My cell phone vibrated in my hand before I could tell him to be patient. I hit a button and held it up to my ear. "Talk to me, Finn."
"Looks like we've got three giant guards in the front of the house." Finn's voice was soft in my ear. "Two walking a route along the outer wall and one stationed by the front door. The gate is closed right now, but it won't be for long."
"You ready with the distraction?" I asked.
"Oh, yeah. The poor bastards will never know what hit 'em." I could hear the smug smile in his voice.
"All right. Get ready. As soon as you go, so will we. You guys search the ground floor and deal with any opposition there, and we'll take the third level and do the same. If we don't find the women there, we'll go down to the second floor and look there. Hopefully, we'll meet up somewhere in the middle."
"Got it."
Finn quit talking, but he didn't hang up. Neither did I. Instead, I kept the line open and slid the phone into one of the top pockets of my vest so I could get to it in a hurry if I needed to. Whichever group found the women first would signal the others.
I could feel Donovan's eyes on me, lingering on the vest that covered my chest. Zippered pockets stuffed with supplies covered the front of the vest, which also had a heavy layer of silverstone embedded in it. The vest was black, just like the rest of my clothes - boots, cargo pants, and a long-sleeved T-shirt. I'd pulled my hair back into a ponytail and smeared two stripes of mud under my eyes to break up the paleness of my skin.
I knew that it wasn't really the vest that got Donovan's attention but rather what it stood for. My wearing the vest meant I was creeping around in the shadows as the Spider once more, stalking my intended prey for the evening - and that he was right here beside me again, whether he wanted to be or not.
The detective sighed and looked away, checking his gun again. On the other side of me, Owen raised his eyebrows and shifted in the grass, running his fingers up and down the staff in his hands. He had shown me the long silverstone staff right before we left the beach house. Owen made weapons as a hobby, something that his elemental talent for metal helped him excel at, and the staff was his latest creation. He'd decided to bring it along when Finn called and said that Bria and I had gotten into trouble down here. Owen had put the same care into the weapon that he had the silverstone knives he'd made me, so I knew the staff would be more than adequate to help him cave in a few giants' skulls tonight.
Owen jerked his head at Donovan, but I just shrugged. I didn't care what kind of mood the detective was in as long as he helped us rescue Callie and the other two women.
As for me, Dekes might have taken my regular knives last night in the library, but that didn't mean I wasn't armed. I'd packed a couple of spare silverstone knives in my suitcase, just in case something unexpected came up while we were in Blue Marsh. One knife was in my hand, another was up my left sleeve, and the others rested in the pockets of my vest, just waiting for me to grab and use them.
Donovan let out another sigh and squirmed in the grass. "Any damn day now - "
In the distance, a sudden roar ripped through the air, and a flash of fire flared upward into the sunset sky before blooming into a black cloud of smoke. In addition to being rather handy with guns, Finn enjoyed making the occasional explosive in his spare time, and he'd just used his expertise to blast open the front gate. A few shouts rose up, followed by the sharp crack-crack-crack of a gun. Finn again, putting down the guards in the front of the house, along with some help from Bria. My baby sister wasn't quite as good a shot as Finn, but she could hit a giant's head at a hundred feet, which was all she needed to do tonight.
The two men guarding the back of the house froze at the sudden explosion of noise, fire, and smoke. They glanced at each other, then ran into the interior, heading for the front of the mansion to find out what the hell was going on. I waited a few seconds to see if any reinforcements would hurry outside and take up their positions, but none did.
"Let's go," I said, and slipped out of the swamp grass.
I took the lead, followed by Owen, then Donovan. The three of us sprinted around the edge of the pond that butted up against the back of the mansion and pounded up a set of stairs to the third floor. The giant guards had forgotten to lock the door to the patio in their haste to go help their friends, just like I'd hoped they would. I opened it, and we slipped inside.
We hurried down the hallway, keeping a lookout for any guards and peering into all the rooms we passed. Every single room, every single wall - hell, every single tabletop - featured some part of Dekes's collections, whether it was gleaming pirate treasure, stacks of classic albums, or other, weirder, creepier things.
"Never trust a vampire who collects dolls," Owen muttered as we passed that particular room.
We eventually came to a crossway with halls that branched off in four directions. I stopped, looking and listening, but I didn't hear anything. No footsteps, no shouts, no snaps of gunfire. I grabbed the cell phone out of my vest and held it up to my ear.
"What's your position?"
Some faint pops and crackles sounded through the phone before Finn picked up a second later. "Took out the first three guards in the front of the house, then another one who rushed out to join them. Bria, Sophia, and I are going in the front door now."
"We're on the third floor and about to start searching the wings up here," I said. "There are probably at least two more guards coming your way. Be careful."
"Always."
I put the phone back into my vest pocket.
"Which way?" Donovan asked.
I thought back, trying to remember as much as I could from the tour Dekes had given me last night.
"Left," I said. "The library's down the right hall, and the one beside that leads down to the pool. I doubt that Callie's in either one of those places. Dekes would want her to be tucked away somewhere more secure and out of sight."
The three of us turned left and did the same procedure as before, walking quickly and quietly, weapons up and ready, keeping a watch out for any guards and peering into all the rooms that we passed. We reached another hallway, and I gestured for the others to hang back a second. I crept up to the edge of the wall, slid down until I was crouched on my knees, and slowly peered around to the other side.
Jackpot.
The hallway stretched out about thirty feet before coming to a dead end. The door at the end of the hall was shut, and a giant stood tall and stiff in front of it, a concerned look on his face and a cell phone in his left hand. That must be how he was communicating with the other guards. Judging from the loud squawks coming out of the phone, the news wasn't good.