“I believe, my sweet, I vowed to keep you safe,” Yuri drawled, and she jerked her head around and back to look up at him.
“And, by extension, my sisters,” she declared.
“It doesn’t work like that, Aurora,” he explained.
She turned fully to him. “Well, vow you’ll keep them safe.”
His tone didn’t change when he replied, “I will not.”
“Yuri!” she cried. “You’ve vowed to keep me safe. I don’t know why you can’t do the same for them.”
He bent slightly toward her. “I like you.”
He left it there. Then again, him leaving it there said it all.
Abel’s lips were again twitching.
She leaned into him and hissed, “I can’t believe you!”
“All right, all right,” Gregor broke in, and Abel looked to him to see his gaze on the other witches. “I’ll vow to keep you safe. Does that work?”
“Works for me,” Barb said instantly. “Now, when’s breakfast? I’m starved.”
“Barb!” Flo exclaimed.
Barb turned gentle eyes to her sister and said softly, “Video.”
All the witches suddenly started looking at anything that wasn’t breathing and shuffled their feet.
They’d seen the videos.
This surprised Abel. He cut his eyes to Aurora, who was still glaring up at Yuri, then to Yuri, who was looking at Abel.
“Barb saw it before I could stop her. Aurora has not seen it, nor will she,” he declared.
“Keep that oath, brother,” Abel muttered.
Yuri dipped his chin.
Abel looked to the other witches. “Stay. You’d be fools to go out there. These assholes we’re dealin’ with are cold as ice. Don’t know you and still know you’re a lot better people than they are, seein’ as it would be hard not to be. So it’d suck you not bein’ on this earth.” His looked to Gregor. “That’s it. I said my bit. Now, if you’ll let me know when that potion’s done, I’d appreciate it.”
On that, seeing as he didn’t have time for that shit considering the fact he had to prepare to find out where his brother was, he walked out.
* * * * *
Abel was training as wolf with Callum, Ryon, Calder, and Caleb when he saw Xun heading their way.
He communicated this to his brothers, turned, jogged to his clothes, and jumped to man.
He had his jeans on, the others around him having turned into man and also dressing, when Xun made it to them.
“Patricio took a day-trip this morning,” Xun said as an opener. “Gregor put a human on him. He drove about a hundred miles out, had his meet, they took his head.”
“Jesus Christ,” Abel snarled.
“Guess they’re not taking any chances,” Calder muttered.
“That’s it?” Callum asked.
“The guy we sent after him couldn’t get close enough to hear what they were saying. He just reported the conversation didn’t last long before things got bloody. Figure they weren’t real big on the rest of those concubines gettin’ rescued last night and decided cleanup crews were necessary.”
All the missions had been successful the night before and a further twelve had been rescued utilizing local intel on turncoat vampires.
That still left hundreds in the hands of the enemy, though they’d had no more videos or any other communication, such as threats or ransom demands.
“’Nother bit of news,” Xun went on. “That Gastineau phantom has been in touch.”
“And he said…?” Abel asked.
“Said he’s on it,” Xun answered.
“Nothing more?” Callum pressed.
“Nope, just that he’s on it,” Xun told him.
Abel looked to Callum. “You got any clue what that means?”
“My read, the phantoms don’t like their queen held captive, but they aren’t asking for allies to assist in rescuing her,” Callum replied.
“They got what it takes to be successful on their own?” Abel asked.
“Phantoms and wraiths are like brothers and sisters,” Callum said. “You watch them, you’d think they hated each other. But you are not one of their own and say one word against them, they’ll rip your head off. So I would assume he’s very determined to be successful. Whether his determination will bear fruit…” He shrugged.
Abel broke it down. “So now we got no inside men, a bunch of concubines who are in mortal danger, a rogue phantom determined to rescue his mate and the outcome of that is iffy, a gaggle of witches in the compound who don’t want to be here because they hate vampires, and they got magic. And last, we got fuck all knowledge of what our enemies are planning next, but the last shit they pulled was fucked way the hell up. Did I get it all?”
Callum grinned a grin that was more a grimace and confirmed, “You got it all.”
“So we’re again sitting on our hands,” Abel concluded.
“Unfortunately, yes,” Callum replied.
Abel made a nonverbal snarl.
Callum looked to Calder. “Perhaps you should go back to your network.”
Calder shook his head. “Told you, brother, this True identified, recruited, and closed ranks. There’s no getting in. And the only way out is to give up your head. The single shot we had was the wraiths and they had to give it up to save The Three. Other than that, no one has heard anything and it’d be impossible to infiltrate.”
“I need to get my hands on another one,” Abel declared, and all eyes came to him. “The ones who met Patricio, did our guy follow them?”