“Yeah. Talking to the flying critters. Think I need more practice. But they’re checking the windows.”
Maddy straightened. “Valki is around back. Send them to the side ones.”
Soon I was seeing windows from every angle. But they were all closed. No way to tell if they were also locked. They did find an open door along one side that led to a stone patio, but a bulky guard stood at it.
Lucas’s fingers tapped on his thigh as I reported in. “I can drug him. Just enough to knock him out.”
We all stared at him.
He shrugged and held up his hand. One finger was strangely enlarged, with a long, needle-like nail. “I don’t have much in it. If Maddy manages to keep me blocked, I can sneak up and jab him one.”
Cody’s eyes widened as he summed it up with, “That’s perfect.”
I faced Maddy. “Let me know if there is a problem with the blocking. We can pull out and regroup. Are you ready?”
She nodded. “Try to stay together as much as possible, or I might lose you guys.
Cody took point, with Lucas behind him, Maddy in the middle with me, and Logan bringing up the rear.
The ground beneath us trembled ever so slightly, and a crash sounded from near the front gate.
“Well done, distraction crew,” Cody muttered.
A few guards emerged from the main entrance and ran toward the diversion. But three remained at the door, their weapons held ready.
We moved out from behind the building and into the open courtyard beyond. My skin prickled as they scanned right over us. But I couldn’t get Matt out of my head. His pain and panic had reverberated through the link, and despite his words, something had happened to him.
Here we were running an exercise while he faced Xumi. I knew it would help us prepare for his rescue, and that until he could give us clues leading to his whereabouts, there was nothing else I could do. But I still couldn’t focus.
Fortunately, Maddy was on the ball. We crossed the courtyard and rounded the corner. The side door, with its single guard, was halfway along the building.
A small feathered form circled above us, along with a bunch of her new friends. The lone guard stared out across the back lawn, completely oblivious to our presence. Cody yielded the front position to Lucas, who held his hand aloft as we mounted the wooden steps to the patio.
A step creaked beneath Cody, and we all froze.
The guard’s head whipped toward us, and his craggy face wrinkled as he stared. He lifted his head and sniffed, shifting the weapon in his hands before his gaze traveled past us to the lawn.
Maddy and I stepped closer to the edge of the stairs, while Logan jumped fluidly from the ground to the patio.
A flicker of brilliant green flashed as Lucas glanced at Maddy before ghosting an arcing motion with one hand. She nodded, and he moved away from us, coming around to get behind the guard.
He moved much faster than a human. Just a blur, and the guard slapped at his neck as though squishing an insect. Then Lucas was back with us.
It only took moments for the guard to drop like a stone.
Lucas crouched over him. “We need to strip him, so I can wear his clothes,” he said.
We’d just started to take off the guard’s shirt when two of his buddies came around the corner of the building.
“Dammit,” Maddy cursed. It wasn’t until the guards shouted that I realized she’d dropped the shield. The guards raised their weapons and pointed them at us.
“They are only darts,” one said, “but you won’t like them.”
Cody had dropped to a crouch, but now he straightened and held up his hands as he shot them a weak smile. “You got us.”
The guards’ craggy features wrinkled in what I thought was a smile as they lowered their weapons.
Cody turned to me. “Okay. We would be dead if this was for real.”
