Page 82 of Accidental Blood Lust
After Cas finishes, I nod. “So first up is talking to the boss.”
“He’ll need to know he gets something out of letting us go rogue,” Cas says. “I guarantee he’d be excited to get some of the consortium’s blood. I’ll go fetch him.”
I nod. “Thanks. We’ll get everyone else. Dining hall in ten?”
Cas gives me a teasing little salute and then vanishes in a blur, moving too fast for even my eyes to track as he zips out of the room.
Wrapping my arms around Jareth and Loch, I kiss the tops of their heads, savoring just a few seconds with them.
“I really did it, huh?” Loch says softly. “Because of me, a whole war is starting.”
“A necessary war. This was inevitable.”
“Maybe, but all I’ve done since being turned is cause problems.”
“Uh, no, I’m not letting you go there,” Jareth says, stopping and turning to face Loch before cupping his face. “We’ve all been over this. What you did was brave and it set our lives on destiny’s path. Roman’s right—this war was gonna happen eventually. Why not us?”
Loch nods, but I can tell he’s not completely convinced. That’s okay. I’ve got all of eternity to prove to him that he did the right thing, even if unintentionally.
While Cas gets Auri, we gather everyone else into the dining hall, all of them in various stages of dress and wakefulness. Mac’s hair is sticking up on end, giving him a youthful appearance that could almost make me forget he’s a dragon, and Drax looks perfect, just like he always does. Rune looks tired, and he’s being carried by his big hulking gargoyle. Atlas’s mate being a prickly mage is always comical to me, but who am I to question fate or how their love works?
I hear Grim approaching before I see him, followed by a curious Auri, trailed by Cas. Auri’s dressed in a deep purple pantsuit that looks both elegant and comfortable, and as he gets closer, I realize they’re silk pajamas.
“To what do I owe this early morning meeting with my pets?” Auri asks.
“We have a situation,” I say.
“If this has to do with the Nocturne Consortium, I already ordered you to take them out,” Auri says in a bored drawl.
“It’s about them, but the situation has gotten more complicated, so we wanted to loop you in first. We need your permission to get involved in a war, of sorts.”
“Of sorts?” Auri asks. “I take it this has to do with our new resident vampire and the magical mortal beside you?”
“Indirectly,” I say. “Long story short, Jareth was attacked by vampires when he was young and me and my pack found him and nursed him back to health.”
“Oh, fuck,” Drax murmurs.
“We ran into two of those vampires topside last night and were attacked again. We had no choice but to fight back.”
Auri grins. “And did you kill them, my darling pet?”
I have to fight the urge to roll my eyes at the stupid nickname. “Yes, we did. Then Cas found out that these vampires are fae blood addicts, and in order to feed their addiction, they’ve aligned themselves with the Nocturne Consortium.”
Auri taps a long nail against his chin. “Vampires aligning with the fae? Most unusual.”
“And it’s a problem. They do whatever the fae want, including attacking their own kind.”
“What is your plan?”
“Kill the vampires then destroy the consortium. We have some allies to help. No one in the supe world wants this to continue.”
“So it’s a good deed?” He scrunches his nose at that. “Nothing more?”
“Fae blood is very valuable,” Rune says. “It can be used for all sorts of things.”
“Like what?” Auri asks.
“Spells. Powerful spells. All you need is a magic user who knows what to do with it. Lucky for you, you have two.”
