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 fucking 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 fuck.

“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.