“There could be traps, you know.”
“If you find one, let me know.” On light feet, Smoke went to the tall hedge and made his way along it, peeking through the leaves.
Vormus stayed on his heels. He came to a stop.
Somewhere on the grounds, a soft rustle disturbed the plants. Someone was coming. A pair of men. The breeze from the river revealed the smell of cigarettes on their clothes.
Smoke glanced back at Vormus and held up two fingers.
The white-haired shifter nodded.
Around the edge of the bushes the guards came. Assault rifles were shouldered over their pea coats. As soon as the men crossed their path, Smoke and Vormus attacked from the shadows. Smoke locked up one man by the neck and choked him until he passed out.
Vormus broke the neck of the other.
Snap.
Dragging the unconscious body into the bushes, Smoke said to Vormus, “You’re going to kill them all, aren’t you.”
“Why not? They’re just people.” Vormus tossed the dead body over the wall.
Smoke shook his head. Killing monsters was one thing. Killing men was another. Plenty of the guards were mercenaries, men with wives and children. A lot of times, men made bad decisions and put themselves on the road to Hell with good intentions. He’d had plenty of friends like that. Any of these men could have been one of them. Of course, chances were they were rotten to the core anyway, but he wouldn’t do what he had to do until that time came.
“Try not to overdo it.”
Vormus shrugged.
Smoke ventured deeper toward the house. The closer he got, the better vantage point he had of everything else. In the moonlight, he could see the boat dock through the trees, along with a helicopter pad in the next courtyard, with a black chopper sitting on it. He could see the glow of a cigarette coming from one man standing guard. There was a silhouette of another one inside there too.
Facing Vormus a scant thirty feet from the house, he said, “What do you think is going on inside?”
“At this hour? Oh, you probably don’t want me to answer that.”
“Humor me.”
Lifting his brows, Vormus said, “Oh, after another dreary night by the warm fire and plenty of exquisite centuries-old wine, I’d say they are sleeping. One on top of the other. Snuggled up like, as you Americans say, swine in a blanket.”
Smoke didn’t want to think about it. It had been a while, and time could change people. He just had to hope Sid was still the strong woman he had known. He had to believe that. He couldn’t let Vormus’s musings distract him. “Any idea where that bedroom might be?”
“Top level, just below that tower under the moon. I can take a peek if you like.” Vormus’s smile showed a shine in his fangs. “That way you won’t have to be exposed to anything unpleasantly raunchy. Shifters’ erotic appetites are quite … ravishing.”
“Just get on with it.”
Eyeing the room above, Vormus said, “Eh …”
“What?” Smoke said.
Shaking his head, Vormus said, “Nothing. I’ll take care of this. You, I suggest, should stay put. I won’t be but a moment.” He sprung straight up into the air and floated through the night sky right toward the third-story window and made a soft landing on the balcony.
I don’t like this.
Smoke could observe Vormus’s progress. The vampiric shifter was hopping from one balcony to another, inspecting the inside of the house through window after window. He made his way onto the largest balcony that faced the river. A pair of double doors led onto it. Vormus opened one of the doors up and vanished into the darkness inside.
Figures.
Everything around Smoke seemed to stop except his heart pounding in his ears. He didn’t trust Vormus. On the one hand, the shifter might be taking this opportunity to exact vengeance. On the other, he might be setting Smoke up. He had to assume the latter, and he wasn’t going to sit around waiting for things to happen. If he had to go inside on his own, guns blazing, he would.
He’d give Vormus five minutes. Then it would be time to launch.
Three minutes into his wait, he rested his hand on his gun. Vormus still hadn’t appeared. So far as Smoke could tell, nothing in the house was moving. It was like he was staring at a haunted mansion, the way the breeze whistled through the gutters.
A chill went down his spine. Something flapped above him in the sky.
Smoke glanced up.
A gargoyle dropped out of the sky and clamped its claws around his throat.
CHAPTER 30
Fighting for his life, Smoke grabbed the stony horned devil by its wing, trying to rip it off. One hundred pounds of stone dug in. With all of his strength, Smoke wrenched its wing off. He slammed it into the ground, busting its small hulk of a body into the stones. He grabbed hold of one of its taloned hands and bent it back until it cracked off. He dashed its face into the cobblestones again and again until it had all turned to dust.
Gasping, Smoke wiped the blood from his neck. He popped up from behind the hedge and checked the balcony again. Vormus was back outside. He was waving Smoke up. Scanning the area and seeing the coast was clear, Smoke dashed toward the house. His fingers dug into the rough stones and his feet pushed off the window sills. With the ease of an ape, he climbed his way to the top and pulled up onto one of the smaller balconies. With the stealth of a cat, he hopped from one balcony to the other, finishing up alongside Vormus.
Keeping his voice low, Vormus said, “Today might be your lucky day. No one is inside any of these windows.”
“Then where are they?”
“It’s a big mansion. I figure we should start at the top.”
Below them at ground level, the main door opened and closed. Smoke hunkered down. Vormus pressed back into the shadows along the wall. Three men walked out. One of them was huge, over eight feet tall and built like a lumberjack. Smoke didn’t know the other two, but each was exquisitely dressed. They were heading toward the chopper.
“I’ll be. My dear brother is departing. Fortune favors you this night, Mister Smoke.” Vormus squatted alongside him. “The man on the left, in the tuxedo, with that purposed and arrogant gait, that’s Kane.”
Smoke nodded. The man had a powerful build and formidable looks. He moved with the strange ease of a jungle cat. All three men entered the chopper. The engines whined. The propellers spun, and up it went into the night sky.
“I suggest we get right to the task of rescuing your lady, though this wasn’t what I wanted.” Vormus started toward the balcony doors with a vengeance in his eyes. “I want him dead. But I suppose I can help you find your friend. That will hurt him too, whether my efforts fail or not.”
The first bedroom was lavish. A huge carriage bed big enough for a horse was the centerpiece. Two lit candles stood on the nightstands. The mansion had an old smell about it. Otherwise, the early American furnishings were in fine shape and worth nothing less than a fortune. There weren’t any signs of technology. Not even a phone.
Smoke put his ear to the bedroom door. He pushed the brass handle down, pulled the door open, and stuck his head out. A long hallway went both ways. Fine trim and crown molding the caliber of craft one didn’t see anymore. Wainscoting on the bottom, wallpaper on the top that ran from door to door. Handwoven rugs covered most of the hardwood hallway.
As the two of them stepped out into the hall, the floor creaked. Vormus pushed in behind him. The door right across the hall creaked, stopped, and was flung open.
“Vormus!” said a woman. She was old, skin withered and spotted, wearing an old nightgown down to her ankles, and had a shaggy head of white hair. “What are you doing here?”
“Please keep your voice down, Mums. And you should be sleeping.” He gently stroked her cheek with his hand. “Go back inside and rest.”
“Are you two related?” Smoke said.
“Mums is one of Vormus’s most trusted housekeepers. Doesn’t she do well keeping up this place?”
<
br /> Smoke nodded, gave a little smile, and said, “That’s an understatement.”
She eyed Smoke. “Who are you? I haven’t seen you here before. A new guard?”
“Of course he is.” Vormus started pushing her back into her bedroom. “Why don’t you go rest, Mums. Are you hungry? Maybe something from the kitchen. Milk? I know sometimes your ulcers flare up. After all, you are human.”
She gazed up at Vormus. “I thought Kane was mad at you. Does he know you’re here?”
“Of course he does,” Vormus said with a smile. “We are working out our relationship. You know it’s complicated.”
“But he left,” she said, scratching her head. “He told me so. I heard the whirly-bird.” She shook her finger at Vormus. “You aren’t supposed to be here. You’re a liar!” She took in a lungful of air and prepared to scream.
Vormus clamped his hand over her mouth and twisted her neck. Snap! He dragged her into her room, closed the door, and looked at Smoke. “I had to. She might be old, but she screams like a banshee.”
“She could have told us where Sid was!”
“Could have. Should have. Sorry, that’s not part of her capabilities anymore. Oh, but my brother is going to hate to see her dead. He really adored her. Our real mother perished long, long ago.”
“I don’t care.” Smoke sauntered up to the next nearest door, tested the handle, and pushed it open. That room was empty. Vormus did the same.
Room by room, they cleared the top level and didn’t find a sign of anyone. The mansion was a cold dead place. Lifeless. Without energy. Yet every room was lit with candles and free of dust or cobwebs, and every bed was freshly made with the finest linens.
At the last door before the stairs went down, Smoke heard footsteps coming up. He ducked into one room and Vormus another. Smoke kept his door cracked open.
Two guards in pea coats came up the steps carrying assault rifles. Chatting among themselves, they started to pass.
“Hold on a sec,” one said to the other. He stepped backward in front of Smoke’s door. Stared at the crack. Started to push it open.
Smoke crouched in the dim light beside a wardrobe.
The guard stepped within and peered around. His squinting gaze found Smoke, who hit the guard hard in the chin and knocked him to the floor.
The second guard rushed inside.
Vormus jumped on the man’s back and lowered his mouth toward the man’s throat.
“No!” Smoke said.
It didn’t matter. The man was dead.
Not at all mussed, Vormus took a knee by the body. “Did you say something?”
“Quit killing them. We could get some information out of them.”
“I’m not holding back.” Vormus looked at the man Smoke had knocked out. “What are you going to do when he wakes up? He’ll be nothing but trouble, a loose end. Take one of those shiny knives and kill him. I know you have it in you.”
“I’ll take my chances.” Smoke gestured out the door. “After you.”
CHAPTER 31
Vormus dropped a man’s corpse to the floor and flung the blood off his fingers onto the wall. He’d killed four more people on the second story and ripped the last man’s throat out. “Sorry, sometimes my anger gets the better of me.”
Smoke had a sentry in a choke hold and said in his ear, “Where’s the woman named Sidney?”
The guard was a mule of a man, strong and stubborn. He shook his head.
Vormus squatted down and poked the man in the face with his bloody finger. “Tell the man what he wants to know. Your fate is in far better shape with him than it would be with me.”
The man spat on Vormus.
Vormus grabbed the man’s arm and bit down.
“Quit it, you devil!” Smoke said. “You act like a dog.”
Vormus released the man, stood up, and wiped the spittle from his face. “The mortal will not live to see the day. My patience thins with you, Smoke. Sneaking around. It is not my way. I will have my vengeance!”
Smoke put the man to sleep. They weren’t getting anywhere, and so far, Sid was nowhere to be found. His gut said Kane Lancaster would be back soon. Darkness wouldn’t last a whole lot longer, and Vormus was getting really agitating. Smoke took out both of his semi-automatic pistols. “Let’s get on with it.”
They took the grand staircase down into a huge foyer. Gas lanterns glowed, giving off a yellowish illumination. There were murals on the walls. Vases and busts on pedestals. It seemed more like a museum than a home. Smoke led the way from room to room. Dining rooms, living rooms, all with stone cold fireplaces. The kitchen was huge but lifeless, except where a double-doored modern refrigerator hummed in the corner. Smoke pulled open one of the doors. There wasn’t much to eat. The pantries had little, either.
Peeking from behind Smoke’s shoulder, Vormus said, “He doesn’t eat that much. Mums usually prepared the food, but her food wasn’t the best. Bland.”
Smoke could understand Kane not eating, but what about Sid? There wasn’t any reason to believe she was here. If she wasn’t here, where was she?
“I have to admit, I’m just as surprised as you are.” Vormus opened and closed some cabinet doors. “It doesn’t make much sense that she isn’t residing in one of the bedrooms. It’s disappointing actually. As I understand it, she is with him wherever he goes.”
“Who told you that?”
“I’ve been privy to his musings for quite some time.” Vormus turned on the kitchen faucet and ran some water over his hands, then dried them off on his clothes. “I hate him so.”
“Maybe she’s on the yacht.”
Vormus shrugged. “Hmmm … possible. Of course, there is another place, though I find it unlikely.”
“What place?”
“The dungeon.”
“You’re holding out on me.” Smoke pointed the pistol at Vormus’s head. “These bullets aren’t made of lead. One shot will turn your chest into a sink hole.”
Hands up, Vormus said, “Only the worst of the worst get put down there. It’s unlikely she’s in there at all. I don’t have any objection to checking it out.”
“Lead the way.”
Smoke followed Vormus into the foyer. Under the grand staircase was a heavy oak door with an arch in the top. The vampire-shifter grabbed the iron handle and pulled it open. A stale breeze of cool musty air wafted out. “After you,” Smoke said.
A stone spiral staircase led them down into an area that for all intents and purposes looked like a dungeon. Small gas lanterns lit the grey slab walls. There were open alcoves with wine racks and whiskey barrels in them.
Vormus plucked out a wine bottle and inspected the label. “Shifters drink a lot.”
Smoke wandered through the dungeon corridor. There were heavy iron doors, some open, some closed. Alcoves protected by steel bars. Straw beds covered in filth. There were bodies too. Decayed and crumbled. Some shackled. Others mangled. Staring at one of the bodies, Smoke’s nose started to run. He sniffed.
“Disappointing.” Vormus kicked at a pile of bones. “Usually there are a few folks down here pleading for mercy. More often than not, this is where my brother keeps those who disappoint him. It seems his troops are keeping good order these days. Come on, there is more to this place.”
Smoke counted more than a dozen cells and alcoves. Just as many bodies. He followed Vormus even deeper into the den, stopping inside a chamber filled with archaic torture devices. Blood stained the floors, tables, and walls. Covering his nose, Smoke said, “Looks like Uncle Fester’s basement.”
“You have an uncle with a basement like this?” Vormus asked with surprise.
“No.”
“Then who is—”
Smoke moved on, taking the lead this time. He wasn’t sure if Vormus was trying to rattle him or not, but he didn’t have all day to try and track down Sid. He needed a sliver of her whereabouts now, because soon they would have to leave. He could feel it in his bones. He came across a corridor that he
hadn’t seen yet. It led straight back to another door, and it didn’t have any cell doors or windows on either side. Taking it slow, he approached and came to a stop ten feet away. A stone gargoyle four feet tall squatted on either side of the door. The eyes of the statues were closed. Smoke pointed a gun at each one’s head and said to Vormus, “What’s in there?”
“I can’t say, but I do know this. No one gets in there without Kane.” Vormus came alongside him and spoke in his ear. “Certainly there is something important in there. I don’t think there is anything more important to him than your sweetheart right now. Come to think of it, maybe that is what he does. Locks her up in here while he’s gone. The gargoyles would… secure her.”
Smoke considered Vormus’s thoughts. The vampire’s words were powerfully suggestive. What he said made perfect sense. Kane would stop at nothing to prevent Sid from escaping. Smoke had come this far. He couldn’t just leave now, not knowing. It would eat him alive. He might not get a better chance than this. Whether or not Sid was on the other side of that door, he had to find out. He eased forward.
“I wouldn’t go any farther if I were you,” Vormus said. “I can’t help you from this point on.”
“You haven’t been helping me anyway.” Smoke went forward.
“Those gargoyles will shred you—and even me—to pieces.”
“We’ll see.” Smoke kept going.
The gargoyles’ eyes snapped open.
CHAPTER 32
Smoke squeezed off two shots.
Blam! Blam!
The blue-tipped bullets ripped right through the gargoyles’ chests. The demon-faced winged monsters kept coming.
“I don’t think those bullets are going to work,” Vormus said.
“Criminy!” Smoke aimed at their skulls.
Blam! Blam!
The blue-tipped bullets punched clear clean holes through the advancing gargoyles’ skulls.
“They don’t have brains,” Vormus said.
Smoke’s instincts told him to run, but he wasn’t going anywhere. He had to know if Sid was behind that door. He kept shooting.
The Supernatural Bounty Hunter Files: Special Edition Fantasy Bundle, Books 6 thru 10 (Smoke Special Edition Book 2) Page 11
