Page 27 of Call of the Blood

“Bring her to the club in three nights. I’ll be there with some of my favorite vampires. Show her a bit of vampire culture more appropriate for her age instead of…” Maria had given him a look. “Whatever you and Isaiah cooked up to take her to an estate full of ancients.”

“It was work,” he had replied.

“Certainly. Well, she’s not here to work. Bring her to the club.”

“I’m not certain⁠—”

“I hate to do this to you, but that’s an order from the Mistress of the Tribunal, not a friendly invitation from Maria,” she said over her shoulder. “Take everything you need. Report when you feel you have something.”

Then she was gone, and he was left to take everything back to the house. He’d planned to get more done, but then Everly got home, and she became a distraction again.

Not that she wasn’t always a distraction. He felt relieved she was home. He was frustrated with the reason, mostly Declan.

How do you sleep with someone and not realize they’re a werewolf? How do you hide that, especially with werewolves being out to humanity? Foolish boy.

Perhaps he was missing something, but it would have been very obvious to him. He could smell the soft trace of the wild scent on Everly when they collided, but he hadn’t had time to consider it in the moment. By the time he thought about it, she was already telling him about it.

It was nearing dawn when he got a call from Maria.

“What was this about a werewolf and Everly I heard tonight from Callahan. He barely elaborated, but it’s been less than seventy-two hours, Alexius!” She was sharp, and she had good reason to be.

“Her brother. His girlfriend. It’s…” Alexius tried to find the best way to explain that didn’t sound childish. “She’s here to see her brother. He was unknowingly dating a werewolf. It’s being handled. He clearly knows now. Once Everly was in the same room with her, things apparently got tense. The werewolf didn’t know the human had a vampire sister.”

“And the vampire sister didn’t know about the wolf,” Maria said, sighing. “That explains Callahan keeping it quick and not elaborating. His wolf is at fault.”

“She is,” Alexius agreed. “Not the worst thing to ever happen. From the sound of it, she’s young and in love and stupid.”

“Love makes everyone stupid; young has nothing to do with it,” Maria muttered. “Rest well. I’ll stay out of the werewolf situation. Callahan was probably just giving me a courtesy call.”

“Yes. He, Everly, myself, and the wolf’s father already decided on what the plan of action would be. Probably why he waited until you were about to go to rest. Though…”

“He also did that to make me fret all day.” Maria chuckled. “The little games we play.”

She hung up on him, and he tossed his phone on his bed, his eyes settling on the king-sized bed. Everly really thought she got the best room. She had, but it didn’t do much. Every room here was nice.

Nice enough to think about her there.

The intrusive thought ran through him, and he hissed at himself, deciding he would stay up again to continue working on his plan. The more work he did before starting his hunt, the faster his hunt would hopefully go. He went back to the projection. He’d marked out five places where he could go on surveillance and another three where he would have to scope out the area to find the best place. Street view on modern maps was useful because it gave him at least some idea of what was there, even if it was outdated. He used to have to scope everything out to get an idea of what the actual buildings were like in the area. He could cut some corners now.

An hour after dawn, he felt the pull to rest but was strong enough to ignore it for a while longer. All he had to do was get through midday, then the rest of the day was easy. He didn’t want to sleep. He had a lot of reasons for that but blamed it on the work and his need to know if their location was safe was easy, and he would use those going forward. He couldn’t get away with it at home, or he would. Everyone there would know he wasn’t rested, then he had to have conversations about it.

Anything that made him have more conversations was the last choice.

“Though… if I go out tonight, I should be rested,” he admitted to himself. “Unknown vampires, though none of them seem to be old to those who have seen them… I should also feed.” He looked at the bed. He could almost hear Rupert chastising him or worse, Everly yelling at him. “Fine. I shall take care of myself,” he said to them, though they would never hear it.

11

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Iwoke up less enthusiastic on the second day of my vacation. I was at least going to see my brother, but who knew how that would turn out. When I reached the kitchen, Alexius, having once again beaten me there, looked annoyed.

“I’m going to go with you to see your brother tonight. Just for a moment,” he said immediately, not even a good evening to start the day. “Before you ask why…” He put a glass in front of me. “I received word that Lucas and Lexi went to talk to him when the sun was still up, and they might still be there. He’s fine. Callahan wouldn’t let them go if he thought they would do anything stupid, and for their continued existence, they know not to do anything stupid.” Alexius sighed. “But Lucas is an older wolf.”

“So, you want to stop in and remind the older werewolf that there are bigger problems if he pushes the wrong way,” I said, finally cutting in after drinking nearly half of the blood. “Fair enough. We’ll just drive there at the same time since I’m certain both of us will need our own rides.”

“Exactly. It’s not just the werewolves, though…” Alexius swirled his glass. “I want to meet your brother. It’s time I met your brother and got an idea of him.”

“Okay!” That was somewhat surprising but a welcome surprise. “He’s heard a bit about you, my brooding, ancient boss, but nothing embarrassing. I wouldn’t do that to you. Plus, there are things my brother and I will never talk about.”