“Fuck!” Damian exclaimed, catching sight of him. He strode over and pulled Nick’s arm over his shoulder, bracing an arm around his waist. “Sit down before you fall, man.” He guided him over to the only usable furniture in the house, the dining room table and chairs, which had somehow survived the disaster relatively unscathed. The others all sat there, drinking coffee and eating waffles, of all things.
“Coffee,” he said, but Casey was already on her feet, pouring a big mug and sliding it in front of him. Black, the way he liked it. His hand shook as he took a sip, then another. “Good coffee,” he said in surprise.
“I buy it for the others,” Grace supplied, indicating her own cup of tea.
Nick nodded blearily, took another, longer drink then said, “I know where she is.”
“Shit, talk about burying the lead,” Casey said. “Where?”
“I need you to check it out first. We need to be sure. If we hit the wrong place tonight, Sotiris will know we’re looking and might take her somewhere else. If he goes overseas, I’ll lose her.”
Casey stood. “Let’s go.”
“Wait,” Damian said. “Who’s going and where?”
“Get me a map,” Nick said. “Something on the computer’s fine, but it has to be detailed, not the whole fucking state. I need . . .” He thought for a moment. “Twenty-five miles from here. She’s inland, for sure, though, so don’t worry about the coast.”
Casey already had her laptop out and was typing rapidly. “Here you go,” she said, and shoved the computer across the table, turning it to face Nick.
He squinted at the screen, then closed his eyes, overlaying a magical projection that reflected his night’s work. “There,” he said, then zoomed in even further. “I can’t narrow it to a house, so Casey will have to go. If that’s Sotiris’s hideout, even a part-time one, there’ll be enough magic escaping that she’ll sense it.”
“I can—” Kato started to protest, but Nick shook his head.
“It’s got to be the women. You and Damian are too noticeable. You were both in the battle last night, so his people know what you look like.”
“You’re assuming Sotiris has those mercenaries guarding his house.”
“Raphael’s prisoner said they were.”
“He could have been lying to protect the mission or his friends.”
“I’m pretty sure Raphael can dig any truth from a man’s brain. Still, why would we assume otherwise and roll the dice?” Nick asked. “It’s not necessary. Casey and Grace can do it just as well and maybe better, since they can keep it low key.” He caught Damian’s frown. “It’s a simple re-con, for fuck’s sake. Casey could do it with her eyes closed, and you know it.”
“I’d rather go with her,” Damian insisted.
“I’ll be fine,” Casey said, sounding nearly as impatient as Nick. “Not that I don’t love your company, babe, but I’ve been doing shit like this for years. And don’t forget, I’m also a Quantico-trained FBI agent.”
“And Grace?” Damian demanded.
“What about me?” Grace responded quietly, looking up to give him an even stare.
With everyone looking at him, waiting for his response, Damian surrendered. “Fine, but Kato and I will follow in a second vehicle and take up a position no more than ten minutes away.”
Casey glanced at Nick, who gave a small shrug. “Fine by me.” He yawned. “The house is in Hidden Hills, though. You’ll need to get past the gate first.”
“I can take care of that,” Grace said, with a pointed look at Damian. “My mom’s best friend lives there with her family. I’m on their permanent guest list. I can clear you guys, too, as long as you don’t look like you’re getting ready to re-launch the Crusades.”
Kato laughed, dropping the arm he’d had on the back of her chair to her shoulder and giving her a hug. “We’ll look perfectly innocent, I promise.”
She snorted but leaned in to him.
“All right, then,” Nick said on a long, tired breath. “This one’s yours.” He stood. “I’m going to get some sleep while I still can, but I’ll have my cell handy. Call me if anything happens. Anything,” he repeated, looking directly at Casey.
“What? I always get the job done, don’t I?”
He clapped Damian on the shoulder as he walked to the stairs and dragged himself up. “Have fun, children, and take care. Wake me when you return. We’ll need to have a plan before the vampires rise.”
SEVERAL HOURS LATER, the setting sun was burning holes into Nick’s eyes when he came down the stairs. “Someone shut the damn drapes,” he growled.
Kato walked over and pulled what was left of the heavy fabric, his expression showing amusement when the sun continued to stream through the gaps and tears.
“That’s fucking worse. Let’s take this into the office, and please God, tell me someone made coffee.”
Damian and Kato dragged chairs into the office, while Casey poured coffee into a two-cup travel thermos and handed it to Nick, along with a mug. He smiled. “You know me well.” He hated drinking out of those travel things. “All right, what did you discover? No, start from the beginning; how did you discover it?”
Casey glanced at Grace, who lifted an open palm, indicating she should tell the story. “Okay, it took us a while to spot the house. There’s something like six hundred properties behind the gates, and they’re all spread out. But we started in the northeast corner, since that’s where you seemed to think Hana was most likely to be—”
Nick grunted.
“—and also because I figured Sotiris wouldn’t want a lot of neighbors. We focused on houses that backed up to the Las Virgenes Space Preserve, which is part of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy. Basically, a big open space where no one’s allowed to build anything. And that’s where we found it. I’m telling you, anyone with the tiniest bit of sensitivity to magic would get a chill going past this house. For me, it was like a beacon shining a mile away, before I even laid eyes on the place.”
“He must have some serious wards up, then,” Nick observed pensively.
“You know my sensitivity is stronger for things than people, but do you really think it was just the wards I was feeling? Do wards count as things?”
Nick thought about it. “Not unless they’re tied to an object, which is a pretty low-level spell. I wouldn’t expect it from Sotiris. But then what the hell does he have in that house?”
“I can’t tell you that. Maybe he collects magic stuff like you do.”
He scowled at her. “Mine’s in a warded vault.”
Casey shrugged. “Maybe Sotiris likes to display his for guests. I don’t know. All I’m saying is that I’m sure this is the house. And not just because of the magic. He’s got a twelve-foot wall around the property, with armed guards at the gate. They’re discreet, since few of the other properties had guarded gates, much less armed guards. But they’re there, if you know what to look for.”
Grace picked up the narrative. “We looked his property up in public records already. The lot’s about an acre and a half, so he has plenty of room, plus it’s at the end of a dead-end street. That made it difficult to surveil, since we couldn’t get behind it in the car. We ended up parking a couple blocks away, where they were having an open house on a property that backs up to the same open space as the house with all the magic leaking. We walked through the open house first, asked all the right questions, then went back to the street and walked around a little, as if checking out the neighborhood.”
Casey gave Damian a nervous glance before saying, “Eventually, we walked along the side of the house, then climbed down and crossed the slope until we were behind the house we thought was his.”
Damian turned his head slowly to stare at her. “You did what?”
“It was perfectly safe. All we got were som
e scratches and bug bites. Turns out the wall goes all the way around. There’s not even a back gate. We had to schlep all the way back to the sale house for nothing.”
“Maybe not,” Nick commented. “Walls can be knocked down.”
“Not exactly a discreet entrance,” Kato observed.
“Maybe we don’t want discreet. Maybe we should take a page from Sotiris’s playbook and make a big noise coming in the front. Let Raphael lead that charge, like he said. He’s good at knocking things down, and he has plenty of fighters. He can engage the enemy, while I draw out Sotiris, hopefully to kill him once and for all. But either way, Gabriel should be able to slip through the main battle zone, find Hana, and get her out of there.”
“How many armed guards?” Damian asked Casey.
“We saw ten, including the two on the gate. We got a glimpse of someone who might be that Popeye guy—”
“Bluto.”
“—but that was on our first drive-by, so we couldn’t linger to be sure. Either way, there’s bound to be more guards inside, some active, some resting. They have to be running at least two shifts.”
“Okay,” Nick said, standing. “I need to eat something, then we can gear up and get over to Raphael’s. I can give him a quick brief before we leave, or en route by phone. The plan’s essentially what we discussed last night. He just needs the specifics.”
“What about his people? Won’t they need to be briefed?” Casey asked.
“You ever seen vampires fight?”
She shook her head.
“Well, I have. They’re like a hive mind when they attack. Vampire lords can telepath their people and coordinate the strike. It’s as amazing as it is creepy. And very damn effective, which happens to be a good thing for us tonight.”
RAPHAEL’S VAMPIRES arrived at the front gate to the community of Hidden Hills in a convoy of five black SUVs. The guard at the gate didn’t blink an eye. The vampire driver of the first vehicle persuaded the man of his credentials for admission, and the rest of the vehicles followed him in. Homes in the elite community were set well back from the streets, but even if anyone happened to notice their passage, there were more than a few well-known personalities who lived behind those gates, so it wasn’t all that unusual to see a trail of security vehicles in the area. They parked along an empty curve of the street which bordered the wild canyon, and walked the rest of the way, with Raphael in the lead, his power gathering the shadows to conceal their approach.
The plan was as simple as they’d outlined the night before. Nick Katsaros would attack from a distance, targeting Sotiris on the magical plane, drawing him out and forcing him to defend his lair. Katsaros was counting on the element of surprise, since he’d never been able to find this house before. He expected Sotiris to be somewhat complacent, secure in his obscurity. But though his initial reaction would be blunted by the unexpected attack, he’d quickly mount a furious defense, at least partly in rage at being found. Katsaros, however, seemed supremely confident that he could handle Sotiris, no matter how vicious his response. His job was to distract the enemy sorcerer, kill him if possible, and escape alive.
Raphael left him to it. He had his own people to worry about and an innocent woman to rescue.
He pulled Cyn to his side as his vampires spread out in preparation for the assault. Sotiris thought to hide behind walls and gates, but those things were no barrier to a vampire of his power. “You will go in with the second wave,” he murmured against her ear, and tightened his hold on her, anticipating her protest.
She immediately tried to pull back, rebellion sparking in her green eyes. “Why the hell would I do that?”
“I have the greatest respect for your abilities and courage. You know that. But we’ll be facing a significant armed response in a wide courtyard with little or no cover. I’ll have my strongest vampires with me, leading the attack. We will each raise shields, and I will ensure they meld into a single repelling force. It will require intense concentration on my part. Having you there, unprotected and human, will be a distraction I cannot afford. I need to focus, lubimaya. Lives depend on it.”
She scowled up at him. “Cheap shot, fang boy, but okay. This time.”
He kissed her, hard and fast. “I love you, my Cyn. Be safe.”
“Love you, too,” she said, then melted back into the darkness to stand next to Gabriel. He’d also wanted to be in the first wave, but he was too new in his power, and besides, he had the most important task of all—finding Hana and getting her to safety. And he couldn’t do that if he died in the first wave.
Raphael watched her go. His Cyn was a warrior down to her marrow. She craved the adrenaline rush of battle, the challenge of pitting her life against another. She’d been right in accusing him of playing on her emotions to persuade her to go in with the second wave. He’d have preferred to leave her behind altogether, where she’d be safe. Only he’d never betray her like that. Still, he would do what he could to protect her. She was a warrior, but she was also the woman he loved more than life.
Turning away, he gathered his strongest vampires around him. Juro and Ken’ichi, Jared, and two others who captained his security teams. Raphael glanced from side to side, making certain of their readiness, although the visual scan was unnecessary. He could feel their power simmering against his own, could feel their eagerness for battle. Cyn wasn’t the only one of his warriors who lusted for blood. The desire was built into a vampire’s nature. The more powerful the vampire, the stronger their aggressiveness and hunger for violence.
His eyes cast a silver glow against the darkness as he raised his power and let it swell until it touched every one of his vampires, including fighters in the second wave. Then he contracted it into a concentrated wave of energy ahead of him. Each of the five warriors by his side brought their own shields up to mesh with his, surrendering control to him in an act of supreme trust. By the time he’d woven them into an impenetrable shield, a red star rose slowly into the night sky, barely visible against the light of a full moon, then faded from sight. Katsaros had begun his attack. Raphael waited three minutes more, then sent a simple telepathic message to his people. “Go.”
Sotiris’s guards didn’t see them until they were almost upon the gate. Raphael’s power, combined with the night and a vampire’s natural stealth, concealed them from detection. When he finally lifted his silvery gaze, the two gate guards didn’t bother with words; they simply started firing, while yelling for help over the comm units they both wore. More guards raced to the gate, firing almost recklessly, risking their own people in a frantic drive to kill the unknown attackers who’d suddenly appeared at their gate.
Raphael didn’t hesitate, didn’t miss a beat. As the guards’ bullets bounced off his vampires’ combined shields, he diverted a portion of his power and shoved it outward, slamming it in the gate and surrounding wall with all the force of the most powerful vampire on earth. The gate blew inward, as if made of paper, knocking down guards as it tumbled across the courtyard, while to either side, the wall shattered like glass, sending huge chunks of stone flying through the air, until screams of pain joined the sound of cursing.
A large figure strode into the courtyard, shouting as he advanced, ordering the guards to fall back to the house. Raphael eyed the man, if that’s what he was. He was swathed in tactical gear, covered head to toe in a suit that may have protected him, but made movement almost impossible. This had to be the infamous Bluto. The man responsible for killing one of his vampires, for kidnapping Hana, and for injuring Cyn.
Sotiris’s guards retreated across the courtyard to the house as they continued to fire. This was a different battle now. But it was one that Raphael’s vampires had been created to fight. “Attack,” he sent telepathically. The powerful vampires next to him all drew their shields out of the combined energy wall and started forward, leading small groups of fighters surging i
nto the house. He saw Cyn flash past, her eyes wild, teeth bared in a ferocious grin.
Bluto saw her, too. Lifting his huge handgun, the coward targeted Cyn when she ran by, but his gun never fired. Before he could pull the trigger, he was screaming in agony, as every bone in his arm, his hand, his fingers snapped, one after the other, until there was nothing but bits of bone in a bag of skin. His armor was no protection against a vengeful vampire lord. Raphael walked up to him where he knelt on the ground moaning, struggling to grip the gun in his left hand. “I don’t think so,” Raphael murmured, and broke the bones in that arm as well.
The man shrieked, staring through the mask of his suit, his eyes wide and terrified. He’d thought himself invulnerable, omnipotent. Raphael smiled and let his fangs slide out to gleam in the moon’s light. “You killed one of mine,” he said quietly, the sound traveling to the soon-to-be-dead man’s ears despite the noise of battle coming from the house. “And you tried to kill my mate.”
The man fought to scramble away, pushing with his heels, his arms useless. Raphael followed, the silver glow of his eyes lighting up the face shield of the high-tech suit, reflecting in the man’s horrified gaze. Using no more than a wisp of power, Raphael reached out and grasped the man’s heart, feeling the pulse of the beating organ as he squeezed ever so slowly, wanting the human to know what was happening, to suffer the agony of his heart’s destruction.
Bluto gasped at the first touch, keened as Raphael’s grip tightened, his panting breath loud behind the lens of his suit. “Oh, God,” he pleaded, then turned his gaze on his tormentor. “Please. He ordered me to do it.”
Raphael gazed down at him and squeezed. “But it was you who pulled the trigger,” he said softly, then closed the fist of his power and crushed the man’s heart until it could have oozed through his fingers like soft clay. He paused only long enough to be certain of the man’s death, then pulled his shield tight around his body and strode into the house.
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