"Can you trace it?"
"I already have. North Georgia. Lumpkin County. I had a scout team sent to the location overnight." She pauses. "Four guards. Vampire. Armed. Rotating in pairs. Coordinates and approach routes are on the screen in the conference room."
I look at the bracelet in my hand. The blue bead. The frayed cord.
"I'm going."
Celeste. Behind me. She's sitting up in bed, blanket pushed aside, eyes sharp.
"Celeste."
"Simone and Alexei lead the extraction. I run the tactical. Erik's wolves on the perimeter."
"I should be with you."
"You should be here. Carson's prototype is running. If Konstantin hits us again while I'm in north Georgia, someone has to hold the line, and that someone is you." She pulls a shirt from the closet. "And I can't pull anyone else off compound security. Not after last night. Simone, Alexei, and the wolves. That's what I've got."
She's right. She was right at the farm strike too, when she took the field and left me at the command center. I sat in that chair and felt every horror she walked through hit the bond like a fist. This will be the same. The chair. The comms. Her voice carrying what my hands can't reach.
"I'll brief Alexei now and Simone at dusk," Celeste says. "We leave as soon as Simone's ready."
I watch her go.
The day passes. I review the approach routes Seraphina put on the screen. I check Carson's prototype. I walk the perimeter with the security rotation.
At dusk, I find Simone in the medical wing corridor. Standing outside the room where the farm survivors sleep. Arms crossed.
Celeste is already there.
I stop at the end of the corridor and watch. Celeste doesn't touch Simone's arm. Doesn't soften her stance. She stands beside her sister and tells her, and Simone's spine goes rigid, and the corridor light catches the new muscle in her arms, supervised feeding and compound training rewriting what the facility took.
They exchange words I can't hear. Then Simone turns and walks toward the conference room, and her stride has changed. Longer. Faster.
Celeste looks at me across the hallway. I hold her gaze. She nods once. Turns and follows Simone.
Kyle takes the SUV north during the day with the extraction gear. He stages the vehicle a mile from the safehouse and waits.
At dusk, the three of them run.
I stand at the south exit and watch them go. Celeste, Simone, Alexei. Three figures at the tree line and then gone, moving at a speed Kyle's SUV could never match.
The waiting isthe hardest part.
Julian and I are at the conference room table. His tablet on one knee, his good eye on the feeds. Three body cameras live on the main display. Celeste's at center. Simone's left. Alexei's right.
Carson's prototype hums from the medical wing. A door closes somewhere in the residential corridor.
I press my palms flat on the table. The wood grain is cool under my skin. Julian's tablet chimes each time a feed refreshes.
The comms crackle.
Celeste's voice. Controlled. Focused.
"Approaching from the south. Two guards visible on the east side. Wolves in position."
On her camera, the building. Single story. Dark windows. Two figures at the east corner.
"Kael, take the east pair. Simone, you're with me on entry. Alexei, hold at the door until we clear the ground floor."
