I didn’t linger at the entrance. Thane and I strolled slowly past hand in hand and I took the opportunity to scope out the place. Much as I was itching to find out what – or more importantly who – was inside, I wasn’t foolish enough to announce my presence until I was sure of the lay of the land.
A sweeping glance at the property told me a great deal. As with all vamp houses, the windows were boarded up so there was nothing to be gained from peeking through them. There were four storeys above ground but there was no way of knowing how deep the property extended underneath. Doubtless the place had a secret door to the Understream so there would be at least one basement level, if not more.
The front door was firmly closed but the viewing grate in its centre was slightly ajar. It was only an inch or so, but any gap was sloppy. Although it wasn’t a technique I’d employed in the past, I knew of assassins who had used projectiles to kill targets through slender margins such as that one. Chester Longchamps – or whoever inhabited the building now – was only pretending to take security seriously.
‘There are no bins outside,’ Thane mused.
He was right: almost every other property on the street had placed metal bins outside ready for the wirry cows’ weekly collection but there were none outside Longchamps’ house. There was also the corner of a white envelope protruding from the letterbox.
I was all but certain nobody was home and, given what I’d heard from Penelope, the place could have been vacant for some time. Weeks, I decided, rather than many months; it didn’t look desolate enough to have been empty for a long stretch.
We circled around the block to double-check that there was no rear entrance. Then, because my wariness hadn’t yet subsided, we took up position on the street corner far enough away so as to not draw suspicion but with a clear view of the front door.
Thane shielded his eyes and gazed up at the sky. ‘It’s still mid-afternoon so it will be hours before any vamps venture out. I’m happy to find a lookout point and keep an eye on that door to see if anyoneuses it.’
An odd spot between my shoulder blades itched. That was by far the most sensible approach, but only a true fool would enter an inhabited vamp lair uninvited – especially a property where callers were visibly discouraged. I wasn’t sure I wanted to wait until dark, and I didn’t believe anyone was living there now, but I couldn’t be certain.
‘The problem is that anyone in the house will have a route into the Understream from inside so they don’t need to use the front door. We could wait here for weeks and not see anyone. If Chester Longchamps is dead, which is possible given the look of things and what I overheard, there’ll be no-one to see.’
‘If Longchamps is dead, then who bought the conjuration spell?’
Good question. My mouth flattened. ‘We can’t know for sure. Another vampire might have stolen his identity, but we need to rule him out first to be certain.’ I eyed the door again before turning away. ‘I’m in the mood for some action.’
Thane’s emerald-green eyes gleamed. ‘You want to make an incursion?’ He cracked his knuckles. ‘I’m ready to back you up if that’s what you decide.’
‘I don’t have the right tools,’ I admitted. I had my trusty magical skeleton key but I doubted it would be any match for that front door. It wasn’t impregnable – no door was – but it would take more equipment than I was carrying.
‘There’s a decent witchery store a couple of streets away,’ Thane suggested.
I grinned. ‘I like your thinking.’
‘We could pick up some…’ He stopped mid-sentence, his arms snapped out and he drew me into a tight embrace before his head dipped for a kiss. Despite my surprise, I didn’t resist; it didn’t take a genius to understand what he was doing.
‘Someone is there?’ I whispered, when his lips pulled away from mine.
Thane’s voice was low and urgent. ‘The door opened and a man has come out. Obviously not a vamp.’ He manoeuvred me to the side and gazed over my shoulder. ‘A thrall, by the looks of things.’
Interesting. ‘Describe him.’
‘Greyish skin, mid-thirties. Likely human. Brown hair – and a droopy moustache.’
My spine stiffened. Bingo: he had to be same thrall I’d seen sneaking around in the Understream via the echo spell. ‘Forget the house,’ I said immediately. ‘We have to follow that thrall.’
Thane nodded. ‘As my lady commands. He’s heading away from us but he keeps looking over his shoulder as if he’s expecting to be followed. We’ll have to be careful.’
There was an easy solution to that problem that wouldn’t involve a side trip to the witchery store for a tracking spell; sometimes non-magical methods could be more successful than enchantments.
A frisson of delighted nostalgia rippled through me. ‘In that case,’ I said, with a satisfied smack of my lips, ‘we’ll have to tag team.’
EEL wasn’tthe first organisation to promote multi-surveillance techniques but it quickly became the master of them. In order to assassinate someone you needed to know a target, and there were few simpler ways to do that than by tailing them.
Of course, potential targets might be trained in counter-surveillance techniques, and sometimes they employ bodyguards. Sometimes they were paranoid enough to notice a tail. The best way to avoid alerting them was to use several people. It was far harder to spot your pursuer when more than one person was following you.
I outlined my proposal to Thane. He was an intelligent guy and, although he didn’t have my training, he grasped the concept quickly. Within less than a minute he was off, striding in the wake of the thrall. I followed at a distance, watching him rather than our hapless victim.
There was a busy crossroads at the end of the street where Lennel Road began. I knew there were many shops to both the left and the right that catered for a whole host of Preternatural requirements. Although I was too far back to see which direction the thrall had taken, from behind him Thane gestured to indicate right.
I nodded and sped up. While Thane continued to follow the thrall, I crossed over, continued straight and started to jog.
