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But the residence was a different le-story house in the hborhood that had probably been decently rass pushed up between cracks in the sidewalk Several of the ame of mailbox baseball Few of the yards were , and there were several driveith cars in thee froainst tires A house further down the street looked like it had been broken into and vandalized a number of times--probably a foreclosure Several ere sed with spray paint and other unknown substances The house ere looking at had no cars in the driveway, and a dried bron that probably hadn’t been cut in six h it looked and felt like an empty house, it remained untouched by any vandalism

"This is it," Ryan murmured "There are definitely protections around this place" I flicked my eyes to Zack, and he dipped his head in the barest of nods

Elation surged through ht track, but noere we supposed to do? "I can’t do anything about the wards with the cuff on," I said Not that I was sure I’d be able to do anything even if I didn’t have it on There was a reason I called delance to Zack He answered with a faint gri, then tapped his watch In other words, Sure, he could probably get through them, but it would take time And he would need to do it where Ryan couldn’t see as going on

I could get Ryan out of the way, but I didn’t think we had much time

Ryan scowled "Do you think he’s in there?"

I considered this "No," I finally said "I think he’s wherever he wantsto provide incentive for h the coat, then I pushed my sleeve back and narrowedwent off," I asked, "what did it feel like? What did it do?"

"Hurt like hell," Ryan admitted "And left me super-dizzy for a couple of lanced over to Zack, and he nodded "Same Pain, dizzy, disoriented"

I pursed my lips "And I didn’t feel any of that I only puked" A smile slowly spread across my face "Holy shit Duh This cuff not only blockshasn’t done much to me yet I’m a moron Of course that would make me immune to arcane protections as well "

"You can cross the wards," Zack breathed, beginning to grin

Ryan still frowned "Won’t it still make you sick?"

"It passes At the worst I’ll puke, but I’ll be able to get through without getting hurt" I hope, I added silently

"And what if he is in there?" Ryan asked, clearly still less than thrilled with this plan of mine

"Then I shoot him," I said bluntly "He needs me alive I have no such need of hiave a firreed on that" He handed me the transnal" I nodded and obediently tucked it inside my collar

Despite my confident words, my heart pounded as I approached the house A mild queasiness washed over me as I stepped onto the ay that led to the front door Those were probably aversions, I thought as I h tucked inside ht be watching from behind their curtains About five feet away froer wave hit et it under control Okay, and those are soh So far at least Puking was better then being fried Still, I hesitated before I tried the door That’s where the strongest protections would be Taking a deep breath, I seized the door handle

Nothing I exhaled in relief, then frowned in annoyance as I tried to turn it Locked Great, a zillion levels of arcane protection, and he still feels the need to use athe vieith my body as much as I could, I broke the decorativebeside the door with the butt of un