Embraced By Darkness

I touched my brother's shoulder and pointed to an empty booth halfway along the wall to our left. He nodded, and we made our way down the stairs, my heels once again slipping on the polished white tiles. It was a wonder they didn't do something about that, because they were leaving themselves wide open for law-suits in the sue-happy environment of modern Melbourne.

"Fuck," Rhoan said, once we were seated, "This place is huge. It's got a good feel, though. Even with the all the humans."

I raised an eyebrow. "So you've changed your mind about the 'no humans in wolf clubs,' rule?"

"Not in the least."

I gri

"Good thing about security-keyed doors is the fact that a loss of electricity fucks them up." His gaze sca

"Bathrooms and fire exits."

"What about an electrical switchboard?"

I shrugged. "It's not something I tend to notice. Why?"

"Because we need to cut the power." He rose. "When the lights go out, get through those doors. I'll meet you there."

"The room we want is on the right."

He nodded and walked away. I crossed my arms and watched the dancers on the floor for a while. Desire stirred, but I ignored it. Not only because I'd made a promise to Kellen, but because it would be stupid to risk it even if I wasn't here to work. Besides, most of those out on the dance floor this morning were human. Maybe all the nonhuamns had gone into the private area.

Of course, my reluctance to dance with humans didn't actually stop them from coming over and asking. After the tenth such refusal, I began to hope Rhoan hurried himself up. Coping with hurt male sensibilities wasn't high on my list this morning.

After another five minutes, I had my wish and the nightclub plunged into darkness. I switched to infrared, slipped off my heels, then rose. Given that everyone else was basically staying still—except for those caught in the middle of sex—I didn't want the sound of my heels clicking giving me away or attracting attention. I pulled the shadows around me, just to be doubly sure I wasn't seen, then headed for the security door.

It was unlocked, as Rhoan had said it would be. Knowing the guard would be at—or near—the door I opened it quickly, and stepped inside. He was fast, I had to give him that, one hand going for his gun while the other reached for the alarm button on the wall. He never completed either move, simply because I stormed into his mind and stopped both.

The alarm, I discovered, wasn't affected by the power cut, because it was on the backup system. I shuffled through his thoughts, and discovered that the downstairs area—the area we needed to get into if we wanted to sniff out more of what was going on in this place—was also co

The one good bit of news was the fact that the room behind us wasn't being used. Though it would be tonight. Some ripe for the picking—or should that be right for the taping?—minor politician had been invited in for a drink and a game.

Which I found truly amazing. Granted, being caught in compromising positions wasn't something new when it came to politicians of any caliber—but with technology getting ever smaller, and ever cleverer, you'd think they'd learn to keep their pants zipped. Or, at the very least, learn to keep themselves away from compromising situations.

The door behind me opened again, and a familiar shadow moved stealthily inside.

"How'd you cut the power?" I asked.

"Found a screwdriver behind the bar and shoved it into a couple of power sockets."

I stared at Rhoan. "You're kidding, right?"

"No."

"You could have been killed doing something like that!"

"I'm not stupid. The handle was insulated."

I shook my head, unable to believe he'd taken such a risk. "Next time you feel the urge to do something that dumb, let me know. I'll hit you over the head and maybe knock some sense back into it."

"Look," he said, a touch impatiently, "it was the only way to blow the system without making them suspicious. And if they have power-surge cutoffs installed, we haven't got a whole lot of time to waste arguing before the system is back up again."

"I think the fact everything went off means they haven't got surge cutoffs installed."

"Riley, just shut the fuck up and concentrate on the matter at hand."

"Forgive me for not wanting a dead brother," I muttered, and rifled through the guard's thoughts again. "Seems they've got a largish contingent of guards on standby downstairs."

"How large is large?"

"Ten on standby, fourteen all together." I hesitated. "They're all nonhumans. Weres, shifters, and vamps."

He raised his eyebrows. "That's a rather big force to have considering they've had no trouble here, isn't it?"

"Maybe they have no trouble because they do have so many guards. Given the crowds they get, it'd certainly be worth having a decent security force ready to go when needed."

"I guess that's true. You want to get us inside the room?"

I mentally ordered the guard to open the door into the smaller room. Once we were safely inside, I carefully erased my tracks and all but released him—though like before, I kept a mental eye on him, just in case he heard us and went to sound the alarm again.

"Okay," I said softly, after sca

"Do we need to go through it?"

"The basement, storage areas, and probably the main offices are accessible through the stairs in that half of the room." I paused, and reached into the guard's mind again, trying to get some idea of the floor plan. Unfortunately, he couldn't tell me much. Guards like him—employed to guard certain rooms, nothing more—rarely ventured beyond the staff rooms on the lower levels. "There are probably other stairs down, but we'd waste too much time trying to find them."

And this particular guard always took the elevator I'd seen in the hall earlier.

Rhoan flexed his fingers, his knuckles cracking lightly, then waved his hand at the wall. "So lead the way."

I did. Energy caressed my body as I went through the wall, once again making my skin tingle and my hair stand on end. The room beyond was unchanged, the cameras still on the tables, still pointed at the false wall. Ready for the action being pla

I headed right, following the faint breeze that stirred the air. The door was hidden in the shadows, but light seeped out from underneath it. It wasn't bright, but any light was a pain. It made our ability to shadow virtually useless.

"Emergency lighting," Rhoan commented. "That's unfortunate."

"And that's an understatement if I've ever heard one."

He walked past me and pressed an ear to the door. "I can't hear any noise close by, but we'd better be ready for trouble anyway." He glanced at me. "You did bring your gun, didn't you?"

"Yes, I brought it. I'd be stupid not to carry after the near miss with the silver-bullet-bearing rooftop assassin." Of course, I was also still carrying my shoes, which made better weapons for close-in fighting than a laser did—in my opinion at least.

I could—and would—use the laser if I had to, but only if it was absolutely necessary. I might feel safer with the weight of it in my hand, but I wasn't so blindly down the guardian track that I'd shoot on instinct. Not yet, anyway.

"You've been shot at before and it hasn't prompted any great need to carry a weapon," he said mildly. "Just thought I'd check."