Page 66 of Guardians of the Pack

‘Au contraire,’ the vampyr sneered. ‘I’m told the witch I’m looking for is here, so we’re coming in too.’

‘You can’t phase into a residential house,’ Roscoe bit out.

‘No, we can’t, but this particular house is vacant. It is currently owned by the mortgage company after one-too-many missed payments. It’s why the witch set up here – she can bring in the vampyrs she captures.’

‘You think?’

Anger flared in his eyes. ‘I know.’

‘And who is this witch?’ Amber De Lea asked. ‘What’s her name?’

Voltaire glared a little more. ‘I don’t know,’ he admitted.

‘What does she look like?’

‘I don’t know that, either. I was just told that she’d be here.’

Amber huffed. ‘We’ll see.’

We turned away from him and spent a whispered few moments pairing up the wolves and elementals. They gathered round, together with Bastion and Reynard, and Greg quickly outlined the plan. The elementals had earbuds and radios to communicate so each team could keep in touch.

Voltaire and his handful of vampyrs lounged back against our cars. When he caught my eye, he smirked. ‘Ladies first.’

‘We might as well co-ordinate our approach,’ I admitted grudgingly.

‘Indeed. Our approach is that we’ll wait for you to go in and trigger any traps, then we’ll mosey in when you’re all dead.’

‘Has anyone ever told you that you’re an asshole?’

‘Frequently,’ he smirked, uncaring.

‘If you’re not helping us, then stay put out here,’ I ordered.

Voltaire made no promises.

He wasn’t the only one being a dick; Amber was glaring daggers at Bastion. ‘Is there any Other creature that you get on with?’ I asked her conversationally. ‘Gargoyles, griffins…’

‘I have no issue with the gargoyles,’ she said primly. ‘They have an issue with witches.’

‘Damn right we do,’ Reynard muttered. ‘And rightly so.’

She grimaced but left it alone. ‘I’m fine with griffins,’ she continued, ‘just notthisgriffin.’

My brain caught up with my mouth. Of course she didn’t like Bastion, he was the assassin who’d been hired to kill her lover. It was business, but she’d taken it personally and it was hard to blame her. Oops. Time for a subject change. ‘Amber, if everything looks alright, let’s get these kids,’ I said.

She frowned. ‘There’s a witch in this band of reprobates, right?’

‘So we’re told. And your scry failed so, yeah, everything points to that.’

‘So where are the protective runes on the house? They must be here, which means she’s concealed them from me and I won’t see them until they’re activated. I’ll be able to give you a split-second warning and, when I can, I’ll deactivate them.’

Ignoring the vampyrs, we split into our teams. I stayed on two legs to co-ordinate things. I could transform when I needed to – and this time I was dressed in clothes that I didn’t care about in case I didn’t have time to shuck them off. Greg was armed to the teeth like Rambo. If the moment hadn’t been so scary, I’d have taken a moment to drool over him.

Despite my protests, Reynard was with Bastion. It hadn’t been long since the gargoyle had recovered from being attacked, but he was still determined to be part of the team. He said that he owed it to Hamlet, and I didn’t have the heart to argue with him.

They extended their wings and started to gain height. Reynard took a moment longer as he summoned the wind around him to lift him. By the time he was in the air, Bastion had already opened the third-floor window. Reynard flew up and in through it.

Bastion was going to create a distraction, during which time we’d go into the house. During his recce, he had ascertained that the children were being held in a room off the main hallway. That was our target.

---