The underground maintenance level beneath Caltech smelled like concrete dust and ozone. Not the clean laboratory air from above—this was the building's guts, where electrical systems hummed and ventilation pipes carried the sound of dimensional rifts tearing reality apart.
I counted heartbeats while waiting for my team to assemble. Old hunter habit. Precision meant tracking time down to the second, knowing exactly when windows opened and closed.
Thirty seconds until Marcus confirmed external perimeter secure. Forty-five until Alexander's werewolf contingent reached secondary access points. Sixty until Vampire Queen Lilith's people finished neutralizing building surveillance that might capture what we were about to do.
"Scarlett." Witch Mother Isabella materialized beside me without sound, her coven's shadow-walking ability making her arrival feel more like condensation than movement. "The blood weapons are distributed. Everyone carries at least two Luna-infused blades."
