They reached 47th Street and Christian saw the entrance to Grand Central, but it was dark and the doors appeared to be locked. He looked at Angie, eyebrows raised.
"Not here. The entrance is around the block," she said, walking past the doors. They walked across 47th Street toward the East Side and then Angie made a sharp right turn onto Lexington Avenue. Slatted between two buildings was a small, dark alleyway with greasy black steps disappearing down into the darkness. Angie glanced around and then climbed down the steps. Christian followed.
The air was rank with the smell of decay combined with the hot stench of the sewers and the subway trenches. Angie pulled out a small flashlight that cast a thin light down the gloomy tunnel, and Christian's vampire eyesight adjusted naturally to the darkness. About halfway down the tunnel, Angie, who'd been counting quietly under her breath, stopped and pushed against a nearly invisible metal door. It swung open, creaking loudly in the silence and she jumped nervously, looking over her shoulder at Christian's wary, white face.
"It's just down here," she said, her voice harsh in the quiet. "This is another entrance, not the one that Gabriel knows. I found it looking at the rats one day."
Christian stared down the hallway and noticed the glow of lights toward the end. He walked on silent feet toward it. "What is this place?"
"I think it used to be some kind of secret meeting room in the nineteen thirties. The floor in the main room is marble, and there are paintings on the ceilings," she whispered back.
Christian wasn't surprised. New York City was full of secret meeting rooms and buildings located in unlikely places, and he himself had been in several of them over the decades. This one, however, was new to him. He stepped past Angie and walked stealthily down the corridor, noticing that at the first light-bulb there was a large wooden door. Angie remained in the darkness, her part finished for now, and he could hear her moving slowly back the way they had come.
He pushed open the unlocked door. The room was dark and empty but was just as Angie had described with its murals and marble floors. He sensed no movement and peered into the gloom. He crept silently into the room, keeping his back to the edge of the wall and letting his vampire instincts take over to get the scent of her blood. He was rewarded with the barest hint of it toward the back of the room. Relief flooded him like a river, and Christian rapped gently on the door to the room where the scent was most potent.
"Tori," he said, louder than he'd intended. He heard sounds on the other side of the door but still couldn't detect her presence other than the faint smell.
"Christian?" she said in disbelief, as if expecting a trick of some sort. The wards were so powerful that he could barely hear her even with his heightened senses.
"It's me. Angie found me like you asked her to," he said. Christian couldn't hear anything on the other side and he wasn't sure if she had responded or not. "I'm going to try to open the door."
The minute Christian put his hand on the handle, the shock sent him flying ten feet across the room, his hand burned black from the lightning bolt hex on the door. He watched as it repaired itself almost immediately and bounded back unhurt to the door. "There's some kind of spell on it," he said, forgetting to whisper.
"Well, of course there's a spell on it, Devereux" said a mocking voice. "Isn't that sweet, coming to rescue your love?"
Christian whirled around, furious with himself that he had been caught off guard. He straightened his spine and shook it off. He had no qualms about fighting this warlock. He had fought worse battles over the years and some whip of a boy wasn't going to get the better of him, no matter how powerful he thought he was.
"Gabriel," he said.
Gabriel walked toward the middle of the room watching Christian as if he were trying to work out how he'd gotten in there. Christian stayed still but ready, a tactic honed by countless decades and numerous duels.
"Don't you know by now that she's out of your league, Devereux?" Gabriel said, his tone deliberately insolent. Christian didn't answer. "Cat got your tongue?"
Christian remained unfazed, watching him carefully. Realizing that his strategy wasn't working, Gabriel tried something else. "Tori, your boyfriend's here," he shouted.