Page 95 of Black Rose

So I shove those feelings aside and I try to pretend I don’t notice how goddamn ravishing she is and I join her on the balcony.

“It reminds me of Venice,” she comments without turning around. “But fewer tourists and more real people. And I love the sound of the mosques.” As she says that, a call to prayer rings out from the nearest mosque, filling the air at sunset.

I go and stand beside her, leaning forward so I’m resting my arms on the railing. It’s December now and the nights are getting cold here, but for us it’s the perfect temperature, warm with a bite to it. “It’s one of the reasons I love it here,” I tell her. “The culture, the history. Glad I had a chance to come back. Even if it’s under the present circumstances.”

“Speaking of,” she says, turning to face me. “I think I got an idea of their location. I can’t be sure because it keeps changing.”

“Where?”

“So you know this morning I kept seeing what I’m assuming is the Grand Bazaar, though I’m sure there are a million markets like that here? It’s like I’m looking through Bellamy’s eyes when I’m doing this, so I can’t quite see him. But I see what he’s seeing. And I’m seeing Leif with him wherever he goes. He’s a little fuzzy, like looking through a staticky TV, but he still looks like Dylan to me.”

“Do you have any idea yet what they were doing in the market?”

She shrugs. “I don’t know. I still think it was spices but maybe materials to make magic with? This city does feel like it’s brimming with it.”

“And you just tried again now?”

“Yes. It works a little better when I’m out here. I don’t know if it’s me being in nature or what, but it’s like the wind and the river help bring me clarity. So this time I saw them inside an old building. Almost like a mosque but not. It had the look but not the reverence. It was Bellamy and Leif, but also two others that I vaguely recognized. One ended up being Atlas Poe, a witch that I knew of back then. The other was a witch I think I went to school with. Celina something. They were discussing stuff, but I don’t know what. Business, I guess, I couldn’t make out what they were saying most of the time.”

She turns her attention back to the city and gestures toward the Asian side of the Strait. “But I feel a magnetic like pull to that area. Kind of where the docks are. I think if we went there tomorrow and got closer, maybe I could pick up more details, and maybe I could actually pinpoint where they are.”

She turns back to look at me and her cheeks are flushed, she’s practically glowing. She’s proud. Proud of the magic. When I first learned my spells, I wasn’t proud, I was just smug. I used it to feel better about myself. But with her, she’s becoming alive before my eyes.

“What?” she asks.

I swallow thickly. “Nothing,” I say quietly, clearing my throat. “It’s just that the magic suits you. And so does being a vampire. You’re so incredible and I’m not even sure you know it.”

Her brows go up. “I know I’m incredible enough to keep getting reincarnated.”

I chuckle. “That’s very true. So maybe you do know.”

She puts her hand on top of mine. “I want to know whyyouthink I’m incredible. To have Dracula say that is no small feat.”

“You’re incredible because you’re you,” I tell her, my chest twisting into knots. “And you have me under a lovely spell.”

A spell there’s only one way to wake up from.

She staring at me with tears in her green eyes and I’m thinking of breaking the emergency glass.

There’s a vial in my suitcase.

Waiting for me.

Chapter22

Rose

“Istill think we should wait for the others,” Valtu says to me under his breath as the taxicab careens around a corner, honking at people spilling onto the street. We’ve just left our hotel in the Sultanahmet district, the cab driver expertly navigating the chaos of the Old Town, and are about to head through the Eurasia Tunnel to the other side of the Bosphorus Strait.

“You said that Abe couldn’t get a hold of my parents,” I point out. I tried to get in touch with them through Valtu’s cell, but they didn’t answer me either. “Who knows how long they’ll take. Maybe they won’t even come. I know my dad will want to come and fuck things up, but I don’t see him letting my mom do this. He’s very protective of her.”

“He also said that Lenore and Solon were on their way to Oregon. They stayed in touch with Dylan,” he says.

“But again, we don’t know when they’ll get here,” I tell him. “Anyway, I’m not planning on doing anything now. I just want to see if I can pinpoint their position. If the witches are still in that building, and perhaps that’s where they always go, then we can ambush them.”

He gives me a stern look. “I mean it, Rose. No ambushing until we know what we’re up against and until we’ve got enforcements. We may have the power that the book gave us, but we haven’t been wielding it long and we have no idea how formidable they might be.”

I glance at the cabbie in the rear-view mirror. He’s humming along to the music on the radio and not paying us any attention, the air freshener swinging back and forth as he drives.

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