could give.

“Can’t complain,” Hook answered. “Fucking with that bitch feeding, meetin’ a woman who can hold her liquor as good as I can and go all night, finally hit the foot of the stairway to heaven. So yeah, I’m all right. More than all right. But that doesn’t mean I’m not fucked out, my balls shot dry, and I don’t got bourbon instead of blood in my veins. Even so, if things go south for me this mornin’, least you know I ended my days on this earth just like I wanted.”

Abel faced forward, murmuring, “Way too fuckin’ much information,” then heard Hook’s chuckle.

Callum must have felt his mood because he didn’t chuckle.

Instead, he assured quietly, “All is in place and we’ve planned well, brother.”

Abel said nothing because Callum was right. They’d planned well. No matter what happened that morning, they’d get something out of it. Hopefully it would be one of the enemy, alive and breathing, who they could break for information. But even if no one showed, they had human scouts everywhere surrounding the meeting place—fishermen, campers, hunters, and just men who were driving the roads like they had somewhere to go but were on the lookout.

This mission, on the face of it, was Lucien meeting with his friend Cosmo.

Cosmo was in charge of the vamps, wolves, and wraiths in the surrounding areas who were keeping an eye out for the enemy, something the supernaturals reporting to Cosmo shared were nonexistent.

That didn’t mean the enemy didn’t have human eyes.

But Cosmo couldn’t approach the compound, because if he did, the enemy, if they were watching, would know he was the one leading that effort. And according to Lucien, Cosmo was a force to be reckoned with and his involvement and proximity to The Three at that juncture was something advantageous to keep secret. Lucien, and Gregor, wanted their enemies to guess what Cosmo was up to, not know.

Now they were outing Cosmo themselves, with a purpose.

Their road trip was early, the meeting place clandestine, the route they were taking to it was circuitous, all of this to show anyone who might be watching that they were taking precautions to hide the fact this was a trap.

And if they found themselves with a fight on their hands, they’d know they were being watched. Even if no one showed, the scouts they had in place were trained to spot who they were supposed to be spotting. So if Cosmo was followed but not approached, or their convoy was, they’d still know that they had enemy eyes on them, active ones.

That didn’t seem much to Abel, but he was cool with it because it was doing something. But Callum and Lucien said any intel was good to have in order to analyze and then strategize.

And this, they said, was only the beginning. This wasn’t a for-the-fuck-of-it mission so they didn’t climb the walls of the compound.

Callum and Lucien had planned beyond this mission.

No more sitting on their hands.

Thank fuck.

This was something else Gregor wasn’t fired up about, and Abel knew, when they found out, all three of their women were going to lose their minds.

But again, it was doing something and he’d take Delilah’s sass just to breathe different air. He also had a feeling she’d get that. He’d just have to put up with her bitching before she got to that place.

Callum followed Lucien off the road to a narrower one, and not long after, they all turned onto a dirt lane. They drove into the forest and the trip wasn’t short. Eventually, they stopped, parked, got out, and hiked a short distance where they found the ATVs.

They loaded up and trekked deeper into the forest.

They were at it for five minutes before some of the ATVs pulled off, their security detail riding through the trees to set up watch.

They were at it another five minutes before, out of nowhere, the wolves joined them, running at the sides of the ATVs.

Callum, ahead of Abel, looked back and jerked up his chin.

The wolves were good.

By the time they hit the small clearing, all that was left were those close to The Three, the rest of the detail having moved to their positions. The remainder of their party drove their ATVs around it, circling it before they stopped, all the ATVs facing in, their lights illuminating the clearing.

In the clearing was a big, blond vampire, his only company being the wolves that had followed them, patrolling beyond the ATVs.

Hook, Wei, Xun, Calder, and Caleb took positions outside the SUVs, keeping watch.

Lucien, Callum, Ryon, and Abel approached the vampire.

“Cosmo,” Lucien murmured, offering his hand which Cosmo took.

Greetings were given, as well as an introduction for Abel, who Cosmo took in head to toe in a sharp way that gave the impression he missed nothing. This was something that made Abel feel more at ease. The vampire was obviously not a moron. Then again, he had yet to meet one who was.

“Were you followed?” Lucien asked once the preliminaries were done.

“No,” Cosmo answered, shaking his head. “Nothing. Not a hint.”

“We’ve had men in these woods for two days. They’ve seen nothing either,” Lucien shared.

“They either have human allies, which I can credit, your father’s skilled with charming his victims before he goes in for the kill,” Cosmo replied. “Or they’re concentrating their efforts elsewhere. Planning something that will draw you out.”

“We’re getting nothing,” Lucien told him.

“The calm before the storm,” Cosmo muttered.

“A calm they may have manipulated, forcing The Three into a high security compound in the middle of fucking nowhere in Oregon while they carry out an attack in Spain,” Lucien clipped impatiently.

Abel looked questioningly to Callum.

Callum felt his eyes and said, “They weren’t unaware of the compound’s existence. Which means the attack at Jian-Li’s restaurant may have been a play to get us there.”

“Which would also mean, if we moved, now that The Three are together, they can assume we’d do it as one, they’d know where we’re moving from, can manipulate where we’re moving to, and they’d be in position to pick us off,” Abel returned.

Callum’s jaw got tight which meant Abel’s guess might be right.

“Fuck,” he whispered.

“I’m more use to you elsewhere, Lucien,” Cosmo stated.

“You are,” Lucien agreed. “Move out all vampires and wolves, but leave the wraiths.”

Abel watched Cosmo nod right before a blinding pain shot through his head.

He tensed, his head jerking automatically as if the pain was a physical blow, and he lifted his hands so he could press his palms to his eyes, where the pain kept burning.

“Abel,” Callum called.

The pain shot through again, so severe, nausea tore up his throat and he had to swallow against vomiting as the agony bent him double.

“Abel!” Callum bit out, and Abel felt hands on him.

He shirked them off, the pain in his head so bad he was unable to bear touch.

Still bent double, he snarled, “Don’t touch me, man.”

“This ever happen before?” he heard Lucien ask, to which Xun answered, “Never.”

“Smell anything?” Callum asked, and Ryon answered, “Nothing.”

“Wolf,” Callum ordered, and Abel sensed them transforming to wolf as the pain shot back, worse this time, taking him down to his knee.

“Fuck,” he spat, digging his palms into his eyes in an effort to quell the pain.

“Talk to us, Abel,” Lucien demanded from close.

“Jesus, fuck, pain, fuck, bad” was all Abel could force out before it happened.

The pain vanished, and the instant it did, the clearing and beyond was lit with a blue flash that illuminated the space, straight to the heavens.

Everyone tensed and Abel’s head shot back as he watched sparks fly in the trees and heard things crashing through them.

“Prepare,” Lucien growled as Abel got to his feet, ready to jump to wolf.

But Hook was running into the trees.

“Careful, Hook!” Abel shouted.

“Fuck!” Hook shouted back. He bent, straightened, and turned to the clearing holding something up in his hand. “Camera! Fried now, but fuck!”

“Go, now,” Lucien ordered, turning and sprinting to his ATV, still calling out commands. “Gather the cameras. Cosmo, compound. You’ve been made.”

Everyone was running. Then everyone was on ATVs. A fuckuva lot faster, they got to the SUVs, hauled ass climbing in, and took off.

Cosmo was with them, in the backseat with Hook, and they were barely on their way before he stated the obvious: “They’ve a man inside.”

“No shit?” Abel bit out.

“Abel, on the line with Gregor. Have him lock that place down,” Callum ordered, and Abel dug his phone out.

“Tell him to get Yuri on the job,” Cosmo added.

“Yuri’s out on a mission,” Callum told him.

“Fuck, no one’s better at extracting information. But Stephanie’s no slouch.” Cosmo leaned forward as Abel connected to Gregor and demanded, “Tell him Stephanie’s up.”

“Since you’re phoning me, I can only assume that this is not going to be a cheerful conversation,” Gregor said as greeting.

“They had cameras at the meeting place. Lock the compound down. They’ve got an inside man,” Abel told him.

“It’s done,” Gregor stated.

“Place may be bugged,” Abel noted.

“Impossible. Random sweeps are done at least three times a day,” Gregor informed him.

“Then start Stephanie with the guy in charge of the sweeps,” Abel ordered and hung up.

Callum had turned from the dirt road to the narrow one when Hook asked, “Anyone know what the fuck that blue shit was?”

No one said a word.

But Abel knew.

He’d seen it before.

In a dream.

Delilah.

He had no clue how, he just knew however it was, it was her.

He didn’t share this with Hook. Instead, he looked to his left at Callum’s profile, keeping his gaze steady on the wolf until Callum glanced his way, looked back at the road, and dipped his chin sharply.

He got him.

“I’m gonna take that as that shit is need to know,” Hook said into the cab.

“Good call,” Callum told him.

They had silence until they reached the compound. Security was tightened, but they didn’t fuck around letting them in.

They drove the long drive, rounded the front, and exited the vehicles.

Callum peeled off at a call from Ryon, Calder and Caleb sticking with him. Lucien waited for Cosmo and they strolled up the steps to the front door slowly, heads bent, talking. Hook lagged behind, likely still freaking out. Wei and Xun drove on to put their bikes in the garages that were detached from the main house.

So unfortunately, it was Abel who went through the door first.

He saw her just inside and she looked sweet. Red Harley tank, tight, some rhinestones, the letters stretched out across her tits. Shorts, ragged hem and cut short as in short, affording a nice view of lots of leg. Hair wild, like it was when she just woke up.

And eyes flashing in a way-the-fuck-pissed-off kind of way.

That was all he took in before he had to duck, seeing as she threw something at him.

He didn’t know what it was. He just knew whatever it was was fragile since it exploded with a crash against the doorjamb behind him.

“Early morning training session?” Delilah shrieked, turned, and that was when he saw she had allies. He saw this because Sonia and Leah were lined up beside her, Leah handing her a vase.

A vase she threw.

“Jesus! What the fuck?” Hook shouted after he jumped out of the way and the vase flew out the door, smashing on the flagstone outside.

“You!” Delilah screeched, jabbing a finger her father’s way as Abel felt the rest of the crew flood through the door behind him. “You were in on this too?”

“Now, little girl—” her father started, hands up in a placating gesture.

But he should have known better. He had years where Abel only had weeks, and still, Abel knew there was no placating this Delilah.

“Don’t you fucking ‘little girl’ me, Dad. I cannot believe you!” she yelled, then moved her finger between the two of them. “Either of you!”

“And, might I add at this juncture, I cannot either, and that includes you, Mighty Vampire Lucien,” Leah drawled dangerously, her eyes slits and aimed at her husband.

“I would think of something clever to say, my king,” Sonia put in. “But I’m having difficulty not ripping someone’s throat out with”—she lost it and leaned forward, eyes narrowed and locked on her husband—“my teeth.”

“Perhaps we can move this out of the foyer,” Lucien suggested.

“Fuck that!” Delilah shouted, her gaze glued to Abel. Then she asked in a saccharine-sweet voice, “You know how I woke up, baby?”

“Bao bei—” he started but did it knowing it was futile.

And it was futile.

“With pain so fucking bad, so fucking hideous, I thought my insides were melting,” she hissed, and Abel flinched. “I couldn’t even crawl out of the bed, it was that fucking bad.”

“Lilah—” he began in a gentle voice, no longer feeling like shit but missing that feeling because the pain of guilt was a far sight worse.

“Excruciating,” she cut him off to hiss. “Paralyzing. And worse, I thought it was that bad, could only be that bad, because you were dead.”

Fuck.

“Baby,” he whispered, moving toward her, but she stepped back.

“And even worse,” she kept going, “was that I was powerless. Drained. I couldn’t even move to find someone to tell them they had to find you.”

She hit wall and Abel kept moving toward her.

“Don’t get near me,” she warned, a warning he didn’t heed.

She tried to fight him. But in half a second, she lost and Abel had her over his shoulder and behind closed doors in one of the living rooms.

He put her on her feet and she quickly stepped back. “That’s a ride I’m unwilling to take again for at least half a century, Abel Jin. You pick me up again only when I expressly allow that shit.”

“You need to calm down and listen to me,” he said quietly.

“Fuck calm, Abel. Did you miss the part about me being in so much pain I thought my insides were melting?” she asked sarcastically.

“Right, then don’t calm down. Just listen,” he kept at her and continued to do it quietly.

“So you’ve got something to say? Something that explains you lying to me and causing me that kind of pain when you know that shit happens when you leave me and I don’t know where you are?” she demanded.

“I thought if you thought you knew where I was, even if it wasn’t where I actually was, you wouldn’t experience the pain,” he explained.

“Wrong!” she yelled. “Very, very”—she leaned toward him—“wrong!”

“I get that now and it won’t happen again,” he promised.

She crossed her arms on her chest. “Yeah? You sure? You can say that for certain?”

“I can,” he confirmed.

“Right, you can. Now, next question. How the fuck am I supposed to believe you when you’re totally okay with”—another lean—“lying to me?”

Fuck, he’d screwed this up, and huge.

Now he had to see if he could find a way to fix it.

He started with conceding, “I deserved that.”

Her eyebrows shot up. “No fucking shit?”

He stared at her, deciding not to share that she was cute when she was pissed.

“No fucking shit,” he replied.

Her face changed and Abel braced because he didn’t like the change even a little bit.

Her voice changed too and he liked that even less.

“You can’t be sweet and you can’t be hot and you can’t be reassuring,” she stated, soft and low but firm and full of hurt. “Not after you lied. After you lie, Abel, it takes a fuckuva lot more than that to earn back what you lost.”

“I had to get out of here, bao bei. I had to do something and I wasn’t alone,” he told her.

“You knew I knew you were going stir-crazy,” she reminded him.

He nodded and replied, “I knew you knew. I also knew you wouldn’t be fired up about what we were planning and it was something we had to do, all of us.”

“I actually don’t even know what you were planning to do, but if it was taking you out of safety and into harm’s way, you’re right. I wouldn’t be fired up about it. But I wouldn’t hand you shit about it either.”

Suddenly, she threw an arm straight up in the air, apparently indicating herself by what she said next.

“Clue in, Abel, I am not your normal bitch. I grew up with bikers. Bikers do what they want when they want because they got something inside them that makes them have to do that. And nothing can stand in their way. Not a job. Not a law. Not a woman. So if you love them, you don’t stand in their way. Ever. I’ve also learned if you give them that, it’ll be worth it. It’ll come around with them giving you what you need because they get it.”

She shook her head, sucked a huge breath, and kept at him.

“But even with that, I’m of a mind that a woman should never stand in her man’s way when there’s something he has to do. Doing something to end what’s eating at him, crushing him, suffocating him, stopping him from being who he is, or whatever the fuck. So regardless if I didn’t like it, if I was a biker bitch or just a normal one, I still wouldn’t stand in your way.”

He stared at her, unblinking, her words coursing through him in a way that far from sucked.

“Uh, me bein’ this pissed, baby, is not the time for you to lapse into silent brooding,” she warned, slamming a hand on her hip.

“I have nothing to say,” he told her and watched the hurt slice through her face. “Except that I’m sorry.”

Her expression blanked as she blinked.

“Really, fucking, seriously sorry,” he went on. “If I thought that you’d feel that kind of pain, no way in fuck I would have gone without telling you where I was going. And this doesn’t help, but I felt shit just knowin’ I was gonna lie to you and that got worse when I did it. Doesn’t make it better, I get that, but you gotta know I didn’t do it easy and I didn’t like doin’ it. And I can tell you now, how I felt thinking of doin’ it, then doin’ it and what it caused, that shit won’t ever happen again. You have my word. You believe in that or not, it’s still solid, Lilah. As a rock.”

She studied him for a few beats before she looked to the fireplace, took a deep breath, and looked back at him.

“I thought you were dead,” she whispered.

Fuck, he wanted to go to her, but her body language was screaming for him to keep a distance, so he controlled that impulse.

“Wish I could take that back,” he whispered in return. “Wish like fuck I could turn back time and make it so that didn’t happen. I can’t. The only thing I can do is tell you I hate that you felt that, I hate it more that I did somethin’ to make you feel it, and repeat how fuckin’ sorry I am.”

She held his eyes before she again looked the fireplace. He watched her and he sensed her. She was pissed, there was fear, and last, there was hurt.

His jaw tightened.

Her throat convulsed and he put all his energy into fighting the urge to go to her and, instead, gave her time.

He won the fight not to go to her, but he had shit to share and he was forced to stop giving her time.

“You seem okay now,” he observed, and she gave him back her gaze.

“The pain went away,” she shared. The words were hard but at least they were relatively calm.

“When I was out of danger,” he surmised.

She stared at him in a new unhappy way at getting the knowledge he was in danger, then she shook her head.

But she said nothing.

“We had a meeting with one of Lucien’s men,” he informed her. “Callum and Lucien planned the whole thing. Gregor got his people involved, so we were actually safe the whole time. The goal was to draw them out or ascertain if they’re watching. They are. They had cameras at the meeting place, which is way the fuck in the middle of nowhere so no way they could know where we were to meet unless someone on the inside told them.”

“Fabulous,” she hissed. “More shit to worry about.”

She was right, but he couldn’t get into that just yet.

“You gotta know all that because you deserve me comin’ clean, but it’s more important you know something else,” he continued.

She took her hand from her hip to flick it out. “That would be…?”

“We didn’t know about the cameras until a flash of blue light fried ’em.”

She stared again, this time not angry, astonished.

“Say what?’ she asked.

“I got a pain in my head that was so bad it took me down to a knee. Then a flash of blue light lit up the place and fried the cameras. If that hadn’t happened, we wouldn’t have known they were there. We were being watched and probably listened to.”

“What the fuck?” she whispered, her brows inching together. “You were in pain?”

“Yep.” He nodded, not dwelling on that. “And, pussycat, I’ve seen that blue light before.”

“Where?” she asked.

“When you forced me out of your dream.”

Her mouth dropped open.

“Don’t know for certain,” he kept going. “But I figure that pain in my head was you locating me. What I do know for certain, that light was you. You got an ability, Lilah. A fuckin’ powerful one. Spans miles as long as it’s connected to me.”

“Holy shitoly,” she breathed, and he allowed himself to smile.

“Could do without feeling my head was gonna explode, but yeah, that shit rocked.”

“So, what you’re saying is, I’m not clingy. I’m so hyper-attuned to you, I can locate you in my subconscious from miles away, unknowingly sense you’re in danger, and actually do something about it?” she asked.

“That’s my take,” he answered.

Slowly, she grinned and whispered, “Right on.”

Abel relaxed.

Then he asked, “You gonna let me put my arms around you and show you how sorry I am that I pulled an asshole stunt, or you wanna throw more shit at me?”

“Don’t piss me off, Abel, or I’ll blast you with my blue light,” she shot back, and it wasn’t entirely a joke.

He smiled at her and said quietly, “Baby, wanna hold you.”

“Then do it,” she returned.

He moved instantly and took her in his arms.

She didn’t wrap hers around him. She lifted her hands and laid them on his chest. He sensed it was to keep distance but, being Delilah, doing it still gave him what he needed.

“Still pissed at you,” she told his throat.

“I’d still be pissed at me too,” he told the hair on the top of her head.

She took in a breath that was rough, exposing she was still feeling emotion and doing it deep.

“Hate a lot of what went down this morning. Figure Lucien and Callum are right now dealing with shit of their own making too,” he said, still speaking to her hair because she wasn’t giving him her face and he wasn’t going to force her to. “But we got shit happening within these walls so there’s shit to be done.”

“Right,” she mumbled. “Go.”

“Before I go, don’t need you to assure me we’re good,” he told her. “Just need you to tell me we’re inching that way.”

At that, she tipped her head back and caught his eyes.

“Abel.” She slid a hand up to curl it around the side of his neck. “You did something you had to do. You fucked up doing it. You apologized. A lot has gone down, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t still getting to know one another. Not to mention all this supernatural shit we don’t have a lock on. I know you didn’t have any clue your fuck-up would be that huge. It was. It’s over. You promised it won’t happen again.” She took in breath and finished, “What I’m saying is, let it go. I am. Which means we’re not inching toward good. We’re there.”

Simple as that. She blasts it out, says it like it is, he takes his licks, then she’s done. Over it. Moving on.

Jesus, he loved her.

She wasn’t a dream come true.

She was a fucking fantasy come to life.

“Abel?” she called, and when she did, he realized he’d been staring at her for longer than he thought.

“Can’t say how much it means to me, you bein’ this cool,” he told her quietly, and she grinned a feisty grin.

“You don’t have to. I know I’m totally awesome.”

She was.

His Delilah.

Totally awesome.

He grinned back.

Then he dipped his head and kissed his mate. He did it hard and as thorough as he could when shit needed to get done.

And when he was finished, he didn’t leave the room alone to get shit done.

He took her hand and pulled her with him so they both could see to it.

Together.

* * * * *

Yuri

“Told you,” Aurora stated after lifting her eyes to him. “Cuckoo.”

Yuri stood back from the women, arms crossed on his chest.

He did this because he was allowing Aurora to work. He also did this because it meant her mother, with the shockingly unworthy witch name of Barb, was at his front.

Not at his back.

To say his meeting with Aurora’s mother was thorny was a vast understatement.

Luckily, she was well aware of The Prophesies and trusted her daughter wasn’t an idiot.

She would know. She’d raised her.

And after spending the last several days with the both of them, Yuri now knew that neither of them were.

Barb Lenox was sharp, no-nonsense, blunt-speaking, affectionate with her daughter through actions, not words, and she utterly detested vampires.

Aurora Lenox was intelligent, humorous, talented, energetic, openhearted, quick to smile, and unconsciously appealing, which made her infuriatingly alluring. Thus, with all this being her, along with her body and beauty, she was damnably fuckable.

In other words, the last four days had been torture, and not simply because Barb eyed him like he was manure on her shoe at the same time she did things, like sharpen a wooden stake, something she knew didn’t work on him, but that was not her point, even if she was making one.

And also not simply because he was forced to procure bagged blood, which was hideous, but he couldn’t feed nor take the time to find a Feast where there were hundreds of mortals with The Dominion’s stamp of approval he could partake from.

It was because he wanted his errand to be done since the information he sought was important to the cause, and also because it would mean Aurora would be out of danger and he was free to turn his mind to other things.

Like how to get her in his bed.

But right then, after exhaustive efforts, which were exhausting because they needed to be clandestine and because no one had seen her in years, they’d found the witch who’d scarred Abel.

And when they did, Yuri found further proof that Aurora Lenox didn’t have a deceitful bone in her delicious body because she was right. The witch, known as Sula, was a recluse, a hoarder, existing in a vile, cramped, putrid pit so far removed from civilization she was unintentionally (or subconsciously) and very effectively hidden.

And she was completely mad in a way that was not natural.

“Brother brother brother brother brother,” Sula chanted, this being all she’d said since they’d arrived and Aurora started her gentle work.

Except her first communication, which was a shotgun blast. This meant Barb had to do her not-gentle work, magically disarming her and doing it cursing under her breath and sticking a finger in her ear and wiggling it, since the blast was loud.

Sula didn’t like visitors. She’d made that plain. And her panic at being confronted with witches was difficult to witness, even if Yuri gave not that first fuck about a witch who had, when she had a minute level of sanity, readily carved into a vampire.

She was tormented and had been for years. Demons in her head that had had enough time to eat away anything that was healthy left nothing but a walking, breathing, but only existing shell behind.

“Brother brother brother brother brother,” Sula chanted again.

“Shh, sweetheart,” Aurora cooed. “Shh. Feel my hand. Feel it, Sula. Look into my eyes. You’ve got dark in there, honey. Look into my eyes. It’s okay. You’re safe. I just want to show you light.”

“Devils,” Barb muttered as Aurora kept trying to coax Sula’s vacant stare to meet her gaze.

Yuri looked at Aurora’s mother. “Pardon?”

She kept her gaze steady on her daughter’s work but answered, “Knew of Sula. Never met her. Reckon you’re as old as Aurora says you are, you know witches. So you know, just like anyone, they can be born good, bad, or crazy. Even before all this, word was Sula was born crazy.”

He had no doubt about that. Strong magic was working behind the insanity of the wild-haired, wild-eyed, unwashed woman Aurora was crouched beside, but that took root and bloomed outrageously because the ground was fertile.

“Pretty thing,” Barb went on, talking like she was speaking to herself. “Never saw it. Heard it. Exceptionally pretty, they said. It was a waste, they said. That’s all gone now.”

Yuri looked to Sula.

She was right. It was all gone. But it had to have been there at one point for her to get close to Abel at a bar in order to drug him.

“But they’re devils,” Barb continued, and Yuri turned his gaze back to her only to see, to his surprise, she was looking over her shoulder at him. “You protect those who are vulnerable. You don’t use them. And you absolutely do not ever punish them when your plans go awry because you’ve manipulated a human instrument to do your bidding when they’re not equipped to handle it. They sent her to kill a hybrid vampire werewolf knowing full well he could have cottoned on and torn out her throat. Then, when she only half succeeded with their scheme, which was a miracle in itself, they took the mind she had left away.”

She looked back to Sula, as did Yuri.

“Devils,” she whispered, and he was again surprised by Barb. This time it was hearing the sorrow mingle with anger in her tone.

But hearing it, Yuri felt one side of his lips hitch up, knowing fortune favored him, guiding him to allies who might be uneasy (in Barb’s case) or tempting (in Aurora’s) but were true to the cause all the same.

“Brother brother brother brother brother,” Sula droned.

“Okay, bear with me,” Aurora urged, lifting a hand to Sula’s chin.

This made Barb tense and start to move to her daughter.

Which made Yuri shoot forward to hover over her back, making it there in a millisecond.

Aurora glanced up at him, smiled, then whispered, “It’s okay,” and turned back to Sula.

Yuri looked to Sula as well and then went completely still.

Because she was looking up at him, right in his eyes.

“Blue-brown, blue-brown, blue-brown,” she intoned.

“Dear goddess,” Barb breathed from his side.

“Blue-brown, blue-brown, blue-brown,” Sula kept at it.

“What?” Aurora asked Sula. “What does that mean?”

Sula looked to Aurora and regressed. “Brother brother brother brother brother.”

“Sula, honey, look back up to Yuri. He’s okay. He’s not going to hurt you. Look to him,” Aurora urged.

Surprisingly, Sula looked back to him and switched again. “Blue-brown, blue-brown.”

Aurora snapped her fingers low between them and a delicate rise of gold and silver glimmers drifted up before it rained down over Aurora and Sula.

“Give us more,” Aurora coaxed.

Sula’s chant changed but only slightly. “Brown-blue, brown-blue.”

“More, Aurora. Gently,” Barb advised, and Aurora snapped again. The glimmers rose and fell.

Still holding Yuri’s gaze, Sula went back to, “Brother brother brother brother brother.”

“You’re telling us something. We just don’t know what it is,” Aurora whispered.

“Blue-brown, blue-brown, blue-brown…brown-blue, brown-blue, brown-blue.”

“What does that mean?” Aurora asked.

When she did, with a suddenness that had Yuri tensing and fighting back baring his fangs, Sula snapped her mouth shut and focused acutely on Aurora as if she wasn’t mad but as sharp as a blade.

She then lifted her finger and touched the cheek under her right eye. “Blue.” She moved it to the cheek under her left eye. “Brown.”

Yuri watched, understanding hitting him, so he did it murmuring, “Bloody hell.”

Sula touched under her right eye again. “Brown.” To the left. “Blue.” She blinked, jerked her chin back, then chanted, “Brother brother brother brother brother.”

Bloody fucking hell.

Abel wasn’t looked after by his mother. Or his father.

But his brother.

“We have what we need,” Yuri told Aurora.

“We do?” Barb asked, and he looked to her.

“Abel, the hybrid, has one brown eye, one blue.”

“Sweet goddess,” Aurora whispered as she straightened, which brought her very close to Yuri’s side.

Without hesitation, Yuri took her hand and moved them away from the mad witch.

Barb watched this and Yuri knew what she saw.

He also didn’t give a fuck.

“Mom, can you give her some relief?” Aurora asked, her gaze pointed to Sula.

Barb tore her eyes off their still-clasped hands and nodded her head once, sharply. “Take the vampire to the car. I’ll be out in ten minutes.”

“Just ease, Mom, and peace,” Aurora pushed.

“I’ll take care of her, girl. Take the vamp to the car.”

“As you know, my name is Yuri,” he reminded Barb, something he was staggered he had not tired of doing considering he’d done it approximately five hundred times since they’d met.

“You’re all the same to me. Vamps,” Barb returned. “So I don’t really need to know your name, seeing as we get this done, we’re done with you.”

She was right, except the part where there was a “we.”

“Now, you got hold of her, take my daughter to the car,” she finished.

Yuri didn’t make her ask again. He pulled Aurora out of the house, enjoying the fresh air so much, he took as much of it in as he could get.

“It stunk in there,” Aurora mumbled.

“That, my sweet, is an understatement,” Yuri muttered in reply.

He felt her eyes and looked down to her as he stopped them beside the car.

“We should, you know, call one of those hoarder programs so they’ll come and sort her out. Mom will get her so she’s functioning, if still not all there, but that’s serious magic and even Mom doesn’t have the juice to undo it all. Still, they’ll probably see the state of this place, and her, and commit her or something.”

“You can likely do that a lot quicker if you didn’t call the producers of a television program and instead called someone who works for the state,” he noted, and she grinned.

“Yeah, that’s probably a better plan.”

Yuri’s gaze dropped to the pulse in her neck before he looked away as he released her hand.

“You know, Mom’s pissed,” she remarked.

“I sensed that,” Yuri replied.

“We heard Sula was messed up, but we had no idea it was that bad.”

Yuri said nothing.

“She’s not going to let that stand,” Aurora announced.

Yuri looked down at her but still didn’t speak.

“What are you going to do now?” she asked.

“Assist you and your mother and likely the bevy of witches you’ll need to accumulate to take on that coven in order to deal with the retribution your mother feels appropriate to unleash on her sisters who perpetrated that anguish on one of their own.”

Her eyes lit, and the instant he saw it, Yuri wanted that light when he was covering her, his cock still buried deep after he’d made her come and given it to himself and they were laying connected, a time when he’d allow her again to be charming.

“A vampire acting out of the kindness of his heart,” she teased.

“Hardly. That coven guards implements that are dangerous to immortals. I’ll be doing it in order to get those weapons out of the hands of witches who intend harm and into the hands of a witch I slightly trust. Namely your mother. And I’ll note an emphasis on slightly.”

“Mom wouldn’t hurt a fly,” Aurora assured.

“She would if that fly hurt you,” Yuri returned.

“Well, yes, there’s that,” she murmured, grinning at her shoes, which were ridiculous since they were high-heeled boots and the last thing anyone should wear in an uncertain situation.

They were, however, attractive.

“Or one of your kind,” he went on.

She looked up at him. “That too.”

He moved his gaze to the house.

“What are you gonna do after Mom and her posse exact retribution and you make sure the blessed implements are held by a witch you can slightly trust?” she asked.

He looked again to her. “I’ll be finding the brother of Abel Jin.”

She cocked her head to the side. “You know, I can help with that.”

“Then I’ll be finding the brother of Abel Jin with your help,” he amended, and she grinned at him again.

“All I need is a little bit of his blood,” she told him.

“That can be arranged,” he replied.

“It’ll be quicker and require a lot less paraphernalia, chanting, and fiddle if I could see him in person and touch him. I mean, it’s not like it’ll happen in a snap, but it won’t take as long.”

Yuri tensed. “That’ll not happen.”

Her brows knit together. “Why not?”

“He’s a member of The Three, Aurora, currently hunted and residing in a safe house, an extravagant one, but one that’s guarded by hundreds of vampires, wolves, and state-of-the-art security. Regardless of how safe it is, it doesn’t negate the fact that being around him is dangerous.”

Her lips parted.

“I’ll send for his blood,” he continued. “They’ll deliver it while we deal with that coven. Then you can help me find the brother.”

“You like me,” she whispered, and he focused more closely on her.

“You’re likeable.”

The light came back into her eyes before she shared, “I like you too, you know, though you’re altogether too smug and dry as a bone, but that last isn’t so bad when you’re being funny.”

“Your flowery compliments warm my heart, my sweet, in a way I’m sure never to forget.”

She laughed softly even as she said, “Like that. Dry as a bone but funny.”

“I do know what dry means, Aurora,” he informed her.

“You’re also cute,” she shared.

Fuck.

She called him cute.

He looked to the house not knowing whether to laugh or show her how not-cute he actually was.

“In a hot way,” she added.

It was at that boldness when it suddenly became clear she was not unconsciously appealing. She was extremely conscious of just how appealing she was.

She was also a consummate game player.

And a tease.

And both made him want her all the more.

“Perhaps we should cease talking,” he suggested to the house.

“Okeydoke,” she replied agreeably but did it not acquiescing to his suggestion. “Though, I’ll point out, when someone tells you you’re cute and hot, the done thing is to return the compliment.”

That was when he looked down at her, right in her eyes, and returned the compliment.

And he did it like the vampire he was.

“You know you’re beautiful. You can’t not know, you’re that beautiful. I want to taste you in a variety of ways. And I want very badly to fuck you, doing it slow and gentle to the point it drives you mad and you beg for more, which, of course, I’ll give to you, as much as you want. Then I’ll take from you, as much as I want. You know that too. You’re far from stupid, which is another reason why I want to fuck you. What you might not know is that it will happen. It’ll happen after taking down a coven and before finding Abel’s brother. So in the meantime, I’d appreciate if you’d stop playing your games. I’m all for a tease. But I also decide when the teasing ends. And I’m not sure you’re ready right now for how I’ll do that.”

“Uh, okay,” she breathed, staring up at him, and he was wrong even if he was right.

He wanted that light in her eyes while he was buried inside her after he’d made them both come.

But he wanted that light that was in her eyes right then while he was fucking her and she was begging him to make her come.

“I kinda want you to kiss me, like, right now,” she whispered.

“That would be foolish since I absolutely want to kiss you, like, right now, but I want it in a way that it won’t stop at kissing and I’m not keen on finding out what your mother will do if she walks out of that house and sees me fucking her daughter who I mounted on the hood of a car.”

“Okay, maybe kissing right now isn’t a great idea,” she replied, still whispering.

“Agreed.”

“Though, if you’d find the time, you know, sometime”—she made her eyes big—“soon, I’d appreciate it.”

“You’re being charming again,” he noted.

“I’m not sure how to stop that,” she returned.

“This is part of what makes you charming,” he murmured, again looking to the house.

“Yuri?” she called.

He sighed and turned his eyes back to her.

“I have a feeling I’m gonna be super glad you chased me into my house and started choking me,” she declared.

That was when it happened.

That was when Yuri stood outside a hoarder’s hovel, staring down at a beautiful witch in the middle of nowhere in Texas, threw back his head, and burst out laughing.

With fortunate but disastrous timing—because when he was almost done, instead of pulling Aurora in his arms and giving her the kiss they both wanted—Barb made her presence known by demanding, “What on earth in these circumstances could possibly be funny?”

Without hesitation, Yuri looked to her approaching and answered, “Your daughter.”

She shrugged a shoulder and muttered, “Right, I get that.” She stopped three feet away and declared, “I’m driving.”

“Barb, we had this discussion on the way here. You aren’t driving. If I’m in a car, I drive. And further, it’s my car,” Yuri said.

“I’m still driving,” she retorted.

“You absolutely are not,” he returned.

“You got to drive here,” she pointed out.

“Indeed, as it’s my car,” he replied.

“This car kicks butt,” she stated, swinging a hand out to the Jaguar he’d rented upon arrival in Dallas. “I wanna drive.”

Yuri looked to Aurora.

When he did, he saw that Aurora was having trouble not laughing. But even fighting her humor, she caught his hint.

“Mom, Yuri’s driving. It’s his car.”

“Aurora—” Barb began.

“But,” she said quickly, interrupting her mother, “maybe he’ll let you drive out to get us some Kentucky Fried Chicken when we get home.”

Suddenly, for the first time in nearly seven hundred years, he wanted someone to kill him.

“Kentucky Fried Chicken?” he asked, and Aurora turned bullshit, guileless, big blue eyes up to him.

“I’ve got a craving.”

Looking at her, he understood craving.

Also looking at her, he understood he was not only eating fast-food fried chicken that evening, he was letting her mother use his car to go and get it.

“Fuck,” he muttered.

“You have a vampire wrapped around your little pixie-dusted finger, is what you have,” Barb muttered over him, then shouted, “Shotgun!”

Yuri looked to the sky.

“No way! You get to drive to KFC!” Aurora shouted back.

Perhaps he was demented, having run across a witch he did not detect had spelled him insane, which meant he’d found an adorable, petite, but lushly beautiful witch attractive enough to put up with her annoying mother and her own frustrating, but effective, games.

“Battle it out amongst yourselves, but when the car is in gear, it’s moving. So whoever isn’t in it gets to spend the night with Sula,” Yuri declared as he moved around the hood of the car.

He was about to open his door when he heard one shut and looked across the roof.

Barb was gone, presumably in the front seat.

He presumed this because Aurora was standing at the door to the back, her eyes on him.

“You have a beautiful laugh,” she called softly.

What he had was the hope she liked getting a spanking.

Because she’d earned one.

And she was going to get one.

He didn’t share that.

Instead, he said, “Thank you, my sweet.”

She sent him a soft smile, then folded in the back of his car.

He folded in the front and reluctantly headed them toward what would eventually be a dinner of Kentucky Fried Chicken.