Chapter 18
Nestled on a quiet,tree-lined street in the Garden District, we found our new temporary haven. The safehouse, hidden in plain sight among rows of grand old homes, was draped in Spanish moss and surrounded by wrought-iron fences. Its fa?ade, a blend of Victorian architecture and the charm very characteristic of this area, hid the sanctuary it now provided us.
It hadn’t taken us long to pack up and move here, thanks to everyone busting their asses. Avery had acquired the transportation—the same vehicle as before—along with the massive blanket we’d wrapped Gabriel in last time. Once we had him ready for transport, Josh and Sam had hauled him out to the van. Five minutes later, we were on the move, changing locations before the city had even started to truly wake up.
From there, we’d broken into two groups. Lucy, Sam, Avery, and I took Gabriel to the new house, while Jaden and Josh set off on their adventure to procure all the tech and the spell we needed for today. Regardless of our unexpected visitors earlier this morning, we couldn’t delay today’s mission.
Once we arrived at the new safehouse, the four of us set to work. First, we chose a room for Gabriel and blacked it out with the UV-blocking curtains we borrowed from Aimee’s place, then Sam and I unloaded our resident vampire and carried him upstairs. It didn’t take long to get him settled on the bed, and then we returned downstairs to where Avery and Lucy had set up our command center.
Just before lunch, Josh and Jaden returned, their hands full of bags of equipment, food, and blood for Gabriel.
I let them into the house, then gave the neighborhood a quick perusal before closing the door and locking us in.
The moment I rejoined everyone in the kitchen, the atmosphere in the house shifted from a cautious calm to a focused urgency. Jaden and Josh dropped the bags on the floor, and we all gathered around, keen to test out the new tech.
But before we could so much as sneak a peek, Jaden grabbed one of my hands and squeezed so hard she might have broken it if I were human. “I have to tell you something.”
I lifted my brows.
“While we were meeting with the witch, I received a call from Ginny. Do you remember her?”
My jaw tightened, and it took everything in me not to growl at the mention of her name. Yes, I remembered Ginny. How could I forget? She’d been the one to arrange our little tête-à-tête with the council, seeing as her aunt was Councilwoman Lorraine. The same woman who’d then voted to turn us over to Adrian.
“Well, I guess Ginny heard about Chris and decided enough was enough. She took everything I told her, about the fraudulent contracts, the Academy corruption, Chris’s death, everything, and brought it all to the local PD. Apparently, the police are now investigating the Academy.”
Stunned by this news, I leaned back and stared at Jaden. “Seriously? I figured Ginny betrayed us. I always thought she turned us over to her aunt.”
“No,” Jaden said with a small smile. “She was always on our side. But when they murdered Chris, I guess she couldn’t sit by quietly anymore. Ginny wanted to let me know what was happening. The council doesn’t know they’re being investigated yet, but it sounds like the police have found quite a bit of evidence. Maybe even enough to make an arrest.”
A heavy breath rushed past my lips as I pondered what this meant. The Academy had to pay for their crimes, and I’d always imagined I would be the one to take them out. But Jaden’s words from night before last came back to me, that they were humans and fell under police jurisdiction. As much as I wanted to make them suffer, I had to abide by the law. I had to be better than them. If this was the path others wanted to take, then I would curb my bloodlust—or at least save wholly it for Adrian and Nash.
“Ginny’s also been telling everyone that the council killed Chris,” Jaden continued. “And from what I hear, our people are listening, and they’re pissed.”
This was incredible. For once, we didn’t have to take on the world’s problems by ourselves.
“This is great news,” I murmured, still blown away by the revelation. “Wow. This is all so amazing to hear. Keep me in the loop, okay?”
“You bet,” Jaden said. “Ginny said she’d call us once she hears from the Sergeant in charge of the case. But it sounds like when they make an arrest—not if—we can be there to watch.”
Oh god, I wanted that. I wanted to be there as the police hauled the council out in handcuffs.
“Which means we need to take care of Nash and Adrian as soon as possible so we can get home in time to see all this go down,” I said.
“Right. Well, that just lit a fire under our asses, huh?”
I chuckled. It certainly did.
“Let’s get back to it then,” Jaden said.
I forced our recent conversation from my mind—as difficult as that was—and glanced at the equipment now laid out on the table, thanks to Josh.
“We got everything we needed,” he announced, unloading the gear. He pulled out what I presumed was the RF detector, since I’d never seen one before and it looked completely unfamiliar, and then four Bluetooth earpieces which we would use to keep in communication with each other. We’d done this before when hunting the demon, and it had proven very effective.
Jaden handed one to Sam and then me, then slipped a third in her own ear. We left the fourth in the box, not needing it right this second. “Let’s test these out. Make sure they work before we send you out there.”
I connected my earpiece to my cell phone and dialed into the group audio call Jaden had sent us a link to earlier this morning.
“Test,” I called out once I’d turned everything on.
“I hear you,” Jaden replied, her voice echoing in my ear even though I could hear her right beside me too.
“And I hear you both,” Sam commented.
“So long as everyone has cell phone reception, our connection shouldn’t be a problem,” Josh said.
“Perfect,” I said, turning my earpiece off. I wouldn’t need it now until we arrived at the warehouse. “What about the spell?”
Jaden grabbed her purse and pulled out a vial of something that looked…murky. I only hoped I didn’t have to drink it. Because I was fairly sure there were chunks of something in there.
“Did the witch say how long the spell lasts?” I asked.
“No more than a few hours. So hurry up.” Much to my dismay, Jaden cracked the lid and held it out to me. “Bottoms up.”
I took the vial from her, my mouth already salivating, and not in a good way.
Jaden ignored the look of disgust I gave her and fished out the second vial for Sam. “And here’s yours.”
“Oh, goodie,” he said dryly.
I lifted the spell to my nose and sniffed, wincing when an acrid stench assaulted my nostrils. “What’s in here? No,” I muttered, shaking my head. “Never mind that. Don’t answer me. I don’t think I want to know.”
“Nope, you likely don’t,” Jaden said, grinning. “But let me just say I am super glad I’m not going to this warehouse with you.”
Great. Just great.
I held the vial to my lips, then glanced at Sam, who watched me with the same unsure expression.
“On three?” I asked.
“Oh, screw it.” He upended the vial and dumped all the contents into his mouth, swallowing quickly.
The second it was down, he lowered the bottle and caught my gaze, a challenge glinting in his eyes.
Well, hell. Now I had to. I couldn’t let Sam make me look bad, not in front of everyone here. Chuckling, I pressed the glass rim to my lips, closed my eyes, and dumped the contents into my mouth. I meant to open my throat, let it pass down without hitting my taste buds, but my stupid tongue didn’t listen, and it closed off my throat, pooling the liquid in the back of my mouth. With a disgusted moan, I forced my tongue to move and swallowed before I spat it all back out.
Afterward, I wheezed for breath and reached for a nearby bottle of water.
“That was terrible,” I rasped after guzzling half the bottle. “Like drinking moonshine.”
“Familiar with moonshine, are we?” Jaden teased.
I just rolled my eyes, then lifted my arm and sniffed. Huh. I couldn’t smell me at all. Not that I ever stunk, of course. But werewolf senses made it easy to pick up on one’s own scent, and right now, I couldn’t.
“Interesting,” I said, sniffing at my skin once more.
I looked up to find Sam doing the same.
Lucy hovered over him, subtly sniffing at the air near his hair. “Nothing,” she reported. “Wow. That’s really weird. My eyes are like, hey your husband is standing right next to you. But my nose is all, nope, no one’s there.”
I chuckled at her in-depth description, then handed the empty vial back to Jaden. “Thanks for picking that up for us.”
With the scent-blocking spell in effect, I shifted my focus to weapons. I retrieved a bag—which Jaden had brought me from Jackson—from the hallway, then dropped it on the kitchen table and unzipped it. One by one, I started unloading it. I pulled out the leather harness Anna had gifted me when I first met Gabriel, and slipped it over my clothes. Then I armed myself with a mix of stakes, daggers, and a sword. Because a girl could never be too prepared. Once I finished that, I reached in and pulled out a few spare stakes, handing them to Sam. When he reached for it, I pulled it just slightly out of reach.
“These are treated stakes. They’ll put down any vampire, so long as you get them in the heart.” I turned the stake and placed the tip on my chest, just above my heart. “Do not miss. The chest won’t cut it.”
Sam nodded, then reached for the stake. I gave him three just in case. Then waited while he armed himself with a series of blades. He didn’t have a nifty harness like me, but I had some spare wrist and thigh sheaths that would work for him.
Once we were armed, Josh handed Sam the RF detector. “This is for you, because Maddie will be too busy looking for vamps. I know you’re a big bad alpha werewolf, but so is she, and she’s also a vampire slayer trained specifically to hunt them. You aren’t. Let her take the lead.”
Indecision warred on Sam’s face, but after a quick glance at Lucy, who silently nodded, he agreed. That had to be tough for him, but he was smart enough to know better than to argue with us.
“Alright. The primary goal is to find any info on Nash’s dealings, especially anything that gives away his or Adrian’s daytime location,” I reiterated. “With luck, they’ll both wake up tomorrow with a stake buried in each of their chests.” When Jaden and Josh opened their mouths to correct me, I chuckled and said, “You know what I mean.”
“And remember, keep the phone line open at all times. If anything feels off, you get the hell out of there, okay?” Jaden said.
“Affirmative,” I said, winking at my friend. “Don’t worry. Everything is going to go according to plan.” I didn’t mention that my stomach was a nest of knots or that the thought of returning to that warehouse had my heart hammering in my chest. Jaden and Josh didn’t need to know that, and Sam and Lucy could already hear it.
When I turned away from the table, I spotted Avery. She’d been so silent this whole time that I’d actually forgotten about her presence here. But I saw her now, standing in the doorway, fear stark on her face.
“Don’t worry,” I told her. “I’m a pro. And so is Sam. We’ll be home long before sunset, and Nash will never know we were there.”
Her head bobbed, though she didn’t look quite so convinced. “Be careful.”
“You bet.” I strode forward and placed a hand on her shoulder. “We’ve got this.”
Lucy opened the door for us, the afternoon air already uncomfortably warm as we stepped outside. The city of New Orleans, with all its history and secrets, lay before us. The path back to the warehouse was clear, our mission set.
“Be safe,” Lucy called softly after us. I couldn’t blame her for worrying. She was sending her sister and her husband into the devil’s den, after all.
Sam and I didn’t look back as we climbed into the van and drove away. The drive to the warehouse wasn’t far, but the real challenge would be finding what we needed inside. I only hoped we were successful.
As the city passed by in a blur, I steeled myself for whatever awaited us, knowing that this was just the beginning of a much larger battle.