Page 65 of The Serpent's Bride
They drove along in silence for another twenty or so minutes before Raziel pulled up to a large warehouse with a sliding wooden door. The circular headlights shrank into small bright disks on the faded, flaking paint. She could just make out some text aboutDANGER, NO ENTRY, CAVE SYSTEM, FAE.
Her jaw twitched. She was glad Raziel was distracted.
As Raziel brought the truck to a halt, he spoke up. “One last thing. If you prove yourself tonight, there is a chance my mother might change her mind. There is a chance we could delay the honeymoon…perhaps even indefinitely.”
She didn’t have the time to reply. Or even register her shock before she had to hide it underneath the brim of her cap. She knew that was on purpose.Damn you?—
A man in a deep green wool vest walked up to them, rubbing the back of his hand across his nose. It looked like a tic of his. Powder-user, was Nadi’s guess. Not uncommon in his line of work. The man tucked his hand into his belt, pulling his brown overcoat aside, clearly showing them both that he had a gun tucked into his belt.
“You lost, mate?” The human man sneered up at Raziel.
“Lookin’ for Luciento,” Raziel replied, his accent mimicking that of a lower-metropolis steel worker flawless. She was impressed. “Deniel sendin’ gifts, I’m just the monkey drivin’ the truck.” He jabbed his thumb toward the back of the vehicle and the stacks of crates.
“Who’s the girl?” The man eyed her.
“Another gift if your boss decides the first ain’t good enough.”
She smiled from under her hat. Sweetly, but nottoosweetly. She’d hung out with enough whores in her life to know how to smile like one on the job. It was about looking just a little bit tired and bored of it all.
Snorting, the man shook his head before walking toward the rolling door, and with a whistle, gestured his hand. From the inside, there was a thud, and the wood panels creaked and parted for them.
The smell of the Wild greeted them. Gods, Nadilovedthat smell. She’d missed it. Crisp, and fresh, andalive.Utterly different from the reek of garbage and piss and dirt in the metropolis.
The cave mouths were still far from the true depths of home, but it was the closest she’d been in a very, very long time.
They were inside. A good first step. Before them, the road dipped into the ground at a stiff angle, making her wonder if the old truck could handle it. But the vampire next to her seemed unconcerned as he pressed the gas and headed farther in.
Darkness was cut into sharply by the glow of gas lamps. They meant she almost couldn’t make out the faint purplish-blue glow of the threads of vines that laced along the cave walls like the thinnest of veins. The Wild. She hadn’t seen it in so long. It was the only consistent source of light they had to see by, down below.
This part of the cave mouths attached to a series of tunnels that popped up in various parts underneath the metropolis—and Luciento and the Iltanis controlled almost all of them. It made him the king of smuggling items through the literal underground. If anybody needed anything or anyone moved quickly and discreetly—sometimes, the easiest way was down, if they had the cash.
But most of Luciento’s money came from dealing in the mushrooms that were turned into the powder the humans favored so much. While it wasn’t the only drug in Runne—not by any stretch of the imagination—it certainly was one of the most popular.
The road was a mix of dirt and rocks as they passed by crates until they reached a larger chamber, a few hundred feet around. Luciento’s base of operations. It was a two-floor structure on both sides, with rooms cobbled together mostly of steel that had been stolen from anything and everything they could get their hands on. Corrugated metal, the sides of boats, doors that were taken from different places.
It felt like home. Colorful and bizarre, haphazard but craftily made. Nadi had to fight back a smile. And twisted through it all—not consuming it like above but mixing with it instead—were the purple-blue vines of the Wild.
Figures moved around in the darkness, the gas lamps doing little to chase away all the shadows. As they approached, their headlights caught who was clearly waiting for them, alerted by the guards up above.
There he was.
Sitting on a barrel by a wooden pylon was Luciento. The one she knew assaestren,as uncle and family. He was surrounded by his goons, all packing guns. Deniel’s guns, provided to them by the Nostroms, she now knew.
Luckily, John—the Iltani she’d let live—wasn’t among them. That would make things very complicated. But odds were still good that this was about to go south, anyway. “Youknowone of them was at the wedding,” she told Raziel. “Youknowone of them is about to recognize at least one of us.”
He parked the truck and turned it off. Three men were already walking toward the back to likely check the crates and make sure the vehicle wasn’t rigged to explode. Raziel was already half out of the truck, and had ignored her statement.
Her heart lurched in her chest when Raziel stepped forward into the headlights and raised his hands in a show of harmlessness. “Luciento Iltani.” He wasn’t speaking in the accent anymore. “I’d like to talk somewhere private, if you would be so kind.”
What is he doing?Screaming in her head, Nadi made sure the knife and gun were somewhere she could reach them quickly before opening the door, climbing out, and closing it behind her with a thud.
“Takes balls to walk in here, Serpent,” Luciento replied. There were dozens of guns trained on them now. “With your new wife, no less.” He laughed. “Do you think we’re fools?”
“No. Which is precisely why I came.”
Luciento snorted. “What do you want, Serpent?”
“To broker peace. Mael is willing to forgive your transgression. As am I, for the right price. Which is why I’m here with no other fighters. I have even brought mynew wifeas collateral. Take her as an assurance that I won’t do anything foolish while we speak.”
