“Trust me, I’m doing my best to avoid getting dead.”

“Good.” He hesitated. “What happened in Brooklyn?”

I gave him a quick update on everything. Rory frowned. “If he is using magic to hide his location, why haven’t the witches discovered it? Surely using that much power would have caused some ripples in the earth’s energy fields?”

“So I would have thought. But maybe he’s not using much. Maybe the spell is just big enough to conceal Rinaldo’s presence and nothing else.”

“Which would suggest he hasn’t a den of his own. At least not yet.” Rory paused. “It could also mean he’s using the Coalition to hire people. If that’s true, then maybe tonight’s attack came from him.”

The Coalition’s full name was the Coalition of Nonhumans. It was an independent resource center that provided financial and legal help to both vampires and werewolves, and it was mostly funded by member contributions. The CNH tended to be low-key, not only because of the rise of anti-werewolf and -vampire sentiment in recent years but also because it had a smaller, less-known—but very profitable—side department. This department basically handled nonhuman business activities that were not only more than a little illegal, but which required anonymity—things like kidnapping and killing. It had no official phone number and couldn’t be reached via the CNH’s switchboard; if you wanted something done, or if you wanted to contact someone you might have dealt with previously, the only way to do so was via snail mail.

Which was what we’d done a few days ago. We’d sent a letter requesting a meet with Lee Rawlings, the Coalition bagman who’d been sent to collect me the first time I’d been kidnapped. We’d been hoping that he’d be able to tell us more about the state of play between the sindicati factions and maybe even Luke, but we’d since uncovered a lot of that information ourselves. It’d still be handy to talk to him, though, if only because he might have some information about Rinaldo. The bastard might be off radar, but surely someone, somewhere, had to know something about him.

“It’s possible, but I don’t see why Rinaldo would go to such lengths,” I said. Besides, Radcliffe had said the vamps who’d attacked his venues weren’t mercenaries. If they’d come from the Coalition, they would have been.

“Remember, you’re talking about a very old vampire. In his mind, I’m probably nothing more than an incomplete lesson. Until I stay taken out, said lesson would have little impact.”

I could totally see Rinaldo thinking that way—especially given what he’d done to Shona and the wolves. “Which means if he does discover your new location, you and Adán will come under attack.”