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“Always. And there’s more where that came from.”
“No doubt.” She kissed his cheek, then hurried out of the restaurant. He couldn’t help feeling dismayed that he couldn’t have spent more time with her. As soon as she was gone, he took his seat again, waiting for the bill. He realized then he hadn’t tried to compel her to do something. Man, whenever he was around her, he could barely think straight. He reached out to Levka.“Have you seen any sign of Gareth?”
“He was in the restaurant with you. As soon as Ruric saw Gareth coming out of the restaurant, he went to speak to him, but your new girlfriend followed Gareth out. So Ruric did a quick turnaround. Are you certain she’s not a vampiress?”
“At this rate, there are too many coincidences. I would say she could be. From all outward appearances, she’s human.”
“But?”
“She’s independently wealthy.”
Levka swore telepathically.
“I know.”
“She could still be a hunter, or a vampire assassin and she’s probably here to kill him. Unless we want to save Gareth’s hide, we need to not have any contact with him and not see any more of her.”
“Unless she’s just one of us and clueless.”
“How likely is that?”Levka asked.
“Unlikelier by the second. Unless I can change her mind, if she is after him.”
“Do you even want to? He gives our kind a bad name.”Levka sounded serious.
“We give our kind a bad name—at least as far as the league thinks. Listen, we’ve all heard the rumors, but do we know if they’re really the truth where Gareth is concerned? No. I vote in favor of giving him the benefit of the doubt. What do you think they’re saying about us?”Stasio would not give up on his cousin, like his brothers had.
“That we’re as much trouble as Gareth.”
“Right.”Stasio finished eating his meal.
“How do you want to handle this?”Levka totally surprised Stasio by asking him the question.
Usually Levka came up with the plan and everyone agreed with him. Or made alternative suggestions, and then he decided what they would do. Stasio supposed it was because Gareth was his cousin, and Stasio had already spent some time with Jasmine.
“Her name is Jasmine, and I’m going to track her down,”Stasio said.
“Be careful. If she is an assassin and she learns all of us are also on the league’s terminal list, we’ll all be in trouble.”Levka paused.“We’ll help you with this. If any of us see her, we’ll inform you and you can let us know how you want to handle it. In the meantime, we’re trying to reach Gareth.”
“Thanks, Levka.”
“Don’t make us regret it.”
“I’ll try not to.”Stasio couldn’t say for sure, because if he contacted Gareth, and she knew he was related to him, she could very well plan to take him down also. Especially, if she’d learned he was in just as much trouble. That was, if she was a vampire, or a huntress and here to eliminate his cousin.
Stasio paid the bill, then hurried out of the restaurant, and practically ran into Jasmine, thinking she was in hot pursuit of Gareth. He really hadn’t expected her to be right there. “Sorry,” he said to her.
“It looks like you have some urgent business to take care of also,” she said.
“If you won’t sightsee with me, I’ll be stuck going with my friends.”
“Stuck. Seems an odd way to describe doing things with them.”
He smiled. “I guess stuck isn’t quite the word I had in mind, but if I can’t take a beautiful woman out to see the countryside instead, being stuck with my friends sounds like it fits the scenario.”
Jasmine smiled at him. “Youare a charmer.”
“Thank you.”
