Atlas rolled his eyes. “Mature as always,” he griped.
“You two idiots done getting acquainted with your body parts?” Reece added on his way in. Celestine slapped his arm, but she snorted. “What?” Reece asked his mate. “You didn’t rush into action. Only one thing would do that.” He grinned and crossed his arms. “Mate sex.”
“I don’t think I like this conversation,” Lilliane sang. “None of your business.”
“I don’t know,” Valentine shrugged. “It’s kind of sweet to know that sex with your mate is kind of a thing for them. Bodes well for the longevity of our relationships.” Val arched a brow. “Considering how ours started, it makes me feel all nice and fuzzy inside.” She blew a kiss to Nero, who returned the gesture, adding a wink.
“For real, though,” Val whispered into Lilliane’s ear. “Sex with a mate is something else, right? I have no other experience. So either my man isgifted,or it’s a shifter thing.”
“Shifter thing,” Lilliane answered.
“I take offense to that,” Nero piped up, making Val laugh.
“Actually, so do I,” Atlas crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes at his mate. He couldn’t help but smile when he looked at her, so the whole effect might have been ruined. Lilliane giggled and shrugged. “It was a compliment.”
“Hmm,” he nodded. He was enough of a dick to regret he hadn’t been her first, but he got to be her last, which in the end, was all that fucking mattered anyway. He pulled her into his arms and kissed the top of her head. “I don’t think you know what a compliment is, darling trouble.”
“Aww,” Celestine sighed happily. “He calls herdarling trouble. So sweet.”
“If they only knew,” Atlas whispered in Lilliane’s ear. “Love you.” He swatted her ass and then clapped his hands together. “Okay, we are now operating under the intel that Victor was spotted in Longville. There is no estate house there for him to use, so we don’t know where he’s staying. We’ve got people contacting all the hotels, motels, B&Bs, and AirBnBs in the area. We’ll find where he’s staying and surprise him if we can. Any news on that?” Atlas asked his friends.
Reece shook his head. “Longville and Blackwood are clear so far as we can tell. We’re still waiting to hear about Greenlee and Silvers.”
Atlas nodded. “That’s good. No other sightings?”
“None,” Nero said.
“Well, seeing as how we don’t know how good this intel was, this could all be for nothing.” Reece didn’t like this situation any more than Atlas did.
Lilliane cleared her throat and shifted uncomfortably on her feet. “I have an idea, actually.”
Atlas arched a brow at her. “Do you?”
She shot him an apologetic smile. “I don’t know if it could work, and I was going to run it by the other Half-Bloods in the crowd before bringing it up.”
“Ah,” he said. “Well? Come on, trouble, what’s on your mind?”
She took a deep breath and kept her eyes on him as if he could ease her nervousness by merely being close to her. “There’s an unspoken vamp rule that councils don’t attack other councils. Professional courtesy or whatever. So what if we declare ourselves a vampire council? The council of the Half-Bloods.”
“Oh, shit,” Val gasped, and the three sisters exchanged tense looks. “Do you really think that could work?”
“I don’t know?” Celestine wrung her hands together.
Atlas frowned and pulled Lilliane closer to him. “Wouldthat work?” he asked.
“I don’t know, really. That’s why I didn’t want to bring it up earlier. It could be worth a shot, though. We would be under our own authorityifwe were our own council. I’m not sure how most of them … the full vamps … would feel about recognizing our authority, but I’m hoping it would be just enough to keep them from threatening us. Maybe they would have enough power to get Victor to back off?”
The three wolves and three Half-Bloods were quiet while they took in this new idea. Atlas liked it. A lot. There was a lot of pride in his heart for his mate. “It would be worth a shot. How do we do it?”
“I have no idea,” Lilliane admitted. “It’s not like I know a bunch about vampire council business.”
“None of us do,” Val agreed.
“Dad never shared the details,” Celestine added.
“And with Victor…” Lilliane hissed a breath. “Well, you know what that was like. He didn’t tell meanything.”
Atlas’s jaw tightened. “Hmm. Yeah. How do we find out, then? Do you know any vamps who would be willing to share that kind of detail? How to create a new vampire council?”
