Abel nodded.
“Did you get anything from Patricio?” Lucien asked.
Abel shook his head. “Nothin’. Worse, tried to get him to press for info, but the minute he did, they shut him down. Patricio reported it was like we knew there was an attack coming, and with the other one out of the picture, they can’t know which one gave it up. But if Patricio pushes when that’s not his normal gig, they might turn to thinkin’ it’s him. We gotta be cool with that.”
“Annoying,” Lucien murmured, his eyes drifting to the windshield.
“Any word from Serena?” Abel asked, and Lucien gaze returned to him.
“Not that I know of.”
“Annoying,” Abel muttered.
Lucien’s lips turned up just as the SUV started to slow. Abel looked out the window and saw they were at a barrack at the far northwest part of the property. There was a lot of activity outside, and Abel had never been there to know for certain, but it seemed more than what would be normal late-morning activity at a vampire barrack.
They got out and Abel followed Lucien into the barrack.
Ryon met them inside the doors and said instantly, “This way.”
They moved behind Ryon down a hall to the end and into a room that was guarded outside by two wolves.
The door closed behind them.
In the room were Callum, Moose, and three young men who looked like they were in their midtwenties.
They were also fucked right the hell up. Eyes nearly swollen shut. Noses twice their size, one of the kids’ looked broken. Fat and split lips. Serious bruising. Cuts seeping blood. All of them holding their bodies gingerly like the visual damage was not all they’d sustained.
They were also warily surveying the vampires and wolves in the room and looking scared out of their minds.
They looked something else too. Something that creeped Abel right the fuck out. That being, when he and Lucien walked in and the men’s attention turned to them, they looked less scared and more hungry.
And not for food.
For whatever Abel would give them.
“Right, you’re here. I can get this out all in one go, then get back and get some shut-eye,” Moose proclaimed the moment the door shut behind them, and Abel tore his attention from the guys and turned it to Moose.
He motioned to the kids with a swing of his arm and Abel saw his knuckles were split and bloodied, but otherwise, he looked fine.
“Was at a bar coupla days back, doin’ my thing. Heard these fuckers talkin’,” he began. “They were hammered. The kind of drunk that makes you messy and they got all kinds of messy.”
“And how’s that?” Callum prompted when Moose quit talking.
Moose jabbed a finger at one of the kids. “That one was off on one, braggin’ about how good it felt to get fed from while takin’ it up the ass.”
Abel looked to the kid Moose indicated. Blond, slight, his was the nose that looked broken.
Moose kept going, “The other two, they didn’t like that shit, seein’ as they didn’t get their asses fucked, but they did get fed from and wanted the other with it. Now, I don’t give a shit what a body’s gotta do to get off. I just got tweaked when they were talkin’ about bein’ fed from. So I paid attention. They didn’t say much more, seein’ as they got into a bitch slappin’ fight. Middle of this, some big dude walks in and gives them a look. They all immediately go docile and follow him out.”
“Vampire?” Lucien asked.
“I didn’t know, but I guessed and followed them,” Moose replied. “Since vamps can sense things, didn’t get close enough to watch, not that I’d wanna see that shit. But between me kickin’ the snot outta them and bringin’ them here, they spilled the dude was vamp.”
“Shit, Moose,” Abel clipped. “You followed a vampire without backup?”
“Yeah,” Moose retorted curtly. “And it’s good I did, seein’ as he had three boy toys to take his concentration so he didn’t make me, even if I stayed distant, because now I know where the motherfucker is stayin’. It’s far enough to be off compound radar, but it’s still close. I been watchin’ and followin’ for days now so I also know that these assholes”—he swung an arm out to the men again—“are his human eyes and ears on the compound. Not only that, they pass some shit to some dude named Bjorn in the compound.”
“This is all very good information, Moose,” Callum stated. “But that doesn’t explain why they aren’t in very good condition and are here instead of simply you being here reporting this to us so we could utilize this intelligence and they could stay in play.”
“They made me,” Moose explained. “Tried to jump me.” He shrugged. “That didn’t work out too good for them.”
Abel looked back to the kids, thinking Moose was not wrong.
“Did you get the vampire’s name?” Callum asked.
“They called him Miko,” Moose answered.
“You have an address on where he’s staying?” Lucien asked.
“Already gave that to Stephanie. She’s been and gone, took off with it,” Moose told him.
Lucien stepped back, pulling his phone out of his pocket, and murmured, “I’ll give her a call.”
Callum turned to Abel. “We need them back in play.”
“Say what?” Moose asked, and Callum turned back to him.
“We’ll brief you later,” he said and again gave his attention to Abel. “Make up a story as to why they’re in the shape they’re in, erase all memory of Moose and their visit to the compound, and get them back in play. Once they’re set loose, they need to get the vampire away from where he’s staying so we can set up electronic surveillance.”