“Right, pussycat,” he replied, stopping them, curling her close, and dropping a kiss on her lips. “Later,” he said when he was done.

“Later.”

He grinned at her.

She grinned back.

He let her go and watched her continue down the hall for a few seconds before he used his vampire speed to take him to the library.

But he stopped outside it when he heard a woman’s raised voice and sensed she wasn’t the only woman in that room.

“Was dog tired when I got here last night, so I took a bed. But I am not spending another night in a den of vamps.”

He felt his brows draw together as he opened the door and walked into the room.

All eyes turned to him and two pairs of those were in faces he knew, Gregor’s and Yuri’s, who had apparently returned. The rest were five women he didn’t know.

“Yo,” he greeted.

“Holy goddess and all her great sisters,” one of the women breathed. “It’s the hybrid.”

He looked to her and confirmed, “Yeah.” Then he looked to Yuri. “Welcome back, man.”

“Abel,” Yuri greeted.

That was when he looked to the pretty, petite, dark-haired woman at his side who was dressed like a sex kitten schoolgirl who’d graduated two days ago and knew just how hot that was, even though she didn’t want you to know she knew it.

In other words, she was something.

Something a man liked looking at and something to Yuri, seeing as she was standing very close to him, and even though they weren’t touching, there was no mistaking that fact.

“Found a friend,” he muttered to Yuri, feeling his lips twitch.

It was then Yuri touched her. Putting a hand to the small of her back, he moved even closer to her, saying, “I’d like you to meet Aurora Lenox. She’s assisting us with finding your brother.”

Abel’s lips stopped twitching and his eyes went back to the woman.

“Hi, Abel,” she said. “So cool to meet you.”

He jerked up his chin, but with what Yuri said, that was all the good manners he had in him.

Therefore, he asked, “You find him?”

She looked to a wide, flat bowl filled with dark liquid sitting on a table between two armchairs, then back to him.

“It’s not quite ready yet. A few more hours,” she answered.

He turned his gaze to Yuri and rearranged his expression to read, What the fuck?

Yuri read him.

“The potion somehow guides us to him,” Yuri explained.

Jesus. So far, he’d fought side-by-side with what were essentially ghosts. He’d torn apart men who were close to giants, hairless, and scary motherfuckers. He’d watched videos of terrified women enduring violation while their blood was drained from their bodies.

Now, obviously, he was in the presence of bona fide witches who made potions.