“Bring her in here, Asher.”
Ash squeezed his eyes shut for a moment and took a long deep breath and pushed it out of his lungs before he opened his eyes.
“Come on.” Ash took her hand and led the two women into the bar that while it was still clearly a bar, had none of the party vibes or even drunken stupor vibes going on. It was serious and quiet like a boardroom.
“This is Finley and Olivia Sawyer.”
“They’re human,” one man said.
“Perceptive.” Finley found Henrik leaning back against the wall. “She’s not just a human, is she Ash?”
Ash shot him a glare.
“She’s…”
Another man sighed. “She’s his mate.”
“Gavin,” Ash growled.
“Now is not the time to be hesitant.”
Finley was done being talked around. “Excuse me, but would someone like to talk to me about what’s going on here and stop talking around me like this is the nineteenth century and women should be seen and not heard.”
The man at the head of the table chuckled. “You’re quite right, Miss Sawyer. We’re being rude. Please tell us what happened to you to make you believe that vampires are involved.”
Finley recounted the story as best as she could without understanding how it all really happened.
She looked over at Ash. “Did you tell them what happened with Tristian?”
“I hadn’t gotten there yet.”
“Well you weren’t there, so I’ll tell them. Though, who exactly am I talking to?” She’d been so eager to tell Ash what happened with Olivia, she’d forgotten about all the men around them.
“This is a dragon conclave. I called one to investigate Tristian. My word wasn’t enough to start allegations against him.”
“But you saw him kill your parents,” she said.
“According to your testimony, someone else is taking credit for that,” Gavin said.
A man cleared his throat. Finley glanced over and then did a doubletake. There was something about this man. He was standing in the shadow’s of the club. It was hard to make out any identifying features.
His deep voice filled the room. “We’re really going to believe that someone would confess such a thing to a human?”
Finley shivered. It wasn’t the voice, it was the cadence.
“You think someone else is trying to frame the vampires?” Henrik balked at the suggestion. “Those bastards, no offense, Cillian, have always been power hungry. My father told us to never trust a vampire.”
Another man chuckled. “I don’t see why I would take offense.” He must be Cillian.
He was a vampire?
Cillian stood. “I’ll be the first to admit, we’ve had some nasty history. With the dragons, the fae, the witches…we aren’t tolerated many places, not even with each other. We don’t all have the same agendas. The worst of us was rotting in a dragon cell for centuries for trying to take over the humans at one point. But remember, he had a dragon co-conspirator.”
“Stories, slander, garbage,” Henrik barked.
Cillian turned to Henrik. “Are they now? Why don’t you ask your brother about that?”
Ash sighed. “Thanks, Cillian, for that.”