“Thanks, Dad.”
“Don’t thank me,” Dad grimly said. “This could ruin your life.”
We hung up, and I took a deep breath and leaned against the glass windows that made up the wall of the muster room.
It’s done. This could be a disaster. Hopefully it pays off.
I set my shoulders and made myself look up.
Itwouldpay off. It had to.
Besides, who else was better to find a vampire than a bunch of slayers?
Despite the team’shard work, our night shift failed to uncover anything new.
We checked with the hotel, reviewed security footage Tutu’s Crypta & Custodia had supplied us, a team was even sent out to all the major supernatural gathering places—like Club Luminary—to canvass the crowds and see if anyone had seen the dragon shifter.
Everything was a dead end.
Dawn came, and our shift ended.
Nerves fluttered in my stomach as I unbuttoned the gold buttons of my navy-blue task force uniform, stripping down to the black undershirt and leggings I layered underneath it.
“This is going to be a good thing—looking for the oracle, I mean,” Tetiana declared as she shut the door to her locker. “We’re not finding anything new. We get that oracle, I bet we’ll get Considine.”
I pulled on the base layer of my slayer nightwear, a high collared, dark gray military style jacket with an attached hood I would normally hook my slayer mask into.
“Yeah.” Brody rummaged around his locker. “I bet the consultant-guy will make a breakthrough in the case, and we’ll find the oracle fast!”
Next I pulled on my pants—form fitting and a similar dark gray color, but padded at the knees and made of a special material that would stretch with my movements.
Clarence cast an anxious look at me, then chirped, “It is a boon the specialist was able to rearrange his schedule and fly out this morning.”
Tossing my top winter layer—a waterproof tailcoat jacket that cut off at my knees—on the bench, I pulled my boots on again and secured the armband that had the O’Neil crest around my right bicep before hanging up my uniform in my locker.
Binx elbowed April. April cleared her throat—clearly the team all had assigned lines and she’d missed her cue. “The Drakes haven’t been able to find anything either, so it’s probably a good idea to widen what we’re searching for,” April said.
Hauling the duffle bag of weapons I’d retrieved from my apartment the day before—under the supervision of four Drake vampires—from my locker, I set about putting on my usual slayer gear: a thigh bandolier of daggers, a handgun, a couple of hidden daggers in my boots and sleeves, and my small, lightweight sword.
Around the time I secured my sword to my belt, I realized instead of filing out as usual, my teammates were still clustered in the locker room, casting nervous looks at me before attempting to communicate with each other using only their eyes.
Do they think I’m going crazy and heading out to look for Considine myself?
The Curia Cloisters was a neutral zone so they didn’t allow weapons, but I’d filled out all the necessary declaration forms last night when I reserved the assembly hall for the week during my break time. (I figured it would be wise to give the Cloisters a heads up for what was about to descend upon them.)
I better reassure them.
I reached in my bags, intending to grab the paperwork, when I heard one of the locker doors slam open.
“Jade!” Sunshine burst into the room, locking her knees and sliding into my row of lockers. Orrin was on her heels, his normally neat gold hair mussed. “Jade—something’s goingdown! There are helicopters flying over the Cloisters.Twohelicopters.”
“They’re here.” I shoved my bag into my locker and slammed it shut.
CHAPTER
TWENTY-SIX
Jade
