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We approached it cautiously. The sense of wrongness increased the closer we got. Esme sniffed the air. Old death, she said darkly.
Are we talking blood sacrifices or just old hunts?
I don’t know. But if I was a betting bitch, I’d say the sacrifice thing. The wrongness is strong here, like something foul has happened.
We lay down in the long grass near the house and watched. It was quiet – too quiet; there was no birdsong, no bees buzzing. It was an area of total silence, and it was creepy as fuck.
The house nestled by the treeline and movement there caught my eye: Jacob. He settled his black wings behind him and waited, poised. Seeing him there settled me. I wasn’t alone.
You’re never alone, Esme commented. You have me.
I did, but lately there was a chasm between us, and I hated it.
We watched the house. We continued to wait, though for what I didn’t know.
Suddenly a deer emerged from the edge of the forest. It looked weak and gaunt and its fur was bedraggled, but it was its eyes that sent a shard of fear through me: they were glowing a bright, malevolent red. Its movements were oddly stilted and jerky, like a marionette being moved by a puppet master.
The front door of the shack opened with a bang, startling us. We peered forward but couldn’t see anyone. We looked through the opening and even through the windows, but the house was empty. And that meant that the door had opened by itself…
The deer walked forward, drawn by something we couldn’t see or sense. It staggered through the open entrance and the door slammed shut behind it. We waited, tension roaring through us. Total silence had been restored; the stillness of the area was so absolute that when a sharp scream rang out, Esme started.
The scream ended as abruptly as it had started, cut off mid-sound.
We knew that sound; we’d heard it when we’d killed deer. As remarkable as it seemed, the only explanation was that the house had somehow killed the deer. No wonder the place had bad juju rolling off of it: the house was murderous, killing and subsisting on creatures that it somehow called to it.
Whatever was going on in the Staffordshire pack lands was very, very bad.
Chapter 25
Tension was high when I joined the others in the dining room. Greg had left my clothes folded neatly on top of the car so I’d dressed quickly, humming a little ditty and reaching out to his mind. Using that tenuous connection, I’d been able to find my way through the large mansion to him without having to ask anyone for directions. Let them wonder at that.
‘How was your run?’ he asked, his tone light and casual. His eyes were wide in warning as he reached up and tapped his ear: someone was listening to us.
Bugged? I mouthed to him. He nodded, looking grim.
‘Good, thank you,’ I said warmly. ‘I’m starving, though. We didn’t kill anything on our run.’
‘You must be ravenous,’ Liam said. ‘There’s plenty of food. The Staffordshire pack has been most generous.’
‘Wonderful.’ I looked at the laden table. ‘Have you even eaten yet?’ I asked dubiously.
‘We made a sizeable dent!’ David protested. Plates were piled high with the remnants of their meal, but they had barely made any inroads into the feast. Challenge accepted.
I sat down and started stacking food on my own plate. We really were hungry after our shift and run, but Esme felt settled in a way that she hadn’t been for days so it was worth it.
I fell on the food, shoving it into my mouth with no finesse. Greg poured me a cup of tea, having made it expertly to my taste, and I drank it down. I ate until my belly felt distended but the hunger was still there; I’d have to wait until I had a little more room for a second round.
When my phone rang, Greg fished it out of his pocket and passed it over. I gave him a grateful smile; he’d removed it from my clothes when I’d shifted to stop it being tampered with. He was a smart cookie.
It was Amber and I swiped to answer. ‘Hey, Amber.’
‘I’m outside,’ she said abruptly. ‘Come and get me and we’ll sort out today’s piping.’
‘Excellent timing, thank you. I’ll send Greg to fetch you.’ We rang off.
‘Miss DeLea is outside,’ I said to Greg, ‘Please bring her to me.’ I used my phone to type him a message: Tell her about the bugs and ask if she can paint us some privacy runes? He nodded and left the room.
‘Did you enjoy your run on the land?’ Archie asked solicitously.
