Chapter 72 Nico
NICO
As the jet descended to the runway below, I felt the pull of the moon. I glanced out the window as we touched down. The milky white orb floated above us. It was one day until the super moon, but already its power seemed to be leeching into my bones.
The plan was for Luis to join one of the daily tours tomorrow morning. We hoped he would be able to locate a possible hiding place of the vault or even Maddy’s location. It was a pretty shitty gambit, but all we had to work with. At this point, we were desperate.
The jet stopped, and the pilot came out to open the door and lower the steps. As he did so, he nodded toward a large, heavy black case sitting directly behind the cockpit. “Donatello wanted you guys to have that. He thinks it will help in your mission.”
Luis and I looked at each other with mirror expressions of confusion.
There’d been nothing about a chest or extra equipment in our deal.
We stepped over and undid several latches before lifting the top.
We gaped at the contents. Several machine guns, magazines, and boxes of bullets sat in foam compartments.
There was a secondary compartment with what looked like both grenades and plastic explosives with detonators.
“Holy shit! It’s like Christmas for Rambo,” Marcus said, fingering one of the guns.
Luis glanced at the pilot. “Seriously?”
The pilot shrugged. “I don’t ask questions. I just do as I’m told. He did say if you get caught with those in Germany, you’re in deep shit. So, be careful.”
“Duly noted,” Luis said.
We hauled the chest of weapons out of the jet and set it in an SUV that Donatello had arranged for us.
My nerves were still too fired up for me to drive, so Luis took over.
The Alabama shifters and I sat in the back, loading the guns and getting them ready.
It was a good way to keep my mind off wondering what was happening with Maddy and what Luis was going to do the next day.
He’d go in with one of the tourist groups and find a way to peel off from the rest of the group. Then Luis would search as much as he could before finding a spot to hunker down and hide until closing. It was incredibly risky. He’d be, literally, in the lion’s den.
Luis drove us to a hotel that was close enough to the castle that we could see it from our room on the sixth floor. Marcus and Darren went out to grab us dinner, leaving Luis and me to prepare for the next day.
Luis tucked a small block of the plastic explosive into a fanny pack. The detonator went into a small side pocket.
“What’s the plan for that?” I asked, nodding at the bag.
“Well, if I can find where the vial of blood is kept, I can take care of the damned thing in a few seconds.”
“Blow it up?” I asked.
“Hell yeah. Depending on where they’ve hidden it, it might do the job. Then their whole plan goes to shit. We’ll see. I won’t use it unless I’m certain of the location. I won’t detonate until after it closes. I’m not trying to kill a bunch of innocent tourists.”
I nodded and looked out the window again.
The castle stood in the distance, looming like something out of a horror movie.
Knowing Maddy was in there made my chest ache and my heart pain.
So close I could almost touch her, yet here I was.
Free while she was a captive. It pissed me the fuck off.
I didn’t know how I’d be able to sleep knowing she was so close.
“What are you thinking about?” Luis asked.
“Huh?”
“You look like you want to beat someone’s ass.”
I gestured toward the castle. “I do. The royals. I don’t hit women, but if I get my hands on Viola, I’m going to kick the shit out of her. Or, better yet, let Maddy beat her brains in.”
Luis chuckled. “I wish Felipe and Sebastian were here.”
I got it. Being here without our friends felt strange.
I’d had them stay behind because I needed people I trusted to help Dad watch over and protect Maddy’s parents and Abi.
There was no telling what the royals might do.
If we were successful, their agents in Florida might retaliate.
There was no one I trusted more than those two and Luis.
Between them, my brothers, and Javi’s crew, I was one hundred percent certain my pack was safe.
It was what I needed to focus on this mission.
“I miss them,” I said.
“Those Alabama guys are pretty cool, though,” Luis said.
I nodded. “Yeah. They are,” I said. It was the truth, but they still didn’t hold a candle to our friends.
After dinner, we all went to bed, and I spent a few hours tossing and turning. My anxiety about the next day made getting any rest almost impossible. In the morning, it was clear I hadn’t been the only one who’d struggled to sleep. Everyone looked tired and on edge.
We drove to the castle, and on the way, Luis donned a hat and sunglasses.
It was a pretty garbage disguise, but they wouldn’t think either of us would be in one of the tour groups.
After all, they’d put us on the no-fly list and probably expected we were stuck in the States.
The disguise was only an extra layer of protection.
Marcus, Darren, and I were going to scout the outer edges of the estate.
One of the lizard shifters would get even closer after shifting.
While Luis was scoping out inside, we’d do the best we could on the outside.
After dropping Luis at the ticket booth and letting Marcus scurry out of the car in his lizard form, Darren and I drove to the outer gate, parked, and began to stroll along the outer perimeter.
Fifteen minutes into our walk, Luis texted, letting me know he was inside.
Five minutes later, he let me know he’d successfully broken away from the group.
“We’re right on schedule,” I said to Darren. He nodded and kept glancing through the ten-foot-tall wrought-iron fence that surrounded most of the estate.
Darren glanced toward me and pointed at the castle. “Got a lot of security.”
Even from this distance, it was easy to see the men patrolling the grounds. Several were up on the parapets of the building itself, while others were out walking the woods and surrounding footpaths. We did our best to look like oblivious tourists enjoying a brisk stroll on the walking path.
My phone rang a minute or two later. It was Marcus.
“Hello? Marcus?”
“Yeah, it’s me.” He sounded out of breath and excited.
“What’s up?”
“Okay, so there’s more to this place than just the castle.
I was going to do a quick circuit of the perimeter and then go inside like we planned.
But there’s this big-ass house behind the castle that you can’t see from the visitor’s parking.
I decided to take a peek around there. It kinda looked like where they might be housing their guards or something. ”
“And?” I asked, wanting him to get to the point.
“Well, the place isn’t some barracks. It’s an actual house. I went through the whole place and went downstairs. That’s where I found it. They’ve got fucking prison cells in there.”
My heart started beating, threatening to break free of my chest, and an icy chill ran down my spine. “Are you saying you found Maddy?”
“I think so, man. I couldn’t see into her room, but I found a surveillance room.
They had the video feed of her room going.
It was all I could do to see the screen without the guard guy seeing my slithery green ass in the corner.
She looks like she’s in a lot of pain, bent over and sweating.
There was fur sprouting on her arms and face, but it vanished a second later.
She looked at the camera once, and I could see her eyes.
They were red like an alpha’s. Whatever she was going through looked rough. ”
I cursed under my breath. In my haste to get here and save her, I hadn’t given a second thought to her first shift.
There was no way her wolf wouldn’t come out during the super moon that night.
I had to be by her side for her first shift.
It was a promise I’d made to her, and by God, I was going to follow through on it.
“How do we get in there, Marcus?”
“There are no windows. It looks like there’s an underground garage. There are a ton of guards. I’m not sure what the best option is. She’s really well-guarded, and the place is like a fortress.”
My phone chirped. Luis was calling. “Marcus, I gotta go. Luis is calling.” I disconnected and answered Luis’s call. “What do you have for me?”
He sounded irritated and pissed. “Well, I found the vault.”
“Why do you sound like that’s a bad thing?”
Luis sighed. “I went into the lower levels of the castle, and the thing has a damned maze of tunnels and passages. Everything looks to be hundreds of years old. Only a few of them even had electric lights running to them. I followed a few passages until I came across a couple of guards. They were taking one of the longest passages. I stayed in the shadows and alcoves while I followed them. They ended up at a chamber doorway. They were there to trade shifts with a couple of other guys. I heard them talking. The vial is definitely being held there.”
“Again, you make this sound like a disaster. Wasn’t this what we wanted? Can you plant the explosives so we can blow it tonight?”
“That’s the problem. We were gonna blow it tonight if we found it. We didn’t want to kill a bunch of innocent people.”
“Yes, but that doesn’t even matter now. It’s so far away from the tourist area no one will get hurt. Hell, we could blow it this afternoon if we wanted.”
“Same thought I had. One problem. I used my phone’s GPS to see exactly where the vault was in relation to the castle. It’s about four hundred yards from the actual castle. But it’s directly below an old church. A church that has been converted into an orphanage.”
I closed my eyes. “Seriously?”
“Yup. That place is over five hundred years old. If I use enough explosives to blow through the door and destroy the vial, the entire passageway will collapse, as will the foundation of the church. The whole place will collapse. We’ll kill two or three dozen kids, and who the hell knows how many nuns. ”
“Son of a bitch,” I said. “I guess getting rid of the vial won’t be as easy as we hoped.”
“What’s the play?” Luis asked.
I mulled it over. We only had one option.
Ambush. “Okay,” I said. “Marcus found Maddy. She’s in a house right behind the castle.
If the vial is where you say it is, that means they’re gonna bring Maddy over to the castle.
We set a trap and surprise them as they move her.
They’ll use the tunnels. That’s how I’d move her.
No reason to trudge a hundred yards across the yard.
They’ll be in the tunnels, in the dark, on their home turf.
Plus, their guard will be down because they’ll be so worried about the vial.
It’s when she’ll be the most vulnerable to a rescue.
That’s when we move. Maddy is the number one priority.
We try for the vial if we get a chance or a good opening, but if we get out with Maddy and nothing else, that’s what we take.
I’m saving my mate tonight. I don’t give a fuck about anything else. ”