Page 269 of Caelum

Two—obsessed with ancient artifacts that were shrouded in Biblical lore.

Both made sense in a way. What was unusual was the fact that Adamescu wasn’t living in a nest. At least, not a nest as we understood them to be.

He was surrounded by humans as far as we could tell. Of course, Ghouls looked normal, so until we approached, we wouldn’t know for sure of their species… therein lay another set of issues.

If Adamescu wasn’t as pumped about the signet ring as we imagined, then he wouldn’t be here.

Secondly, we were creatures on the brink of walking into a packed nightclub that may or may not be overloaded with Ghouls.

Fun.

I didn’t care for myself, but for Eve?

It bothered me. And yeah, I knew she was capable of using someone’s severed leg as a fucking weapon, but still, she was my woman. My softness. I didn’t need her in danger, not without mygouilleturning insane in the process.

I was surprised by Romania. The Bucegi mountains were beautiful, andthis part of the city we were in was quite pretty. There was something fresh in the air that reminded me we were in the countryside. It wasn’t dirty like London had been. Instead, it was clean and crisp. It rained a lot, more than the UK, but from how Stefan had always described it, I’d expected a dump.

It wasn’t.

But I knew his past had colored this place, had ruined any beauty in it for him because he’d experienced only the ugly side of life here. Setting foot on Romanian soil had changed him, made him harder, tenser. So much so, not even Eve was getting through to him, and I didn’t think anything would until we left again.

Still, I could appreciate the place even if he couldn’t. We’d passed beautiful ancient buildings, pretty streets lined with expensive homes, and green fields that made mygouillewant to get out and run. I couldn’t even imagine how badly Reed and Dre were being hit with those urges too.

The bar was in a less than chic neighborhood, but for all that, the queue was rammed solid.

Mygouillesensed that the crowd was all human, too, which meant they were essentially cows walking into the abattoir for slaughter if the Ghouls in charge deigned to make it a slaughterhouse for the night.

The humans’ presence made it difficult for us to discern what was going on inside the nightclub, which meant we couldn’t use our souls’ abilities to figure out what we were about to walk into.

It was inconvenient to be sure.

But I had to assume that the nightclub wouldn’t be popular if masses of humans randomly went missing from inside its walls.

“Are you ready?” Eve asked, murmuring the words close to me.

I knew why. She wasgouilletoday, and she could sense how on edge mine was.

While I liked that she checked up on me, I didn’t need to be soothed. What I needed was for her to be back at the hotel. Safe and sound.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t exactly end this Ghoul without her, which was a definite hitch in that plan.

I nodded. “As ready as I’ll ever be,” I told her grimly, and I grabbed a firm hold of her hand as we crossed the slick street toward the bar.

The others were gathered around behind me. I knew it was instinct to want to surround Eve, but it would look weird, and as it stood, we were just businessmen. Of the illegal variety, but businessmen, nonetheless.

The queue hadn’t lessened any while we’d studied the building. Frazer had headed around the back to see if there were any surprises there, and we’d already studied the blueprints that Samuel had managed topurloin—no one even bothered asking how he got those. We were as prepared as we could be after we’d read Adamescu and his group’s list of crimes, and knowing we were walking into a killer’s den didn’t appease mygouilleany.

Adamescu appeared to live like a human. Most Ghoul Leaders did, to be fair. Ductores weren’t like the masses, after all. They had a control that was forged in a world of bloodshed. But Adamescu truly was the wolf among the sheep.

As we approached the doorway, the crowd grumbled as we passed. Every now and then, I heard Stefan tell them to fuck off, but I forged ahead. Three bouncers, list in hand and earpieces at the ready, saw us, and when they did?

They moved aside to let us pass.

That Ibramovicz had managed to get Eve’s picture to Adamescu shouldn’t have come as a surprise, but it did set me on edge.

As we stepped into the club, the darkness had mygouillerumbling with pleasure. It was weird because it was night, but in this antechamber, it was pitch-black. I only had a second to enjoy it before another door was opened and we walked into a mass of strobe lights that had everything inside me flinching.

I heard Reed and Dre groan too before the music swallowed them up as though they’d never made a sound.

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