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The house was set back froy trees with brown leaves The design of the thing was a hodgepodge of various architectural styles, with the only unifying ele that they'd all been repro'd badly: It had a roof like a Cape Cod, but was on one story like a ranch; it had pillars on the front porch like a colonial, but was sided in plastic like a trailer; it was set up on its lot like a castle and yet had the nobility of a busted trash bin

Oh, and it was painted green Like, Jolly Green Giant green

Twenty years ago the place had probably been built by a city guy with bad taste looking to start life over as a gentle about it was run down, except for one thing: The door was made out of shiny, fresh-as-a-daisy stainless steel and reinforced like so you'd find in a psych hospital or a jail

And the ere boarded up with rows of two-by-sixes

Z crouched behind the rotted shell of what had been a '92 Trans Aether and cover the ravel driveway, Rhage was behind an oak

Which was really the only tree big enough to hide the mofo

The Brotherhood had found the site the night before by stroke of luck Z had been don patrolling the needle park under Caldwell's bridges when he'd caught a pair of thugs du a body into the Hudson River The disposal had been quick and professional: Nondescript sedan drove up, two guys in black hoodies got out and went to the trunk, body was head-and-footed, remains were tossed into the current

Splish-splash, taking a bath

Z had been downstreauy floated by, he saw fro mouth that it was a hu absolutely nothing at all If some man had been God-father 'd, that was not his biz

But the wind changed directions and brought hi cotton-candy sweet

There were only two things Z knew of that sht: old ladies and his race's ene it was unlikely that Betty White and Bea Arthur were under those hoods channeling their inner Tony Soprano, that meant there were two lessers up ahead So the sitch was very s to do

With perfect tiument While they went nose-to-nose and did a couple punch-shoves, Z dematerialized to the pylon nearest the sedan The license plate on the Impala junker read 818 NPA, and there didn't appear to be any other passenger of either the stiff or the quick variety

In the blink of an eye, he deain, this tie From his crow's- eye view, he waited with his phone to his ear and a line open to Qhuinn, bracing hi's ass

Lessers didn't ordinarily kill hu, because it didn't gain you points with the Oht, for another That being said, if so he shouldn't have, the slayers wouldn't hesitate to cash-and-carry him to his royal reward

When the Iht and headed away from don Z spoke into his phone, and a ht where the Impala had come out

Qhuinn and John Matthew had been taking the night off with Blay at ZeroSum, but those boys were always ready for action As soon as Z had called, the three raced for Qhuinn's brand-neheels, which had been parked a block and a half away

At Z's direction, the boys floored it to catch up with the sedan While they closed in, Z kept an eye on the lessers, de top as their POS e Thank fuck the slayers didn't highway it or they otten away

Qhuinn had skills behind the wheel and once his Hu the SUV reliably, Z stopped his Spidey shit and let the boys do the work About ten e took over from them in his GTO just to mix it up and reduce the chance the lessers would catch on that they were being tracked

Just before dawn, Rhage had followed theht to do any kind of infiltration

Tonight was follow-up Big time

And what do you know, the I pretty in the driveway

As the clouds finally got their act together, Z gave the nod to Hollywood, and the two of them dematerialized to either side of the front door A quick listen revealed arguing, the voices the saht before Evidently the pair of slayers were still oil-and-watering it

Three, twoone--

Rhage kicked the door to the house open, bootlicking the bitch so hard his shitkicker left a dent in the metal panel

The two lessers in the hall swung around, and Z didn't give the with his SIG'sthe pair pinwheeling backward

Rhage went on dagger duty, leaping forward, stabbing first one and then the other As the flashes of white light and the sharp sounds faded, the brother leaped to his feet and froze like a boulder

Neither Z nor Rhage h the house's silence, searching for anything that suggested further inhabitation

The moan that bubbled up into all the quiet came from the back, and Z walked swiftly toward the sound, muzzle first In the kitchen the cellar door was open, and he dematerialized to the left of it A quick head jab and he took a look-see down the stairs A bald lightbulb hung froht showed nothing but stained floorboards

Z willed the light off down below and Rhage provided cover from upstairs as Z bypassed the rickety steps and dematerialized into the darkness

On the lower level he s teeth from the left

He willed the cellar light back onand lost his breath

A s to a table He was naked and covered with bruises, and instead of looking at Z, he squeezed his eyes shut, as if he couldn't bear to knoas co at him

For acolor, and reality blurred such that he wasn't sure whether he was the one tied down or the guy as co to the rescue

"Z?" Rhage said fro there?"

Z snapped to attention and cleared his throat "I'm on it"

As he approached the civilian, he said softly in the Old Language, "Be of ease"

The vampire's eyes flipped open and his head jerked up on his spine There was a look of disbelief, then astonishment