Shepherd lifted his hands and touched it. “I don’t sense anyone in there.” He set his wrench on the floor and then reached up, pressing his palms against the rectangle. “Moment of truth.”
I held my breath, praying it hadn’t been sealed from inside. From what I’d overheard, many of the building owners didn’t know the tunnels existed, or if they did, assumed they were for drainage.
He pounded at it a few times before exerting all his strength pushing it up. The metal scraped, and then one side popped up. He carefully balanced it in his hands so as not to make more noise than necessary. After a few solid pats with the palm of his hand, the other side lifted up. This one wasn’t as heavy-duty as the one on the street. Shepherd stood on his tiptoes and carefully moved the lid out of sight.
“I can’t reach that,” I whispered.
Didn’t matter, because Shepherd must have been the master champion of pull-ups. He lifted himself with ease, squeezing one arm in first before wiggling his way through. I held on to his legs, boosting him up so he wouldn’t get lodged in the opening. After a second, he reached down with one arm and I took it. I was moving from one dark place to the next, and halfway out, he let go so I could crawl the rest of the way. I shone my small flashlight around the dark basement. Large dusty boxes and pieces of junk were stacked in corners, and wooden beams supported the ceilings.
Shepherd walked the length of the room in search of the circuit breakers. He almost passed a box and then did a backstep.
“What is it?” I whispered, shining my light on the wall.
He shook his head. “Security alarms.”
I snorted. “Does he think calling humans to save the day is a good idea if a Mage breaks in?”
“I doubt it goes to one of them. There might be a private group set up with Breed, but it probably came with the building. Either way, it’s a noisemaker, so snip snip.”
While he took care of that, I tested the air in search of Mage energy. Most let their shields down in private places, so their energy pulsed and quivered. I didn’t sense anything in the immediate area.
After Shepherd finished messing with the security box, he found the circuit breakers. “Get ready,” he said. “When the lights go out, someone’s coming down. Hide behind that beam.”
When Shepherd switched off the breakers, I turned off my flashlight and waited in darkness. Gem was the lookout girl on the street, and Niko had climbed onto the roof with Viktor. I wasn’t sure where everyone else had gone, but our job was to get in and kill the lights. That was Keystone’s signal to enter.
The basement door opened, and Shepherd slipped out of sight. My Vampire eyes allowed me to see somewhat, although not as well as I would have liked.
My heart raced as someone approached with clumsy steps, his shoes scraping against the floor and the smell of his cologne wafting over.
“Dammit,” he murmured. “Where’s a flashlight when you need one?”
He moved into sight, his hand running along the wall. Shepherd crept toward him, cocking his head as if he were using sonar to detect where the Mage was in proximity to him.
Even though I could see, I gave this one to Shepherd. Did a guy like that really need backup? Part of me wanted to watch him in action and see if a Sensor—who didn’t have any gifts of strength or speed—could take on a Mage.
“Hurry up!” a voice shouted from the top of the stairs.
Shepherd’s eyes turned in that direction, and they were wide. We’d expected one to come down while the other guards scrambled in the darkness to secure the doors.
That was what smart guards would have done.
But this added an additional layer of fuckery to the situation. If the guy at the top of the stairs sensed something was amiss, he’d alert the house and lock us in. Hopefully Viktor and the others had found a way inside.
I moved stealthily toward the staircase.
“Jim?” the man called out.
“Christ on a cracker, give me a second, will ya?” the man by the breakers yelled back.
I neared the stairs, assessing the man who stood in the doorway. He didn’t look especially strong, and I didn’t see a weapon in his hands.
When a metal tool hit the floor behind me, he took a step back. “Jim?”
Before he could slam the door, I rushed up the stairs and drove a stunner into his chest—the only stunner I had brought with me. He fell like a sack of potatoes, and I closed the door and slid him down the steps before someone heard the ruckus.
Shepherd hustled toward me, his hands reaching out blindly in the darkness.
“Watch your step!” I hissed.
He halted in his tracks, just inches from the body slumped at the bottom of the stairs. Shepherd took a few baby steps until his foot nudged the Mage’s thigh. I tensed when I considered he might finish off the Mage, but Shepherd stepped over the paralyzed man, climbing the stairs until he bumped into me.