Vampires.
I glare at Nyx.“What are your vampires doing here?”
He listens carefully.“I don’t have vampires.”
“You’re their lord. You have your own vampires.”
“Being a lord isn’t like being an alpha. I don’t have control over them, just influence. And right now, with the curses, they are all scared.”
“Get them the hell out of here!”
“It’s my pack’s territory. I’ll decide if they need to leave or not.”
“Keeping them here isn’t safe for Lumi.”
“No shit,”he spits back before putting a wall up.
Asshole.
Lumi studies me, and I know she knows that I was talking to Nyx in my mind. I know she can hear us talking sometimes, but her confused face tells me she didn’t hear anything now.
“If I ask you to stay in the house for your safety until they leave, will you?”
“Are you asking me?”
I sigh. “No.”
“Good, because I’m not going to be locked up in a cage. I’m an alpha now. I have a responsibility to protect my pack.”
I give her a weak nod. I don’t say everything that I’m thinking. That her pack is only Kael. That if she dies, my heart goes with her. That if she dies, the fate of our world ends.
Chapter 22
Lumi
Nyx keeps staring at me as we stand outside the house. He’s standing to my left, Ambrose on my right. Ambrose instinctively reaches for my hand, and I let him take it.
“What?” I ask Nyx.
He shakes his head slightly. “I’m just surprised Ambrose doesn’t have you locked up somewhere.”
Me too, I think, but I don’t say it out loud. “Why, because that’s what you’d do?”
He raises an eyebrow at me. “Would I lock you up to protect you?”
“No, that’s not self-sacrificing enough for you. Where’s Amora?”
He shrugs. “I’m not her keeper.”
I scan the forest shadows, looking for the vampires I can sense but can’t see. “Why are they here during the day? Why not wait until night to attack?”
“Maybe they aren’t here for a fight,” Nyx says.
“Vampires are always here for a fight. They think they are the superior species since they are immortal after all,” Ambrose says.
“Are they yours?” I ask him.
Nyx listens for a minute and then takes a deep breath. “No.”