Lucky Break (Chicagoland Vampires 10.5)
“What’s happened?”
“It’s Balthasar, or at least it seems like Balthasar. Downstairs,” she said, and we followed her down to the Ops Room.
Once again, the screen was on, tuned to a news broadcast, the ticker at the bottom of the screen chilling: HOSPITALIZED WOMAN CLAIMS ASSAULT BY VAMPIRE IN DREAM.
“Jesus,” Ethan said. “Can we have ten minutes without a crisis?”
“What about Juliet?” I asked Luc. “I thought they had him. I thought they found his condo.”
“They sat on the building for two hours, didn’t see him, so they checked with security. Turns out, security heard him contact the account manager in the lobby about something or other, and the account manager spilled that we’d checked in on him.”
I had choice words for humans that I decided not to verbalize. “So he’s gone again?”
“Unfortunately, yes.” He gestured toward the screen. “I’d presume he’s pissed we’re keeping him away from his penthouse. So this attack could be punishment for that. But if the Circle and Balthasar are connected, and the Circle’s pissed at us, it could be punishment from their direction, too. I doubt the Circle would have condoned it—it doesn’t seem like their kind of play—but it wouldn’t the first time Balthasar did something violent.”
“Why not just come for us?” Luc asked, glancing at Ethan. “For you? What is he waiting for?”
Ethan’s eyes darkened. “Consider the man. He’s waiting for me to beg, and I’ll be damned if I’ll do that. We must put a stop to this. We cannot allow him to hurt anyone else, to destroy the goodwill we’ve tried to build.”
o;So did you. Nice job with those throwing stars. You got any more of those?”
“Maybe one or two. I’ll set you up.”
“Cool.”
We looked up at the sound of footsteps, caught the silhouettes of people running toward us. Ethan, Luc, Mallory, and Catcher emerged from darkness, my grandfather and Detective Jacobs behind them.
Sentinel? Ethan asked silently.
I’m fine, I said, glanced at Mallory, and held up my bracelet. “You tracked me?”
She nodded. “Glad it worked, since the earbuds crapped out. And I’m glad you’re okay.”
“The helicopter was just about to lift off when you started across the lake. Mallory guessed you’d taken a boat.”
Luc stared down at the water, then back at me with amazement. “And the Circle’s boat, at that.”
“Only after they tried to take their payment out in our hides.” A series of large waves rolled in, nudging the boat against the pier with a grinding sound that didn’t really speak well of its future seaworthiness. Or lakeworthiness.
“They’re on Torrance Island,” I said when Jacobs reached us. “Former mobster hangout. There were at least six men there. I don’t think they’ve really opened the house for spring yet. There’s a helipad, but no longer a boat.” I gestured toward the water.
“Negotiations?” my grandfather asked.
“They want King, decided they’d take me as a hostage to get his location.”
“He’s important to them.”
“Apparently, but we didn’t get a reason out of them. Either Maguire knew and wasn’t telling—which seems unlikely, because he was pretty talkative—or he just didn’t know. He played like he was leading the organization, but eventually threw out a ‘we.’ And besides, he’s muscle. Maybe well-connected muscle, but just muscle. No one else looked familiar, and there was no sign of Balthasar. But Maguire basically acknowledged they knew who he was, and that he’s crazy.”
“Well done, Sentinel,” Luc said approvingly, and my grandfather nodded.
“We’ve gotten the location of their hole, or one of them, anyway, and the boat. We’ll investigate the jurisdictional issue, send boats and a chopper to bring them in if we can, and keep you posted.”
“This boat may not make it through the night,” Morgan said, eyes on the water as another wave surged toward it, even the water in the harbor rough tonight.
“Can we go home?” I asked. “It’s been a long night.”
“One moment,” Ethan said pleasantly, then gave Morgan a right cross to the face.