Sinister Magic: An Urban Fantasy Dragon Series (Death Before Dragons #1) - Lindsay Buroker Page 0,56
opened. Hell, we should have veered off across the lawn, wet grass regardless.
“Wonderful, wonderful,” a woman said, walking out and guiding a couple to the parked cars. “No, no, I don’t mind the late showing. I’m happy to work with people’s busy schedules.”
I shifted my hand to my cloaking charm but realized that would leave Dimitri standing alone in the driveway.
The woman spotted us before I finished debating if we could dart off across the lawn without being noticed.
“Uh, can I help you?” Somehow, she managed to smile and wave the couple into their Mercedes at the same time as she frowned at us.
“Yes.” I spotted the RE/MAX logo on her SUV. “We saw that you were showing this house and wondered if we could also look around.”
Her frown deepened as she looked at Dimitri and his metal T-shirt. “Did you see the price on the flyer out there?”
“Of course. We’re pre-qualified.” I smiled. “My fiancé works at Microsoft. Game designer.”
“You injured your neck as a programmer?”
“Uh,” Dimitri said.
“No, he did that while spring skiing up at Whistler. We have a condo up there. Vacation place, you know. We’re looking to buy a new house down here, close to his work.”
“Look, lady, my bullshit detector is spot-on.” She pointed a finger at my chest. “There’s nothing in there to steal. The owners moved all of their stuff out two years ago. You two get out of here right now, or I’ll call the HOA security patrol.”
Oh man, the HOA security patrol. That had me quivering in my boots. But I didn’t really want to crack a real-estate agent on the head with the flat of my blade, so I led Dimitri back across the street. We found some dark, damp hedges to smoosh ourselves into while we waited for her to leave.
She called someone before getting in the car. The security patrol, no doubt.
“Sorry,” Dimitri said. “I’m not that good at lying. There was never any point when I got caught doing something as a kid. Nobody believed I was innocent no matter what I said.”
“Where’d you grow up?”
“South Bronx. My parents immigrated from Russia. Dad beat me up at home, and the big kids beat me up outside of it. Until I got big enough to take care of myself.”
I opened my mouth, about to ask if that had been when he was seven or eight, but a few shadowy figures stepped out of hedges similar to ours farther up the street. Had they come from the party? They all had their hoods up and were wearing long dark jackets or maybe cloaks. Who the hell wore cloaks anymore?
Something twanged my senses, magic being used. Were they magical themselves? I couldn’t tell. They seemed strangely blank to my perceptive elven blood.
“Who are they?” Dimitri muttered.
“Not the HOA security, I’m guessing.”
A shadow rose up out of the street as the figures crossed, heading toward the vacant house, and it seemed to engulf them. They disappeared from my sight and the magic faded from my senses.
“Friends of Zoltan, maybe,” I added.
The real-estate agent remotely turned off most of the house’s interior lights, leaving on the driveway lights, then drove away. A few seconds later, a security car cruised through. It pulled into the driveway, and the patroller got out and walked up to the front door with his flashlight and night stick.
“This is taking forever.” The house next door had all of its lights off, so I headed up the street for its driveway.
Dimitri stayed close. Once again, I was tempted to send him back to the van, but after seeing those hooded guys disappear, I worried he would be safer with me. Once I reached the next driveway, I summoned Sindari.
I sense a vampire, he informed me before he’d fully solidified.
That’s Zoltan. Do you sense anyone else?
Hm, I smell many people about, across the street and walking around that domicile. His nose was pointed at the vacant house.
The security guard?
No, this is a group that’s moving around the side of the house and heading to the back. I believe stealth charms are being used, but they are not as good as yours, since they do not camouflage scent.
I headed up the gravel driveway, the only gravel anywhere on the street, to a log rambler that must have been here long before the rest of the neighborhood was built. I wondered if the HOA trooper covered it, or if it was left out of the club.