“Let’s go,” Samuel ordered.
28
CLAWS OUT
The forest swallowedus the moment we left the van.
Samuel took point, moving between the trees silently, a predator who’d been born to hunt in the dark. Barney flanked him to the right, the vampire little more than a shadow sliding through the undergrowth. I followed with Didi and Mrs. Chen on either side of me. Gavin brought up the rear, a compact fire extinguisher strapped to his back and his tail curled tight against his legs.
Nobody spoke. The only sounds were our footsteps on the leaf litter and the faint rustle of branches overhead.
The ley lines grew stronger with every step.
Back in the van, the convergence had been a low throb in my bones. Now it was a veritable flow of power. The currents of magic coursing deep under the ground made my nerve endings tingle like I’d stuck my finger in an electric socket. My wolf’s fur was standingon end, her lips peeled back on a growl that begged to rip free from my throat.
I could feel the ley lines heading toward a point ahead of us. One that pulsed with a sinister energy.
Didi’s breath hitched beside me. The witch’s hands were clenched at her sides, faint sparks of magic dancing across her fingertips. She could feel it too.
“It’s strong,” Mrs. Chen murmured uneasily. The elderly witch had both hands wrapped around a bundle of dried herbs she’d tied with twine. She was crushing them slowly between her fingers, releasing a sharp scent that mixed with the pine and damp earth around us. “Stronger than I expected.”
Samuel glanced back at us. His eyes were a molten gold now, his wolf close to the surface. He held up a hand a moment later. We stopped.
The house had emerged from the gathering gloom through the trees, fifty yards ahead.
Where the warehouse on Porter and Ninth had been ugly and abandoned, this place looked almost respectable. A two-story colonial built from dark stone, it had a slate roof and shuttered windows. Ivy crawled up one side in thick, knotted ropes. A porch wrapped around the front, its boards warped but intact. Warm light glowed from two ground-floor windows, casting golden rectangles across an overgrown lawn. If I didn’t know what was happening inside, I might have thought it charming.
But I knew better.
The corruption radiating from the house was like a stench. I could almost taste it in the backof my throat. Oily, cold, and layered over the ancient ley lines like rot on fruit.
The Thornwick property sat like a spider at the center of the web of dark energy. My wolf pressed against my skin, drawn to the almost palpable power of the convergence. She wanted out badly. I barely held her back.
“The barriers start here,” Barney murmured. The vampire had stopped between two ancient oaks. “Three layers. The outermost is a detection ward. If we trip it, she’ll know we’re here before we reach the lawn.”
Didi was already raising her hands, pale blue magic flickering along her fingers. “I can suppress it long enough for us to pass through. But I’ll need to hold it open, which means I can’t do anything else until we’re past.”
“How long?” Samuel asked.
“Thirty seconds. Maybe forty.”
“Do it.”
Didi closed her eyes and focused. The air between the two oaks shimmered faintly, like heat rising from asphalt. I felt the detection ward shiver, its edges fraying under the witch’s magic.
“Go,” Didi whispered through gritted teeth. “Quickly.”
Samuel moved first, slipping between the oaks in a low crouch. Barney followed. I took Mrs. Chen’s elbow and guided her through, the old witch clutching her herb bundle and muttering something under her breath that made my wolf’s ears twitch.
Gavin came last, his nostrils clamped shut withone hand. I could see the effort it was costing him not to sneeze from Mrs. Chen’s herbs. If his nostrils sparked now, we’d lose any element of surprise we had left.
Didi crossed the space and released her hold on the ward, sweat beading her forehead.
The second layer was like walking through warm syrup. It thickened the air and clung to my skin as Samuel and I pushed past it with brute force, our wolves lending us strength. The witches used their magic to cross it. Barney didn’t seem to notice it at all. Gavin’s horns popped out when he went through.
The third barrier was different.
It hit me like a wall of cold water. My wolf snarled in response.
