25. Rami #3
Unlike with Nate, there was no concern or anger in his tone. Benji knew his mate was out there and would find him when the time was right.
Probably helped that he didn’t have an identical twin who could already sense his mate waiting for him.
“Is Micah greeting our guests?” I asked Ez. He nodded and I raised a brow. “And no one else went with him?”
“Micah thought it was more of a power play to go alone,” Breann said, her arm casually slung over Grace’s shoulders. “Suggests we don’t see them as a threat.”
“Don’t we?”
“That’s the question we’re hoping to get answered today,” Benji said. “But given we’ve been asking questions about Damien Gaunt, there’s no way to know for sure. Either they’re here to defend him…”
“Or?”
“Or they’ll help us kill him.”
The sound of the front door opening had Benji pocketing his cube. We all sat a little straighter in our seats. None of us revealed our wings or so much as a lick of power. We didn’t need to. Everyone knew who we were and what we were capable of.
Micah stepped into the room first, his face set in its usual professional mask. Four vampires filed in behind him, all male. All beautiful.
All glaring at us murderously.
“Everyone, this is the Gaunt Clan.”
Micah went around the table, introducing us all by name, but I barely heard him over the word resounding in my ears.
Gaunt.
Gaunt.
Gaunt.
These four were part of the same clan as the vampire who’d warded Ethan’s home. Given what I knew about vampiric clans, they were likely blood related.
Micah hadn’t divulged that piece of information to me, just that a group of vampires had requested a meeting. From the muscle ticking in his jaw, I suspected their identity was new information to him too.
When Micah was done, the tallest vampire stepped forwards. His dark hair was slicked back from his face, his brown eyes glittering as he pointed at each vampire in turn. “I’m Ezra. These are my brothers, Elias, Erik, and Emerson.”
Theo, ever the shit-stirrer, was the one to point out the obvious. “All the Es. How quaint.”
The one called Elias smirked, the piercing in his brow catching the light with the movement. “It’s a Gaunt family tradition. Every new generation is named after the same letter of the alphabet.”
Which meant Damien was either their father or their uncle. Knowing our luck, it’d be the former. I surreptitiously started drawing up my power. Beside me, I felt Noah doing the same.
“Please, do take a seat.” Micah nodded to the empty chairs.
Ezra was the first to move, confidently striding over to the seat at the head of the table. After shooting a few looks at one another, his three siblings joined him.
Micah settled into the seat at the other end, clasping his hands together on the table as he smiled at them pleasantly. “We weren’t aware you were back in the country.”
Ezra gave him a thin smile. “Elias has been in London for several years now, but the rest of us returned last week.”
I glanced at Nate, who gave a small nod. Okay, so we did know that Elias had been living locally. That was something, at least.
“Where were you before?” Noah asked conversationally, as if it was a casual question. As if everyone around this table didn’t know that this meeting was far from casual.
“Barcelona.” Emerson was the one to answer that, his voice gruff.
Like his brothers, his hair was dark. His was longer than his brothers’, half hiding his face from us.
With the tattoos on his hands, he looked exactly like the kind of guy you’d see in a dark alley and then walk in the other direction.
Erik was the only one who hadn’t spoken so far. His eyes were a crystal blue, his full lips pursed. He was leaning back in his chair, just as Nate had been earlier, his shrewd gaze zipping around the table. The whole room, actually. Like he was mapping out exactly where the exits were.
Or what he might be able to use as a weapon if this came down to a fight.
Clever or foolish? Because if it came down to a fight, using an exit would be the only viable plan for the four of them.
“How nice,” Grace said. “I do love Barcelona. Did you ever visit—”
“Can we cut the nicey nicey bullshit?” Elias said suddenly with a sigh. “We all know why we’re here. Let’s just get on with it.”
“Actually we don’t know why you’re here,” Benji said. “Which is why we’re engaging in the ‘nicey nicey bullshit,’ as you so eloquently put it.”
Elias smirked again. God, he was as bad as the twins. “Don’t you get bored of behaving all the time?”
Theo pulled a dagger from somewhere and twirled it between his fingers as he met Elias’s smirk with one of his own. “Wanna go outside and see how I like to behave?”
“Theo,” Micah said sharply. He glared at Theo until he put his dagger away with a sigh.
“I apologise for my brother,” Ezra growled. He too was glaring, but at Elias. “He’s not meant for company.”
Elias blew a kiss at his brother before settling back into his chair.
“Perhaps you should tell us why you requested this meeting,” Micah said.
“Oh, that’s simple,” Ezra said. “We want to help you kill our father.”