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“Okay,” I agree. “Let’s do this.”
I take a shaky breath and let Raven carry me out of the ice cave.
CHAPTER23
We take the portal back to New York City. We’re exhausted from all of the traveling, and we could go back to the safe house to get some rest under the safety of the concealment charm, but I don’t want to waste any time and neither do the men. We want this over with.
At least there’s going to be no trouble in finding Donovan O’Shae’s headquarters. A lot of criminals like to hide out where they can’t be found. But once you get to a certain level of power, why hide? You know that nobody’s going to come after you. And there’s some merit to having a semblance of respectability. If you want to have a conversation in public, you don’t go to an empty pub or a park. You go to a busy restaurant or some other place that has so many people around it you blend in.
Donovan’s taken that route. His place is a large fancy law firm, or what looks like a large fancy law firm. Nobody ever actually stumbles inside. There are magical wards in place so that if you start to go in and you’re human, not supernatural, you get this terrible feeling in your stomach like impending doom and you find an excuse to turn around and leave.
“I don’t know what I was thinking,” I murmur as we approach. “Thinking that I could break in here and get away with it.”
“You didn’t know how powerful he was,” Cain replies. “It’s all right. We all make mistakes.”
“Yeah, but my mistake might cost us all our lives.”
North shakes his head. “Not with this key, it won’t,” he assures me. “Although. I’m impressed you got through all of this security. I can smell the layers of magic on it.”
“I didn’t go through here,” I reply. “I went in through the back. I was following a tracking spell to find the Aurora Gem for my client, and I got in through a back door. If I’d seen the front of this place, I probably would’ve had a better idea of what kind of person I was stealing from.”
It was a rookie mistake, not doing my research. I should have known better.
“Donovan keeps his cards close to the chest,” North says. “Things have been changing in the vampire world lately. It’s not a surprise that you didn’t know. We all fuck up sometimes. What matters is that we’re here to help you fix it. You’re cleaning up your mess. That’s what’s important.”
I take a few deep breaths. I suppose North is right. It’s inevitable that I’ll fuck up. What’s important is that I’m fixing it. Right. “I don’t suppose we could tell that to Donovan and he’ll be more lenient with me?” I joke.
North snarls, and so does Raven. “He’ll be lenient with you,” Raven says. “If he knows what’s good for him.”
I’ve never heard Raven sound like that. I put a hand on his arm. “Easy, big boy. I can’t have you starting a whole blood war on my behalf, tempting as it is.”
“We’re going to be fine,” North assures us.
We approach the steps of the building, and I can feel the ripple of magic passing through my body as we walk up the steps to the front door. Looking up, I can sense some of the various magical protections.
I try the front door. It’s locked.
“We could try knocking,” Cain suggests.
“We could try the back way. The one that I used to sneak in.”
North shakes his head. “We’ll look like we’re here to cause more trouble. This is just a deterrent. The real entrance will be somewhere to the side. Follow me.”
We all fall into step, with Raven keeping an arm around me. We could be attacked at any moment and it feels like every hair on my body is standing on end. Donovan could see us and recognize me and just straight-up attack us. But I’m not sure that he knows what I look like. I wasn’t seen when I stole the gem, it was just that he figured out my identity. He might think we’re four random people.
Or, well, not so random. I get the feeling that these three men have been around long enough, Donovan will have an idea who they are.
North leads us down an alley, looking around, until he approaches a dumpster. I see it as he walks up: the dumpster is bolted to the ground.
Dumpsters have to be able to move or roll so that they can be pushed into the streets for the garbage truck on garbage day. This one’s bolted which means it needs to stay in one place. I lean in toward the garbage and sniff. It doesn’t smell like garbage. Well, it does smell crappy, but garbage has a particular kind of crappy smell. This just smells like someone sprayed some kind of crappy smell in the air to make people think there’s garbage in here.
I wave my hand through the garbage. My hand passes right on through. It’s a glamour.
North looks over at the two other men, and they all three grab onto the dumpster. I realize they’re about to try to move it.
“Wait.” I go up to the bricks on the wall right by the back lid of the dumpster, feeling along. Ah-ha!
I press on one and it sinks into the wall. I quickly step back, ushering the men out of the way, and the dumpster, along with the concrete that it’s on and the wall behind it, all swing open slowly on a huge turntable. It reveals a huge, dark entryway. I can’t see into it. My stomach twists.
