Tuesday Teaser 5/13/2025

5/13/2025

Forge put his earbud in and activated it. Blair did the same before he put his phone in the inside pocket of his jacket, along with a thumb drive and some other odds and ends from his equipment bag. He picked up the cane Declan had loaned him and explained, “My leg hurts a little.”

“Hmm… I think it’s more like you think the cane makes you look all James Bond cool,” Forge said and grinned. Blair shrugged and smiled.

“You were chasing two men the night you were caught in the implosion, correct?” They heard Maisy ask through their earbuds.

Blair and Forge glanced at one another. “Yeah,” Blair said softly.

Maisy continued, “There is a lot of chatter among hotel security about someone tampering with the Wi-Fi and other computer-controlled functions. They have pictures of him.”

“So not our vampire,” Forge said.

“I’m texting all of you his photo,” Declan chimed in. “The elusive Mr. Black, our vampire’s accomplice. We’re going to keep an eye on him and see if he meets up with a certain vampire.”

“Dark-side vamp just showed up in the main exhibit room,” Lucas said. “He’s got red hair, glasses, and is wearing boring khakis and a dark green polo shirt. Dane is closer and getting a few snapshots, but it’s him. He can’t hide his body’s scent.”

“And that right there makes werewolves so valuable in a case like this,” Palle added.

“I need to see the server room and the guest computer center to see what’s happening with the hotel tech equipment,” Blair said to Forge. “It shouldn’t take long.”

“Lucas, you and Dane stick with him until Blair gets down to the exhibit room. If he moves, stay with him so Blair can bump into him when we’re done in the server room,” Forge said quickly. “I’ll go with Blair so he can do what he needs to do before we begin baiting the vampire.”

Forge opened the door of their room and nodded Blair out into the hallway.

The chatter between them stopped as Blair and Forge made their way down the hall to the main level of the hotel. Occasionally they heard one of the others talking to someone, but that was it. The hotel was massive and designed in the shape of a rectangle. There was no wall opposite the rooms, but a continuous balcony that circled the central atrium, open from the main floor to the glassed-in ceiling, every floor above as well as below them visible. They were on the fifth floor, and there were five more floors above theirs.

Blair followed Forge to the railing of the balcony. Forge glanced over, turning his head one way, then the other.

“This place is a security nightmare,” he grumbled.

“Yes, but I don’t think people would want to vacation or attend a convention somewhere with your idea of being secure,” Blair pointed out. Forge snorted and shrugged but didn’t otherwise reply. He and Forge ambled along to the stairs. One of the first things Blair had learned as a field operative was when there was a choice and the time, take the stairs. Declan told him the stairs would allow greater chances to observe a building such as this and the people around him.

Forge referred to elevators as ambushes waiting to happen. Since they’d become operatives, he would almost never get into one if given a choice. This hotel promoted taking the stairs, which Blair was sure made his soulmate ecstatic. Wide, central steps started at the topmost floor and wound through each floor to the main level.