The good news about this was that we’d had no word other concubines had been harmed. The bad news was that there were still tons of them whose whereabouts were unknown.
So now, at the compound, we were back to business as usual.
Xun let me go and I rolled to my back to see him extending a hand to me.
I took it as he said, “Don’t ever let your guard down.”
He pulled me to my feet and I grinned at him. “I still took Wei out.”
“You did.” Wei got close. “You’re learning fast.”
I turned my grin to him.
“Aside from the part where you were flat on your face with your arm twisted around your back, that was awesome,” Leah decreed, hitting our huddle with her hand up in high five position.
I didn’t leave her hanging.
“Incoming,” Wei muttered.
I looked to him to see his eyes aimed over his shoulder, so I looked in that direction and saw Moose lumbering toward us in an ungainly jog, something which put me on edge for two reasons. First, because Moose didn’t jog so his news had to be big. And second, because Moose didn’t jog and I didn’t want him to have a heart attack.
“Yo!” he called through a wheeze when he got close. “Poncho’s back.”
Thank God. It was good news.
I clapped my hands and shouted, “Yay!”
Moose halted when he got to us, took in a deep breath, and shared, “Got the bruja.”
“Say what?” Xun asked.
“He brought his aunt. The bruja. A witch,” Moose explained.
“Cool,” I whispered. Abel had told me what Poncho was up to, including all the “tests” he had to go through to win her trust to the cause.
He’d obviously won it.
I hoped.
“Another witch,” Wei sighed.
“Is she with us?” I asked Moose. “You know, on our side?”
“Don’t reckon he’d bring her ass here if she wasn’t.”
That was a good point.
“Chen went off to get your man. Poncho wants you both at the house,” Moose went on.
“Right, I’m off,” I said.
“Coming with. Not gonna miss this shit,” Xun stated, moving with me.
Moose moved with me too.
“You could continue to kick my ass, but I think I’d rather meet a bruja.” I heard Leah say to Wei, and Wei must have agreed because I felt them joining us.
We hit the steps to the front the house, and as we did, we saw Abel, Callum, Sonia, Chen, and the rest in the not-too-distant distance so I stopped to wait for them.
“You figure we’re in for more hilariousness, another witch in the mix who has no problem givin’ lip to a vamp at any occasion?” Xun called when Abel and his crew got close.
This had been our last couple of days. Aurora’s witch sisters were ornery and clearly felt it was their mission to make every vampire pay for their rocky history by being surly, demanding, grouchy, and insulting at every turn.
The vampires, on the other hand, had a lot of making up to do, so they pretty much had to take it. They didn’t like it. They showed they didn’t like it. But they still had to take it.
It was pretty funny, though obviously, the vampires didn’t think so.
Neither did Aurora, who was often forced to play peacemaker because it was definitely clear she liked vampires.
Or at least one of them.
“Don’t give a shit what she gives to a vampire as long as she’s willing to throw her magic on our side,” Abel answered his brother, doing it coming straight to me, grabbing my hand, and tugging me up the stairs.
He was in a bad mood. Then again, he’d been in a bad mood since the videos came out.
I got this. I got it not only because I got it, but because Abel might be a badass werewolf vampire, but he was one who communicated so he’d told me this.
He wanted us safe. He wanted us free to live our lives. He didn’t want anyone else harmed.
And he wanted that yesterday.
The problem was that it was imperative The Three were kept safe. Which meant action men such as Abel, as well as Callum and Lucien, had their hands tied.
None of them liked that.
Lucien had been in a worse mood than Abel, so much so, he kinda scared me.
I got this too. His woman suffered a loss, but he was a vampire who’d had a great number of concubines in his life. They were important to him. They remained important to him. And knowing their kind was targeted did not sit real great with him.
Currently, Leah’s entire family was in a safe house somewhere, guarded by Leah’s sister’s vampire, Rafe, Lucien’s daughter, Isobel, and Orlando, another vampire friend of Lucien’s.
In other words, according to Abel, Lucien had pulled out all the stops, seeing as these vampires weren’t ones you would trifle with.
We entered the house just as a human woman was walking through the foyer.
“Find the other witches and bring them to us,” Callum ordered her.
She nodded and scurried off.
“What’s that about?” I asked Abel as Moose led the way to wherever Poncho and his aunt were and the rest of us followed.
“Those women are eatin’ macadamia nuts and drinkin’ wine and doin’ whatever shit they’re doin’ to find my brother…unsuccessfully,” Abel answered. “But finding my brother is not a priority. Stopping this shit is. They got magic. We gotta know what that means and they gotta use it to help us. Including Poncho’s aunt.”
Moose turned into living room eleven and we all followed. I saw Dad was there, as was Lucien and, of course, Poncho. There was also an elderly Hispanic woman with lots of wiry gray hair she’d pulled back into a bun at the base of her neck.