'How do we know she'll open one?' asked Alessandro.
'Lore says she's been stashing her army inside the Castle.'
Alessandro looked at the hellhound with interest. 'Inside the Castle? No wonder we could never find the changelings.'
Perry slapped Lore's shoulder. 'Let's go.' They turned and ran north.
Alessandro drew near Holly, so close their sleeves nearly brushed. She could feel the tension in the air, as if she could touch the combined dread and excitement of every creature in the area. It reminded her of a stadium before the big game.
'How did it go with Omara?' Holly asked.
'I'm no longer her servant. I'm through tangling myself in her lies.' He shifted, settling his baldric more comfortably. 'We should get you somewhere safe while you look for… whatever it is you need to see.'
'I don't need safe. I need to be in the thick of the energy.'
'Where, then?'
'We have to go back to the Flanders house.'
Alessandro did not look impressed.
Chapter 28
The Flanders house was no longer dead. Holly stood at the gate as she had days before, her hand on the gatepost, Alessandro's coat brushing against her side. The house glowered from under its gables, its porch wrapped around like folded arms. That was the same.
But not everything was. A streamer of crime-scene tape dangled from the pear tree. The lawn was churned to mud where dozens of heavy boots had tromped to and fro. And her fantasies about Alessandro had become real.
Venom prickled through her veins, a low, constant urge. She was hungry for his touch. Famished. Being near him was barely enough to control the ache. Sheer stubbornness was the only thing forcing Holly to concentrate. That and wariness of the house.
There were no whispers, no voices, but she could feel its dislike. No, it was no longer dead. Something— someone—had revived it.
The flare of orange light from the upstairs windows was the first clue.
The terrified scream and sound of splintering wood was the next.
Alessandro bounded over the gate, drawing his sword as he ran. Holly followed on his heels, leaping up the porch steps in two bounds.
'Door's locked!' said Alessandro.
'Stand back,' Holly said.
Now that she knew energy lay beneath the house, it was easy to tap into it with her newly unblocked power. Just a drop. Just a quick snatch and twist with the spell, and… the door blew off its hinges, startling Alessandro into a quick flight backward.
He threw her a wide-eyed look as he sprang through the smoking hole in the wall. Holly followed a fraction slower, opening her senses, scanning the house's consciousness. The blast had hurt it, driving its sense of self deep into the foundations. When it recovered, its fury would be profound.
A faint voice drifted into her mind, the barest rustle from the stony, crumbling foundations.
Alessandro was already mounting the stairs, sword in hand. The orange light from above was swelling, the glow painting a stark shadow of the staircase on the wall. There, the light was yet brighter, sliding off the length of Alessandro's blade and turning his hair to a corona of gold.
She remembered all too strongly the last time they had gone up these steps. They had found Ben's backpack just there. Over there was the room where the black slime had nearly killed her. The drop cloth still sat on the landing, except now every crease and fold was picked out in that oily orange glow.
The light came from one of the small back bedrooms, pulsing like a satanic disco. On the floor lay the remains of something that looked like melting tomato aspic.
'Oh, Goddess,' Holly gasped, covering her nose. The smell made her tear up. 'Was that what screamed?'
'A changeling,' Alessandro muttered, lifting his sword and inching down the hall in a smooth, deadly glide. 'Have I ever mentioned how much I hate this house?'
Nausea sucked at Holly's gut as she stepped around the mess.
The bedroom doorway was narrow. Alessandro's bulk filled it, blocking Holly's view. He slipped sideways to get sword and shoulders past the jamb. Holly followed. She had just enough time to see that the light came from the corner of the room before brightness blinded her, shrouding the features of the man standing in front of the light. The man opening the portal.
Like Alessandro, he carried a broadsword.
'Holly, get back!'
Pure instinct made her drop and roll out of the way as the man swung his sword in a scything arc. Holly smacked into the corner of the door, bouncing the tender part of her elbow off the door's sharp edge. Frantic tingling numbed her hand, leaving her to make a three-limbed crawl for the safety of the hallway.
A clash of steel raised the hair on Holly's arms. That was the sound of invasion, of brute strength conquering without cause or pity. It was the sound of final death.
She scrambled into an empty bedroom.
The floor vibrated with the weight of the opponents as they pounced and slid on the gritty hardwood. Holly crouched, peering around the door frame of her bedroom toward the fight. She heard a whistling slice and a thunk as one of the swords crashed into the woodwork, splintering it to pieces.
She could see them, or a sliver of them, as they moved back and forth in front of the bedroom doorway. This was a two-handed, slashing fight. No points for elegance. Brute male force. Bunching muscles. Snarling teeth.
The other man was as big as Alessandro, bare-armed and tattooed with intricate blue spirals. Black hair hung to his hips in one long braid, swinging like a serpent as he moved. He wore a bronze breastplate over rags of scarlet silk, his skin haggard and his eyes pits of madness. He was shouting in a language she didn't know,
The swords connected again with a crash and a hiss of scraping metal. Reflexively Holly fell back, covering her ears against the noise. She had been able to fight during the skirmish in the cemetery, but this was far trickier.
Holly nearly had her chance when their attacker stumbled backward out of the bedroom, one massive hand clutching what looked like a huge tome. But as he slammed into the wall, Alessandro was on him, sword raised for a killing stroke.
Alessandro was a beat too late.
His opponent rebounded into a somersault, landing outside the path of the blade. As soon as his feet touched the floor, he sprang into a run, charging for the stairs. Holly ducked out of the way, feeling the rush of air as he raced past.
Alessandro slid to a halt beside her. 'I have to catch him. He said he's a Castle guardsman.'
'Is that what he was saying?'