Page 72 of Absolution

“Max could buy the bar. If Gabe goes to ground all his assets will be Seiran’s since Seiran is his Focus. It’s part of the official filing of a Focus with the Tri-Mega,” Luca said.

I shook my head. “Seiran loves that bar.”

“Sure, but he’s got bigger problems than that.”

And that was true. I sighed. More problems I didn’t want to think about. “Okay, let’s get your stuff packed up then.” I shifted my hips. “Maybe I can borrow a pair of clean undies?”

Luca laughed lightly. “That was hot.”

“Coming in my pants is not hot.”

“It was from my place on the bed.”

“Jerk,” I said. He grinned. Con laughed. Luca finally pulled away to dig in another hidden wall cupboard for clothing.

He held out a pair of undies for me. “Here you go, princess,” he teased. “Or, I mean, you badass bitch.”

I snarled at him, let Con go and crossed the room to swipe them from his grasp.

“We should bring the books,” Con said from his place by the counter. “I’m sure there’s room. Sam doesn’t like to read, but I do, and I know Seiran does. Maybe we can get the whole lot of us up to speed.”

“I’ve read most of them,” Luca said. He squinted at the bookcase. “Once or twice. I don’t have great recall or anything, though. So I’d have to look stuff up. I think the book Seiran took with him had info about siphons.”

Con tapped his forehead. “My recall is excellent. My sister’s was too. It was one of the reason’s Roman wanted control of her. She could see a spell once and memorize it.”

No wonder he’d brought me a handful of spells written on scratch pieces of paper. I hadn’t yet searched through the books I had stashed for them, but if Max was right and spells were individual, then I wasn’t sure it mattered much.

I headed to the bathroom to wash up and change. We needed a plan. Something to stop the vampire’s insanity, put Gabe to sleep, and maybe take out Tresler. However, I was not the brains of the operation. New adventures and enterprising ideas had a way of backfiring when I did them. But I wasn’t alone anymore. Con and Luca chatted as they packed up his clothes into a suitcase he’d dug out from somewhere. I had a dhampir, an air witch, two very powerful earth witches, a water witch, and a master vampire on my side. It sounded like the start to a great RPG video game. But time would tell.

Chapter 22

Isent Seiran a text asking him if it was okay to bring the guys to the house. He said it was fine. There was only another two or so hours before dawn. He wanted me at the house as soon as possible because he had a long list of wards he wanted to create and thought that my ability could strength them. I agreed, and let him know we were on the way. Instead of taking a cab, Luca said he would drive and led us down to an underground garage and a giant black Hummer.

“Holy fuck,” Con said.

“It’s my dad’s,” Luca said. “Built like a tank. I wanted something more practical, he insisted on this.” He put his suitcase in the back, and I added the box of books we’d decided were essential.

“For all your smack talk about your dad, he really cares about you,” I commented.

He side-eyed me. “Just because he gives me stuff, doesn’t mean he cares.”

Did he really have no idea? Maybe being linked to Max gave me a different point of view. The empire he built, had trained Luca to command, the loft, the car, and now me, a powerful vampire to watch over him, was all just to take care of Luca. “Was it just Galloway who wanted you and me involved?”

“No,” Luca said. “Max brought you up first. Since I’ve helped other vampires, I thought it was just that he didn’t think anyone else could tame you at the time.”

“Tame?” I squinted at him.

“Your bloodlust. My blood is a bit supercharged and not allcibosare. Most are just human, and the few who are hybrids like me aren’t nearly as powerful as I am. Probably because my dad is so powerful. I’m also older than most othercibos, so I have more experience in redirecting hunger.”

That all made sense. “So your dad said, ‘Hey, feed this almost feral vampire?’”

Luca blushed. “I sort of have a thing for Asian guys…”

Con snorted. “You have a thing for all guys.”

“True,” Luca agreed. “But lots of fantasies…So my dad pointed you out, knowing my kink. Asian, rough, tough, and a little snarky.”

“A little?” Con asked.