Or was trying to.
Some progress had been made, mainly thanks to Dave.I had changed back and flung on a royal blue caftan that Sienna had donated to the cause in order to organize some basic needs for my new clan members, and had discovered that he was surprisingly helpful once he had someone giving him authorization.He had gotten his organization busy providing medical care, clothing, and bedrolls for everyone, the latter needed because Sebastian had flatly refused to pick up the tab for rooms for them.
Apparently, allowingvargulfsto redeem themselves didn’t involve any actual help.
Fortunately, there were plenty of unused storage areas downstairs, and even a shower room on that floor.The place Arnou had decided to cage their own kind had been created by the former owner of the casino, a vampire named Gallina, who had liked to watch his misbehaving servants battle for their lives in his own private gladiatorial ring.But at least he’d had a room next door fitted out as a bathroom, I guessed so the victors could wash off the blood after their matches, and the crowd could go to the toilet, if vamps needed such a thing.
I didn’t know and didn’t care, but it was proving useful now.
Unlike this conversation.
“I appreciate your concern, of course,” Dave was saying to Sebastian, after some comment I hadn’t heard.“However, I must point out—”
“You must be silent!”Sebastian snarled, his eyes still on me, which fazed Dave about as much as Lee’s earlier outburst had done.He was giving Zen monk vibes currently, and I was here for it.
Sebastian was not.
“No, my duty will not allow that, I’m afraid,” Dave said mildly.“These people—yourpeople, as you mandated thatvargulfsbe given a chance to restore their honor—are being hunted by the dark.They must not be allowed to have them.Which means that provisions for them must be made—”
“They will be,” I said.“They’re Fireborn now—”
Sebastian said a very bad word and somehow managed to up the glare even more, something I hadn’t thought possible.“Are you completely mad?”he demanded.
“Jury’s still out,” I said, trying for levity, which—
Was not the right move, considering that I suddenly had a very unhappybardricin my face.
I didn’t blink for some reason.I would have normally done a lot more than that, like apologizing profusely for losing my goddamned mind and maybe groveling a little on top of it, because the man had apoint.But what came out of my lips instead was: “They are mine.I will protect them.”
“We can sell it to the clan council as a temporary necessity for the war,” Cyrus said, having returned from Tartarus at some point, but his eyes weren’t on Sebastian.They were on me, and a frown was wrinkling his forehead.
“We house them now or fight them later,” I agreed.“The council has to understand—”
“What the council will understand,” Sebastian retorted through clenched teeth.“Is that the newvargulfclan, which most of them view as either a crazy experiment or a joke, has suddenly gone from a handful of members to more than 300!Three hundred former outlaws!Some of which may have ended up that way unfairly, but others are almost certainly hardened criminals—”
“Most,” Ulmer said.“Those who didn’t start that way likely learned fast, if they wanted to survive.It’s a baptism by fire out there, and the good ones don’t last long.”
“—who you will be responsible for!”Sebastian’s eyes took in both his brother and me.“You don’t even know these wolves, why they were exiled, what they may have done, yet you’re putting your reputations—”
“And ours,” Ulmer interjected.
“—on the line for them sight unseen!‘They’re Fireborn,'” he mimicked savagely, which was so unlike him that I could only stare.
“You’re right,” Cyrus said evenly.“I don’t know what they did.But I know what they didn’t do.They didn’t run.”
He was backing me up, I realized, even though I doubted he was any happier about this than his brother—and possibly less.Having a handful of boys to watch over, all of whom he knew and trusted, was one thing.Suddenly getting saddled with hundreds of unknown outlaws by your crazy girlfriend is another.
I didn’t deserve him, I thought, for something like the 500thtime.
“They fought for Lia when she needed them the most,” he added.“That carries a debt.”
“Yes, butwhydid they?”Sebastian demanded.“What did youdo?”
That last was aimed at me, as I had known it would be.And he expected an answer.It was why the suite had been cleared out before Sienna, Laura, and I were ushered in, with many unhappy-looking senior members of Clan Arnou being sent off for a well-deserved lunch break.
I cleared my throat because I had no idea how this was likely to go over.Or if it was even the truth.But it was going to have to do, as it was all I had.
“It’s possible that the, uh… ability… that surfaced after Jenkins gave me his… potion… was responsible,” I said, and saw Sebastian pause, his mouth still open, because he had been about to say something.
