Visci (Soul Cavern Series Book 2)

by Venessa Giunta

  Zoey went back to tapping frantically and then said, “Okay, check your phones.”

  Mecca’s vibrated in her pocket as she reached for it.

  Unknown: test

  Mecca didn’t bother adding Zoey to her contacts. She wouldn’t be talking to the chick after tonight.

  “Now, everyone reply with your names.”

  More texts came in, but only one from an Unknown. Sara. Mecca did add her to the contacts list.

  “All right,” Zoey said. She had taken on a much more mature and stable demeanor than before. It irritated Mecca as much as the bitchy demeanor. “You guys break into pairs. One pair goes round the far side of the house, one the near side. Check the windows and see if there are any doors. If you see anything, text. I’ll check the front.”

  “That’s not very good, tactically,” Will said. “That leaves four people in the back and one in the front.”

  Mecca stared at him. Why did he care if a Visci wanted to put herself in extra danger?

  “I’ll be fine,” Zoey said.

  Now Mecca turned her gaze to the Visci. “What are you hiding?”

  Zoey only stared back.

  Jenny stepped in. “Will is right. It doesn’t make sense to split up that way.”

  Zoey made a disgusted sound in her throat. “There is more ground to cover around the sides. Didn’t you look at the photos? It’s short in the front and long behind.”

  It was short in the front and long behind, now that Mecca thought about it. But she hadn’t noted that when she’d looked at the photos. A glance at the others told her that they hadn’t either.

  “Okay,” Sara said. “So snoop at the windows and the doors. Are we going in if something is open?”

  “No,” Zoey said quickly. “Text if something is open. We can decide what to do once the entire place is assessed.” She waited a short moment. “Any other questions? Or can we actually go now?”

  “Let’s go!” Sara said, a grin on her face.

  Mecca didn’t get her enthusiasm. Sara’s life must have been spectacularly boring if she was so excited to run into an unknown situation for a complete stranger. And a Visci, at that.

  The whole situation stank to high heaven. Mecca wished she hadn’t come. In the end, the only real reason she had put on her coat and joined them was because Jenny went. Mecca didn’t have any idea whether it was because she felt guilty or because she didn’t want Jenny to get hurt. Everything about this was confusing.

  Their small group began to move through the trees of the side yard. Mecca dropped back and fell into step with Jenny. She still didn’t know how she felt about Jenny being Visci. “You could have told me,” she said. And she wished Jenny had. Then maybe she wouldn’t feel so torn, so betrayed.

  “We both could have told each other,” Jenny whispered.

  Old, wet leaves underfoot brought the sweet, sickly smell of rot to her nose. Jenny was right, of course. She swallowed past the thickness in her throat. “Yeah.” They walked in silence for several moments, both of them watching the others in front. Finally, Mecca said, “I don’t know how to relate to you now.”

  Jenny sighed. “What do you want me to tell you? Maybe I should not know how to relate to you too.”

  “None of my kind kidnapped you.”

  “No, you only got my dad murdered.”

  Mecca gave a pained sound, but said nothing. What could she say? Jenny was totally right. She had gotten Jenny’s dad murdered. Mecca blinked back tears and sped up her pace until she’d moved ahead and joined the others.

  An open yard ahead led to a small ranch with a gravel road leading to the single attached garage. The house sat a couple hundred feet off the road. The narrow front was much more obvious in person, with only the garage, a door painted a dark color, and a double window. Though small, the front also had a wooden porch with a tiny patio table and two chairs tucked into the end.

  Droplets of cold rain fell from the leafy canopy.

  “You guys ready?” Zoey said. “Don’t forget to make sure your phones are on vibrate.”

  “Ready!” Sara said.

  “I don’t think this is a good idea,” Will said, quietly.

  Zoey swung her gaze to him. “We have to get Jorge out. If he leaves here, he will end up dead.”

  “I’m still going with you,” Will said. “But they’re likely to have weapons. We have nothing. What if there are more of them than us?”

  “Let’s see what’s in there and then decide, okay?” Jenny said. “We can’t be sure what we’re up against until we look.”

  Will nodded. “Very well.”

  Sara gave him a weird face, but Mecca didn’t care anymore. Not about any of it. She wanted to get this over with. The irony that she was helping the very beings that she wanted to eradicate was not lost on her. But it was no longer that simple. How could she eradicate Jenny? She couldn’t. And now where did that leave her?

  Mecca pushed the thoughts away. She didn’t have time to get all wrapped up in it now.

  But she didn’t disagree with Will. This was a bad idea.

  They sprinted across the yard on silent feet. The wet ground helped with that. Mecca broke off with Will and moved to the far side of the house, Jenny and Sara the near side. Zoey started up the five porch steps slowly.

  Right as Mecca and Will had gotten to the corner, she heard the crunch of gravel. A car was coming!

  She and Will both crouched low and peeked around. A black sedan pulled up and stopped in front of the garage door. Mecca looked past the car and saw Zoey frozen on the front deck. She was in plain sight.

  The driver’s door opened, and a man got out. He wore something like a trench coat over what looked like blue hospital scrubs with white tennis shoes. He closed his door and opened the door of the back seat. As he reached in, Zoey hopped over the side banister of the porch, into a bush. Mecca released the breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding.

  Jenny’s head was peeking around the other corner of the house, right beside where Zoey now crouched in the bushes.

  The man took a large black satchel out of the car. He took the porch steps two at a time and knocked loudly on the door. It opened, but Mecca couldn’t see who stood in the doorway. Whoever it was invited the man in and the light from inside scissored to black as the door closed behind him.

  Her pocket vibrated. She pulled her phone out as Will did the same.

  Unknown: Keep to the plan.

  She looked at him. He shrugged. She shoved the phone back in her pocket with a scowl. Before they made their way down the line of the house, she glanced back to the porch. Zoey straddled the banister as she climbed back onto the porch. Mecca shook her head.

  “That girl is gonna get killed,” she whispered.

  Will had already started down the yard. She caught up with him at the first window, which gave them a view of the garage. Inside sat a light-colored passenger van with writing on the side. She couldn’t make out what it said. She looked at Will, and he shook his head.

  They moved on. She couldn’t shake the ominous feeling that seemed to be settling over her. The next three windows had blinds inside, which had been closed. Mecca searched for breaks or misalignment in the blinds, but they were all perfect. She swore under her breath.

  Will put a finger to his lips, and she scowled at him. He pulled her close and put his mouth right against her ear. His fresh, clean scent filled her senses. “They have heightened hearing.” He spoke in such a low tone, it was barely a breath against her skin. “Don’t say anything unless you have to.” When he pulled away, he gave her an intense stare.

  She nodded.

  The last window on their side did not have closed blinds. Light shone bright onto the grass in front of them. They both approached cautiously. Mecca leaned to the side to get a view.

  Inside was a kitchen. The cabinets, wood painted a stark white, lined three of the walls on the other side of the room. An old white refrigerator was tucked into a crevice between two
counters. It had a pull-down handle and rounded corners. It probably wasn’t an inch taller than she was.

  A scuffed wooden table with four spindly chairs sat closest to their window. The man from the car stood beside it, his satchel on top. He was in the middle of shrugging off his coat, and Mecca had been right. He wore hospital scrubs.

  She glanced at Will, but he was studying the man, or maybe his satchel, with intensity.

  Another man must have been just out of sight. Mecca thought he might be in the doorway to the kitchen. The sound of their conversation could be heard, but Mecca couldn’t make out any words.

  The men spoke for another minute, and the man from the car draped his long coat over a kitchen chair, before he palmed the handle of the satchel and hoisted it off the table. It must have been heavier than it looked. He left, following the other man out.

  Mecca looked at Will again. His eyes were a bit wide, but he said nothing. He nodded toward the corner of the building. Turning that way would take them to the back of the house where the others should be. She nodded.

  When they rounded the corner, Jenny and Sara had already arrived and Zoey was coming around the other corner at the same time. She motioned them to her side and a few feet away from the house.

  “The living room is empty,” she said. “But there is a covered window between there and here.”

  Jenny and Sara nodded.

  Will told them what they’d seen on their side.

  “Most of our windows had blinds too,” Mecca said.

  “Not blinds. Covered. With a blanket.”

  “That seems weird,” Jenny said. “Why blinds in the others and a blanket there?”

  “Sound reduction?” Sara asked. When they all looked at her, confused. “Podcasts. I put up blankets in the corner for when I’m recording. They dampen sound.”

  For the first time, Zoey seemed at a loss. “I don’t know. Maybe?”

  “What do we do now?” Sara asked.

  Before Zoey could respond, Will spoke up. “I have an idea.”

  Mecca was glad that she didn’t have to listen to Zoey talking again. Though the Visci looked at Will with a veneer of contempt, she didn’t interrupt him.

  “There are three options for where he might be. We had three windows with blinds on our side. One is likely a bathroom.” He looked at Zoey. “It’s only a one-bathroom house, right?”

  She nodded.

  “So we can rule one of those out. We just can’t be sure which one. Then there’s the other window. The one with the blankets.” He paused for a second and seemed to decide what he wanted to say next. “If I had to bet, I would bet that is where he is. But there’s no way to be sure until we get inside.”

  “I think that’s where he’d be too,” Zoey said. Her haughty look had been replaced by one of agreement.

  “Did you guys see anyone? We saw the guy from the car and one other.”

  Jenny shook her head, as did Sara.

  “So we don’t have any idea how many people are in there besides Jorge,” Will said, the frown reaching deeply into his eyes. “I don’t like this.”

  “We have to do something,” Zoey said.

  Will nodded. “I know. But I don’t like it.” He ran a hand over his face and nodded again. “Okay, we’ll need a distraction. We don’t have a lot of options, so let’s go old school.”

  Mecca grinned at his use of slang. Will still spoke pretty formally most of the time. And since his real age was…well, old, him using “old school” was especially funny. It sounded weird coming out of his mouth though.

  “The plan is to break windows in different places, spaced apart by five or ten seconds. Zoey, you’ll throw a stone into the first window on our side. It’s the garage. That will get them as far away from the room with the blanket as possible without bringing them outside. It will keep them moving while I pick the lock on the back door.”

  “You know how to pick locks?” Sara asked.

  “I had a questionable childhood.”

  Sara grinned. “Cool.”

  He gave her a quizzical look and shook his head. “Okay, Zoey, you’ll break the window in the garage on that side.” He pointed to where he and Mecca had come along the side of the house. “Jenny, you’ll do the living room window on the other side. And last, Sara will take the other living room window.” He pointed at her. “As soon as your glass breaks, you get back here.”

  “What about Mecca?” Jenny asked.

  Mecca wasn’t sure whether it was because Jenny was concerned about her or… Or what, Mecca? Jenny wants to sabotage me? She didn’t like her own thoughts, but had no idea how to stop them.

  “Mecca’s going to be back here with me,” Will said, turning his sea-green eyes on her. “She’s going to coordinate the timing via text message.”

  Zoey rolled her eyes. “That’s dumb. We can throw after we hear the previous window break.”

  “What kind of lock is on the door?” Will asked.

  Zoey looked taken aback. “I don’t know.”

  “Neither do I. If it takes longer, we will need space between the breaks. And there is no way for any of you to know whether it is taking longer.”

  He seemed really sure of himself in making this plan. Mecca wondered whether he’d done something like this before. She made a note to ask him about his “questionable childhood.”

  Zoey nodded, but didn’t say anything more.

  “We go in as a group. Sara, because you’re last, we may already be inside by the time you come around. That’s okay. Stay outside.”

  “Why do I have to stay outside?”

  Will looked at Mecca. It took a moment for her to realize what he was trying to convey. Sara knew Jenny and Zoey were Visci, even if she didn’t know that meant they were stronger than humans. But Sara didn’t know about Mecca’s gift.

  Mecca sighed and said, “You’re the only one without defenses.”

  Sara stared at her for a long moment. She gave a glance to Zoey and Jenny and then looked back at Will. “Fine.”

  He nodded and continued. “We get in, get Jorge, and get out. Deal?”

  Mecca wondered what they’d do once they got Jorge out of the house. It was still a long way to the car.

  “Okay,” Sara said. “So, rocks.” She started searching around the yard.

  “Or wood,” Mecca said, nodding toward the trees that edged both sides of the property.

  “Mecca will send you each a text when it’s time for your distraction.”

  Various nods and sounds of agreement, and then the other three set off on their search for something to throw and to get into position.

  As they headed toward the back door, Will pulled a wallet from his back pocket and slid two small, thin metal tools from inside a flap.

  “You have lock-picking tools in your wallet?” Mecca asked. Who does that?

  Will shrugged. “I was too old to be a Boy Scout, but I like their motto.”

  “Not being a boy…” Mecca shrugged.

  “Be prepared.”

  “Ah. Still. Weird.”

  He smiled. “Well, we do know weird in this group, don’t we?”

  That was a fact.

  “Send a text,” he whispered. “Ask if they’re ready.”

  Mecca did. After a moment, they’d all responded. “Yep.”

  “Okay, let’s go. When I nod, send a text. Remember, Zoey first, then Jenny, then Sara.”

  Adrenaline made her skin feel jumpy. Now that they were doing it, it struck her that he’d been right. This was a bad idea. She was a live wire.

  Light splayed a white box onto the concrete patio that they walked through. Mecca hoped it was enough for Will to see. He crouched and looked at the doorknob. She bent down beside him, not wanting to be seen through the window if anyone came into the kitchen.

  Then he nodded.

  Mecca sent the first text. As soon as the crash of glass came to them, Will had his tools in the knob and fiddled with them. No noise came from inside, but M
ecca couldn’t imagine there wasn’t a response. The pull to peek through the window was strong, but she stayed beside Will.

  He continued to do whatever it was a lock pick did, but it felt like it was taking way too long. Finally, he nodded again.

  Mecca sent the second text.

  Glass crashed from the other side of the house as Zoey rounded the corner and stepped onto the patio.

  This time, the vibration of boots along the floor inside was obvious. Someone ran toward the front of the house.

  “That’s two,” Zoey whispered, and she crouched beside them.

  Mecca thought that was a dumb observation. Of course that was two windows.

  “Shh,” Will said. And he nodded for the third time.

  Mecca sent the final text and Jenny came around her corner. The crash of Sara’s window came to them.

  Finally, a soft click-click came from the lock, and Will let out a breath. He looked back at them as he wrapped his hand around the knob. One final nod and everyone nodded with him. He turned the handle, and they barreled into the brightly lit kitchen.

  Chapter Twenty-Two: Jenny

  In the chaos of them blasting inside, the weirdest thing came to Jenny. The place reminded her a bit of the shotgun houses they’d been to over Spring Break last year in New Orleans. The kitchen took up the entire back of the house and a narrow hall went straight to the other side. She could see the front door from where they stood.

  Zoey, who’d entered before her, made a mad dash for the hall. A guy stood inside an archway to the left—a dining room? He raised a gun. But Zoey, like a tiny, spiky-haired bolt of lightning, got to him first. She ducked her head and plowed her shoulder right into his gut. They fell in a crashing tangle of limbs.

  Jenny started in the same direction when a man suddenly appeared in the hall on the other end of the house, close to the front door. From here, it looked as if the hallway opened into a living room and that was where he’d been until a moment ago. Now he raised his gun.

  “Get down!” Jenny yelled as she took cover around a corner. Will grabbed Mecca and dove to the other side, around a cabineted corner.

  From her angle, Jenny saw Zoey wrestling with the man she’d tackled. They grappled their way into the hall. This made the man by the door pause in his shots. But then the two on the ground rolled into the dining room. A bullet whizzed just above Jenny’s head. She jerked back to safety. Her heart thumped everywhere—her ears, her throat, her chest. Sweat sprang up on her skin.