Too slow. They were moving too slow.
“Then we cannot all go in together. ” Pesaro’s voice had an edge to it—it always did, but this was different. There was some odd air about him.
Sebastian’s fingers itched. “I was just about to say, before you interrupted me, that very thing. ” He turned his attention from the cold-blooded bastard and glanced at the other three Venators who had come with him to rescue Victoria. For a moment he couldn’t keep away the terror of what might happen to her.
What might be happening.
Or have already happened.
How long had he been gone now?
Too long.
Long enough.
Sebastian marshaled his concentration, focusing on their path as they hurried along through courtyards and between closely built buildings. Losing his focus would do no good for her, regardless of what had happened.
Pray God it hadn’t.
How long? How long would Beauregard play with her, kiss her, touch her, before making her drink?
Sebastian’s stomach rolled greasily. Once that happened, there was no hope.
Gritting his teeth again, pushing away the paralyzing worry, he barreled along, keeping his mind on a straight path. What they had to do.
How they could save her.
He couldn’t remember the names of two of the others who’d been chosen to go with him—it had happened so quickly—but one was Michalas. Sly, wiry, and sharp-eyed Michalas he’d met once briefly, many years ago.
“There are two known entrances to Beauregard’s main quarters,” Sebastian said, speaking quickly and quietly as they ducked behind the wall of the courtyard behind his house—the very one into which Victoria had dropped during her escape from his fourth-story window last autumn.
The memory threatened his control, but he recaptured it. “And a third secret entrance that only I know of—besides Beauregard. ”
“He’ll expect you to use it. ”
“So we must split into two groups. One group will go to make a disturbance and draw away the undead that guard and serve him. ”
“How many undead?”
“Ten or more. A dozen—perhaps you can handle that task, Pesaro. You can easily take on a dozen undead, or so I hear. ”
For a moment Sebastian thought Pesaro was going to strike him, but he just gave that proud, sharp nod of his.
Michalas spoke for the first time. “We now have a fine way of making a disturbance, do we not, Max? All thanks to Miro. Yes, we’ll draw attention away from you so you can enter the secret way. ”
There was a deliberate sneer in Pesaro’s voice. “And what will you do once there? Ask Beauregard to hand Victoria over to you? I’m certain he’ll do that without a thought. ”
In this Sebastian was completely forthcoming. “He won’t expect me to fight him, but I will. I’ll kill him if I have to. ”
Pesaro looked at him sharply and gave another single nod. “I believe you will. ”
Sebastian gave them terse, sharp directions, and they split up appropriately: Michalas and a blond Venator accompanied Pesaro, and the other one called Brim was to follow Sebastian.
As they began to walk away, Pesaro turned back to Sebastian and grabbed his shoulder in a hold that dug in too deeply to be friendly. “Bring her back. ” His dark eyes, flat and cold, told him everything that remained unsaid between them—now and in their past. At least in this their wills were united.
And then he spun away
, hurrying off with harsh footsteps to follow Michalas and the blond Venator.