"Amicable," he scoffed under his breath.
"Acceptable, then," Aram amended. "We are going to request an audience with Renwick."
"What?" I hissed, rising out of my seat.
"Wait," Aram insisted in a strained voice, growing weary of being the calm, rational one, it seemed. "If we charge in and steal what Renwick believes to be a rightful prisoner—based on the story both you and Drex agreed to feed him—then there will be a war that rages for generations. And to be honest, Nova, we're not in the mood."
I guess I had to understand that.
"You think he will be okay with the truth, though?" I asked.
"Okay with might not be the right way of phrasing it, but understanding his previous limited information may make him more malleable to a solution that won't waste all our time and resources to deal with."
"But what if he doesn't agree?" I pressed.
"Then we will find another way," Ace said, shrugging.
They weren't really giving me much information. But I didn't think they would give me much more even if I asked for it.
"So what now?"
"Now, we need you to call Renwick and set up the meeting," Ace said.
"What? Me?" my voice squeaked out of me, a small, airless sound.
"This started with you," Ace told me. "It has to end with you too."
Chapter Fifteen
Nova
I don't know what I was expecting.
I only knew my heart was firmly lodged up in my throat as I made my way up the very path I'd just fled that very morning.
Renwick had been short on the phone, listening to me relaying Ace's desire to have a meeting to discuss Drex's imprisonment, then simply agreeing, and giving me a time before hanging up.
He'd never been an overly emotive man.
I had no way to know how he truly felt about the whole situation, what his plan was going to be, if we were all walking into a trap.
At least if we were, we stood a chance.
It wasn't just Ace and Aram along with me.
There was Lenore's man, Lycus, Bael, Daemon, Minos, and for some reason... Arick.
The missing members of the Seven Sins MC—Red and Seven—would likely have been along as well. But, from what I could gather, Red had taken off after some guy, and Seven had taken off to make sure Red was okay.
But six demons and one warlock against whatever number of vampires were inside the mansion seemed like relatively fair odds, seeing as vampires could die, and demons could not.
Still, my stomach was in knots as we waited for dusk, then made our way over toward Renwick's home.
It felt oddly unfamiliar as we climbed out of Ace's SUV, despite my having spent a large chunk of my life inside the walls.
"Kinda see why you'd give up your blood to live here," Daemon said, getting a smack on the back of his neck from his brother. It was hard enough for Daemon to stumble a step before catching himself.
Aram and Arick flanked my sides as Ace walked a few steps ahead of us.
Safe, I knew I was safe.
But my heartbeat was slamming in my chest. My blood was whooshing through my ears. My palms felt damp enough for me to wipe them on my pant legs.
Arick's hand lifted, hovering at the back of my neck. There was a cool tingling sensation in the air between our skin that slowly moved outward, spreading down my neck, shoulders, back, then wrapping around my front, moving upward until it enveloped me completely.
"That's a neat trick," I said, hearing a slowness in my voice, almost like I'd been drugged. Drugged by magic of some sort.
"It wears off in just a couple minutes, but it can come in handy," Arick agreed as we moved to the front stoop, all of us waiting as Ace rang the bell.
It was Irina, of all people, who opened the door.
There was no mistaking the disappointment in her eyes as her gaze fell on me.
I gave her a tight nod as Ace requested an audience with Renwick.
"Okay. Um, well, come into the library," she said, opening the door wide, and stepping to the side.
The library wasn't empty.
Several of Renwick's friends were hanging around. Their beautiful, curious faces turned in our direction as we moved inside.
Alice, the new thrall, everyone's current favorite, was dressed in a silk gown with a slit clear up her thigh. Red was the vampires' favorite color for obvious reasons, but it accented her blonde hair and pale skin beautifully as she draped over the arm of one of the sofas as one of Renwick's guests fed from her neck and another the vein in her inner thigh.
One of the other vampires—a tall, dark-skinned man in an all black suit—snapped his fingers, making Irina suddenly move from near me, pausing only to give my wrist a small squeeze before situating herself on his lap, leaning her head back on his shoulder, and offering him her throat.