Wild and Free (The Three #3)(116)

Still holding Yuri’s gaze, Sula went back to, “Brother brother brother brother brother.”

“You’re telling us something. We just don’t know what it is,” Aurora whispered.

“Blue-brown, blue-brown, blue-brown…brown-blue, brown-blue, brown-blue.”

“What does that mean?” Aurora asked.

When she did, with a suddenness that had Yuri tensing and fighting back baring his fangs, Sula snapped her mouth shut and focused acutely on Aurora as if she wasn’t mad but as sharp as a blade.

She then lifted her finger and touched the cheek under her right eye. “Blue.” She moved it to the cheek under her left eye. “Brown.”

Yuri watched, understanding hitting him, so he did it murmuring, “Bloody hell.”

Sula touched under her right eye again. “Brown.” To the left. “Blue.” She blinked, jerked her chin back, then chanted, “Brother brother brother brother brother.”

Bloody f*cking hell.

Abel wasn’t looked after by his mother. Or his father.

But his brother.

“We have what we need,” Yuri told Aurora.

“We do?” Barb asked, and he looked to her.

“Abel, the hybrid, has one brown eye, one blue.”

“Sweet goddess,” Aurora whispered as she straightened, which brought her very close to Yuri’s side.

Without hesitation, Yuri took her hand and moved them away from the mad witch.

Barb watched this and Yuri knew what she saw.

He also didn’t give a f*ck.

“Mom, can you give her some relief?” Aurora asked, her gaze pointed to Sula.

Barb tore her eyes off their still-clasped hands and nodded her head once, sharply. “Take the vampire to the car. I’ll be out in ten minutes.”

“Just ease, Mom, and peace,” Aurora pushed.

“I’ll take care of her, girl. Take the vamp to the car.”

“As you know, my name is Yuri,” he reminded Barb, something he was staggered he had not tired of doing considering he’d done it approximately five hundred times since they’d met.

“You’re all the same to me. Vamps,” Barb returned. “So I don’t really need to know your name, seeing as we get this done, we’re done with you.”

She was right, except the part where there was a “we.”

“Now, you got hold of her, take my daughter to the car,” she finished.

Yuri didn’t make her ask again. He pulled Aurora out of the house, enjoying the fresh air so much, he took as much of it in as he could get.

“It stunk in there,” Aurora mumbled.

“That, my sweet, is an understatement,” Yuri muttered in reply.

He felt her eyes and looked down to her as he stopped them beside the car.

“We should, you know, call one of those hoarder programs so they’ll come and sort her out. Mom will get her so she’s functioning, if still not all there, but that’s serious magic and even Mom doesn’t have the juice to undo it all. Still, they’ll probably see the state of this place, and her, and commit her or something.”

“You can likely do that a lot quicker if you didn’t call the producers of a television program and instead called someone who works for the state,” he noted, and she grinned.

“Yeah, that’s probably a better plan.”

Yuri’s gaze dropped to the pulse in her neck before he looked away as he released her hand.

“You know, Mom’s pissed,” she remarked.

“I sensed that,” Yuri replied.

“We heard Sula was messed up, but we had no idea it was that bad.”

Yuri said nothing.

“She’s not going to let that stand,” Aurora announced.

Yuri looked down at her but still didn’t speak.

“What are you going to do now?” she asked.

“Assist you and your mother and likely the bevy of witches you’ll need to accumulate to take on that coven in order to deal with the retribution your mother feels appropriate to unleash on her sisters who perpetrated that anguish on one of their own.”

Her eyes lit, and the instant he saw it, Yuri wanted that light when he was covering her, his cock still buried deep after he’d made her come and given it to himself and they were laying connected, a time when he’d allow her again to be charming.

“A vampire acting out of the kindness of his heart,” she teased.

“Hardly. That coven guards implements that are dangerous to immortals. I’ll be doing it in order to get those weapons out of the hands of witches who intend harm and into the hands of a witch I slightly trust. Namely your mother. And I’ll note an emphasis on slightly.”

“Mom wouldn’t hurt a fly,” Aurora assured.

“She would if that fly hurt you,” Yuri returned.

“Well, yes, there’s that,” she murmured, grinning at her shoes, which were ridiculous since they were high-heeled boots and the last thing anyone should wear in an uncertain situation.

They were, however, attractive.

“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.