Chapter 25 #2
As Cass followed Grayson, she kept an eye out for anything she could use as a weapon.
Charms and potions were great and all, but she would feel better with something that could make someone think twice.
She was starting to worry she was out of luck when Grayson cut through the open framing of a house on a corner.
They went in through the garage and down what was probably a hall.
Wire cables hung from the open ceiling, and stubby pipes poked up from a floor littered with nails and staples and other things that rolled underfoot.
They were passing a room that could have been a bedroom, or maybe an office, when something glinted under the ball of light.
Cass touched Grayson’s back. He stopped and turned, the light following his movement.
She inched into the room and found a piece of cut pipe about two feet long, which she picked up.
It was almost too big to hold in one hand, but with two…
she took a couple of experimental swings, feeling the rough metal bite into her palms. Doable. Definitely doable.
When she rejoined him, Grayson whispered, “Feel better?”
“Much.”
He shook his head, and they stepped out of the hall and into the wide-open space that stretched along the rear of the house.
Unlike the front half, the rest of the back half was dubiously enclosed in plywood, except for a wide gap filled with strips of heavy plastic that rustled in the breeze.
Thick posts were shoved under the joist that ran along what was supposed to be the living room.
The cracked cement floor was littered with nails, staples, bits and pieces of tubing, and splintered wood.
The space spilled into what had to be the kitchen, based on the pipes jutting up in front of the half-finished lower cabinet on the back wall.
Grayson doused his ball of light and stuck to the shadows as he picked his way into the bumped-out space off the kitchen.
Cass followed him to a large framed window with a straight view into the house behind it, and when he dropped to a crouch, she did the same.
As she peered through the empty window, she could make out the shadowed exterior of the house behind them.
It was further along in its construction than the one they hid in.
The exterior plywood walls were wrapped in chicken wire, and sheets of wood on the roof held scattered piles of tiles.
The waning moonlight glinted off the broken glass in two large windows on the far side, both of which were blocked by something paler than plywood—most likely sections of drywall.
A sliver of light leaked from the edges, yet no light spilled over on the opposite interior side, where a dark gaping hole stood in place of the intended patio door.
Huddled next to Grayson, Cass murmured, “Is she in there?”
“According to the tracking spell, yeah.” Grayson continued to study the house behind them.
Cass’s pulse beat heavily in her ears, and the urgency to rush in to confirm that her mom was still alive beat at her.
The only thing holding her back was the annoying voice of logic pointing out that she had no idea what she would be facing, and getting killed wouldn’t do a damn bit of good for anyone.
Grayson cocked his head, his eyes narrowing. “Do you hear that?”
She shook her head even as she evened out her breathing, searching, and finally finding, a bit of calm.
As the rush of adrenaline faded, she strained her ears and kept her eyes on the thin line of light.
The breeze shifted, bringing with it murmurs, and a shadow interrupted the seeping line of light.
She tightened her sweaty hold on the pipe.
“Head’s killing me…” a woman whined.
Dana.
There was an indistinct response with a sharper edge in a lower register, but the breeze took the words away. When it came back, it carried another male voice. “Up. You were supposed to wait. You didn’t, and…” The rest disappeared into the night as someone moved behind the blocked windows.
An angry feminine response followed. It was drowned out by the rustle of plastic, but Cass caught the last word—“Fault!”
She shared a look with Grayson. Dana, the Slider, and one unknown. “Can you make out what they’re saying?”
He shook his head. “We need to be closer.”
She looked over the torn-up dirt that spread between the two houses. “If we cross that, they’ll know we’re coming.”
Grayson studied the other house for a long moment then stood decisively. “Come on.”
He headed back toward the front of the house, and Cass rushed to keep up.
As soon as he got to where the framing opened back up, he slipped between the two-by-fours, hopped the retaining wall, and started to jog down the dark sidewalk.
A broken streetlight sat at the corner, and as they got closer, Cass could make out the hood of a parked car.
She followed Grayson as he darted toward the far side of the car, keeping it between them and the house.
Together they crouched down, staying out of sight.
Grayson angled up to look through the windows, and when he dropped back down, he pulled out his phone and started thumbing the screen.
Confused and frustrated, Cass hissed, “What the hell?”
He shot her a look. “Give me a second.” He went back to his phone, and minutes passed before he tilted it so she could see what he was looking at.
A floor plan filled the screen. “They’ve set up at the back, here.
” He zoomed in on the rear of the house, which was laid out like the one they had just been in.
“You go in through the garage and head down this hall here.”
The hall had bedrooms and a laundry room branching off of it. Just beyond the laundry room, it opened into the living room, which spilled into the kitchen.
Cass eyed the alcove under Grayson’s finger. “Where will you be?”
“I’ll go in through the front.” He shifted the floor plan to show the front porch that led to a foyer with a den off to the side, with the kitchen just beyond it.
“I’ll be here. Once you get into position, count to ten, throw your flash-bang, but stay back until I’ve taken my shot.
Wait for the second flash-bang before you go in. Understood?”
Heart in her throat, she nodded. She switched the pipe to her other hand, wiped her sweaty palm on her pants, and then repositioned her grip on the weapon. With a grim expression, Grayson shoved his phone back into his pocket and pulled out his gun.
He gave her a long look. “Ready?”
“Ready.”
They split up, Cass going through the doorless two-car garage and Grayson heading toward the front entryway. Cass tried to keep her footsteps light as she rushed across the cement and into the darkened interior. As she moved down the hall, the voices got clearer.
“Just leave her.” That was Dana, her voice cold and snide.
“No,” a harder, male voice answered. “We can still use her. I just need to break her.”
“Good luck with that, asshole.”
Her mother’s familiar voice, although slurred, sent relief careening through Cass and weakened her knees.
She leaned a shoulder against the wall until the weakness passed.
There was a pained gasp that got Cass moving again.
She crept toward the opening, careful to stay out of sight.
She dared to sneak a quick look around the corner.
A slender male stood with his back to Cass.
Dana was to his right, her arms crossed and a defiant pout on her face.
In front of them, bound to a chair and looking worse for wear, was her mother.
Just behind her and to the left was a second man, his chest and shoulders thick and broad, his feet braced apart.
Cass ducked back into the hall and carefully set the pipe against the wall so she could pull out the flash-bang.
Holding it in her palm, she counted to ten then angled herself just enough to toss it toward the man closest to her.
She ducked back and grabbed the pipe as the flash-bang hit the floor.
A concussive boom and blinding burst of light erupted.
The gun shot that followed was dull by comparison.
Then came a second explosion. The ground rattled under her feet, and her ears rang as she rushed from the hall, her makeshift bat at the ready.
Through the cloud of hanging dust, she could barely make out her mom, who was struggling in her tipped-over chair.
Cass was so focused on reaching her that she missed the body crumpled on the ground until she tripped over it.
She lost her hold on the pipe as she simultaneously tried to keep her footing and sucked down a lungful of dust. Coughing, hunched over, eyes starting to water, she stumbled forward until a dull shout brought her head up just in time to see a shadow tinged with a sickly green glow charging toward her.
Dana’s snarling face came into view, and Cass had one paralyzing moment to think, Fuck.
A sharp crack split the air, and the ground rose up as if some giant creature was sliding under it, then it slammed down, the wave throwing her one way and Dana another.
Cass’s back slammed into something with bruising force, and a bright burst of pain radiated from shoulder to hip as her ass hit the floor.
A crack split the cement in front of her, and she watched in stunned amazement as it snaked its way across the floor with unnatural speed, arrowing for the two men locked in a struggle.
She scrambled back, ignoring the pained protest of her body, and shoved herself to her feet with a vague thought of warning Grayson. She never got a chance.
“You bitch!”