“I’ll repeat, that’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard, but this time I’ll share that’s the case and I’m bloody six hundred and ninety-seven years old.”

Another blink, this one coming along with her full lips parting.

“Witch—” he tried again.

She stuck out her hand, interrupting him. “I’m Aurora.”

For fuck’s sake.

“Please tell me your witch mother did not name her witch daughter Aurora,” he clipped.

Her hand dropped and her expression betrayed hurt when she said quietly, “She did.”

He looked to the ceiling, partly due to exasperation but also irritatingly due to the fact he didn’t like to witness that expression, especially with the knowledge he gave it to her.

Once his eyes were to the ceiling, he muttered, “Bloody hell.”

“They’ll kill you,” she said softly, and he looked back to her to see she’d rearranged her features, hiding them behind a vacant mask, and Yuri found that even more difficult to witness. “They’re witches. And since they are, has it occurred to you that if they’re conniving to trip The Prophesies one way or another, they would never, not ever, ally themselves with vampires?”

It hadn’t.

It should have.

Yuri said nothing.

“They’re planning something else,” she continued.

Brilliant. They did not need to contend with angry, conniving witches along with everything else.

Yuri again clenched his teeth.

She wasn’t done and she straightened her shoulders when she continued, “So, you need me. I’m young, but I come from a long line so I’ve got juice. I also know people and they have juice. I can speak for you and get you what you need without anyone dying, most especially you.”

He examined her. She was still wearing her mask, but she couldn’t hide it all from him. There was a hint of fear but a stronger hint of excitement. And, again, courage. Her heart was beating steady and strong, if fast.

Her gaze was unwavering.

Fuck it.

“I’m not one to be trifled with,” he warned at the same time he capitulated.

She lifted her hand to her neck, which was marked with the red welts he’d given her, and fuck him, he had to fight back a flinch.

“I got that.”

He tilted his head to the side. “This is dangerous for you.”

“In a variety of ways, least of which is teaming up with a vampire, and since my kind seriously hate your kind, that’s saying something.”

“Then explain why you’re doing it,” he demanded.

That got him yet another blink. “Um, well, I guess to save the world. I know a fair number of humans. It’d suck if they were enslaved and forced to exist for the whim of demented immortals. And Lord knows what that coven has in mind. They’ve been chewing on centuries of rage and that’s never a good thing.”