Chapter 34 #2
“Jackson McCreedy, you were a rodeo clown?” a woman shouted from the kitchen. She cackled as he frowned down at his cards.
“Uh-oh, busted. I can’t believe you’re trying to keep that from her. You should be proud of your past.” Walker’s tone did nothing to hide his amusement.
“Oh, Gigi, he was famous. Sought after, until he quit out of nowhere.” The cowboy whose back was mostly toward us turned just enough to cast his profile in the light.
Kiki gasped and immediately pointed. “That’s him. That’s Ransom.”
Dahlia frowned. “Probably not best we just storm in, metaphorical guns blazing. Should we wait for them to go to sleep?”
Hades shook his head. “We can’t stick around that long. And poker games can go all night. We need to get him alone.”
“We also can’t assume the only people in the house are the ones we can see. A rich guy like this is bound to have staff around, at the very least,” Merri pointed out.
“I can walk through walls, and they can’t see me. Why don’t I do some exploring?” Kiki suggested.
“I have a faster way,” Dahlia said, then she closed her eyes. Her lips twisted into a smirk. “There’s a trio upstairs. They’re . . . busy. And then these four in the kitchen/dining area. That’s all.”
“Easy as pie,” I murmured.
“How do you figure?” Hades asked.
“Merri can put them to sleep with her succubus power, we pop in for a little blood, and then leave. They’ll be none the wiser, and I don’t have to get my hands dirty.”
“You can knock people out?” Dahlia asked, sounding impressed. “I thought you just made them horny.”
My beautiful Merri ducked her head as she blushed. “It’s all tied together. My kind are strongest in the dream realm, so we can pull people into it whenever we need to.”
“Huh. That seems pretty convenient.”
“Maybe not for the people falling asleep,” Kiki said with a snort. “Can you imagine just passing out while in the middle of something like cooking or driving? Yikes.”
Merri was frowning now. “I never really thought of that.”
I gave the ghost my darkest glower for upsetting my mate, then moved to Merri’s side, rubbing her arm in what I hoped was a soothing manner. “Don’t worry, crabapple. You can see clearly enough that everyone here will be safe as can be.”
“You’re forgetting one very important detail,” Kiki said.
“What’s that?”
“The security system. But don’t worry, I’ve got it covered.” She held out her hands with a grin.
“Since when are you a cat burglar?” Dahlia asked.
Kiki rolled her eyes. “I’m not going to pick the lock, silly. I’m going to use my ghostie powers to short them.”
“She is quite skilled with electricity.” Hades beamed with pride. “Not everyone gets an ability, but our Keeks is strong.”
“Okay, so I put them to sleep, you bypass the system, then Luc goes in for the blood.” Merri turned her focus to me, expression worried. “You’re not going to kill anyone, right?”
“As long as you keep them in a dream, I won’t have to.”
“And you’ll come get me when you have what you need?”
“The very second.”
“Okay,” she said again, this time with a bit more confidence. “Ready when you are.”
“You’re up first, girlie. I can’t tap into that security system without alerting Ransom to something being wrong. They’ll have to be down for the count first.”
Merri took a deep breath and closed her eyes.
“How long is this going to take?” Hades asked.
Everyone sitting around the table slumped in their chairs, Gigi falling to the floor in an ungraceful heap.
“Not long, apparently,” I said, sliding a worried glance at Merri, who had gone stiff.
“Will she be okay standing?” Dahlia asked, a frown between her brows.
“She’s not actually asleep the way they are,” I mused. Then selfishly, I shrugged and swung her up in my arms. “But I guess it doesn’t hurt to ensure her safety.”
I had to admit, there was something about carrying her like this. It was so very gothic romance hero of me.
I laid her down on a nearby bench and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I’ll be back, love. Won’t be a tick.”
The lights flickered in the house, and the rumble of the generator rattled to a stop before everything went dark. Kiki winked at me before floating over to Dahlia’s side.
“Your turn,” Hades said, handing me the axe Chaos made.
I accepted it with a small smile, more than a little eager to play yet another vital role in this operation. I mean, really, would the resistance have even gotten to this point without me to guide them?
Thanks to the overconfidence of humanity, I was able to waltz right into the room and collect what I needed without even picking a lock.
I dragged the edge of the blade across Ransom’s palm, ensuring the axe was coated in as much blood as possible before lifting the weapon from his split skin.
There was no doubt in my mind of my success, because the metal took on an eerie glow and pulsed in my grasp.
“And Bob’s your uncle.”
Realizing the cowboy would likely have questions about his sudden injury, I lifted a nearby highball glass and dropped it on the floor, picking up the biggest of the shards and pressing it into the wound.
Was it perfect? Likely not. But it would suffice, and that’s really all we needed.
These men were explaining away an entire apocalypse unfolding before their very eyes. Surely a broken glass being the reason for a messy cut was easy to accept by comparison. Even if the timeline didn’t exactly match.
Returning to the group, I held our freshly attuned weapon aloft. “Alrighty, chaps. Let’s wake up our succubus and get this over with.”