Page 31 of Blood Bearon
Humans. Not Fae. Khove breathed a heavy sigh of relief. Humans, he could handle. If they were Fae with them, he would have had to find a way to stop Rachel getting involved. She simply wasn’t up to the task. Yet. He vowed to find a way to change that.
“What are you sighing for?” Rachel hissed. “Are you relieved that they’re attacking?”
“No, but it’s nice to be right,” he said wryly.
“Right?” she growled. “You weren’t right. This was my site. If we’d gone with your suggestion, we’d be across town right now.”
Khove winced. He’d forgotten about that, and had been simply trying to play off his initial reaction.
“Uh, right. It’s good that we’re the ones in place to intercept though,” he said. “So that none of the others are forced to deal with this.”
Rachel gave him a look that said she didn’t believe a word he’d just said. Which was weird, because he actually meant that as well. Whoever these people were, they weren’t just casual street thugs. They would be hardened criminals, quite possibly the only onesinPlymouth Falls, assuming Korred hadn’t brought them with him from elsewhere.
“What’s your plan?” he asked before she could speak again, trying to deflect the attention back to Rachel. Force her to think about stopping them, and not Khove’s reaction.
“The plan is simple, like always. We stop them,” she said. “Before they can burn it down.”
On the monitor, the group of red blobs was getting closer. Rachel got into a crouch and started heading for the back of the building where the ladder to the ground level was located. Khove looked at that, calculating how long it would take Rachel to get down, and then run four shops down to the alleyway and through.
He didn’t have a time, but he knew it was too long.
“Not that way,” he hissed, unhappy about what his mind was suggesting, yet knowing it was the only way to achieve their plan. “No time. If we do it that way, we’ll be too late.”
Rachel stopped and looked back at him. “Do you have a better idea?”
He nodded. “Do you trust me?”
She started to shake her head, then paused, a weird, scrunched-up look on her face. “Yes,” she said, sounding like she couldn’t believe she was saying it. “I think I do.”
“Good. Whatever happens, don’t scream. Put a hand over your mouth,” he ordered, and picked her up in his arms. “Seriously, I’m not crazy. Trust me.”
Then he turned and without warning, leapt over the three-foot high lip wall that ran along the edge of the roof.
Rachel shrieked, but she kept a hand clamped to her mouth, the sounds muffled and hopefully drowned out by the wind, blowing fiercely in the open street. Khove on the other hand, broke out into a wide grin as they dropped the two stories to the ground, his legs bending easily to absorb the impact. Then he took off at a jog across the street.
Or tried to. A fierce hammering on his chest stopped him.
“I can run, you maniac!” she hissed, slipping from his arms and pulling her gun, keeping the barrel pointed at the ground as she raced across the empty street.
Khove was right on her heels, trying to keep a grin from his face as they charged into the face of danger. Nowthiswas something he could get used to. The detective was fearless and brave. Knowing they were simply going up against humans now, he let her do her job, watching as she flung herself up against the wall outside a side door.
“They went in there,” he confirmed, his senses coming fully alive as he tapped into them, tracking the scent through the door.
Rachel leaned in closer, looking at the lock. “It’s been jimmied open,” she confirmed. “They’re inside. Cover my six.”
“Roger,” he growled sharply, intending to cover her from three-hundred-sixty degrees. Nobody was getting past him.
Khove had left Rachel alone once before, and he’d seen how she’d reacted to that, and he didn’t intend on letting it happen a second time. Not now he knew she was counting on him, and they were heading into a building that most decidedly wasnotsafe. There were three criminals inside, probably wiring some sort of firebomb even now, as the duo crept up on them.
Preternaturally sharp eyesight pierced the darkness, looking deep into shadow for any lookouts or other warning devices. Khove knewhewould have done one or the other, but without knowing who he was up against, it was impossible to say if the trio inside was experienced enough to do such a thing.
Rachel seemed to move with an idea as to where they were headed, and so he didn’t try to correct her. The restaurant wasn’tthatbig, and if they weren’t in the back, they would be up front somewhere. Not only after clearing a quartet of offices in the back, they moved into the kitchen, but there was no sign of their targets there either.
Motioning with her hand, she pointed at the swinging doors that led into the dining room, indicating she was going to go out there. Khove held up a hand to stop her, closing his eyes and reaching out with his senses.
Muffled voices, speakingveryquietly, reached his ears. Whoever they were, either they were behind some tables, or they knew how to speak softly and not in whispers, because their voices were not carrying far at all. Perhaps it was both.
He held up two fingers, pointing off to the ten o’clock position, if the doors were noon.
