Dean’s hard expression softened slightly. “Bobby is the smartest Loup we have.”
Bobby blushed.
“Great, then it’s settled. Let’s do this.”
The inside of the museum smelled of dust and chemicals. At one time, the arched roof of the central chamber had been made of glass, allowing sunlight to stream into the vast space, but now it was boarded up, allowing only slivers of moonlight in through the narrow gaps between the crisscrossed boards. It was more than enough to see by, not that Bobby had an issue. His eyes glowed in the dark as he led the way along the right side of the vast chamber. There were pillars to our left and rooms with arched entrances to our right. The place was massive. The fuckers could be holed up in any tiny part of it.
I spotted Dean and his team on the far side of the chamber just before they ducked into one of the exhibition rooms.
Bobby stopped and sniffed the air. “Blood,” he whispered.
I couldn’t smell anything, but then he was a wolf, and I was a demon.
We followed him into an exhibition room up ahead. Posters littered the unswept floor, and a couple of empty crates sat up against the wall. Empty exhibition cases dotted the room and shafts of moonlight sliced across it like ineffectual silver lasers while motes of dust danced in the light.
“There’s nothing here,” Nox said.
“The blood is strong here,” Bobby replied.
A faint hint of copper hit my nose. “I smell it.”
Nox shot a sharp glance my way.
Bobby walked further into the room. His eyes closed. “I remember reading about this place. I went online for a tour. They said there were vaults where they kept the most valuable artifacts and tunnels between the three museums.” His eyes popped open. “But to be able to smell the blood from this floor … There has to be a lot of it.” He crouched and touched the ground. “There has to be a room beneath here.”
“So, let’s get down there,” Nox said.
Nix tapped a message into his comm to let Sariah know what we’d found, and we headed back toward the main chamber. The pillars holding up the balcony were a couple of meters in front of us, and the main chamber lay beyond. Sariah emerged on the other side of the room. She raised her hand in greeting, and I was about to do the same when my scalp pricked and the hairs on my nape tingled.
“Stop.” I held out an arm to warn the others not to step out from under the balcony.
Sariah’s eyes widened, and then an arrow whizzed through the air and embedded itself in the ground with a thunk. Shit. Another arrow followed the first, landing in the same spot and vibrating with the force of impact.
A show of excellent aim.
A show of power.
“Come out,” a female voice called out. “Come out, you mangy wolves, and we might kill you quick.”
Wolves? They didn’t mention demons. I tapped a group message into my comm.
They don’t know there are reapers here.
They didn’t pick up the scent.
Nox and Nix nodded as they read it.
This was our advantage.
I leaned in to whisper to Bobby. “Is there a way up there without going into the main chamber?”
He closed his eyes for a long beat, then nodded. “Yes, the exhibition room up ahead. There’s a stairwell. Same on the other side.”
I tapped the information into the comm and waited. Sariah read it and turned to Dean, leaning in to inform him of what I’d said. He nodded. My comm lit up.
Dean is going to play mouthpiece. I’ll circle around and meet you up top.”
I gave her a thumbs-up, then led my team toward the exhibition room we needed. We were shielded by the balcony ledge, but the threat up above us was an acute awareness on the top of my scalp and a cold grip on the back of my neck.
I ducked into the exhibition room just as Dean’s voice rang out across the chamber.
“We just want our alpha. We don’t want to fight.”
Lie. But if it bought us time, then good. Dean had seven wolves, and I had three reapers. I needed to know what number of vamps we were up against. The fact they were utilizing such a huge building was a worry, though. Why did they need so much space?
This room was darker and smaller than the others but housed a narrow stairwell to the upper floor.