Page 94 of Inhuman Nature

“Recreated by Lawrence. Against his will, like Kit and I.”

“But you consented to being recreated as a vampire?” she asked Rake directly.

“Yes.” It wasn’t quite true, but had he been able to accept Shaun’s offer, he would have.

She made a vague noise of disbelief. “You’ll all need tocome to the club, regardless. I was coming upstairs to tell you of Mistress’s summons.”

“Summon my arse,” Kit said, then frowned. “Okay, maybe I should have considered my phrasing a wee bit more, but you know what I’m saying. We need to do the jobyouwere supposed to do. We need to rescue DJ.”

Rake hadn’t expected Kit to become one of DJ’s staunch defenders, but he appreciated it.

“Mistress said she wants to be involved in any resolution on this matter. Plus, he”—she gestured to Rake—“needs to pledge his allegiance to her. All vampires do, especially the newly recreated.”

“Sure, uh,” Shaun floundered as he addressed her.

“Winnie,” she provided, irritated.

“Oh, come on, how was he supposed to know your name when you lot left him stuffed in a cage alone for the past few days?” Kit said.

“They what?” Rake shouted. He advanced on Winnie, but was stopped by a small hand in the centre of his chest.

“Hey, it’s all right,” Shaun said, looking up at him.

“I’ll be having words with Lynette,” Rake vowed.

“Great, so you agree to come back to the club with me?” Winnie asked.

“After we clean ourselves up,” Rake said. The blood on his skin itched, and he was hyper-aware of every dried flake.

Winnie didn’t look pleased, but seemed to realise that arguing further would get them nowhere. “Fine. But make it quick.”

They traipsed upstairs, Winnie making a show of rubbing her back whilst Kit pointedly refused to ask if she wasokay. Rake steered Shaun to the bedroom, wanting to get fresh towels, and Kit led Winnie to the open-plan living room and kitchen.

Rake closed the bedroom door. Not that it did much else than provide a well-needed physical buffer. He spotted DJ’s bulging rucksack in the corner of the room as he went to dig out the towels from their chest of drawers.

“Oh, we brought you some of your things,” he said, picking up the bag.

“What? When? How?” Shaun shot the questions at him one after another, face going from excited to horrified in the space of a second. “You went to Lawrence’s house?”

“How else did you think we figured out how to get in touch with Kit?”

Rake upended the contents of the bag onto the bed, the little wolf figurine DJ had found falling on top of a t-shirt.

Shaun descended on the glass wolf. “Okay, so I’m furious with you right now for putting yourselves in danger like that, but I can’t stay mad when you brought me this.” He stared at the figure for a long second. “My mum gave it to me.”

“Lawrence let you keep it?” Rake asked, surprised.

“I suspect he didn’t give it a second thought.”

“If it brought you comfort, then I’m glad. And I’m even happier that we could bring it back to you.”

Shaun met his eyes. “Thank you.”

“Well, you can wear your own clothing once you’re clean. Pretty sure those are the shorts and sweatshirt you borrowed from us. Did Lynette not let you change?”

Shaun looked embarrassed as he twiddled the edges of the too-long sleeves. “No. She didn’t.”

“What a bitch,” Kit said loudly from the other room.