them installed that night—and the need to secure landlines and the computer network, which she discovered had also been done. When she described the team’s brainstorming on new procedures and additional weaponry, Andreas appeared satisfied with their progress.
“Show me how the cameras work,” Ari said. “I’ll put Mike and Maleban on the system tomorrow. They seem to like tech toys. Mike’s pretty quiet. A hard man to know. What’s his background?”
Andreas’s answer was brief. “Ex-military, special forces. The rest is Mike’s story to tell or not. I should warn you that he hates werewolves.”
“But he is a werewolf. Oh, not natural-born, I guess.”
“Indeed.” Andreas busied himself with more dials, clearly closing the topic.
Before Ari finished learning the cameras’ operations, the crew arrived to install the motion sensors, and she got to play with those controls too. By eight o’clock everything was done and ready for tomorrow. She only needed one last piece of information before they left.
“So where’s the entrance to the prince’s tunnel?”
Andreas stilled, and for a moment, he said nothing. “I should have anticipated that question.” He slowly nodded. “Of course, you need to know.”
He led her into the main security room, where the poker game had been, and stopped before the west wall, one of two paneled in a dark knotty pine. Ari followed his pointing finger and saw what looked like a small nail head. It turned out to be a tiny latch hidden inside a dark knot. Andreas pulled it up with his fingernail. Ari heard a definite click, and a section of the paneling silently opened inward to a dark tunnel. He pushed the latch back in place and it closed. Simple but effective.
“Clever camouflage.” Ari wanted a peek inside, but the quick closing of the entrance reminded her the secret chambers were off limits to non-vampires, including witches.
* * *
Satisfied with her first day on the job, Ari was eager to get on with her hunt for the wolves. Maybe they could find and kill the enemy before they had a chance to attack the compound. She and Andreas stepped out of the warehouse, moving quickly down the street. A brief stop at Club Dintero, then they’d cruise through the bar district.
Victor appeared the moment they walked into the door and pulled Andreas aside to confer on some management crisis. Ari slipped into an empty booth, ordering a sandwich while she waited. Andreas returned with a bottle of wine just as her sandwich was served.
“We have plenty of time. It is early yet for the bar crowd,” he explained. “Do you recognize our waiter?”
Ari studied the silent young man. “Lorenzo?”
He gave her a boyish grin. “Hello, Ms. Calin. I hope you enjoy your dinner.” He blushed and left.
Ari laughed at his formal speech. “Such a change. So that’s what caused the big grins when we left the caves. I suppose Reno works here too.”
Andreas smiled and poured two glasses of wine. “He does. I wanted to ensure they suffered no harm from our visit. Have you decided where we should start our search?”
“The strip, for sure.” She listed several vampire hangouts, including the Second Chance and the Bloody Stake, and threw in a couple of wolf clubs. “And Goshen Park. The wolves are bound to run sometime.”
“There are other woods.”
“Yeah, but we can’t hit them all. At least not tonight.”
Victor reappeared with another question for Andreas, and the two men left with their heads together. This time it was something about missing receipts.
Ari leaned back in the booth, rested her head against the cushioned surface, trying to relax. It had been a tense day. The club’s dim lighting, the soft music, began to have an effect. The events of the last days floated in her head like remembered scraps of a dream. And for a moment she almost grabbed onto something important to the case. Something Andreas had said. But she couldn’t hang onto the thread. They had discussed so much.
“Sleeping or day dreaming?” Andreas said without warning.
Ari sat up with a jerk. “Do you have to do that?”
“Do what?” He slid into the booth, retrieving his wineglass.
“Creep up on me like that.”
“I am a vampire, Arianna. What would you have me do? Wear a bell?”
“Might not be a bad idea. Do I detect sarcasm?” she teased. “I thought you said vampires had no humor.”
“I said some vampires would not understand your brand of humor.” His smile was contagious, and Ari found herself grinning back. The moment was broken by the ring of