“I’m the boss, and if they aren’t going to do what I say, then I’ll do it myself,” I replied.
“I gotta agree with Charlie,” Alistair said. “I mean, I love my man, but Eddie doesn’t know what he’s talking about. By the time the Elvish Associates stop dragging ass to get into that bank, Esther and her shitshow circus are gonna roll in there and take it for themselves. A week is too long to wait, especially when Esther’s already in Paris. She could be planning to break in tomorrow.”
“Exactly,” I said. “Doing this ourselves, right now, is what makes sense.”
Chancey sighed. “You think you can pull this off because you have experience breaking and entering, but you’ve never robbed a bank. It’s not the same thing. I’ve seen this play out before. I lived a life of crime and got caught. I wasn’t as smart as I thought I was—noneof us were, pal. That’s why we landed ourselves in the Institute. Now you wanna take a job a couple of weeks after your ass got outta prison. Are you nuts?”
“We’ve learned from that,” I argued. “We’re better than we’ve ever been, and we’re demigods now. Look at us. Kallie’s an assassin who can cast the best damn illusions I’ve ever seen. Marcus can get through any ward, and Ava’s the baddest bitch I’ve ever known. She’ll kill any fucker who gets in our way.”
Ava laughed lightly. “That’s the best compliment I’ve ever received from my husband.”
“Our intel is right here,” I added, waving the folder Max gave me. “Ava and I can plan a heist we can pull off tomorrow, not next week. We don’t have that kind of time. Max has been poking around their computer system, and it’s bound to trigger some sort of alert. The bank could move the key before we get there, or Esther could show up first. If the Warden gets his hands on the vampire key, we might as well kiss it goodbye, because we’ll never get it back. We need to act fast, and we need to gonow.”
Ivy drummed their nails on the tabletop. “I think Charlie’s right.”
“Ives!” Chancey objected.
“Hear me out,” Ivy insisted. “This bank is run by vampires, and vamps move fast— and I’m not talking about their superspeed. We’ve already been at this for a few days, and I guarantee you the second they get wind thatanythingis amiss, they’re shutting that place down and hightailing the key out of there. I think Charlie’s team is underestimating him. Vamps usea lot of human tech, and because of that, their wards and magic can’t be too strong or it’ll mess with the cameras, just like it did at the Institute. Demigods should be able to break in easy, but we have to do it before anyone suspects anything.”
“If Ivy knows how this place operates, then we have the intel we need,” I said. “Chancey, if you’re in, you can run surveillance. What about the rest of you?”
“I’m all for it,” Ava said, sounding excited.
Oberi panted.Anything for those keys.
“If you say we have a job to do, we have a job to do,” Marcus added. Rishi meowed in agreement.
“You sure as hell aren’t going without me,” Kallie demanded.
Ivy’s chair squeaked as they sat up straighter. “Whatever you need from me, just ask.”
“I’m willing to create some chaos,” Alistair added eagerly.
Silence fell, and we all turned to Chancey. Finally, he breathed a heavy sigh. “Yeah, all right. I’m in. But I don’t like the look of this.”
By dawn the next morning,we had a plan in place. Kallie, Marcus, Chancey, and Ivy had joined Ava and me in the privacy of our quarters before anyone else in the castle had awoken. We gathered around the couches in the main room. Oberi was coming with us, because we needed him, but Marcus had opted to leave Rishi behind just in case this went south.
The phones the Elvish Associates gave us were in a pile on the table. We were leaving those behind, because I didn’t want the Elvish Associates trying to get in contact, demanding to know where we were while we were trying to pull off a robbery.We’d tell them everything once we were back in Ilamanthe with the vampire key.
Alistair was already in position and waiting for the proper time to set off his distraction. We’d be leaving once he did.
“Here’s what we know from the file Max gave us,” Ava started. “The wards cover a three-block perimeter around the bank, and portals won’t work in that area. Marcus can’t break the wards until we have the key, because otherwise, it’ll alert the vampires in the bank that something is up. We’ll have to portal into the city outside the wards, then drive the rest of the way to the bank. We’ll take my car, along with one of the royal vans. Chancey and Ivy will be running surveillance from the van. Chancey will be our eye on the sky and the streets, keeping watch for any signs of Esther. Ivy will monitor the bank’s live surveillance footage. Max has already hacked into the system. What she doesn’t know is that she gave us enough information in this file to hack intoherprogram ourselves.”
Ivy rubbed their hands together. “I was starting to think my father’s crime lessons would never pay off.”
“They’re paying off big time today,” Chancey muttered.
“Marcus and I will get the vampire key,” Ava continued. “I’ll be the customer who comes in to open her vault, and Marcus will be the employee to take me back there. Kallie’s already forged fake documents. As for getting into the vault, it requires a fingerprint and a retinal scan from a bank employee, along with the customer’s passcode. We already have the code from Max’s files.”
“I’ve got an illusion potion that’ll transform Marcus into one of the bank employees,” I said, setting it on the table. “I snuck into the royal potions room and took a transformation potion from my grandfather’s own stash, one that he brewed himself.”
“I reinforced the potion using simultension, because demigod magic is the only thing strong enough to fool the wards and not set them off,” Marcus added.
“But in order to transform Marcus into one of the bank employees, we’ll need a DNA sample,” Ava said.
“We already have our target,” I added. “Every morning before he arrives at work, Louis Blanc visits the coffee shop across the street at seven-fifteen sharp. It’s there that we’ll immobilize him and get his DNA. He’s one of their top dogs with high security clearance— a griffin shifter. Once Marcus takes the potion, the wards won’t know the difference between Marcus and Louis Blanc.”
“Paris is only an hour behind Ilamanthe,” Ivy pointed out. “The bank will open soon. We don’t have much time.”
