(19) When all else is lost the future still remains

Shan surreptitiously scanned the people both inside and outside of Café du

Monde, while seeming to whisper to Addie in such a romantic way that it made Race wish Shan had chosen him instead for the subterfuge. After all it was New Orleans and very late at night so would anyone watching even look twice or give a damn? He didn’t think so but it wasn’t his call.

::Can you sense anyone, or anything?:: Shan sent the thought to Addie while nuzzling her ear.

::No:: she replied in the same way. ::But if the one we’re dealing with is very powerful, and he probably is, we might not.::

::Good point, although he probably would have sent minions to do his dirty work, like the one who gave Race the note.::

Race watched them, certain they were talking, even though he couldn’t hear them. He wondered to himself if they could do that mind to mind, or just so softly as to be unheard by anyone who was human. He half expected one of them to answer his unspoken question and then figured that wouldn’t happen since his mind was a void to them, from what they’d implied. If they couldn’t control him they probably couldn’t hear his thoughts either which was just fine with him. After all some of them involved Shan and for sure HE didn’t want him or Addie knowing that.

Having decided it was safe for them to take the next step Shan hefted what looked like a large camera bag over his shoulder. Getting the message Addie stood, picking up her purse as she waited for the men to join her. Once he was standing, too, Race adjusted the backpack holding the laptop and a few other things, and with a nod from Shan led the way out the back of the café into the narrow walkway behind it.

With Addie between them, Race walked cautiously ahead, ducking into the shadows when the wall ended, leading them down through the darkness to the path that skirted the river’s edge. From there it was a long, dark walk past the various wharves until they came to the point where the Intracoastal Waterway joined the river. Race stopped momentarily to let them know it wasn’t much further. 

“Damned good thing I was wearing sneakers when you picked me up,” Addie whispered to Shan. He smiled in amusement while keeping an eye on their surroundings. When Race started down the stony embankment to the water’s edge, Addie was more than glad she had a vampire’s excellent sight. Race might know the area like the back of his hand; she however would have been much less surefooted if she hadn’t been able to see the trash-littered rocks and the safe way to navigate down them.

When the three of them stood at the bottom of the slope Race pointed to a dark spot a few yards ahead of them. “That’s it. Not palatial but it was one of my homes for a long while. It’s clean and usually dry unless the water rises too high.”

A few minutes later they were in what turned out to be a small cave that went back much further under the bank than Shan would have suspected at first glance. Race had told the truth when he’d said it was clean. There was no litter, natural or man-made, on the dirt floor and the rocks that the young man had obviously brought in to sit on were almost spotless. There was even an old, battered chair resting against one of the cave’s walls, a large rock beside it that Shan suspected had served as a table. A thick pile of neatly folded worn blankets sat at the back of the cave. Race brought them out, spreading them on the floor to form three ‘beds’.

When Race finished Shan told him and Addie to get some sleep. “Not that you have the option not to, Addie,” he added with a quirk of his lips.

“What about you?” She asked in reply.

“I’ll stand watch and figure out how we get from here to where we’re going next,” he said as he took the laptop from Race’s backpack sat down cross-legged near the cave’s entrance.

“And just were will that be?”

“I have an idea but I won’t know for certain until I contact someone, so I’ll tell you for sure when you wake up.”