Doc held me tight for a moment while I trembled. "You're doing great," he whispered in my ear, barely loud enough for me to hear.
I nodded, not trusting my voice.
He released me and leaned back out of the window. Moments later, Nikolai stood with us. He also hugged me briefly.
Doc shut the window, though he left it unlatched, and then slunk to the door. He listened before cracking it open and slipping out.
Nikolai and I waited until we sensed from him that it was clear, then stepped carefully as we followed. According to Nikolai, some of the floorboards creaked, because of course they did.
If my pounding heart didn't give us away, a false step would, and I followed behind the other mage as carefully as I could.
The house was dark, though here and there a nightlight lit the halls. It was just enough to see by, and we crept to the staircase. Nikolai claimed that the only reasonable place to keep Ash would be in their dungeon-like basement. Especially if they were planning on a trap for us. Which was possible. There was no way we could expect them not to anticipate this move.
Though every moment stretched into an eternity, it didn't take long before we were down on the main floor.
Doc appeared and grabbed both of us and shoved us into a deep shadow. We crouched there, huddled together, Doc sheltering both of us with a cool touch of his powers deepening the shadows around us. He had never used so many of his abilities around me, and I made a note to ask him about it later. He hadn't really hesitated to use borrowed magic, but this was a side of him I hadn't seen.
Nikolai pressed against my back. I could feel his heart pounding almost as hard as mine was, and I was strangely comforted to know he was also nervous.
Moments later a pair of footsteps announced the passage of two people passing our location. Probably mages.
This time Doc didn't ask, he simply crept away. A few seconds later I heard a quiet thud then the soft click of a door. Nikolai held me until Doc returned.
"They'll be out for a few hours at least," he whispered.
"Should have killed them," Nikolai answered.
"Probably," Doc agreed.
Nikolai patted him on the shoulder. "Perhaps is good only one of us comfortable killing."
We moved out of the deep shadow and crept down the hallway until we reached the stairwell to the basement.
Nikolai paused for a long time before he touched the knob and turned it. We were all alert for magic. So far everything we had sensed was passively detecting anyone moving about in the house, and we had avoided being noticed. At least for now.
The wolves checked in. Nothing much had changed.
Waiting to be discovered was almost worse than actual discovery. Maybe. Probably not, but still it felt that way right now.
Doc moved ahead of Nikolai once the door was open. There were no lights on down there, but that wouldn't stop Doc. Nikolai and I were a touch more hindered and after a minute I reached out through our bond and borrowed Doc's lowlight vision, like the wolves had done with our ability to sense magic. My perception changed drastically, and I stumbled.
Nikolai caught my arm and pulled me against him, but we didn't talk. I adapted quickly, probably thanks to some innate memory from the demon. I realized I was seeing heat. That's how he did it. He couldn't see without light, he could see heat. Why had we never talked about this before?
Sensing that I had my feet under me again, Nikolai released me, and we continued down the stairs.
My memories of the stone basement were vague, but I recognized the quarried stone walls, the prickle of magic along my skin, and the musty smell.
Doc located Ash in a cell near the room where they had forced the demon to possess me.
I got the sense from the vampire that Ash was watching the doorway. He knew we were here, but so far he wasn't acting. Surely his orders would be to kill us on sight.
Nikolai and I crouched in the doorway.
"It's much harder to convince myself you're not a vampire when you're acting like one." Ash's voice shattered the silence, though he spoke quietly.
Nikolai and I both flinched.
"They still ordering you to kill the vampire?" Doc asked, his voice barely audible.
"Lucky for you, yes. Kill the vampire, kill the mages on sight. You'll have to kill me quick or I might not be able to resist my compulsions long enough to keep from murdering all of you."
He sounded so tired. Resigned. Like he no longer cared to fight for any sort of independence.
Damn it.
"If they don't already know you're here, they'll know as soon as we start. I'm sure they've prepared. They know you're coming after me."
Nikolai and I shared a glance and shrugged. The only way out of this was to rescue Ash or die trying. The Andersons would never quit while they still had his power to hide behind.
His lips brushed across mine and we prepared ourselves, shaping the spell we needed before drawing on our magic. It wasn't easy to shape the spell before calling our powers and having it work, but Nikolai and I had drilled all week.
The spell was twofold. It would blast through just about any magical barrier, and then, if Ash were still standing, it would stun the crap out of him. The spell was draining, hard to cast, and generally lethal to anything on the other side of it. We were counting on Ash's demonic nature to save him.
It was also easy to block if you knew how and we had a backup plan in case the wards we sensed around Ash deflected it. Doc knew to duck and cover as
