bar, crossing his arms over his chest. “So why are you here talking to me?”
“Your name came up a couple times as the male who knows all sorts of things.”
“Why are you hunting her?” Bo watched Rhys with bright eyes and Rhys was under the impression that the answer mattered.
He could’ve lied but what would be the point? He wasn’t sure how accurate the half-demon’s sense of smell was, but it didn’t matter. He had no reason to lie. “Because she killed my baby sister. She tortured her and stole her blood in exchange for immortality. Because I’m going to kill her. I won’t rest until she’s dead. So let there be no doubt, if you give me information on this female, I plan to kill her.” Slowly, painfully.
Bo’s jaw clenched once and Rhys knew that he had a sister of his own. “You’re sure she got immortality?”
“I…” He knew he would sound mad if he told the male the truth. That he could sense his sister’s blood flowing through the witch, that the female was out there. Nearby, if he had to guess. “I’m very certain.”
“I don’t know the name Catta, but I’ll ask around for you. There are a couple powerful covens in New Orleans. They gravitated that way after The Fall. If she isn’t there, chances are they will know of a witch who killed a dragon for immortality. Killing one of your kind is…”
“Difficult.”
“That it is. Go ahead and sit down,” Bo said motioning to one of the stools in front of the bar as he resumed organizing bottles. “Your hovering is annoying.”
Even though he preferred to stand, especially with all the energy humming through him, Rhys sat, his gaze flicking to the muted TV screen above the mirror and shelves filled with bottles. He froze as he saw a recording unfolding on the screen.
“That’s crazy, right?” Bo said after glancing at the screen once before dismissing it. As if he’d seen it before.
“When did this happen?” It couldn’t be live because it was still daylight out in the video. But it was close to nine o’clock in the evening now. And from the architecture on the feed, he knew the events taking place on the screen were in New Orleans.
He stared in horror and fascination as his big brother—in dragon form—was blasting away at other dragons, fighting side by side with… Holy shit. He hadn’t even known phoenixes existed anymore. Apparently they did, and on the screen they were having a savage battle with a bunch of dragons in a still-rebuilding New Orleans.
“That happened two days ago. Do you know them?”
“I know the male.”
Bo just stared at him, clearly waiting for him to continue.
“The huge male is my brother.” And he hadn’t contacted Lachlan since his brother had woken up from Hibernation. He’d been in contact with Cody, their younger brother, and as far as he knew Cody had kept Rhys’s secret that he was awake. He’d woken before Lachlan so his brother hadn’t felt his awakening.
Shame spiraled through him that he hadn’t contacted Lachlan, but he knew his brother would try to stop him from getting vengeance.
Rhys knew he was on a dark, self-destructive path and he didn’t want to bring his oldest brother down with him. Because Lachlan would feel the need to swoop in and help. And they’d done that dance before. Lachlan, Cody and Rhys had all lost their sister, but it was clear that Cody and Lachlan had made lives for themselves. And as he watched the events unfold on-screen, he realized that his brother was mated. Or close to being mated, given the protective way he was fighting alongside the phoenix.
Holy shit, he needed to call Cody.
“They’re still in New Orleans, if you want to see your brother.”
“How do you even know that?”
The male simply grinned at him. “I know a lot of things. But my sister is friends with your brother’s new mate.”
So Lachlan and the female were mated. “That female looks familiar,” he murmured as a new image flashed on the screen. It was a picture of the female—not in phoenix form—taken as if from afar. Kind of like a tabloid-type image.
Bo threw his head back and laughed. “That’s the understatement of the decade.”
Frowning even deeper, Rhys looked at the screen again, but without the volume and no closed caption, he had no clue what was being said. “Why is that funny? Who is she?”
“Before The Fall she was one of the biggest superstars on the planet.