Elyssa smiled a sad little smile. "We're all special in the head for going through with this crazy plan." She sighed. "Lock and load time."

Everyone nodded their assent and their faces tightened. I felt an intense urge to visit the bathroom. Instead, I grabbed the keys to the van.

"Let's roll."

Chapter 32

We drove southeast to a part of Edgewood bordering between ghetto and hipster. The rogues had taken over an old school, gutted and turned into large luxury lofts years ago. According to Elyssa's information, beneath the school lay an expanded basement where a boiler room used to be. Now it consisted of a large sleeping chamber. The resulting building looked oddly out of place, as the original designer had an obvious enthusiasm for all things gothic. The retrofit only enhanced the design. Points and spires adorned the roof. The windows were ornate affairs with gargoyle faces and symbols carved into the marble. A large dark-stained wooden door guarded the main entrance with all the effectiveness of a drawbridge.

In short, it looked like the perfect place to find vampires.

Foot traffic was light this time of night, although plenty of non-vampiric revelers were drinking at a bar across the street and sounds from an indie band at another venue down the way echoed in the cool night air. Stacey took her pack or pride or whatever the term was for a group of mismatched feline creatures to a dark adjacent lot. She'd help Nightliss into the building so the little cat could scout it for us. I parallel-parked the van on the street.

Shelton poked his head out the sliding door on the side and whispered something that sounded like "fizzle" while flicking his fingers. The closest street lamp made a faint pop and went out, leaving the van hidden in darkness.

Elyssa stared hard at the rogue compound and scribbled on a notepad. She was probably doing something important like mapping out alternate routes or maybe even writing a goodbye letter to her parents in case we all died. I felt pretty useless so I leaned over her shoulder. She was drawing her name with little hearts around it.

"Seriously?" I said.

She flinched and gave me a dirty look. "I'm waiting to hear back from the felycan."

"She has a name, you know."

"You're becoming kind of attached to your little cat woman, aren't you?"

"I'm getting really tired of people judging others just because they're not pure human."

She turned away from me and drew a crooked heart next to her name. "Oh, I'm sorry. I hope Stacey comes back with some good intel."

"That's a lot of vamps," Shelton said, pointing up the slight rise to the gothic structure.

A gaggle of vampires, all dressed to kill, or at the very least to drink blood, waltzed toward a waiting stretched Hummer. I had to admit the vamps knew how to style. I peered at them with my enhanced eyesight to see if I might recognize any of the ones who'd attacked me and Dad, but they were too clustered together to get a good look. Then I noticed the little boy vampire that had been in on the attack looking mournfully on from the front door. Poor kid would never look old enough to drink alcohol no matter how old he really was. And forget faking a driver's license.

The sliding door on the street side of the van opened and my heart froze. Stacey climbed in. Nightliss followed and jumped on her shoulder. The little cat rubbed his cheek against hers and meowed happily.

I took a deep breath and uttered a few choice curse words at her surprise entry.

"Less than twenty vampires remain in the compound," she said, her face more serious and composed than I'd ever seen it. "My little one was able to go into the basement which is now one cavernous room filled with beds and partitions. A locked door at the back of this area blocked her way, but one of the resident cats told her he had hunted rats down there before. The vampires only recently locked that door. I would bet my tea and crumpets on your father being somewhere down there."

Elyssa crossed her arms and gave Nightliss a pointed look. "When you say 'down there', do you mean that door goes to more stairs?"

"Indeed. Apparently the building was once an old church. There's a crypt beneath the basement."

"Stupid vampires and their flair for the dramatic," Elyssa said.

Stacey gave her a toothy grin. "Why, my dear, you are speaking of vampires. Why do anything at all if you cannot do it in style?"

I gave Stacey a funny look. She hardly sounded like a seductress when she broke into the Queen's English. And the incongruity of her attire only added to the bizarre vibe I got from her. Really, she should have been born French.

"How do we get into the door?" I asked.

"More importantly, what kind of door and how is it locked?" Elyssa said.

Stacey smiled sheepishly. "While my kin could detail a mouse down to the number of his whiskers, they are not so very good at detailing mechanical things such as locks. Nightliss said the door seemed quite sturdy, though admittedly most do for one of her delicate stature."

Elyssa dug through her pouch. "I guess I can handle it." She pulled out what looked like a lock-pick kit.

"Nightliss also says that one of the vampires accessed it while she was there and was jabbing his finger at something on the wall next to it."

"An electronic lock?" Elyssa tossed the lock picks back into her pouch. "Just great."

"It could've been an intercom." Shelton gave me a look. "If it's magnetic, a hex ought to do the trick, though."

"So you'll need to come?" I asked.

"Unless you're up to it."

"Even if he can do it," Elyssa said evenly, "it might take him too long."

"Yeah, well dragging around an extra person is gonna be even tougher to hide." Shelton handed me a bit of chalk. "An experienced caster wouldn't need a container, but you don't know how to create your own internal well. Just make a circle and close it like before. When you feel a little pressure in your ears, you should have enough juice. Concentrate on the keypad and imagine throwing that built-up energy at it. It might help to use a word to focus your effort."

"Like fizzle?"

He chuckled. "Exactly. The magnetic lock should die at least temporarily."

My stomach flip-flopped a couple of times. Every time we got closer to the objective, we found another snag. Except this one was pretty major. "Maybe I should practice on a street lamp."

"That's a brilliant idea," Elyssa said. "Let's go into the middle of the street, draw a big chalk circle, and blow out some light bulbs right in front of the place we're about to invade."

"No, I mean go somewhere else I can practice."

"We don't have time."

Stacey was marking a copy of the map that Elyssa had given her with the sentry locations and other items of importance. There were no direct routes to the basement, and the best entry point appeared to be the service door in the back as Elyssa had predicted in her first version of the plan.

"Drive us around to this parking lot," Elyssa said, jabbing a finger at the map after examining Stacey's edits.

I started the van and pulled out into the street. The parking lot was the same one Stacey had used to hide the moggies. I parked and took a look around. A sturdy chain-link fence separated this lot from the vampire compound. A cat the size of Nightliss could get through, but not the rest of us. I was about to wrench a hole in the links when Shelton put a hand on my arm and shook his head. He took out his wand and examined the metal links. The runes on the wand glowed. Static electricity charged the air.

He aimed the wand at a link. The metal bubbled and melted away like solder. He ran the wand up the length of the fence, leaving a neat incision in the metal. He repeated the process next to one of the support poles. A rectangular patch of fencing fell to the ground with a rattle. We winced.

"I should have caught that," I said. "Crap."

"It wasn't that loud," Shelton said. "Plus the metal would've been scalding hot."

"Maybe you two would like to set off fireworks while we're here," Elyssa said in a cross voice. She stared through the trees bordering the grounds at the service doors.

I belted on the swords and knives Elyssa had so thoughtfully given me and made sure I still had the chalk from Shelton in my pouch. Worry knotted my stomach while fear slithered its cold fingers into my bowels. I had to clench my teeth to stop them from chattering. Then, before I charged in with my emotions broadcasting my presence, I made sure I quieted my psyche so it wouldn't give us away the moment we entered the place.

Elyssa seemed very calm and unperturbed as she watched me go through my preparations. She untwisted the buckle to the sheath holding the sword on my back and smoothed my shirt down. What was it I saw in her eyes? A hint of regret, maybe? Concern? Then the spark vanished and she was all business again. She walked toward the compound without even looking to see if I was behind her.

A delicate hand took mine. Stacey's eyes brimmed with worry. She stood on tiptoe and kissed my cheek. "Good luck."

I gave her a hug. "Thanks."

Nightliss rubbed against my leg and meowed.

"She will go with you and scout ahead," Stacey said, picking up the small cat and kissing her nose. "She is so brave."

Shelton slapped me on the shoulder. "Come back in one piece, Justin." He offered a grin that didn't quite reach his worried eyes.

"The moggies will be ready to come in if you need rescuing," Stacey told me. "We will be listening on the wireless contraptions."

By that, I assumed she meant the cheap walkie-talkies Elyssa had brought along. I just hoped they could still reach each other from underground. I gulped and trotted to catch up with Elyssa, who was standing at the edge of the wide-open area leading to the service door. Grass carpeted the open area for thirty yards or so where a paved service road led up to steel double doors. A sidewalk ran the perimeter of the compound, lined by saplings which hadn't grown large enough to hide much of anything. Thankfully the back area was illuminated by nothing but a single lamp above the service door and the moonless night offered the cover of darkness. Still, vampires had excellent vision, should one of them be staring forlornly out the back windows of the complex because he couldn't go party tonight.