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“It gave the basilisk something else to think about other than you two,” he said. “Let’s get back to the trucks—”
“And over to Lola’s,” Monty said.
Aiden frowned. “Do you think that’s wise? Dealing with the demon would have drained you magically, wouldn’t it?”
“Aye, Ranger,” Ashworth said, as he and Eli approached. “But if we don’t go now, we lose all chance of finding them.”
Both of them were sweating, and there was a nasty-looking scrape across the top of Ashworth’s bald head, but otherwise, they too had come through the ordeal relatively unscathed.
We’d been lucky.
Extremelylucky.
But that pessimistic part of me couldn’t help but wonder how much longer that luck would hold. Our vampire mages now knew what we were capable of and would adjust their attacks accordingly.
“Itislikely any chance we had has well and truly left the building,” Monty said. “But we need to try. Who knows, they might have left something behind to trace them with.”
I rather suspected the chances of that happening were basically zero, but didn’t voice my doubts. There was little point when we’d find out soon enough.
We made our way back to the trucks and drove across to McKenzie’s Hill, which wasn’t all that far away from the old stockyards.
Aiden pulled to a halt down the road from the building and undid his seat belt. “Stay here while I do a quick scout.”
I nodded. “If the charm around your neck starts to warm, it means you’ve either hit a spell or there’s a spell aimed your way.”
It would also react if a vampire approached, but it was still light, so that really shouldn’t be a worry.
He nodded and lightly ran a finger down my cheek, his touch sending warmth skittering through me.
“If that happens, I will hightail it the hell out of there.”
“Good.” I climbed out of the truck and moved to the rear, watching as he ran across the road and shifted to his wolf form once in the trees.
Monty, Ashworth, and Eli walked up and stood beside me. “Any of you sensing any magic?”
Ashworth shook his head. “But it’s possible we won’t. They might not have had time to set any traps.”
“They had all the time in the world, given we’ve only just arrived.”
“I doubt they would have risked laying traps or protections earlier,” Eli said. “They were obviously aware there were a number of royal witches within the reservation—they wouldn’t have wanted their magic being sensed.”
I’d thought the same, but as he’d already noted, these people were playing by their own rules and anything was possible.
Aiden reappeared about ten minutes later. “Nothing,” he said grimly. “No fresh scents, no sound of movement, no van, and absolutely no reaction from the charm when I paced the exterior. They’re either asleep or gone.”
“We still need to check, just to be sure,” Monty said.
Aiden nodded, opened the back of his truck, and retrieved his spare boots. “These will be too big, but better than you walking around with one bare foot.”
I accepted the right boot and pulled it on. My foot absolutely swam in it, which would be problematic if we had to run anywhere fast. Not that we would have to, given our vamps appeared to have fled.
And I crossed all mental fingers that I hadn’t just jinxed us.
Aiden turned around, leading us across the road and through the trees, meaning we approached from the rear rather than the front.
The building—a Victorian-style, two-story place—was in a sad state of repair, its paint peeling, the gutters full of weeds, and possessing a decided lean toward the front of the building, suggesting the stumps in that area had sunk.
What Iwasn’tseeing or feeling was any indication of life.
