Page 84 of Prince with a Chance of Darkness

Dave eased in closer. “Folks, let’s take this get-together somewhere else. I’m sensing black magik in the area still.”

“Oh, that reminds me. Drac, erm, Vlad,” I said with a blush.

He grinned. “You may call me whatever you wish.”

“Right. Uh, some guy who looked a lot like you wanted me to tell you something.” I thought about it. “My mind is a little jumbled from everything happening, but it went something like blah, blah threat. Blah, blah more threats. And then…Fratele meu, dragonul.”

Vlad gasped. “What?”

The black wolf was shifting into a man in seconds.

Jonathan had his shirt off and was covering Lucian’s groin before anyone could see anything. He growled at the man.

Lucian held the shirt to him, his gaze never leaving Vlad. “The forest witch, she warned of a great darkness in your bloodline. A great evil. I thought she meant me. She said brother by blood. I assumed she meant our ties to Dragos.”

The look in Vlad’s eyes said he wasn’t so sure that was the case. He blinked a few times and then narrowed his gaze on Lucian. “You took her from me. Twenty-two years ago. You stole her away from Romania. You betrayed me twice.”

I pulled on Vlad, tugging him to me. “Stop. I don’t know why he did what he did, but he saved my sister, and he made sure we were safe and far from Helen and Dragos. That much I do know. And he came through when Helen and Lester showed up here trying to kill us two weeks ago.”

Vlad paled. “What?”

I patted his arm. “Take it easy. We lived.”

“Mom, um, here,” said Temperance, reaching into her pocket and withdrawing a car key fob. “We, okay, I sort of borrowed one of the Van Helsing SUVS…again.”

I exhaled slowly.

“Don’t worry. I learned my lesson,” she said before looking over at Bram. “I’m sorry.”

He glanced at Vlad. “Have you transportation of the normal kind while you are here?”

“I do, but it is not close,” Vlad said.

“Keep the SUV,” replied Bram. “Come to the estate. We can discuss the attack tonight as well as the message delivered to Mina for you. We should try to figure out what we are up against.”

“We?” asked Vlad.

Bram nodded. “Yes. Mina and Temperance are family to us now—therefore—so are you.”

I went right for him and hugged him tight, knowing that couldn’t have been easy for him to say. “Thank you!”

Jonathan grunted. “Bloody hell! He’s my brother-in-law!”

Lucian laughed. “I was waiting for you to put that together.”

Vlad even cracked a smile.

Bram’s phone rang. He withdrew it from his pocket and answered a second later, he was putting it on speakerphone. “Hi, Mr. Dracula, I’m Marcy, Bram’s wife. Welcome to Grimm Cove. I’m so happy you’re here. Teya and I have been talking about this day for ages. Happy to have everyone in one place now. I can’ttalk long. I have to help Buffy start packing her things. She’ll be living with you, you know?”

“Buffy?” asked Vlad, staring at the phone and then me.

“Raccoon,” said Temperance with a huge smile. “Mom, we’re going to take Buffy?”

“What? No!” I said fast.

“But Marcy said she’s be living with, um, Dad?” she said, clearly trying the word on for size.

Vlad froze.

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