“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.