Page 21 of Countdown to Murder (A Paranormal Halloween #3)

Mira

A four-mile run wasn’t enough, but it helped.

When I finished, I found an open spot on the floor, stretched my arms towards the ceiling until I felt blood flow into stretched muscles I’d just worked, and then folded myself in half, with my face against the fronts of my legs.

I held this pose about twenty seconds, unwrapped my arms from around my legs, put my hands on the floor, and slid my legs out so I was in the splits.

I pointed and flexed my toes, bent my torso right, left, and forward, lifted up a few inches in the splits, faced toward my right side, and dropped back down, so the back of my right leg was stretched and the top of my left leg.

I leaned forward a while, backward a while, lifted myself, turned to face the other direction, and did it all again.

Finally, I slid both legs together, pressed myself into a backbend, kicked my legs up so I was in a handstand, and then did a few dozen handstand pushups before deciding it was probably time to eat and then get to work.

Panda was cooking our food when I showed up, and I jumped in to help where I could.

“Three people have stopped in to tell me about the splits. Two more came in to tell me about the handstand presses. All five wondered if you were taken. Your quick workout made quite an impression.”

“I ran, I stretched, and then it felt as if my upper body needed to engage, but I didn’t have much time.”

“No need to explain, Darlin’. For the record, I told them all you’re out of bounds.”

“Thanks. The last thing I need is to have a bunch of men hitting on me.”

“If you were in charge of where to put people tonight and tomorrow, what would you do?”

“Ember and me inside. You and Sloan outside the suite, with some of Jones’s men close.

According to the blueprints, the saferoom suite’s HVAC is safe from NBC – nuclear, biological, and chemical attacks.

The mansion’s HVAC may be a weak point, but the saferoom doesn’t have that issue. We only need to protect the way in.”

I shook my head. It was more complicated than that.

“If I was building a saferoom suite in this mansion, there’d be another exit.

A tunnel no one knew about. Not on a blueprint.

I’d verbally tell the new owner after closing, to make sure there wasn’t a paper trail.

And if I was the owner of said mansion, I’d probably not tell my security people, thinking it was best to keep it secret.

However, if I didn’t know there was a vampire out there who could read my mind, then I wouldn’t know just how big of a security hole this created. ”

He put his fork down and stared at me a good fifteen seconds. Annoyance, anger, and finally fear flashed across his face.

“Ember needs to have a talk with her. This is why he’s so cocky about getting her. He’s probably putting suggestions in her head about not telling us.”

“You asked what I’d do? I’d knock her out and fly her somewhere far, far away. We’d leave shortly after dawn took him, and I’d make damned sure she was at least a thousand miles away six hours later, but even then, I’d lie my ass off about where we’d taken her.”

He shook his head. “I’m not authorized to make those kinds of decisions. Only Aaron or Nathan can take that kind of action.”

I figured as much, but that was the only way I knew for sure to keep her safe. “If there’s a secret exit, we need to know about it.”

He nodded. “Most likely, it’s a way out but not in.

Someone inside will have to open the door, but we all know he drank from her during sex, so if he orders her to open it, she will.

” He took a drink of his orange juice. “She’s been self-medicating with an anti-anxiety drug.

Knocking her out to keep her safe wouldn’t be a huge stretch if we can make her think whatever she’s taking built up enough in her system to knock her out. I need to talk to Nathan.”

We sat down to eat, and I shook my head when he poured more orange juice for himself. I was fine with water.

“Ember is scheduled for some sleep as soon as we get past dawn. The client will likely sleep at that point as well. I need you to take a picture of all medicine bottles, and I’ll talk to Ember about what she’s observed the client taking.

While you’re in there, look for some kind of secret exit.

A sliding bookshelf, or wall panel. False back in an armoire. Possibly something in the floor.”

“I need to be in there with Ember tonight, and probably one other person. Ya’ll can’t come into the suite unless someone opens the door from inside.

If the vampire comes in from a backdoor, you’ll have to watch and listen to whatever he does, with no way in to help.

We need someone on the door to open it, and we need someone in both the bedroom and sitting room of the suite.

” I took a breath and asked what I knew would be an unpopular question.

“Does Ember have experience taking down Master Vampires?”

“Not the kind of experience you have. She’s fast, she’s strong, and she’s good with her weapons. He won’t get past her mental shields, but he’ll probably be faster than her.”

“And more experienced,” I pointed out.

He nodded. “You’re right. If the client won’t tell us where the other exit is, we’re going to have to knock her out. Once she’s out, we’ll put one of Jones’s men on the door, ready to open it when the target shows up. I’ll contact Nathan.”

We’d set things up so the client thought we all assumed the hit would come Halloween night, but we were going to be prepared tonight at sundown. Most of us assumed he’d hit in the early morning hours of Halloween, thinking we wouldn’t be expecting him yet.

Three hours later, our client was sound asleep in the saferoom bedroom, and I was looking for the secret entrance she’d assured us didn’t exist, but we’d all smelled the lie.

Ember plus three men were in the bedroom on guard duty, and I was leaning against the wall in the sitting area, feeling the way the expensive wood paneling vibrated when I tapped on it.

Eventually, I got someone else to tap while I listened and felt for differences, and I went all around both rooms and the bathroom.

“It’s the bookcase,” I finally told them. “I can only lean against the wall beside it, but it’s enough. The taps feel way different when you tap the wall between the shelves, and the fact the whole thing is attached to the wall is yet another point towards it being the door.”

The control room had been going over the blueprints while I worked, trying to find something, and they were of the opinion that section of wall sounded different because of the way the bookcase was built.

They were convinced we should look at the floor.

So, I went to my stomach, put my face to the floor, and had the men tap-tap-tap all over the floor.

Our client had voluntarily taken something to help her sleep, so we moved our floor tapping into the bedroom, and I heard something different near the bed.

“Move the bed,” I told them.

They tried, but it was attached to the floor.

Fifteen minutes later, the client was on the sofa, her guards were in the living area with her, and I was staring up at Sloan from a hole in the floor, though I was still on the bed.

The floor had opened and the bed had dropped down when I’d pushed an odd-looking knot in the wood of the rustic headboard.

“There’s a tunnel. We should see where it goes,” I told them. “Someone should probably push anything on the bookcases that look like a knot, too. I’m still not convinced it isn’t a doorway as well.”

* * * *

Panda

An hour after Mira found the first secret exit, we thought we’d found them all.

Whoever had made this saferoom system had been serious about their safety.

Officially, the CEO of a pharmaceutical company had purchased the land and had the house built, but I wondered if perhaps he’d had his hand in something illegal.

This seemed like overkill, unless you were Pablo Escobar, and then it was probably about right.

Mira had been right about the bookcase, and that tunnel led to the garage. Another tunnel led from the back of the bathroom closet into a cave system, and I instructed our control room to find maps of the local cave system, rather than follow it in all directions.

The tunnel under the bed led to a cabin about three miles away, off the property. Two motorcycles were in an attached, locked shed. We all smelled the vampire on this property. He wasn’t staying here, but he’d been here and hadn’t tried to hide his scent.

The owner had three escape plans — the garage onsite, this cabin with the motorcycles, and wherever the cave system led, which was yet to be determined.

Mira was in the saferoom. I trusted she could handle the vampire, so she was with our still-unconscious client. She’d been listening in as we reported our findings to the control room, but so far hadn’t spoken up, so I was surprised when I heard her speak.

“He’s going to scent you at the cabin and in the tunnels.

If he has a Plan B, he’ll use it. If he doesn’t, there’s a chance he’ll walk away.

Old-ones are quite good at staying alive.

They’ve had lots of practice. However, this guy seems a little off to me.

It isn’t normal for them to play these kinds of games.

If they want someone, they take them. He’s turned this into a challenge, a competition to be won or lost. I’m not confident he’ll walk away just because we’ve found the tunnels. ”

“You’re our onsite expert on old-ones. I’ll check in with Aaron as well, but what is your recommendation?”

“Don’t leave a guard at the cabin. We need to trap him, and that’s easiest to do once he’s in the tunnels.”

“Copy that. Control, please make sure Aaron Drake knows the current status, and tell him I need ten minutes on a secure line with him once he’s brought up to speed.”

“Hypothetically speaking,” I asked Aaron twenty minutes later, “if a vampire could do the old smoke-under-the-door myth, would that mean he could grab someone, turn them to smoke as well, and abscond with them?”

“Unfortunately, I believe that would be the case. Do you have reason to believe this vampire can do that?”

“Based on where he’s managed to put those damned flowers...” I sighed. “Nothing else makes sense.”

“If he’s coming in as mist, then the flower bouquet answers the question. Whatever he’s holding, he can turn to mist. When he puts it down, it returns to its original form.”

Mist. The same wording Mira had used. Aaron was bound by the same people Mira was, and likely knew most of the same secrets, but they couldn’t tell us. Frustrating, but I understood. I had a lot of things I wanted to tell Mira, but couldn’t.

“The moisture sensors didn’t pick anything up on the latest incursion?” he asked.

“They went off a second after the bouquet was in place. Not helpful.”

He sighed. “Right. I’m going to have some particle sensors delivered, but it’ll take about two hours to get them to you, and all they’ll do is let you know he’s in the vicinity.

Whoever he’s closest to when he materializes is probably going to die.

Everyone needs to physically keep their back to the wall, so he’ll at least have to come in from the side or front.

” He paused a few seconds and added, “More people won’t help, unfortunately.

You have enough people to handle him, but we’re probably going to lose some of you.

I’ll contact the local Master Vampire and see if he’s willing to help, but my guess is he’ll be happy to let us deal with the problem. ”

“Anything else I need to know?”

“Yeah. Just knocking her out might not be enough. He can still get in her head, and can possibly hear what’s being said around her.”

“Mira warned us about that, but it’s good to hear it from you, too.”

“How is she working out?”

“Better than anyone else on their first job ever has.”

“Good. She’ll be a true asset if we can keep her.”

If we can keep her. Did he know she was on lease from the Concilio?

I’d have to talk to Aaron about it later. Now, we had a human to protect from an ancient vampire who terrified her. Ella MacKenna had told Ember to kill her rather than let Andreason take her. That spoke to just how badly the bastard scared her, and no way was I going to let him get her.

We moved her into the first-floor media room — an interior room with no windows.

We put seven men in the room, and we used plastic to seal the door.

She was unconscious, and the men knew not to mention the fact she was in there, on the off chance the vampire could monitor what she was hearing while she slept.