I wasn’t quite sure why it was necessary for the estate to have a fish hatchery, especially since, according to our scouts, the two staff members who worked there only attended it at dawn and dusk. Something about fish not being the biggest fans of broad daylight. It had to be a rich people thing.
Finally, there was the septic team. They were essentially the cavalry. Hopefully the last thing the brothers would expect. If they were anything like their siblings, once the fight started, the brothers would tip their hands almost immediately, likely thinking my group was the big surprise. If everything went according to plan, that would be the mistake that sealed their demise.
Finally, I heard the faint sound of a gate opening and the rumble of a heavy truck entering. That had to be them.
“I think they’re here. Let’s get dressed.”
Thankfully, the fishery and landscaping jobs seemed to be quite messy, because there were five lockers all stocked with multiple staff uniforms of different sizes. They were simple: plain white polo shirts, black pants, and a thick, khaki work apron that felt like it was made out of canvas. It had plenty of pockets, as well as a leather flap that offered extra protection for the midsection and groin.
We cleaned out the entire collection, with most of the fifteen in my group finding things that fit them. Naturally, that wasn’t in the cards for Chiga or America, who were on two very opposite extremes of the height chart.
We’d accounted for that from the get-go, and the four of my team who didn’t have uniforms knew they needed to hang behind and stick to the shadows as best they could. If possible, we wanted to get all the way to the brothers before they knew something was up.
I wasn’t delusional. I knew that would be difficult, especially since the brothers were on high alert. I could only hope thattheir hubris, as well as the bus full of fake tourists, would be a sufficient enough cover for us.
Sure enough, the rumble of the septic trucks pump starting up was indeed audible from where we were, so I gave the signal to move out. Alicia had supplied us with pretty accurate drawings of the layout of the place, and public records had allowed us to suss out a bit more, so we had a good idea of where we were going. Still, it was nerve-racking. We were quite literally going into the lion’s den, as it were.
Orlions’,rather, considering there were two of them.
Our group moved in an interesting formation, those of us in uniform spreading about, walking along as if we were headed to our next task. I noticed a few of my allies farther away had managed to pick up some tools, which made them look even more authentic.
As for those in our group who weren’t lucky enough to have a disguise, they crept along in our wake, using buildings or large plants as cover. It was much slower going for them, but that was fine with me. It made it that much easier for them to watch our backs.
As I strode along like I belonged here, I couldn’t help but think that if the brothers had banded together from the beginning, we never would have stood a chance against them. After all, that’s how they had defeated my pack the first time. But they’d become so divided, all chasing their own personal desires, that a simple gardener and an amnesiac shifter had started a domino effect that took them out one by one.
Perhaps there was a lesson to be learned there. Maybe shifters needed to adapt and dash our petty squabbles over minute differences in order to move forward. After all, humans were becoming more and more powerful by the day.
I was the first one to make it to an actual entrance of the manor—a nondescript door on the southern side that led into astorage shed, which connected to their indoor grotto and sauna. Apparently, while the exterior of the mansion went back quite far, whoever had bought it in the eighties had turned it into a wannabe-Playboy-mansion paradise. Definitely not my style.
No, my style wasn’t too dissimilar to Ven’s cabin. Maybe a bit bigger, with a half-bath for guests and a whole lot more land to run across, but that was about it. My daydreams weren’t of grottos and five floors of way too many rooms with marble ceilings. It was cats purring when I first woke up in the morning, vocalizing their need for food. It was looking out of the back windows and seeing Ven working in her massive garden and finally getting those chickens she always wanted. It was my pack, united and finding their way in life once again.
Memorizing the manor had been one of the most difficult parts of our prep. So many rooms, hallways, and closets. I’d thought it wouldn’t be too much of a challenge since we’d had to do the same for the auction, but it turned out that the older the estate was, the less its architecture actually made sense.
It didn’t help that we were all entering at different points of the truly expansive manor, because no matter how slick we were, a group of fifteen shifters all arriving through the kitchen door was bound to raise eyebrows. But if just one of us was caught? It was much easier to bullshit some story about being lost or that we were a new hire.
It was such a tenuous balance to find as I strode along, picking my way toward the center of the manor. I needed to walk confidently enough to look like I knew what I was doing, but not so assuredly that I looked like a wolf on the prowl.
Which I very much was. I could practically taste the blood of the last two brothers on my tongue. We were close. Closer than I ever thought was possible.
According to our reconnaissance, there were three major areas where the brothers tended to spend their leisure time. Thebilliards room where, apparently, they had a whole setup for off-track betting. What warlocks found interesting about waging human money on horse races, I had no idea, but apparently it was a thing. The sitting room, where they had a TV that Jack and Rose could have used as a life raft off the Titanic, and then their greenhouse. Although, from my understanding, that last one was only for one brother. That would be the least convenient space for him to be, as it was a giant glass building attached with a single glass hallway on the western side of the manor. Way too hard to sneak up on, and the idea of fighting a plant-controlling warlock in his own conservatory was most certainly not an appealing one.
Bit by a bit, I made my way, maintaining an easy pace so as not to arouse suspicion, but also not looking lost. I was just an employee, headed to… somewhere. If someone took the time to think, I was sure they would be confused as to why a grounds employee was so deep within the estate. But if there was one thing I had learned since Ven had snuck onto Chadwicke’s gardening crew, it was that staff were basically invisible.
It wasn’t until I reached a stairway that led to the sitting room—which was basically a stupidly fancy word for a living room—that I finally caught the scent of the brothers. While I didn’t know what their personal smells were, there was a certain scent of brimstone and sappy sweetness to their magic, like it was trying to entice me and warn me to go away. Locking on to that scent, I knew I was heading in the right direction. I couldn’t smell any of my allies, but that was all part of the plan. We were slathered in all sorts of scent-blocking sprays and lotions, applied far more heavily than usual to make up for our swim. The septic team didn’t need nearly as much prep, but that’s because what they smelled like wasn’t exactly something the warlocks would want to take a deep sniff of. Maybe dogs were on to something when they rolled in their own shit.
Keeping the layout at the forefront of my mind, I drew ever closer. As I rounded a corner toward one of the last hallways, I picked up my allies’ footsteps marching ever closer. They were all coming from different directions but homing in on the same place. I allowed myself a single smile, until a voice startled me. I actually jumped, feeling a bit chagrined at myself, but I calmed down quickly when I realized it was the voice of a guard a ways over. I must have heard him through the room separating the parallel wings.
“I’m sorry, who did you say hired you?”
“Sorry, no… understand?”
That was America. Although we hadn’t spent a lot of time together, she had a very distinctive way of talking. Trying to be as quiet as possible, I stepped through the door to my right and quietly made my way through what appeared to be a fancy study, with several marble statues in it. Who had marble statues in their home? It was one thing to have them outside in some hoity-toity garden, but it was another thing entirely to have them as interior decorations.
I really wasn’t cut out to be a rich person.
But class differences or not, I had an ally to help. Cautiously, I picked my way to the other door and listened intently, waiting to see if America could de-escalate the situation before I lunged in. Ven had taught me quite a lot, but one of the biggest things was that a little bit of caution in battle could very well be a good thing. I didn’t always need to go in guns blazing.
“Nah, don’t give me that shit. Everyone here is supposed to be able to understand basic English. “
