I flashed him the ASL sign for I love you.
Almost immediately, he vanished into the forest, Thunder trotting along beside him.
Erik’s hand tapped my shoulder softly to get me moving again.
The minutes ticked away like theJeopardytheme song as we moved toward the window we’d be entering. I hated that Aunt Halle and the boys were sitting in there, probably scared out of their minds. The chance of anyone making it into the safe room was low, but it wasn’t zero.
Just as we hit the tree line, something in my peripheral vision made me sway to a stop.
A man in tactical gear picked his way through the brush just thirty feet from us.
Erik gave my biceps a quick squeeze and then disappeared from beside me. As slowly as I could, I leaned toward a tree so I’d blend into the shadow.
Seconds later, the man I’d been watching turned into a larger mass, then dropped slowly to the ground. Erik nodded at me to keep moving as soon as he rose.
Every window in the house was lit up when we reached the detached shop and moved through the shadows that various truck tires and water barrels provided us. The people inside were searching, and they weren’t bothering to conserve energy as they made their way through the house.
I was in the lead, so I was the first to see the man leaning against the shop just around the corner. His weapon was held across his chest as his eyes swept the yard.
Go time.
I held my hand up for Erik, then smoothly rounded the corner. In the split second it took for the man to realize I wasn’t someone he recognized, I’d shoved his weapon to the side and punched him in the throat. Unfortunately, this man seemed to be able to fight just fine without breathing, and he swung his rifle up. By then, I was too close for him to get it between us. I caught the barrel of the rifle in my armpit, thankful that he didn’t seem willing to let it go, and pulled the knife from the sheath on my belt.
Seconds later, I was fighting the urge to gag as I lowered him to the ground, the blood from his neck wound saturating the entire front of me.
Erik was standing just behind me when I went to look for him. His eyes searched me for wounds as I shrugged.
I may not have done it as cleanly as he would’ve, but I’d still gotten the job done—and silently, for that matter.
There was another man closer to the house that I let Erik take care of. I was still struggling to keep the whiskey in my stomachfrom making a reappearance. Touching the man had caused my skin to flare with the fire of a thousand hells and my pulse to pound in my temples.
I guess the mating heat didn’t differentiate between fucking or killing someone who wasn’t your mate.
When we got to the window, Erik bent down on one knee so that I could use his thigh as a stool to reach the lock that had been easy to open for as long as I could remember. The window was two panes that met in the middle or swung inward if you wanted the window open. On a fully functioning window, there would’ve been a seal between the panes, but in this particular window, Ian and I had shoved a knife through it when I was ten and he was eight, because we were convinced that someday we’d be housebreakers. It had felt very mysterious and cool until Aunt Halle had seen what we’d done to her antique windows.
Long story short, the seal between the panes was gone, and I could easily unlatch the lock between them with a credit card. Sliding the card in beneath the latch, I slowly drew it up, holding my breath as the latch caught for a moment and then let go.
I opened the window slowly, listening carefully for any sound of someone coming to investigate. When no sound came, I pulled myself up to my waist and shimmied my top half inside. Bracing my hands on the top of the washing machine, I pulled my legs inside, cringing as they made a swishing noise as they dragged along.
I’d just landed on my feet next to the ironing board when Erik’s head and chest appeared inside.
He was much more graceful as he pulled his body inside than I was. Perhaps he’d been a housebreaker at some point.
Erik lifted his head and winked at me, and I was struck by how much he looked like his son.
Daniel hadn’t been lying when he said he had his father’s coloring and build, but he’d definitely been understating it.
My father-in-law cocked his head to the side as if asking what the hell I was doing.
Right.
I led him toward the doorway, listening for sounds of the people in the house. There was definitely someone just outside the laundry room, probably standing guard in the mudroom that led to the back door of the house.
Without a word, Erik moved past me. He opened the door swiftly and silently, stepping through it like it was nothing, and almost as soon as I’d made it out of the room, Erik was already wrapping his arms around the man. It was over in an instant.
If I hadn’t been around Vampires my entire life—mercenaries at that—I would’ve been scared as hell at the speed and efficiency Erik was capable of.
We moved through the entire first floor like wraiths. There were two more men downstairs. One at the front door, and one who seemed like he’d been tasked with roaming the house at random. I took care of one with my knife, but the other was too fast for me and a freaking giant to boot, so I let Erik handle him. Fighting fire with fire and all that.
