LV and Toni shook their heads.
An hour later, after they’d come up with a few strategies for approaching the stronghold and rescuing Rico, security called up that their order had arrived.
Charlie and Pierce went down to get the food, returning a short while later. Pierce was carrying a stack of enormous, covered platters, and Charlie held a couple of bags in each hand.
They set the food out on the kitchen counter buffet style and let everyone help themselves. Donna stood and gestured toward the spread as she spoke to LV and Toni. “Please. You’re our guests.”
She followed behind them. It was an impressive array. Croissant breakfast sandwiches, a platter of bacon and sausage links, another of crispy hash-brown-style potato cakes, a large bowl of fresh fruit, sliced bagels with three flavors of cream cheese, and a tray of sweets that included mini danishes, doughnuts, and rugelach.
LV paused while filling her plate. “Thank you. I expected one thing when I was on my way here, and that’s not what I got. Although, now I wish Rico was here with you.”
“I wish he was too.” Donna added a couple of strips of bacon beside her sausage, egg, and cheese croissant. There was more food here than they’d eat in three days. Which was perfect. She wanted the wolves to know she wasn’t going to skimp on anything, whether it was feeding them or rescuing Rico.
“Would you like one of us to accompany you to the meeting with the fae?”
That was a kind offer. Even if it might also be the wolves’ way of keeping an eye on her. “I might take you up on that.”
“Let me know. We’ll send one of our sentries. They’re very strong, loyal to the death, and ready at a moment’s notice.”
“Thank you. That sounds good.”
Temo came up to her. “Meeting’s set. Tonight. Soon as the sun sets. But it’s just you and me. He wouldn’t agree to more.”
Not much she could do about that. “Where?”
“Bus station just north of here.”
She mulled that over for a moment. “At least it’s public.”
“You want a couple sentries?” LV asked.
“Maybe you could put a few there. Undercover.”
Temo sucked air between his teeth. “He’ll sense them.”
Donna shrugged. “Werewolves can’t travel by bus?”
LV narrowed her eyes. “I have a married couple I can send. They’ll blend in better and be less obvious that way. And then, if you need them, they’ll be a shout away.”
“Okay, that works.” She looked at Temo again. “You sure we can’t take Charlie?”
“Just you and me, boss. He’ll spook if he sees more.”
“Then I’m definitely glad for the sentries.” She took a deep breath. “Let’s eat and get back to work. There’s a lot still to do.”
Thankfully, there wasn’t as much to do as Donna had anticipated, mostly because they hit a brick wall at a certain point. Until she met with Temo’s fae contact and made the deal for his blood so that Jerabeth could use it for her spell, they were stuck.
She said goodbye to LV and Toni, approved the email to Artemis, then decided to finally get some sleep. She made Pierce, Charlie, and Temo do the same. They’d been up as long as she had.
Sleeping was hard to do with the thought of Rico being held captive and possibly being tortured. She focused on the way he’d looked in the video. Angry, but not injured. She clung to that because without sleep she’d be useless during the rescue.
She drank a pint of blood, then collapsed onto her bed, unable to do much more than stare at the ceiling and pray he was all right.
Surprisingly, she finally drifted off. She slept hard but woke suddenly, shocked out of sleep by a nightmare in which Rico had been served as the main course at a fae banquet.
She bolted upright in the darkness. Her heart pounded. She made herself breathe. “It was just a dream.”
But it didn’t feel that way. It felt like a terrible premonition of what was to come. She shook her head, refusing to believe that. Rico was going to be okay.
Or LV was going to be right. War would come.
Donna sat in the dark for a few moments longer as she woke up fully. The nightmare was gone, but the feeling remained like a shadow on her spirit. She grabbed her phone and dialed. It was after 4 p.m., and Cammie might be unreachable in Nicaragua, but at least Donna could hear her voice on her answering message. That was better than nothing.
“Hello?”
“Cammie? Is that you? I didn’t think you’d be able to get calls when you were in another country.”
“I can’t. But I’m home.”
“You are? When did you get back?”
Dead air answered. Finally, Cammie exhaled softly. “Sooner than expected.”
“Is that good? You sound…odd.”
“It’s definitely good. I’m just tired. What’s new with you? How’s your new job going?”
Donna wasn’t totally convinced Cammie was being completely honest. Which would be highly unlike her. Nuns tended to shy away from lying. “It’s never dull, that’s for sure.” She let out a long sigh of her own. “Rico’s been taken hostage by the fae king because of something I did.”
“What?”
“Yeah. I gave sanctuary to a teenage girl who’s half fae, half vampire—”
“Dhamfir,” Cammie whispered.
Did everyone know that word except for her? Apparently. “Yes. Anyone with a heart would have done it. Poor kid. Anyway, King Dredward wants her back, and in retaliation, he had Rico kidnapped. I have forty-eight hours to get him back. Actually closer to forty now.”
“How are you going to do that?”
“Oh, you know, storm the stronghold, guns blazing.” Donna laughed a little, even though there was nothing amusing about the way she felt or what they were going to do. “Of course, it’s more complicated than that, and we do have some strategy and no actual guns, but that’s it in a nutshell.”
“We?”
“My team and a team from the wolves. Hey, get this. The alpha of the pack is Rico’s grandmother. And the next in line is Rico’s mother. Alpha-elect, they call it. Can you believe that? Crazy, huh?”
“Mm-hmm.”
Donna gasped. “Mary and Joseph. You knew that already.”
Another long pause. “I did.”
“And you never said anything?”
“It wasn’t deemed necessary.”
“By who? The mother superior?”
“It’s…more complex than that.”
Suddenly, Donna wasn’t sure she knew everything there was to know about her sister.
Chapter Four
Donna made a face at the phone. “You know that ‘it’s more complex than that’ is the kind of answer that only makes more questions, right?”
“I get that.” Cammie sighed. “Listen, even with your team and some wolves, it’s a bad idea to storm that stronghold. For one thing, you don’t know where it is.”
“I’ve got that handled.”
“Okay, let’s say you do. You won’t be able to see it.”