Page 29

I grimaced at the windshield. It looked like the road moved away from the cliff to climb toward that slope, but it took me a moment before I could convince myself to continue along it.

Possibly because I remembered being chased away from the mushroom farm by Radomir’s thugs in his armored tank.

No cliffs had been involved that night, but the experience had been harrowing.

“Do you want me to drive the rest of the way?” Duncan must have noticed my expression—or maybe my white-knuckled grip on the wheel.

“This is the last place I would want my driver to faint.”

“Understandable. I’ll simply sit over here and beam moral support at you.”

“Thanks.”

We continued on. Fortunately, after the bend, the road meandered away from the cliff.

It turned to dirt as it switch-backed up the side of the slope toward the single light that we could intermittently see through the trees.

I didn’t try to hide the relieved dabbing of sweat from my forehead when the forest once again rose on either side of us.

Ahead, a sturdy iron gate blocked the road, a brick wall with two rows of barbed wire on top stretching to either side.

“Final destination,” I murmured while considering a gravel parking area outside the gate. Near it, a keypad mounted on a post glowed softly. “For those who know the code.”

“Or fancy hopping over some barbed wire,” Duncan said.

“That’s a tall fence to hop .”

The light we’d seen was inside the fenced compound, mounted on a cement wall visible beyond the gate.

“For those with our athletic aptitude,” Duncan said, “it shouldn’t be too difficult.”

I looked at him, and he raised a finger.

“Don’t mention fainting again,” he said. “It’s not going to happen.”

“That’s good because if you passed out with one leg over barbed wire, you might maim something important.”

“I’m glad you deem my body parts important, even the ones you haven’t had an opportunity to fully admire yet.”

“I’ve seen you naked a bunch of times.” I parked by the gate.

“That’s not the same as taking your time to lovingly admire something. Some body parts need a close examination, ideally with an accompanying tactile experience.”

“For someone with a dire medical condition, you’ve had intimacy on your mind a lot.” After turning off the van, I handed him the keys.

“I’ve been lamenting that we never got a chance to engage in said intimacy.”

“I’ve lamented that too,” I admitted, smiling sadly at him.

“I suppose this wouldn’t be the place.”

“I doubt you can even…” I waved vaguely toward his lap. “In your condition.”

“Really, Luna. You’d be amazed at what I can do in any condition.” Despite the words, he opened the door and stepped out. Maybe, even if he were able, he agreed that the driveway in front of the enemy’s compound wasn’t the appropriate place for intimate activities.

I joined him outside to peek through the gate.

Patches of snow dotted the ground, pine cones scattered in between, and a large cement-and-steel rectangle of a building rose up in the middle.

It had no ground-floor windows, but rows of small glass squares lined what was likely the second story.

Those windows hadn’t been designed to let one admire the mountain views.

Rather, they were small enough to keep anyone from climbing through them.

On one end of the building, a solid ground-floor door was made from metal with another keypad on the wall beside it.

From our spot, we couldn’t see the other end.

Once before, Duncan had ripped a metal door off its hinges, but would he have the strength for that now?

A few floral scents wafted through the chill air, noticeable above the forest smells of pine, Douglas fir, and moss. There were other scents as well, but I struggled to identify them. Chemicals? Ingredients for potions? Who knew?

“It doesn’t look like anyone is home.” Duncan waved toward the grounds at the lack of automobiles visible. The way the building was built into the slope made it unlikely that any were parked behind it.

“You may not get any opportunities to prove yourself.”

“Alas.”

“Unless the medallion would be impressed by you flexing your great muscles and yanking that door open.”

“I have to imagine it would be, but I brought some grenades along, should my great muscles prove insufficient to the task.”

“Had time to shop at the military-surplus store, did you?”

“I believe we’ve both appreciated having a stockpile of explosives lately.”

“Is it a sign that my life has become strange that I’m quick to nod yes to that?”

“ Very strange.” Duncan opened the sliding door, climbed into his van, and grabbed a few items, tucking them into his pack.

I grabbed my own bag, then gripped the wrought-iron bars of the gate and tried to extend my senses toward the building, to tell if any magical items lay within.

Yes, I did sense magic but couldn’t tell if it was powerful enough to suggest artifacts.

More likely, the building held numerous glowing mushrooms and other paranormal potion ingredients.

Though I did get a sense of more magic underground.

In a basement? The walls and ground were insulating and made it hard to tell what kind of magic might be down there.

Duncan grunted as he slung the pack over his shoulders, then gripped the bars and climbed the gate. Like the wall, it had barbed-wire at the top, but he managed to navigate over it without scraping himself to pieces—or fainting.

“Not going to rip anything off the hinges tonight?” I waved toward the side of the gate, then grabbed the bars to see if I could emulate his climb. There weren’t any decorative curlicues that would have made ideal footholds, but a horizontal metal bar in the middle helped.

“There might be a security system.” Duncan hopped down on the inside of the gate. “If so, ripping doors and gates asunder is the kind of thing that sets alarms off.”

“Have you experienced that in your various adventures?”

“I might have, yes.” Duncan pointed out a couple of security cameras mounted on the cement walls as I climbed down beside him. “It’s human nature for people to want to protect their valuables.”

“Have you gotten caught before trying to get into a secured compound?”

“Usually, the treasures I hunt are in a lost-at-sea or buried-underground state and rarely secured, but I might have had to skedaddle at a rapid pace a few times to avoid Dobermans, Rottweilers, and brutes with tasers.”

“Those sound like harrowing experiences,” I said, though a werewolf shouldn’t have trouble handling any of those foes.

“A little harrowing, a little exhilarating.”

“Apparently, nothing untoward enough happened to change your life, or you wouldn’t be fishing for coins in private koi ponds.”

“ Those are rarely surrounded by cameras and alarm systems.”

“Strange that people don’t value their fish more.”

One of the security cameras on the walls swiveled on its mount to face us. Though I doubted anyone was on the premises, I wouldn’t be surprised if those were transmitting back to one of Radomir’s paid people. We would have to do our snooping swiftly, before someone arrived to stop us—at gunpoint.

Perhaps thinking the same, Duncan trotted for the door we’d observed. It was locked, and 1-2-3-4 did not open the keypad.

He jogged around the building to check for other entrances.

I eyed the second-story windows. From below, they were larger than I’d thought.

I might be able to squeeze through one. Duncan, with his broader shoulders, was iffier.

Not that I saw an easy way up to and through them from the outside regardless.

They were flush with the flat and unadorned cement walls.

“There’s another man door and a large roll-up garage door on that side of the building,” Duncan said when he returned. “But they’re locked and very sturdy. There aren’t any lower-level windows, and the walls are smooth, not conducive to climbing.”

He gripped the door handle in front of me, planted a foot on the wall, and tested it by pulling. It didn’t budge.

“I’ve lost a wee bit of my strength,” he admitted reluctantly, releasing the handle. “Or it might be that this door is a little sturdier than the one at the other compound.”

“For the sake of your ego, I’ll say that it’s clearly much thicker and better made.”

“You’re a good woman.” Duncan shrugged off his pack and pulled out a grenade.

“Are we giving up on the plan not to trigger the security system and going forward with ripping things asunder?”

“I’ve caught the cameras tracking me. I believe someone already knows we’re here.” Duncan waved for me to back away, armed and set the grenade against the door, then ran to join me.

We ducked behind a well house a second before it blew, the explosion thunderous as it echoed across the mountainside. I imagined someone at the resort community pausing in putting away their kayak for the day to look curiously in this direction.

“I hope we have the right address,” I said when the noise of the explosion faded.

“We do.” Duncan peered toward the entrance.

“The GPS was less certain.”

“The GPS couldn’t sense magical potion ingredients inside.

” Duncan cocked his head as the smoke cleared, revealing the door blown open.

Surprisingly, the wall around it hadn’t been damaged.

That had to be made from something sturdier than the cement it looked like.

“And not only ingredients, I think. I can pick up more magic now that there’s a hole in the wall.

Stronger magic. Lots of it. It’s below ground, I believe. ”

“I’m ready.” I flexed my fingers, surprising myself by again wishing I had the sword. Maybe I just wanted something with which to defend myself. But, with night deepening, I trusted I could easily turn into a wolf inside, if need be.

“Something a man always enjoys hearing from a lady.” Duncan saluted me, then led the way toward the entrance, the smoke mostly cleared, though enough lingered to make my nostrils itch.

“There wasn’t this much innuendo when I went on a mission with Bolin and my niece.” I followed him to the doorway.

“Oh? Was it a superior experience?”

“Not really. I had to listen to violin rap music.”

“My flirty wit must be a vast improvement.”

“You think so?”

“I do,” he said with confidence.

We stepped into a wide dark corridor, the interior walls and floor made from the same gray cement—or whatever it was—as the exterior.

Only the ceiling was made from a lesser material, something flat and white with a metallic sheen.

Few doors occupied the flat walls, and no lights came on as we entered.

There weren’t switches anywhere in sight, though modern recessed lamps lined the ceiling.

If one could figure out how to turn them on.

If not for the exterior light, I might have believed the power was out. There were also a couple of green glowing circles set into the wall halfway down the hallway. Odd.

A lot of faint tink, tink, tink sounds came from the distance. Almost like water dripping but more mechanical in nature.

“This looks more modern than most of their other hideouts,” Duncan observed.

“I take it Radomir and Abrams never summoned you to this place?” I tapped on the flashlight app on my phone. Even with keener than typical night vision, it was hard to see everything.

Ah, was that an elevator by those green circles? Those had to be the up-down buttons.

“They did not. I would say it’s unlikely they use the facility, but I smell Abrams’s scent here. Not only has he visited often, but he’s visited recently. I?—”

A loud clang sounded behind us. I jumped and spun, landing in a ready stance, my skin pricking in alarm, the wolf almost tempted out by the noise.

A gate of thick steel bars had descended to block the doorway.

“I… didn’t expect that after we blew our way in,” Duncan said.

“Security is better here than you’d expect in such a remote facility.”

“Better than in a koi pond.”

“No doubt.”

Duncan jogged to the gate, gripped the bars, and attempted to lift them. They didn’t budge. He crouched to give it a more serious try. Given his strength, however diminished by the curse, I expected him to be able to heft open the gate, but the bars still didn’t budge.

Hell. We were trapped.