Chapter 73 Preparing For War
Chapter 73 Preparing For War
Sable POV
As the streetlights blurred past the passenger window, Drazen kept his eyes locked on the road, his grip on the steering wheel tight enough to turn his knuckles white.
"For the last time, you aren't going," he announced.
I turned my head away from the glass. "Excuse me?"
"Kassia is in the Undercourt. The parameters of this mission just shifted from a stealth insertion to a high-probability confrontation." He hit the turn signal, smoothly merging the car onto the highway. "You are staying in the
penthouse."
"I am the only trauma medic you have," I shot back, rejecting the order instantly. "If Kassia decides to do something to the eggs, my blood is the only thing that interacts with them safely. You leave me up here, and you walk in blind."
"If Kassia sees you, she will kill you!"
"She can try." I shifted in my seat, turning fully toward him. "Drazen, we need Theron to open that gate. He expects to see both of us. If I don't show up, he might think it's another trap and lock you out permanently. So I am going."
He didn't like it, that I could tell from the heavy, suffocating silence that filled the car, proving my logic had successfully cornered him.
By the time we rode the private elevator up to the penthouse, the immediate logistical hurdle was staring us in the face. We had less than twenty-four hours until those maintenance gate opened for exactly sixty seconds. We needed to prep, and gather supplies.
And most importantly, we needed a babysitter.
The list of people in the human world we trusted was exactly one name long. Jonah showed up at the apartment forty minutes after I called him.
But he didn't come alone.
"I brought backup," he announced, walking into the living room.
Chloe stepped in behind him, holding a large canvas bag. She wore a soft sweater and offered a bright smile. The smile was borderline creepy but I had more things to worry about so I didn't think much about it.
"Jonah mentioned you two had an emergency consulting job overnight," she said smoothly, pulling a fresh pack of markers and a thick coloring book from her bag. "I figured Sera could use some company. I absolutely love kids."
I watched Drazen's posture completely change. He didn't say a word, but the sudden drop in the room's temperature was unmistakable. He looked at Chloe the way a man looks at a venomous snake resting on his dining table.
I grabbed his sleeve, dragging him firmly into the kitchen before he could cause a scene.
"Why must you always act this way any time you see her?" I asked under my breath.
"I want her out of my home," he murmured, keeping his voice dangerously low so they wouldn't hear. "She does not belong near the
child."
"Jonah trusts her. She brought markers, Mr hotblood, not a weapon. We have exactly
zero other options tonight." I kept my hand on his arm, forcing him to look at me. "I am not taking a traumatized six-year-old into a tunnel with Carvek and Kassia. Sera stays here."
He stared at me, warring visibly with his own paranoia. His instinct to purge the perceived threat fought against the hard reality of our situation. Finally, he gave a jerky nod and stepped away from me.
We left Jonah and Chloe in the living room and headed down the hall. He pushed the master bedroom door shut, locking it behind us.
He walked past the large bed and pressed his palm against a sleek wood panel near the closet. It slid open silently, revealing a shallow, built-in steel vault. There were no glowing runes or ancient artifacts inside. This held modern arms and ammunitionm
Drazen pulled out a lightweight, black protective vest. "Arms up," he instructed.
I raised my arms and he slipped the vest over my head. It settled heavily against my collarbones, a stark reminder of what we were about to walk into.
When he stepped in close to secure the side, my chest was heaving as I struggled to daw in air. His closeness absolutely derailed my focus
entirely. He had to reach around my ribs to fasten the side buckles and the knuckles of his uninjured hand brushed against my waist.
I sucked in a sharp breath.
He stopped moving. His face was inches from mine so I could see the faint pulse beating at the base of his throat. He looked down, his gaze dropping to my mouth before slowly lifting back to my eyes. The danger of the
upcoming heist seeped directly into the unresolved heat lingering between us from
the night before.
"Keep your head down in there," he whispered, his voice rough.
"I know how to survive."
"I know you do." He secured the final strap, letting his hands rest on my waist for a second longer than necessary. He stepped back, handing me a small flashlight and a standard two-way radio. "But tonight, you let me take the
hits."
I clipped the radio to my belt. We gathered the rest of our supplies in silence, and as time moved, we realised just how dangerous this mission was.
When we walked back out to the living room, Jonah was sitting cross-legged on the rug, helping Sera open the marker box. While Chloe was perched on the edge of the sofa, smiling down at them with her hands folded neatly in her lap.
"We'll see you tomorrow morning," Jonah called out, looking up at us.
"Be good, Sera," I said.
She didn't look up from the paper, but she gripped the blue marker tightly.
Drazen led me to the private elevator. And as we stepped inside the steel cab, I turned around to face the penthouse as the glass doors began to slide shut.
My eyes landed on Chloe who was reaching out, gently brushing a piece of dark hair away from Sera's face.
A sudden, sharp prickle flared at the base of my neck. My stomach twisted into a tight knot. It was a weird, heavy sensation of wrongness that had absolutely nothing to do with the Undercourt or Kassia.
I opened my mouth, a split-second urge hitting me out of nowhere to jam my hand between the closing doors, stop the elevator, and drag Sera out of that room.
But I let the doors clicked shut.
The metal box dropped, plunging us toward the ground floor. I squeezed my eyes shut and shoved the feeling down, forcing myself to focus on the mission ahead.