“Which one?” Cimmerian glanced at all the faces. “Saturday Night FeverorGrease? Because he did both.”
The laughter ensued.
“What about his Vlad the Impaler era?” Shadow shook his head, grinning wide. “That mustache.”
Aphotic was laughing as much as the others, clearly not at all bothered that they teased him. It was true, though, their youngest brother did go through phases.
Unfortunately, the laughter died off when footsteps sounded on the stairs. Taayin, Søren, Miklós, Decebal, Zadok, Theron, and Stian sauntered out of the stairwell, thelieterrasscanning the room before joining them.
Eclipse watched Taayin, noticing the male’s eyes traversed the entire space before he took a relieved breath. Probably worried he’d run into Asmia. Eclipse had no idea why those two remained on the outs. One would think Taayin would’ve been content to know the female was safe and not in the clutches of that demon. Instead, he seemed to be all hung up on the fact the female he loved was not hisamsouelot.
“As you’re all aware,” Obsidian began, “Kaj showed up last night, looking for refuge for his daughter.”
Obsidian went on to explain the high-level details of the vampire war taking place and the loss of their Alpha. No matter how many times he heard it, Eclipse couldn’t help but think it sucked ass. The mere thought of any race being targeted for elimination was disheartening. Perhaps once they located all theamsouelotsand ensured God wasn’t going to smite them down at any moment, they could help Kaj and his people.
“While I gave them permission to stay temporarily, I need everyone’s approval to make it long term.”
That was Obsidian for you. They all looked to him as their leader, but he’d never been the kind to make major decisions without their input. Perhaps that was what made him best for the role. He didn’t attempt to run things in a vacuum, knowing the best way to tackle the difficult issues was to be a united front.
“Is he planning to stay?” Stygian asked. “Or just his daughter?”
“I haven’t had the chance to talk to him at length yet, but unless anyone objects, I’d like to offer refuge to both, regardless of whether he intends to stay.”
“I don’t see a problem with it,” Eclipse told them. “He’s always been there when we needed him.”
Then, of course, there was the fact the male had bonded with one of the Fae. Granted, Eclipse wasn’t going to give that thought voice because he respected the vampire. When Kaj was ready for them to know, Eclipse figured he’d share.
“Agreed,” Stygian said.
“Do we know anything about the daughter?” Shadow questioned.
“Only the basics. She’s young. Showed up on Kaj’s doorstep a year ago when her mother died,” Obsidian explained. “Killed by a group of shadow beasts.”
“While I sympathize with her situation, I’d like to know more about her,” Piceous noted. “We’ve got two humans in residence right now, plus Penelope’s here. If we’re lucky, all of ouramsouelotswill be here very soon. Seems we should know what we’re getting ourselves into before we invite two vampires to live with us.”
Eclipse glanced from face to face, listening as the others weighed in. The vote hung precariously at the fifty-fifty mark, those who knew Kaj not batting an eye while the others were a bit more cautious.
“Søren, can you do some digging?” Stygian asked hislieterra.
“Of course.”
“Keep it on the DL,” Obsidian instructed. “I have no idea what you might uncover, if anything, but it’s for our eyes only.”
Søren nodded. “Understood.”
“In the meantime,” Stygian continued, “I see no reason they can’t stay here.” He peered at Obsidian. “I do think we should get Reidar’s input since hisamsouelotis currently residing with us.”
Being that Winnie was human, Reidar would likely be doubly cautious considering she was mortal.
Obsidian nodded. “I’ll meet with him when we’re done here. Now that we’ve got that figured out, how about an update.”
All eyes shifted to him first, and Eclipse exhaled heavily. “I’ve yet to make contact with the female again,” he admitted. “However, we do know where she’s currently living and working. I’ve got Magnar keeping an eye on her as we speak.”
“Do you have intentions of engaging?”
Eclipse glanced at each of his brothers. “It’s a bit more complicated than a simplehi, how are ya.”
“Because she witnessed you killing a human?” Stygian said.
