Back at my apartment, a single tone sounded, the note a gift from my clueless brother. The moment it sounded,Ojoswould activate the amulet that had been masquerading within the gold and quartz wall ornament hanging in Asshat’s bedroom. The medallion would initiate and glow, sending a year’s worth of naughty secrets toOjos. And unless I sent a trigger to the central system, which I wouldn’t, it would all also go to Alex.
Oddly, I had created thespyworking on our honeymoon, so my husband could observe a man he had claimed was an enemy of the queen. Nothing captured in the working had produced evidence as to the man’s disloyalty, but I had saved the working and infused it into my gift on my way out the door the bloody night I left. And now it would be used against Karson. That musty bitter taste spread through me and flared with shame, anger, and that burning betrayal from the night my marriage ended.
“I’m notinterferingin thequeen’spolitics,” I said, my voice hard, my words precise. The expression I sent Walter was cold and harsh as an arctic night. “They attacked me and minepersonally. This was apersonal challenge.” I leaned into him, my scent surely spiked with anger as he leaned back, his eyes going wide in surprise as my battle magic flared along my skin.
“This is Asshat.Again. This ispersonal. And starting now, I’m getting back my own.”
EJ
The vehicle pulled slowly onto West Watkins Street. On the unicom-net, the 3-D photos of the client’s home, from its previous sale, displayed a traditional, two-story brick, 3,600-square-foot home with an attached three-car garage. The interior of Chancy Bigelow/Cennet A. Campbell-Baines’s home had been painted in warm grays, staged with upscale fixtures and spare furnishings. There was no way to know what changes had been made since the Realtor’s photos and videography, but there were no structural permits on file with the city. In such an upscale locale, the neighborhood HOA would have made certain that all legalities were followed, so if something had been changed with the fundamental building, it would have been done in complete secret.
The three of them studied the Realtor photos, making note of the floor plan and entrances, along with the overhead and street front views on sat-maps.
Walter said, “There is a gate at the street. We’ll park just down from the house, and I will make a fast reconnoiter while you two study what you can magically from the vehicle. If the grounds and residence sound and look safe, we’ll proceed.Angelina, you are the most innocent, least dangerous-appearing one. You will go to the front door and ring the bell. EJ, you will go around from the garage side and I’ll—” He stopped as he took a breath.
Vamp-fast, he swiveled his seat. Punched off auto-drive.
Manually, he turned the car into the driveway of their client’s home.
EJ spun his car seat around to see the privacy gate was open. The house was dark. No landscaping lights or security lights were on. Sleet was piled at least two inches deep.
Walter lowered the driver’s-side window. Ice sliced in, turning the car’s interior frigid, clattering onto the car and the earth beyond them like a thousand snare drums.
Walter drew in a slow breath. “Vampire blood. Human blood. Not fresh, but not rotted either,” he said. He held up a hand for them to wait. “If I hadn’t been speaking, and therefore breathing, I might not have smelled it through the vehicle’s ventilation system.”
EJ began checking amulets and weapons. He handed one headset to his sister. Tested his palillos. There was power still in them, but not much. They needed recharging, but some was better than none.
Angie touched her tiara and repositioned one of the ever-living rosemary sprigs.
He caught sight of Walter’s face. Their bodyguard was fighting to keep his fangs snapped up in the roof of his mouth. The stench of blood must be intense to cause him to want to vamp out, but when he spoke it was with complete control.
“We will not proceed until I speak with the queen’s security.”
When EJ tried to disagree, Walter stated, “Once I used the queen’s banner, I became far more than bodyguard and martial arts teacher. I now report to the queen.”
One side of Angie’s mouth was turned down. From her expression, she had already figured that out.
Walter was the reason for their freedom from royal restrictions and from their coven. That autonomous lifestyle was in jeopardy.
Drawing up the royal formality drummed into him during the first sixteen years of his life, EJ said, “I see.”
“You will wait in the vehicle while I reconnoiter,” Walter said, ignoring the stiffness in EJ’s tone. “Angelina, Evan Junior. Do you see or hear anything magical that concerns you?”
“No.” Angie stared up the drive, her eyes moving systematically across the dark ahead. “No light show of psionic energies.”
“No,” EJ said. “No music, no broken bells. Nothing. Here.” EJ removed a key from an old flute and extended it to Walter. “If there’s a magical trap within two feet of you, a tone will sound. Quiet, but with your vamp hearing you’ll hear it. Back away slowly and get out.”
“Thank you, Evan Junior. You may follow my progress on your headsets.”
“Like we weren’t going to do that anyway,” Angie said.
Walter raised his window and slipped from the car into the falling sleet. He moved with the predatory grace of his kind, but without speed, and disappeared, silently, into the dark.
EJ set his headset to see what Walter saw, hear what Walter heard. The vampire sniffed carefully with each unneeded breath. Softly he said, “Blood, sickly sweet, hours old, human and vampire. Whatever happened here likely occurred just at dusk, which means this massacre began before the demon bomb attack at the apartment.”
He moved to the side of the house. “A more recent scent,” Walter said, “far more recent. Two vampires…” His voicetrailed away. The only sound was the shush of sleet to the ground around him.
“Enemy or friend?” EJ asked.
