madman’s ambitions. The deaths and violence needed a settling of scores. Ari wanted to be part of that. She’d felt the evil in Sebastian. If she had anything to say about it, that little toad would never control her town.
Ari lifted her chin and looked the vampire prince straight in the eye.
“Yeah, you have a deal.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Leaving the warehouse district, Ari and Andreas walked in the general direction of her apartment. She’d gotten over most of her snit, for the moment anyway.
“Are you really fine with being part of this deal?” she asked.
“I already promised to help you.”
“Yes, but offering and being ordered are different. What about the club?”
Andreas dismissed her concerns. “The club has an excellent staff. And Daron did not order this without my agreement. He isn’t the dictator you think, but we don’t have time to talk about the prince. Too many other things to explain before dawn arrives.”
Ari listened with rapt attention as Andreas revealed detail after detail about the secretive vampire court. He started with an overview of the current daylight guards: three werelions, a werewolf and a halfling demon. All five had worked with the vampires for years with no smudges on their loyalty. Ari perked up her ears when he said the halfling’s abilities included demon fire. She’d never met another being with fire ability, except Great-Gran. The demon part gave her a moment of hesitation—even a halfling could be evil—until she remembered she’d just agreed to protect a nest of vampires.
Without telling more than necessary, Andreas described the general layout of the compound. The security station inside the side door held a secret entrance to Prince Daron’s sleeping quarters. Beyond that hidden door was a complicated labyrinth of passageways.
“Without a map or detailed instructions, no one could locate the prince’s chambers. Not before they were discovered.”
“Then why do you need me?”
“We have a traitor. Someone may have revealed the path, drawn a map.”
Ari blinked. “But I thought the passage was secret. Who would know the way…other than you, Carmella and Lucien?”
Andreas shrugged. “Nest leaders, court personnel, guards, maybe a few tradesmen. Most of the chambers are only secret to the outside world. Not to vampires. Daron’s actual sleeping quarters are private but simple process of elimination could get you there if you already knew the layout. The entire complex is like a community center in some respects.”
“How many entrances? Rooms? Corridors?” Ari flung out her arms. “This must cover an entire city block. A rabbit warren.”
His lips twitched. “It is not as bad as that. There is only one way into the inner chambers. It is true,” he said in response to her sudden scowl. “Daron believes that one entrance is easier to defend. The court is heavily fortified at night. And if we are asleep,” he gave a rueful shrug, “what good is an escape route?”
“But that’s such a stupid idea!” She put up her hands at his sharp look. “Never mind. We’ll deal with it. But if one of the daylight guards is on the enemy payroll or someone else has talked, your only entrance and exit has been compromised.” She sighed. “Fine, I’ve got the basic set up. Tell me about the other incidents the prince mentioned.”
As Andreas talked, it didn’t take long for Ari to see some possible links between the court problems and the wolves. Daron’s attacker had been a deliveryman, a werewolf employed by the blood bank for less than three months. His background check turned out to be falsified, and they had no idea who he was. Six weeks before that Carmella had been ambushed by a vampire, another stranger to the Riverdale area. Three weeks later a wolf offered to pay, and pay well, for information on the vampire compound. The young vampire he attempted to bribe reported the incident, but by the time the wolf was located, he’d been shot to death. Again, he wasn’t a local. In typical vampire fashion, the body was hidden.
“If you had reported it, we might have run DNA or something,” she said as they crossed 10th Street and turned left onto a shaded boulevard.
“At the time, it seemed unimportant.”
Ari suddenly looked at him. “That’s what you were doing in Goshen Park when we first met. Following a suspicious wolf. As it turns out, you were right. I wonder if the kids interrupted a drug deal or a meeting with a local contact. Guess I should have killed Molyneux that night. You might have mentioned your earlier suspicions.