It’s all very black-ops the way we plan to recon the Romanian Museum.

We have sunglasses, and hats, and Lucian makes us drink that nasty crap again. The one that masks our Kresova scent. Well, except Reina of course.

She sticks out her tongue as I scarf the liquid down, gagging with each swallow. If she snickers one more time, I’ll reconsider her best friend status.

I watch her through squinty eyes and can’t help the wash of emotions that hit me. Even if she’s a brat for messing with me, she could’ve walked away from all of this at any time and left me alone. But she didn’t. Even with all the scary life or death crap going down, she stays, and I’ll be forever grateful for the risks she’s taken for my sake.

“What?” she says when she notices me watching her.

“Huh?” I blink.

“Why are you looking all misty eyed at me? Did you get some sort of vision?” She steps towards me, concern written on her face.

“No,” I say vehemently. “It’s just I’ve never had a friend as good as you.”

She scoffs. “Don’t get all mushy on me now, girl. This ain’t nothing but a little spy action, like in the movies.” She winks at me and I can sense her nerves are sparking like a firecracker.

Her sweat holds the acrid scent of uncertainty and fear. She has every right to be afraid. We are here by stealth, not permission, and if the Romanian Draugur vampires catch us, Lucian, Row and I are dead meat, but she’s dinner. Literally.

We wear bluetooth headsets, and before we hit the streets from our separate cabs, I dial up our group call on the burner phones Lucian bought us.

“Can you hear me now?” I say, with a chuckle.

Reina snorts. “Original.”

“Keep the chatter to a minimum,” Lucian warns, “Only use this for important conversation. Remember, their hearing is as good as ours.”

I don’t need super-hearing to know that Reina is is muttering under her breath right now. Something about snark-less vampires.

“Let’s go then, as we discussed.”

Bucharest is a crazy mix of buildings. One after another jam together in huge blocks, sort of like New York but without the order. You get the sense of a city immensely old and shrouded in secrets layered together in one fragile layer.

Suddenly, a creeping dread wraps around my heart.

This mission to retrieve Abe is more than risky. It’s a Hail-Mary pass in the final second of the last quarter. Getting the Father of the Kresova on our team is the best shot we have to defeat Morana. Well, him, and getting the damn ring from her, and destroying it, and then finally destroying her. Only a few dozen hoops to jump through to make this whole thing happen.

What could go wrong? A whole shit ton. That’s what.

The Romanian Museum of Art is located inside the Royal Palace. Built over the span of a century, it features a main structure and two wings just as big as the main property.

The thing is huge.

Reina steps up to me. We’re working the inside recon because she’s human and probably will get past any curious vampire onlookers. I spray myself with a good dose of her perfume and wear one of her dirty shirts to lend me her human scent.

It isn’t perfect, but the best shot we have to walk around like we’re tourists. Lucian and Row scout the outside looking at exits for our getaway. It’s a sure bet that we won’t be able to leave the way we came in. Nothing could ever be that easy.

Lucian made a point of showing me the compass on the burner phone so I had a clue of what direction he was telling me to go.

This is a scouting expedition, not the real thing, but I can’t help but sense that we’re putting our lives on the line just by entering this place. I should be used to it at this point, but risking my life and that of my friends seems to be one of those things you never become accustomed to. Unless you’re a heartless psychopath like Morana. Then it’s like every other day’s festivities.

A strange irony that Morana placed him in the Royal Palace as is she’s honoring him in some twisted way. Then again, with the amount of searchable square feet we’re facing, the larger questions is where would she hide him?

Both Reina and I gawk at the impossible size of the rooms, the high ceilings, and the sheer opulence of marble and gilt throughout the place.

“Wow,” Reina says, spinning in a circle.

“Yeah.” I had hopes that I’d get some sort of pull once we were inside the building that would lead me to Abe, but the size of the thing is overwhelming.

“Come on,” Reina yanks at my arm and pulls me to what looks like a gift shop.

“Reina, we don’t have time to shop now.”

“I have an idea,” she says. Inside the gift shop she pulls a tourist map of the museum and then heads for the jewelry.

I’m getting antsy now, like I feel eyes watching me.

“Ah hah!” she says triumphantly as she finds a necklace with a natural crystal. “Buy this.”

“What? Why?

“Just do it.”

“Reina, I love ya, but we aren’t here to souvenir shop.”

“It’s not for that,” she says under her breath.

Lucian’s voice crackles over the poor connection, “Everything all right?”

“Yes,” I assure him, “Reina’s got some brilliant idea, apparently.”

“Ever hear of crystal scrying?” She says.

“No.”

“Yes,” This time Lucian answers. “But what—”

“You’ll see. Just tell Aura to buy this thing. I think it is our best shot.”

“It can’t hurt,” Lucian says.

“Okay, but we’re leaving after this. I think we’re being watched.”

I buy the crystal necklace which wasn’t as expensive as I thought. Barely 75 leus which worked out to be about twenty bucks. The cashier spins around to find a box for the necklace, but I don’t like how long it takes her, so I scoop it up.

“Let’s go.”

Reina leans over and pulls off the receipt from the register. “In case someone tries to say we stole it.”

I can’t shake this feeling, like eyes are watching. We hurry out as gracefully as we can without appearing like we’re escaping a four-alarm fire. As we pass an angel statue standing in the corner, I get the weird sense of being watched again.

I glance up toward the angelic face and almost topple in to Reina.

What in the actual fuck.

I swear the eyelids blinked. I’m not a big Doctor Who fan but I know what the evil Weeping Angels are and I feel more freaked out than ever. Stifling the urge to say “run!” I pull at Reina’s arm and don’t relax until we’re out and well away from the building.

“What was that all about?” She asks.

“You didn’t see it?”

“What?”

“The statues were watching us.”

Reina looks at me with raised brows, “Aura, those statues were just that. Statues.”

“No, no, they weren’t,” I insist.

She wraps my arm in hers, “Not everything is alive and after you, babe.”

“I’m telling you. This isn’t paranoia. I think—”

“Meet us back at the hotel,” Lucian says over our earpieces.

We hustle along the streets getting to the large commercial international hotel, before Lucian does. The place is swanky—and in the real world, I’d never be able to afford a night here. Apparently, they even have a few floors administered by a concierge, which is exactly where we are staying.

Lucian used his investment banker to secure the rooms on the private floor, with the cover that he’s meeting privacy minded Romanian investors.

When we slip in our key and pass through the threshold, I go right to the mini-bar and down the first whiskey I can find.

“You’re seriously freaked out, aren’t you?”

“I swear, I never felt anything like it. And when I saw that angel blink, I had to get out of there.”

“Blink? No way.”

“Yes,” Lucian says as he enters the room, Row close behind him. “It’s entirely possible that Morana had a witch spell them. Perhaps a form of supernatural surveillance units.”

Normally unflappable Reina sink into a chair and reaches her arm out to the whiskey in my hand. She grabs the bottle and downs a good shot worth.

“Guys, I’ve been riding freaky here with you all along, but this is by far the craziest of the crazy.” She waves a hand through the air, “A ring made into a protective talisman I can understand. A museum full of creepster peeper angels? That’s too much.”

“Reina,” I say, “Anytime you want to step away, I understand.”

“Hell no. I’m Sam to your Frodo, Aura. I’m not going anywhere but to the depths of Mount Doom, if that’s what it takes.”

Deep gratitude spreads through me for her loyalty. She doesn’t have to walk with me into danger but she would anyway.

“Besides, someone has to keep an eye on this guy here,” she grins wickedly at Row. “And there is nothing I like better than that.”

“Oh no?” Row slides his arms over her shoulders and kisses the top of her head. “I thought there was one thing.”

“Oh, yeah,” she says. “There is that.”

I roll my eyes. “I’d say get a room but we don’t have time for that. If the creepster statues have alerted Morana, we have less time than we thought.”

“You’re right,” Lucian moves closer to me. “She so paranoid that she’ll have dozens of her assassins here in a few hours time. Especially, if she thinks something is up with Abe’s hiding place.”

Lucian pulls out the chair to my side and slides into it.

“So what’s the plan? I think a midnight raid is definitely out. There is too much conventional surveillance to make hunting Abe in the museum seriously problematic. And at night, they’ll have not only extra security measures, but extra guards too.”

Reina holds up her hand. “I think I figured out a way to zero in on Abe.” She pulls out the crystal from her pocket and then the museum map from her handbag, spreading it out over the table.

“And what do you plan to do with that?” I say.

“Not me. You. You’re the one with magical powers.”

“I do not have magic powers.”

“Getting visions of the future isn’t a magical power?”

“Well, yes.”

“This is no different, just done in a different way. Hold the crystal over the map and concentrate hard on Abe. When the crystal locates him it’ll drop.”

“With me holding it?”

“You’ll feel the tug and you’ll want it to drop.”

“Again, you know this how?”

“Watching reruns of Charmed.”

I’m not sure it’s best to leave our fate dependent upon a woman whose watched too many seasons of Supernatural. Now I find out she’s into a witchy soap operas too.

“What do you have to lose?” Determination lights her face and I know I’m not getting out of this without giving it a try. Besides, what other choice do we have?

I take the crystal from her hand and hold it over the map of the museum. It does nothing but hang limply over the map as the minutes tick by. If I was still human my arm would start to hurt.

I sigh. “It’s not working.”

“Just be patient.”

“For how long?”

“As long as it takes.” Reina answers.

I groan and lean onto the table as the room falls silent.

“You’re a vampire with an eternity ahead of you, Aura. A few minutes isn’t going to kill you.”

I stick my tongue out at her and as ten more minutes pass, I lean onto my elbow. My mind already wondering what the next option is.

“Focus.” She says.

“I am.”

“No you’re not. You have to believe, Aura. It’s the only way it will work.”

“I want to believe.” I joke, mocking Reina’s other favorite show, The X-Files.

Lucian places his hand on the small of my back. Without words he’s asking me to be serious.

“Fine.” I say, closing my eyes. I imagine Abe’s face as I’d seen him from the visions. I call to him over and over in the fog of my mind. Moments later, he appears, standing only a few feet from me. He looks over my face, then smiles. “Aura you’ve found me.” He says, and my eyes snap open.

“Look,” Reina whispers.

The crystal moves and begins to circle. Again and again it spins, and I feel my hand pull to a certain area of the map. I let my arm go there, and the crystal tugs downward suddenly. I let it drop and we all stare at it and the word under the crystal.

“She’s one sick puppy,” Reina says.

Row swears.

“She knows we’re coming,” Lucian adds.

“Fuck,” I say.

Abe’s being held somewhere in the area of the American Gallery.

“What the hell do we do now?” I ask.

Reina pulls the tour map out from under the crystal and points to a boxed area printed in several languages, including English. It says, ‘Gallery access for private parties granted for a fee.’

“Hold a party, of course.”