Alex was back running comms. The kids were safely in the gym with their parents, their witch aunts, and two guards who were helping them show off their new fighting skills, all of them surrounded by guards. I was watching the Everharts on a screen in the security room with Quint and my two-person honor guard. Deon was still bringing me food, still trying to fatten me up, successfully, as it turns out.
Accepting that I had no place in the mundane part of an investigation was hard. I kept having to push down the irritation and the jittery need to be doing something important. But being out in the streets for a purpose that literally any of my people could do created a danger to my people. So here I was. Sitting in the security room in HQ, I tried not to seethe but it was hard to be considered dispensable. Or so indispensable that I was all but wrapped in Bubble Wrap and kept in a vault. I was safe, watching as the Barataria teams made ready to go into the house where they had found a magical signature, their mundane weapons and time carefully determined to account for potential mundane and magical defenses. It would be our humans and one Onorio against witches and humans, with the enemy vamps asleep or at least weakened by daylight. Hopefully. And hopefully not expecting a daylight attack. Surprise was the lynchpin. It was the only thing going for us. No way was I missing this operation, even if only by camera. And I kept tucking my ire away someplace inside me and out of the way.
I wasn’t a part of anything. But I wasn’t getting anyone killed either, so I’d take it.
Quint and I sat at the nearly empty security room table, watching live vest cam footage, listening to comms. Alex’s back was to the table, and a huge platter of roastedwhole pork boudin was in front of us, along with four boxes of donuts from Krispy Kreme. Quint ate nothing, watched everything, her weapons on the table, ready to fire. Her not eating was unnerving, though it didn’t prick my predatory instincts, just a realization she was creepy-intense focused. I mean. She turned downKrispy Kreme.
The team had been in Barataria for hours, armored and weaponed up and wearing null sticks to protect them against witches. I was watching the vest cams of a two-man recon team, composed of Angel Tit and Blue Voodoo. The motion was jerky, offering bits and pieces to go with the chatter on their dedicated comms channel.
“No external cams noted,” Blue Voodoo said.
Angel Tit said, “No sign of heat sources inside. Walls appear to be well insulated.”
“No HVAC system to put a camera in through the vents,” Blue Voodoo said. “No open windows. Window AC units offer no access. All window coverings are secure and unable to obtain view.”
“Sound from inside,” Angel Tit said. “Sounds like news channel chatter. Some sounds of movement.”
“House is old. Built on a slab instead of stilts, which is crazy,” Voodoo said. “No access through the floor system.”
Beast should be with littermate and mate. Beast should be at battle.
Yeah. We should. You figured out why we don’t always shift in mortal danger dying situations?
Is many things. Hard to think like Jane does.
Try.The thought was snide.
Beast chuffed at my tone.Was black magic when puma and wesa fought and we became Beast. Black magic did new things to Jane’s human snake in center of all beings. Beast magic made Jane able to shift to live when was dying.
She was talking about DNA. Right. All skinwalkers’ DNA was tangled. Mine had been a ball of knots, and whatever had happened when the puma and the wesa/human had merged had done that.Go on.
Damour’s witch-vampire spell put dark magic into Jane, what was called motes of dark power. Angel Hayyelcan see time back and forth. Angel gave Jane back and forth timewalking because snake in center of Jane was different and Jane had dark magic motes. Timewalking made Jane sick. Angel took back timewalking and healed snake in center of Jane. Jane is new skinwalker.
Crap. Why didn’t you tell me this?
Beast gave the equivalent of a mental shrug—looking away and a tail twitch of unconcern.Angel is trapped. Cage is smaller now. Angel cannot help now.
That was a lot to process. I mulled it over.Can I get back the shift-in-extremis ability without getting the timewalking gift? And the cancer?
Beast gave another tail-shrug, bored with the conversation.Beast does not know.
So I’d have to be willing to die for it if I risk it. Gotcha.
Over comms, which Alex had set on the room’s speakers, I heard a tortured scream. “They got somebody in there,” Angel Tit said. “Sounds bad.”
“Or that’s what they want you to think,” I said.
On screen and over comms, Eli said, “Copy that. Look lively. Go.”
Fourteen vest cams quivered and shuddered with running. Six stopped behind the protection of parked vehicles, focusing on the house. Small arms with silencers were the weapons of choice. Tear gas. A battering ram. In nine seconds, the door had been shattered open and the teams were pouring inside, stepping over the base of the door.
The main room was empty, nothing but a TV playing the news and a small recorder sending out the sound of screams. The flooring had been torn up. The slab broken through, chunked and tossed as if it had been attacked with a pickax. The dirt and sand beneath the house were exposed. The house was empty.
Except for a stack of plastic explosives in the hole.
“Retreat!” Alex shouted into comms. “Get outta there!”
“MoveitMoveitMoveit,”Eli shouted. His heart slammed. So did mine. My claws pierced the table.
