“That’s never happened before,” I said, looking at the screen.
Cassiel looked over my shoulder. “What?”
“Ahab went offline right after I got the breach warning.”
“Moloch.”
The phone rang before I could answer. Azrael. I tapped the answer button. “What’s going on?”
“We have a problem.”
“I’m aware. What happened? Why is Ahab offline?”
“I’m not sure, but I’m here with the whole team.”
I glanced at my watch. “At three in the morning?”
“We were already here running night ops.”
“Is everyone safe?”
“I believe so. There doesn’t seem to have been contact with the building. But right after the breach, everything went dark.”
“Who was it?”
“I don’t know.” There was commotion on his end of the line. I walked to the bathroom and grabbed the shirt I’d discarded into the hamper. “What’s happening?” I said, stuffing my arms into it.
Gunfire blasted over the phone. Voices were yelling in the distance. I ended the call and shoved my bare feet into my boots without socks.
I needed to go. Now.
I tried to breach.
Nothing.
Cassiel was watching from the bathroom doorway. “You must go outside. Theta’s shield around the building won’t allow us to breach in or out.”
I walked past her. “If you’re coming, hurry. I’m not waiting.”
She caught up with me on the stairs. “Did Moloch attack the building again?”
“Looks like it.” I threw open the front door and ran out into the street. About twenty tourists stopped to gawk at the crazy man in sweatpants and an unbuttoned shirt.
Cassiel skidded to a stop beside me. She was barefoot, carrying her shoes. “We can’t do this here. Too many witnesses.”
“Screw the witnesses.”
She grabbed my arm. “Come on, just a few feet to the alley.”
My phone rang again. Azrael. I tapped the screen.
“We’re OK! We’re OK!” he was yelling.
“I’m on my way.”
“Just wait.”
I was still jogging toward the alley with my untied boots flopping up and down on my feet. “What was that?”
“Moloch and his minions. Whatever he tried to do failed, and they left.”
I slowed. “Is everyone safe?”
“Yes, I think so. The power has come back on, but Ahab is still offline, so I can’t talk to whoever is inside—” I heard Enzo’s voice in the background. “Nate’s on the radio. Everybody’s safe. Nothing got in.”
My whole body relaxed. “Thank God.”
“Let me talk to Nate. I’ll call you back.”
“I’ll be there in two minutes.”
“Is Cassiel still with you?”
She was standing right next to me. “Yes.”
“Don’t. Not yet. Let me figure out what’s going on. I’ll call you back.”
“I want to be—”
“Warren! I said wait.”
My hand clenched the phone. “All right. Call me back.”
He ended the call.
“Well?” Cassiel asked.
“Azrael wants me to wait. He’ll figure out what’s going on and let me know.”
“Oh.” She looked down at her pajamas. “At least we might have a little time to get properly dressed.” We started back toward the villa. “I assume the attack failed?”
“I think so. The power came back on, but the security system is still offline.”
“Why does it need to be online?”
I held up my phone. “When the system is online, a few of us have the ability to remotely secure the building or disable Ahab if there’s an emergency. I can also see the cameras inside and outside the building if I need to.”
“Inside? You can see Iliana and Sloan?”
“I can, but I don’t.”
“Too hard?”
I didn’t answer.
She trailed her fingers down my arm. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
If she wasn’t here now, I could go to my family. Instead, my presence had become a liability.
I shook my head and let Azrael’s warning replay in my mind…
“Don’t let your guard down.”
If I didn’t watch it, my guard would be down around my ankles soon.
An hour later, I was dressed and sitting on the balcony to avoid being alone near a bed with Cassiel.
A video call came through from Azrael. I hit answer, and his face filled the screen. He appeared to be inside the guardhouse at Wolf Gap. He was yawning when I said, “Hello.”
The yawn faded and he shook his head. “Sorry. It’s late.”
“Or very early.”
“Yeah.”
Cassiel must have heard me talking because she walked out of our bedroom.
Azrael turned the camera around. “I’ve got Nathan, Enzo, and a few others here.”
“Cassiel is here with me.”
Azrael didn’t comment.
“What did you find out?” I asked.
“It seems Moloch may have fried part of the system. None of us can bring Ahab back online.”
“I figured as much. I’ve been refreshing my app for the last hour. What happened?”
“I’ll let you talk to Nate.”
The camera wobbled as he passed the phone. Cassiel sat down on the love seat beside me.
“Hey, man,” Nathan said when he steadied the phone.
“Hey. What happened?”
“The breach alarm went off, then ten seconds later, it was a total blackout except the emergency lights. Nothing worked. The high-Z locks bolted the doors, so it was still secure, but the entire system completely crapped out.
“Justice finally got it rebooted, but when he did, the whole system went haywire.”
“Haywire?” Cassiel asked.
“Yeah. It went crazy. The cameras started moving. Icons were being clicked. The temperature controls were going up and down.” Nathan looked behind him, and the camera moved enough for me to see Justice in the corner. “But neither one of us were touching it.”
“It’s like the computer was possessed,” Justice added.
Cassiel looked at me. “Possessed.”
“Then there were a lot of sparks and smoke and the whole thing shut back down and went offline,” Nathan said.
Enzo leaned into the screen’s view. “One of the defense mechanisms is for the system to shut completely down when it’s attacked. That’s why it went down and stayed offline.”
“Cassiel, do you think Moloch tried to disarm Ahab?” Azrael asked in the background.
Cassiel looked at me. “I think Moloch tried to control Ahab.”
“Hack the system?” I asked.
“Become the system,” she said.
Nathan pulled the camera close to his face. “You think a demon tried to upload himself into our security system?” He looked at someone to his right. “Didn’t Johnny Depp do that in some movie?”
Cassiel was not amused. “Moloch has the most advanced consciousness in existence next to the Morning Star. Your computer system isn’t smarter than he is.”
“Apparently Ahab is close. It shut down to keep him out,” Nathan said.
“But something was messing with that screen. I saw it myself,” Justice said off-camera.
“And what if Moloch figures out a workaround and defeats the system next time?” Cassiel said.
“So what do we do?” Nathan asked.
“Leave the system offline?” she suggested.
Enzo shook his head. “That’s not a good idea. That means none of us will have the ability to monitor the system or secure the building remotely if there’s an emergency.”
“And I won’t know what’s going on there at all,” I said.
“Me either,” Azrael added.
We were all quiet for a moment. Nathan sat back and handed the phone back to Azrael.
I took a deep breath. “I’m calling Fury’s hacker, Chimera.” I waited to see if my father would argue.
After a moment, he pinched the bridge of his nose. “That might be a good idea.”
Had I not already been dead, I would’ve been a goner. Then again, if Azrael was worried enough to consider he might be wrong, we had a serious problem on our hands.
“Does Fury’s guy know about threats from our world?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“Get in touch with him as soon as possible. Let me know what he says.”
“Will do.”
“We’ll get the Nerd—” Nathan stopped himself. “The tech team from Claymore back out here.”
“I already called them and woke them up,” Azrael said. “For now, Ahab will stay offline.”
“Nathan, call me if there’s the slightest issue,” I said.
Azrael turned the phone’s camera toward Nate again. “I will.” His head pulled back with alarm. “Oh, my phone won’t work inside without Ahab to boost the signal through the walls.”
I swore.
“This is going to be a problem,” I heard Azrael say.
“We’ll find a solution. We’re safe for now, and if anything happens, I’ll send a pigeon to Italy.”
I wished that was funny.
Azrael angled the phone back toward himself. “Don’t worry. We’ve got this under control. You and Cassiel stay in Italy,” he said with a little more emphasis than I cared for.
I nodded.
“And let me know as soon as you talk to Chimera.” Then he ended the call without saying goodbye.
I stared off into the distance for a while until Cassiel’s nails scratched lightly across the back of my neck. “With the system offline, nothing can get in, right?”
“Not without the passphrase entered at the door,” I answered almost to myself. God, I wanted to be there. I looked at Cassiel. “Mind if I make another call?”
“To the hacker?”
I nodded.
“Go ahead. I’m going back inside.”
She got up and walked back to our bedroom door. I realized then I’d have to call Fury first for the number. My eyes widened. I might have a moment to talk to her privately. I stood and walked to the edge of the balcony to be certain the door had closed behind Cassiel. It was closed, and she was in the bathroom washing her hands.
I quickly tapped Fury’s name in my recent-call list. She answered on the second ring. “If you’re calling with more bad news for me, my vagina hurts too much to talk to you.”
Any other time, I’d probably have laughed. “Hey. I only have a minute. Where are you?”
“In the damn car headed to an undisclosed safehouse. Azrael specifically told me not to tell you where.”
I sighed. “That’s probably for the best.”
“Do you know how painful car rides are after giving birth?”
“No,” I said with a grimace.
“Be glad.”
“Fury, I need your help. I need to get in touch with Chimera.”
“Why?”
“Remember I told you Moloch attacked Echo-5?”
“Yeah.”
“He might have tried to take over Ahab.”
“Damn.”
“I’m hoping Chimera can help us plug the holes in the system’s security. Azrael’s team worked on it yesterday, but Moloch was still able to get into it.”
She chuckled on the other end of the line. “You want Chimera to help out Claymore? Do you realize the irony of that?”
“Yes, but even Azrael is feeling desperate.”
There was a pause. “That’s never good. I’ll text you the number. It will go to a secure voicemail, and Chimera will call you back. Sometimes it takes a while.”
“Thank you, Fury.”
“Where are you right now?”
“Venice.”
“As in Italy?”
“Yep.”
“Are you alone?”
I glanced back toward the bedroom. Cassiel was laying on the bed. “Sort of.”
“Why is Eden coming after Jett?”
I looked up at the blue sky. “Because they’re afraid.”
“Warren, desperate angels are dangerous. Be careful.”
“I will be. Please be safe, Fury.”
“You know I always am.”
I smiled. “I know. I’ll be in touch when I can be. Don’t forget to text me that number, OK?”
“Stand by,” she said and disconnected our call.
“I hate it when she does that,” I whispered, ending the call and holding the phone over the balcony.
“Did she hang up on you again?” Cassiel asked behind me.
Startled, I dropped my phone. I swore and threw my power toward the concrete below to catch it. I stopped it just before it smacked the ground.
“Jumpy?” Cassiel asked, walking up beside me.
The phone flew back up into my hand. Several tourists gasped down below. “Uh…” I held up both hands. “Ta-da!”
They all clapped.
Cassiel laughed and leaned on the rail beside me. “How’s Fury?”
“Sore.”
“I’ll bet. Childbirth looks dreadful.” She made a sour face.
I waited for her to press me for details about Fury and Jett. She didn’t. My phone buzzed. It was a contact card for Chimera with a long overseas phone number. I looked at the number. “I wonder what country code starts with forty-one.”
“Easy. Ukraine.”
My mouth fell open. “You know all the country codes too? What about area codes? And zip codes?”
She rolled her eyes. “Don’t be a donkey hole, Warren.”
I laughed, and it surprised me.
“I used to live in Europe, remember?”
“Right. What time is it right now in Ukraine?” I looked at my watch. It was after four in the morning in Asheville.
“Look it up yourself.” She leaned on my arm. “That's why man created Google.”
I smiled as she walked back to the bedroom, leaving the door open behind her.
I did a quick search on my phone. It was only an hour later in Ukraine than in Venice. I dialed the number. At the end of five rings, there was a long beep. No message. No identification. I left a brief message and my phone number before ending the call.
I walked into the bedroom. She was lying on the bed, reading what had to be an ancient copy of People magazine. Brad Pitt was on the cover as “The Sexiest Man Alive”—his Interview with a Vampire days.
Two other sexiest-men issues were laying beside her: David Beckham and Johnny Depp.
I lifted an eyebrow. “Is it your turn for some alone time?”
“I’m trying to understand American men. And Theta has all these magazines.”
I laughed. “Well, you won’t learn much from them. And David Beckham is British.”
“But he is beautiful.” We both laughed. She closed the magazine and laid it on her chest. “What do you want to do?”
I didn’t want to lie down beside her. That’s what I told myself, anyway. Truthfully, I could really use a nap. Or more food. I looked at the clock on my phone. “Want to get lunch? Scope out more tourist spots?”
“I could eat.”
“Good. Let’s get out of here.”
We ate lunch near the Rialto Bridge, another prime spot for people watching. Our view was so great, we decided to stay for dessert. And another carafe of wine. Fortunately, our bodies metabolized everything so quickly, we could indulge in all the excess without much consequence.
Still, nothing. No purple haze. No disjointed human souls. And no more dead bodies.
We finally gave up, left the restaurant, and crossed the busy bridge. When we reached the other side, she veered toward another street vendor’s cart and made a beeline for the magnets.
With a laugh, I shook my head and looked around at the other items for sale. Intricately painted Carnival masks, decorative plates, and…“Hey, Cassiel, they have hot priest calendars over here. It’s like the sexiest priests alive. That sounds right up your alley.”
“Ha. Ha. Ha.”
“You want one?”
She rolled her eyes. “Where would I put it?”
“I think it would look great in the Onyx Tower. The whole Council could enjoy it,” I said.
The vendor offered me a deal. “It’s only ten euros, Cassiel. Are you sure?”
“I’m sure.” She’d plucked a magnet off the metal display board. “Can you buy me this instead?”
It was a small rectangle with a colorful painting of a canal with a gondolier. “Sure, but I was really hoping you’d pick the David statue’s penis,” I said with a frown.
She leaned in and lowered her voice. “I already have one from Rome.”
I laughed and paid the vendor.
Just beyond the cart was a walk-up gelato window. “Ooo, gelato,” I said, mindlessly taking a few steps toward it. Then I stopped and shook my head.
Cassiel was right behind me. “What’s the matter?”
“I think I’ve been hanging out with Reuel too much. We just ate tiramisu.”
She laughed and tugged on my sleeve. “Come on. You can blame it on me if it makes you feel better.”
A young woman behind the glass half-window was staring at us. My head tilted, and the woman flinched.
I knew that look. She saw me.
I grabbed the back of Cassiel’s shirt to stop her. “Behind the counter,” I whispered.
“What?” She spun toward me.
“Your six o’clock.”
“What does that mean?”
“Turn around and look behind the gelato counter.”
“Why didn’t you just say that?”
She turned and then froze. I nudged her forward. “Come on, we don’t want to freak her out, remember?”
I did a full three-sixty, my eyes peeled for purple smoke. The immediate area was clear. No one else seemed to be working the small counter with her. She was exactly the killer’s type. Her eyes were blue and brown.
Cassiel reached back, fumbling for my hand. I locked my fingers with hers as she inched forward. The woman cowered back as far as she could toward the far wall. She was visibly shaking.
Cassiel said something to her in Italian, but instead of the woman being comforted, a small cry slipped out. I squeezed Cassiel’s hand. “She knows you’re not supposed to speak Italian.”
“Oh no.”
It was probably the wrong time to point out again that the language rule of the angels was stupid.
She pointed to the gelato case and spoke to the woman again. Cassiel put her hands up in defense and said something else. Finally, the woman crept forward and reached for the gelato scoop.
“What flavor do you want?” Cassiel asked me.
I peeked around her shoulder at the case. “Cookies and cream.”
When I spoke, the woman jumped back again, holding the scoop like a weapon.
“Warren, maybe you should go outside,” Cassiel said.
“Not a bad idea.” I reached into my wallet and handed her a stack of euros. “I’ll see you out there.”
Outside, I found a bench still in view of the gelato shop. After thoroughly scoping out the square, I sat down. Several minutes later, Cassiel walked out carrying two white bowls of gelato. Mine, cookies and cream. And Cassiel’s, mint chocolate chip.
“How’d it go?” I asked as she handed me mine.
She sat down beside me. “That girl is terrified.”
“Clearly.”
“Her name is Bettina.”
“She told you that?” I asked, surprised.
“No. I read it on her name tag. She did, finally, talk to me a little, and I think I convinced her we weren’t dangerous. She knows someone in the area is killing people with the sight. Two of the victims were friends of hers. There seems to be a small community of those with the sight.”
“What do you think we should do?” I asked, picking up my spoon.
“I think we need to make sure she gets home safely. We can hang out here until she gets off work. As much as I hate to say it, this is probably the most likely place for Saez to show up.”
My spoon stopped halfway to my mouth. I groaned. “Now it feels an awful lot like we’re using her as bait.”
Cassiel didn’t respond. She didn’t strike me as the type that would be sorrowful about using humans for anything she deemed a greater purpose.
A man with a dog on a leash approached us to sit down. But when he neared the bench, he spun on his heel and walked in the other direction.
“Force field,” I muttered.
“What?”
“People run when I’m near.”
She pulled on the tail of my shirt. “Scoot closer. It will help.”
“When Sloan and I were together, she thought our powers balanced each other out somehow. Like her presence made me more approachable. Was that true?”
“Yes. Probably even more so with Sloan because she was an Angel of Life.”
I slid next to her. Then I sighed as the stress left my body. I looked down at our thighs pressed together. “This helps me too,” I admitted.
She smiled and lifted a spoonful of green gelato to her mouth. “I’m glad.”
For once, I believed her. Had we not been hunting a brutal killer, our time together in Venice might have actually been pleasant.
My eyes scanned the area again. No purple smoke. Then I turned back to my dessert. “Why do you suppose our powers work like that here?”
“It’s pretty simple. Missing Eden leaves your spirit with a void. And that’s true of angels and humans alike. Humans try to fill it in all sorts of ways, much like how we spoke of the hunger pangs yesterday.”
I smiled. “Right.”
“But the power in us is straight from Eden’s core. You and I lessen the sting of that void for each other, simply by our proximity.”
“You feel it too then?”
She swallowed another bite. “Does that surprise you?”
“Honestly, yeah. I’ve always assumed you were superior to me.”
“I am,” she said with a laugh.
I rolled my eyes.
She nudged my arm with her elbow. “I feel the void too. Though it might be worse for you since your body is still part of this world.”
The biggest way Cassiel and I were physically different was that my body would continue to age as long as I was on Earth. In Eden, the process stopped, but here, I was subject to cell death and decay just like anyone else.
Cassiel, however, was frozen. Her skin, hair, and organs would always stay as flawless as they’d been for the few centuries since she’d been born.
Using my spoon, I dug around in my ice cream for a hunk of chocolate cookies. “What would happen to me if I stayed on Earth for the entire span of a human life?”
“You’d get old.”
“I know that.” I thought of Yaya and George. “But would my body be reset to my youth like other souls in Eden?”
“You’re the only one of your kind, so I’m not sure. If your body wears out to the point that it dies, it’s possible. Or you might cross over and remain old like Sandalphon and Metatron.”
My eyes widened. “Metatron is old too?”
“Oh yes. Much older than Sandalphon, even. The Father brought him to Eden when he was over seven hundred years old.”
My head tilted. “Seven hundred?”
“Humans lived much longer before the creation of Nulterra. It seems to have poisoned the Earth.”
“Why didn’t the Father shut that shit down a long time ago?” I asked.
She sighed. “We’ve all asked that question many times.”
“Azrael has always said Iliana won’t die on Earth. She’ll be brought to Eden like Metatron and Sandalphon were. So whenever she’s brought over, no matter how old she is, she’ll be frozen at that age?”
“Yes. And I’m sure Metatron would tell you, the younger, the better.”
We were tap dancing very close to the conversation about making Iliana a seraph. Thankfully, my cell phone rang. I angled to the side and pulled it out of my pocket. On the screen was a foreign number with a Ukranian country code. “It’s Fury’s guy. I need to take this.”
Cassiel nodded and focused on her ice cream.
I tapped the answer button. “Hello?”
“Is this Warren?” The voice on the other end of the line wasn’t a guy at all. It was a woman.
“It is.”
“This is Chimera.”
My mouth opened, but no sound came out.
“Hello?” she asked.
“Sorry. I expected a man,” I admitted.
“Most men do.”
“My apologies. I meant no offense.”
“None taken. I vetted you through Fury. She says you’re a friend. What can I do for you?”
Fury called me a friend twice in one week? Mind blown.
“Are you familiar with Claymore?”
She laughed on the other end of the line.
“That was a stupid question,” I said.
“Yes, it was. What about Claymore?”
“We’ve had a security breach in one of our top-secret facilities. I need the best of the best to get it back online and make sure it’s secure.”
“What’s so important that Damon is trying to protect? His real identity?” she asked.
Wow. This chick was ballsy. No wonder she and Fury got along so well.
“My daughter, actually.”
Silence. “Oh.”
“Can you help us?”
“Since you are a friend of Fury’s, I will come. But I’m not cheap.”
“I expected as much. Whatever your rate is, I’ll pay it.”
“That’s good to hear. Is it the Claymore property in New Hope, North Carolina?”
“No. It’s on the other side of the state, just outside Asheville.”
“Wolf Gap?”
My head snapped back. “How did you know that? It’s a secure facility.”
She chuckled. “OK.”
I wasn’t sure if that made me feel better or worse. “We can put you on a plane, or whatever you need.”
“I can be there in a few hours.”
“I thought you were in Europe.”
“Sometimes I am, but right now, no one is hunting me.”
I liked this woman already. “Thank you, Chimera.”
“That sounded promising,” Cassiel said when I ended the call. Sitting so close, and with her elevated hearing, she would have been able to listen to our whole conversation.
“She’ll help us.”
I pulled up a blank text message and typed out a message to Azrael, Enzo, and Nathan. Chimera will be at Wolf Gap in a few hours.
“I’m sure that eases your worry some. Will she be able to bring the security system back online?”
“After that conversation, I’m confident that if anyone can, it’s her.”
“The system sounds very sophisticated.”
“It is.” I opened the app on my phone. “If it weren’t offline, I could show you more.”
She leaned closer for a better look. “Can you control the system with the phone?”
“Only some of the features.”
“You need a key card then?” she asked with a teasing grin, pressing her elbow into my ribs.
“It’s a little more complicated than that.”
“If you’re wanting to convince me that Azrael can secure the Morning Star, maybe you should enlighten me on how he handles security.”
Whoa. She was entertaining the idea.
“If the system isn’t on Security Level Alpha, I can get through the front door with a retina scan. If it is on Alpha Alert, the system can only be disarmed from the mainframe computer inside with a unique passphrase.” I held up the phone again. “From the phone, I can check all the cameras in and outside, as well as monitor the atmospheric conditions in the area.”
“May I?” she asked.
I gave it to her.
“I’m amazed by how technologically advanced humans have become,” she said, taking my phone into her hands. “All this power in such a tiny box.”
The phone’s screen lit up with a text message. I saw it was from Nathan. She handed it back to me, and I swiped the screen open.
That’s excellent news. Ahab is still dark. I’m out running errands and getting takeout.
I didn’t respond.
“You two are still close friends. That’s interesting given your twisted love triangle with Sloan.”
“Nathan fell for Sloan before I ever met her. It was always clear that had I not shown up, the two of them would have been together from the beginning.”
“I imagine there wasn’t much he could do to compete once you were in Sloan’s life.”
“There wasn’t. Sloan and I were like magnets. Our attraction was out of anyone’s control.”
“And yet, Nathan still allows you to come around.”
I held up my phone. “Well, he does control a serious system to keep me out.”
“He controls it?”
“Nathan runs everything at Echo-5.”
“Sounds like a lot of responsibility. Is he up to it?”
I nodded. “More than any other human on Earth.”
“But he is human. What does he think about all of us? Especially you, now that you’re the Archangel?” she asked with a smile.
“As you can probably guess from the Angelo Suave on my passport, he doesn’t take me very seriously.” I glanced down at my phone. “Lately, he’s been calling me his Area 51 Reject.”
She laughed. “That’s hilarious.”
My phone buzzed again. This time, it was a text from Chimera. Be there by 6pm. Tell Claymore I want to meet him.
“I need to call Az.”
Azrael answered quickly. “Hello.”
“Hey. I talked to Chimera, who is a woman, by the way. She’ll be at Wolf Gap by six tonight. And she wants to meet you.”
“Me? Why?”
“Probably to rub your nose in the fact that you’re asking for her help.”
“Probably,” he said with a grumble.
“Be nice to her, and pay her whatever she wants.”
He sighed. “I will. I’ll stay here at the guardhouse until we figure this shit out.”
“What about Adrianne?”
“Adrianne’s gone on a baby-furniture shopping trip to Hickory with her mother. They left today.”
My brow raised. I doubted her timely departure was a coincidence.
“Iliana and Sloan are still safe?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
“How’s the search going in Venice?”
“We still haven’t found the killer, but if he follows his MO, he’s overdue for a victim.”
“Every day almost.”
“Correct. And no one died last night.”
“Think you scared him off?”
I’d been wondering the same thing. “I hope not. We’re exploring a lead now, but if he doesn’t turn up soon, we’ll go to Eden and have Metatron summon him to Samael.”
“That sounds like a more reliable plan anyway. Too bad Sloan can’t access her powers.”
“Trust me. That was my first thought.”
“Good luck, son.”
“Thanks. I’ll be in touch.”
We stayed in the immediate vicinity until well after dark. The gelato shop closed at ten o’clock. Bettina locked the shop behind her and looked very carefully around. She saw us, and Cassiel waved.
After a moment’s hesitation, Bettina power walked in the opposite direction. We got up and followed her at a distance. She must have sensed it because she zigzagged in and around different alleyways, like she was trying to lose us.
She didn’t.
We watched from an alley corner as she entered a building just off the Calle dei Morti. It was tucked back away from the busy streets, far away from where passersby might notice anything sinister. Cassiel and I were not random passersby, and we both immediately sensed danger. Close.
We exchanged a worried glance just as my keen hearing heard it…a piercing scream.