I had no response to that because she was right. A Lilin was methodical in his selection, and he collected what he considered to be the best breeding stock. His one goal was to ensure he got strong, healthy offspring.
Beth grew quiet, and I worried for the hundredth time that this job was too much for her. Most new warriors worked at strongholds for the first few years, and they were gradually exposed to the worst this world had to offer. No one fresh out of training should have to deal with something this serious.
Sara leaned back in her chair and took a deep breath of cool evening air.
“This California weather is spoiling me. I guess I’ll have to get used to the cold again when we go to New York.”
“We can stay here if that’s what you want,” Nikolas told her.
Her eyes gleamed with excitement. “Oh, no. California’s great, but I can’t wait to see New York.”
Beth leaned forward in interest. “When do you leave?”
“We’ll stay here until the current threat is over,” Nikolas said. “The Council purchased a property there, and it’s being renovated now.”
“There’s a huge demon community there, almost as big as the one here,” Sara added. “I’m going to get to know them while Nikolas does his thing.”
I met Nikolas’s gaze across the table and fought back a laugh. I already knew his thoughts on Sara’s plans to build relations with the demons. He wasn’t against it. He just wasn’t sure he and New York were ready for it.
Beth smiled. “That should be fun.”
“You guys have to come visit us,” Sara told her. “There’s so much to do there.”
I watched Beth’s reaction to Sara’s assumption the two of us would be together then, and I felt a surge of relief when she smiled.
Beth looked at me. “I thought you were going to New York with them.”
I realized then that I hadn’t told her I planned to assume leadership of this command center after Nikolas left. Although, I’d made that decision before she and I had bonded, and having a mate changed things. Did she even want to stay in Los Angeles?
“I’ll stay here for now. I’m not sure about long-term. What about you? Do you want to see New York?”
Her smile grew. “Yes. It’s on my list of places to visit.”
“I want to travel, too,” Sara said eagerly. “Nikolas and I are going to Africa next year.” She grinned at him. “He promised to show me the best sunsets in the world.”
Nikolas gave her an indulgent smile. “And I always keep my promises.”
Sara turned to Beth again. “Maybe we can all go together.”
One of the French doors opened before Beth could reply, and Raoul strode out, his serious expression telling me he wasn’t coming to hang out.
“We got a call from someone at the mayor’s office. There’s a problem on a container ship down at the port.”
“What kind of problem?” I asked, pushing back my chair. City officials only contacted us when it was something big.
“The bazerat kind,” Raoul answered wryly. “Some genius tried to ship a whole container of them, and it broke open when they loaded it on the ship. The ship is overrun. Luckily, most of the crew weren’t on board yet. The ones who were are holed up on the bridge.”
Nikolas and I stood at the same time. Bazerats were rat-like demons about the size of a small dog that were normally found in the Amazon. A single bazerat was harmless, but a whole pack was deadly, especially once they picked up the scent of blood. We had to contain them before some of them managed to get off the ship, if they hadn’t already. The last thing we needed was those things breeding in the sewers.
“Call in everyone you can find,” Nikolas told Raoul.
“Will’s already on it.”
I looked at Beth. “Ever work with bazerats in training?”
“No.”
Sara laughed. “Then you’re in for a real treat.” She tossed her napkin on the table. “What are we waiting for? We have a pack of demon rodents to round up.”
* * *
I looked up from my tablet when I sensed Beth approaching, and I watched her enter the house through the French doors. She was dressed comfortably in leggings and a T-shirt with her hair piled on top of her head in a loose knot. In one hand, she carried a large mug. The other hand was wrapped in a bandage.
“How’s your hand?” I asked when she sank down on the other end of the couch.
“I should be able to take this off in an hour or so.”
I laid the tablet on the couch and slid over to her. “Let me check it.”
“It’s fine,” she protested, but she couldn’t hide the slight wince when I started unwrapping the bandage.
I gave her a stern look. “I’ll be the judge of that.”
I gently removed the wrapping and examined the two puncture wounds that went from the back of her hand to her palm. The holes were puckered, but there was no sign of infection. Bazerats, like many demons, had bacteria in their saliva that could cause infection if not treated carefully.
“I told you it was okay,” Beth grumbled.
I took my time wrapping her hand again. When I finished, I couldn’t resist lifting her hand and pressing a light kiss to her fingers.
“Do you do that for all your patients?” she joked a little breathlessly.
“Only the beautiful ones who jump into the hold of a ship to save me from a pack of hungry demons.”
She smiled and rolled her eyes. “A simple thank you will do.”
“Thank you,” I said with a smile that hid my true emotions. I couldn’t let her know I was still worked up from watching her go down under a pile of bazerats. She’d come out of it with one bite and some scratches, but that was something I never wanted to see again.
It had been utter pandemonium when we’d arrived at the container ship last night, and it had taken the better part of the night for us to capture or kill every last bazerat and to deal with the injured. Not to mention the frightened crew who now believed they’d been overrun by a shipment of exotic rats from New Guinea.
When I’d followed the screams of a terrified dock worker into the hold, I found him trying to climb the side of a container with several bazerats hanging off him. The blood from his injuries had soon attracted dozens of the creatures. I’d tossed the man up on top of the container and set about dealing with the immediate threat.
What I hadn’t expected was for Beth to come running to my rescue, or for the bazerats to turn on her instead. I was pretty sure I’d lost decades off my life when they attacked her, and hours later I was still trying to calm my agitated Mori.
“You want breakfast?” I asked her, needing something to keep me busy.
“Sure.”
Sara walked into the living room. “I’ll have some.”
I cooked up eggs and sausage for the three of us, and we ate it at the breakfast bar. Sara and Beth kept the conversation light, and I felt a lot calmer inside by the time we finished eating.
Nikolas came in as Sara and Beth were cleaning the kitchen, and his grave expression immediately put me on edge again. Sara must have sensed something was off, because she dropped the dish towel and hurried to Nikolas.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“We just got word that five more girls went missing last night.”
Sara gasped. “The Lilin?”
“They were all in the right age range.” His eyes met mine briefly. “One of them was Mei Lin.”
Beth put a hand to her mouth. “No.”
Mei was the girl we’d saved the night of the rave. Her parents had taken her away right after it happened, and I’d had no idea they had come back to town. Otherwise, we would have had someone watching her.
“The bazerats were a decoy,” I said almost to myself.
We’d been wondering why the Lilin was so quiet and now we knew why. He’d been arranging a distraction to keep us busy while he moved in and snatched those girls.
Nikolas’s face hardened. “Yes.”
Beth looked from Nikolas to me. “What do we do now?”
“We work harder to find the Lilin,” I told her, wishing I had a better answer. Without a solid lead or a stroke of good luck, it would be almost impossible to track him down. And in a city this big, there was no way we could know where he’d strike next or who his intended victims were.