She should be pissed at him for causing a problem she’d never seen coming. She’d expected him to somehow mess up their hunt for the stone, get in the way, try to keep it for himself, or attempt an escape.
The possibility the demons might somehow link the two of them together had never occurred to her. But then, she hadn’t expected to end up in jail either. All she could do was hope that one vamp was the only one who saw Asher and most likely her picture too.
Asher didn’t tell Nathan the other reason he wasn’t going to leave was because of Brie. It would only irritate Brie, but it was the truth.
Not only that, but he was beginning to question if the strong pull he felt toward her wasn’t something more than just an intense, physical attraction. He’d seen too many vampire and hunter mates come together over the years not to question the force of his attraction to her.
It didn’t seem like Brie was questioning it. Maybe she’d never been around mated vampires before, or, if she had, it had been so rare she hadn’t started to speculate whether it might be happening between them.
But then, she was so closed off she might have started to suspect what they were to each other and refused to acknowledge it. Or a worse possibility was she wasn’t experiencing the same level of attraction to him as he was to her.
He found that unlikely given what passed between them earlier, but it could be a crushing possibility.
“Is there something we can do to help you?” Nathan asked.
Asher shifted his attention back to the conversation with his friend. “No, not yet.”
“You sure you’re okay?”
“I’m not with Savages, and I’m not being held against my will. I’m fine, and hopefully, I’ll be back soon.”
“Good, because we need you.”
They did, but the stones might make it so the Alliance wasn’t at such a disadvantage against the demons and Savages. When the compound was raided, they lost a lot of fighters as well as their homes and security. The demons and Savages had left them scattered as they tried to find a cure for the injected.
“How’s Logan?” Asher asked.
“The same.”
Which meant he was barely hanging on to the last threads of his sanity and on the verge of losing it. Because of that, he often stayed with Elena and rarely left the hallway where she was housed.
Sometimes they had to bring him blood and remind him to feed. He’d become a shell of his former self but was still fighting for Elena and their relationship. While that continued, Asher had hope for his friend.
“We’ll find something to save her,” he muttered as he ran his hand through his hair and tugged at the ends of it.
Brie had been trying not to look at Asher; it was a lot easier not to lose herself to him when she couldn’t see him, but the anguish in his words drew her attention. As he tugged at his hair and stared forlornly at the ground, her heart ached for him.
He must be talking about the woman who’d been injected with the demon blood.Elena,Brie recalled.Her name is Elena.
“Do you think you might be on to something that could help her?” Nathan asked.
“I’m not sure. I don’t know that much, but thisisimportant.”
“We’re here if you need us.”
“I know. Tell Logan I’ll be back soon and not to give up hope.”
“I will,” Nathan said. “Take care of yourself.”
“You too.”
Asher hung up and slid the phone back to Brie. She stared at it before lifting it and slipping it into her pocket.
“They’re concerned about you,” she said.
“Of course; they’re my family.”
Brie glanced at Cabo, who was staring at them and then at Zina, whose profile she could see from her position. It had been centuries since she had any blood relatives to worry about her, but those two were family. She didn’t know what she would do without them.
