Only when that was sorted did he turn to his clothes.
He was zipping his slacks when Aurora walked in looking adorable in his shirt, hair tousled, leather-bound room service menu tucked under her arm.
At one look at him, she halted two feet into the room.
“Is everything okay?”
“No, my sweet,” he answered, pulling on his sweater, then pinning her with his gaze. “Does that bowl travel?”
Her eyes widened, but she answered, “Uh…probably.”
He nodded once before ordering, “Dress, Aurora, and phone your mother. We’re going to Oregon.”
“But they won’t be able to finish their work,” she protested. “The implements won’t be safe.”
“She can bring them with her.”
“She won’t—”
He was standing in front of her in a nanosecond.
“Dress, button, we have no time to waste.”
She stared up into his eyes and whispered, “Oh boy.”
Oh boy was right.
His Aurora, her mother, and three other witches, all in a building that was crawling with vampires.
Not to mention The Three.
Bloody fucking hell.
Chapter Twenty-One
Blocked
Abel
“Can I kick him?”
This question came from Hook, who was in the room they were using to interrogate Miko. Though, “interrogation” wasn’t exactly the word since Abel had controlled his mind and he’d spilled all he knew.
And he knew a lot. Enough that vampire, wolf, and wraith rescue teams worldwide were preparing to extract a number of concubines from the vampires who were holding them.
But for some, it was too late. Six more videos had appeared on social media sites. Six more concubines losing their lives while being violated. The last one posted had included a vampire walking onscreen after the event and relaying a message:
Give up The Three, or there will be more. And worse.
If that wasn’t enough, Miko also shared the not-great news that the reason they hadn’t heard from Serena was because The True had captured her en route to her mate, Gastineau. They’d tortured the good wraiths still deep cover in their ranks and got the details on where to find her and how to capture her.
They were holding her on charges of being traitor to her race as well as traitor to the rightful governing body of immortals, The True. They intended to put her on trial, a case she’d lose, and then they were going to execute her as another message to immortals who did not fall in with their plans.
Seeing as nothing was coming from the phantoms at all since Serena left (as it hadn’t before she took off), even though Gregor frequently attempted to contact them, Gregor sent yet another message to Gastineau. This one to see if he knew his mate had been taken. Gastineau had a policy of being incommunicado with any supernaturals outside of phantoms so Gregor also sent a crew of wraiths to see if they could access him, share and get his allegiance and support in locating then rescuing his mate.
Hook knew all this, seeing as he’d been in the interrogation room since Abel started, so Hook, like all of them, wasn’t a big fan of Miko’s.
Abel looked from the vampire, who sat blank-faced in his chair, to Hook, but it was Gregor who answered Hook’s question.
“As we’ll be holding tribunals for war crimes after we quell the rebellion, which would not play well on videotape,” he explained as he floated an arm toward the camera filming the interrogation, “I think not.”
Hook didn’t take his eyes off Miko as Gregor answered, but when Gregor was done, Hook bared his teeth at the vampire almost like Hook was wolf.
“Maybe it’s time you take a break,” Abel suggested.
Hook tore his eyes off Miko and gave them to Abel.
They were burning with angry, badass biker hellfire.
Fuck.
“You don’t do that to a woman,” he growled low.
“I know, Hook,” Abel said low too, and hopefully calming.
“You sure as fuck don’t do it to six of them. And I’m not talkin’ about takin’ their lives, which everyone knows is not fuckin’ cool. I’m talkin’ about makin’ their last memory on this earth—”
Abel cut him off. “I know, Hook.”
Hook looked to Miko. “He’s lower than a piece of shit.”
“You need to take a break, man,” Abel repeated.
Hook moved his gaze to Gregor. “You execute traitors too?”
“Absolutely,” Gregor answered.
Hook scowled at him.
Then he jerked up his chin, muttering, “Time for me to take a break,” and he walked out of the room.
Abel gave his attention to Gregor. “He’s given us all he’s got.”
Gregor nodded his head, his eyes cold and on Miko. “Indeed.”
“You want him back in play?” Abel asked, and Gregor looked to him.
When he did, Abel felt a chill glide down his spine.
“I want to build a great fire and have you control his mind so he walks into it himself and burns to ash, all while we record that and send it to Etienne.”
“I hear you,” Abel said quietly.
“Alas, we cannot do that,” Gregor continued. “So I believe our best course of action right now is to return him to his home and continue to monitor him, with you programming him to report to us should there be communiqués he receives while not in his house. If those who call themselves The True believe we’re scrambling or inactive, and still don’t know we’ve turned their own against them, we build our upper hand.”
“Right,” Abel agreed. “But he’s got three kids that he’s…” Abel trailed off when Gregor shook his head.