his trek up the stairs, Winter found the door she’d indicated, with two vampires standing guard outside of the room. He leaned against the wall opposite them, scratching his jaw. How the fuck was he supposed to get past these bastards? Well, he could kill them, but it would be damn hard to quickly hide the bodies and any blood splatter that would inevitably happen. And if he didn’t work fast enough, they could raise the alarm. He might be able to escape, but Damon would definitely put extra protection on his precious prisoner.
No, he needed another distraction. Something that would draw the guards away from their posts.
Pushing off the wall, Winter headed along the hallway in the opposite direction. Most of the doors were open, revealing empty bedrooms that were extravagantly decorated. He doubted they were ever used. Just opulence for the sake of opulence. Marcus’s house might be a tad over the top, but at least his rooms were regularly used by family. There was no way Damon was allowing his security staff to sleep in here. He probably had a plain dormitory-style room dedicated for his bodyguards. A dungeon for his poor blood donors.
It was a shame he couldn’t set free anyone else trapped on the premises, but there wasn’t time, and he had to keep his focus on the witch. She was the key to everything. Taking care of her meant the Variks were one step closer to getting rid of Damon.
At the end of the hall, he stepped into a large empty bedroom overflowing with lace and flowers. The room looked as if it would belong to someone’s eccentric great-aunt whose mind was trapped about a hundred years in the past. Old wooden dolls with wide, unblinking stares sat in doll-sized chairs. Their hair was arranged in fat sausage curls. The room was straight out of a horror movie, and Winter couldn’t think of a better place to start a fire.
Just a little fire.
It had worked outside and if he kept it small, he’d be able to draw the guards away from their door to the room.
Winter grabbed the bottle of starter fluid from his pocket and began searching around the room for a perfect spot. It wouldn’t make sense for a fire to spontaneously break out in the middle of the bed or in the cluster of creepy dolls. Fuck, he hated those damn dolls and their eyes.
But some faulty wiring could definitely spark a fire.
He checked along the wall, searching for something plugged in. Settling on an outlet with a bedside lamp, he parted the veil enough to spray the last of the fluid around the plug and up the wall as if the fire had followed along the wiring. He had no clue if an electrical fire would act like that, but it would at least look convincing. The point was to buy himself a couple of minutes to get to the witch and take care of her. He couldn’t have the guards looking for him while he was dealing with the witch.
Winter tucked the empty bottle away in his pocket; then he struck a match and held the tiny flame to the fluid nearest the outlet. It took only a second for the liquid to catch and rush up the wall, eating into the floral wallpaper with a loud crackle.
Winter put out the match and shoved it into his pocket, leaving behind no evidence as he closed the veil. The accelerant had no smell, and the acrid scent of smoke was already overpowering any odor created by the match. With a smile, he left the room and started down the hall. He crossed past the staircase and found the same two vampires outside the room as the smoke alarm closest to the burning bedroom shrieked.
As expected, both vampires jumped at the noise and turned toward the room where smoke was starting to trickle into the hall. Cursing, they ran to the burning bedroom, leaving the witch’s prison completely unattended.
It was so nice when a plan came together smoothly.
Digging into his pocket, he pulled out his lock picks. The lock on the door looked like a standard model, one he’d had plenty of practice picking. He’d need to exit the world of the dead, but this would take less than thirty seconds. The guards would be occupied for at least that long with the fire.
Parting the veil, Winter stepped into the world of the living and grabbed the doorknob. It was unlocked.