I could have lied to buy time, but I didn’t want to start down that road. “I’m sorry but I can’t tell you that.”
“Why not?” Viktoria asked. She didn’t wait to translate for László that time.
“Just as I’m sure you wouldn’t want me to share information about your pack, I cannot share information about our hosts. As I said, we won’t be here long, and I’ll try not to do anything to bother you while I’m in your city.”
Hungarian flew back and forth and then László sniffed me and spat, “Vámpír.”
“Well, if you knew, why did you ask?” Stupid wolves.
“László says you reek of vampires. He thought perhaps you’d been fed on, but now he sees that you welcome the leeches.”
I’d been so hopeful I was getting out of this unscathed. “First of all, rude. Do I love all vampires? No. I’m not stupid. But then again, there are a lot of really shitty wolves too, so maybe take it down a notch. My husband is a vampire, and his business is his own, not yours.”
“Thank you, darling. I appreciate your loyalty.” Clive had clearly done that trick of his, seeming to appear out of thin air, causing both wolves to flinch.
When he wrapped his arm around me, I kissed him on the cheek. “I wanted to tell them that you were bigger and stronger and could kick their asses, but it felt a little childish. I was thinking it, though.”
Clive’s lips twitched. “And that warms my cold, dead heart.” He spoke to the wolves in Hungarian and the men snarled something back.
On the phone, Viktoria said, “You are visitors in our city and László, as Master, has every right to know who you are and why you’re here.”
“And I told him what I could,” I said.
László let out a stream of very angry Hungarian words and Clive responded. They went back and forth a few times, Clive remaining calm. He nodded at whatever the wolf had said and pulled the gun from my pocket, returning it to Budapest’s Master. With that, Clive tipped his head to László and then turned us around to walk away. I glanced over my shoulder and found the Alpha glaring after us.
“What was that about?” I asked.
In a moment, Clive responded.
At the corner, his gaze traveled over me, checking to make sure I was okay. I glanced back again and found the street behind us now empty.
Lifting my axe, I said, “Can you help me put this back?”
He swept my hair over my shoulder and had the axe secured a moment later. Taking my hand, we continued down the same road. You’re limping.
I know. There was a stupid vampire following me when I was in the tunnel. I thought he was going to attack me, so I ran.
Clive paused a moment, the pain lessening significantly, and then turned his back to me. “Climb on.” Clive could hurt others with his mind, but he could also draw the pain away, which he did for me now.
The throbbing had stopped but my leg was still injured, so I took the piggyback ride. Clive was careful not to grab where the break had been.
Do you know who followed you? he asked.
No. I saw him lurking at the end of the hall to our bedroom, but when I came back out a few minutes later, he was gone. I felt a vampire following me in the tunnel—he was too powerful in that moment for me to try to read him—so I ran in case he was one of those vamps who hates werewolves or the super angry one from the meeting room.
The one following you didn’t try to hurt you? Clive’s voice in my head was cautious. I didn’t think he knew what to make of the strange behavior either.
No. He followed me to the restaurant and then apparently watched me eat, because I saw him as I was leaving. Then he followed me back over the bridge. He was tucked between two buildings when the wolves attacked. He didn’t do anything, though. Just watched.
Have you acquired a new admirer?
Doubtful, I scoffed.
What does he look like?
I only got brief glimpses of him but pale with dark hair and a large dark mustache.
A mustache, Clive repeated, shaking his head.
