A petite, elderly Chinese lady and, with her, a very not elderly, not petite, very good-looking Chinese guy.
The woman came to a halt four feet in. The guy closed the door and moved in, looking around.
Then he muttered, “Jeez, what is it with Abel? This place looks like a safe house for terrorists.”
I couldn’t agree more.
“And would it kill him to put a door on the toilet?” he carried on.
“Chen, quiet,” the woman admonished.
He shut his mouth, stopped staring at the toilet area with amused disgust, and turned his gaze to me. His eyes dropped to the knife I held out in front of me. He grinned, settled in, and crossed his arms on his chest.
The woman took a step forward and I kept the knife where it was but moved it toward her an inch.
She stopped.
“I’m Jian-Li, niece, sister, mother to Abel,” she announced bizarrely, then motioned to the guy behind her. “And this is my son, Chen, nephew, then brother to Abel.”
Well wasn’t that just brilliant? I had hoped with the Chinese guy’s opening remarks that these two were sane and might help me escape.
But from her introductions, which made no sense, I was thinking not.
“And you are…?” she prompted.
“Wanting to leave,” I replied. “Like, right now.”
She tipped her head to the side and her lips curved up in a soft smile. “Abel came to us and shared you were distressed about this evening’s events. He’s asked me to come down and explain a few things to you, thinking perhaps you might find me a little less…imposing.”
She was right.
But seeing as she was crazy, she was also wrong.
“And since Ma can’t open the door, I’m here,” the son put in. I looked to him and he was still grinning. “Another thing I don’t get about our boy, why he has steel doors installed in every pit he occupies. It’s whacked.”
I blinked.
Every pit he occupies?
“Chen, your opinions are not needed at this juncture,” the woman noted.
“Ma, look at her.” He swung an arm out toward me. “She’s freaked.”
“I can see that, and if you’ll be quiet, I’ll do something about it,” she shot back.
He again settled in with his arms on his chest, mumbling, “This oughta be good.”
“Chen!” she snapped.
“Ma, no joke, what you’re about to say is gonna freak her more,” Chen retorted.
Excellent.
“Uh, if I could butt in here,” I butted in there, “your boy kidnapped me after committing five serious felonies, so I’m not sure I can get more freaked.”
I didn’t know if it was a felony to kill a wolf with your bare hands, but if I were a lawmaker, it would be.
After I said this, something changed in the woman’s face that made me brace, and considering I was already alert and ready for attack, this meant every muscle in my body strung tight.
“Qīn ài de,” she said quietly. “Perhaps you should sit down.”
“I don’t want to sit down,” I returned. “I want to leave.”
“That cannot happen and I think you know why,” she replied gently.
“All I know is,” I retorted, “I’m in a basement room that does look like a safe house for terrorists. I’m here not of my own accord. I’m covered in blood. And I watched one guy murder three men and two wolves not an hour ago. I should be at a police station. I shouldn’t be talking to two Chinese folks who seem nice, but who are somehow connected with that man, and that man scares the absolute pants off me.”
“Abel would never hurt you,” the woman stated.
“Maybe not,” I replied, “but he has no problem hurting other people…like a lot. Like until they’re dead.”
“Those other people were vampires,” she announced and I stared, feeling my mouth drop open. “And, of course, werewolves.”
Slowly I closed my mouth and whispered, still staring at her, “Brilliant. Awesome. Fucking fabulous. You’re crazier than he is.”
“I know it’s hard to believe, but she’s telling the truth,” Chen put in.
“Great, and you’re crazy too,” I muttered, turning my stare to him.
He grinned again, shook his head, and declared, “Abel will just have to transform in front of you.”
Transform?
“What?” I asked.
“He’s a werewolf too,” Chen told me.
I blinked.
“And a vampire,” Chen finished.
I said nothing.
They didn’t either, both watching me, assessing my reaction.
Eventually, I gave it to them.
“You’re both totally insane.”
“We’re not, we’re—” the woman started but stopped when it happened to me.
She didn’t miss it, but then again, it would’ve been impossible to miss. As the pain sliced through my innards, I sucked my cheeks in, lurched back, bent double, and dropped the knife so I could wrap my arms around my stomach in a futile effort to contain the pain.
“What is it?” Jian-Li asked the same time Chen asked, “Hey, you okay?”
My mouth filled with saliva and the pain twisted, taking me down to a knee.
Chen was close in a flash, kneeling next to me, hand to my back. “Hey, hey, hey,” he crooned. “What’s going on? Are you all right?”
My head jerked back. It did it; I didn’t make it.
And then my mouth moved.
“He’s in danger.”
Chen swore under his breath.