Wild and Free (The Three #3)(157)

“Mi tía don’t practice no brujeria magia negra, woman. So, what gives?” Poncho returned.

“There’s great power in this room,” Barb stated.

“So?” Poncho asked.

“Does that mean she’s still here?” I asked at the same time.

“Our practice and the practice of magia blanca are quite different,” Barb answered Poncho.

“Again, so?” Poncho repeated.

“So, we have some professional differences,” Barb replied.

“Is she…still here?” Abel asked tersely.

“Yes,” Barb answered.

Abel turned to Poncho. “Talk to her, man. See what the f*ck is up.”

Poncho nodded, then looked uncertain for a second before he cast his eyes upward and started talking in Spanish.

Watching him do that might have been funny, but I was weirded out.

I didn’t have a lot of time to process that before there was more activity at the door. I looked that direction and saw Ruby getting out of the way in order for a male vampire to stand in the doorway.

“Lucien, there’s someone at the gatehouse. Human. Hanger. He’s asking for you,” the vampire said, and the room got tense.

“A hanger is at the gatehouse and he knows I’m here?” Lucien asked, his voice scary.

“Yes. Says his name is Breed,” the vampire replied.

Lucien looked to Callum, then Abel, and finally Leah before he nodded and moved to the door, saying, “I’ll return.”

Lucien left just as Aurora and Yuri showed at the door. Aurora, probably sensing the bruja, halted before going through it, which meant Yuri almost bumped into her. Instead, at her quick stop, he wrapped an arm around her chest from behind in a protective way, narrowed his eyes, and scanned the room.

Totally cute together.

“Magia,” Aurora whispered.

“Yeah, they got a disapparated bruja clinging to the ceiling,” Ruby informed her.

Aurora grinned, her face lighting with excitement, and walked into the room, bringing Yuri with her, exclaiming, “Cool!” Then she waved at the ceiling and called, “Hey there!”

One side of Yuri’s mouth hitched up.

Totally cute.

“We’re standin’ around ’cause we got plenty of time to stand around, seein’ as f*ck all is happening,” Abel shared with the room. “But we actually don’t have time to stand around, seeing as people’s lives are in danger. Around about a few billion of them. So something has to give with that. Now, while we wait for Poncho’s auntie to reappear, maybe you all can tell us how you can use what you got to do something to help save the world,” he suggested, lifting a hand and pointing a finger toward Barb, but he turned it side to side to indicate Ruby and Aurora too.

“What do you want us to do?” Barb asked instantly, easy as that, and I blinked.

“Whatever you can do,” Abel shot back. “But seein’ as I don’t know what that is, maybe you can tell us so we can get you started.”

“It’d be helpful if we had more witches and the bruja would work with us,” Barb told him.

“Poncho’s currently workin’ on that,” Abel returned. “As for more witches, that’s up to you to recruit. But you still haven’t answered what you can do, with others or with what you got.”

“Well, we can cast protection spells,” Aurora shared. “And we can do location spells, as you know. Though, we need blood from the person you want to locate, and if not blood, then hair.”

“The first might help. The second, as we have no blood of our enemies, or anything else, no,” Callum said. “What else?”

Aurora lifted her hands up to her sides. “It really kinda depends on the situation.”

“The situation is saving the world,” Abel clipped, clearly losing patience.

I got close to him, grabbed his hand, and murmured, “Baby.”

“Auntie says she’ll come back if the women leave the room,” Poncho announced, and we all turned to him. “Not the witches.” He dipped his head my way and said, “You three.”

“Why?” I asked.

“She said you’re dangerous,” Poncho answered.

“What? How?” I pressed.

He looked to the ceiling, nodded, muttered, “Unh-hunh, unh-hunh,” then he looked to me. “Lilah, darlin’, auntie says you got lethal energy. Says that one”—he jerked his head to Leah—“is a human vampire and that shit’s not right, though she didn’t say ‘shit.’” He finished by indicating Sonia with another jerk of his head. “And she says that one is every animal all in one and that shit’s not right either.”

“Whoa,” Leah breathed.

“Sounds like you might not need witch help,” Ruby noted.

I ignored her and lifted my hand to wave it around, saying to Poncho, “We have abilities. We’re The Three. But we’re cool. We wouldn’t hurt her.”

Poncho looked to the ceiling, did some nodding, and returned to me. “Auntie says you three have enough power to take over the world.”

My voice rose. “What?”

“Whoa!” Leah exclaimed.

“Interesting,” Sonia whispered.