“I admit that it lacks a certain finesse, but—”
“Stop,” Jesse told me, and I closed my mouth, glaring at him. “Okay, look. Where would they be? What’s the most likely place where Hess would confront them?”
I thought about it. “Either Dash’s office or the patio. That’s where Dashiell and Beatrice would have been, if Hess surprised them, and where they would receive guests, if he knocked on the door politely.”
“What’s the best way to get to those two areas?”
I quickly outlined the interior of the mansion: front door leading to foyer, foyer branching into hallway, hallway leading down to living room, which contained doors to patio area.
“And the office?”
“On the other side of the foyer.”
“So basically, we pick left or right the second we get in the door?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay.” Jesse reached behind himself and took something that had been clipped to his belt. “Do you know how to use this?”
A Taser! I almost did a dance. “Yes, absolutely.” He handed it over. It was a slightly more advanced model than my own, but the basics were the same. I should have three crippling jolts before it ran out of power. I felt better.
“Okay, what’s your gut instinct? Patio or office?”
“Patio,” I said immediately, before I could overthink it.
“All right. Stay close to me, be as quiet as you can, and let’s go.”
We snuck around the house via the little sidewalk path, and Jesse eased the front door open. Ordinarily, we wouldn’t have a chance in hell of keeping our approach from the vampires, but I was hoping that all the vamps in the house were close enough to Corry to be human at the moment. Jesse stuck his head through the door into the dim interior, then looked back at me and inclined his head in the universal symbol for Let’s go. I nodded.
As soon as we were inside, Jesse gently swung the door closed and motioned that I should lead. In the foyer, I turned right, heading down the long hallway toward the living room. Bizarrely, sneaking around the vampire’s lair made me feel like a little kid again, staying up past my bedtime to play Capture the Flag with Jack and the other kids in our neighborhood. I felt the same rush of fear and excitement, and the sense that I was getting away with something.
Until I heard the gunshot.
Jesse and I exchanged a look, and I darted forward into the house, ignoring caution in favor of speed. The second we reached the doorway to the dark living room, however, I felt a gun barrel press against my temple.
“Stop right there,” a familiar voice said very softly. In the silence, I could dimly hear muted voices coming from the patio, but I was at the wrong angle to see out the doors.
“Albert?” I ventured.
“Yeah.”
“Who is he?” Jesse asked, hand frozen on his own gun.
“Albert is one of Dashiell’s men. He’s one of the guys who kidnapped me yesterday.” Up close, I had the nagging feeling again that I had seen Albert before that. “But I know you from somewhere else, don’t I?”
“Shut up.”
I snapped my fingers. “The hospital. You were at the hospital visiting Olivia.” Why would a vampire visit a dying null?
Next to my head, the sound of the gun’s hammer being cocked sounded deafening. “I said,” he spat, “shut the hell up.”
My knees threatened to collapse. I shut up.
“First he hands me his gun. Then we can have a nice chat.”
I was afraid to turn my head to look at Jesse, but at the edge of my vision, I saw him hand over his weapon.
“Okay, turn around,” Albert ordered. I did. His small face looked tired and tense, and his rumpled suit looked as if it had seen better days. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
“We’re here to help Dashiell.”
Albert snorted, a very human sound. “Like hell. Isn’t Dash planning to kill you in a few hours?”
“That’s in a few hours. Did you see the girl?” I asked bluntly. “The teenager?”
A look of uncertainty flashed across his face. “Yeah, so?”
“Well, she’s with me. And if the guy holding her hostage is trying to kill Dashiell, then I’m all about helping him.”
“Sort of an ‘enemy of my enemy is my friend’ kind of thing,” Jesse offered.
Albert considered this for a moment. “Then why were you trying to sneak in the door right behind Dashiell, where he couldn’t see you coming?” He shook his head. “No, I think you’re working with that asshole.” He lifted the gun, which had drifted down a few inches. Those things are heavy when you’re stuck as a human.
“Wait,” I said, confused. “Is there another way onto the patio?”
“Yeah, of course. You think Dashiell would build a patio with only one exit? It’s the servants’ door, behind the big guy and the little girl.”
“May I?” I said, inclining my head toward the patio doors.
He hesitated. “Fine. But he goes, too. Take more than three steps and you’re done.”
Jesse stuck to my side as I took a few steps into the living room to get a better view of the patio doors. Albert stayed in the doorway, pivoting the gun so it stayed on the two of us as we crept into the room. The living room was dark and the patio was bright with torches, so I wasn’t too worried about being spotted. I took the allowed three steps and was able to see the scene outside. Sure enough, Dashiell and Beatrice were closest to the patio doors, with their backs to it. Hugo was on Beatrice’s right. I saw Hess and Corry were standing up at the head of the table—and on their left, Ariadne and two men I didn’t know were sitting opposite Dash and his people. The guy next to her was short and squat, with Hispanic features and a permanent frown. He wore an expensive black suit with no tie, but didn’t wear it well. Next to him, across from Hugo, was a tall, lean man in black jeans and a cowboy hat.