The legacies are still blinking in surprise by the time I arrive at the little gate in front of Del Mar's hideout. I get near enough that I could slip through the front bars if they were wider apart.
“What the hell are you—” one of them begins, reaching for me.
The moment his hand is on me, I break his wrist and twist his arm, turning so he's in front of me when the other legacy reacts by firing off a shredding hex. It kills the one I'm holding as a shield immediately. I drop him, dodge an attempted blow, and drive Pierce into the other guard’s chest.
He collapses, clawing at his bulging, blackening torso. He tries to scream, but I can’t have attention drawn from the house, so I smother his mouth and nose as I search his pockets for a security amulet. I find it just as he stops twitching, the buzz of a fresh kill sweeping through me.
I check to see if I've raised any alarm. A couple is just walking around the corner, but one stops to take a picture of one of the charming houses, and the other checks something on their phone. While they’re distracted, I quickly haul both legacies to the edge of the street and toss them over the fence into the ocean.
The human couple walks past several moments later, completely oblivious. Once I'm alone again, I use the lifted security amulet to slip through Del Mar's front gate as silently as possible.
Most of these houses run together with little to no space between them, but Del Mar’s monstrosity of a safehouse is surrounded by gardens. When I notice a curtain move in one of the windows, I slip behind a large stone fountain.
I can sense the magical hum of powerful wards nearby. The amulet will get me through those. Thank fuck, because even though I have fresh life forces dancing in my veins, I want to conserve my strength for the heart of the fight.
Plus, I’m too fucking tired to do more than necessary right now.
Darling?
Crypt’s raspy, weary voice trickles to me through the bond, taking me by surprise. It’s very faint—I assume because of our physical distance.
I’m safe,I promise, cleaning Pierce on my sleeve out of habit as I wait to ensure I won’t be spotted.
Why can’t I trace your aura?
Probably because I transported. Have you healed?
I wait several moments for his reply, but there is none. That worries me slightly, but this is the wrong time to get distracted by telepathy, so I push down my worries and peek around the fountain to plan the best route into the house. Before I can move,the front door opens. I hide again as voices pass by on the way toward the gate.
“They werejustout here. What, did they go to take a piss together or something?”
“Who fucking knows. Garrett just said to look for them out there because Del Mar will start killing people again if he gets his moody hydra ass out of that fucking indoor pool and realizes they've gone to buy moreconchitas.”
So, Del Mar is currently in hydra form inside.
Good to know.
Once their backs are to me, I round the fountain and slip through the front door, the security amulet granting me access through the suffocatingly heavy wards. I pause, scanning the entry hallway. It must lead back to the indoor pool since I can hear the soft sloshing of water up ahead. I step in that direction, but someone darts down the steep staircase to my left and tackles me with a snarl.
The vampire sinks her teeth into my throat, but before she can tear into me, I rip her heart out. She slumps to the tiled ground, her head smacking audibly.
More security members shout upstairs. The water sloshing gets louder, and a deep rumbling sound precedes several reptilian hisses from up ahead.
All right, fuck sneaking. Let's do this.
I bolt down the hall, analyzing my surroundings as I skid into the massive, vaulted indoor pool room that takes up this entire level of the house. Two large legacy security guards in gas masks are posted here and shout when they see me.
But my priority is Iker fucking Del Mar.
Amadeus briefed me on the Immortal Quintet’s weaknesses many times. He taught me about the hydra.
Its many heads spew forth poisonous fumes and grow back twice over when cut off. Its great teeth and claws maim, yetforget not the water-abiding beast’s true deadliness: noxious blood. The scent of it alone is lethal to the living.
As much as I enjoy bloodshed, I don't want to waste more time away from my quintet suffering an agonizing death because I caught a whiff of Del Mar's hydras’ blood. His blood in human form won’t pose any risk, hence why the tranquilizer in my pocket is really fucking necessary.
The hydra’s nine heads screech in harmony. The sound is hideous, just like the rest of him. He’s not nearly as large as Baelfire’s dragon, though he is big, scaly, and serpentine.
Just as those nine heads open their mouths and begin to spew a greenish gas into the air, I launch myself into the incredibly large indoor pool where Del Mar’s beast is half submerged.
