I glanced at Ravi before my eyes drifted up the stone bannister to the landing on top. I could see the team tensing in front of me, so I knew they’d heard the initial headcount by Red-1.
“Reaching the first landing now. Signing off.”
“Be careful, Miri.”
I gritted my teeth, but that time, I didn’t answer.
Seventeen
SCOUT’S HONOR
WE’RE GOING FIRST this time, Mrs. Black... not the humans.
I knew the voice in my head, even before I turned to look at Ravi’s eyes. He wore contacts, as he usually did when working around humans, but I now knew his eyes were a brilliant blue-green in color, the color of iridescent fish. It crossed my mind that he’d likely worn the contact lenses for the vampires more than the humans tonight, since my uncle also mentioned that vampires could see in the dark, almost as well as humans could in full daylight.
Thinking about his words, I nodded, then touched my headset, signaling Dex.
“Ravi, Efraim and I will take point.”
Dex frowned at me, then looked at Kiko, obviously for help. I could tell from his expression that he was trying to decide if he should physically restrain me, versus bothering to try and argue with me verbally.
“It’s not a discussion, Dex,” I said through the sub-vocals.
Without waiting, I nodded to Efraim, who began vaulting up the last few stairs in front of me. I followed as fast as I could, but Ravi had passed me in seconds too, and I watched them fan out just ahead of me, obviously trying to cover me from both sides.
Ravi got to the top of the stairs, peered around the corner...
Then immediately began firing the tranquilizer gun. It was so soft I thought he’d only been using the scope at first, but I heard more of those hisses as he must have hit targets, right before I could suddenly feel Uncle Charles all around me, as well as his seer team.
Even as I noticed, my uncle’s voice rose in my mind as well.
We’ve cracked their blocking mechanism. He sounded relieved. Valuable intelligence, truthfully. I now think I know how it is they manage to block our sight...
I didn’t care about that now. Where’s Konstantin? I sent.
End of the hall. Master bedroom. There are six more between you and that room. He’s got five with him. Looks like your people have knocked out at least four of the others––
I flinched when Efraim grabbed my arm, thrusting me forcefully behind him right as a shadow rushed me, catching hold of my arms. I saw a flash of sharp fangs, crystal-like, scarlet-tinted eyes...
Then Ravi hit it in the face with the butt of his rifle.
The thing didn’t go down exactly, but he managed to knock it off its trajectory. Efraim spun, keeping me behind him as the two of them faced off with the vamp, a female with dark skin, long, black braided hair and a full mouth. She hissed just like the others did when Ravi shot her in the chest with one of my uncle’s tranquilizer darts.
When Efraim turned back towards the hallway, Dex appeared at my side.
Only when he grabbed my arm did I realize how angry he was at me.
I knew why. He felt responsible for me, with Black missing. All of them did.
But I couldn’t let that distract me from the job.
I touched the earpiece again, going to the private channel for the Colonel’s people. “Red-1,” I said, my voice louder over the sound of multiple guns going off around me now. “How many are still moving, over?”
“You’ve got six more in the hallway,” he said at once. “Four human, so it looks like your people have been knocking out the right targets. I see six in the room at the end of the hall... those are all non-humans. One isn’t moving but appears to be seated. Four more are waiting behind the door. The last one is standing over the seated one, likely to protect him if anything gets past the door. I’d guess the seated one is your target––”
“Okay, got it. Thanks. Over.”
I clicked over to Kiko and Dex. “We need to get in the room at the end of the hall,” I said. “Let Efraim and Ravi go ahead. I’ll follow them. You cover our six. Leave Ace on the stairs with Javier. My uncle’s bringing his team in shortly.”
Dex nodded, but I could see the frustration on his face still.
And yeah, I’d pretty much chucked the plan we walked in here with, but watching Ravi and Efraim knocking out vampires with the darts, it struck me as a good adjustment to make.
We won’t ever be able to surprise them like this again, Miri... My uncle murmured in my mind. They’re already compensating. It was too late for them to adjust this time, but it won’t happen like this with them again.
He paused, and his next thoughts felt darker, more grim.
It makes it look even less likely that Konstantin was directly involved in taking your husband, Miri, he added. My team and I have seen no indication the estate was expecting this in any way. I think we completely surprised them. Which is both good and somewhat troubling...
He trailed and I nodded grimly, wincing as another inhumanly fast shadow seemed to come down from the ceiling, nearly on top of Ravi’s head.
Without thought, I brought up my rifle and shot it in the neck, pretty much the instant it latched onto Ravi’s shoulder. The thing hissed at me loudly, tearing a chunk out of Ravi’s upper arm, and Ravi beat at it with the gun, then kicked it off him once he got enough room.
The thing slid down to the floor, hissing even as its eyes began to close.
I moved towards Ravi, thinking I would help him maybe, but Ravi already had his rifle raised again. I watched as he fired a dart to knock out another form that appeared in a darkened doorway. That one was a lot brighter in the infrared. Between that and how fast it went down, I figured he had to be human.
The hall grew quiet suddenly.
Quiet enough for me to be able to think again briefly.
I knew my uncle was right. They wouldn’t forget this. They would also learn from it, just like my uncle said. Telling myself that ‘they started it’ was a lot less comforting as I looked around at the bodies lying in the dim hallway.
Again, though, I couldn’t think about that yet.
I still had some hope we might get out of here without being positively ID’d. I knew that was probably pure wishful thinking on my part, but I had to hope there’d be enough wiggle room for plausible deniability if it turned out this whole thing with Black was just some rogue faction among the vampires and their whole species didn’t really want war with us.
My uncle and I had talked about that in depth too.
Meaning, how far we could go in retaliating, how many of theirs we could kill before we could no longer claim it was fair retribution for what they’d done in taking Black. Charles seemed to think Konstantin, at least, could be reasoned with. As long as we didn’t go too far, or do anything that posed an exposure threat, there would still be room for negotiations.
Seeing a blur of movement to my left, I turned.
A door opened, and I fired without thinking as I dropped instinctively to one knee.
It’s good my reflexes are still decent. My ears fuzzed out with sound when the person I’d shot at fired a rifle over my head, the bullet slamming into the wall directly behind me. I’d already chambered another dart without lowering the gun.
Luckily, I didn’t need the second dart.
The man who’d shot at me, a heavyset Latino man with broad shoulders and a black goatee, was already sprawled out on the floor. He was bright in my infrared goggles.
Bright enough that I knew he had to be human.
Rising to my feet when the hall grew quiet, I lowered the gun to look at him more closely. He really was big, and he’d been wearing body armor. I’d gotten him in the face with the dart, which still hung from his cheek like a gruesome piercing.
I stared down at him, watching him lay there like a broken doll on a white shag carpet that began just inside the room’s doorway. I knew he was probably dead.
When I turned
, I found Ravi’s eyes on me.
Your uncle says that was the last one, he sent. Let us take the door. You and the humans can cover us... get as many as you can with darts, and we’ll get the rest.
I didn’t argue.
While he and Efraim walked swiftly towards the closed door at the end of the hall, I motioned for Dex, Kiko, Alice and Walter to cover them, but hang back.
I felt another pulse of rage off Dex.
I knew I needed to talk to him after this... and probably Kiko too. I had to decide what to tell them first. I hadn’t even read them yet, but I could tell they knew something strange was going on. They’d definitely noticed something up with a good percentage of the “people” we were fighting in Konstantin’s house. They must have noticed the difference in infrared signatures by now, along with the biting... and just the general weirdness.
Dex had noticed something weird about Ravi and Efraim in this fight, too.
More than any of that, though, he was furious with me for not letting them protect me.
Forcing Dex out of my mind, I kept my gun up, covering the two seers as they approached the door. When they were still about ten yards out, I sent them snapshots of where the Colonel showed me the seers had been standing.
We’re about to breach the bedroom now, I sent to my uncle.
Understood. We’re inside the house. We’ll finish clearing the downstairs, then join you. In the meantime, I’m having my team provide assistance to Ravi and Efraim, so you should be able to read any humans you come across among their staff.
Remembering the one I’d just shot in the face, I grimaced, but didn’t answer.
Probably would have been smart to keep at least one of them alive for questioning.
For the first time since the foyer, I checked my watch. We were under time. Less than ten minutes since the outside gate opened. The sheer speed of the breach and the strangeness of being inside someone’s house hit me as I looked around at where we were.
It really did look like some kind of European castle. Most of the furniture and wall hangings appeared on first sight to be real antiques, most of them from the English Georgian period, if I was getting my interior design periods right. I saw more statues in alcoves upstairs, some of them lit softly with accent lights, and it hit me suddenly that apart from that one shot from the human soldier just now, I hadn’t seen a single one of Konstantin’s bodyguards fire a live round at us. They’d relied on their vampire abilities and fangs alone to keep the house safe.
My uncle was right. They hadn’t been prepared to deal with a breach by seers at all.
I had to assume the human guards were just additional insurance. Maybe Konstantin was too fond of his knick-knacks and elaborate wood inlays to want them shot up by automatic guns.
All of that passed through my mind in a fraction of a second. I looked back at Efraim and Ravi, who’d now reached the bedroom door.
I saw Ravi reach for the handle...
When the door opened sharply from the other side.
EFRAIM AND RAVI skidded to a stop, just outside the open door.
The rest of us raised our rifles, aiming them and the infrared goggles through that opening.
No one came out.
No one fired a shot, either.
Instead, a shock of flashing, writhing white light that must have been firelight danced inside what appeared to be a large stone fireplace. Glancing at Dex and Kiko without lowering my rifle, I raised my goggles to keep from being blinded by the fire, then motioned with my jaw for them to advance. If nothing else, I wanted us closer to back up the two seers.
You okay? I asked Ravi.
Dex began walking past me, Kiko on his right.
Yes, Ravi sent, his thoughts taut. I think you need to see this, Miri.
Frowning, I began following Kiko and Dex.
All five of us kept our guns trained through that opening into the room. When we got a little closer, Kiko and Dex flipped their goggles up as well. I was close enough by then to see the two leather chairs in front of the fire, as well as the giant portrait of an old man in a period suit over the stone mantle. I was still staring at the portrait when someone spoke.
“Mrs. Black?” The voice called out to me in a southern drawl, friendly, open, like we knew one another. “My stars, is that you, Mrs. Black...? I do so hope it is... I cannot wait to see your husband’s face when I tell him I finally got to meet you.”
A cold line ran down my chest, piercing my heart.
Before I could control it, I was fighting to breathe, my vision slanting with pain.
Right behind that pain and confusion, a murderous fury slammed through my light. Every fragment of grief and worry and fear about Black, every reaction and overreaction I’d been suppressing for days on end, came bubbling to the surface so violently I found myself panting, baring my teeth like some kind of animal.
“Whoever you are...” I barely recognized my own voice. “I’m going to fucking kill you. I’m going to throw your still-beating heart in that goddamned fire...”
Ravi flinched, looking back at me, wide-eyed.
I saw Kiko and Dex flinch, too.
I ignored them, walking forward, still trying to control that rage.
“Now, now, now, Mrs. Black,” the voice said cheerfully. “No need to be so uncouth and unpleasant. We can all get what we want here... all it takes is a small willingness to exercise patience and employ the fine art of compromise.”
“Let him go,” I said. “Give the order to let him go and I won’t kill you.”
The same voice laughed.
Male. Young-sounding, but not too young. His diction made him sound educated and urbane, but also very southern, maybe Louisiana or Mississippi, but I wasn’t that good with accents in the South, so I was mostly basing that on movies.
Once Dex and Kiko reached Efraim and Ravi, the latter two entered the room, fanning out on either side, with Dex and Kiko doing the same behind them.
I walked into the sharp end of that V-shape, and once I’d breached the threshold, I found myself staring at the owner of that voice.
He wasn’t alone.
The four creatures the Colonel’s people had seen previously guarding the door now stood behind him. Their dark forms were outlined by glass balcony doors that looked out over the front lawn. Despite the odd lighting, I saw them holding handguns, aiming those guns at Ravi, Efraim and now me.
They ignored the humans entirely, which told me they had some idea which of us were which, despite the contact lenses Efraim and Ravi wore.
Directly in front of them was the man who’d been speaking, along with another man, who sat in front of him in a high-backed chair. Both of them were more visible than the others since they fell within the circle of light thrown by the fire.
The one who’d been speaking to me looked to be in his early thirties.
The other looked very old, possibly in his eighties or even his nineties. He had a gaunt face with dark red eyes, and stared at me with a look of hatred, like he wished he could rip my head off my neck and drink from it. As I continued to stare at him, however, I wondered if that hatred was aimed at me.
According to the Colonel’s people, all six of them were vampires.
The old one, however, appeared to be almost a captive. He sat in an elaborate, antique-looking chair carved in some kind of dark wood and decorated with red upholstery. His back was straight, he did not move, but that wasn’t why I thought he was being held prisoner.
The one directly behind him, the younger, handsome one with the lighter red eyes, held what looked like an actual scythe to the old man’s bare throat.
“What is this?” I said, staring at the man holding the scythe.
From his wide-lipped grin, I knew it had to be him I’d been speaking with before.
Another surge of rage went through me. I aimed my rifle at his face, but Ravi pinged me with his light, holding up a hand when I looked over.
Miri... don’t. The old one. The one
they’re threatening. That’s Konstantin.
What do I care? I retorted.
My uncle answered that time, his thoughts holding a colder anger than mine. We’re being set up, Miri. This is a coup. A coup they obviously intend to blame on us.
“Mrs. Black!” The man holding the scythe called out to me, his voice as light and familiar as I remembered. “No wonder your husband is so out of sorts being deprived of your company! You are positively... radiant, my dear. Even for your kind, I must say, you really are both such attractive specimens. One can easily imagine how intoxicating your offspring might be...”
“Where is he?” I gritted my teeth, motioning towards the old man he held in the chair. “What the fuck is this? Are you threatening to kill him? Or just making sure we know you intend to frame us for it...?”
The vampire smiled, glancing down at the old man with a raised eyebrow.
“Shoot him,” the old man said to me. “Shoot him, and I will get your husband back for you. I vow it. On my life.”
“He’s lying,” the younger one laughed. “Oh, I’m sure he’d try his very very best to help you out. But you see, he has no earthly idea where your husband is––”
“He’s the liar,” Konstantin cut in, his voice cold as ice. “Shoot him. He is a traitor to both of our races. I will tell you where your husband is––”
“––He can’t help you, Miriam,” the one with the scythe said. “Are you sure you want to risk your husband’s life on this old man’s word? Only I know where your husband is. You shoot me, and your husband is dead, Mrs. Black. I have left strict instructions that he be killed if I neglect to send a particular signal from a particular place at a particular time...”
“He’s lying,” Dex said from next to me, his voice furious. “This whole fucking thing is a set-up, Miri. We should waste him. At least bring him in for questioning...”
I knew Dex might be right. I knew it.
But the man with the scythe was right, too. I couldn’t risk it.
“No,” I said. I raised my rifle, putting up my free hand. “No... stand down.” My throat tightened, but I didn’t look over at Dex or Kiko. I shook my head, still glaring at the man with the scythe. “What do you want?” Renewing my grip on the rifle, I kept it pointed at the ceiling. “What do you want with me? With Black? Who the hell are you?”
Black And Blue (Quentin Black Mystery #5) Page 22