Jake (Immortals of New Orleans #8)(92)

"What the hell is going on?" he asked.

"Just chill." Quintus held up a dismissive hand. Pressing his lips to her cheek, he gave her a quick kiss and ushered her out the door.

"I thought you were getting a fucking donor." Jake rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"Ah yes, well you see, she was a no show and the lovely Cassandra offered to assist me … "

"Cass doesn't like vampires."

"But I'm not just any vampire, my friend. And Cassandra, she's not your ordinary human."

"Yeah, okay, big man. You're something special all right." Jake lifted the knife, and set his focus on the object. "You better not have hurt her."

"Seriously, wolf. Don't you know me by now? I'd never hurt a hair on her precious head. She's special."

"Whatev. She looked dazed to me. What kind of fucking vamp mumbo jumbo did you lay on her?"

"She's relaxed from the bite is all." Quintus shrugged, and made his way to the mini bar. Rummaging through it, he retrieved a bottle of Pelligrino and twisted off the cap.

"I know what your bite feels like, asshole, and that's not the look I had."

"She's human. It's altogether different. I'm careful to restrain the energy that comes through but with humans … it's always difficult to gauge what will happen their first time. But as you can see, she's walking and talking. She's brilliant. All's good."

"I'm serious as fuck, asshole. What did you do?"

"I didn't do anything except feed. And I must say, she was delicious. But out of respect for your mongrel ass, that's as far as it went."

"I don't want you eating my friends."

"You let me eat Kai," Quintus snapped back with a raised eyebrow and a grin. He turned to the bar and set the cap aside, taking a long draw of his water.

"I'm starting to regret it." Jake eyed the raised scars that striped the vampire's back then turned his attention back to the knife. Whatever had caused the injuries had been done before he'd been turned, but Jake was reluctant to ask.

"Cassandra is perfectly fine. And yes, she does seem to have a thing for vampires, and not in a good way."



       
         
       
        

"You better not have forced those fangs on her."

"Nothing of the sort. I told you. The donor was a no show. Nothing more, nothing less. She offered. I could see she was a little reluctant. Long story short, I offered to break her cherry. She accepted." Quintus threw himself back into an oversized chair and propped his feet on an ottoman. He held up his hands defensively. "That's all that happened. No sex if that's what you're worried about. Sadly."

"Don't take this the wrong way, because I'm going to be fully mated soon and don't have an interest in Cass. It's just that she's helping us out and I don't want to take advantage. She's a business owner. A friend. A very human one. She's innocent."

"You've been with her?" Quintus asked.

"Yeah, but you know, it was once. I was out here trying to figure out what the hell was going on in Anzober Wolves. She was on vacation. We just kind of hit it off. But she was coming off a long term relationship. And I'm a wolf. I can't go forming any hard core relationships with anyone. I know you vamps, y'all can make it with a human."

"What's Kai up to?" Quintus changed the subject. "We should probably flash out soon. Gotta get to the Elders … find Kasdeya."

"I wish I knew more about this Kris. These markings. Have you seen them?"

"Yeah, I was looking at them earlier but I don't recognize the language."

"Ancient civilizations. They used symbols."

"The wolf knows history?" Quintus chuckled.

"It's a hobby. A while back I helped Leo out with some Mesoamerican history when they were having problems with a different demon. It's my comfort zone. But this? I'd say it's much older. Maybe 3000 BC. I'd guess a Mesopotamian language. Sumerian. Possibly Babylonian or Assyrian. The knife looks about five hundred years old if I had to guess, but whatever's written on here is much older."

"Some days," Quintus laughed. "You think you know someone but nope."

"Take this symbol. Now I'm not entirely sure what this means, but it looks like the Assyrian deity, Shedu." Jake held up the Kris so Quintus could see it. "What do you see?"

"It looks like a lion. A little like a pixiu."

"It's very similar to Kai's creature but not at all the same. I probably could decipher some of this if I had time to research. But time is something we don't have a lot of right now."