“So you’ve said at least five times now,” James replied with an amused grin at the edge of his mouth. Lily gave him an unamused look through narrowed eyes. “Yeah, yeah, go give your sister her food. I’ll get us some lunch or in the meantime,” he told her. Lily scowled at him then stuck her tongue out at him leaving with a plate. He laughed, as he continued to pile on the food and sat down at a table.
To distract himself from the food until Lily came back, James thought of the girl. What kind of effect would this have on her? He remembered it had taken him a long time to adjust when he escaped after his two-year captivity. Lily seemed to be handling it all well, also. He had been worried that she would feel guilty and go on a self-destructive path. So far she was only vowing to kill this Vincent every few minutes. That wasn’t bad.
“Earth to James,” Lily demanded, snapping her fingers before him.
“I’m here,” James said after blinking a few times to get his eyes to refocus. “That was quick. I thought you might like to spend some sister bonding time with her.”
Lily scoffed and sat down across from him. “James she doesn’t know I’m the hybrid and I plan on keeping it that way. So no, there won’t be any sisterly bonding anytime soon.”
“What, why?” James asked and gave her a confused look. He knew family meant a lot to her. Why wouldn’t she want to talk to Tristen?
“It’s better for her this way. It will be easier for her to go back the less she knows,” Lily told him picking at the food before her. She ate a piece of bagel then gagged. She took a slow deep breath and picked up a piece of bacon and took a cautious bite then sighed with relief. “Looks like I’m almost purely a carnivore now,” she said, nibbling on the bacon.
“So the vampire side still doesn’t like real food… except for bacon?” James asked with a light laugh.
“That and any meat it seems,” Lily replied. “Like I said, pure carnivore.”
“Well ay least it’s something,” he said stealing the bagel and frown. “Or this is just God awful,” he added, spitting it out. “I’m going to check up with Nick after we eat. I want to make sure he doesn’t make the same mistakes Tony made.”
“Right, good idea,” Lily replied. “I’m going to call Xin Qian and sew what’s taking her so long to get here. Chris and she should’ve been here by now. She has her own freaking jet after all!”
“Her own jet? How does she have her own jet?” James asked before trying the steak. It wasn’t great but it was edible.
“Alpha daddy owns a bank,” Lily replied with a snort of amusement.
“So Chis has a banker father in law and a super powerful witch as a mother in law. Man he ever steps one toe out of line he is screwed,” James said, laughing and pitying his friend.
“Don’t forget about the kick ass hybrid best friend,” Lily jumped in with a smirk.
“Right, how could I forget her,” James said with a wink. “I bet he won’t make it three years without a curse, or an audit, or an ass kicking or all three!”
“I give it a year. You always were the optimist James,” she replied and he shrugged in admission.
When they finished James saw Chris and Xin Qian pulling into the parking lot. “Sorry we’re late,” Xin Qian practically yelled from across the lot before skipping over to them.
“You missed the rescue,” Lily told her, shaking her head.
“Really?” Xin Qian said her cheerful expression dimming.
“Really,” Lily replied, crossing her arms over her chest. “What took you so long to get here?”
Xin Qian huffed while Chris snickered. “She decided to go to Portland to get supplies then we got snowed in for a couple of hours,” Chris explained.
Xin Qian frowned, mimicking Lily’s crossed arms posture. “It’s not my fault. I didn’t know it was going to snow,” she complained.
Lily grinned, threw an arm over Xin Qian’s shoulders. “It’s okay. I forgive you… if you promise to give me your first born,” she teased, making the Asian werewolf giggle. “Actually, if you can come with me maybe you can help Tristen, the girl that the vampires took. She got hurt pretty bad on her arms,” Lily explained, a brief expression of guilt overtook her face.
“Really? Poor girl! Let’s go,” Xin Qian said, suddenly excited again. “I’m sure I’ve got something that can help her!” She took Lily’s hand in hers and gave it a tug excitedly. James shook his head. He wondered where that girl got all her energy from.
“So, what’s been going on?” Chris said, rocking on his feet.
“You know the typical. Vampires causing trouble and we go in to stop them,” he said with a smirk but it dimmed as he looked over at Chris. His own guilt welled up inside him as he saw the still visible scars on Chris’ neck and face. Vampires had persuaded Chris and several others into attacking James while in masks and cloaks. In the heat of the moment, he hadn’t realized it was Chris or his fellow pack mates until it was too late.
Chris was the only one who survived and it was all thanks to Xin Qian. Without her magic, he probably would’ve died and it was why James was so adamant in making sure Nick didn’t make similar mistakes as his alpha. “Come on, let’s go check in with Nick,” James said, walking towards the main entrance of the hotel.