Page 57 of Visions in Blood
I straightened and stretched my back before sliding the dagger into my jacket.We met at the reading table, though we kept our eyes on the stacks.They ran in various directions, forming small circles in adjacent sections.I was curious how they would look from a bird’s eye view.Lucas’s map wasn’t that detailed, but I couldn’t help wondering if there was a pattern to it all and if it was the same on each level.
“Now what?”Simone stared at me, arms across her chest, and her caftan seemed to flutter with some mystical force.
“We look for the book.”
“And how do we do that?”
Good question.There hadn’t been any computer stations along the way.I made a slow circle and smiled when my gaze landed on a long cabinet with rows of small drawers next to one of the stacks.Old school it was.
It had been years since I’d been in a library where they still used card catalogs and didn’t think any still existed.For the first time since we’d entered, I took the time to let the scent of books fill my senses, memories rushing past of days spent in libraries, anything to keep me from having to go home.Thinking of Christopher’s house shook me out of the old days, and I pulled open one of the drawers.
The heavy wood drawer slid out easily, displaying dozens of index-sized cards.I flipped through several and wasn’t surprised to discover they didn’t use the Dewey decimal system.Vamps preferred their own way of doing things.The cards appeared to be filed in alphabetical order by title, although there was some type of alpha-numeric code assigned to each card.
I checked my pockets but no pen.Out of curiosity more than anything else, I scanned the top of the cabinet.Sure enough, on the far side there was a pad of paper and a short lead pencil.I was beginning to see why Lucas loved these libraries and would have to ask him if there was one closer to home.
When I stepped back, my heel clipped Simone’s boot.“Good grief, Simone.Is this a date?”
Her expression revealed nothing as she continued to stare.Personal space, or lack thereof, was another annoying habit with some vamps, especially the older ones.
“Why are you hovering?”
She blinked.“I wanted to see what you were doing.”
“Could you do that from two feet over?”
When she continued her stare, I rolled my eyes and started opening drawers to find the ones starting with the letter D.This all seemed too easy.Devon never said where he got the information on the book’s whereabout, and I hadn’t thought to ask Lucas.
I found the right drawer on my eighth try.A tingle ran over me when I pulled the card with the book’s name typed on it, and my hand trembled when I wrote down its location, which appeared surprisingly exact with stack and shelf number.The stacks were clearly tagged with labels, and it didn’t take long to find what we were looking for on the third shelf, two-thirds of the way down the aisle.
I froze, checking the location on the slip of paper against the book label on the shelf.Then I read the name on the book’s spine.This was it.I glanced at Simone, her eyes big as saucers, a smile on her lips.She nodded for me to do the honors.
I suspected right away that something was wrong.But sometimes, I think the brain pushes the thought aside to keep us in that state of heightened expectation for as long as possible before the inevitable crash.It wasn’t a large book, but it should have weighed more than the light, airy object in my hand.Turned out, it was a box that had been painted to look like an ancient text, title and all.
My hands shook as I opened the box.It was lined with a soft, silk fabric and held a card the size of a wedding invitation.I choked out a laugh.Of all the frickin’ luck.The note was short and sweet.
“De første dageis currently out for restoration services.Apologies for the inconvenience.”
Simone tapped her booted toe,the soft sound more like a drumbeat in the quiet room.Her other leg was crossed over her knee, her shoulders back in a regal posture.She would make an amazing House leader—or a queen if times had been different.Her brows knit over a faraway gaze, still stymied over the note and five minutes of what she referred to as a discussion, and I viewed more as a tirade of how the simplest of things could get so fucked up.
“We can’t ask for a private viewing.That would leave a trail.”This was the third time Simone had made the comment, as if all the earlier statements had melted the obvious problems away.
Simone’s flaw, not that I would tell her, was that she’d never planned a job before.She’d been a member of many missions, and while she’d had to make last-minute decisions, it wasn’t the same as planning a job from beginning to end.She was in a position to watch how Devon devised his missions, but the other players never saw how the pieces were brought together.From my experience in planning several heists, it’s not the same until you’re the one in charge—mistakes and all.To put it plainly, she couldn’t see the trees for the forest, and the devil’s in the details.
“It would have been helpful to put a date on the card.”Her fingernails tapped a slow rhythm in time with her boot, her expression never changing as she continued to spit out her long mantra.“We have no idea if the book was removed yesterday or ten years ago.We need to get into the restoration room.”
I’d sprawled in an overstuffed chair a few feet from her with one leg thrown over the arm while I perused two maps.One was a copy of Lucas’s map, and the other was the one Simone had taken from the basket.A plan was forming, but I’d either need a crew or a diversion.I hadn’t spoken to Harlow since the job where Sorrento had caged me, and though it was past time to discover who the snitch had been, his crew was currently a high risk.
Besides, after a glance at Simone and her wrinkled forehead, if there was a solution to this, it had to be soon.I turned my gaze to the room and considered our slim options—or lack thereof.For no other reason than sheer boredom after our anticlimactic moment and waiting for Simone to complete yet another review of our impossible task, I turned to the modern-day map of the library.I read through its brief history and a list of coming events when I turned the page to find a list of weekly happenings.The library was busier than I thought, and whether it was the alignment of stars or fate resting her hand on our shoulder, luck was on our side today.
I popped up, grinning like an alley cat with an opened can of tuna.
“We have a way in.”
Simone’s gaze snapped to me, and her fang-tipped smile matched my own.“It took you long enough.”
ChapterTwenty-One
Sergi and Lucaswere quiet in the front seat of the sedan.That wasn’t anything new for Sergi, especially since his unsuccessful return from SoCal that morning, but Lucas was usually chattier, even when on a mission.He’d been unhappy when Devon had first laid out the plan for Willa Underwood.More so when he’d selected a meeting for when Cressa was conveniently in Los Angeles.
