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CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

The smell of coffee and bacon roused Vlad from his uncomfortable position on the couch. His neck protested when he lifted his head off the back rest. Papers and laptops littered the coffee table in front of him, evidence of their long night searching through the security footage from the restaurant.

Delphine had cleared the takeout containers and covered him with a blanket.

Vlad blinked groggily and pushed himself up.

Morning light flooded the apartment through the floor-to-ceiling windows. Manhattan was already bustling beyond them.

He checked his watch. It was eight a.m.

Vlad fell back on the couch and closed his eyes. Part of him wanted to believe the last few days had been a dream. That he could pinch himself awake and somehow be in full possession of his powers again. That the curse that had robbed him and Tarang of their magic was nothing but a fading nightmare.

He only had to reach inside himself to confirm that the yawning darkness where his demonic energy should have been was still there.

Tarang’s rumble came to him then, along with the quiet sounds of Delphine moving around his kitchen.

“You’re worse than my uncle’s Rottweiler,” the super soldier told the tiger. There was a pause. “No, that wasn’t a compliment.”

The familiar huffed sheepishly.

The corner of Vlad’s mouth lifted despite himself.

It was clear from the last couple of days that Delphine already held a special place in Tarang’s heart.

He rose and headed for the kitchen, his steps quiet on the marble floor.

Delphine stood at the stove in fitted black cargo pants and a green sweater that hugged her curves. Her hair was pulled back in the French braid that had first caught his attention at the bar, the tips still wet from a shower. She flipped a pancake with practiced ease.

Tarang sat at her feet with a hopeful expression. His tail started sweeping the floor the instant he spotted Vlad.

“I see you’ve corrupted my familiar,” Vlad drawled.

Delphine glanced over her shoulder, one eyebrow arching in an expression that made awareness prickle his skin.

“He was already corrupt. I caught him trying to steal bacon while my back was turned.”

Tarang put on his best innocent face.

“Traitor,” Vlad murmured to the tiger. He poured himself a coffee from the freshly made pot and leaned against the counter. “Did you sleep at all?”

“A little.” Delphine transferred the pancake onto a plate already stacked with several others. “I found something interesting in the security footage.”

His pulse quickened at her tone. “What kind of something?”

“The kind that explains what happened at the Oro Divino .” She turned off the stove and faced him, her gaze steady. “Let’s eat first.”

Vlad helped her carry the food to the island, impatience gnawing at his insides. It wasn’t until they’d downed their breakfast that she retrieved her laptop from the lounge and revealed what she’d discovered.

“Your new bartender isn’t who he claims to be.”

Vlad stiffened. “Andre?”

Delphine’s fingers moved quietly on the keyboard. “His real name is Delroy Knight.” She turned the screen so he could see. “He’s wanted by the DEA for drug trafficking offenses in Mexico, the US, and the Caribbean.” Her brow furrowed slightly. “Wanna know something even more interesting? His last location before he showed up in New York and took a job at your place was Kingston, Jamaica.”

Heat flushed through Vlad as he stared at the file on the screen, his mind racing at the implication of her words even as he ground his teeth.

Is Wei Chen in on this after all?!

“Show me the security footage,” he said in a hard voice.

Delphine pulled it up.

Vlad’s knuckles whitened as he watched the bartender let two men inside the restaurant and guide them to the third floor. Static filled the video when it ended. He met Delphine’s calm stare.

“You think that was them casing the joint ahead of the attack?”

“Probably. In which case, one of those men may very well be our sorcerer.” She paused, her expression growing strained. “There’s something else. I was curious about the video from the night of the attack so I reprocessed it through one of Gideon’s servers. We missed a vital clue when we were watching the original recording.”

She brought up the footage that had gone viral online and that they’d already seen a dozen times and slowed it right down.

Vlad frowned, not sure what he was seeing at first.

His breath caught when Delphine froze a shot and zoomed in. He leaned forward jerkily.

“Shit. Is that?—?!”

Delphine nodded, her eyes tight as she studied the objects that had appeared briefly in the bartender’s hands where he stood behind the serving counter in the private dining room. “Delroy had the voodoo dolls on him. My guess is the sorcerer was either in the restaurant or on the service stairs. It’s probably why they disabled the interior cameras.”

“Were they trying to use Delroy as a scapegoat?” Vlad said between gritted teeth.

“I suspect whoever is behind this whole thing wanted to make sure the sorcerer didn’t come to any harm. And having him in the room would have been a dead giveaway. You and Cortes would have sensed he was a sorcerer.”

A tense hush fell between them. Delphine broke the silence.

“Someone went to considerable trouble creating Delroy’s new identity,” she said in a steely voice. “The references he provided check out on paper, but they’re all fake. I suspect it was the work of Santana Isaacs, the man he went to visit in Kingston.”

The name meant nothing to Vlad.

“I checked the staff roster at the restaurant,” Delphine continued with a frown. “Delroy put in a request for leave this week. My guess is he’s going to disappear. We need to find him before he leaves the city.”

Tarang growled softly beside them, his hackles rising.

Vlad’s mouth flattened into a thin line. “I know exactly where to start looking.”