“Is there a witch circle in yard, the lawn turned up?” Molly asked.
“Affirmative,” Jaymie said.
“Jaymie, keep your people clear of the circle,” Big Evan said. “Give us video of the grounds and the house.”
“Roger that,” Jaymie said.
We watched as cameras and vest cams gave us access to the yard. There were bodies in the yard, hacked, bloodied, and dead. There were also two scorched places in the front yard without bodies.
“This is evidence of Mithran burnings,” the older vamp said, his voice cold and hard.
Eli joined the discussion from back at the prison. “I placed security cameras in the house at the estate and also one in a tree. The one in the tree is solar-poweredand can be downloaded. Someone can climb up and retrieve it, My Queen.”
“Evan? Molly? Is it safe?”
“I think so,” Moll said. “Yes.”
“Move in. Get the memory card.”
Jaymie’s vest cam showed her trot into the yard, leap high, grab a branch, and pull herself up. Our team slowly jogged toward the house and their vest cameras gave us views of the inside of the house. Blood was everywhere. On the walls, on the floors, on the ceiling in a bright spray. The house had been ransacked.
Had I led the invading vamps to the old vamps when I visited? Had I killed them? I clenched my jaw against the rising guilt.
“No bodies inside,” Jaymie said. “Will begin the process of gathering all papers and prepare the site for human law enforcement.”
“I’ll download and scan all the camera footage,” Alex said, “and will prepare a downloadable file for the local law.”
“We have to go back to the null prison,” Molly said to me. “We thought all the circles had been successfully closed. Now we have two back open. We need to toss something into one and see if it disappears and reappears at this other circle.”
“Or at the circle at the church, or the circle at the airport, or the estate,” Alex said. “Or maybe the one in Barataria. They may all still be open. I can send three-man teams to each location.”
Eli said, “This time, why don’t we throw a few frags into them first. Maybe some C4 explosives. That’ll shut them down.”
Big Evan said, “If the circle at the Barataria house was shut down by the explosives there, then we know that works. Or, we might transport the explosives into a kids’ school and blow it up. We don’t how they work or how many there are.”
Eli cursed.
Molly said. “We’ve been brainstorming ideas to test the circles. We can toss in leaves or something that mightbe nearby the circles. If the leaves appear at another circle, that might tell us something. We’ll need a witch and communications with each team.”
“Or the things we toss in might not appear anywhere,” Evan said.
“In which case that might mean they have a hub somewhere,” Alex said, over the speakers, “and they go back and forth through a central hub circle.”
“Yeees,” Molly said, her eyes focused far away. “Six sites. Or if Barataria is really down, five sites. A central hub. Like a pentagram.”
“Lemme check the GPS on a map,” Alex said.
Quint’s driving smoothed out. She slowed to the speed limit as she wove through the French Quarter’s one-way streets. There was no festival this week, and there was less traffic than normal.
“It isn’t perfect,” Alex said, “but the locations we have so far do resemble a five-pointed star, with the null house falling vaguely in the center, but not absolutely in the center.”
“It has to be in the center, exactly, or... Hmmm. Right. Of course,” Moll murmured.
“Like a hub worm hole,” Alex posited.
“Yes. That would fly,” Molly said, her tone as distant as her gaze. “The physics alone would be incredible. The opposing teamhasto have a world-class physicist witch on board.” She and Evan again exchanged a pointed look, followed by Molly’s small head shake. It was a communication I couldn’t decipher.
“If the circles are all active again,” Evan said, “we need to find a way to close them down before someone ends up dead.”
