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She offered a hand. “Truce?”
I watched her for a moment. This hadn’t been my fight. But we were going to need all the allies we could get. “Truce,” I said, and we shook on it.
***
Georgia asked around the resort, and no one had seen Marcus, John, or Zane in a few days. And no one had any idea where to find them. Apparently, the comings and goings of twenty-something shifters weren’t monitored.
With no trails to track the beasts and no more leads until we talked to Beyo, we gathered in the cabin. Lulu sat on the patio, using a white pencil to sketch the landscape on dark paper. I cleaned my sword while Theo worked remotely on his screen. Connor lay on the couch, eyes on the ceiling, frowning as he considered, evaluated, debated.
There was a knock at the back door, and we all looked warily at it. “I’ll get it,” Connor said, rising. “Elisa has a tendency to threaten people with her sword.”
“It’s not a tendency,” I said, sliding a piece of rice paper down the length of the blade. “It’s training.”
Alexei was preceded by the smell of meat and sauce, and he walked into the kitchen, holding a tower of pizza boxes. “I ordered dinner.”
“There are only five of us,” I said as Lulu came inside, apparently drawn by the scents. “How much pizza do you think we’re going to eat?”
Alexei placed the pizza on the island, began to spread out the boxes, and shrugged. “One of us is a vampire.”
“All right,” I said, holding up my hands. “We need to clear up this vampire eating thing.”
“The thing where you eat everything in sight?” Lulu asked, peeking beneath a lid.
“I literally do not do that. I’m very discerning.”
“Picky,”Lulu mouthed.
“So not constantly voracious,” I said. “I’m not going to eat an entire pizza, and I don’t think anyone else in here is, either.”
“Speak for yourself,” Theo and Connor said simultaneously, then looked at each other, nodded fraternally.
“This is not a war you will win,” Lulu said, putting an arm around me. “So let’s just eat and be merry and wait for someone to tell us where the bad guys are.”
“Aw,” I said, leaning into her. “You’ve been paying attention.”
“As minimally as possible. Where’s the pepperoni?” She flipped up a lid. “Bingo,” she said, and grabbed a slice, began eating from the point.
“I also have beverages,” Alexei said, pulling a bottle of honey-colored liquid from his jacket.
“I wouldn’t say no to some mind erasing,” I said. Unfortunately, it wasn’t in the cards. Alcohol didn’t work the same way for vampires as it did for humans; I could relax, enjoy a pleasant buzz. But that was usually the end of it.
“What is it?” Connor asked, and Alexei passed over the bottle. “Hell’s Glen Fifteen,” he said, then looked approvingly at Alexei. “Good choice.”
Theo whistled. “That’s quality.”
Connor nodded, looked at me. “This will be good for your training.”
“Training?” Lulu asked suspiciously.
“The wolf thinks I need to learn to appreciate good Scotch.”
Lulu snorted, chewed pizza. “Good luck with that. She drinks chocolate wine.”
Connor scowled, bit into his own slice of supreme. “So I’ve heard. It’s a disgrace.”
“Hey, we found something to agree on!” she said cheerily, and gave him a high five.
“You’re both hilarious,” I said, but was secretly pleased they weren’t sniping at each other, even if at my expense. Since I didn’t really care what I drank, it was a low-drag bargain.
