Lucian glanced toward the house, impatient to get things going. Then he forced himself to wait the full ten minutes, but the moment the digital face of his watch said that time had passed, his hand tightened on his crossbow and he started forward without a word.
Mortimer and Bricker fell into step on either side of him as he emerged from the trees and approached the dilapidated house. They mounted the front porch as silently as possible.
"Careless," Mortimer murmured when Lucian turned the knob and the door opened. The red-haired guy hadn't bothered to lock it. Lucian wasn't terribly surprised. If he was newly turned, the man would see himself as invincible, and none of Morgan's followers should be more than a month or so old. That was when the first whispers that Morgan had gone rogue started.
The three men eased into the house, eyes alert, ears straining for any sound. As expected, the upper floor appeared deserted. After setting the cans of gasoline in the kitchen, they separated to make a thorough, silent search of the top two floors, just to be sure. Once finished, they regrouped in the kitchen and approached the door they knew led to the basement.
Lucian was thorough by nature and had trained anyone who worked with him to be so, too. They always sought out all the information they could on a nest before approaching it. Knowing the layout made things much easier, and this time they'd managed to track down the daughter of the previous owner. The woman had sold the house when her mother died, but had grown up there and knew it well. From her, they'd learned all they could and even got a crude drawing of the layout before erasing all memory of their visit.
Now, Mortimer and Bricker moved to the left-hand side of the door while Lucian moved to the right. Once situated, he nodded at the other two men, raised his crossbow and reached for the doorknob with his free hand. That hand froze an inch away when the knob began to turn on its own.
Lucian jerked his hand back and waited. The door only opened halfway before the brunette named Leigh slid through and took a cautious step into the kitchen.
As Lucian stared in amazement, her head slowly turned and she blinked at the sight of him. He saw fear leap into her eyes, and moved quickly, clasping one hand over her mouth and drawing her silently away from the door so that her back was pressed hard to his chest.
Her body briefly tensed, as if preparing to struggle, then she abruptly went still. When Lucian glanced down, he saw that her wide eyes were on Mortimer and Bricker on the other side of the door. Both men were giving her what he supposed were reassuring smiles. To him, they just looked like a pair of idiots, but it apparently worked on Leigh. As he watched, Bricker placed one finger to his mouth to warn her to be quiet, while Mortimer stared at her with a concentration that suggested he was sending her reassuring thoughts and perhaps also the same, silent warning. The woman relaxed against Lucian, and he found himself responding as her body molded to his, her bottom unintentionally nestling his groin.
"I just fell asleep, Donald. I don't appreciate being woken up for this."
Lucian stiffened as that voice floated up the stairs, aware that Leigh had gone still. She was actually holding her breath, he realized, and found he disliked that she was so afraid.
"I'm sorry, sire," someone -- presumably Donald -- responded, but in truth he sounded more resentful than apologetic. "But I've searched the basement and she -- "
"Because she's not going to hide in the basement. She's going to run, you idiot!" Morgan's angry voice snapped back.
"But why? Why isn't she willing?" Donald's voice had turned frustrated and even whiny.
"Not everyone wants to be a child of the night. I warned you of that. I told you, you couldn't turn your back on her for a moment until we have control over her. Not for a damned moment! I told you that! She isn't a willing turn. Until she accepts me as master, she'll try to run."
"I just left her alone for a minute. I -- "
"You shouldn't have left her alone at all. Get her back and -- "
"But what if she's outside? The sun's coming up!"
"You wanted her. She's -- "
The words stopped short and Lucian felt himself stiffen further. The voices had drawn closer with each passing moment, and by his guess the speakers were at the bottom of the steps now. The sudden silence seemed to suggest something had given away their presence.
Lucian glanced at Mortimer and Bricker, but he was sure neither man could be seen from below. Then he let his gaze drop over the woman before him, and spotted the problem at once. Lucian hadn't pulled Leigh back far enough. She was short, the top of her head barely reaching the base of his throat, but she was generously proportioned and part of her generous proportions were protruding past the edge of the door in her bright white blouse.
"Is that a boob?" he heard Donald ask, and Lucian closed his eyes.
The ensuing silence was so long, he knew that Morgan was seeking out Leigh's mind and searching for information on the situation at the top of the stairs. Lucian supposed it would have been too much to hope that the man would just assume she was a bimbo bartender too stupid to leave the house and was standing up here contemplating her navel. No. Morgan suspected something was up.
Knowing their surprise approach was now over, Lucian shifted Leigh so he could lean forward and peer around the edge of the door. On the other side, Mortimer did the same thing, and they found themselves staring at two men frozen at the bottom of the wooden steps. Then all hell broke loose.
Morgan and Donald suddenly spun and sped up the dark hall below, breaking into a run as they slipped out of sight. Bricker and Mortimer charged after them, and Lucian pulled Leigh away from the door and pushed her into a chair at the kitchen table.
"Stay," he hissed, his gaze sliding over her face as he got his first close-up look at her. She was a beautiful woman, glossy chestnut waves of hair framing large, almond-shaped eyes, a straight nose, and high cheekbones in an oval face. She was also terribly pale and swaying in the chair, leaving him to wonder just how much blood she'd lost.
He would have asked, but a burst of gunfire from below recalled him to more urgent matters. Leaving her there, Lucian turned away and hurried downstairs after his comrades.
Chapter Two
"Where's Leigh?"
Lucian paused on the top step. He and Mortimer had finished clearing out the nest and trailing gasoline through the basement and up the stairs to the kitchen, the first time either man had been there since rushing downstairs. Bricker had been the one to run up to retrieve the cans of gasoline they'd left in the room. He'd brought the smaller one down to them, then taken the other up to the second floor to drop a trail of the flammable liquid there and down to the main floor.