“And he justtook itinstead of fighting back?” Charlie asked. “He’s a vampire. He could’ve run away.”
“I don’t think he wanted to live anymore, not without his wife. He knew how valuable the key is. He didn’t want to risk giving it up.”
“Guess we were wrong and his loyalty to Salvatore and the mob was worth more to him than his life,” Charlie growled. “Goddammit.”
I stared at Lorenzo’s corpse. “I don’t get it,” I said. “He sold people. Heruined lives. He was an evil man, but he acted likehe still loved her. How can a bastard like him love someone so much, when he’s done what he has? Didn’t he only care about himself?”
“I don’t know, pidge. I don’t think we can understand someone like him.”
Charlie ducked to the floor and rummaged through Lorenzo’s suit jacket. “We need to search his body. He’s got to have something on him that’ll give us a clue on where we can go next.”
I helped him. We didn’t find much in Lorenzo’s pockets besides his wallet, which was more or less useless to us. But then Charlie flipped back the edge of Lorenzo’s jacket, and I found a thin discrepancy in the lining.
“Here,” I said, skimming my fingers over the lopsided stitching. “Someone’s sewn something in.”
Charlie ripped open the lining, and I reached inside the hole. I pulled out a folded piece of parchment. On it were six names written in fine ink.
“A list of contacts,” I mumbled as I looked it over. “People Lorenzo associates with, potentially people who helped him steal the key.”
“One of them has to know more,” Charlie insisted, and he slipped the list into his pocket. “At least we aren’t leaving here empty-handed. Let’s go, pidge.”
Fine by me. We left Lorenzo’s corpse behind us and ventured back into the main part of the club.
“We’ve gotta get out of here,” I said. “Let’s find Marcus…Marcus!”
He’d apparently found his stride here at the club, because Marcus was fully in his element. He was up on the main stage, surrounded by a massive crowd of people as music thudded in the background. He spun around the pole, shook his ass and did some moves before spinning into a freestyle breakdance.
Wow. I didn’t know Marcus could do that. The club patrons absolutely loved him. There were dollar bills sticking out of his briefs, the top of his boots and all over the stage.
Kallie came up behind us and crossed her arms. “I think he’s taking this a bit too seriously.”
“I’m impressed,” I said as Marcus tossed back his hair and ran a hand over his abs, to the enthusiasm of the crowd. “He really is getting into it, and he knows how to put on a show.”
“Well, was it worth it? Do you know where the key is?” Kallie questioned.
“Lorenzo’s dead. We didn’t get much out of him,” Charlie informed her. “We need to leave.”
Kallie’s face fell. “Aw, dammit! You can’t tell me this is another dead end!”
“We’ll find that out once we get home,” I said. “For now, we need to book it, before his body is found and it leads back to us?—”
Pop!The sound of a regular pistol firing off shots echoed through the room. A couple people in the club screamed, but most of the vampires merely looked around curiously to see where the noise was coming from.
Ivy stormed out of the door that led backstage, slamming it open. The guests cleared a pathway as Ivy vengefully left a trail of blood dripping from their fingertips. Chancey walked beside them, his face unreadable.
As the door swung back open the other way, I saw Darius lying on the floor. His disembodied head lay beside his corpse, a bullet hole right in the middle of his forehead. His expression was frozen in shock.
“Nowlet’s go,” Ivy seethed. The pistol in their hand was still smoking.
The club’s security team immediately reacted once they saw Darius was toast. They rushed toward Ivy with super speed,but Ivy and Chancey were ready for them. They took the guards head-on. Ivy was untouchable as he shot and decapitated vampires on the spot with brute force. I saw Chancey take a couple of bullets, but his angelic blood protected him as he started ripping the limbs off vampires.
The dancers in the club began screaming, and vampire mobsters drew pistols out from their suit jackets. Supernaturals didn’t really use human guns, but apparently, vampires didn’t give much of a shit. They wouldn’t kill most supernaturals, but they’d certainly slow them down. Bullets and spells began flying. Kallie put up a shield around us, and I watched as silver bullets and blood magic bounced off the walls.
Marcus scampered off the stage and came running our way. Kallie let him through the shield, and he leaned on Charlie to catch his breath. “Whew! It’s getting a little hot in here, hasn’t it?”
“I’d say,” I replied. “How do we get out?”
The entire club was a mess, but through the chaos, I saw a couple of bulky Elves force their way through the doors to the club. They were the twins, Asa and Ares. They were a part of Charlie’s team. Kallie let them into the shield, where they started speaking at once.
