“We’ve got no time for games.” Charlie rose to his full height. “Let’s go.”
I rolled over the flowers, and we left them behind as we made our way to the practice arena to meet up with Kallie.
“I don’t like not wearing my wedding ring,” I complained. “It feels weird.”
We’d dropped off my ring at the treasury last night, so the Elvish jewelers could solder my original wedding band with the absolutely gorgeous ring Charlie had proposed with yesterday.Hadn’t even had that beautiful rock for a full day, and already, I was parted from my beloved.
“You’ll get it back at the ceremony,” Charlie soothed, and he brushed back my hair.
“Too long to wait.” I’d be planning this wedding right now if we didn’t have to work on demigod business, so whatever dumbass had the vampire key needed to cough it up, so I could get home and start looking for my dress. “You know, if I can’t wear my wedding ring, you shouldn’t be wearing yours, either. It’s only fair.”
Charlie scowled. “No.”
You’d have to cut his finger off before he removed it, I was sure.
When we walked into the training arena, my jaw dropped. Kallie and Marcus sat at a table that she’d conjured in the middle of the room, and they were actuallytalking.What was more, both of them weresmiling.She drank a coffee that I assumed Marcus must’ve brought her, while they eagerly engaged in conversation. It didn’t look awkward, or weird.
Were they actuallygetting along? It was a little nuts. I’d assumed after they broke their bond they’d never speak again, but here they were, acting like everything was fine. When Marcus saw me, he cheerfully waved. I decided to play along and act like this wasn’t fucking bizarre.
The Elvish Associates were here as well, along with Danny, Ivy, and Chancey. I wondered who exactly we’d have to take down if we were bringing along this many people.
“Hey,” Kallie said as I rolled up beside her. “Glad you’re here. We can get started.”
“What’s this all about, Kallie?” Charlie demanded as he took a chair beside me. “Do you really have a lead on the vampire key?”
“Of course I do,” Kallie shot back. “I didn’t call everyone in for teatime.”
“Then why didn’t I know about it earlier?” Charlie asked. “This shouldn’t have been kept from me.”
He was being kind of bossy. I laid my hand on his, to tell him to cool off. His shoulders slumped, and he didn’t say anything more.
Kallie huffed. “I only learned of this yesterday. I called everyone together as soon as I could. I got tired of waiting for your team to find us some answers, so I took the risk and time traveled.”
I knew Kallie’s powers had been weakened by her bond breaking. She must’ve time-traveled the first chance she got, when her powers were strong enough again.
“Kallie, that’s dangerous. You should’ve consulted us before you did it,” Charlie hissed.
“You would’ve stopped me if I had,” Kallie insisted. “Anyway, I went back to the day that Frank put the key into the vault, to see who took it. It worked, because I was able to watch who took the key from the vault before he was killed, and I also saw who murdered Frank.”
“So do you know who he is?” Charlie asked.
“Yes. I learned his name, and he’s still alive. Your team was able to track him down,” Kallie informed us. “It turns out Masci Taurus wasn’t the only person hunting for the key, and the angels weren’t the ones who took it from the vault. The thief was someone named Lorenzo Gallio. Take one guess who he works for.”
Charlie groaned and rubbed his face. “Not another vampire mobster.”
“He’s one of my dad’s cronies,” Ivy snarled. “And unfortunately, this guy is one I don’t know.”
“Or fortunately,” Chancey subbed in. “Because if he doesn’t know you, he’ll be easier to fool.”
“If that’s true, we can assume that Salvatore Bianchi has the vampire key,” Marcus said. “Great.”
Charlie scoffed. “The head of the bank was a vampire. I bet he had ties to Salvatore. If he did, that means Salvatore knew all along that the vampire key was in the bank, but kept it there because that’s where it was safest. Our first time around, we must’ve tripped the bank’s security system when Max hacked their files. That’s how they knew we were coming. Salvatore moved the key the night before we got there, but it was an inside job. That’s how he got away clean.”
“What about the second time, when we went back in time and changed things?” I wondered.
Charlie mused for a moment. “It’s possible Salvatore didn’t have people inside the bank back in the 1920s. We learned from Chancey’s past-life regression that Frank was killed on the street the first time, like his killer thought he still had the key on him. That would mean Salvatore didn’t learn about the bank vault until some time later. Originally, he must’ve spent years sending that bigwig up the corporate ladder until he gained control of the key in the vault.”
Ivy drummed their fingers on the tabletop. “That certainly sounds like my father. He’s no stranger to playing the long con.”
