Visitors

Delilah

 

I crouched my body low to avoid a karate chop from Wei, dropped into a squat, swung out my leg, and caught him at the ankles.

He went down to his ass.

The first time I took him out.

I jumped up, throwing my arms up in the air, shouted, “Woo hoo!” and immediately was tackled in the back by Xun. I fell to my stomach with an “Oof!” and then was incapacitated with a knee between my shoulder blades and one arm twisted back, my wrist imprisoned in his fist.

It was two days after Aurora and her witch sisters had tried to help Abel locate his brother. Leah and I were out with the guys, learning self-defense (and then some).

Sonia was with the wolves since she was one and asked Callum if she could start to train with them so she had both human and wolf defense at her disposal.

Leah had sat everything out the last couple of days, but I’d talked her into starting up again because she needed to take her mind off things. She’d understandably been moping. Although two of her cousins had been rescued, one had been killed and another was still captive, still….she couldn’t mope forever. There was a world that needed to be saved.

The good news about this was that we’d had no word other concubines had been harmed. The bad news was that there were still tons of them whose whereabouts were unknown.

So now, at the compound, we were back to business as usual.

Xun let me go and I rolled to my back to see him extending a hand to me.

I took it as he said, “Don’t ever let your guard down.”

He pulled me to my feet and I grinned at him. “I still took Wei out.”

“You did.” Wei got close. “You’re learning fast.”

I turned my grin to him.

“Aside from the part where you were flat on your face with your arm twisted around your back, that was awesome,” Leah decreed, hitting our huddle with her hand up in high five position.

I didn’t leave her hanging.

“Incoming,” Wei muttered.

I looked to him to see his eyes aimed over his shoulder, so I looked in that direction and saw Moose lumbering toward us in an ungainly jog, something which put me on edge for two reasons. First, because Moose didn’t jog so his news had to be big. And second, because Moose didn’t jog and I didn’t want him to have a heart attack.

“Yo!” he called through a wheeze when he got close. “Poncho’s back.”

Thank God. It was good news.

I clapped my hands and shouted, “Yay!”

Moose halted when he got to us, took in a deep breath, and shared, “Got the bruja.”

“Say what?” Xun asked.

“He brought his aunt. The bruja. A witch,” Moose explained.

“Cool,” I whispered. Abel had told me what Poncho was up to, including all the “tests” he had to go through to win her trust to the cause.

He’d obviously won it.

I hoped.

“Another witch,” Wei sighed.

“Is she with us?” I asked Moose. “You know, on our side?”

“Don’t reckon he’d bring her ass here if she wasn’t.”

That was a good point.

“Chen went off to get your man. Poncho wants you both at the house,” Moose went on.

“Right, I’m off,” I said.

“Coming with. Not gonna miss this shit,” Xun stated, moving with me.

Moose moved with me too.

“You could continue to kick my ass, but I think I’d rather meet a bruja.” I heard Leah say to Wei, and Wei must have agreed because I felt them joining us.

We hit the steps to the front the house, and as we did, we saw Abel, Callum, Sonia, Chen, and the rest in the not-too-distant distance so I stopped to wait for them.

“You figure we’re in for more hilariousness, another witch in the mix who has no problem givin’ lip to a vamp at any occasion?” Xun called when Abel and his crew got close.

This had been our last couple of days. Aurora’s witch sisters were ornery and clearly felt it was their mission to make every vampire pay for their rocky history by being surly, demanding, grouchy, and insulting at every turn.

The vampires, on the other hand, had a lot of making up to do, so they pretty much had to take it. They didn’t like it. They showed they didn’t like it. But they still had to take it.

It was pretty funny, though obviously, the vampires didn’t think so.

Neither did Aurora, who was often forced to play peacemaker because it was definitely clear she liked vampires.

Or at least one of them.

“Don’t give a shit what she gives to a vampire as long as she’s willing to throw her magic on our side,” Abel answered his brother, doing it coming straight to me, grabbing my hand, and tugging me up the stairs.

He was in a bad mood. Then again, he’d been in a bad mood since the videos came out.

I got this. I got it not only because I got it, but because Abel might be a badass werewolf vampire, but he was one who communicated so he’d told me this.

He wanted us safe. He wanted us free to live our lives. He didn’t want anyone else harmed.

And he wanted that yesterday.

The problem was that it was imperative The Three were kept safe. Which meant action men such as Abel, as well as Callum and Lucien, had their hands tied.

None of them liked that.

Lucien had been in a worse mood than Abel, so much so, he kinda scared me.

I got this too. His woman suffered a loss, but he was a vampire who’d had a great number of concubines in his life. They were important to him. They remained important to him. And knowing their kind was targeted did not sit real great with him.

Currently, Leah’s entire family was in a safe house somewhere, guarded by Leah’s sister’s vampire, Rafe, Lucien’s daughter, Isobel, and Orlando, another vampire friend of Lucien’s.

In other words, according to Abel, Lucien had pulled out all the stops, seeing as these vampires weren’t ones you would trifle with.

We entered the house just as a human woman was walking through the foyer.

“Find the other witches and bring them to us,” Callum ordered her.

She nodded and scurried off.

“What’s that about?” I asked Abel as Moose led the way to wherever Poncho and his aunt were and the rest of us followed.

“Those women are eatin’ macadamia nuts and drinkin’ wine and doin’ whatever shit they’re doin’ to find my brother…unsuccessfully,” Abel answered. “But finding my brother is not a priority. Stopping this shit is. They got magic. We gotta know what that means and they gotta use it to help us. Including Poncho’s aunt.”

Moose turned into living room eleven and we all followed. I saw Dad was there, as was Lucien and, of course, Poncho. There was also an elderly Hispanic woman with lots of wiry gray hair she’d pulled back into a bun at the base of her neck.

And, I wanted to laugh, but she was wearing a female-type poncho.

I guess that ran in the family.

I didn’t laugh.

Instead, I smiled big at Poncho and called, “Hey! Welcome back!”

My body jerked when the woman shouted, “Basta!”

I looked to her but only got a quick look in because Abel yanked my hand so he could haul me behind his back.

This was likely because the old woman had her hand up, palm out toward me, eyes narrowed, fear etched into the wrinkles of her face, and she was now chanting in Spanish.

Poncho had his brows drawn and was moving to her, but as the others fanned around us, her head jerked from side to side as she took them in.

She stopped chanting and started shouting, “No! Basta! Basta! Déjame!”

Then she grasped the edge of her poncho, twisted it around her, whirled where she stood, and as she would have come back to facing us, she disappeared.

My mouth dropped open.

“What the fuck?” Abel clipped.

“Shee-it,” Poncho hissed, staring at the empty space where his aunt had just been.

“Uh, brother, you wanna clue us in to what just happened?” Dad asked, and Poncho looked to him.

“Sounded like she was chanting for protection,” Poncho told him.

“Against what?” Dad asked.

Poncho’s gaze came to me. “Against Lilah.”

“Me?” I asked, lifting a hand to my chest. “For goodness sake, why?”

He shook his head. “Don’t know. But when the other two came in, that’s when she lost it.”

“The other two?” Callum queried.

“Her,” Poncho pointed at Sonia. “And her,” he pointed at Leah. “Your bitches.”

“I don’t get it,” Sonia said quietly just as I felt activity at the door.

I turned that way to see Barb and Ruby walking in.

Barb stopped and lifted up both hands, her eyes getting big.

Ruby stopped and planted both hands on her hips, snapping, “Crap. Hoodoo. The place stinks of it. You got a bruja in here?”

“Who are you?” Poncho demanded to know.

“White witches,” Ruby shot back.

“Mi tía don’t practice no brujeria magia negra, woman. So, what gives?” Poncho returned.

“There’s great power in this room,” Barb stated.

“So?” Poncho asked.

“Does that mean she’s still here?” I asked at the same time.

“Our practice and the practice of magia blanca are quite different,” Barb answered Poncho.

“Again, so?” Poncho repeated.

“So, we have some professional differences,” Barb replied.

“Is she…still here?” Abel asked tersely.

“Yes,” Barb answered.

Abel turned to Poncho. “Talk to her, man. See what the fuck is up.”

Poncho nodded, then looked uncertain for a second before he cast his eyes upward and started talking in Spanish.

Watching him do that might have been funny, but I was weirded out.

I didn’t have a lot of time to process that before there was more activity at the door. I looked that direction and saw Ruby getting out of the way in order for a male vampire to stand in the doorway.

“Lucien, there’s someone at the gatehouse. Human. Hanger. He’s asking for you,” the vampire said, and the room got tense.

“A hanger is at the gatehouse and he knows I’m here?” Lucien asked, his voice scary.

“Yes. Says his name is Breed,” the vampire replied.

Lucien looked to Callum, then Abel, and finally Leah before he nodded and moved to the door, saying, “I’ll return.”

Lucien left just as Aurora and Yuri showed at the door. Aurora, probably sensing the bruja, halted before going through it, which meant Yuri almost bumped into her. Instead, at her quick stop, he wrapped an arm around her chest from behind in a protective way, narrowed his eyes, and scanned the room.

Totally cute together.

“Magia,” Aurora whispered.

“Yeah, they got a disapparated bruja clinging to the ceiling,” Ruby informed her.

Aurora grinned, her face lighting with excitement, and walked into the room, bringing Yuri with her, exclaiming, “Cool!” Then she waved at the ceiling and called, “Hey there!”

One side of Yuri’s mouth hitched up.

Totally cute.

“We’re standin’ around ’cause we got plenty of time to stand around, seein’ as fuck all is happening,” Abel shared with the room. “But we actually don’t have time to stand around, seeing as people’s lives are in danger.  Around about a few billion of them. So something has to give with that. Now, while we wait for Poncho’s auntie to reappear, maybe you all can tell us how you can use what you got to do something to help save the world,” he suggested, lifting a hand and pointing a finger toward Barb, but he turned it side to side to indicate Ruby and Aurora too.

“What do you want us to do?” Barb asked instantly, easy as that, and I blinked.

“Whatever you can do,” Abel shot back. “But seein’ as I don’t know what that is, maybe you can tell us so we can get you started.”

“It’d be helpful if we had more witches and the bruja would work with us,” Barb told him.

“Poncho’s currently workin’ on that,” Abel returned. “As for more witches, that’s up to you to recruit. But you still haven’t answered what you can do, with others or with what you got.”

“Well, we can cast protection spells,” Aurora shared. “And we can do location spells, as you know. Though, we need blood from the person you want to locate, and if not blood, then hair.”

“The first might help. The second, as we have no blood of our enemies, or anything else, no,” Callum said. “What else?”

Aurora lifted her hands up to her sides. “It really kinda depends on the situation.”

“The situation is saving the world,” Abel clipped, clearly losing patience.

I got close to him, grabbed his hand, and murmured, “Baby.”

“Auntie says she’ll come back if the women leave the room,” Poncho announced, and we all turned to him. “Not the witches.” He dipped his head my way and said, “You three.”

“Why?” I asked.

“She said you’re dangerous,” Poncho answered.

“What? How?” I pressed.

He looked to the ceiling, nodded, muttered, “Unh-hunh, unh-hunh,” then he looked to me. “Lilah, darlin’, auntie says you got lethal energy. Says that one”—he jerked his head to Leah—“is a human vampire and that shit’s not right, though she didn’t say ‘shit.’” He finished by indicating Sonia with another jerk of his head. “And she says that one is every animal all in one and that shit’s not right either.”

“Whoa,” Leah breathed.

“Sounds like you might not need witch help,” Ruby noted.

I ignored her and lifted my hand to wave it around, saying to Poncho, “We have abilities. We’re The Three. But we’re cool. We wouldn’t hurt her.”

Poncho looked to the ceiling, did some nodding, and returned to me. “Auntie says you three have enough power to take over the world.”

My voice rose. “What?”

“Whoa!” Leah exclaimed.

“Interesting,” Sonia whispered.

“I don’t sense that,” Ruby sniffed.

Poncho looked to her. “Auntie says you would, if you used the blood of the goat.”

Ruby curled her lip.

“Lilah, leave,” Abel ordered.

I turned my head to him. “Leave?”

He gave a short nod. “Leave. We need to talk to the witches and we can’t do that with you and the others here.”

“But—”

“Bao bei.” He leaned to me. “Take Leah and Sonia and go.”

I stared at him.

Then I muttered, “Oh, all right,” and let his hand go. “Sonia, Leah, let’s get outta here.”

We left the room and saw Jezza and Flo wandering down the hall toward it, taking their time, as if there wasn’t a world to save.

“In there,” Sonia told them.

They passed us and the door closed behind them.

“We have enough power to take over the world?”

That came from Leah.

“That’s what she said, but I don’t know what to do with that.”

That came from me.

“This is so frustrating,” Sonia snapped. “It’s like we have it all, we just don’t know what it is so we can use it.”

“Maybe we should stop karate chopping and I should test out my blue light,” I suggested. “You should work on talking to the animals,” I said to Sonia. “And you…” I turned to Leah. “Well, I don’t know about you. A vampire human?”

“I’m getting Lucien’s abilities,” Leah reminded me.

“Well, maybe you should try them out,” I replied. “Maybe there’s something there.”

“It’s a plan, a nebulous one, but it’s something,” Sonia said.

“Leah.”

We all turned to look down the hall and saw Lucien approaching.

He didn’t look happy.

“Darling,” she called, moving his way. “Is everything okay?”

“Breed was with the enemy,” he declared curtly, stopping close to her and putting a hand to her waist. “Are the men in there?”

“Uh…yes, but what did—?” she started but stopped when he bent in, touched his mouth to hers, and then walked straight to the door and through it, closing it behind him.

“You know, for three women who can take over the world, we don’t seem to get a lot of respect,” Leah grumbled.

“Then let’s earn it,” I replied and looked to Sonia. “Let’s go talk to bunnies.”

She grinned and hooked her arm through my elbow.

I hooked mine through Leah’s elbow.

And we went to go talk to bunnies.

* * * * *

I stood in living room two, thinking bad thoughts.

Thoughts of losing Abel.

Thoughts of him leaving me, whereabouts unknown.

Thoughts that made my stomach hollow, the emptiness edged in a dull pain.

Then I swung my arm out, finger pointing at the red Solo cup I put on the table there, and…

Nothing.

“Shit,” I muttered.

I tried something else, thinking of Abel with another woman.

When the pain became sharper, I lifted up both my hands and pushed them out toward the cup.

Nothing.

“Shit!” I fairly shouted.

“Little girl,” Dad started, “give it a rest. You been tryin’ that crap for an hour now and getting nothing. You’re doin’ your own head in.”

Frustrated, I glared at him.

“Yo, Lilah,” Moose called, lazing on a sofa with his head to the arm, hands linked behind his head, ankles crossed, and eyes closed. “When you take over the world, get me a mansion big enough I can ride my Harley in the front door,” he requested.

“Moose, I’m not taking over the world,” I told him.

“Shame,” he murmured. “Figure you’d do a better job runnin’ it than the assholes who got it now.”

That probably wasn’t a bad guess, considering the world was on the brink of disaster.

“If you’re takin’ orders,” Jabber, sitting in an armchair with an open bag of potato chips in his lap, an open bottle of Bud at his side, put in. “I want one of those sisters, the ones in that reality show about bein’ famous for bein’ famous. I don’t care which, but the tall one is far from hard on the eyes.”

“Jabber, I’m not taking over the world,” I snapped.

“Okay, say you get famous,” he kept at it. “You might meet her at a party. You could put in a good word for me.”

“Jabber, open your senses and read my mood,” I hissed.

“Girl, known you since you was three,” he replied. “I can read your mood. But if I learned I got it in me to take over the world, I wouldn’t be staring at a red Solo cup and gettin’ pissy. I’d be layin’ plans.”

“Well, I’m not you,” I pointed out.

“Pity,” he muttered.

I turned to Dad.

He shrugged.

“Perhaps, Lilah, this ability cannot be honed,” Jian-Li suggested, sipping tea in the chair opposite Jabber. “Perhaps it only comes naturally. Abel has said it’s powerful and it was so when you didn’t even know you were using it.” She tipped her head to the side and her voice went gentle. “There’s much to be frustrated about, qīn ài de, therefore there’s no purpose to making yourself more frustrated.”

She had a point.

I moved to a vacant armchair and slumped into it.

“All that starin’ and throwin’ your arm out and shit, it’s gotta take it out of a girl. You want me to get you a beer?” Jabber offered.

I’d learned from years of him being around that Jabber was annoying.

He was also sweet.

So I grinned at him and said, “No, Jabber, I’m good.”

He nodded and reached for his own beer.

The door behind me opened.

I twisted to look around my chair and saw Abel striding in with his brothers, those being the brothers Jin.

Instantly, I decided I was pissed at him, and I decided this because I hadn’t seen him since he’d asked us to leave the room when we were talking to Poncho’s auntie.

So I turned right back around, crossed my arms and legs, and started bouncing my foot.

I felt Abel stop at the side of my chair.

“Bao bei,” he greeted.

“Bao bei yourself,” I muttered irately, not looking at him.

“Lilah?” he called.

“What?” I answered, still not looking at him.

“Baby, what’s up?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” I answered and finally tipped my head back, my slitted eyes catching his. “I was asked to leave the room.”

“Lilah—” he started.

“Feel a domestic comin’ on,” Dad said over Abel, his voice sounding like he was on the move. “Recommend we vacate the premises.”

“I’m all over that,” Jabber said.

“I’m comfortable,” Moose grunted.

I looked his way to see Dad punch Moose lightly in the gut, to which Moose opened his eyes and knifed up a couple of inches, head and feet, scowling at Dad. But he did not get up.

“Bud, give my little girl and her man some space,” Dad ordered.

“No one has to leave,” I declared. “Since I’ve decided I’m not talking to Abel for the next three hours, there actually isn’t going to be a domestic.”

I felt Abel’s hand curl around the back of my neck even as I felt the room empty of people. Dad jerked his thumb toward the door at Moose, then grabbed his hand and yanked him out of the couch.

“Good luck to you, bubba,” Dad muttered to Abel on his way out.

I heard the door close, then I was out of the chair but back in it, sitting in Abel’s lap.

“Uh, dude,” I said low. “Think I made it clear how I felt about you hauling me around when I’m pissed.”

“How about when I’m pissed?” he asked, and it was then I felt his vibe and took in the look on his face.

My back went straight. “Why are you pissed?”

“I don’t know, maybe ’cause we had a powerful witch who finally came to us after Poncho jumped through hoops for her, but she wouldn’t talk unless you were gone and we need her to help us and the only way to get her to do that was actually speak with her. So the best thing my mate could do to help with that situation was move her ass out of the room, trust I’d tell her everything when I got to her, and not get shitty about it.”

He was being annoying because he was right.

“How would you feel if you had to leave the room when important shit is happening?” I asked instead of giving in.

“I wouldn’t like it. But if it had to be done, if anything in this situation has to be done, I’d do it.”

He was right again, thus, even more annoying.

“Just an FYI, but sometimes it feels like you big, powerful vampires and wolves don’t think we girls have anything to offer,” I shared.

“Bullshit,” he returned, and I blinked.

“Uh…say what?” I asked.

“That’s bullshit, because that’s not it,” he told me. “You’re frustrated. I get that. I am too. Nothing is happening with the potential of everything happening, it’s all bad, and we’re hangin’ around doin’ fuck all. It’s puttin’ you in a bad mood. I get that because I’m in a shitty mood too. I also get that I’m the safe one you got to lay your shit on when it gets too heavy.” His arms around me gave me a squeeze. “I’ll shoulder that burden but that offer doesn’t include me not holdin’ that mirror up to your face. You got no reason to be pissed, Lilah. You lashed out, now rein it in.”

And he was right again.

I looked to my knees.

“She’s gonna help,” he said, and my eyes went back to him. “Poncho’s aunt. Her name is Josefa.”

I wanted to hug him. He’d called me on it. He was right. He knew it and he knew I knew it.

But he didn’t push it. He didn’t rub my face in it. He didn’t drive it into the dirt. He said his bit and now we were moving on.

I didn’t hug him. I didn’t say anything about that.

I moved on with him.

I did this by relaxing into him and asking, “She is?”

“It took time for us to get her to agree, but she’s gonna try to get her some visions. Tell the future,” he said.

Sudden fear gripped my throat. “Oh God, that might not be good.”

He shook his head. “Future is elastic, according to her. She could say it like it is now, that doesn’t mean that’s the way it has to be.”

Well, thank God for that.

“How long are her visions going to take?” I asked.

“Don’t know. Apparently, magic isn’t exact,” Abel told me. “But first we got to get her some weird shit so she can perform a bunch of rituals and get in the zone.”

“What weird shit?”

He shook his head. “I stopped takin’ it in at ingredient three. Poncho’s got the list and Yuri’s assured us they’ll get everything we need.”

“Well, that’s good,” I noted.

“Yeah. More good, the other five are gonna keep on my brother, but they also think they may be able to locate Lucien’s father using Lucien’s blood, seein’ as they’re connected, father and son. They said it’s a long shot, it might work better with more witches, but since their coven was almost wiped out a few days ago, they’re not thinkin’ it’s a good bet they can recruit more and time is something we don’t have. But they’re gonna give it a shot with what they got.”

I felt my eyes get big. “That would be great!”

He grinned. “Yeah.” Then his grin died.

“What?” I asked.

“The good part of the rest I’ve gotta tell you is, we know it’s happening. The bad part is, it’s happening.”

My body got tight again, but I didn’t repeat my what.

“That hanger who came to see Lucien?” he started, and I nodded. “He was recruited by The True. He stayed with them while they were doin’ what they were doin’ with hangers. And when it was safe, he hauled ass to find Lucien to tell him what that is.”

“What is it?” I whispered.

“Buildin’ an army. Training. For battle to help with this Noble War, whenever that’s gonna start, and for other duties.”

“Like what other duties?”

“Like guarding the camps where they’re gonna intern humans.”

I felt bile glide up my throat.

“Uh…what?” I breathed, my voice sounding strangled.

“They got lots of plans,” Abel went on. “Obviously, they gotta leave some humans to do their thing. Need food to keep humans alive so they’ll need farmers, shit like that. And they’ll be able to take what they want when they want. The delectable morsels”—he said the last two words like they tasted funny—“that’s what they call them, they’re gonna breed and they want them available to feed. So they’re gonna build camps, corral those kinds of humans into them, and see to that shit. But there will be more.”

“This keeps getting worse and worse,” I muttered.

“Yep,” he agreed.

I let that go because I had to.

“How did this hanger know where to find Lucien?” I asked.

“Apparently, Lucien had showed him kindness. The guy hung around at places Lucien would go, did Lucien favors. Lucien didn’t accept these favors for free, gave the guy money which kept him clothed, fed. Lucien guesses that somehow, that built a bond. That’s a guess, though. He doesn’t exactly know how and he’s not exactly comfortable that the guy did know.”

“At least he did us a favor,” I said. “Kindness always pays off.”

“Yeah.”

“What now with that?” I asked.

“More good, this guy gave us the location of this training camp and told us there were others. Obviously, they’re covert, but they’re big operations, according to this Breed. Not easy to move, say, should one hanger go AWOL. We know where one is, not the others, but we now know to look for them. Gregor’s set some of his higher-up vampire soldiers on making a plan to take this base out. At the same time, they’re calling the president to access intelligence satellites to see if they can locate any other camps so they can hit them.”

“Wouldn’t the US government have a lock on any such activity, seeing as they do have spy satellites?”

“They can’t attack every compound that they reckon bad shit is happening in, and until today, we didn’t know they were up to this crap. Now that we know what that bad shit is, they can pay closer attention, get men on the ground to pay closer attention, and maybe weed out The True’s bases so that they can be targeted.”

Something unknit inside me as I said softly, “So we actually have a plan.”

Abel nodded, also looking a shade less stressed out. “Finally, we got somethin’ solid to go on and we’re able to do something.”

I took in a long breath and let it out, dropping my head to his shoulder. He cuddled me closer and laid his cheek against the top of my head.

I gave it some time to let the goodness of being tucked close to Abel penetrate completely before I said, “Sorry I was a bitch earlier.”

“Can’t guarantee you, this situation continues like it does much longer, that I’m not gonna be a dick. It’s gonna get to us. All of us. We just gotta be aware and not turn on each other.”

I snuggled closer. “Seems like two hundred years on the earth makes a guy pretty smart.”

There was a smile in his voice when he muttered, “Whatever.”

He barely got out the er in whatever before he was standing, me held in his arms so tight, I feared he’d break my bones.

“Abel, wh—?”

Suddenly, I was on my feet but pushed back.

Abel crouched in front of me like he did when he was going to leap to wolf.

“Abel! What’s going on?” I yelled.

He turned only his head to me. He was baring his teeth and I saw his fangs extended.

“Run!” he roared.

I started to turn to run even as he leaped to wolf, so beautiful, so big, so proud. I loved him as wolf, all his dark mixed with silvery fur, his intense brown eyes, his intelligent face.

But right then, I couldn’t do what I usually did when my man was wolf, which was to admire him and think he was awesome.

I couldn’t do this because he’d landed on all fours, but he immediately bent low over his two forepaws, snarling at what appeared to be nothing.

Until it was something.

Something that made me freeze.

Abel barked a canine bark at me, circled around until he was in front of me, and backed me up using his hindquarters.

But I was mesmerized by the sparks that were swirling in the space Abel as wolf had been snarling at.

Green, violet, and red ones, sparkling and streaming, like they were in a centrifuge, round and round, going fast.

So cool, so beautiful, it was mesmerizing.

Abel kept backing me up, barking constantly and very loudly, as the sparks kept going.

And on a turn, they disappeared, but in their place were two people.

One was a tall, very slender, unbelievably beautiful African American woman with a full, longish Afro of soft black curls, big, dark brown eyes, and incredible cheekbones. She was wearing a choker made of three lines of oblong bone, feathers hanging down at the bottom. She also had on a brown suede halter vest and seriously low-rider suede pants with fringe down the sides. Last, she had large, gold hoops in her ears—the insides of which had dangling spikes—as well as kickass leather bands wrapped around each wrist and rings on every finger, including some that fit snug between the top and middle knuckle and one that covered her whole finger, from the nail bed over the bottom of her last knuckle.

She was fabulous and her outfit was amazing.

I took her in and then I looked to the big man at her side.

And every inch of me turned solid.

Because it was Abel.

Boots. Jeans. Thermal. Tall. Dark hair. Lean but powerful body.

Top to toe.

Except he had no scar and his brown eye was where the blue one should be and vice versa.

“Holy shitoly,” I whispered.

His eyes went from Abel, as wolf, to me.

“You called?” he asked, lazily lifting his brows.

And he asked this just as the door burst open and the room filled with snarling, snapping wolves.