“Fine,” Emery said, surprisingly, turning away. He glanced at the sky. “Is it possible to hurry your mother up, Penny? Time is ticking.”
“No.” I waved my finger at Cahal. “Nope.”
“He got me out of the action, and I was glad for it,” Veronica said, her gaze now shooting past me. “There are…wild animals. Oh my God”—she gasped—“don’t tell me shifters are real! Are those shifters? Because there are vampires, and now shadow men, and…those are shifters, aren’t they? Wow, they sure are built. I am on Team Shifter all the way.”
“Not helping,” I muttered out of the side of my mouth.
“Oops. Sorry. I’m just fan-girling a little.” Veronica put her red pen into her pants pocket.
“You’d change your tune if you took a tumble in the sheets with a vampire,” Reagan said with a grin.
“Would you guys focus?” I demanded, a cold sweat covering my forehead. I was still unsure about the druid and the person who sent him. Surely someone of his stature had to be expensive. Who would have that kind of money?
“Could Darius have hired him, you think?” I asked.
“He would’ve said something,” Reagan replied. “Even if he had kept the secret until today, once the house was surrounded, he would’ve instructed me on how to connect with the druid. No, it can’t be him.”
“Vlad?”
Reagan just shook her head. “Vlad would present him to you with a flourish. It’s not like him to keep a gift of this magnitude under wraps. Not when you’d basically have to accept it because of the circumstances.”
“Then who?”
“Whoever it was, Cahal seems extremely capable,” Veronica said, stepping back to pat him on the arm. “He’ll definitely help out. You should keep him.”
My mother backed away from the tailgate, her hands on her hips. “Well, that’s the shits.”
My mother swearing tore my mind away from the situation. I couldn’t help a little righteous indignation. All this hubbub about me swearing, and she goes off?
“What are your thoughts?” Alder asked, standing beside her.
Roger didn’t take his eyes off Cahal to look.
“You’ll need to leave me here. This is where my usefulness ends. After we secure Darius, I’ll need to communicate with you through text.” She blew out a breath. “I would’ve much preferred getting magic like Penny’s so I could be part of the action.”
“Did you get anything about the current situation?” Emery asked, stalking up the road a little on his own.
“Very little.” My mother pulled over her crystal ball. “Charge them, basically. I got the idea that this group of mages is made up of cowards. Same as the group that tried to take on Roger. They won’t stick around. The real meat of the magical world is waiting for you back at the Mages’ Guild.”
“And do you have anything that will be of use to us there?” Emery asked, clearly having taken charge. No one questioned it.
Alder held up a jagged piece of cardboard. “I catalogued the things she was saying, since she didn’t have her tape recorder. It’s not enough for a well-orchestrated plan, but…” He switched his weight to center mass, and it seemed like he wasn’t thrilled with the next bit. “She says to let chaos be our guide.”
Reagan raised her hand, then pointed at me. “We got chaos all day long.”
I rolled my eyes. We’d spent a half-hour or so at the bottom of the road, not long enough to make it safe for Darius and the other vampires to leave the house. “The sun doesn’t seem to be complying with our window of opportunity.”
“No. It doesn’t,” my mother said. “But that’s the time frame we have. You need Darius. He is an important piece. I don’t know anything about his entourage, but you definitely need him. Which is common sense. You didn’t need me to tell you that.”
“All right.” Emery clapped once. “Let’s get rolling. Roger, those of you who are in human form can probably sit this one out. We have plenty of power at our disposal, not to mention several booby traps that Penny and I can activate. Save the majority of your power for the next leg.”
Callie and Dizzy hurried up the road toward Emery, clearly not wanting to be left out like my mother.
“Guard her until we can get her inside,” I told Cahal, pointing at Veronica.
“You took the note. My contract has been initiated. I am only to guard you,” he replied.
I gave him a flat stare. “I don’t need you up there. But Veronica needs you down here.”
He stared at me without comment.
“Hello?” Getting frustrated, I very nearly magically slapped him. “You essentially work for me, and I say you need to stay down here.”
Blank stare.
While his eyes were certainly beautiful, I wasn’t in the mood to sit and stare at them all day. “We’re not going to get along, you and I.”
“Penny,” Reagan said, stalking toward Emery. “You’re wasting your time with him. Contract killers—or defenders, in this case—do their job, and that’s it.”
I ground my teeth, wishing for a way around this.
“We’ll watch her,” Roger said. “My people have scouted out the area down here. We’re safe at the moment, and should their people invade the area, we’ll handle it.” Roger shifted his gaze from Cahal for long enough to meet my eyes, his look full of assurance and confidence. She’d be fine.
I nodded. It would have to do. I was out of time.
“You are…very skilled, I can tell,” Veronica said in a wispy voice. Her gaze started to dip.
I elbowed her. “Get a hold of yourself,” I said through my teeth. She started and her face flared red again. “Stay safe. Let them protect you.”
That handled (there was nothing I could do about Veronica’s wandering eyes), I jogged up to join the others. Cahal kept pace effortlessly beside me.
“Here’s what we’re going to do,” Emery said as I neared him. “Penny and I will take the left side of the house from the driveway. The Bankses will take the right. We’ll hit them with some intense spells. Create fear. Shifters…” He stopped and waited for the animals to gather. Roger and a couple of the others walked up behind them, probably to make sure the plan was sound. “You cut through these woods here…” Emery pointed. “Go around to the back and come at them that way. We honestly have no idea if anyone warned this crew we’d be coming. Based on the fact that no one is watching this road—”
“I’ve taken out all the sentries,” Cahal said, staring straight ahead.
Emery paused with his mouth open, possibly waiting for an explanation of some kind. When he didn’t get it, he said, “Are you sure you got everyone?”
“Yes,” Cahal answered. “I didn’t want anything to impede my transaction with Penelope Bristol.”
He kept saying “Penelope.” It probably just reflected his devotion to the contract he’d signed. But I wondered…aside from my mother, who certainly would’ve told me had she hired an extremely scary magical creature to protect me, only vampires called me Penelope. From what I’ve heard, it was never just a gift when it came from a vampire.
Fear wormed through my stomach as Emery continued discussing his plan of attack with the shifters.
Vampires were crafty. They hedged their bets. And they didn’t play fair. Anyone at all could have sent Cahal, including someone from the other side.
“How do I know you were actually sent to protect me?” I asked him, stepping closer.
He turned a little, letting his gaze fall to me. “Because I told you so.”
“I don’t know you from Peter. How can I be sure you’re not lying?”
“I am a druid.”
I put out my hands. “That means nothing to me. I don’t know anything about you.”
“They can’t lie,” Reagan said, clearly eavesdropping.
“They can’t, or they aren’t supposed to?”