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“You’d think with a joint this expensive, they’d have more land attached to it,” Trillian said.
“Around here, land’s a valuable commodity. People tend to put the money into the house rather than the yard,” Chase murmured.
But house was a misnomer. Stacia Bonecrusher really did live in a mansion. Three stories tall, the house sprawled across the lot. Oh, it wasn’t any fancier than a number of the expensive homes in the area, but it must have set the demon back close to a million. How the hell had she gotten the money to buy it? Did the demons invest in Wall Street? Whatever her means, Stacia had chosen the butt ugliest house on the block, I thought.
Mansion it might be, but it looked like one of those slap-together houses, the siding painted a bland beige, with the requisite white-trimmed windows. Like every other new house on the block, just bigger. Much bigger. There were two sets of French doors leading out into the backyard, onto stone patios, and as I glanced around the yard, I began to sense the wards Vanzir had told us about. I homed in on one that was about two yards away from me, and motioned to Morio.
We slowly crept up on it, followed by Vanzir, keeping low to the ground so the cover of night might hide us from prying eyes. Unless, of course, they could sense the heat of our bodies. With Stacia being a lamia and so connected to snakes, it might just be a possibility. I whispered as much to Morio, but he shook his head.
“Too cold. It’s dropped below fifty degrees. Snakes won’t be out and about in this weather. Most likely they’re brumating. But once we’re inside, we’ll have to be careful. Bet you it’s hot as hell in there. Which makes me think,” he added. “She’s a lamia, part snake. If we hit her with enough cold magic, it should do extra damage.”
Vanzir nodded. “Good thinking.”
The ward was made from a ruby-colored crystal, similar to the ones we had at home but they were definitely not Earthside or OW make. Morio and I joined hands and examined the energy. It coiled around the crystal like a snake slithering around its prey. And then I saw the runes magically embedded into the energy.
Apparently Morio spotted them, too. “Vanzir’s right. These are set up to warn when Demonkin come through. They must come and go by the front gate, or they’d be setting off their own wards all the time.”
“Unless it’s set to ignore whatever kind of demons she’s surrounding herself with,” I said. “Whatever the case, you, Menolly, Roz, and Vanzir can’t cross the wards without chancing to activate them, since you’re all considered some form of demon.”
We crept back to the others and reported what we’d found. There was still no one in the backyard, though lights were shining in various windows of the house.
“So we follow our original plan?” We’d turned it around and around during our strategy planning session and couldn’t find any other solution, other than to creep in, leaving those four behind. Once the fight was on, they could charge in as a second wave, given that Stacia would know we were here already.
“Yeah, that’s the only way I can see it,” Menolly said. “I just wish I could go in first, but if there’s a chance my being a vampire will set off the alarm, then I’d better wait with the others.”
Morio pulled out the small casket Rodney slept in and I groaned. He flashed me a look that said Suck it up and opened the box. As Rodney climbed out of the box, Morio hissed, “You will keep your mouth shut or I will tear you apart. I am not kidding. Get it?”
Rodney glared at him, but nodded.
“You’re going to go in as a scout and you’d better keep quiet when you do because there are some big bad demons in there who would think nothing of squashing you like a bug. Got it?”
Again, the nod.
“When you reach the door, you’ll grow to full size. You’re to take out as many of the demons in there as you can. Fight like hell because they’re sure going to. And don’t even think about sneaking out and running away, because I’ll hunt you down and give your bones to the nearest dog. Capiche?”
Morio began to transform into his full demon self and Rodney stumbled back a couple of steps, nodding.
I nodded. “Okay then. Come on.” I motioned to the others. “Spread out and work your way toward the back of the house.”
We’d decided to come at it from several angles. That way if one person was spotted, the others might still get the drop on the action. Fanning out, we slowly began edging our way through the yard. There were assorted shrubs and ferns dotting the lawn, so we had some cover. As I darted behind the nearest huckleberry, it occurred to me that this was getting old hat.
We were good. I couldn’t see the others’ progress, which meant that chances were, anybody looking out the window couldn’t see them either. The yard was dark, illuminated only by the light coming from the windows.
I’d nearly reached the house when the set of French doors nearest me opened and a bloatworgle came out, scratching himself as he proceeded to urinate on the grass next to the patio. I froze, hoping that the thinly trunked birch behind which I was hiding would cover me. Bloatworgles were ugly and dangerous; we’d fought several not long ago. They were among the thousands of grunts in the Sub Realms, almost caricatures of FBHs, with distended bellies and long, drooping arms and unshapely gray skin that drooped in wrinkles. But they could breathe fire and they were unreasonably strong.
The bloatworgle shook his dick and scratched his balls, then looked in my direction. He froze. Oh cripes, he saw me. I knew he could see me. As he opened his mouth, I let out a shout and dove to the side as I called down the lightning. The clouds were so thick that they responded and a ball of blue energy raced down toward the bloatworgle.
Please, please, please, don’t let it backfire, I thought, but just then the energy sputtered and broke up in a shower of sparks, the flaming hot energy hitting everything in sight.
“Fuck it!” I dashed in, drawing my dagger, trying to stay out of the way of that mouth of his. Nasty blasts of fire came out of that mouth. Very nasty.
At my shout, the others broke cover and raced in. Smoky caught the bloatworgle by surprise, blindsiding him as he unleashed his claws and flew by in a blur, leaving five deep gashes across the bloatworgle’s belly. The demon snarled and as he turned, blasting fire after Smoky, Delilah caught him from behind. She didn’t do her usual kick-spin, but brought Lysanthra, her dagger, down on the bloatworgle’s back, driving it in to the hilt between his shoulder blades. Smoky rounded for another hit and between the two of them the bloatworgle was so much dead meat. One demon—easy to kill. Many demons—chaos and trouble.
There was a sound from the doors and I looked up to see a half dozen human-looking guards standing there. Bikers on steroids?
“Tregarts,” Roz said, rushing in behind me. “Demons.”
Morio, Vanzir, and Menolly were on his heels. We spread out, facing the men, who were dressed in thick leather jackets and pants. Knives and chains seemed to be their weapons of choice, though it looked like one was holding a lead pipe. They moved forward, glaring at us. Mr. Lead Pipe tapped the pipe in his hand, a glint in his eye.
