Eileen Wilks - Blood Lines

"So confident," she murmured, looking up herself for a moment. The house wasn't visible from here, but the fence was— probably not to human eyes, but the moon provided plenty of light for him.

The house might be out of sight, but they knew it was dark. They'd stopped a few miles away at a transformer that supplied electricity to the area. Cullen had fried it, eliminating the regular alarm system. He'd deal with the magical one, too—the wards only he could see.

"It's time," Rule said. He didn't grab Lily for a last kiss. It wouldn't be their last, he promised himself. But he rested his hands on her hips and looked at her, just looked at her, for a long moment. "Lady's luck to you," he said at last.

She smiled, stretched up, and gave him a quick kiss. "And to you." She shouldered the AK-47 Alex had returned to them and melted off into the trees.

A sensitive couldn't be stopped by wards. Nor would she set them off.

Tonight was the only night Jiri could mount an attack, so surprise wasn't possible. Cordoba would be expecting someone to drop by. It was up to them to fulfill that expectation… in an unexpected way.

Lily would work her way around to the front and wait for Rule's call. When she got it, she'd go in alone. Cordoba had a security system but no backup power, so it would be inactive. In addition to the machine gun, Lily had a key to the front door and a small charm, made by the child's mother from a lock of her hair. It should lead Lily to the little girl.

The rest of them would climb the cliff and engage whatever demons took an interest. Jiri and her demon would join the action from a different point once the wards were down, creating all the distraction one might wish, giving Lily a chance to find the little girl before she could be used to stop the rest of them.

Rule's stomach clenched. It was Benedict's plan, and a good one. He hated it. "You ready?" he said curtly to Cullen.

Cullen finished blacking his face with the goo Benedict's light-skinned guards used for night duty. "Done." He tossed the small can to Rule and turned to Cynna. "Kiss for luck?"

She hesitated, then grabbed his face with both hands and gave him what he'd asked for. Thoroughly. Then she stepped back, frowning. "You're crazy, but watch your back anyway, okay?"

His grin flashed. Then he jogged to the cliff and began climbing. Alex followed him up. He would stand watch while Cullen worked on the wards and call Rule when they were down. Then Rule would call Lily.

Rule began spreading the goo over his own face and the backs of his hands. He passed the can to Cynna. "Slather up." He looked at the heftiest of the Leidolf men. "Hennings."

Not all of their equipment came from Benedict's hoard. The climbing rope Hennings brought was his own. He began hooking it to the harness Cynna wore. He would be her anchor.

Cynna grimaced. "I keep telling you I don't need that."

"You'll humor me."

She rolled her eyes and pulled on the black stocking cap they'd picked up at an all-night Wal-Mart along the way.

Eveyone still on the ground was fair enough to need to darken his face. Rule passed the little can around, getting a sense of how each man dealt with his fear. Alex had chosen well, he thought. He got no more than a whiff of fear scent from any of them. Even Brady.

Brady did sneer at him when he accepted the can. "If you've brought us out here on a wild-goose chase, I'll rip your face off and spit in it when I Challenge."

Rule didn't bother to answer. Brady meant to kill him regardless of the outcome tonight. He just hoped the man wasn't so mad for blood he'd try it before they killed their mutual enemy.

There was nothing left but the waiting. He hunkered down to do that, but glanced up at the top of the cliff. He couldn't spot Cullen or Alex, which was reassuring. The wind off the ocean would carry their scent toward the house, but demons didn>t have a very good sense of smell. That had been one of the advantages he had over Gan, much resented by the little demon. But it had resented everything about Rule.

He shivered. Mostly he tried not to think much about the time they'd spent in hell, but tonight, looking up the cliff, the memories were suddenly fresh. There'd been a cliff there, too, higher than this one, rearing above their cave.

The cliff that killed Lily. While he lay useless, unconscious, she'd raced to the edge and—

His shoulders bunched as he pulled himself up, his left foot automatically finding a toehold in the stone. He froze.

God. It had happened again.

After a few seconds he looked up. The edge of the cliff lay about ten feet up. Cullen waited there; he caught a glimpse of his friend's face peering down. He checked to the side, then below. Several dark shapes were following him up. He had to keep moving.

Methodically he did, his mind racing. This was one helluva time for Cullen's charm to lose its potency. Even if it had quit altogether, though, he probably wouldn't have another blackout right away—the most he'd experienced was two in one day, and they'd been widely spaced.

But was he willing to bet everyone's lives on that assumption?

He didn't have a choice, he realized as he heaved himself up onto the thin strip of ground next to the chain-link fence. The Leidolf men wouldn't follow Cullen or Cynna, and Cullen wouldn't follow the Leidolf Lu Nuncio. Rule was only one who could hold their party together, and there was no way to call things off.

God. He hoped he'd done everything the way he'd planned. He didn't remember one second of it, but he had to assume he'd called Lily.

Cullen crouched beside him. "Problem?"

Alex was keeping watch; Rule saw him crouched beside the hole he'd cut in the fence a few yards away. "It stinks of demon here."

"They're around. None close right now, but a couple of redeyes have been pacing the perimeter. Alex should smell them if they get close, even if they're dashtu." He added under the tongue, What's wrong?

Another blackout.

Cullen's startled face said more than he put into words. Do you remember what you're doing here?

I didn't lose that much time. The last thing I remember… He swallowed. His last memory had been a memory itself. It hit shortly after you reached the top and cleared up while I was climbing.

Fifteen or twenty minutes, then.

Rule nodded. Don't speak of this. • We're still going in ?

Lily's probably already in.

Cullen nodded and moved away, making room for the next man to pull himself over the edge. It was Hennings. Cynna followed a few moments, later, winded and trying not to show it. Cullen went to unclip the rope and help her pull off the climbing harness. The others reached them quickly. Cynna had been slowest, of course; however fit, she couldn't climb as quickly as a lupus.

"The wards?" Rule said to Cullen—low, but not subvocal.

Cullen answered the same way. "I made a hole in them to match the one in the fence. We can cross there without setting off any alarms, but I couldn't shut them off entirely without alerting Cordoba. They're good," he said grudgingly, "damned good, with plenty of power behind them."

"Enough to stop Jiri's oversize pet?"

"I'm no expert on the pet, but probably."

"Can you shut them down?"

"Sure. I'll need to be close, though—within thirty feet or so. And Cordoba wili know."

"We'll be more distracting if he knows we're here, but hold off until we're on the other side of the fence."

The hole wasn't large. Rule went first, staying low when he reached the other side. The others crawled through one at a time, their weapons held carefully; Rule was pleased by the way the Leidolf men moved; they'd been well trained. Cynna came last, and almost as quietly as the lupi.

The house was a long, low bungalow. It lay about half the length of a football field away with nothing but dirt and grass between them. On the left, trees climbed the slope toward the house, stopping forty feet from the south wall. To the north, as in front of them, there was only grass, dry and stubby from a late mowing. No cover, and dead grass was hard to cross silently.