He tipped his head to the screen and kept sharing.
“They want that. They want the gothic novel. They want to be used, abused, discarded. They want a vampire to treat them how they think vampires should act. Not just guys. Girls. And before you ask,” he said the last quickly because I’d opened my mouth to speak, “Etienne knows this and he’s recruited nearly all of them. The rest have gone to ground, understanding somewhere in their minds when their kind started disappearing that shit was going to get extreme. So they’re lost to us because the ones Etienne has are getting exactly what they want, something none of the good guys—Lucien, Stephanie, Cosmo, Gregor, Yuri, me—would give them.”
“Oh my God,” I whispered.
“Yeah,” he agreed. “Sucks.”
“Those guys will do anything for that Miko vampire,” I told him, which he probably already knew.
His eyes drifted back to the screen from which muffled moans were coming. “I got that.”
I didn’t look back to the screen. I looked out the window.
Well, one thing I could say, regardless that it took a nasty turn, the surveillance shift was not boring.
On that thought, the door opened and we heard Callum say, “Abel. Lilah. You’re needed. Immediately.”
I looked over Abel’s shoulder and Abel twisted in his chair to do the same, so we both saw Callum standing in the door, Calder coming into the room.
“Calder will take the rest of your shift. We need you,” Callum went on. “Now.”
“What the fuck?” Calder muttered, his eyes to the monitors as Abel got out of the chair, taking me with him and putting me to my feet.
“Yeah, brother, not pretty,” Abel muttered back as he grabbed my hand and started us toward the door.
Calder looked to Abel. “What you got is less pretty.”
“Shit,” Abel whispered as my body got tight.
We got through the door and Abel closed it behind us. But Callum wasn’t waiting. He was already walking down the hall.
“Cal, what’s goin’ on?” Abel called after him as he pulled me with him, walking with long, swift strides to catch up.
“The True have made a move,” Callum told the hall, then looked back to us, still moving. “And it’s not a good one.”
“What is it?” Abel snarled impatiently.
“It’s not something to be discussed in the hall,” Callum replied, again facing the hall.
“Cal—”
Callum looked back over his shoulder. “Hurry,” he clipped.
We hurried. He took us to living room six, and when we entered, he closed the door and I glanced around, taking in all who’d gathered.
Chen was there, as were Wei and Xun. Lucien was there, as was Sonia. Ryon was there. Gregor was there. Stephanie was there.
Leah was not.
My eyes flew to Lucien. “Where’s Leah?”
“She’s indisposed,” he grated harshly, and my heart stuttered. He looked to Callum. “And I must go to her. Let’s get this done.”
“Maybe Lilah shouldn’t be here,” Chen suggested quietly.
Oh no.
“Why?’ I asked.
Chen didn’t look at me, keeping his eyes to his brother. “Seriously, man, maybe Lilah should wait this out. You hear it, you decide.”
Abel looked down to me, opening his mouth to speak.
I shook my head. “No. No way. I can’t wait to know what’s going on.”
“It’s gone viral,” Wei stated, obviously losing patience, and Abel and I looked to him. “A video. All over the Internet. A site will take it down, another one will put it up. Chen was surfing, keeping his eyes on things, and found it.”
“A concubine being drained,” Stephanie spat, and I felt Abel’s hand tense so tightly around mine, I thought he’d crush it. But I didn’t do anything about it because I’d frozen solid. Stephanie kept going, “He raped her while he drained her. The ‘her’ being Myrna, Leah’s cousin.”
“Oh God, no,” I whispered, falling back in horror until Abel jerked my hand and clamped an arm around my shoulders, holding me tight to his side.
“Almost the moment Chen found it, calls started coming in,” Gregor said, and I looked to him. “Concubines are missing worldwide, including three other members of Leah’s family.”
“But, why them?” I asked, my voice pitched high. “They know about vampires. They like them.”
“Those who call themselves The True think concubines are parasites, and I’m sorry, Lilah, as evidenced in that video, they do not like concubines,” Gregor explained.
“Gregor has people working with the media,” Callum put in. “They’re trying to convince them this is a hoax in order to curtail mass hysteria.”
“I’m annoyed our hand has been forced for we obviously don’t wish to push the message that vampires don’t exist while we’re trying to decide how to share they do. But there’s little time to consider it and The Council have all agreed,” Gregor added.
“I really don’t give a fuck what people think,” Abel snarled, his eyes locked to Gregor. “What I wanna know is what you’re doin’ to get the concubines outta those vampires’ hands.”
“Everything we can,” Gregor replied in a calming voice.
“Well, do more,” Abel ground out and didn’t wait for a response. He turned to me and declared, “You’ve had enough video viewing for today.”
I nodded. I was not fired up to watch a woman murdered and raped at the same time, not ever, but absolutely not Leah’s cousin.