by Keri Arthur
Amusement twinkled in her bright eyes despite her serious expression. “Sometimes the best way to snare your quarry is to be caught first in their net.”
“That depends on exactly what the net’s intention is,” Luc said.
“I don’t think capture is the intent here,” I said. “Not given the way the ribbons reacted to your probe, Mo.”
“I disagree,” she said. “Why else would they make it so easy to get in that house via the skylight?”
“Um, maybe to collapse the whole thing in on us when we’re inside it?” I said. “They’ve shown a propensity for doing that.”
“If the skylight is bait,” Luc said, “then why not subvert their plans? One of the windows on the first floor is open. You could go in through that.”
“That would mean tackling the ribbons,” I said. “And I personally don’t think that would be wise.”
“Let’s wait and see what Barney and the girls have to say before deciding on a course of action,” Mo said, in a manner that suggested she knew exactly what that course of action would be and nothing anyone said would change her mind.
Luc pulled up behind a gray VW a few houses down from the convenience store. After tugging my coat’s hood over my head to shadow my face, I climbed out of the car. A surge of energy had me looking around; Luc had disappeared.
I raised an eyebrow. “Is that really necessary?”
“Any watchers in that house may overlook two women in hooded coats hurrying toward the store.” His reply indicated he was moving around the front of the Focus. “But two women accompanied by a man bearing the manner and coloring of the Durant line? Unlikely.”
“And a door opening and closing without sign of anyone getting out or even appearing in the driver seat isn’t going to snare attention at all.”
“A door randomly opening is far less noticeable than a six-foot-two-inch man, especially given the distance. We can’t afford to be incautious, Gwen, especially when getting it wrong could get us all killed.”
And that was me told, I thought.
“Stop with the verbal foreplay, you two, and come along,” Mo said as she strode toward the store.
I hurried after her. The building was a double-story, brown-brick affair, with a front wall of glass that was covered by all sorts of advertisements. Four protective metal bollards stood halfway between the street and the store, making me wonder if ram raiding was a big problem around this area.
The door swished open as we neared; the interior was packed with shelving and grocery items. There was a payment area to our right, and to our left, a service counter and large coffee machine. A small blonde woman made coffees while a taller woman took orders from the small line of waiting customers. The scents that filled the air were rich, aromatic, and exotic, a result of not just the coffee but also all the loose herbs and spices sitting in open boxes or hanging from the ceiling.
A small, rotund figure appeared from the middle aisle and gave us a wide smile. “Mo De Montfort?”
“I’m she,” Mo said.
“Good, good, your party waits for you upstairs in the office. This way, please.”
She bustled away. We followed in single file—between the closeness of the shelving and all the items stacked on the floor, there really wasn’t another choice—to the rear of the store. After passing through thick plastic strips that divided the main store from the rear storeroom, she led us left and up a flight of stairs. A bathroom sat directly opposite the landing, and there were two other doors—one down a short corridor to the left and another to the right.
The woman stopped and motioned us toward the left door. “They wait inside. Would you like coffee?”
“No, but thank you very much,” Mo said.
Luc—who was still melding the light around his body to remain invisible—stepped quickly to one side as the woman nodded and went back down the stairs. We continued on, the floorboards creaking under our feet. The door ahead opened, and Mia appeared.
“You took your time,” she said cheerfully. “Sadly, that means all the food we bought has now been consumed.”
“I think eating is the last thing on their minds right now,” came Barney’s friendly rumble somewhere to the right of the door.
“A statement that shows your ignorance when it comes to Gwen.” Mia moved aside and motioned us to enter.
The room was large and appeared to serve as both an office and a break room. Filing cabinets lined the left wall, and in front of these were a couple of tidy desks. To the right were two sofas and a coffee table; Barney had claimed the smaller of the two sofas and had two-way radios, his phone, and some other electrical paraphernalia lined up on the table in front of him.
Ginny was perched on an office chair she’d dragged over to the window, but glanced around as we entered. “There’s been no movement into or around the terrace for the last hour, and no indication that anyone is currently inside—though it’s still early and they might be asleep. There is some sort of weird air movement around the building, though. It’s something I’ve not seen before.”
“That would be energy ribbons.” I grabbed the other office chair and rolled it over to the second window.
“Ribbons?” she said, eyebrow raised.
“Darkside evilness, basically,” I said.
“Ah, well, that certainly explains the weird vibes it’s giving me.”
“It’ll do more than give you weird vibes if you get close to it,” I said.
“Does that mean you won’t get past it?” Barney asked.
“No. It just means we have to be bit more cunning in our approach.” Mo quickly updated them on everything and then added, “What’s the situation with the Manchester council?”
“There’s a councilor keeping an eye on earth vibrations from the terrace next door, another watching from the parking area near the gardens, and a third in a van parked in the street behind the terraces.”
“Have they got any record of a witch living in that house?” Mo asked.
Barney shook his head. “Thanks to the city’s growth in the research and manufacturing sectors, Manchester’s witch population has become transient. It makes it harder to keep tabs on everyone.”
I frowned. “Why would they even want to?”
“The witch registration rule was brought here after a number of violent events in the early nineties—some witch based, some not,” he said. “It was a means of keeping tabs on troublemakers—of which there were plenty at the time, believe me.”
I grunted and glanced back to the street. Nothing had changed and yet a tiny niggle that appearances were mighty deceiving stirred.
“Whatever we’re going to do,” I said. “I think we need to do it sooner rather than later.”
Mo glanced at me sharply. “What are you sensing?”
“I don’t know. Something.”
“Then we move.” Her voice was crisp. “Barney, I gather you’re in contact with the councilors?”
He nodded and tapped one of the two-way radios. They all had in ear receivers, so at least using them would be less noticeable. “I’ve tuned them to the same channel and will coordinate.”
“And Gwen and I?”
“Are on a separate channel so you don’t hear all the chatter—that could prove dangerous inside. I’ll alert you if anything happens.”
“Good. Ginny, you’ll remain on air watch, but you can’t do it from up here. You and Mia need to grab a coffee, then stroll to the seat under that plane tree in the park. Just remember, our foes may or may not be obvious. They might even be spell concealed. Luc—”
“He’s here?” Mia’s gaze darted around.
“Near the door,” came the reply, amusement evident. “Didn’t want to shock the store’s friendly inhabitants by suddenly revealing myself.”
“Huh.” Mia studied the doorway for a second. “It’s a little spooky to witness, as there’s absolutely no—”
“Can we concentrate?” Mo cut in. “Time is a-wasting.”
<
br /> And it might already be too late … but for what? I had no idea. It wasn’t like the terrace itself provided any clues—it remained still and dark, and the undulating ribbons of energy hadn’t in any way altered.
“Luc,” Mo continued, “we’ll need you close by, just in case entering the house leads to an external attack.”
“Have you got an attack radius for the ribbons? I can’t see them, remember.”
“Best estimate, based on its reaction to my probe, is six feet.”
“Then I’ll leave seven, just to be sure.”
“Probably wise, given we’re dealing with the unknown.” She accepted the radios Barney handed her, then tossed one to me.
“Are you both going in?” he asked.
“It depends entirely on how those ribbons react,” Mo said. “I’ll let you know either way.”
“Good.”
I switched on the two-way, tucked it into my pocket, and shoved the receivers into my ears. Then I unstrapped my knives and lashed them together. “We need to move. Now.”
“Go,” Barney said. “I’ll notify the troops. And be careful, all of you.”
I strode out the door, following the still invisible Luc down the stairs and back out into the street. Thankfully, my awareness of him allowed me to not only keep an even distance between us but avoid crashing into him when he stopped.
“Here, take these.” He pressed the car keys into my hand. “If someone is watching they’ll think it odd if you don’t leave in the car. I’ll be out the front; yell if you need me.”
“I will.” Whether he’d get into the building if I did get into trouble was another matter entirely.
I squeezed his fingers, then released him and hurried back to the car, starting it up as Mo climbed into the passenger side. I waited for a car to pass, then did a U-turn and took the first left, driving around to the rear of the terraces.
Once parked, I leaned my arms on the steering wheel and studied the building. The rear gate was open—an invitation I wished we didn’t have to accept—but the carport beyond was empty. That didn’t mean the house was, of course. I bit my lip and thrust away the growing trepidation. It was nothing more than fear of the unknown, and it wasn’t like I was going in there either unarmed or alone.
My gaze shifted to the energy snake. It continued to undulate around the house, but for some reason, it felt more dangerous than it had before. But maybe that was a result of knowing we were about to tackle the thing.
“How do we play this?”
“I don’t think there’s any benefit to sneaking around—that’ll just attract attention.” Mo glanced at me. “You ready?”
I half smiled. “Am I ever?”
She laughed and patted my shoulder. “You’ll be fine, darling girl. You’re stronger than you know.”
“That’s not saying much.”
“That’s the old you speaking,” she said. “The new you knows better.”
I sighed. “Yeah, but the new me is also scared witless.”
“And yet you keep going when angels would falter.”
“Which is no doubt your genes coming out in me once more.”
She laughed again and climbed out of the car. I grabbed my knives and followed her down to the carport. The ribbons continued their sinuous journey around the building, seemingly unaware of our presence. That would change soon enough.
“So, what’s the actual plan here?”
“I noticed earlier that the ribbons’ energy withdrew to the middle of the building when it attacked the probe, leaving the roof and base momentarily free. I’m going to set up a timed probe spell; with any luck, its approach will echo what happened earlier, and give us the chance to get in through that top window.”
“And getting out?”
“Will undoubtedly depend on what we discover inside.”
“I do love your ‘seat of the pants’ method of doing things. It fills me with such confidence.”
“Ha!” she said and got down to the business of spelling.
I crossed my arms and watched intently. Spelling wasn’t my gift, and I’d never be able to replicate it, even if Lancaster blood did run distantly through my veins thanks to her. But that didn’t mean I couldn’t lock the information away just in case I came across something similar in the future. As Mo tended to say, what you didn’t understand, you couldn’t unpick.
It took nearly five minutes to complete the spell, and the result was a spinning sphere of tangled streaks of light that hovered several feet away.
I carefully walked around it. A finger of light darted toward me, paused when it got close, and then retreated.
“I take it it’s designed to dart about and draw the attention of the ribbons?”
Mo nodded. “We’ll have a couple of minutes to get inside before it withdraws.”
I glanced at her. “Withdraw? Not fade?”
She nodded again. “It’ll last an hour; that should give us time to get out if we need it. Ready?”
I motioned her to proceed. She flicked the sphere toward the house, then shifted and flew upward. I changed, grabbed my knives with my claws and followed, hoping like hell that the neighbors weren’t looking our way. They might not notice a hovering blackbird, but they’d look twice at one carrying sheathed knives.
As the sphere neared the house, the ribbons snapped toward it, lashing back and forth in angry warning. The sphere twirled out of their way, then darted across to the building’s communal wall. The ribbons snaked after it and, in the process, fell away from the roofline and down past the window.
Mo immediately flew in. I tucked my wings close and swept under the window frame and into the room. But I cut it too close, and the daggers hit the windowsill’s edge. A ribbon immediately appeared, snapping after us, forcing us to fly on into the hall.
The ribbon paused at the door, then retreated to the middle of the bedroom, where it snapped back and forth for several seconds before slowly retreating.
I shifted shape and dropped to the ground, tension vibrating through my body as I studied the hallway. There was only one other room up here, and, from what I could see, it appeared to be another bedroom. There was no bathroom, but there were stairs that led up into the loft. The place was as silent as a grave and, ominously, smelled like one too.
I pushed to my feet and studied the room we’d flown through. It held a single bed and a chest of drawers, but neither had been used in some time—there was simply too much dust sitting on the top of both. I walked over to the loft staircase and peered up. Nothing but shadows up there, despite the skylights.
Mo looked over my shoulder. “There’s definitely a snare spell up there. I can’t see it, but I can feel it.”
“Then we don’t go up there.” I strapped on my knives, then drew Nex. No light flickered down her sides, which at least meant Darkside inhabitants weren’t nearby. “I’ll check out the other bedroom. You watch the main stairs.”
I stepped around her and moved down the hall. One step into the room was more than enough to see both the room and the source of the stench. I clamped a hand over my nose, but breathing through my mouth didn’t seem to help; the wretched smell of decay coated my throat regardless.
The woman in the bed had obviously been dead for some time; the blankets might be tucked up around her neck, but it was pretty evident the decomposition was well advanced—a fact backed up by the number of maggots visible.
I retreated. There was nothing I could do for the woman and, given the state of decay, no way to uncover what had killed her. That was a job for forensics.
“It’s an elderly woman,” I said. “She’s been dead for quite a while.”
Mo grimaced. “Poor thing. I daresay they killed her in order to use her house. The question is, why?”
“Could it have something to do with the ley line?”
“There’s only one way to find out. Let’s head down.”
I grabbed her arm. “Me first. Nex will react if there’s anything nasty
down there.”
“Nex can’t see magic—”
“No, but I can, remember?”
Her gaze narrowed. “I have a suspicion your protective gene is unnecessarily kicking in again.”
“Possibly, but only because if I do have to raise the goddamn sword and shut the gate, I’m going to need you on perimeter defenses to keep the bastards off me.”
“A very good excuse for said protectiveness, and one I’m not buying in the least.”
I grinned and slipped past her. “Tough. Come along.”
She snorted and followed. We moved cautiously down the stairs, pausing every other step to listen. The house remained silent. Dust lay thick on the banisters, and the only coat hanging on the hook near the front door was a vivid pink that obviously belonged to the woman upstairs. From the little I’d seen of Winter, he hadn’t seemed the type to wear such a fluorescent color.
I paused on the last step and studied the immediate area; there was neither a magical nor physical alarm. And yet trepidation was spiking. I stepped down and studied the long corridor. It had three doors off it—the one directly in front of me led into a small living area, while the one down the far end went into a kitchen. The other belonged to whatever had been built under the stairs.
I motioned toward it. “Whatever I’m sensing, it’s coming from that.”
“Do you want to make sure the rest of the house is clear? I’ll investigate the cupboard.”
I nodded and went into the living area. The small room was immaculately tidy, holding a small sofa and armchair, an electric heater, and a large TV perched on a cabinet stacked with Blu-rays. Double glass sliding doors at the rear of the room divided this room from the dining room. I went through. The kitchen lay to the right of the dining table. Behind it was a small bathroom.
I retreated back to the hall. “Found anything?”
“Yes,” she said. “And not what I’d expected at all.”
I walked over. Lightning flickered down Nex’s side, and trepidation switched to fear. “What is it?”
“A staircase.”
“Into a cellar, I take it?”
She glanced at me. “Yes, but there’s something far worse down there than that.”
