I should have just kept it short and sweet, but knowing the ears in the Lair, Damon would hear about it soon anyway.
“You’re going to Allerton House.” Damon stared at me.
I made a face at him. “Spying?”
“Not necessary.” He jacked up a shoulder in a shrug. “My people heard you and one of them felt like it was news he should share.”
I narrowed my eyes.
“Don’t get mad at my cats for trying to protect you.” He took a step forward and grabbed the front of my vest, tugging me onto my toes. “Be glad I convinced him you didn’t need an escort.”
His mouth was warm on mine. I sighed into his kiss and then tugged away. “That’s something you’ll have to work on if I do move in here, Damon.” Scowling, I shoved my hands through my hair. “Might need someplace fitted out with soundproofing. Some of the jobs…”
He lifted a brow. “I’ll see to it.”
“Just like that?”
He brushed his fingers down my cheek. “If I want this to be your home, then…yeah. Just like that.” He let his hand fall to his side and I turned away.
“Kit?”
I looked back at him.
The early morning sun painted him with brilliant color, the chilly wind of fall whipping at his clothes. “Be careful,” he said softly.
“I will.”
The stop at my condo was meant to be quick—in, out. I needed stuff, the kind of stuff I’d take along with me if I thought things would get FUBAR—my favorite phrase from a classic movie that made me laugh every time I watched it.
Fucked up beyond all recognition.
And this job just might push things into FUBAR territory.
I’d already roughed out the gear I’d take and it should have taken me ten minutes—probably less.
But that was before I climbed out of the car and smelled…it.
I flared my nostrils, vaguely realizing I was doing the same thing I’d told Abraham was so annoying, but it did help. I dragged in the air and smelled…
Immediately, I shoved my back against the car. I drew my gun, staring hard at my condo. My nice, innocuous condo that had been all but drowned in a strange little potion garden witches cooked up and sold—if they were brave enough. It was called hide.
I had some of it myself, but I didn’t like to use it. It itched like a bitch and the only thing it did was cover your scent. It did nothing to hide you physically and nothing to cover the sounds you made. I could take care of being seen, but unless I could completely silence myself, it did no good to not be scented.
I’d only used it once or twice—for break-ins.
I hissed out a breath and had to fight the urge not to lunge toward my house. Instead, I focused on my other senses.
A minute later, I began to make way toward the front door.
Nothing had been taken.
Or at least, if it was, it wasn’t anything important.
But my place had been searched—and searched well. The wards had been evaded—not shattered. Justin would have felt that, since he’d put so much of his magic in it. No magical construct is full-proof, though, not even the wards Justin and Colleen had crafted for me, and somebody had gotten past them.
Actually, I suspected it was somebodies, although how they’d done it, I didn’t know. I could still feel the ripple of the wards—active now. They lay in a dormant state when I wasn’t here, only flaring to life when somebody other than me or the few who’d been keyed in to gain entry tried to come inside.
It still took a decent chunk of power to get past—or around or under—my wards and the idea that somebody had done it so easily left me on edge. I kept my blade in hand the entire time, her grip warm in my hand. That curious, empty ache in the back of my head that had once held her voice seemed to pulse, but I didn’t let myself think on it.
They’d gone through everything. I wanted to bite something as I came to a stop in front of my kitchen counter. They’d even gone through my tea supplies. My tea! What the hell?
Spinning away from the counter, I stared at the weapons on my wall. I’d been staring blindly at them for a few seconds when a thought hit me. I sucked in a breath and fury had me leaping over my kitchen counter instead of running around it. In my bedroom, I caught the bedpost and shoved, pushing it too far—
“Oh, man,” I muttered, hissing out a breath when the magic there held.
The spell Justin had used on this hidey-hole of mine was the quietest, subtlest magic he could have done and he’d tinkered and refined it over the years, understanding the need to keep secret the things hidden within. The quiet magic hid a devastating spell that would incinerate anything that tried to power through it. Severe consequences, but no innocent child could accidentally find these weapons and nobody with any decency in them would want them enough to steal them.
That made any possible thief fair game. These weapons were too powerful to fall into the wrong hands. I didn’t even trust them in mine.
Both spells, the concealment spell and the destructive one, were powered by the magic of the weapons. They breathed it out, like they were living creatures and the spells fed from that energy.
They were also both intact.
Setting my jaw, I went about disarming the magic and as soon as I removed away the false piece of floor, I was hit with swells of power and whispered promises of death dark and bloody. The blade called Death wanted to come out and play. He’d tasted blood recently and instead of slaking his thirst, it only made him yearn for me.
“Shut up,” I said to the blade.
There was no lessening in the power that came off it, but I didn’t expect there to be.
The Druidic bow was in there as well, along with the charmed blades and poisoned steel.
Whoever had broken in, they hadn’t found these weapons.
Once I had them safely stowed—and hidden once more—I got busy checking everything else.
The rest of my quick search turned up nothing but frustration. I could tell where somebody had gone through my things. My clothes, my damn underwear and my papers—what little I kept anyway. They’d even gone through my books. I could tell simply because certain things just weren’t…right. A few pages were too neatly aligned, while the spines on the books weren’t perfectly aligned.
Nothing missing.
But I learned nothing about who’d done it, either and I couldn’t linger here.
It pissed me off in ways I can’t explain and it also confused me.
Who in the hell would break into my place just to look around?
“You’re certain.”
I sighed as I pulled my car in front of the gates of Allerton House. Vampires were notorious for keeping their homes gated. Supposedly if you were stupid enough to climb those gates, then you got what you deserved.
I didn’t try to climb.
I just sat in my car and waited, using the time to finish my call with Justin. “I’m beyond positive. Somebody was in my house and they didn’t want anybody tracking them, that’s for damn sure.”
He hissed out a breath. “Okay. We’ll…shit. Do me a favor.”
“What?” I had a feeling I already knew.
“Stay with Damon until this is done.”
I closed my eyes.
When I didn’t respond, Justin pushed on. “Look, if it’s somebody who is onto what we’re doing, I want you safe.”
“And what about you? They’ve taken down high levels before, Justin. You’re not immune to harm.”
“I’ll stay at the big house.”
My lips twitched as his sardonic name for the local Green Road house. Green Road was a branch of witches—and they badly wanted to get Justin to join their ranks. They would offer a bed to a witch who asked—it was just their way, but they’d also try, yet again, to make him understand why he belonged with them.
He’d likened belonging to a house to being in prison.
Thus the name the big house.
I pretended to hesitate ano
ther moment, but it was for show. Justin didn’t need to know that. “You’ll really stay there? I won’t lie and say I’m not nervous about this thing with my house, but I don’t want to be all tucked up and secure if that leaves you as the only target out there.”
“I said I’d stay,” he said, aggravation coming through in his voice. “We’ll go back there later and see what we can learn, okay? I’d do it now, but John and Marcia agreed to let me have a few minutes with Saul before they turned him over to the MacDonald.”
“The MacDonald?”
“Yep.” Justin sounded bemused and wary at the same time. “He hired them. They won’t tell me why, but they did tell me that much. Since I don’t expect to get much from him expect what I can scrape or mop off the floor by the time the wolf Alpha is done, I need to get these questions in quick.”
“Okay. Call me when you’re done. We’ll work a time to go by there.” I had to admit, the idea of having him go over it made me feel better. He could maybe unearth something I couldn’t. A creaking noise caught my ears and I looked just as the familiar dry-bones sensation rolled across my skin.
The gatekeeper has arrived.
“Miss Colbana.” The vampire was unfamiliar, the voice rich as butter and honeyed by a drawl that could make cavities form.
“You at Allerton House?” Justin asked as I continued to study the female vampire who still stood in the gates, waiting.
“Yep.”
“Be sure to let me know the answer—crypt or coffin.”
The woman’s brow rose and I knew she’d heard.
“Kiss ass, Justin.” Then I hung up and got out of the car.
To my surprise—and dismay—I got the answer.
My escort led me to the door, gesturing where to park my car. She was there before I was, even though I was driving. I never even saw her leave her position by the gates, nor did I see her arrive. Poof, magic.
She turned me over to Abraham, who in turn led me up a winding staircase and down a wide, dark hall lit with a gentle gold light.
Vampires, or at least, this vampire, slept in a bedroom as dark and elegant as he was. Icarus didn’t turn to face me, just stood at the window, staring outside as I took in my surroundings.
The walls were a dark brown, but it wasn’t a dull, dun sort. It was the kind that made me think of rich, molten chocolate. There was trim of a pale ivory and it matched the bedding. The bed frame looked like it had been carved from massive trees and the bed itself was big enough for a debauched sort of party.
Somehow, I didn’t see Icarus getting involved in debauched bed parties.
The man was still standing quietly by the window, his gaze on something I couldn’t see.
“Please tell me none of the family were rude to my guest, Abraham,” Icarus said.
“No, Icarus. Of course not.” Abraham’s voice was soft, as respectful as I’d ever heard it.
“Ms. Colbana?”
“Ah…no.” Tucking my hands into my pockets, I rocked back on my heels. To be honest, I’d only seen the two vampires—well, three now—Abraham, the woman who’d met me at the gate and now Icarus. But I couldn’t complain, other than the fact that I knew I was surrounded by vampires, even if I couldn’t see them.
Icarus nodded and continued to stare outside.
He could have been an English lord from a time gone by, standing there in cravat and waistcoat, staring out over his estate.
“I must say, Kit Colbana, it surprises me that you would come to a vampire’s home. You must be very tenacious,” he said, finally turning his head to look at me.
“I’ve been told that once or twice.”
“Only once or twice?” A smile ghosted around his lips. His mouth was pale. He didn’t have that…sense of life I was used to feeling from vampires. He wasn’t feeding. That made me leery.
But his eyes retained their sense of self.
“Abraham, how goes Estella?”
“We haven’t had much luck getting her to talk, I fear. She’s been feeding from us for too long. Her resistance to mind control is somewhat strong.” The vampire at my side flicked me a look.
Curiosity burned inside me, but I kept quiet. I wasn’t going to go poking and prodding at things I didn’t need to know.
I focused on what I did need to know and when neither of the men said anything else, I did. “Master Allerton, I have questions I need to ask you, if you don’t mind.”
“Please.” Icarus gestured to a seat, still staring outside. “Forgive my lack of manners, if you would. My mind is somewhat frazzled today. It’s been…upsetting.”
What in the hell could upset a vampire?
A worldwide shortage of necks?
“Perhaps you should tell Ms. Colbana what has transpired. She’s investigating the disappearances that have happened within the cat clan,” Abraham said, lowering himself to a chair after I’d reluctantly sat down.
Icarus didn’t move to join us.
He couldn’t seem to move away from that spot near the window.
What had him so mesmerized?
In the next moment, a scream shattered the silence.
Icarus closed his eyes and bowed his head.
“How many times now, Abraham?”
“It’s the fourth, Grandfather.”
The title sounded more like an endearment.
“She will not speak,” Icarus said, his voice solemn. “It was why I chose her. Her stubbornness was a trait I so loved. I believed she would stand with me, strong through all the long, dark years. But she has betrayed us.”
“You are not to blame for her deception.”
Unable to stand this conversation I couldn’t decipher, I rose and moved to the window. Neither Abraham nor Icarus moved to stop me and I stopped still several feet from the vampire. He was so old, he made my teeth ache, the power in him. He would have to work to keep it contained, and I appreciated the effort he must be making on my part.
Even now, standing a few feet away, the air around him was chilled. I wrapped my arms around myself as I stared outside. It was a large window, possibly six feet across so I had no trouble finding what it was that held his attention.
Although it wasn’t a what.
But a who.
She’d probably been beautiful once.
Now, though, she was strapped to a wooden pole and blood splattered everything around it. Some of it was old, some of it wasn’t. It wasn’t hard to see where the blood came from, either.
Internal organs glistened wetly in the midday sun.
It was a misnomer that vampires slept during the day. Only the very young had to sleep for long periods of daylight, but few of them went out in the daylight as the sun did sap their energy. Stronger vampires could overcome that. After all, if you were strong enough to bench press a tank at night but only able to bench press a truck during the day, you probably still felt pretty confident in your abilities to walk out your front door.
But the vampire chained to the thick wooden pole wasn’t a vampire.
Humanity still clung to her, although it had been altered. Altered and twisted until it was more an echo than anything else. Servants fell in that strange gray area along with psychics—not quite human, not really other. The only people who truly accepted them were their makers. The vampires.
I had a disturbing feeling this woman’s maker was standing a few feet away.
As I watched, the blood oozing out of her came to a halt and as the minutes stretched out, I could see that the wound in her belly was closing. It took almost ten minutes—and nobody spoke a word—before anybody down there moved. It was a vampire, a man shrouded in black from head to toe against the sun’s painful rays. I watched as he caught the entrails hanging out of the woman. She cried out as he viciously pulled and then cut.
“She’ll begin to regenerate new internal organs now,” Icarus said quietly. “And in two hours, the injury will be struck again.”
I fought the urge to flinch at the cruelty of it.
&
nbsp; “What did she do?”
“We learned that Estella, my star, has been feeding information on weak and younger vampires to people outside the family.” Icarus turned to look at me now and his eyes were screaming black pits of hell.
Perhaps vampires were able to feel, I realized.
This one certainly seemed to.
“I’m sorry.”
“Torture isn’t working.” Abraham shook his head as I told him I needed to talk to her.
I’d asked Icarus every question I could think of, and then I flipped the questions around and started over, but I couldn’t discern anything new from him. And down there in the courtyard, standing in a bloodstained mess of her own body organs was a woman who could give me answers.
“Then we won’t do torture. We’ll try something else.” From the corner of my eye, I kept Icarus in my line of vision. In the back of my head, a weird little voice was shrieking at me: Vampire, vampire, vampire! Every part of me wanted to bolt.
I didn’t let myself.
Maybe I’d wanted to run every step of the way and maybe I could still feel the inhuman presence of too many vampires inside this house, but I wasn’t running away.
“Somehow, Kit, I don’t think she’s going to respond to pretty please,” Abraham said, temper threading into his voice.
“Well, how do you know?” I gave him a sweet smile. “Maybe you just need to try…the right way.”
I looked at Icarus. “How long was she yours?”
He tore his gaze from the window. I don’t know why he was torturing himself like that, but he couldn’t seem to help himself. “Almost one hundred-fifty years. Next year would have marked that occasion. I was going to take her to Paris. She didn’t know.”
I chewed on my lip and went back to the window. “When was the last time you fed her?”
Vampire servants receive near-vampire strength and inhuman healing abilities, all from feeding from a vampire. If they feed often enough, they can extend their lifespan indefinitely. A vampire’s blood, I’m told, can be addictive, though, and the more you take, the more often you take it, the more you need it. Wise vampires limit their servants to small, weekly feedings.
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