Dylan (Bowen Boys, #3)(52)
“They thought I’d come in from the rear for whatever reason. But they were no less ready for me in the front, I suppose. The light to the alarm system was off, but I figured that was a trick and didn’t assume it was off, just the light had been disabled. I saw that there was a small window in the basement, so I went there. It was small, but back then as college student without money, so was I. Cutting through the screen to the basement, I was able to drop to the floor about an hour before sunset so the basement was dark and empty.
“The house was dead quiet, but I’d lived in an older house like this one and knew that steps creaked and walls settled, so I was able to tell footstep sounds above me as opposed to the ones the house made. Going to the stairs, I nearly fell down them when I slipped on a pile of dirty laundry sitting at the bottom of an opening. As I nearly tumbled, I hit an opening above my head and grabbed on. It was the laundry chute. I found a ladder and moved under it. As I stood up to stand in the opening, I heard someone speaking softly on the other side, so I stilled for a few moments. It was at my height to see into the bathroom, and I could see that the room was empty of anyone. Climbing up the shaft was easy. There were slates there that had been left behind when the thing had been the only way into the crawlspace years ago, I was told. As soon as I was in the main part of the house, I went to the kitchen.” She laughed as she continued. “Someone had been having a snack and had left it there for me to take. So I took the jar of peanut butter off the counter and ate the sandwich. I wrote the person a thank-you note with the pen and paper on the counter. Going back out was easy. As I went back to the laundry shaft, I still hadn’t heard anything on this level, but there was someone on the stairs either going up or down. I couldn’t tell. I crawled back down it, finished my dinner, and was out the window again before the house exploded in light. They caught me in the yard.”
When she didn’t finish, he thought how disappointed she must have been. To have worked so hard to get into the house and only to have failed when she came back out. He wondered if she ever regretted taking the sandwich that more than likely had gotten her caught. But he knew that she would find that to be her prize and smiled.
“So you failed. Christ, that must have hurt after all that work.” She smiled down at him and shook her head. “They didn’t arrest you, did they? I hope to Christ not. That would be so unfair of them after telling you to break in.”
“I only had to get in the house and out. I did that. The man I stole the sandwich from wasn’t all that happy with me, but he did say he’d been impressed. He had only stepped out for less than a minute, and when he’d returned, he knew that I’d gotten in somehow. He said if not for that, I might have made it all the way back the way I came. He said that the note was something that he’d keep for a very long time, and use it to remind himself there was more than one way into a house and back out again. I think he still has it in his office. He calls me occasionally when he wants to talk about it.”
Dylan laughed. He couldn’t help it. She’d out-smarted them all, and ate dinner, too. He wanted to ask her if she’d gotten the job but realized that she had, sort of. She’d been recruited, but not to where she’d thought she was going. He was sad for her about that and knew that Caitlynne was working to get Jack onto her team.
He moved when she straightened. He heard the heart start to beat slowly and knew that the vampire was waking. As he to the position on the floor nearest the bed in the event she needed him, she sat in the chair and didn’t move.
~~~
Lucius could smell the cat as soon as he woke up. It had startled him for a few seconds, wondering how a cat had gotten into his room. Then he remembered the boy he’d taken and settled down. He waited before moving, knowing that the young panther would still be asleep. Stretching, he moved so that his back was to the headboard and reached over and turned on the light. He looked back toward the boy and nearly cried out when he saw the woman sitting where he’d left his prey. She waved at him.
“Good evening, Lucius. I do hope you slept well. Also, did you know that your heart doesn’t beat when you sleep? And when the sun starts to go down, it starts working again? Slow at first, but it picks up speed the lower the sun gets.” She shrugged. “Just an observation.”
He looked around the room and could see that the panther was gone. When he looked back at her, he saw that there was a gun in her hands, and he could smell the silver from where he sat. He started to move but stopped when she cleared her throat and shook her head at him.
“Unless you want me to shoot you now instead of later, I would suggest that you sit still. I’d like to ask you a few questions.” She picked up a sheet of paper off her lap. “The first one is what did you need Small for, and—”
“What are you doing here? You were not invited here. I told you I’d meet you in front of your house. I demand that you go there now and I shall meet you there.” He started to move again, and she fired a bullet into the headboard not an inch from his head. “You nearly shot me.”
“I know, damn it. If you hadn’t moved when you did, I would have, too. Next time, if you wouldn’t mind not moving around so much, I’ll see if I can get a clear shot.” He looked at her, stunned. She was actually telling him how to behave so she could shoot him. He started to rise again when she lifted the gun. He simply refused to deal with one such as her.