Gibbon was sucking so vigorously on the nurse’s throat, Giovani was certain this would be the last time they would use her. She had done well, though, considering how much blood she had lost at the time they brought her in. Though the detective probably had another day or so in him, Giovani made a mental note to send out his minions to procure more reserva. If Gibbon continued his training so well, he would need more rewards.
Pulling his face away from the neck of the now deceased nurse, Gibbon began to laugh manically, blood dripping down his face. With each feeding he grew stronger, and sitting in his cell on a cot with his shirt off, Giovani couldn’t help but admire the rippling sinews of his biceps, his broad chest, his taut abdomen. As the nurse’s crumpled body slipped to the floor, Gibbon wiped his mouth with his hands and then began to lick his palms like an animal. His fangs were still exposed, their razor-sharp surfaces gleaming in the dim light of the underground tunnel. Giovani had much to be proud of, and with just a bit more training, he knew for certain he would have complete control over his monster.
He heard Zabrina, who had returned only moments after her last hissy fit, scoff in her chair, but he decided to ignore her. She just didn’t understand the workings of a true genius such as himself.
“Giovani?”
It was Robert, and Giovani was excited to see how his friend had progressed. “Well, what’s the news, brother?” he asked.
“She’ll be arriving tomorrow afternoon. I can get her myself for certain, despite the brand-new Guardian she’s been dragging around, but that will require me to start the process. You want her brought in whole, I presume?”
“Yes,” Giovani replied. “I don’t want the change to begin until the timing is perfect. Otherwise, we have nothing to bargain with. Will you need our assistance then?”
“I believe we should be cautious. LIGHTS still has no idea where you are?” Robert asked.
“Not at the moment, but they draw closer each day. If we can get the young one here undetected, then we can move forward on our own terms. Let me know when you approach the station, and I shall meet you there.”
“I will keep you posted,” Robert responded before turning his full attention back to the girl on the train.
It was early afternoon of day two, and Cadence was growing frustrated; nothing seemed to be pointing them in the right direction, and somewhere nearby, Giovani had Gibbon and was turning him into even more of a devious monster than he already was while they stood around and waited.
After talking to the police, they had spent hours walking along the area where eye witnesses said they saw the helicopter land and then take off again. Even with Aaron’s X-ray vision, there was no indication that Giovani had somehow managed to go underground, though it seemed there had to be a tunnel or an entrance to some sort of passage somewhere; otherwise the testimonies just didn’t make any sense.
While several members of the team were still checking the area, and some were walking the streets of the district known as Jeweler’s Row hoping to see something interesting or bump into a Vampire willing to talk, Cadence, Aaron, Jamie, and Christian were back in Andrew’s office comparing maps. They had it narrowed down now to a very specific area and were looking for differences between blueprints. Eliza was convinced there had to be something underground after what she had seen in Cesky Krumlov, and Cadence thought there was a good chance she was right. There just hadn’t been any way to prove it or figure out where the entrance might be.
To top it all off, she had left her sister several voice mails and had heard nothing back. Brandon wasn’t answering either, and while it seemed highly unusual that neither of them would answer their phone, she was trying not to panic yet. Her parents would be off work soon, and she was planning on giving her mom a call; maybe Cass hadn’t come back until today. Maybe she’d be waiting when her parents got home. She let out a sigh and placed the map she was looking at back down on the table.
“Worried about your sister?” Aaron asked, as if reading her mind.
“It’s just not like her not to answer, even if she’s mad at me.”
“Well, maybe she’s still hanging out with Brandon, and they are having too much fun to call.”
“Maybe. We would have heard something from someone if she wasn’t all right—right?”
“I would think so,” Aaron shrugged. While he was attempting to stay calm so that Cadence wouldn’t get upset, he was beginning to think something was wrong, despite the fact that no one in their vast system of contacts had alerted him about anything unusual. Nevertheless, his instincts were telling him something wasn’t quite right, and he was considering sending some feelers out to team members in the area to go and check on the two teenagers.
“Hmmm,” Jamie said from the far end of the table. “Okay—I think I may have found the something unusual you were talking about.”
Cadence stepped over to look at it. “What is it?” she asked.
“Well, if you look at this blueprint,” he began gesturing at a row of buildings on a rendering from the early twentieth century, “the measurements are slightly shorter than this original one. And this door on the older one,” he said pointing at the other blueprint, “isn’t there anymore.”
Cadence leaned forward to look at it. “That is interesting,” she agreed. “And look, these two buildings are shorter as well. What do you think that means? Did they just measure wrong the first time?”
“Maybe,” Jamie shrugged.
“Or else there was an excavation of some sort, and the new floors were installed in a different position,” Aaron suggested.
“It’s similar on all three of these buildings,” Cadence pointed out.
“And these,” Christian showed them, looking at a row of buildings down the street. “See? Different measurements here as well.”
“And that door is moved,” Cadence added, pointing to the drawing.
“What are the years on the blueprints?” Aaron asked.
“Well, this one was drawn in 1862, and this one is from 1904,” Jamie explained.
“That’s about the same time that the jewelers moved into the area,” Christian reminded them. “Is it possible they needed some place safe to keep their wares, like a secret underground room?”
“It’s very possible,” Cadence agreed. “We need to go check these buildings out in person. Maybe we can access the underground system from the jeweler’s shops themselves instead of the underground tunnel.”
Before she could even finish her sentence, Eliza came over the IAC. “Hey guys, we have a possible Giovani sighting. We’ve got a black Chevy Tahoe moving north up Eighth Street toward Market.”
“Are you following him?” Aaron asked.
“Not yet,” she admitted. “We are in route to the pursuit, but I do have some eyes on the ground. He just made a left onto Market.”
“Get on him as soon as you can, got it?”
“Will do,” Eliza said, leaving her visuals on.
“Where is he going on Market Street?” Cadence asked. They all scrambled for the maps as Aaron’s cell phone rang.
Annoyed, he pulled the phone out of his pocket and froze. “It’s Brandon,” he said.
“Brandon?” Cadence asked. “That’s odd timing.”
Aaron answered the phone just as Christian said, “Aha! That’s where the train station is—Thirtieth Street Station.”