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Frustration, fury, terror… a toxic swill invaded his body, as he knew she was both right… and totally wrong.
“I have your name in my back,” he snapped.
“Just more proof of what you have said all along. There is nothing you won’t do for your vampires.”
He shook his head. Over and over again. “You were there with me in the meadow that night with the flowers, you know how hard that was for me, to leave you.”
“The issue is not why you left me. The problem is why you came back.”
Lassiter leveled his eyes on hers. “So there’s nothing you’ll let me say to you in my own defense.”
“You are not evil. You’re actually… the best kind of savior there is, willing to sacrifice himself on any and all levels.” She got to her feet. “I expected our forever to last a little longer than it did. But I should rather know the truth than live a lie, even if it is a noble one. And I shall say this the now, for having arrived at your truth, I have found my own. If what was between us was just duty to you… then that is all it was for me, too.”
At the end, her voice failed, but she cleared her throat again. “Goodbye, Lassiter.”
And with that, she up and disappeared.
CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
They were back at it and on post the following nightfall.
As Eddie walked through the Tudor mansion’s front door, he immediately fell into his routine. Well, okay, fine, he’d done this when he’d been on-site the one other time, but it was a good practice and he was an angel who liked repeated processes. Striding through to the back of the house, he went straight into the kitchen, and started a loop that took him around all the rooms on the first floor. And hey, the architect had made good choices. The place had obviously been built with efficient servants in mind—because there was an unobstructed circle of access.
Which meant he could have started anywhere, but the kitchen was first because, coffee.
Ad stuck right with him as the Brothers fanned out, some heading to the second and third floors, others sweeping the basement. Command central was manned by Vishous and set up in the very center of the house, at a console table tucked in behind the stairs in a males’ bathroom. The location was the perfect spot because there were no windows, but two ingress/egresses. So yup, that was where the backpacks of extra ammo, the flamethrowers, and the bombs were dropped.
Following his caffeine grab, he proceeded into the library, where they’d had that meeting with that poor sire who’d lost his son. Then it was out into the ballroom. Into a ladies’ parlor. Off on a sidetrack to the conservatory.
All around the mansion, he could hear the footsteps of the Brothers doing the same thing he was. Maybe they had their own prescribed routes, too.
Eventually, there was a reconnoitering in the front foyer. Nobody said anything because it was clear nothing was out of place. With that, the shutters were raised by V. The pattern of lights that had been left on was similar, but not identical, to the evening they’d been on-site delivering the bad news—you know, so if the slayers were watching already, it would seem like there was nothing odd going on, as if the family of aristocrats were inside moving on—or trying to—with their lives.
Come on in, boys, nothing but a bunch of rich folks mourning the son they’ve lost. You slayers really need to breach the house and finish the job.
In the lull that followed, a bunch of the Brothers took up res in the darkened dining room, and the library that was likewise kept lights-out, and the ladies’ parlor. Eddie and Ad were the ones who moved around, and now when they did, they traveled by air—and they did not stick to the ground level. They went upstairs, even out onto the roof.
It was like pacing on a grand scale.
As the hours crawled at a snail’s pace.
And meanwhile, not a slayer or essence of evil was to be seen.
The sense that something was coming was undeniable, however, as tangible a presence as any physical attacker, and it was fucking with Eddie’s head. Fucking with everybody else’s, including Adrian’s.
Even the angel was being quiet.
For the most part.
During one of their transitions from the upper levels back to square one on the ground, just as Eddie returned to his physical form, his best friend lost it.
“I can’t fucking stand the waiting.”
This happy little missive was sent out into the airwaves at the very moment Vishous started cursing over in command central.
Hustling around the base of the staircase, the pair of them screeched to a proverbial halt.
“Please tell me I can hit something,” Ad begged.
The Brother looked up from his phone. “Fucking aristocrats.”
