Page 36 of As Darkness Fall
Behind me came Aaron and his team, with Vir taking up the rear. He was in his human form and would stay that way for the duration of the raid. Everything at the temple had happened so fast that I still wasn’t sure whether or not Lars had any idea who Vir was. But we weren’t going to give it away. I could think of any number of ways that having a god in your back pocket could come as an unpleasant surprise for Lars and his ilk.
We covered the ground to the house quickly. Far quicker than we should have. Not because we ran any faster, but because we didn’t run into patrols.
As a matter of fact, we didn’t run intoanyone.
As we paused against a sidewall of the manor, we pawed the ground gently, whining up at Aaron.
“I don’t know,” he whispered. “Where are they? There should be guards by now. This is too easy.”
We didn’t have an answer for him. Those were our concerns, too. Even the smells on the property were weak. As if nobody had been on the grounds recently.
So, where were they?
Reaching the door Johnathan had said to take, Aaron motioned at Alexi. The tracker came forward and pulled out some tools. He spent a few minutes fiddling with the lock while the rest of us, filled with nervous energy, looked around restlessly. Staying in one spot for this long was asking for trouble.
Yet, nobody stumbled upon us.
“Got it,” Alexi finally said, turning the handle and holding the door closed until Aaron gave the nod.
He pushed the door open while Pieter and Fred covered the opening with their weapons. Nothing emerged.
“This is spooky,” Fred muttered as he proceeded first, taking point as we infiltrated Aldridge Manor.
We stayed in our wolf form for now, padding forward at Fred’s side and using our enhanced senses to stay alert.
It was pointless. We went down a set of stairs, pushed through another set of doors, and then down some more stone stairs into a sub-basement of sorts. This was where Johnathan had said Jo would be kept. If she was still alive.
Testing the air, we growled softly, confirming to the others that we could smell her. She was here. We raced down the hallway, claws scratching over the stone floor, but we didn’t care. Jo was here. We could smell her.
And she didn’t smell good.
We stopped outside one door in particular, and as Vir approached, ready to do his part, we shifted back into our human form.
“Easy,” I growled as Vir’s eyes swept up my nude body in slow appreciation. “Hand it over.”
The god’s stare lingered on my chest for a few seconds while he reached behind his back and pulled a black piece of fabric from his pack. It was mostly filled with medical supplies—we had no idea what shape Jo was in—but I’d made him bring me a piece of clothing.
The single-piece bathing suit wasn’t ideal, but it was small and easy to slip into. Unfortunately, the store had only had red, so now I looked like some crazed lifeguard attempting an underground rescue, but I didn’t particularly care.
“She’s alive,” I confirmed, stepping out from behind Vir. “In here. Everyone ready?”
Nods all around.
“Good,” I said. “Because we’re about to make some noise.”
Chapter Nineteen
“If you could please be a good shifter god,” I said to Vir, gesturing at the door.
“Glad to be of some use besides pack mule,” Vir said with a wink.
“But you make such agoodass,” I fired back.
Vir paused to stare at me, then sighed. “I really should have seen that one coming.”
“Probably,” I said. “But that’s what you get for staring too long. Now, the door?”
“Hard not to stare at something so eye-catching,” Vir whispered under his breath.
