she wanted him to see. She almost stepped behind Lucien to hide from that insightful gaze, but she refused to back down.
“Is Kadence here too?” Lucien asked.
“No,” Ronan said. “And she’s not happy about it.”
“Who else is here?”
“Killean, Nathan, Saxon, Saber, Logan, and Asher. There are some other recruits here too.”
Lucien glanced out the open door, but he didn’t see any of the others. They were most likely hidden in strategic places that would allow them to attack if this had been a trap.
“What do you say we get out of here?” Declan asked.
Lucien wanted nothing more than to get Callie somewhere safe, but he wasn’t excited to leave. They’d found a small reprieve in this motel and discovered each other, but once they left, the harsh reality of his life would return.
He squeezed Callie’s hand and turned to face her. He sensed her uneasiness, but it didn’t show on her face when her eyes met his. “Are you ready?” he asked.
No, she was not ready, but she forced herself to smile as she replied, “Yes.”
Ronan, Declan, and Willow filed out the door in front of him. When Willow turned her back to him, Lucien frowned at the sword strapped to it. The red-orange stone in the hilt shone in the sun filtering over her as she strode across the parking lot to a black SUV.
“Where did she get the sword?” he asked Declan.
A vein throbbed in Declan’s temple as he replied, “That’s what the Savages were looking for in those tunnels when you were all ambushed. She took it from a hunter turned Savage named Derrick during a fight we had with him.”
“The Savages were in those tunnels searching for that sword?”
“Yes.”
“And now Willow has it.”
“Not only does she have it, but she’s the only one who can use it.”
“It’s a sword; we can all cut off someone’s head with it.”
There was something unreadable in Declan’s eyes when they met his again. Out of them all, Declan had always been the kindest; Lucien didn’t sense any of that from him now.
“It’s a lot more than a normal sword,” Declan said as he pulled a lollipop from his pocket, unwrapped it, and stuck it in his mouth.
Lucien couldn’t recall a time he’d ever heard such vitriol in Declan’s voice, but it oozed from him now. He also couldn’t remember a time any of them had ever shown such hatred toward a weapon. It made no sense, but it also made him wary of the sword.
“What happened to the two of you out there?” he asked.
“I’ll fill you in on the ride home,” Declan said.
“What exactly is that thing?”
Red flashed through Declan’s eyes when they met his. “That’s the million-dollar question.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
They spent the next three days traveling back roads and staying away from cameras, but they eventually arrived at the compound the vampires and hunters built together. Callie sat rigidly beside him in the SUV with her hands in her lap and a blindfold firmly in place. He hated putting that blindfold on her, but no one arrived at the compound with the knowledge of how they got there.
When the SUV pulled up in front of the mansion he shared with his brothers, he helped Callie from the vehicle and removed her blindfold. Her mouth parted as she gazed up at the Gothic mansion with its sharp peaks and turrets.
“Are those gargoyles?” she asked in disbelief as she squinted against the sun streaming over the ugly sculptures.
Lucien chuckled as the front door opened and Kadence, Elyse, Simone, and Vicky hurried outside. The reunited couples embraced before breaking away from the group. After nearly a week apart, Lucien doubted he would see any of them again for a long while. Most of the others broke away too; only Declan and Willow remained.
“They are,” Lucien confirmed.
Callie glanced at him before turning her attention to the rest of the compound. She tried to take it all in, but there were so many buildings and vampires or hunters or whoever lived there that it was impossible to absorb it all.
She didn’t belong here; this wasn’t her world, but she had nowhere else to go, and she wasn’t eager to part from Lucien. However, she might not have a choice. She had no idea what would happen now that they were back in his world.
The nervousness she experienced on their journey here tripled. She twisted her hands together as she resisted crawling back into the SUV to hide.
“It will take some time to get used