“You brought her to danger?” Abel bit out toward Chen, manhandling me until I was in position for him to let my arm go, but he then locked his arm around me so my front was plastered to his side.

“She felt you were in danger and knew how to get to you,” Chen explained.

I felt Abel’s eyes on me. Slowly and cautiously, I tipped my head back.

Yep, he was looking at me.

“You felt I was in danger?” he asked in a calmer voice, and if I was myself, which I was not, I would have noted the incredulous vein that threaded his tone intermingled with one that was undeniably tender.

But I was not myself.

I was a quivering mess.

Therefore, as a response, I demanded, “Okay, priority one, find me a place where I can have a total mental collapse.”

“We need—” he started.

“Now!” I screeched, my body calcifying, cutting him off.

He might be a murderous badass, but he was not a stupid one. I knew this to be true when he looked into the eyes of a hysterical woman and hesitated not a second longer before he let my shoulders go, grabbed my hand, and dragged me to his Sportster.

“Xun’s bike and the weapons,” he stated simply as we went, throwing his sword to the side.

“Gotcha,” Chen replied.

He got on the Sportster, which was parked at the side of the alley.

Instead of running for the hills, for some lunatic reason, I got on behind him and away we went.

Again, I did not run or fight or even say a word when he took us back to the alley behind the Chinese restaurant. I continued to do none of these things as he got off the bike, grabbed my hand when I alighted, and he took me to the still-opened grate, down the stairs, and back to the basement room.

However, I did yank my hand from his and advanced swiftly into the room when we got there, whirling and demanding to know, “There are werewolves?”

He studied me closely but did it replying immediately. “Yes.”

“Are you a werewolf?” I asked.

His answer came slower, his body tightening visibly as he took his time doing it, but he eventually said, “Yes.”

“The ones whose heads you cut off,” I stated, but it was a question.

“I don’t know,” he answered, and kept the impossible, unhinged, but apparently true information coming. “But they move like me and have my strength, though they can’t transform. So my guess…vampires.”

“So you’re a vampire too.”

Another hesitation before he stated, “Yes.”

“That’s impossible,” I declared.

He opened his mouth, bared his teeth, and I jumped back a foot when two razor-sharp fangs snapped over his eyeteeth.

“Holy fuck,” I whispered, my hand snaking up to curl around my throat.

The fangs retracted before he said, “Nothing to worry about. I’ve already fed.”