AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I tapped on the first couple of steps with the broom handle. They were stable, so down we went, our conversation fal ing to the wayside as we descended further into the basement of the house. I glanced around. No cobwebs? That was impossible. Every basement had cobwebs. Unless they had some magical housecleaning service that spiffed everything up with the blink of an eye.
The steps seemed to go on forever--this basement was deep, deeper than our own, which housed Menol y's lair, deeper than the one in which Chase had been imprisoned. But after awhile, we came to a door at the bottom.
I jiggled the handle. "Locked. I don't know if I can pick this one."
Camil e held her pen-sized flashlight on the keyhole as I worked it, first one way, then another until final y, the lock sprang.
As the door edged open, a bright flash blinded me, and I cried out, ducking to one side. Camil e let out a sharp scream as the wood burst into flames, licking out at us. She turned tail and scrambled away from the stairs, which were acting like a wind tunnel, sucking the flames up toward the top.
I pressed against the wal , and she joined me.
"What do we do? That's magical fire, and I guarantee you, I can't put it out. I don't know how long it wil last--"
But even as she spoke, the flames died down, the blast fading. The door was a pile of charred splinters, but the steps and sides of the basement hadn't caught fire at al . I frowned.
"How the hel did that happen?"
"Magical fire can be geared toward one target. My guess, it was aimed at any living thing in its path. The steps aren't alive. The door charred because of the blast, not because of the fire." She gingerly peeked through the hole in the door. "We were lucky. Let's get a move on. I need to check in with Iris in ten minutes."
We climbed through the hole in the door--there was no use trying to open it anymore, considering only the frame was left intact--and found ourselves in a laboratory. Here, it seemed, the Thomases actual y lived. Or at least worked.
Benches lined the wal s, with beakers and jars, test tubes and powders and Bunsen burners and everything necessary to produce compounds of al sorts. In the center of the room rested a basin large enough to hold a body. Drains were evenly spaced along its length, and what looked to be blood stained the porcelain. I grimaced, realizing they were used to drain away body fluids.
"This is where they make it--the Wolf Briar. They must be working with the coyote shifters--the shifters procure the werewolves and the . . . whatever they are . . . Van and Jaycee do the dissection here. But I don't see any cages, and there doesn't appear to be an inch of wal space leading to any secret chambers.
Camil e stared at the basin in horror. "I've had to learn some pretty graphic and repulsive spel s lately, but we've never touched someone alive. Raising the dead is one thing . . . kil ing the living for spel components is another. There's one way to find out if there's anything behind the lab benches."
With one leap, she was at the edge of the first. She took it in hand and heaved, tipping the table so that al the glass crashed to the floor. Fluids mixed with potions, and there were several smal explosions and hisses as the reagents combined. In another moment, she'd tipped the table entirely, crashing it to the floor amid the broken glass. Then, grabbing a broken piece of wood, she thumped along the wal behind the overturned lab bench.
"Nothing here," she said, moving on to the next.
"Al ow me." I stepped in and sent the next table flying. Again, the crash of glass, the hiss of burning chemicals, and again, nothing behind the wal s. And then the frustration of the situation took hold, and we gutted the place like maniacs, tossing beakers, smashing the glass off before sending the tables sliding across the floor.
"This is for Paulo," I growled . . .
"And this is for Mary Mae and her baby . . ."
By the time we'd destroyed the room, Camil e motioned to her watch. "I need to cal Iris before she sends someone over--"
"Wel , wel , look what we have here, Jaycee. Visitors. Aren't we lucky they've taken such an interest in our work?"
The voice came from behind us. Startled, I turned. There, just inside the broken door, stood Van and Jaycee. And they looked pissed out of their minds.
CHAPTER 16
"Oh, crap." I backed up.
Van, who was a nondescript, pale man, stepped forward. His blandness faded as a wave of power rol ed toward us. Shit. The dude had strength.
Camil e let out a gasp, and I realized she could feel his energy better than I could.
"He bad?" I asked her softly.
"Yeah . . . bad." She moved toward me.
There was no good way out of this. We couldn't talk our way out of having trashed their lab, that was for sure. I flicked open my wrist blade, jonesing for Lysanthra. But I'd fought before I began carrying her, and I could fight barehanded if necessary.
Camil e sucked in a deep breath; I glanced at her. She was invoking the energy of the storm that was starting to break outside. Not only could she cal down the Moon Mother, but she could invoke the power of lightning. She had a thing for the forked bolts, and they liked her a bit too much.
