Chapter 25: The Pendant Heist (Part 1)
Lucius
Ördögház looked different from the outside.
I'd spent weeks inside those walls—training in its halls, feeding in its chambers, learning its rhythms. Now I crouched on a rooftop across the street, studying the mansion as an enemy would. The guards had changed position since my time as Death Dealer. Patrols moved in tighter patterns, responding to heightened alert status.
But the servant entrance remained the same.
[ TACTICAL ASSESSMENT: ÖRDÖGHÁZ INFILTRATION ]
[ GUARD DENSITY: 40% OF NORMAL (FORCES DEPLOYED CITYWIDE) ]
[ KRAVEN: CONFIRMED OFF-SITE (WAREHOUSE DISTRICT) ]
[ ESTIMATED WINDOW: 90-120 MINUTES ]
The key I'd stolen during my first week as fledgling felt warm in my pocket—one of many preparations that were finally paying off. The servant entrance led to maintenance corridors that bypassed the main halls, connecting to service shafts that ran throughout the mansion's infrastructure.
I dropped from the rooftop, landing in the shadow of a delivery van. Enhanced Senses swept the area—two guards at the main entrance, one patrol circling the perimeter, nothing near the servant access.
The lock turned smoothly. The door opened without sound.
Inside, Ördögház smelled exactly as I remembered: old blood, expensive perfume, and the peculiar mustiness of immortals who'd forgotten how to change. The maintenance corridor stretched ahead, lit by flickering utility lights that the coven's aesthetics committee had never bothered to upgrade.
I moved through shadows, Enhanced Reflexes tracking every sound, every vibration, every potential threat. The mansion was quiet—too quiet for normal operations. Most Death Dealers were hunting me across Budapest, leaving skeleton crew to guard an Elder's sleep.
Third floor. Kraven's office. The safe behind the painting.
The stairwell was clear. I ascended three floors without encountering anyone, the servant passages as empty as I'd hoped. Kraven's paranoia had focused outward—searching the city for a traitor who was currently inside his walls.
The office door was locked. Enhanced Strength made that irrelevant.
Kraven's private sanctum was exactly as I remembered from my report two weeks ago—expensive furniture, stolen art, the subtle stench of ambition. The painting that hid his safe depicted Viktor in some medieval battle, all dramatic lighting and heroic pose.
I moved it aside. The safe was modern—electronic keypad, reinforced steel, supposedly impregnable.
Jonas's memories provided the combination: 7-3-1-8-0-6. The anniversary of Viktor's first Rising, because Kraven was nothing if not predictable in his sycophancy.
The keypad beeped. The lock clicked.
And the office door opened behind me.
Erika stood in the doorway, silk robe barely concealing pale skin, expression shifting from surprise to calculation in less than a second.
[ ERIKA - 134 BP ]
[ STATUS: ALERT. CALCULATING. NOT IMMEDIATELY HOSTILE. ]
"You're the traitor everyone's hunting."
Her voice was controlled, but I caught the micro-tremor—fear suppressed by ambition. She hadn't screamed, hadn't called for guards. That meant she was thinking, and thinking meant opportunity.
"And you're Kraven's lover, standing in his office at 2 AM while he's meeting with Lucian." I kept my hands visible, non-threatening. "Interesting timing."
The name hit like a silver bullet. Her composure cracked—just a flicker, quickly masked.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Don't you?" I stepped away from the safe, giving her space. "Kraven's been conspiring with the Lycan leader for two centuries. Faking war casualties. Managing the conflict to keep both species weak. Tonight he's at a warehouse in the industrial district, discussing their next move."
Erika's jaw tightened. She was ambitious, not stupid—the information confirmed suspicions she'd probably harbored for years.
"Why tell me this?"
"Because you're smarter than Kraven thinks. Because you know what happens to mistresses when Regents fall from power." I gestured at the open safe. "And because I need something from that safe, and you can either help me or die trying to stop me."
The threat was delivered casually, almost friendly. Charisma Lv.1 let me read her response—fear warring with opportunity, survival instinct calculating odds.
"What do you need?"
"Sonja's pendant."
Her eyes widened. "That's... Kraven guards that with his life. It's the key to—"
"William's prison. I know." I moved closer, close enough for conversation, far enough to not seem threatening. "Help me take it, help me expose Kraven's conspiracy, and when Viktor wakes, you could become Regent instead."
The offer hung in the air. Erika's expression shifted through suspicion, temptation, and finally, decision.
"When Viktor wakes, I want Kraven's position. His resources. His seat at the Elder's table."
"Done."
She moved past me to the safe, retrieved a velvet pouch from behind stacks of documents and blood wine bottles. The pendant inside gleamed silver in the dim light—crescent moon shape, ancient craftsmanship, the heirloom of a woman burned alive for loving the wrong species.
"Kraven will know it's missing within hours."
"By then, it won't matter." I pocketed the pendant, feeling its weight against my chest. "When the time comes, I'll make sure Viktor knows you helped expose the conspiracy."
Erika's smile was thin, calculating. "And if you're lying?"
"Then I'm lying to someone who would have killed me to protect Kraven's secrets." I moved toward the window—my planned extraction route. "But I'm not. You'll see."
Footsteps in the corridor. Heavy. Measured. The distinctive cadence of a warrior who'd spent centuries perfecting violence.
[ SOREN - 201 BP ]
[ STATUS: PATROL. APPROACHING. ]
Erika's eyes flickered to the door, back to me. A decision crystallized.
"Trust me," she whispered.
I positioned myself near the window as she called out: "Soren! In here!"
The door burst open. Soren's massive frame filled the doorway, weapons drawn, eyes sweeping for threats. He found me immediately—the traitor, standing in Kraven's office, apparently caught.
"I found him attempting to access the Regent's safe," Erika said, voice steady, theatrical. "He was showing me what loyalty looks like before I executed him."
She drew her pistol and fired.
The shots went wide—deliberately, obviously to anyone watching closely. But Soren was focused on me, not her aim. I played my part, diving through the window as silver rounds sparked against the frame.
Three floors down. The fall would have killed a human, crippled a fledgling. Hybrid physiology absorbed the impact, Enhanced Reflexes converting deadly momentum into a controlled roll.
The motorcycle was exactly where I'd left it. The engine roared to life as Soren's head appeared in the broken window above.
He didn't pursue. Erika had signaled him somehow—a subtle gesture, an understood code between conspirators. She was playing her own game, and tonight that game aligned with mine.
[ QUEST COMPLETE: ACQUIRE SONJA'S PENDANT ]
[ PENDANT SECURED ]
[ ERIKA RELATIONSHIP: OPPORTUNISTIC ALLY (14/100) ]
I raced through Budapest's empty streets, pendant heavy in my pocket, grinning despite everything. The heist had gone better than planned. Erika was an unexpected asset—unreliable, purely self-interested, but useful in the short term.
The safehouse welcomed me with locked doors and armed allies.
Selene stood as I entered, tension visible in every line of her body. She'd spent hours waiting, uncertain if I'd return, preparing for the worst.
"Did you—"
I pulled the velvet pouch from my pocket, let the pendant slide into my palm.
She froze.
Moonlight through the window caught the silver, made it glow with reflected luminescence. Selene's face went through emotions I couldn't catalogue—recognition, grief, rage, something that might have been hope.
"That's Sonja's." Her voice cracked. "How did you..."
I pressed it into her hands. "Proof that Kraven's been hoarding secrets. And leverage when we confront Viktor."
She held the pendant like it was made of glass—reverently, carefully, as if it might shatter from the weight of history it carried.
Michael watched from the corner, confusion evident. "What's so important about jewelry?"
Selene's answer came slowly, each word pulled from six centuries of buried pain.
"This is the key to the prison where Viktor locked his brother's twin. Where my father died building walls that were never supposed to be found." She looked up, tears tracking down cheeks that hadn't cried in generations. "Where everything started."
[ SELENE RELATIONSHIP: DEEPLY BONDED (89/100) ]
Eleven points from absolute trust. Close enough to matter. Close enough to risk everything on.
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