Hi,
I'm gonna keep it short this time and just say this: Gear up for the next few chapters.
Read, vote, comment - let me know what you think :-)
Lara
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Chapter 32
I touched my pendant, fingers brushing over the stone â a motion I'd performed repeatedly over the last few hours. It was cold and dormant at the moment, and yet it gave off a sense of peace and reassurance that made me breathe a little easier.
Alexander gave it back to me without any preambles or overtures. A motion as suspicious as uncharacteristic. A detailed inspection of the pendant and a step into second sight showed that it hadn't been tampered with. If there was a catch in him letting me go just like that, I was totally missing it.
I still wasn't positive someone was in Le Mouret. Nothing seemed amiss when I searched through the room and the rest of my hiding place. Still, there was just this awkward feeling in the pits of my stomach. Or maybe I was just getting paranoid. Running from everyone and everything was doing a number on me.
I stared down at the junk of concrete and metal. The sun was slowly but surely descending, just a few more hours and nightfall would come, like an afterthought. Still enough time for us to roam through the city without undead baggage and things that went bump in the night.
The Raven was planning something and according to the note I saw on his desk, it was supposed to happen in less than one week. What could he be possibly planning? More attacks? More vampires to be murdered? A major magically induced cloud of smog? I had no idea.
I knew Alexander's demise or death was one of the Raven's main objectives, whether for personal reasons or reasons that further served his long term goal of the Circle's downfall. What would help him reach this aim most?
I had no clue.
The sewer system had always been his favorite hiding place. It was vast enough to hide a whole army of rogues. And yet, there were certain spots that were predestined as hiding places for someone who, if need be, wanted multiple exits open at all times as well as easy access to food and water. Then there were those spots that met the more mundane daily needs even rogue witches had from time to time.
I'd been living with the rogues for weeks. But, did I know enough to guess what the Raven's next move was going to be? If anybody could track them by scent it was the wolves, I was sure of that.
Noise from behind. I turned and there he was.
"You came," I said.
"Of course I did. I said I would," Andy said. His clothes were clean and his hair was pulled back in a low ponytail, but there was a slight stubble on his face. He was hiding it well, but I was pretty sure Andy hadn't slept much in the last few days.
"Where are we going?" He said, nodding towards Marrok's dormant city of wolves.
"We've got to find the Raven, Andy. And I don't think I or we can do it alone."
He shook his head. "You should let the Circle handle this, Anna."
Like anyone's going to believe me.
I took a deep breath. "You don't get it. Everybody thinks Medici's just crazy. But there's a difference between plain crazy and a criminal with a brilliant unhinged mind. I've seen it. The Raven was acting methodically, working his way towards something. He attacked a security company and broke into various locations in the city he used as secret vaults for magical artifacts."
I stared at him, and our eyes met in that spot of perfect understanding that lets you communicate without words. "He's gearing up for something. If I'm right, whatever he's gearing up for is going to happen in less than one week. I just don't know what yet," I said.
"You think he's hiding in the tunnels. That's why you need the wolves," he said, scanning the metal junkyard below.
I nodded. "The tunnel system he used goes back to the late 1950s when part of the witches initially used it for secret meetings. It spreads all over the city, even though some parts were shut down about a decade ago. The possibilities are endless."
I dug into my jacket and brought out the map, unfolding it slowly. "I marked the spots we were in while I was with the Inri Brotherhood with red."
"Strategically lucrative spots." He stared at the map for a moment. "What about the green dots?"
"Before I left, I caught a glimpse of a map Medici kept in his make-shift study room â the Inri Brotherhood jokingly called it his war room." I rolled my eyes. "I think the map I saw was filled with tactical hiding spots I assume he was going to use next. I marked those I remembered. I just don't know why he chose these and when he's going to use them."
Andy's eyes met mine. "If we can find out which hiding places the Raven already used up, we have a better chance of catching him," he said.
I nodded. "Exactly."
A trickle of motion in the graveyard of metal below like a drop causing ripples in a calm water surface.
Andy's eyes darted to the entrance to Marrok's keep. "I want to know what you had to trade in for their help. After this is over."
I smiled. If we all got out of this alive, I was considering telling him many things.
* * *
It came in from the north. The wind was icy, howling like a predator stalking the night. We were approaching the fourth location that might or might not have been Medici's current hiding place.
The three great witches knew, the last three locations turned out to be empty and vacated. Not a trace of the infamous leader of the Inri Brotherhood â or one of his minions. We were running out of time and daylight. The night was approaching, darkness growing by the minute, robbing us of eyesight.
We circled the place like a SWAT team on steroids, the wolves moving in sync and attuned to each other â like a pack was supposed to be. Adrenaline was thick in the night, seemed to cling to us like heavy smog clings to the city's rooftops.
Rushed and pushed by the collective hunger for blood, for results the search had failed to bring, I frequently stumbled, reminded of my non-pack state. Not so Andy, who moved with the stealth of a trained soldier. If you looked at it that way I was a liability.
The Raven's senses were still finely attuned to the magical planes. He would sense our approach as soon as we were close enough. I used elemental magic to conceal my and Andy's, but I couldn't conceal the rest of our group. We had to move in swiftly and use the element of surprise â the only advantage we had, if we had any at all.
I scanned the vicinity, frowning. Something about the street was disturbingly familiar. The entrance to the sewer system was right beside a shut-down factory. It fit the Raven's pattern perfectly. The area was close to the Crimson District, vacated, and at an intersection of pipes and concrete ravines that made it hard to navigate through without getting lost â the better to hide and conceal. Particularly if you looked at the end of the-
I stilled, took another good look at the vicinity. Something about the street was familiar. I turned. Graffiti-smeared walls, outdated cars that sat there like hollowed out carcasses watching the slow progress of time silently. My eyes darted back to the crumbling concrete, the blood-red graffiti and the peculiar signs edged into the stone.
Déjà vu, a ghostly sensation that grabbed me around the neck, squeezing. I'd been here before, weeks ago when we investigated Alexander's coven leaders. If you walked on and stopped somewhere at the end of the street, you'd be standing in front of a tall, kingly mansion. I'd never been inside the building, but Zack pointed it out to me when we passed once. We were in the vicinity of Victor's coven.
The hair on the back of my neck lifted. Coincidence, or more than that?
I hadn't even noticed when we looked at the marked spot on the map. Then again, my run-ins with Alexander and his coven leaders were not memories I particularly treasured.
One of the wolves watching this hiding spot reported about half an hour ago, saying he saw a rogue entering a portal down the street. If not for the fact I would have moved on right now, going to the next potential hiding place on the list without a second thought. Hiding in plain sight of someone affiliated with the head vampire was too rash, even for someone like the Raven.
But the wolf saw a rogue. Here.
I stilled. Unless this wasn't about hiding themselves. I turned towards the half-circle of wolves, eyes grazing the end of the street. Maybe I already knew why we hadn't found anything at the other sites, why the wolves guarding the spots I showed Marrok didn't see any rogues.
The dark witches might have been there before, but probably not for hiding. They'd been at the last three we searched through at some point in time. We assumed they already used them up as hiding places and moved on to the next ones.
I dug into my jacket, pulled out the map and unrolled it on the ground. The spot we were at now was marked red, which meant it should have been used before. Judging from the Raven's usual pattern, we should have found traces of the Brotherhood in the first spot. We didn't.
Something was off. Maybe I was totally off target.
I concentrated on the green spots marked on the map. Those weren't locations the Raven was going to use for hiding in the future. They were something else. What if the rogues didn't use those spots for hiding, but for something else, like say storing something?
My fingers tightened on the paper. That abandoned apartment building me and Andy found in Brooklyn a few days ago. Was the Raven picking up more weapons and artifacts? Had the attack on the vacant building right beside it been just a ruse? I stilled.
Diversionary tactics, by the book. The Raven's book.
I closed my eyes and let myself fall into second sight.
The presence of the wolves was like a light red glimmer in the gray around me. Further down the street a cloud of auratic black, right where Victor Crawford's coven house was situated. Were the rogues unaware that they were so close to a place one of Alexander's vamps owned?
I turned to Marrok, blinking against reality and second sight.
"Were your wolves watching the whole street?"
The Alpha's face twisted. "Who do you take us for?"
"There's a vamp coven house at the end of the street, belonging to Victor Crawford," I said.
"You think it's more than a coincidence," Andy said from beside me.
I nodded.
Marrok's eyes went to two wolves behind us, nodding slowly. The smell of musk behind our backs vanished soundlessly. I knew without turning that the wolves had left. Hopefully to check if there-
A ripple in the auratic landscape. Someone just teleported into the sewer system underneath us.
I stood and closed my eyes. "Two rogues. Medici's not with them. In the cavern underneath us, two turns to the right."
I opened my eyes. Reality slammed into me and I saw Marrok lift his hand in between the dizzying clash of sights. Half of the wolves surged forward, moving into the cavern as one.
No.
"Wait, what if more are coming?" I said. I might let Marrok take credit for catching the Raven, if we did, but I still had a say about how we did this.
Marrok looked at me. "He'd move in with all of them. Didn't you notice when you were with him? Raphael's meticulous. Trains his rogues to teleport in and out in unison."
I shook my head and moved forward and into the tunnel system. Marrok was probably right. Had I been too preoccupied by my troubles with teleporting to notice before?
Andy was behind me like a protective shadow, our feet slamming on the asphalt like drumsticks beating in unison. The night breathed in and around us, thickening as we descended into the network of tunnels below. At some point Andy made it past me as we rushed down the tunnels, pushed forward by snarling and the high pitched scratching of claws on concrete.
We rounded the corner and stopped dead in our tracks.