AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Jeremy didn't complain about climbing on roofs. He may be sixty-one--or was it sixty-two?--but being a werewolf means he's in excellent shape, and looks about forty-five. And being werewolf Alpha means he doesn't get to do a lot of roof-climbing so he's happy for the chance.
We started on the neighboring roof, which Adam had scouted. It came with a convenient fire escape, meaning we could clamber up and across without being seen. From there it was only a two-foot jump across to the roof we needed.
While an access door would have been very swee
t, they're a lot less common than I'd like. Instead, there was an ancient balcony off the top floor. The construction was first-rate, though, and it didn't so much as tremor as we proceeded, one at a time, onto it and through the balcony door.
That door had needed a lock-pick. There was also an electronic security system, but my father assured us that only the lower level doors were protected.
Other than the fake workman, my father hadn't seen anyone else while he'd walked the perimeter of the warded area. Whatever this place was, it didn't seem to be a major hub of activity for the group. Definitely not the compound where they'd been holding me, though I'd known that--I hadn't gone from Louisiana to Indiana on the relatively short van ride before I'd escaped.
We'd come through into a bedroom on the third floor. It was unbearably stuffy, and peeling layers of wallpaper said it hadn't been used in decades. The one piece of furniture--a filing cabinet--had only been left behind because it was so old and heavy that it had sunk into the floor.
We made our way into the hall, Jeremy in the lead, using his werewolf sense of hearing and smell to check for occupants. I cast sensing spells. I wasn't sure they worked, but it helped me clear my head and focus.
After one quick sniff around the top floor--and several stifled sneezes from the dust--Jeremy said no one had been up there in a while. So we proceeded down the stairs. Normally I'd lead there, knockback spell prepped, but Adam took it instead, his flaming fingers a quicker weapon than Jeremy's brute strength.
My father had said this was where the warding spell kicked in, so it made sense that we'd start seeing signs of occupation here. That's exactly what it looked like--occupation. Two rooms had beds with dressers stuffed with clothing and nothing personal. One even had a suitcase still on the floor.
"Temporary lodgings," Jeremy murmured. "There are layers of scent."
We checked out the other rooms. There was no one around, but Jeremy could detect faint voices from the lower level. He found a floor-level grate and crouched beside it, head tilted to listen.
He lifted three fingers. Three voices. He bent lower, then stood and waved us back away from the vent.
"Someone was talking about a fever," he whispered. "I smell antiseptic."
"A hospital, then. Or a makeshift one."
Jeremy paused, and I knew he was working on a strategy. I didn't offer any suggestions. Maybe I'd spent so many summers with the werewolves that I automatically fell into the role of Pack wolf, waiting for the Alpha to make the plans. Or maybe I just knew that any idea Jeremy came up with would be better than mine. You don't lead a Pack for thirty years unless you're a damned fine strategist.
"Distraction," he said finally. "There's only a single point of entry for us--the stairs. I heard three voices, but there may be more than three people so trying to sneak up on them individually is risky." He turned to Adam. "How well do you know Bryce?"
"We've met a couple of times."
"So he may not recognize you. There won't be time for introductions, and we can't risk him raising an alarm. You and I will clear the way and let Savannah search for Bryce once it's safe."
I agreed and we ironed out the details, then found the stairs down.
While the building's origins as a house were evident from the top two floors, the main level had been gutted and redesigned. There were actually two sets of stairs going down. A narrow rear set must have been for servants at one time. The door at the top was heavily locked--with the locks on our side luckily. When Jeremy and Adam descended, I got a message from my father through Jaime saying we were going the wrong way.
"The steps lead to a few rooms at the back, including the rear door," Jeremy said as they returned. "There's no other point of access. Except here."
"In other words," Adam said, "to get to where we want to go, you need to come in the rear door, up these stairs, and down the front ones."
"Huh?" I said.
"It's a false back," Jeremy explained. "Come in the front door, where the workman is, and I suspect you can't get any farther. Come in the back, and you'll get a small area of access, plus these stairs."
"And the hospital rooms are hidden between the two."
"The central part also seems to be heavily soundproofed," Jeremy said. "I can hear better from the upper level than I can down there."
"Someone's gone to a lot of work to hide something," I said.
"Fortunately, it's in a relatively small area, if my calculations of the house are correct. I'm going to take another listen at the grates and see if I can't figure out the layout."
Jeremy determined that the warded area was one narrow section across the center of the house. My father checked the exterior, and reported that there were two main-floor windows on each end of that section, both covered with plywood. Under those panels the windows had been bricked up. A fortified and soundproofed section within an otherwise normal-looking building. For someone accustomed to finding the bad guys in remote warehouses and subterranean lairs, I had to admit this was clever.
