Page 63 of Blood Pack Beginning

“There’s no one here.” Which was beyond odd, because Xander insisted on a twenty-four watch. He even had a pair assigned to each shift to ensure if one went for a piss or to check on something that the post wouldn’t be unattended.

Cyrus joined him to peer inside. “That’s odd. Everything is turned off.”

“Keep an eye out while I go in.” Diego half expected the door to be locked, but it opened easily. He stepped inside, immediately sniffing and looking for any signs of foul play. No blood. Nothing out of order. He exited and shook his head. “No clue as to what happened to the guards, but I’ve got a bad feeling.”

“Me, too.”

“Wanna go in with me for a look?”

Cyrus shook his head. “I’m thinking we should grab Pierrot and Anabel in case things get messy. You coming with me to fetch them?” Cyrus slid back into the driver’s seat.

“Nah. I’ll stay here and reboot the monitors. I wanna watch the last recordings and see if we can figure out what we’d be trotting into.”

“Good idea, but be careful,” Cyrus warned before flipping around to head back down the road.

While he waited for the computer to boot, Diego went outside and listened. The quiet this time of night was normal, yet he couldn’t shake the sense of wrongness that went deeper than the abandoned guard post.

By the time Cyrus returned with the vamps, Diego was cursing as the login screen foiled his attempts to watch any security videos.

The big vamp took one look and said, “Move aside.”

Since computers weren’t his thing, Diego let Pierrot have at it and instead hopped the bar blocking the road to walk a few paces inside the compound. From the entrance, the housing couldn’tbe seen, only a bunch of trees and shrubs, part of the privacy offered in this private housing enclave. Once a person passed the band of forest, the houses were set in concentric circles, with the center being a park area with benches and playsets for the kids as well as a pavilion where they used to gather for pack meetings or before the full moon. The wooded land around the compound also technically belonged to the pack, although on paper it appeared to be owned by a numbered corporation. The same corporation leased the homes within the community, to Lycans only, of course.

“Seems too quiet,” Cyrus remarked, joining him.

“It is almost two in the morning,” Diego reminded.

“I wonder what happened to the night guards.”

“You might want to see this,” Pierrot shouted before Diego could reply.

They eyed each other and jogged back to the guardhouse, a tight fit with four of them clustered inside staring at the monitors.

“The last footage before the cameras were shut down was at ten o’clock,” Pierrot stated unnecessarily, since they could see it stamped on the video.

It showed the sedan, identified by its license plate, arriving, its bright headlights causing a glare and making it impossible to see through the windshield so they could confirm whether or not the two passengers who left the compound together had stayed together.

Diego recognized the guard that emerged. “That’s Harry.”

Harry bent down to speak to the driver. A moment later, he entered the guard house and his partner emerged, a young kid named Rory. Rory also spoke to the driver before nodding his head and getting into the back of the car. They saw the bar to the gate lift before the video ended.

“Monty must have whammied them,” Diego exclaimed.

“Unlikely,” Pierrot countered. “Even if they’d been touched previously by Roderick, Monty’s not that strong in the mental arts.”

“Doesn’t look that way in the video,” Diego argued.

“It’s possible the guards were preconditioned to obey his instructions,” Anabel murmured. “And not necessarily by having a geas placed on them. Could be their alpha told them to allow Monty entry.”

“And then leave their post to ride in with them?” Cyrus shook his head doubtfully.

“Either way, we know they’re here,” Diego exclaimed. “Let’s go find the fucker.”

“Slow down,” Pierrot cautioned. “There must be a reason the cameras were disabled. Hold on a moment while I pull some logs.”

Pierrot scrolled the mouse over the screen, exiting the video playback module and clicking on one titled “Gate Entries.” It showed dates and times. Pierrot tapped his finger on the screen. “Here is where the sedan arrived. Ten thirteen. The next entry is just over an hour later, and shows the bar being raised and not lowering again for almost an hour. Then nothing.”

“Meaning what?”

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