Chapter 4
Four
Eve didn’t have a plan by the time they got back. She sat on Antoine’s sofa, laptop on the coffee table, papers strewn around her and spilling to the floor.
Noah had gone to check in with Zoey, leaving them alone, and Cally flopped into the wingback chair she’d used before. Her attention snagged on Antoine’s, conspicuous in its emptiness. “Noah said he’s hurting.”
Eve looked up from her screen, hazel eyes full of concern. “I can’t imagine what it’s like down there.”
“We have to get him out, as soon as we can.”
“I’m going as fast as I can, babe. Trust me.”
“I do trust you.” Eve, Noah, Zoey… she could trust them all. She gazed into the fireplace where flames licked around two charred logs. “Can we trust Gabe?”
“Of course we can,” Eve said in reflex, then paused with her head cocked to one side. “Why would you ask that?”
“Just something Antoine said.”
Eve thought for a moment. “Seems to me that if Gabe wished any of us harm, all he needed to do was not turn up.”
“Yeah, I suppose.”
“Instead, his thralls have been working hard.” She picked up some stapled sheets of paper and waved them.
“Specs for Alvin.” She set them down, gesturing around her.
“Equipment list—fake IDs, uniforms, thermal scope, tranquilizer gun, signal jammer. Alvin’s known schedule.
” She waved to the papers spread out on the other side.
“Two different plans for whether we escape by road or sea. Flatbed rental arrangements. Cargo ship with a crane.” She sighed, looking around at it all. “I’m so out of my depth.”
“You’ve done all that in one day?”
“Gabe’s thralls have done all this in one day. And you still ask if we can trust him?”
“Point made.” Cally rose from her chair and came over, gathering sprawled papers to clear a seat. “Do you want to walk me through it?”
“Not yet. I’m still trying to wrap my head around it. I’m a risk management consultant, not a super-spy.”
“You’re still the smartest person I know.”
“Sweet of you. But this stuff…” She shook her head in dismay at all the plans. “There’s weeks of work here.”
Cally gripped the corner of the coffee table. “Antoine doesn’t have weeks.” And neither do I.
“This is a complex, high-risk operation. Alvin is valued at fifty million, part-funded by the US Navy, for crying out loud. You think they’re just going to let us borrow it?”
“Shit, the navy might get involved?”
“Stop asking questions like you think I have the answers. I’m helping organize and collate all this stuff, but I still have no fucking clue what’s really involved.” She pulled up a list on her screen. “This is what I’m working to. See this?”
Cally looked over her shoulder, reading headings like ‘Extraction’, ‘Transportation’ and ‘Retrieval.’ “Explain?”
“Three stages, right?” Eve continued, using the mouse pointer to indicate. “Steal Alvin, that’s extraction. Get Alvin to wherever we’re going to use it—transportation. First by land to the coast, then out to Antoine. Then retrieval. Get Antoine back, and the plan for what happens after that.”
“Makes sense,” Cally said, “but it’s just a list of unanswered questions.”
“Pretty much. Then we have all this other stuff.” She gestured at the screen. “What am I supposed to know about IR blinders?”
Cally rubbed her face. “Hasn’t Gabe got someone who can advise on this?”
“He has. They are,” Eve said wearily. “I’m just their secretary.”
Cally gave her a smile, though it felt strained. “I don’t buy that. I know you’ll have it all sorted out in no time.”
“I also have a day-job,” Eve muttered. She looked up, guilt flashing across her face. “I mean, I’ll request leave, of course. Tell them it’s a personal crisis, or something.”
Cally reached for her hand. “I don’t want you to ruin your life over this—”
“—It’s all right, I can manage—”
“—But I’m scared what’s going to happen to Antoine if we don’t get him out soon.”
Eve squeezed back. “I know it looks like a mess right now, but there is a plan here—somewhere—and I do think Gabe’s thralls can pull it off.”
“Is there anything I can do to help?”
“Later, maybe. There could be some security stuff, and you’re good with that, right?”
Cally’s lips twitched. “You still don’t know my actual job, do you?”
“Computers?” Eve grinned.
Cally rolled her eyes. “I help corporates defend against hackers. Defense, not offense. I mean, sure, I understand how attacks work, but it’s a different skillset.”
“But you could still run a phishing attack to maybe get access, right?”
“Well yeah, actually, I suppose I could. It would take time.”
“Which we have.”
“I suppose we do.” Cally pushed herself up, pacing across the room, full of nervous energy. “Damn, I hate that we can’t just get him out tomorrow.” She sighed. “All right, I’ll see what I can do with my gray hat on.”
“I don’t need to tell you to be careful, do I? This is all highly illegal. Serious prison time illegal.” Eve had a little line between her eyebrows, her tone reflecting her concern.
“Illegal, yes. Morally? It’s for all good reasons.”
“Hundred percent,” Eve agreed firmly.
“We’ll go in at night, when there’s hopefully no one around, steal their kit and leave it somewhere when we’re done. Worst case scenario, their insurance picks up the bill.”
“No one gets hurt.”
“And we get Antoine back.”
“Right,” Eve said without hesitation. “Let’s break a million laws to return your vampiric true-love to your arms.”
Cally shook her head in bewilderment. “How are our lives suddenly so surreal that you can say that and it’s true?”
Eve’s eyebrows shot up. “You love him?”
“I…” The abrupt subject shift blindsided Cally, but just that afternoon, she’d admitted the truth to herself. “I do, yes.” And it may have been the conversation with Noah that had given her the final push to realizing it.
“That’s wonderful!” Eve smiled. “I’m so happy for you guys.”
Her response seemed so genuine, but Cally couldn’t help feel awkward. “Are you… are you okay with that?”
Eve focused back on her screen. “I’m fine. Really. I’m happy for you.”
“I’m sorry, Eve. I—”
Eve looked up again and her voice was soft. “Sweetheart, really. I might have a little cry when I’m by myself later—it wouldn’t be the first time—but there’s nothing I want more than your happiness.”
“I… I don’t know what to say to that.” Cally chewed her lip. “I’m sorry—”
“What you don’t need to say is ‘sorry’. We can’t help it, can we?”
Cally gave her a strained smile. “I suppose not.”
“And you two will make cute little vampire babies.”
“We really won’t.” Not least because he can’t. Which was something of a relief, if Cally was honest. Kids were messy, in more ways than one. “So, um, I know you’re already busy, but I wanted to ask you something.”
“Uh-huh?” Eve focused on her screen again, and Cally envied her the ability to flit from an emotion-laden subject to shopping lists of illegal equipment like it was nothing. Unless she was just pretending, trying to hide her hurt.
“When Minh killed Joon… when he had me captive…”
Eve looked up again, her eyes large and round.
“… It got me thinking,” Cally pressed on. “I’m a witch, right? I’m supposed to have all this power. And I have no idea how to use it.”
“You want to develop your magic?”
“Yes.” Cally nodded. “If… if it means I can actually do something, next time I’m captured by psychotic vampires.”
Eve stared at her. “And we’re just going with the assumption that’s a ‘when’ not an ‘if’?”
“Just being prepared.” If I can find a way to spend my power, I don’t have to get Gabe to feed on me. But she wasn’t ready to tell anyone that part, not even Eve.
“You want us to research witch magic?” Eve asked, a note of uncertainty in her voice.
“That’s what I hoped, yes. Why do I sense a lack of enthusiasm? I thought this was what you’d been wanting me to say since you found us the coven.” Cally frowned. “Is this because of me and—”
“Not at all,” Eve said, her tone sharp. “Don’t even think it.”
“I’m sorry,” Cally said quickly. “I don’t know where that came from.”
Eve rose, stepping around the coffee table toward Cally and taking her hands in hers. “I love you, and I’ll always love you.” She squeezed Cally’s fingers with each phrase. “One of the joys of unrequited love is that I can take pleasure in the small things, like helping you.”
Cally smiled ruefully. “That’s really morose. Can’t we find you your own hot vampire instead?”
Eve cocked an eyebrow. “Is Gabe single?”
“Uh, as far as I know. You want me to ask?”
“Kidding.” Eve shook her head quickly. “So look, the thing is, I’ve been researching witch magic for months, and there’s nothing.
Really, nothing. Or if there is, I can’t find it in all the noise of modern Wicca.
” She pressed her lips together. “The only theory I have is that the coven is key. All we’ve done—all you’ve done—you’ve done with the coven, right?
So what if witch magic is rituals and sharing and… sisterhood?”
“That actually makes sense.” Belle had told her that the first vampiric curse took the whole coven. And my vision of Minh’s nightclub was a coven spell.
“But that’s not really true, is it?” Eve mused. “At the end of the day, it’s your blood that triggered it, not the coven. Still…” she took a breath, “…I think we should tell them.”
Cally blinked. “What?”
“We tell the coven. We tell them everything.”
“But I suggested we told Priya, and you said she’d think we were crazy.”
“Well, yes… I did… but that was before Zoey told me you could bench-press SUVs and heal like Wolverine.”
“I don’t think I can bench press an SUV.” But then I haven’t exactly tried.
Eve released Cally’s hands and waved her own in the air. “Doesn’t matter. Point is, we can prove your bond is magic, and use it to explain your witch power. And we can tell them about the vision.”
Cally winced. “I don’t know. That’s a big step. What if they don’t believe us? Shit, what if Priya tries to go back to the club?”
“After the experience she had, I think Priya will believe us,” Eve said with confidence. “Zara will, too. She’d love a bit of reflected glory. No, it’s Lily I’m worried about. I don’t think she has the…” Eve flapped her hand as she sought the word.
“Maturity?”
“Harsh but fair. Next coven meeting is Saturday. I think we should tell them then.”
“That’s six days.” Cally bit at her lip. Too long to wait with Antoine in agony every passing minute. “Today is Sunday, right?”
“All day.”
“Yeah, well, you try and keep track of the days when they all blend into the nights and you have to fight your way out of a nightclub, survive a car crash, see one of your best friends killed right before you, get kidnapped, and”—sleep with a vampire—“then your partner gets entombed, all in the space of forty-eight hours.”
“One helluva weekend.” Eve said dryly. “I bet you’re fun on those Monday team stand-up calls.”
“Don’t have them, fortunately. Still, I’m not sure about this.” Cally turned away, hugging herself. “I should talk to Antoine before I tell anyone about the bond.”
“It’s your decision, babe. There’s no rush, is there?”
Except there was. How long did she have before her power consumed her? Not knowing was the worst part.
“Maybe Gabe has a book or two that would offer something you’ve not seen yet.” Cally’s eyes darted to the bookshelves in hope. “Hell, maybe Antoine does.”
“He’d have told you, wouldn’t he?”
“Yeah.” Hope faded. “He told me he’d help with my powers, and if he had a book, he’d have mentioned it.”
Eve looked dubious. “I don’t think the vampires will have books on witch magic.”
Belle might. But getting to it would be harder than liberating Alvin from WHOI—especially when they couldn’t ask for Gabe’s help without him knowing why. He wouldn’t help anyway, not against a Curia member.
“I bet there’s more stuff in Europe,” Cally mused. “But we don’t have time to go there, or any idea where to search.”
Eve’s phone buzzed in her jeans pocket and she pulled it out, flicking it open. “Oh, more info from Ryan.” She skimmed the message. “Yay. He’s secured a plasma cutter. That sorts this year’s Christmas present.”
“You’re never serious, are you?”
“Babe, it’s tough to be serious when you’re aiding and abetting a heist of multi-million-dollar equipment from a secure facility of interest to the United States military.”
“Some might argue—”
Eve gasped. “I’ve just remembered. There was an occult bookshop I meant to try, and I haven’t got around to it. Want to come?”
“Sure,” Cally said, resigned. “Until the plan’s in place, I’ve nothing but free time.”