“Okay,” I whispered as I walked slowly up to the clean white door. My hands were out, feeling for spells. So far I hadn’t encountered any. “We’re just going to walk right in and get the jump on him. I’ll lob a few questions and we’ll see how we get along.”
“Don’t kill him or you’ll put us back at square one.” Darius drifted along behind me, calm and serene. He was using me as a shield for any magic that might unexpectedly come. Mr. Bodyguard, indeed.
“I will try my best not to kill him, yes.” I reached out near the wood. A hum of magic infused my palm. I pushed my hand closer until it was actually touching the door, reading the magical current. “It’s a pretty common security spell, I think, designed to trigger some sort of alarm if we cross the threshold. It’s using the wood as an anchor, but it also runs along the inside. Which means…”
I blew out a breath and looked behind me at the darkened street. The streetlight closest was out, the glass broken. Someone had busted it, and I had a pretty good hunch as to who. A car rolled past, followed by another in the opposite direction. At the far end of the street I could just make out a shape wandering along. It wasn’t late enough to go mostly unnoticed.
“Which means what?” Darius asked, now standing beside me. His spicy cologne mixed deliciously with his masculine scent. Unlike mermaids, vampires—thankfully—didn’t smell like their other forms.
I shook my head. “Unless I use my fire to burn away the door and the spell attached to it. If there is one thing people notice, though, it’s fire. Humans are drawn to it. They’d come to check it out, realize I was up to no good, then call the cops. That kind of racket would alert the mage. All bad things.” I took out my sword.
“He must have heard us by now if he’s home.”
“We’re being quiet, and he doesn’t have excellent hearing like you do. We’re fine. He’ll hear me kicking down the door, though. As would the whole neighborhood. How annoying. I would really like to bust it in.”
“I have never understood your infatuation with kicking things in.”
“We all have our vices.” I twisted my mouth to the side, thinking. “Trying to cut through the door would also be heard. This street is too quiet. There’s no way I can get through without triggering the spell. As soon as I open the door, no matter how quickly I cut out that spell, it’ll go off.”
“Then after you get in, you best hurry and find him.”
“Boy, you’re Mr. Obvious tonight, huh? Thank goodness I brought you.” I grabbed the door handle, twisted, and pushed. It didn’t budge. “Can you unlock it, please?”
“Yes. And in keeping with my obvious assertions, I can also unlock windows.”
I hesitated with my hand on the knob, tilting my head in thought. I hadn’t considered that route because I’d figured we would have to break a window—and the sound of shattering glass would be an immediate giveaway.
“I’m not sure I realized you could do that,” I muttered.
“Which was why I mentioned it,” he said patiently. “Things are only obvious when you already know them. With you, there is no telling what knocks around in your head.”
The window beside the door wasn’t capable of sliding open. The next nearest window was off to the side with the curtains drawn.
I stepped off the stoop and threaded my way through the plants. “Opening it won’t break the plane,” I muttered. “The alarm won’t trigger unless someone goes through it. There is an additional spell one can apply to address that issue, of course. Did our mage take the extra precaution?”
I felt the vibrations of the spell through the glass, not anchored well because of the difference in material.
“No, he did not,” I whispered. “He thinks he’s at the top of the food chain. These spells are nothing more than precautionary. He’s probably thinking of human burglars. Little does he know that his safety is an illusion. What a horrible surprise he’ll have tonight.”
I glanced back at Darius, who still waited near the door. A moment later, he nodded. The lock was ready to go.
The window squealed as I pushed it up. I ground my teeth, stopping when it was halfway open, and listened. A truck rumbled by. In the distance, a dog barked. Silence hung heavy inside the house.
I passed my sword through the open space, splitting the security spell and unraveling it. The magic winked out, leaving residue that would soon start to deteriorate. I returned to the door and eased it open, thankful it didn’t also creak. Darkness greeted me, lacking even a distant glow from any light sources elsewhere in the house.
The screen of my phone said 9:08. It was much too early for him to have gone to bed, and normal people didn’t sit around in the dark. There was always the chance he was upstairs, though.
There was also the chance that he’d noticed us loitering outside his house, and was currently lying in wait, using the stillness, quiet, and darkness as cover. I didn’t need a magical jack-in-the-box popping out at me. I hated those things. Even though I knew it was coming, it still scared me. It could only be worse in human form.
“Okay, let’s split up,” I whispered, the sound barely leaving my mouth. That was the great thing about vampires. Darius could still hear me. “I’ll take the—”
“No. We stay together. There is no telling what we might run into.”
Arguing would just eat into time.
I started forward slowly, quietly, clearing my mind and slipping into my inner battle zone. If he was home, I couldn’t afford any mistakes. One loud bang and some nervous neighbors could call in the cops. This guy was a somewhat advanced mage, so he surely had more than one loud spell in his arsenal that he would liberally throw if his life was in danger.
A floorboard creaked below my boot. Deep shadow draped down the furniture and across the floor. There were papers on the dining room table, along with a half-empty cup of clear liquid. Water, probably. People who drank vodka out of a pint glass didn’t usually leave it behind unless they were passed out next to it.
A few crumbs littered the countertop. The deep hum of the fridge reverberated in the silence. A soft touch landed on my shoulder.
I jumped. I couldn’t help it. I really did hate jack-in-the-boxes.
Darius took his hand away and silently pointed at the microwave sitting on a side counter.
A lone casing looked like it had been forgotten there, resting against the salt and pepper shakers. Footfalls still quiet even though my heart had lurched at the possibility of a clue, I crossed that way and let my hand hover over the orb, a half-inch in diameter. The magic in it felt zesty and packed a hefty dose of power. It wouldn’t rot your foot off, but it would cause some damage. With so little evidence, I couldn’t even guess what kind of spell it was, but I did know it would be useful in my arsenal if I didn’t need an incantation to get it to work. It was worth a shot.
I moved to swipe the ball off the microwave, but there was a quick flash of a hand. Darius had gotten there first.