Damn, Woods was awesome. The tone of voice he used didn’t waver. He sounded like he had the right to be where he was, doing what he was doing. So now it was a game of chicken between him and the trooper. Sasha waited. Nervous anticipation and heat covered her body with perspiration. Male pheromones coated her sinuses and the back of her tongue with their scent. She closed her eyes as a trickle of sweat rolled down her spine, between her shoulder blades. Two bangs on the side of the truck almost made her jump.
“You boys keep doing what you’re doin’,” the trooper said. “Wasn’t for you, wouldn’t be no hope. Jus’ wish I knew what newfangled weapons y’all had up your sleeves.”
“Biohazards,” Woods said. “It’s living organisms… Wicked shit when it’s let loose on the bad guys.”
“Now that’s what I’m talking about!” the trooper said, and slapped the side of the van again. “You boys go on ahead and you get those terrorists! We’ll be working on whoever went after some of our local boys, but the fight’s all the same. We all wear the colors, all wear a uniform.”
“Same war, different day-good luck and sorry about the loss of your men,” Woods said, rolling the truck forward.
“Sorry about the loss of yours, son,” the trooper called out. “Hey, Joe, escort this military vehicle around that line of traffic! Get ’em to the front of the line.”
Just like that, they were free. After a while, Fisher gave them the all-clear to come out from under the tarp.
“Same pack,” Woods called over his shoulder. “I guess humans have loyalties and bonds, too.”
When they reached The Fair Lady, Woods slowed the vehicle and Fisher opened the door. Hunter got out and did recon with one of Shogun’s lieutenants, who were hidden in the shadows. Sasha watched with her heart in her mouth as Hunter took Ethan’s establishment, which was crawling with cops. Rather than the direct approach, she saw Hunter and Chin-Hwa go into the adjacent building and come out on the roof. NOPD would be in the cellar, maybe going through the office records, as well as combing through the alley and the first floor, spending hours trying to figure out what looked like some type of dark ritual that ended in a possible shoot-out. All she could do was pray that Hunter and Chin-Hwa could find their target to lay the iron and witchwood bundles, and then get out.
Shogun took Finnegan’s Wake, which was the lesser evil of the two bars. It was still functioning, and Seelie Fae knew the deal. Sir Rodney’s guys had told them to give Shogun and Dak-Ho full access, even if NOPD was hanging around and asking questions. But when they went in with rowan, herbs, and iron bundles in duffel bags, Shogun and Dak-Ho cleared the joint. She had to remember to ask Sir Rodney’s advisors how to go in after the spell had been broken to remove the hazmat from the attics, or the establishments would be virtually worthless to the Seelie Fae.
“You ready to go in, Cap?” Woods asked, turning around in his seat.
“Ready as I’ll ever be,” she said, grabbing her duffel bag, checking that the coast was clear, and jumping down when Fisher opened the door. “You guys come back from the shadow lands in one piece,” she said to Bear Shadow and Crow Shadow, wishing like hell that she could have gone in their stead.
But there was no time to dwell on that now. Seung Kwon was waiting for her in the alley alongside the building, behind the Dumpster. Their eyes met and he gave her the sign that the coast was clear. The B &B was apparently locked up tight and hadn’t shown any signs of unusual activity. They must have assumed the shots fired came from the bar across the street, which was why NOPD had been in and out of this joint.
Good-at least something was going right. A lot of things were, actually, when she thought about it. And then reality smacked her upside the head-that couldn’t be a good sign.
Sasha watched the van pull off with a sinking feeling in her gut. What if Hunter got apprehended? What if Shogun got caught? There were no Fae in the building now to staff the establishment, leaving only oblivious human workers there, who had been told that the men in the attic were exterminators going in to look for rats and squirrels in the eaves… what a crock. And what if Bear Shadow and Crow Shadow ran into a serious problem in the shadow lands… or Clarissa’s soul got hijacked by dark forces while it was an astral projection. Sasha rubbed her palms down her face.
“Are you all right, Captain Trudeau?” Seung Kwon’s voice held a new level of respect, one that came from people who’d valiantly fought side-by-side.
“I’m good,” Sasha said. “It’s just the heat out here and the damned mosquitoes the size of quarters.”
He nodded and looked up at the building. “We can break in through the back door.”
She dug into her jeans’ pocket. “I was staying here, remember? How about we go right in the front like we’re a couple, using a key?”
Sir Rodney stared down at the cell phone. “They are done so fast? Have hit all three installations already?”
“It’s been ringing off the bleedin’ hook, milord. Almost as soon as I went to stand guard outside to wait,” a tall archer said, handing him the device. “I do not know how to work it, but she was clear that we should wait till it sounded, and then we’d start the Vampire raids.”
With no air-conditioning on and all the windows locked up tightly, the house was stifling. Drawn shades didn’t help; all they did was make the place seem like a death trap. Checking for intruders as they managed the stairs, their wolf instincts keen, Sasha and Seung Kwon climbed until they hit the top floor. Both pairs of eyes scanned the ceiling and stopped on the pull-down stairs to the crawl space.
“You pull,” Sasha said, removing the nine-millimeter from her waistband. “I’ll point and click.”
Seung nodded and leaped up, yanking the short cord that brought down the steps. Silence greeted them. Seung took the stairs in a crouch, brandishing iron railroad ties as he went up each step. Sasha moved forward and hiked the duffel bag up higher on her shoulder. It was amazingly quiet-too quiet.
They peered around the half-story space, disappointed that there was nothing there but dust and a few boxes.
“Maybe it is just not in this building,” Seung Kwon said, glancing around.
“Yeah, maybe not,” Sasha said, and then dropped her duffel bag on the floor. But as she did so and the dust moved in a plume, she remembered the ashes. “Get your iron ready,” she said, quickly going inside her duffel bag and yanking out rowan branches.
“What are you doing?”
“Sweeping the floor.” Sasha stooped and began walking backward toward the only natural light source, a tiny attic window that faced the street and Finnegan’s Wake. The moment the rowan touched a certain spot along the wood planks, the floor spit and sizzled. “Bingo, drop the iron, man!”
She left the rowan where the floor reacted and jumped back as Seung Kwon dropped a railroad tie over it. Immediately, the floor began to glow red in an ever-widening circle as the rowan branches burst into flames. Sasha skirted the inferno and backed up toward the pull-down stairs, mesmerized as the symbol bubbled up like crude oil and began to heat the iron until it became iron ore.
“Go, go, go!” she shouted as the heat fanned out, the eaves caught flame, and suddenly, blue-white entities fled out of the symbol’s center, bearing what looked suspiciously like demon teeth.
The creatures shut the crawl space stairs, tangled in her hair, and clawed at her and Seung Kwon’s faces. It was impossible to get a shot off while they were dragging him closer to the lava-like inferno, savaging him as he yelled and fought them.