Miss Mayhem (Rebel Belle #2)(7)

“Yes,” I told him quickly. “But, you know, with . . . weapons. Grenades, maybe.”

David shook his head and turned down a dirt road, the car thumping over bumps and ruts.

“There’s nothing out here,” Ryan offered, leaning up between us. He had his elbows propped on his spread knees, his hazel eyes scanning the road in front of us, the fields of tall grass on either side. “Me and some of the guys used to come out here to drink beer.”

“When was that?” I asked, but now it was his turn to ignore me apparently.

“There used to be a house,” he told David. “Big ol’ Gone with the Wind–type place. My grandmother had a painting of it over her mantel. Apparently it was kinda famous or something, but it burned down back in the seventies. All that was left was a chimney. And we threw enough cans at it that I’m not sure much of that was left either.”

“What a fabulous use of time,” I muttered, and I think Ryan would have had a comment for that had the car not taken a curve in the road right then.

David brought the car to a shuddering halt.

“A house like that?” he asked, and Ryan gave a slow nod.

The house in front of us looked a lot like Magnolia House back in town, but while that was just a reproduction of a fancy antebellum home, this seemed to be the real thing. White columns rose from the front porch to a wraparound balcony above, and tall windows, bracketed by dark shutters, stood on either side of the massive front door. Lights glowed in those windows, throwing out long rectangles of gold on the neatly manicured lawn.

“Maybe someone built a new place,” Ryan suggested, but his voice was faint. “In the . . . three weeks since I was out here.”

“This is the place,” David said, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel. “I feel it, don’t you?”

I did. I wasn’t sure how exactly, but I definitely did. I don’t know what I was expecting the Ephor headquarters—if that’s what this place was—to look like. I mean, they were an ancient society that started in Greece, made up of people who wanted to control the world, so I don’t think I was too far off in imagining that they’d do business in something like a temple, or at least an old building made of stone. It looked like they’d decided to restore some of the local architecture instead.

So I thought I could be forgiven for doubting David. “Are you sure?”

David was still staring at the house, his wrists draped over the steering wheel. “Yeah,” he said at last. “That’s the place.”

As the three of us got out of the car, it was all I could do not to shiver. The house might not have looked magical, but it sure as heck felt like it. I couldn’t see any obvious markings, like the wards Saylor had put up around town, but power pulsed off the building in a steady beat that I could almost feel coming up through the soles of my feet. It made the hair on the back of my neck stand up and my teeth ache.

“That’s intense,” David said, and I glanced at him. Reaching over, I threaded my fingers with his, squeezing.

“Do you have any kind of plan here? Are we just marching in, or . . .”

David squeezed my hand back. “No plan,” he said. “I have to be here. That’s all I know. It’s like . . . remember when you told me that if I’m in danger, you can’t do anything except save me?”

I nodded. That was part of the Oracle/Paladin bond. Even if an orphanage staffed by kittens was on fire right next to him, I couldn’t do anything but save David. So, yeah, I understood how mystical compulsions could make you do things that weren’t good for you, but I still didn’t like it.

I made myself smile at David. “We got this,” I said, even though I had no idea what “this” was. But David and I had handled The Weird before and gotten through it. We could do it again.

Turning his head, he smiled down at me. Well, his lips lifted in something that I think was supposed to be a smile, but he was either too tired or too freaked out to give it his best shot.

I’d take it.

From behind me, I thought I heard Ryan blow out a long breath, but I kept my eyes on the house, waiting for . . . I didn’t even know what.

The three of us approached the building cautiously, like we were afraid we’d be rushed at any second. My Paladin senses weren’t tingling, so that probably wasn’t going to happen, but I still didn’t want to take any chances.

The porch steps didn’t even creak under our feet although the potted ferns by the door rustled slightly in the night wind. Other than that, there was no sign of movement, nothing happening behind the windows or door, and we all stood there for a moment. I didn’t see an intercom button or anything like that, and I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to knock. Kick down the door, maybe?

Before I could do either of those things, the door slowly swung open.

“Cool,” Ryan said from behind me. “I was starting to think this crap wasn’t creepy enough.”

David snorted, and when he cut his eyes at Ryan, he looked better. Less pale, for sure. Sharper, almost. “Sorry we got you involved in a Scooby-Doo mystery.”

That made Ryan smile a little bit, and he shoved his hands in his pockets, rocking back on his heels. “That is what’s happening, isn’t it? Which obviously makes you Shaggy.” He nodded at David, whose smirk turned into a grin.