Page 71 of Let Sleeping Vampires Lie

“Your application is pending,” he said. “But I got the location of the piece anyway.”

My pulse quickened.

“Where?” I asked.

“A holding facility in the industrial district,” Julian replied. “They’re moving it tonight before the auction. I traced the metadata from the image Marcus found—also hacked that, by the way—and cross-referenced it with shipping manifests from known black-market couriers.”

“You cross-referenced illegal shipping manifests?” Con asked.

Julian blinked. “Of course.”

Manu cleared his throat. “It gets better. The facility is run by the same group that transferred Valerian’s stolen artifacts five years ago. High-level smugglers. Very dangerous.”

“Perfect,” I said. “We love dangerous.”

“We?” Con said, one brow rising.

“Don’t start,” I warned.

Manu leaned over the table, sliding a photograph toward me. “This is the warehouse. Controlled access. Motion-activated defenses. No magical wards we can detect, but there’s something… off about the energy composition in the back quadrant.”

“Off how?” I asked.

“Like it’s being shielded,” Manu said. “Not by magic. By technology designed to mimic it.”

That was new.

I met Con’s gaze. It mirrored my own thought.

“This auction isn’t just supernatural,” I said.

Con nodded. “It’s military hybrid tech.”

Manu sighed. “Enhanced humans, hybrid tech, restricted networks… someone with serious resources is backing this auction.”

A cold chill wound through my stomach. “Valerian?”

“No,” Manu said. “This is too organized. Valerian prefers chaos. This feels like… business.”

Julian tapped another window on his screen. “I have the guard rotation. I can shut down their external alarms for five minutes. After that, someone’s going to know we’re there.”

“Five minutes is enough,” I said.

“Not for finesse,” Julian said. “But enough to get in and out if you’re quick.”

“We’re quick,” Con replied.

Julian smirked. “Are you?”

I glared at him. “I’m fine.”

Con glanced at me, but I ignored him.

Manu tapped the table. “The moment your invitation is confirmed, we do this clean. But if it’s delayed too long…”

He looked at me. Then Con. Then the map.

“…you may need to intercept the piece before the auction.”