“I know,” I say with a nod. “Trust me, it wasn’t a fun trip. Ares, I can’t even imagine how you feel about the eight days Ophelia took from you. I feel fucking violated that she simply erased herself from my memory.”
He swallows once, and I almost wish I hadn’t brought it up. He’s been struggling enough to not hold himself responsible. Why did I have to remind him?
“So, she makes threats to the entire vampire population of New York, to us directly, and we don’t even have a description?” Sysco says, his tone annoyed and disgusted.
“Is this who was working with Ophelia?” Juliet asks.
I nod. “She’s a therapist, I do know that. Ophelia went to her because she specializes in helping people with trauma caused by vampires. But even Ophelia didn’t know her name. She said they would always meet someplace new, and Ophelia could neverremember where they’d met, couldn’t remember her name, or what she even looked like.”
“That’s fucking freaky,” Sysco sneers.
“That’s a little bit of information to go off of,” Ares says. “She’s a therapist, and we know she’s a woman. That’s got to narrow the results a little bit.”
Roman is typing away furiously at the keyboard. “Not really,” he says, his tone dark. “There are over thirteen thousand therapists in New York State, and according to this, women make up over seventy percent of therapists nationwide. Good luck finding a directory of every single therapist in New York City.”
“Damnit,” the curse slips over Ares’ lips. “There’s really nothing else to go on, Lana?”
I shake my head, hating that she’s this damn good. “It’s just an empty void in my head. This… damn, this is kind of scary, Ares.”
“You might not have her face, but we have yours,” Roman says. He snaps a picture of me and puts it into the computer, and within seconds, my face is popping up on cameras.
We track me walking to the hospital. Crossing streets. Going around corners.
But as I get within a block of where the woman intercepted me, the cameras end.
“Fuck,” Sysco curses as he sits back. “So damn close. We almost had her face!”
“How is she such a threat to the overall population?” Roman asks. He’s frustrated. It was a good plan, a good thought. And we were just seconds away from capturing her face.
“You ever heard of the Steele family?” Ares asks.
“No,” Roman answers honestly.
Sysco gives them a quick recap of the extermination their family went through.
“So, she really can do some damage,” Juliet says, her tone sounding far away. Her gaze is fixed on the floor, as if she’s picturing horrible things happening.
“Yeah, she can,” Sysco says. “Fuck.”
“Exactly what we need,” Ares says, his gaze turning back to the screens. “A ticking clock to find a slippery snake, and the looming threat to all of us.”
Bad. It’s really, really damn bad.
“One crisis at a time,” I say as I square my shoulders. “We can’t fix all of the problems at once. First, we find James and Markus.”
We headto the two buildings James had the blueprints for. The first is a very commercial building, one Ares has owned for just over a year. There’s two restaurants on the main floor, two floors of offices, and then half a dozen floors of apartments. We head straight to the basement and start looking.
Without knowing exactly what we’re looking for, it’s hard to be certain if it is or isn’t there. But all of us, myself, Ares, Roman, Juliet, and Sysco, comb through every square inch of the basement. It’s relatively empty. A few storage boxes and some forgotten parts, there’s the heating and cooling system mechanics and a massive electrical panel. But from what we can see, there’s nothing to indicate any space where a chest full of bones might be hidden.
We head to the second building.
The air outside the Midtown building hums with the white noise of the city. Taxis honk in the distance. Somewhere farther north, a siren wails. But all I can hear is the quiet tension buzzing between the five of us.
"We were talking about starting renovations on this building,” Ares mutters as he stares up at the building. “James had all kinds of ideas.”
"And you didn’t think that was suspicious?" Sysco asks, raising a brow.
Ares cuts him a look. “At the time? No. It’s what my company does. He worked for me. It was his job."
