Dragon gave the incriminating message in his hand one last look.

“Wake up Gage and resume the search for Lyra,” he said to Valerian, who immediately left.

Alone with his thoughts, he tried to make sense of the situation and prioritize what to do next. His friends wouldn’t be happy to see him early in the morning after they had been all working late the night before, but they needed to talk strategy.

“Dragon?” Gabriel answered at the third knock, peeking out from the door. He didn’t wear a stitch on him and kept his lower body behind the panel.

Behind him, framed between his shoulder and the door, three women lay naked on a large makeshift bed. One of them pouted at Dragon, while another made a come-hither gesture and smiled, turning on her stomach and displaying her luscious curves. The third winked at him, caressing her breast.

Gabriel noticed Dragon’s wandering gaze and looked over his shoulder. “Behave, girls. He’s taken.” With a chuckle, he turned to Dragon. “Don’t mind them.”

“Sorry to interrupt.” Dragon showed Gabriel the message. “It was inside Lauren’s pocket watch.”

After scanning the content, Gabriel swore. “Valentine must be informed,” he said, walking inside the room where he grabbed some clothes. “See you later tonight, girls.” Disappointed sighs accompanied him outside.

Dragon briefed Gabriel on their way to his studio, still occupied by Valentine and his family.

“This better be important,” Valentine growled, stepping outside wearing a sheet around his waist. It had only taken one soft knock for him to appear at the entrance. “Valemir has finally fallen asleep, and I had Mirella all to myself.” He closed the door behind him with great care and gave first Dragon, then Gabriel a long stare. “Whatever it is, couldn’t it wait an hour longer?”

“I’m sorry, but it can’t,” Dragon said, holding the note in front of Valentine. “Lauren is working with the terrorists.”

The werewolf shook his head slowly, disappointment showing on his face. “So, it was her feeding information to the enemy.” Valentine held the sheet with one hand as he used the other to scratch at his chin. He looked over his shoulder. “Give me a second.” He went inside and emerged a few moments later, stark naked and holding a pair of black leather pants. Hopping into the pants, he said, “Let’s take a walk so that Mirella can nap.”

Gabriel led the way toward the boardwalk, but instead of reentering the house, he stopped at the wharf attached to the porch. There, he jumped into one of several glass-bottomed flat boats. Both Dragon and Valentine followed him without question. The vampire turned on the vessel’s clockwork engine, and two lateral wings unfurled alongside the red sail. A gentle breeze engulfed the sail, and they glided away from the wharf at a steady pace.

“Here, nobody can hear our conversation,” Gabriel said, then looked to the side at his studio and gave them a rueful smile. “And I need to be surrounded by water to think.”

“How many times do I have to thank you for letting us use your inner sanctum?” Valentine slapped the vampire’s arm with enough strength to roll the boat perilously to the side.

“No need to thank me, really.” Gabriel stood to stabilize the small ship.

“Can we talk about the problem at hand?” Dragon asked, acting as a counterweight by bracing both sides of the boat. “I have no time for games.”

“What do you want to do about Lauren?” Valentine asked.

“Nothing.” Dragon massaged the spot between his eyes. “We’ll let the Front think we agree to meet with them. I’ll go to the Citadel instead, while you and Gabriel stay here. Three lookalikes will go in our stead. So far, we have blindly walked into their traps. It’s time they dance to our tune. And Valerian and Gage are looking for Lyra. If she’s alive, she’ll turn up somewhere before the week is over.”

“The more I think about it, the more this whole mess smells fishy.” Gabriel shook his head. “Isn’t it too convenient that the pocket watch turned up now?”

“Something’s not right,” Valentine chimed in, nodding. “It’s all too simple.”

“Okay, what if someone planted it there for me to find it?” Dragon didn’t want to complicate an already murky concept, but deep inside, he too had to admit that finding an important piece of evidence by chance was one big coincidence. “What for?”

“To let the blame fall on Lauren’s head.” Gabriel stared into the distance.

“Why?” Dragon didn’t like where the conversation was going.

“So that the real mind behind the attacks can keep plotting, while we go after the wrong person.” Valentine’s eyes were glued on Gabriel’s studio, never letting his family out of sight.

Dragon groaned. “We are back to square one. Lauren might still be in danger.” As much as he preferred to entertain the hypothesis that she was innocent, it left out one huge mystery that needed to be solved as soon as possible. “I’m still going to talk to the Academy—”

The rest of his thought was silenced by the sight of Valerian bursting outside and running along the porch, waving at him.

Gabriel immediately steered the boat toward the house, maneuvering the sail with great nautical skill toward the wharf.

“What happened?” Dragon asked his lieutenant when they moored.

“We found the lady’s maids,” Valerian answered. His dark stubble had become a full beard that framed his face, making him look even more formidable as he shifted his intense, black eyes from Dragon to his friends and back again.

“Lyra and who else?” Gabriel asked.

“Lorina and Mirna. They never left the house but were hiding in the basement,” Valerian answered. “It was Gage’s idea to look beneath the mansion.”

Gabriel slapped his forehead. “The basement, of course.” He shook his head. “Underneath Martelli Manor there is a large room, as big as the gardens, if I remember correctly, and two stories high.” He hopped onto the wharf and secured the boat to a pole.

“Every vampire building on Celestia has a similar sun-proofed chamber; it’s a remnant from our Terran houses. Our species had been nocturnal for so long that when we started colonizing this planet, the first houses we built followed the same structure of the ones we had left behind,” Gabriel explained as they walked the length of the porch that led toward the princesses’ quarters. “I played down there when I was a kid. There were pools and all sorts of entertainment, but I had completely forgotten about it.”

As they walked past the multitude of beds and people covering that side of the porch, Gage stepped out, seemingly appearing from thin air.

“A hidden entrance,” Dragon said, studying the wall behind Gabriel’s lieutenant.

“I’ll show you.” Gabriel pressed his hand on the spot over Gage’s right shoulder, and a portion of the wall slid to the side, revealing stairs leading further down. “My Terran ancestors lived difficult lives, hunted and always on the brink of extinction. A secretive bunch by necessity, they held tight to their customs, even when there was no need for hidden doors any longer.”

Dragon descended after Gabriel. “This place looks well kept,” he noticed, smelling the clean scent coming from the staircase well. He wiped his finger against the wall that was well-lit by sconces. “Minimal dust and working electricity.” The wooden steps creaked under his boots, but the structure was solid enough to bear his weight and his friends’ as well. “You said that you didn’t remember about this place, but someone has been taking care of your property better than you thought.”

“Gage, contact Cranes,” Gabriel shouted as he climbed down.

“Right away,” Gage called back from the end of the line. In the eerie stillness of the staircase, his steps resonated loudly as he walked back up to the surface.

“Crane is my house manager,” Gabriel said as he reached the bottom of the stairs. “If anyone knows anything about it, it’s him.”

The rectangular space led into a cavernous room with a high ceiling braced by thick columns. The place was divided into separate quarters by furniture and screens. Under the watchful guard of four of Gabriel’s men, the three lady’s maids sat in one of the chaise lounges facing a shallow pool.

Dragon walked further inside the chamber, stopping at the edge of the pool on the other side from the three cowering girls. Valerian reached him, while Gabriel and Valentine remained a few steps behind.

The first to speak was Lyra, who fell to her knees, crying. “I swear I didn’t do anything wrong,” she said in between sobs.

“Why did you run away?” Dragon asked.

“If I talk to you, she’ll kill me.” Shivering, the girl hugged herself.

“Who’s she?”

Lyra didn’t answer Dragon’s question but melted into loud sobs.

He turned his attention on the other two girls, who seemed to shrink under his gaze. “Where is Lauren?”

“We don’t know.” The two lady’s maids talked at once, crying as loudly as Lyra.

“They were having breakfast when Gage and I found them. Same food we eat,” Valerian said.

“Who’s helping you?” Gabriel asked the girls.

“Nobody’s helping us,” the redhead, Lorina, said.

“We swear,” Mirna added, shaking her auburn head up and down.

“Take them upstairs.” Dragon nodded at Valerian.

As the lieutenant moved, Lorina jumped on her feet. “Please, don’t.”

“Why?” Dragon walked along the edge of the pool until he stood before the girls.

“We are dead if she sees us—” Lorina closed her mouth, her eyes wide and filled with even more fear than before.

“What are you talking about?” Dragon advanced as Lorina stepped back, hitting the edge of the chaise lounge behind her and falling on it. “Who’s she?”

“Please, don’t make us say her name,” Mirna begged, hugging her friend tightly.

On the floor, Lyra rocked on her haunches, murmuring pleas.

“Let’s finish this conversation upstairs.” Dragon closed the gap between them. “Come.” He offered his hand for Lyra to grab.

“Gilda will kill us,” Lyra murmured as the other two gasped.