“Not his orders,” Xun answered. “Stay safe. Report back. We all know it’s not safe gettin’ near these guys. He did his job, finished it breathing, and is on his way back.”
Dead end.
Abel kept at it.
“During the rescues, were any vampires detained?”
Callum shook his head. “To my knowledge, so far, the need for termination was utilized.”
“Then we need to tell the teams who locate the next concubines to bring a vampire in breathing,” Abel returned.
“Even if we found one, they’re chipped,” Ryon pointed out. “They’d know that he, or she, has been to the compound.”
“Then I go to them,” Abel returned.
“Brother,” Xun said quietly.
Abel looked to him. “Saved twenty-seven women with what I got outta Miko.”
“You did, within the safety of the compound,” Callum noted.
“Yeah,” Abel shot back. “Now we don’t got that choice. So we locate one, or twelve or a hundred of those motherfuckers, and go to them.”
Callum held his eyes.
Then he turned to Ryon. “We’re tracking the three men who Miko was entertaining, yes?”
“Yes,” Ryon confirmed.
Callum turned back to Abel. “Lucien’s in constant contact with Cosmo. We’ll watch those three men. They might lead us to someone. We’ll notify all those on the hunt for concubines to attempt to bring the vampire captors in alive. And we’ll ask Lucien to tell Cosmo to put together a team to aggressively hunt The True, find a vulnerable one, or several of them, then we go in.”
“Puts Cosmo out there, man,” Xun pointed out.
“He’s already out there as he’s already trying to sniff them out. But we’ll send Stephanie to him. Teffie will have his back,” Callum replied. “And Cosmo will be setting up a team. Won’t be difficult to find vampires willing to undertake a dangerous mission. We just have to approach ones who had their concubines taken.”
“Brother, those vampires will be hostile and unstable,” Ryon warned.
“They’ll also be determined,” Callum returned.
“The vampires don’t want escalation,” Ryon told him. “They want to end this as quietly as possible.”
“Rape and murder were videotaped and posted to share with the masses, Ryon,” Callum noted. “I think quiet is becoming an impossibility.”
Ryon studied his cousin a moment before jerking up his chin.
“Let’s get on this,” Abel growled, bending to snatch up his thermal.
“Right,” Callum agreed.
They finished dressing. They went back to the compound. They did their thing.
Then, fuck them all, they had nothing else to do but wait.
* * * * *
“You got any more of these macadamia nuts, Yuri?” Ruby asked, lounging in an armchair by a window in the library, one leg thrown over an arm, popping macadamia nuts into her mouth after plucking them from a huge-ass silver bowl that lay on her round stomach.
Abel, sitting on a couch next to Delilah and opposite Aurora, who was staring at her bowl on the table between them, her eyebrows pulled together, looked to the witch.
Yuri, standing behind Aurora, looked to his witch.
Aurora twisted her neck and looked up at her vampire.
Then she aimed her eyes back at the bowl on the table and said, “Ruby, can you please be cool? We’re doing something important here.”
“What’s not cool about wanting more macadamia nuts?” Ruby asked. “It’s not like anything is happening.”
“I’d like to know that too,” Jabber said, wandering over to Ruby. “You mind?” he asked her.
“Got no problem sharing the wealth,” Ruby answered, lifting the bowl to Jabber. He took a massive handful, several of them dropping to the carpet.
At that, Abel’s eyes shifted through the room.
All the witches were there, as were Jian-Li, Xun, Wei, and Chen. Hook was there too.
Yuri was there because Abel reckoned he didn’t let Aurora too far out of his sight. And with them were Jabber, Moose, and Gregor.
His family being there, Abel could get. Aurora had told him the potion was ready and a reading was due any second. His family would want to be close to him when he found out where his brother was. And Hook was now family.
He had no fucking clue why the rest were there.
He turned his eyes to Delilah and she gave him big ones before she shrugged.
Not getting the answer he wanted, he decided to communicate verbally.
“You wanna help me out, pussycat?”
“They’re here for moral support,” she explained.
“You wanna help me out, pussycat?” he repeated and watched her fight her grin.
“Jesus! What’s takin’ so fuckin’ long?” Hook suddenly exploded.
“Hook, calm. It’ll happen when it happens,” Jian-Li said. “Patience.”
“It’s not like we’re waitin’ for cookies to bake, for Christ’s sake,” Hook fired back. “A man’s waiting to find his long-lost brother.” He pinned Aurora with his gaze. “Girl, I get this is probably a delicate procedure, but you said you were close and we been in this room for forty-five minutes.”
“I’m sorry, sir, I don’t understand,” Aurora replied, shaking her head. “It should be ready.” She looked back to the bowl with confusion. “It’s given every indication it’s ready.”
“It’s magic and magic is done when magic is done,” Barb put in from her spot next to her daughter on the couch.