i felt my eyebrow arch. "why?"

she snickered. "let's just say there's probably a tie hanging from the doorknob to his bedroom right now."

"oh," i said, dragging out the vowel. "i wonder how he handles bella without supernatural strength."

elyssa shuddered. "gross, justin! tmi."

i laughed, left the room to get some coffee. cutsauce yipped and raced ahead of me, stopping in my path and growling as if he wanted me to follow. i did so, and found something dead and furry in the hallway. it looked like a rat. my hellhound barked and sat next to it, tail wagging.

"great job," i told him, petting him on the head. "you're keeping us all safe, big fella."

he growled, prodding it with his nose.

i really didn't want to touch the nasty thing. "uh, why don't you take it outside," i said.

cutsauce pushed the rat over with his nose so i could see how the skull was crushed.

"jeez, did you do that?" apparently, the little hellhound was stronger than i thought. i considered going to the kitchen and finding a stick to pick it up with when i realized something very strange about the corpse. the floor around it was unstained by blood. the fur was clean. with a crushed skull, there should have been brains and gunk all over the place.

overcoming my distaste, i knelt down and looked at the skull. it wasn't made of bone, but wood. the fur felt strange, like polyester or something similar. the flesh beneath the fur was actually rubber or foam. to outward appearances, this thing looked exactly like a rat. on closer inspection, i realized it was a golem.

chapter 32

i picked up the fake rat by the tail and took it back inside the war room, dropping it unceremoniously on the table. elyssa shrieked and leapt several feet into the air.

"why the hell are you putting a dead rat on the table?" she asked, her surprise turning to anger.

"it's not a dead rat," i said, and explained the fake corpse.

"you think lornicus has these things spying on us?" she asked.

"most likely."

elyssa turned it over in her hands. "what crushed its skull?"

"i think maybe cutsauce bit it."

"strong puppy."

"he might be cute and tiny, but he is a hellhound." i wondered if lornicus had sent these inside the house as part of the bargain for keeping me safe from the black robe brotherhood, or if they'd been here longer. it also explained how he seemed to know things before i told him. if so, why did he deal with me at all? the only reason i could think of was his desire for a cupid.

i called stacey. she and ryland were staying in the mansion, but the place was so large it saved time just to phone. plus, i didn't want to risk finding a tie on their doorknob.

"yes, darling?" she purred.

"we have a rat problem." i gave her the details.

"how very fortunate i am your friend." she let out a throaty laugh. "i'll take care of it."

"i don't think your friends will like the way these taste."

"it is of no matter," she said. "the hunt is the fun part."

i dropped into a seat at the table. "i hope the muffle wards on this room kept those damned things from hearing our conversations."

"we'll just have to assume lornicus knows everything," she said, looking around the room.

the room was barren of anything but the table, which would make it difficult for a rat to have slipped in unnoticed. i had to admit using rodents was pretty ingenious. i wondered if they were in the walls, too. a place like this had to be riddled with secret passages even if the walls seemed solid.

"templars use golem roaches," elyssa said. "they're useless for recording intel because of limited storage, but they're great for mapping."

"i haven't seen many bugs around this place, not since the golem butler cleaned it up." i picked up cutsauce and scratched behind his ears. "you're awesome," i said. "you're the bestest little hellhound in the whole world."

he growled, probably at the term "little" but still licked my nose with his black tongue. his sulfurous breath didn't smell too awful to me, though i had to wonder if that had something to do with my infernal nature. i made a second trip to the kitchen, this time procuring coffee and some snacks, and went back to the war room where elyssa and i pored over documents. we discovered all sorts of interesting things, keeping conversation limited and typing or writing notes to each other instead of saying anything important in case rat spies hid in the walls.

we discovered more transport jobs to the warehouse darkwater had been planning to keep my mom in, and dozens of transports out to kobol prison. how many people were they locking up?

we can't let this stand, elyssa wrote on an arctablet, making another notation about a transportation route to the prison. we have to find out who they're keeping there and save them.

yes, but first mom, i wrote back.

she smiled. "i know, i know."

adam's program had downloaded a lot of other information from the darkwater node, including other business dealings the organization had. they ran all sorts of dirty little rackets, including quite a number in the mortal world. they had gambling clubs, strip clubs, and a variety of other rackets involving organized crime. shelton had been right about them being the equivalent of the overworld mafia. we found personnel files. it seemed the vast majority of darkwater employees were also with the brotherhood, aside from clerical workers. nearly every arcane had notations which indicated whether they'd be a good prospect for brotherhood membership or not.

on the other hand, they still employed a large number of arcanes who apparently knew nothing about the true nature of the business. they tended to be less skilled battle mages and were sent to do simple security jobs for clients.

it was on one of the personnel dossiers i finally found the information i'd been looking for. "eureka!" i shouted.

elyssa shot me a dirty look. "if you startle me like that one more time tonight-"

"look," i said, not wanting her to finish that thought. i pointed to the image of an able-bodied young man assigned to bodyguard duty. i saw the initials "brb" on his sheet, indicating he was in the black robe brotherhood. there was a brief description beneath his picture.

assigned to conroy residence until further notice. note new address.

there was a long list of addresses beneath. the second from the top matched the old address we'd tracked the conroy limo to. that meant the first one had to be where they lived now.

"how are we going to do this?" elyssa asked.

"just me and you," i said. "we'll tell the others, maybe have shelton standing by at the arch in case."

"how are we going to get inside?"

"remember my idea for leap-frogging the portal across the yard and into the house?"

she nodded. "i just hope opening the portal doesn't trigger an alarm."

"why would it?" i shrugged. "i don't see another choice."

elyssa checked the time. "it's two in the morning."

"best time to act," i said.

"what makes you say that?"

i took out my phone and scrolled to the address on my map. "something i read in a thriller about an ex-military cop who wanders aimlessly around the country beating the crap out of bad guys."

"so, i guess it must be right then," she said, grinning. "you're such a dork sometimes."

i gave her a smirk. "sometimes? baby, i make dork cool." i slid the phone across to her. "looks like they've moved to buckhead. we can probably portal into the grotto and drive from there. i'll send shelton a picture and have him open another portal then we'll try my leapfrog plan."

"sounds good," she said, taking my hand and squeezing it. "do you think ivy will help?"

"of course she will. it's her mom, too."

"she can be...unpredictable."

i kissed elyssa's hand and stood up. "yeah, but this is a no-brainer. plus, i think she'll be happy mom is free."

"i sure hope she sees it that way, instead of thinking of us as kidnappers."

i went upstairs and knocked on shelton's room. bella answered the door.

"is something the matter?" she asked.

i told her our plan.

"well, i suppose it's too important to wait until morning," she said. "i'll help you. harry will only be cranky if i wake him up."

"what the hell is going on now?" shelton said, appearing at the door. he raised an eyebrow. "oh, you. i guess you need our help."

"how did you ever guess?" i asked.

he mumbled something rude, and went back inside the room.

"we'll be out in a jiffy," bella said.

they joined us a few minutes later.

"risky," shelton said, after i described lornicus's request and our alternate plan. "but ivy sounds like a better choice than giving that heartless thing a baby."

"why, harry, you do care," bella said, pinching his cheek.

he growled. "and i ain't happy about those damned rats you mentioned either. i guess a felycan has her uses after all."

"why don't you go give her that back-handed compliment to her face?" i said with an amused grin.

"just keeping my wits in true form," he said. "if i don't act like an ass, people are gonna know something's wrong."

as we walked down to the arch, bella asked me a question. "why are you taking the portal to the grotto instead of going straight to the front of the house?"

"uh, we don't know what it looks like," i said.

"not even with street view?"

"street view?" i face-palmed. how had bella, the least technologically proficient person i knew come up with that when the rest of us hadn't?

"i amaze even myself sometimes," she said smugly.

i zoomed into street view in the maps app on my arcphone, and saw a blurry image. i had to go back a couple of houses for a crisp picture. i concentrated on the image, and opened the portal just in front of the sidewalk. black iron gates guarded the driveway beyond. elyssa and i stepped through.