Authors: Kelley Armstrong
The sultry June evening was perfect for a few beers on the back deck, which would put them in our sight line—but the Lesters didn’t seem to share my opinion. They’d all locked themselves in their monstrous house, and pulled the blinds.
“The teens are playing a video game with the volume jacked up,” Elena said. “The older son is complaining because he’s trying to do homework. Sounds like our place, after Uncle Nick bought Kate a drum set. She insists on playing Metallica riffs in the same room where Logan is practicing French.”
“Or Logan insists on practicing French in the same room where she’s practicing Metallica riffs,” Clay said.
“True,” Elena said. “They always want to be together. Which would be easier if they shared any common interests besides bunny rabbits. Typical kids.”
I grinned. “Yes, typical five-year-olds—playing Metallica and learning French for fun. As for the bunnies, I’m not going there.”
“Don’t. Anyway, sounds like situation normal at the Lester house tonight. The kids fighting, while Mom’s telling them to stop bickering before their dad comes down to chew them out.”
“Except at our place,” Clay said, “it’s me saying, ‘Cool it before Mom comes down.’?”
“Because I’m much scarier than he is,” Elena said. “Now if I could just convince every mutt in the country to see it that way.”
Adam said, “So Lester’s upstairs?”
“Oh, sure, bring the conversation back on track,” I said. “Spoilsport.”
He smiled. “Sorry. I was just going to say that if he’s alone upstairs, someone could get to him without the rest of the family realizing.”
“The house is secured,” said the head of the tactical team—a guy named Eagle. He’d been working away as if he wasn’t listening, but clearly he had been. “We have men watching every angle, and they’ve been at their posts since we arrived. After they were in place, we went over the house with heat scanners to ensure no one was already there, hiding. No one has entered that house without our knowledge.”
“So where
is
Lester?” Elena said.
“We have no visual of the house interior yet, ma’am.”
“But you said you have heat scanners and I know you have a floor plan. Which room is Lester in?”
Eagle barked a command to the guy handling the equipment, as if this was his oversight. A few minutes later, the technician was spreading the blueprints on the desk.
He pointed to the master suite. “Before he pulled the blinds, we managed to get a visual. That’s the bed, right beside the window. He’s lying down.”
“I don’t like the sounds of that,” Elena murmured. “What time is it?”
“Just past nine,” I said. “Seems early for bed, especially when he didn’t have a very strenuous day.”
“Could be reading or watching TV,” Adam said, and glanced at Elena. “Why the concern?”
Clay answered for her. “Because there’s one very good reason to leave dinner early, come home, and go to bed at nine.”
“If he’s feeling sick,” I said. “Shit. But when was he injected? We’ve been with him for hours.”
“Must have been before we got to him. Took a while to kick in.”
“Okay,” Elena turned to Eagle. “We need to get in that house. Now.”
“We’re waiting until dark—”
“Who’s in charge of this operation?”
“The Cortez Cabal.”
If I’d been on the receiving end of Elena’s look, I’d have run for cover. Eagle just stood there, smirking slightly.
After about twenty more seconds of silence, though, Eagle lost his smirk. He started to sweat. Elena let it go another ten seconds, then growled, “Try again.”
“You’re in charge of this immediate operation, ma’am, but I work for the Cortez Cabal, and I’m the guy with twenty years’ experience. Mr. Lester is resting. Or answering his e-mail. Or watching TV. We’re not going to blow my operation because you got hysterical—”
“Either we get your men’s help to enter the attic now, or we do it ourselves and increase the chances of blowing
your
operation.”
He hesitated, then said, “I need to call Mr. Cortez.”
“You have thirty seconds. Then I’m going in.”
Eagle phoned both Lucas and Benicio. Neither picked up.
“We’ll have to wait until they call back,” he said.
“We can’t.” She turned around. “Can anyone here help us get into that house?”
Eagle stepped toward her. “Don’t you dare—”
Elena had him by the neck, two feet off the ground, pinned to the wall, before he could get another word out.
There were two other officers plus the tech guy in the hayloft. Tech guy decided his equipment looked very interesting, and busied himself with it. The officers both turned to Clay.
“Don’t look at me,” he said. “I’m only getting involved if you decide to do the same. But remember, whatever our kids think, I’m definitely the scarier one.”
They stayed seated. Elena looked at Eagle, still suspended by his throat.
“I’m a reasonable person, so I let you try to contact the Cortezes. But it is not reasonable of you to expect me to wait for a callback when our target may be infected. Oh, and a word of advice?” She brought him down to eye level. “You may think it’s clever to accuse a woman of being hysterical, but it’s only going to piss her off.”
She dropped him. He landed on his ass, wheezing and clutching his throat. When she turned away, he muttered, “Bitch.”
I looked at Elena. “Note that he didn’t dare say that until you turned your back.”
“They never do.” She went over to the technician. “Can you contact the guys over in the attic? Tell them I know they aren’t ready, but we need to come in.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
She turned to the two officers and didn’t even get a chance to open her mouth before one said, “We’ll get the rappel system in place and have some men watch for the patrolling guards. You should be able to get over there quickly and safely.”
“Thank you.”
We did get over quickly and safely. At least Adam and I did. Clay took one look at the flimsy rig and decided to stay behind and handle radio contact. Elena was game—she’d done some rock climbing with us—but quickly realized she wouldn’t be fast enough on the traverse to avoid being spotted if my blur spell failed. She decided to stay with Clay.
Adam and I crossed and crawled through the dormer window into the attic, which was dusty and as hot as hell. I suppose no matter how wealthy you are, you don’t clean or air-condition your attic. It was also full of crap. Boxes of old clothing. Stacks of LPs and VHS tapes. Piles of toys and baby furniture. I had to wonder at the last. Were they planning to drag this old stuff down when they had grandkids? I think their sons—and certainly future daughters-in-law—would expect them to buy new, considering they were billionaires and all.
The technicians met us at the window and led us over to where they’d tapped into the security system. One showed us the laptop screen displaying the view of all six cameras. They were all aimed outside the house.
“Do we have any interior views?”
“We’ve been drilling holes and threading cams through. I can give you the boys’ rooms and the guest rooms.”
“What we need is the master suite.”
“It’s at the far end of the second floor. The attic doesn’t extend that far, so we haven’t managed to get a line in.” He picked up a pair of headphones. “We have sound, though. Just got that snaked through far enough to pick up decent levels.”
His partner grunted. “Which would be a lot more useful if that kid would turn off the damned video game.”
He was right. We could hear the music blasting even without headphones. One of the Grand Theft Auto titles, it sounded like.
“And here’s the upstairs,” the tech said, as he flipped a switch.
The music now sounded slightly farther away. Then, as I was about to take the headset off, I heard the muffled click of pumps growing louder.
“Do we have more than one feed on the second floor?” I asked.
He nodded.
“Is this the one closest to the master suite?”
He shook his head and hit a button on the laptop. “We’re still in the hall here, but this is a bit closer.”
When he switched the feeds, the pump-clicking quieted. Then it grew louder again as the footsteps approached the master suite. A pause. Then a rap on a door.
“Maury?” Mrs. Lester said. “It’s me.”
No answer. A faint jangle as she tried the handle.
“Maury? Why is the door locked? I told the boys not to bother you. They know you aren’t feeling well.”
Shit. He
was
sick. Injected? Or just too much barbecue?
She knocked again. Then she muttered, “Lock the door and fall asleep. Wonderful.”
As her steps retreated, Adam got Elena on the radio and told
her what was happening. Elena thought Mrs. Lester might be going for a key, so she advised us to hang tight.
Mrs. Lester did return. She knocked and called again, though, before using the key. I suppose, in some marriages, not knowing what’s happening on the other side might be the only thing that keeps you together.
When Lester still didn’t reply, she went in, calling a warning as she did. She closed the door, too, which meant that her voice disappeared under the roar of the music.
“Let me listen,” Elena said through the radio.
I pulled off the headset and put it to the radio speaker.
“She’s looking for him,” Elena said. “He’s not in bed.”
A moment later, there was an exclamation even I could hear. “Oh! There you are. I—”
Silence. We waited through three more seconds, then Elena said, “Get in there, Savannah, take the lead. Blur spells and cover spells. Have Adam follow at a distance.”
“Got it.” I turned to the techs. “Show me where to go.”
One of them led us to the trap door. We got it open. There was a set of stairs that could be lowered, but we didn’t dare use those. I leaned out, making sure the way was clear, then got in position to drop.
Just before I did, the other tech hurried over to exchange my radio for an earpiece. I slapped it in, then lowered myself through the hole. It was still a two-foot drop. No way to muffle the thump of my fall. Adam followed quickly. We waited for someone downstairs to come running, but our thuds must have been drowned out by the game sounds.
The second-floor hall was long and wide and central, with rooms off both sides and a sweeping staircase in the middle. Passing that staircase was the riskiest part—the master suite was at the far end. I moved under a blur spell. Adam kept his
distance. I could have covered him, too, but that took extra juice.
When I got to the door of the master suite, I flipped my back to the wall, where I could see partway down the steps. I waved Adam over while I kept watch.
Adam took up position against the wall on the other side of the door. I reached for the door handle and slowly turned it. It wouldn’t budge. Mrs. Lester had relocked it. Damn.
I should have brought the picks. A spell was an extra drain wasted on a task I could do manually.
I leaned over and checked the lock. A simple household one. A flip of my credit card did the trick. I cracked open the door and listened. The damn music was still booming from downstairs. I thought I picked up a thump from inside the room, but that was it. I closed the door and whispered to Elena.
“Go in,” she said. “Keep a blur spell on and be ready to run if you’re spotted.”
“Where do we run?” I whispered. “We jumped through the trapdoor.”
Adam answered, “Elena? Tell the tech guys to ready the ladder. If we come running, get it down.”
I opened the door again, an inch at a time.
I could see the bed, with the covers in a snarl, half on the floor. Otherwise, nothing. I leaned in farther. There were four doors. Two were open, but the angle was wrong to see through either of them. I listened hard, but the rap music below had gone up another notch.
I double-checked my blur spell then eased into the bedroom. It was massive. Wasted space mostly, with nothing except a king-size bed and nightstands, along the far wall by the window.
The first open doorway was to my right. A sliding door to
a walk-in closet, it looked like. Dark inside. I turned and gestured for Adam to be ready in case anyone came flying out of it when I passed. Communicating while in blur-form wasn’t easy, but he understood.
A sour smell rose from the sheets. I reached out and touched one. Soaked with sweat. No other signs of trauma, though. No signs of the Lesters either.
A crunch behind me. I spun. Nothing there. The music downstairs rose another notch.
“Can we kill the tunes?” I whispered. “Cut the power or something?”
“I wish,” Elena muttered. “If we cut the power that would definitely bring the boys running.”
“Right.”
I sidestepped toward the open door. It led into a narrow hall with a sitting room at the end, and a doorway to the right, partly open, showing a shower stall. The hall was decorated with some kind of funky art or wallpaper, a radiating pattern of black, like a sunburst.
I took another step and saw the lines weren’t black. They were red. More red drops below on the wood floor. Arterial spray.
I backed up. “Adam?”
I heard a sound from down the hall. This time it was an unmistakable crunch.
“Uh …”
“I heard that,” Elena said.
A smacking sound, then a guttural snarl.
“And that,” she said. “I’m going out on a limb here and saying Lester’s infected, and the virus is working a helluva lot faster than it did with Bryce. We’ve got a werewolf.”
“Eating,” I said.
“Hmm.” I heard Clay’s voice in the background, then Elena murmured, “I know.” She came back clearer. “You know what happened with Bryce, right? The type of Change?”
“Wolfman not wolf.”
“Yes. We don’t know exactly what we’re dealing with and—” Clay’s voice in the background again. Then Elena said to us,
“You’re not hearing any signs that she … Mrs. Lester … that she’s still alive?”
I looked up at the blood spray. “No.”
“Okay, then I hate to say this but …”
“Let him keep eating.”
“Yes.”