Wild and Free by Kristen Ashley
“Or one of your kind,” he went on.
She looked up at him. “That too.”
He moved his gaze to the house.
“What are you gonna do after Mom and her posse exact retribution and you make sure the blessed implements are held by a witch you can slightly trust?” she asked.
He looked again to her. “I’ll be finding the brother of Abel Jin.”
She cocked her head to the side. “You know, I can help with that.”
“Then I’ll be finding the brother of Abel Jin with your help,” he amended, and she grinned at him again.
“All I need is a little bit of his blood,” she told him.
“That can be arranged,” he replied.
“It’ll be quicker and require a lot less paraphernalia, chanting, and fiddle if I could see him in person and touch him. I mean, it’s not like it’ll happen in a snap, but it won’t take as long.”
Yuri tensed. “That’ll not happen.”
Her brows knit together. “Why not?”
“He’s a member of The Three, Aurora, currently hunted and residing in a safe house, an extravagant one, but one that’s guarded by hundreds of vampires, wolves, and state-of-the-art security. Regardless of how safe it is, it doesn’t negate the fact that being around him is dangerous.”
Her lips parted.
“I’ll send for his blood,” he continued. “They’ll deliver it while we deal with that coven. Then you can help me find the brother.”
“You like me,” she whispered, and he focused more closely on her.
“You’re likeable.”
The light came back into her eyes before she shared, “I like you too, you know, though you’re altogether too smug and dry as a bone, but that last isn’t so bad when you’re being funny.”
“Your flowery compliments warm my heart, my sweet, in a way I’m sure never to forget.”
She laughed softly even as she said, “Like that. Dry as a bone but funny.”
“I do know what dry means, Aurora,” he informed her.
“You’re also cute,” she shared.
Fuck.
She called him cute.
He looked to the house not knowing whether to laugh or show her how not-cute he actually was.
“In a hot way,” she added.
It was at that boldness when it suddenly became clear she was not unconsciously appealing. She was extremely conscious of just how appealing she was.
She was also a consummate game player.
And a tease.
And both made him want her all the more.
“Perhaps we should cease talking,” he suggested to the house.
“Okeydoke,” she replied agreeably but did it not acquiescing to his suggestion. “Though, I’ll point out, when someone tells you you’re cute and hot, the done thing is to return the compliment.”
That was when he looked down at her, right in her eyes, and returned the compliment.
And he did it like the vampire he was.
“You know you’re beautiful. You can’t not know, you’re that beautiful. I want to taste you in a variety of ways. And I want very badly to fuck you, doing it slow and gentle to the point it drives you mad and you beg for more, which, of course, I’ll give to you, as much as you want. Then I’ll take from you, as much as I want. You know that too. You’re far from stupid, which is another reason why I want to fuck you. What you might not know is that it will happen. It’ll happen after taking down a coven and before finding Abel’s brother. So in the meantime, I’d appreciate if you’d stop playing your games. I’m all for a tease. But I also decide when the teasing ends. And I’m not sure you’re ready right now for how I’ll do that.”
“Uh, okay,” she breathed, staring up at him, and he was wrong even if he was right.
He wanted that light in her eyes while he was buried inside her after he’d made them both come.
But he wanted that light that was in her eyes right then while he was fucking her and she was begging him to make her come.
“I kinda want you to kiss me, like, right now,” she whispered.
“That would be foolish since I absolutely want to kiss you, like, right now, but I want it in a way that it won’t stop at kissing and I’m not keen on finding out what your mother will do if she walks out of that house and sees me fucking her daughter who I mounted on the hood of a car.”
“Okay, maybe kissing right now isn’t a great idea,” she replied, still whispering.
“Agreed.”
“Though, if you’d find the time, you know, sometime”—she made her eyes big—“soon, I’d appreciate it.”
“You’re being charming again,” he noted.
“I’m not sure how to stop that,” she returned.
“This is part of what makes you charming,” he murmured, again looking to the house.
“Yuri?” she called.
He sighed and turned his eyes back to her.
“I have a feeling I’m gonna be super glad you chased me into my house and started choking me,” she declared.
That was when it happened.
That was when Yuri stood outside a hoarder’s hovel, staring down at a beautiful witch in the middle of nowhere in Texas, threw back his head, and burst out laughing.
With fortunate but disastrous timing—because when he was almost done, instead of pulling Aurora in his arms and giving her the kiss they both wanted—Barb made her presence known by demanding, “What on earth in these circumstances could possibly be funny?”
Without hesitation, Yuri looked to her approaching and answered, “Your daughter.”
She shrugged a shoulder and muttered, “Right, I get that.” She stopped three feet away and declared, “I’m driving.”
“Barb, we had this discussion on the way here. You aren’t driving. If I’m in a car, I drive. And further, it’s my car,” Yuri said.
“I’m still driving,” she retorted.
“You absolutely are not,” he returned.
“You got to drive here,” she pointed out.
“Indeed, as it’s my car,” he replied.
“This car kicks butt,” she stated, swinging a hand out to the Jaguar he’d rented upon arrival in Dallas. “I wanna drive.”
Yuri looked to Aurora.
When he did, he saw that Aurora was having trouble not laughing. But even fighting her humor, she caught his hint.
“Mom, Yuri’s driving. It’s his car.”
“Aurora—” Barb began.
“But,” she said quickly, interrupting her mother, “maybe he’ll let you drive out to get us some Kentucky Fried Chicken when we get home.”
Suddenly, for the first time in nearly seven hundred years, he wanted someone to kill him.
“Kentucky Fried Chicken?” he asked, and Aurora turned bullshit, guileless, big blue eyes up to him.
“I’ve got a craving.”
Looking at her, he understood craving.
Also looking at her, he understood he was not only eating fast-food fried chicken that evening, he was letting her mother use his car to go and get it.
“Fuck,” he muttered.
“You have a vampire wrapped around your little pixie-dusted finger, is what you have,” Barb muttered over him, then shouted, “Shotgun!”
Yuri looked to the sky.
“No way! You get to drive to KFC!” Aurora shouted back.
Perhaps he was demented, having run across a witch he did not detect had spelled him insane, which meant he’d found an adorable, petite, but lushly beautiful witch attractive enough to put up with her annoying mother and her own frustrating, but effective, games.
“Battle it out amongst yourselves, but when the car is in gear, it’s moving. So whoever isn’t in it gets to spend the night with Sula,” Yuri declared as he moved around the hood of the car.
He was about to open his door when he heard one shut and looked across the roof.
Barb was gone, presumably in the front seat.
He presume
“You have a beautiful laugh,” she called softly.
What he had was the hope she liked getting a spanking.
Because she’d earned one.
And she was going to get one.
He didn’t share that.
Instead, he said, “Thank you, my sweet.”
She sent him a soft smile, then folded in the back of his car.
He folded in the front and reluctantly headed them toward what would eventually be a dinner of Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Chapter Eighteen
I Got Skills
Delilah
“Everyone in the compound has been quarantined,” Gregor stated as all the members of The Three sat around the table in the conservatory, listening to him. “Stephanie has begun her interrogations with the human staff.” He turned his eyes to Lucien, then to Callum. “Rooms have been set up for the both of you, Ryon, Cosmo, Calder, and Caleb, so you all, as well, can start working to find the traitor, or traitors, as the case may be.”
“Uh,” I cut in hesitantly, having zero experience with interrogation tactics but still thinking they had a sure thing and should use him. “Wouldn’t it go a lot faster if Abel just mind-controlled everyone to spill their secrets until he found the bad guys, or gals, as, erm, the case may be?”
Gregor blinked at me.
“I mean,” I cautiously went on, “he could get them to ’fess up, then he could get them to keep doing their dastardly deeds, except we’d control what they’re doing and saying.”
“Seems a good plan to me,” Abel muttered.
I looked to him to see him grinning at the table, but I felt his hand come out and curl around mine.
“I apologize,” Gregor said, and I turned my eyes to him. “I’m unused to having someone with Abel’s extraordinary skills available for such tasks. You’re correct, Lilah, that would likely make things go a great deal faster, not to mention put us in an advantageous position.”
I smiled at Gregor and gave Abel’s hand a squeeze.
He squeezed mine back even as he looked to the vampire. “How about I get started now?”
“Capital idea,” Gregor murmured, his lips twitching as he pushed back his seat.
Everyone was on the move then, including Abel and me. But when I got to my feet, I tugged his hand.
When his gaze caught mine, I said, “I wanna watch your awesomeness in action.”
He gave me a grin that lit his eyes, the grin beginning to turn the blue one brown. “You got it, pussycat.”
That was when I gave him a smile.
* * * * *
“You’re done,” Abel stated, then looked at me and said softly, “Next, Lilah.”
I nodded to him as I switched off the video camera on its tripod, which was pointed at a woman who was sitting in the lone chair in the room. She got up and started walking to the door. I opened it for her but stuck my torso out before she got to it and looked to Caleb, who was waiting in the hall.
“It’s not her. Next,” I told him.
He jerked up his chin and I got out of the woman’s way.
I closed the door after her and looked to Abel. “You okay?”
“Been at this three hours, lost count of how many people been in that chair, and we’ve got nothing,” he answered, looking and sounding frustrated.
I moved to him and put a hand on his chest. “This is a lot of work, baby,” I noted. “Does it drain you to do it?”
“Outside of bein’ hungry, I’m good,” he answered.
“Maybe we can take five minutes for you to draw from me.”
His distracted eyes focused sharply on me and he stated, “You are not a meal, Lilah.”
“I know, but—”
“We do that, every time we do that, you get somethin’ out of it, same as me. It never becomes me takin’ what I need from you. It’s always something for the both of us.”
God, I loved my werewolf vampire.
Still, I leaned in closer and said quietly, “I love that you want that, honey, but just so you know, I always will get something from it even if it’s just knowing I’m giving something to you. But just saying, the more you take from me, the more goodness I get from your superpowered saliva.”
His intensity cleared and he lifted a hand to cup my jaw. Then he dipped his head and took my mouth in a light, sweet kiss.
When he lifted his head, he murmured, “Couple more. Then we’ll take a twenty-minute break so I can get what I need and give you all you need.”
That way worked for me so I smiled, got up on my toes, and gave him my own light, sweet kiss.
When I was pulling away, a knock came at the door.
Abel’s hand dropped and I turned to the door, calling, “Bring them in.”
Caleb opened the door and escorted a man inside while Stephanie stood in the frame. The man looked unconcerned. Then again, they all did, seeing as we were currently working our way through the vampires and I’d noted that vampires tended to be pretty cool customers.
On the other hand, the staff had been freaked. Then again, you wouldn’t want a bunch of vampires and werewolves to think you were up to no good. Further, the bad guys had no way of knowing what Abel was capable of (unless there were bugs, something we couldn’t know for certain there weren’t until Abel found the inside man, or woman, as the case may be) and could exonerate them, or not, pretty quickly.
I moved to the wall and settled in for the quick show that, even though I’d seen it often over three hours, I still thought it was cool as shit.
Abel didn’t waste time. Caleb began escorting the vamp in, Stephanie standing at the door, but Caleb moved away from him because the vampire was woodenly walking to the chair and seating himself in it.
This was because Abel told him to do it.
Stephanie shut the door.
The vampire tipped his eyes to Abel.
Abel looked to me.
I reached out a hand and switched on the video camera. Abel could mind-control them into telling the truth, but the questioning was verbal, taped, and there were witnesses, at least one (me) and sometimes more (Caleb and/or Stephanie).
Abel started questioning, “Are you a traitor to The Three?”
“No,” the vampire answered.
“Have you given any information to anyone about anything you’ve learned inside the compound’s walls?”
“No,” the vampire repeated.
“Do you believe humans should be slave to immortals?”
“No,” the vampire said again.
“Are you aware of anyone who wishes to see the end of The Three or has given information to anyone who you suspect should not have that information?” Abel asked.
“No,” the vampire replied.
“Have you seen anyone acting suspiciously?” Abel went on.
“No,” the vampire stated.
“If you become aware of anyone who’s conspiring against The Three or those who are allied with them to keep mortals free from enslavement, what are you gonna do?” Abel began to finish it.
“Report this directly to the inner circle,” the vampire said.
“That being…?”
“You, King Callum, Lucien, the king’s brothers, the werewolf Ryon, or the vampires Stephanie, Cosmo, Gregor, or Yuri,” the vampire responded.
Abel looked to me, then to Caleb. “He’s clear.”
I turned off the video camera and Caleb nodded, moved to the vampire, and walked at his side as he escorted him out of the room.
The door closed on Caleb.
We repeated this three more times, one of them being with Dad’s female vampire buddy, Ursula (who was clean, thank God), before it happened.
Caleb escorted the vampire in. Abel mind-controlled him to his seat. He got his eyes. I turned on the video camera.
And Abel started his questions.
“Are you a traitor to The Three?”
“Yes,” the vamp
He was handsome, all lean muscle, tall like all vampires, and he had thick brown hair that was two shades down from dark but not light. I’d look twice at him, but then again, I hadn’t seen a vampire I wouldn’t look at twice. On the vamp scale of hot, hotter, hottest (the last being Abel and Lucien, and maybe Yuri), he was in the “hotter” zone.
I felt Abel’s tension, as well as Caleb’s, as Abel repeated, “You’re a traitor to The Three?”
“Yes,” the vampire said again.
“Did you provide information to the enemy of The Three about our meeting with the vampire Cosmo this morning?” Abel asked.
“Yes,” the vampire said.
Abel looked to Caleb and Caleb moved to the door. He went out. Stephanie came in and closed the door behind her.
Her eyes never left the vampire in the chair as her mouth hissed, “Is it him?”
“Yep,” Abel answered, his word casual, his tone and stance not.
I tried to decide whether to edge toward my man, which would mean passing an obviously pissed off Stephanie, but didn’t come to a decision before Stephanie pinned me to the spot by looking at me.
“Are you taping?” she asked.
I quickly looked to the camera, ascertained all was well, turned back to her, and nodded.
“How did you become aware of the meeting this morning?” Abel asked the vampire.
“My room is next to Ursula’s,” the vampire answered, and Abel’s eyes shot to me.
Dad’s vampire. He heard them talking during their festivities.
Shit.
I gave Abel big eyes.
Abel looked back to the vampire. “You listened.”
“Yes.”
“Did you use any electronic devices to do this?” Abel continued.
“I don’t need to,” the vamp told Abel something he knew.
“At any time did you use any devices of any kind to learn anything about The Three?” Abel pushed.
“No.”
“Were you placed here by the enemy?” Abel went on.
“We aren’t the enemy; we’re true immortals,” the vampire stated. “True immortals know it’s against our nature to follow rules, be lorded by laws, forced to hide ourselves, our power, our dominance. We are all rulers. Kings and queens. Lesser beings are meals. Playthings. Drones. They exist to serve us and the time has finally come for the true immortals to take their rightful place as overlords of humanity.”