After delivering this, he pushed his chair back and walked out.
“Well, that didn’t go real great,” I muttered.
Abel growled again.
I started to look up at him but instead turned my gaze to Poncho when he spoke.
“Got an auntie who’s a bruja.”
“What?” I asked.
“Witch,” he said. “She can see. She can protect.” He looked to Abel. “Gotta have your permission, man, but wanna give her a call. Share. See if she can do anything for us. See if she can call up some visions.”
After a moment’s hesitation, Abel said, “Give me some time to consider that.”
“Don’t take too much,” Poncho advised, then turned soft eyes to me, got up, and left the room.
I watched him do it, then turned to Abel.
“What now?”
“You mean after I successfully fight the urge to rip this room apart and then mind-control every one of those fucks into lettin’ us do what we need to do?”
Oh man.
I leaned in to him. “Don’t do that, honey.”
His jaw got hard and he gritted through his teeth, “I won’t.”
“I think we need to give this some thought. Give it a day or two for everyone to think about it,” I shared.
“Yeah,” he replied.
“We’re loved. That’s not a bad thing,” I pointed out, and his eyes focused more fully on me.
“It isn’t. It never is. Until that love turns to sacrifice. I’ve had a lot of humans sacrificing for me all my life, bao bei. The ultimate sacrifice…” He shook his head. “Fate saw it fit to grant me a long life, and that’s a long time to live knowin’ people who have a place in my heart gave it all up for you and me.”
I understood him. It hurt what he was saying, the crushing significance of it, but I understood.
I also understood the men.
Impasse.
I lifted a hand and curled it around his neck, using my thumb to stroke the ridges of his throat. “A day or two, Abel, we’ll all think on it.”
I felt him swallow.
Then he said, “Yeah.”
* * * * *
Jian-Li
“Thank you for telling me that, Hook.”
Jian-Li was standing in her office with Lilah’s father. She was talking quietly. Hooker had also spoken quietly, since she’d shared with him over tea in her living room the night before (he’d had two more beers) all about Abel’s abilities.
They didn’t want him to hear.
“You’re his ma, felt you should know. But it’s more. We don’t need to be facin’ Armageddon inside the fold when we don’t know what we’re facin’ outside it. Cohesion. This is what we need. You gotta work on your boy, woman,” Hook advised.
He was correct.
But she had to do something else first.
She nodded.
Hook lifted his chin, gave her a small, worried smile, and walked out of her office.
Jian-Li watched him go, then moved out as well, up the stairs to her apartment. She got her purse and keys.
Then she walked downstairs, out the back door, and directly to her car.
She got in, started it up, and drove to The Biltmore.
Chapter Nine
The Real Thing
Lucien
The vampire Lucien watched the petite, attractive, Chinese woman walk into Gregor’s suite at The Biltmore.
She smelled of ylang-ylang, five spice, ginger, love, and fear.
“Mrs. Jin, we’re delighted you’ve joined us,” Gregor greeted, keeping a nonthreatening distance as he did so and her eyes darted about the room, taking them all in.
“Please, come in,” Gregor invited, continuing to stay removed even as he swept an arm to indicate the living room of the suite. “Shall I order some tea to be brought up before I do the introductions?”
She tore her eyes from Callum, who was sitting on the arm of the couch next to his wife, Sonia, and looked up to Gregor.
“Please.”
Her voice was strong and Lucien was impressed. It entirely masked her fear.
She still reeked of it.
“See to that,” Gregor muttered to one of his lackeys, the only one in the room. A human—well-built, undoubtedly skilled, but still only human.
The man left and Mrs. Jin stopped well short of the seating area.
Gregor came to stand several feet from her side. “Allow me to introduce myself first. Although I did so at your restaurant, I did not do it fully. I’m Gregor. I’m a member of The Vampire Council, the working party which carries out the wishes of The Vampire Dominion.”
She was looking up to him, and when he finished, she nodded.
“Now, may I present my son in a more formal way than how you received at your restaurant,” Gregor continued. “This is Yuri.” He swept an arm to Yuri, who was standing by the window.
“Mrs. Jin,” Yuri murmured, then said in a way that made Gregor look sharply at him, which was to say in a way that was far from genuine, “Delighted to see you again.”
The woman took Yuri in astutely but made no reply. She simply inclined her head.
She read his tone.
Lucien looked to Callum and saw Callum’s eyes to him, his jaw hard, indicating they had the same thoughts.
Yuri was a pain in the ass.
Lucien returned his attention to Gregor when he again spoke.
“And also with us are Lucien.” Gregor tipped his head Lucien’s way, then gave her the information she needed in hopes of inciting trust. “Lucien is the mightiest of our vampires. By his side is Leah, his human bride.”
She reacted to that, her body gave a small jolt, her eyes darting between Lucien and Leah. Lucien saw a note of sadness pass through her gaze, the origin of which he couldn’t guess, before she dipped her chin to them.