Page 84 of Bound By Blood

Zack?

We’re coming for you. I need you to invite me into wherever you are.

Come to me, Zack. Your presence is welcome.

You’d better include your father. He’s with me.

Drake Sherrad,she said, her voice rising with excitement,you are also welcome.

Okay, darlin’, hopefully we’ll see you soon.

Hurry!

Zack glanced at Sherrad. Hang on. Here we go.”

It was an experience that could not be described, the sense of moving through time and space at an incredible speed. Zack’s vision blurred, the sound of air rushing past rang in his ears.

The abrupt sensation of motion was jarring.

Zack glanced at the small, two-story house located on a patch of dead grass. A six-foot chain-link fence surrounded the yard. There were bars on the windows, a security screen on the front door. The house was dark save for a light in one of the upstairs windows.

“Apparently her invitation was not sufficient,” Sherrad remarked.

“So it seems. I guess we’ll have to do it the hard way.”

“Fine by me,” Sherrad said.

Zack moved closer to the fence, his senses probing the interior of the house. “I don’t sense any vampires inside, just Katy and a man and a woman.”

Drake sniffed the air. “Nadiya has been here recently.”

Zack nodded. Hers was a smell he wouldn’t soon forget. “Let’s go.” He didn’t wait for a reply, simply vaulted over the fence. No sooner had he reached the other side than an enormous Rottweiler came charging toward him from the backyard.

In an instant, Zack transformed himself into a wolf and growled in the dog’s face. With a sharp whine, the Rott tucked its tail between its legs and ran back the way it had come.

Grinning, Zack assumed his own form once again.

“Impressive,” Drake remarked.

“Yeah, well, I didn’t think your pussycat would have any effect.”

“Let us find Kaitlyn, shall we?”

Choking back his laughter, Zack strode up to the front door and knocked. He could feel Sherrad’s gaze burning an angry hole in his back.

When there was no answer, Zack knocked again. Three minutes later, a middle-aged man wearing a pair of worn jeans and a flannel shirt opened the door. He looked harmless enough, until they saw the double-barreled shotgun in his hands.

“He’s a drone,” Sherrad said quietly.

“What the hell’s a drone?”

“A human whose mind has been tampered with. Have you never made one?”

“Hell, no. Have you?”

“From time to time. Nadiya has left him in charge of Kaitlyn. No doubt she has ordered him to kill anyone who tries to enter the house.”

Zack glanced past the man to the woman who had come up behind him. She was about the same age as the man. She also carried a shotgun. It was a ludicrous picture, the short, rotund rosy-cheeked woman wearing a long blue flannel nightgown and carrying a shotgun that was almost taller than she was.

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