The Kid laughed evilly, and I rolled my eyes. Teenagers can make double entendres out of anything. “Rescuing your brother,” I enunciated.
“I know. I’m just yanking you. According to the house specs, online with the builder, the ground floor is an open plan, with the exception of a kitchen and a safe room in back. The second floor has a game room at the top of the stairs, four bedrooms, three full baths, including one Jack-and-Jill-style. Master bedroom is up the stairs, to the right, at the end of the wide hallway. There’s a spiral staircase from the master bedroom down to the safe room on the first floor near the kitchen. The stairs can be wheeled away, sealing the upstairs opening. The first-floor entrance to it is from the laundry room, off the kitchen, and then out along the shed in the backyard, through a narrow hallway along the garage, where another safe room is set up. This one leads into the garage where a vamp could get away in a vamp-mobile, even in the daytime, as long as he had a driver.”
A car moved silently down the street and into a driveway, seven lots down. My gut did a little somersault as the MOC glided out of the car. Bruiser, who had been riding shotgun, also got out, moving like the walking wounded. The driver was Derek Lee, who was wearing black camo and who weaponed up fast as I watched. From the passenger side of the back, Gee DiMercy emerged and melted into the night. A sense of relief washed through me. I wouldn’t be doing this alone.
“Surprise,” the Kid said. “Backup. They all know what you know.”
I chuckled softly. “Thanks.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Remember this at bonus time.”
“Pony ride on your birthday?”
I heard Tia giggle in the background.
“Sorry,” I said. I hadn’t been aware that she could hear. I was pretty sure I’d embarrassed my partner. Dang it. Social skills zero. The Kid gave a long-suffering sigh.
The men slid through the dark like wraiths and up to me, and joy like the morning sun rose in me. We could save Eli. With this group, I could do anything. I smiled at them, and it must have been a brilliant, really good smile, because Bruiser and Leo both hesitated midstep.
Bruiser was dressed all in leather, bristling with weapons. Leo wore a long sword at his side and two short swords. And several knives strapped to his thighs. Derek looked the way he always did—one of Uncle Sam’s finest—but I was still surprised to see him here.
I flipped a hand at him in question, and he said, “I always did wanna save a Ranger.”
“Ah. So you could rub his nose in it.”
“Forever. Ooh-rah.”
“Just so long as your priorities are straight,” I agreed, grinning. To the group, I said, “The downstairs shutters are closed. We have magical assistance in the tree out back and in the golf course. Don’t shoot them. Molly”—I pointed at the house under renovation—“is trying to see if she can pinpoint Shoffru. She sent a search and locate spell inside a bit ago. Since it’s dead magic, Shoffru might not notice that magic is being used against him. You know—undead flesh and all that. No offense,” I said to Leo.
“None taken, mon petit chaton avec les griffes.”
I had learned what the phrase meant. “I’m not your kitten.”
“Perhaps. But you hold my soul in your claws, mon coeur.”
Which could not mean that he knew about the binding. No way. Could not. Oh, crap. Did he know? Something else to deal with later. Much later. “Yeah. Okay. Whatever.” Gee DiMercy slid up to me in the dark. I said, “There’s a back entrance. Make sure Shoffru doesn’t make it to the garage. And maybe you could also puncture his tires?”
“I would be mortified to be assigned such mundane tasks,” Gee said. “I will simply kill anyone who tries to escape. Except your human.” He slid back into the darkness.
“Okeydokey.” Working with supes was weird. “Leo, can you get Shoffru’s attention and hold it for a while?”
“Of course. Contrary to his vow to me as his master, he attacked one of my people. I am within my rights to demand a Blood Challenge.”
“We don’t need to be getting into the middle of a sword fight until Eli is safe. I’d rather you trash-talk him for a while instead.”
“You wish me to discuss the garbage industry with him?” Leo was confused and I wanted to chortle but had to settle on a mangled cough. I needed him too much to make fun of him. When I got myself back under control, I said, “Ummm . . .”
“I’ll explain,” Bruiser said, putting a hand on his master’s arm. His former master. Weird. Weird-er. Maybe not weird-est.
“Bruiser,” I said, “once you explain, can you hang with me?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Hey, Marine,” I said to Derek Lee, as Bruiser explained trash talk to a five-hundred-year-old fanghead. “I got a rocket launcher in the back of the SUV. It’s been modified to toss flashbangs. You up to finding a weak spot in the downstairs windows or doors?”