“This could be,” Gregor allowed.
“Great,” Delilah muttered.
“And they came after me, which means they know of The Prophesies,” Abel kept at him.
“Oh, they know about The Prophesies. The witches have seers among them, even now. We may have kept The Prophesies secret, but as witches have that power, they’ve known about them for centuries,” Gregor confirmed. “But we have yet to discover if they knew who you were.”
“Why did vampires kill off all the witches?” Leah asked, and Gregor looked to her.
“There was a bit of a power struggle.”
“I’ll say,” she muttered.
“It was a different time,” Gregor murmured his lame explanation.
“It was fucked up,” Lucien put in.
“You will remember when I shared with you our history with witches that I did not support The Dominion’s decision,” Gregor reminded him.
“You didn’t,” Lucien returned. “But you enforced it.”
“It was my duty,” Gregor shot back, beginning to sound impatient. “And I’m sure I don’t need to remind you that when Callum’s father…and I, I’ll add…finally talked members of The Dominion into seeing sense, those vampires who’d championed that unfortunate situation were dealt with harshly.”
“After hundreds of years of persecution and thousands of witches extinguished, executions that were quick and for the most part painless was hardly a proper punishment, as the lasting chasm between vampires and witches will attest,” Lucien retorted.
Whoa, the supernaturals certainly had a dark and checkered past.
I gave big eyes to Leah, who gave them back to me.
“Enough,” Callum cut in. “It’s been done for hundreds of years. There’s no undoing it.” He looked to Abel and changed the subject. “Who saved you? Any clue?”
“I was passed out, man, so I have no idea.”
The door opened while he was answering and Yuri walked in, eyes to his father, his face strange.
“A word,” he called.
“Yuri,” Gregor began, “we finally have The Three assembled and—”
“A word, Father.” His eyes shifted to Abel, something Abel didn’t like much, then they went back to his father. “It’s urgent.”
Gregor sighed, threw his napkin on the table, and pushed away, murmuring, “One moment.”
He took off.
Abel let Delilah’s hand go and reached to a platter of bacon, hoping like fuck that wasn’t about Chen or Jabber taking a turn for the worse.
As if reading his mind, Leah asked, “How are Chen and Jabber this morning?”
“We don’t know,” Delilah answered. “We came up late last night and got the knock on the door this morning. I hardly had enough time to hop in the shower and not to scare you by coming down here without doing my hair.” Leah grinned and Delilah continued, “We’ll go see after we’re done here.”
She took the platter of bacon from Abel and was picking her strips when the door opened and Gregor called, “Lucien, a word.”
“Fucking hell,” Lucien groused, shifting his seat back and stalking to the door.
“Never boring when you’re saving the world,” Leah noted, her eyes to where her husband disappeared.
Delilah laughed softly, as did Sonia.
Abel shared a look with Callum, who looked about as happy as he was with their interruption, then Abel reached to the eggs.
He’d handed them off to Delilah when the door opened again.
“Abel, will you join us out here, please?” Gregor called.
Abel looked from his plate to the door. “Is this a big deal?”
“We believe it is,” Gregor answered.
“A big deal in a way that everyone in this room can’t know what the fuck you’re all talkin’ about in the hall?” Abel asked.
“This was my question,” Callum put in.
“It’s private,” Gregor explained.
“To who?” Abel asked.
“To you,” Gregor answered.
Abel’s chin jerked back. “What?”
“Please join us in the hall,” Gregor said as Yuri moved into the room from behind Gregor, who was standing in the door, Lucien following him.
“We need to have a chat elsewhere,” Lucien said carefully.
What the fuck?
“A chat?” Abel asked.
“What’s going on, Lucien?” Callum demanded to know.
“Yuri, Gregor, and I need to speak with Abel. It may take some time. Eat your breakfast. We’ll return as quickly as we can,” Lucien replied.
“Not hip on secrets,” Abel declared.
“You may be…hip on this,” Gregor replied.
He felt and smelled Delilah’s anxiety and his patience slipped. “What the fuck is goin’ on?”
“Oh for fuck’s sake,” Yuri clipped. “You’re drinking bagged blood.”
Abel’s brows snapped together. “Yeah, so?”
“The kitchen told us you requested they place a large supply you brought with you from Serpentine Bay in their refrigerators,” Yuri told him something else he knew.
“Yeah…” Abel said slowly. “So?”
“And you requested they heat it…in a microwave,” he said with disgust, “for your meals.”
“Man, you’re tellin’ me shit I know. What’s the big fuckin’ deal?”
“Why aren’t you feeding from your mate?” Gregor asked cautiously.