“We’ve got one of these,” Kurt said and passed me an MP5 and some ammo. I immediately loaded and slung the gun over my shoulder.
The MP5 was a good gun. Actually, it was an excellent gun and something I was very happy to be using when dealing with people inside an enclosed property.
“I assume we’re on foot to the house?” Sky asked as she loaded shotgun cartridges into the Benelli M4 Super 90 she’d been given, an identical weapon to the one Tommy held.
“That’s the plan,” Tommy said. “It’s a half-hour jog, but I figure it’ll be better than driving and triggering any runes. If these guys are Vanguard, they’re military trained to a very high degree and will have ways to try to ensure we can’t track them. I found three in the woods last night; one was sitting up a tree with a rifle, a hundred yards from the house.”
“How’d you know about the wards?” I asked.
“Saw some woman preparing them. These guys aren’t slouches. It’s not going to be an easy morning.”
“Tell me again why Hades isn’t helping?” I asked Sky.
“My parents are in Tartarus, dealing with the fallout of Cronus’s escape.”
“I think we got the better deal,” Petra said.
“From now on, if we have to talk, it’s done over these,” Kurt said, and he passed around some small headsets, which we all immediately put on. They only covered one ear and had a thin microphone that sat close to one’s mouth.
Without another word, Kurt and Tommy set off at a jog toward the same tree line I’d gone into only a few hours earlier, with the other three of us following close behind. We even passed by the site where I’d killed the krampus. I slowed noticeably for a moment when I realized that the body was gone, along with any blood, although evidence of the battle that had taken place still littered the area; the gouges in the ground and trees would take longer to disappear.
Tommy stopped moving just as the house that contained our targets came into view through the thick trees. It was a huge log cabin, with several trucks and 4X4 vehicles parked outside.
“Blood,” Tommy whispered through his headset, and Petra immediately sniffed the air, followed quickly by Kurt, both of whom nodded their agreement.
“Fresh?” I asked as I crept up beside them.
Tommy nodded. “Up there.” He pointed to a massive tree a hundred feet away. “He’s not there anymore.”
I made my way over to the tree and quickly scaled the trunk, using air magic to hold on as I climbed. When I reached the carefully hidden platform thirty feet above the ground, it was easy to see why Tommy had smelled blood. The man’s throat had been slit from ear to ear while he was still lying prone on the platform. Someone had stood over him and done this without him ever moving. I wasn’t sure how that was possible, as I couldn’t imagine how a spotter would have missed seeing someone who stood over him. Even if it had been someone he trusted, he must have been suspicious when the person climbed the tree. There was only room for one up here.
I returned to the rest of them and told them what I’d found.
“There are two more bodies in the bushes over there,” Kurt said. “I went to have a look.”
“Everyone wait,” Sky whispered and took a deep breath before closing her eyes. “Eight souls are out here, all of them recent deaths. I can’t tell about the house; the wards stop me from finding out.”
“How’d the two in the bushes die?” I asked Kurt before we all set off toward the house.
“One had a puncture wound at the back of the neck that looks like it went up into the brain; the second had a hole in his forehead. I’m guessing a blade of some description.”
The five of us made our way toward the front of the house, careful to keep low and avoid open areas as much as possible. I paused by some runes drawn onto the doorframe.
“You know what they are?” Sky asked.
I shook my head.
“There’s no one inside that room,” Petra said. “I can smell death, though. Recent death too.”
“I smell it too,” Tommy said. He readied the shotgun and tried the door handle, which moved easily, eventually clicking softly before he pushed the door open.
The next few seconds passed in silence. Kurt took point, and all five of us moved into the house, guns ready to remove whatever resistance faced us. The reception room was obviously empty, and Petra and Kurt elected to stay behind in case anyone decided to try to catch us by surprise while we were clearing out the rest of the house.
Tommy, Sky, and I remained silent, relying on one another to do our jobs and watch each other’s back. Each room we came to was searched in the same way; Sky stood watch at the entrance while Tommy and I entered the room and did a sweep. If we discovered it was clear, we each pressed the button on our headset, creating a clicking noise. Once all three of us had clicked, Tommy would come over and tap me on the arm, then Sky, and we’d follow him to the next room. We continued this exact same pattern of movement for the first three rooms, which were empty of anything but furniture, but as we got closer to the rear of the building, the smell of death that Petra and Tommy had noticed became all too apparent. At the rear of the one-story house, we found bodies. Lots of them.
We ignored the dead around our feet and continued to check every hiding place we could; getting surprised by someone when your guard is down because you didn’t check the building properly is a very good way to end up dead.
Tommy clicked clear, followed by me as I closed a large cabinet at the end of the room, and then Sky, who was searching behind long flowing curtains that could have easily hidden a grand piano, let alone a man or woman.
I counted five dead, all male, all wearing guns, although few had been drawn. The attack had been fast and accurate, giving little time to retaliate or escape.
“Someone fired through these windows,” Sky said, and Tommy and I found ourselves looking at the holes that perforated the glass.
“Five smashed windows,” Tommy said. “Someone’s a good shot.”
The trajectory of the bullets coordinated with where three of the bodies lay. Two more had obviously figured out what was happening and tried to flee, but hadn’t made it out of the room.
I pushed aside one of the curtains and looked out at the forest a hundred feet behind the house and then at the bullet holes in the glass. “They were in those trees,” I said.
“Kurt,” Tommy said into his microphone, “the trees at the south of the house. Can you and Petra check for a sniper position?”
“Will do. You sure there’s no one in the house?” Kurt asked.
“This house is clean. If anyone was going to pop out, they’d have done it by now.”
“I assume whoever took the shots is long gone now,” Sky said. “I would have felt them if they were still there.”
“Any ideas about how long these guys have been dead?” Tommy asked.
Sky was quiet for a second. “Fifteen minutes before we arrived. Maybe thirty. Not longer. And that one isn’t dead, although he might be wishing he was.” She pointed toward a couch that had several bullet holes in it; the stuffing tumbled out where it had been torn into.
I glanced behind and found Robert Ellis, one of the men who had attacked me outside Petra and Kurt’s restaurant and the man who had claimed to have killed the krampus with a bullet. He coughed slightly and brought up blood. He’d been hit once in the stomach, creating an awful smell as the small piece of metal had torn his insides open. He’d die—no two ways about it—but it wasn’t going to be quick.
“You look like shit,” I said and tapped him with my foot to make sure he realized I wasn’t an hallucination caused by what I was sure was an incredible amount of pain he was going through.
He coughed again and focused on me. “I fought you.”
“You did,” I told him.
“You were tough.”
“That’s what people tell me. Who did this?”
He coughed and spluttered some more, probably causing more pain to w
rack his body, but he didn’t appear to want to answer the question.
“Why did you break Cronus out of Tartarus?”
“Told to. I’m Vanguard; we do as we’re told. Can I get some water?”
“No,” I said. “You were told to help free Cronus?
Robert nodded, although the movement was weak and appeared to cause him discomfort. “We were sent to work with Sarah. It was her plan. All of this—her plan.”
“Who is Sarah Hamilton? Who does she work for?”
He coughed and choked again, gasping in pain once he’d finished. “Go fuck yourself.”
I didn’t have time to make him talk. Besides, I doubted he’d live even long enough to sit him up. “Fine. Why attack me?”
“Sarah knew you’d be here. Knew she’d need to remove you from the picture.” When he spoke, he sounded weaker; his words appeared to be harder to get out.
“Why?”
“She was working for someone. Kept calling them. Don’t know who.”
“Do you know how Cronus escaped from the compound?”
“Witches. All I know is witches were involved.”
“You sure?”
He tried to nod. “One of them brought Cronus here last night. She said she wouldn’t be missed because everyone was out looking for that girl we stuck with the krampus.”
“Sarah created it, didn’t she?”
Robert nodded again and coughed more blood onto the floor. “Before I got here. She said we needed it, could use it as a scapegoat. It grabs the kid and everyone searches, letting Cronus get to us without problems.”
“Why hunt it and pretend to kill it?”
“It broke free of the cave, ran through town. Had to get it back and have everyone think it was dead. Worked out well, as we needed to be seen around town without suspicion.”
“Someone made the townspeople think you were the right choice to do this; someone soothed the townspeople’s emotions.”
“Empath.” Robert’s head pointed to one of his dead friends. “Clive was a good soldier.”
“How’d you know the krampus wouldn’t kill Chloe?” Tommy asked.
“Sarah said it couldn’t without her say-so, unless it was attacked.” He started coughing again, and for a second I thought the pain was going to end him. “She said the girl was safe so long as she was quiet and didn’t bother the krampus.”
“She was a young girl, you fucking asshole!” I almost shouted and barely resisted kicking him in the bullet wound.
“I didn’t like that part of the plan. Using young girls just to smuggle Cronus out was too much.” He said it as if holding on to just one part he found distasteful would redeem him.
“Were all the witches involved?”
“The witches knew—some, all—I don’t know. But those who were involved knew about using the girl.”
“Do you know who killed you?” Sky asked.
“The witches have an enforcer,” he said. “Never met him . . . but he did it. We were set up after Sarah died.”
“Sarah is dead?” I asked. “Where’s Cronus?”
“Cronus killed Sarah with some dagger she carried and ran for it.”
“Where’s her body?”
“Cellar.”
“The enforcer was cleaning up your mess,” Sky said.
Robert nodded, which caused him pain. “Proud to die for the cause.”
“You died for nothing,” I snapped. “I promise you that.”
Robert was silent for a moment as his breathing became shallower. “Cellar outside.”
Tommy and Sky had heard all they needed to, and they made their way toward the room’s exit. I stepped past Robert, who reached out and grabbed me by the ankle. “Don’t leave me like this,” he pleaded.
I glanced down at the dying man. His face was pale, and blood saturated the floor beneath him. He didn’t have long left. I walked over to his friend, Clive, and removed the Glock from his belt before dropping it on Robert’s chest, making him wince. “You use that to take a shot at me, and I promise I’ll keep you alive only long enough for you to regret it.”
Robert glanced down at the gun, and I knew by the look in his eyes that he wouldn’t be able to pull the trigger. He looked up at me. “Please.”
I crouched down beside his head, making sure to avoid the expanding puddle of darkness that crept out from under him. “Did Chloe plead when you took her? Did she beg for you to let her go?”
Robert’s expression told me I was right.
I picked the gun up. “You terrified a young girl just so you could make it easier to get Cronus free.” I placed the gun in his hand and pointed it at his temple. “Go fuck yourself.” And then I stood and made my way out of the house, leaving him to die.
I caught up with everyone else outside, just as rain began to fall in steady streams. Tommy and Sky were speaking with Kurt and Petra, who’d completed their check of the area.
“There’s nothing there,” Petra said. “No scents or anything. I’m not sure how that’s even possible. Even if a person could remove their scent, there should be the scent of the gun, the powder—something.”
Everyone was silent for a moment. Someone had killed the people in the cabin but hadn’t left any scent. I didn’t have a good answer to how that was possible.
“How can we be sure they’ve gone?” I asked.
“We can’t,” Kurt said. “We’ve checked all of the sniper positions, and there’s no one there, but someone could still be out there. What would you do?”
“I’d run,” I said. “The second I was done, I’d get as far from here as possible. You don’t stick around.”
“My guess is they didn’t either,” Kurt agreed.
“Let’s go search the cellar,” I said as I tried very hard not to turn to look at the trees around me. The mystery of the scentless assassin could wait until we’d finished.
The five of us moved around to the rear of the building. Beneath the broken windows, beyond which the dead lay inside the house, were two cellar doors. There was no lock or chain on the rusty handles bolted to each door, so I pulled them open and peered down into the darkness.
“Death,” Tommy growled. “There’s a light switch,” he continued and touched something just inside the gloom, bathing everything beyond in a soft glow.
I was first into the cellar, taking the steps down slowly, just in case some of Robert’s friends happened to be around, hiding while the others were slaughtered above, but the cellar was empty.
Tommy, Petra, and Kurt walked over to a sizeable cupboard at the far end of the cellar, and Tommy and Kurt each pulled one door opened, revealing the corpse inside, which fell out onto the floor with a loud thud.
We all quickly surrounded the body, and I turned it onto its back, revealing Sarah Hamilton. She looked very different from when I’d last seen her standing above me in the car park of Kurt and Petra’s bar. Her skin was gray and stretched tight against her bones, giving her face an almost skeletal appearance. She wasn’t just dead; she’d been drained. I’d seen that kind of thing once before, on victims of vampires who had gone too far, but here there were no obvious bite marks.
“How did Cronus do this?” Sky asked as she lifted Sarah’s thin, bony arm. A ring on the dead witch’s thumb fell off and rolled across the floor.
There was a tear in her blouse, just above her stomach, stained with a tiny amount of blood. I lifted the fabric, exposing her sunken ribcage, along with a stab wound.
“There’s no blood,” Tommy said as everyone stared at the wound. A blackness on the skin around it stopped after a few inches, forming a perfect ring of darkness. “How can that be possible?”
I moved away from the body and searched the cupboard, looking for the dagger that had killed Sarah.
When the cupboard yielded nothing, we searched around the rest of the cellar. It was a sizeable room, with a double bed and some more cupboards. A small TV sat on top of a chest of drawers at the end of the bed. Black carpet had been
laid on the floor, and two electric heaters were turned on, keeping the room warm. The space had clearly been designed to house someone for a while. There was even a small fridge in the corner; I opened the door and found it stocked with milk, bottles of water, and various packages of ham and chicken. A half-empty loaf of bread sat on top.
“There’s a toilet back here,” Tommy called from beside the stairs. “Shower too.”
“Cronus stayed here,” Sky said, picking up the top book on the bedside cabinet and showing me the cover. It was about the last twenty years of world history.
There were also an assortment of British tabloid newspapers, some German newspapers too, and a few porno mags. All in all, it wasn’t the classiest table of literature I’d ever seen, but then what do you get the man who’s been kept in another realm for several millennia?
“Well, he certainly had fun,” I said.
“So, where was he meant to be taken?” Kurt asked. “Robert said Cronus killed Sarah and ran off. What would he have to fear from a witch and a bunch of Vanguard thugs?”
Eventually, I discovered the dagger underneath a small chest of drawers, lodged at the back. I pushed the furniture aside slightly and retrieved the weapon.
The dagger had a five-inch blade, which curved slightly from the wide base to the considerably thinner tip. A thin groove sat in the blade, moving from tip to hilt, where a small black hand guard sat. The hilt was black with red and white runes carved into it, and a small spike sat at the bottom. I hefted the knife in one hand. It felt much heavier than a blade that size should have, although maybe I was imagining things, giving weight to what the dagger had been used for.
I unscrewed the spike and glanced inside the hilt, tipping it up and allowing the small vial concealed inside to drop out onto my palm. The small oblong object was about two inches long and had barely the same circumference as a pencil. It was green and gold, with no obvious markings. On the top sat a small, razor-sharp spike with curved grooves carved into it.
“She was stabbed with this,” I said and showed everyone the dagger.
“Oh shit,” Sky said; the rest appeared slightly confused about what I was showing them.