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Cadfael snorted. “Where you go, trouble follows. So why are you here, truly?”
Stasio and Arman waited for Levka to say, afraid he would tell them all the trouble they’d been in. Stasio glanced over to see Pierre was gone, but Jasmine was watching them, looking worried, as if she feared he would turn her over to the hunters for their disposition.
“We had some…difficulty in Dallas,” Levka said. “It was kept hush-hush, but some girls were in trouble and we stepped in to stop the bullies from terrorizing them.”
“Human,” Cadfael said.
“Yes. If I could, I would change the rules the league is governed by. If a human, vampire, or hunter needs our help to right a wrong, we’ll be there. If that makes us rogues, so be it,” Levka said.
“You know how well that went over last time. Where is our brother?” Cadfael asked.
“Gone,” Stasio said. “I told him to run. He wouldn’t leave when it was just Jasmine who was targeting him. But Pierre is another story. Gareth left. He is safe.”
Cadfael’s dark look lightened a bit. “Jasmine is your girlfriend?”
Stasio smiled a little. He wished he could have a girlfriend like her, if she wasn’t an assassin. Then he sobered. “No. I pretended to be an assassin to keep her from discovering the rest of us are considered rogues, even though we don’t see ourselves in that way.”
“You know pretending to be an assassin is against the rules also,” Cadfael said.
Stasio smiled again.
“Our brother is innocent of the charges the vampire league has on him here. What about in New York?” Llewellyn asked.
“We don’t know. We didn’t have a chance to talk with him before he had to run. Caitlin, Levka’s mate, and Ruric escorted him safely through the escape tunnels and he took a boat through the sea gate. That’s all we know. I wish we could have visited with him, but with Jasmine, and then Pierre, looking for his blood, and I was trying to keep track of Jasmine, all I could think of doing was feeding into her belief that I’m an assassin and convincing Gareth to leave.”
Llewellyn laughed. “The league here would love to hear of it.”
“We’ve been waiting for our brother’s return,” Cadfael said darkly.
“I’m sorry,” Levka said. “We don’t have any idea where he took off to.”
Stasio took it to mean Gareth’s brothers didn’t plan to kill him. “He has always hated the bad blood between the three of you. He has always wanted to tell you how much you mean to him.”
“We can’t let on that we would protect our brother whenever we have the chance,” Cadfael said.
“What are you going to do about your ‘girlfriend’?” Llewellyn asked. “It seems to me if she discovered you are a rogue and have lied to her, she will want to assassinate you with extreme prejudice.”
“I believe our time here is done,” Levka said with regret.
“After dinner? We can learn that Gareth is gone, and then she’ll most likely return to New York for another assignment,” Stasio said.
“We told her we already eliminated him.” Cadfael clutched the hilt of his sword.
“What about Pierre?” Levka asked.
“We’ll inform the league here that we have a vampire assassin from New York, trying to take down one of our Welsh vampires on our soil,” Cadfael said.
“But then you’ll have to out your own brother,” Levka said. “Even though you say you have killed him.”
Stasio suspected he wouldn’t.
“This afternoon, we took down Anarawd—a murdering vampire—near here. We haven’t had time to report the kill. He murdered four vampires and two hunters before we caught up to him. I told Pierre that Anarawd was using the alias of Gareth.”
“Good,” Levka said.
“You’re not going to mention Jasmine to the league, are you?” Stasio asked, concerned for her.
“No.” Cadfael said. “Are you sure she’s not your girlfriend?”
