Chapter 31

Thirty-One

In the dead of night, the Diaboli house was dark, and silent. Not a single light was on, not a sound was heard, but we knew we weren't alone. Mason and Carla were in the building somewhere, Mason's guards were probably posted here and there, and there were demons around. We had to be quiet, and move carefully.

It wasn't until Lucien pointed out the security cameras that I realized there wasn't just magical defenses to contend with. Any illusions I had had about escaping this place on my own were little more than that; if I'd tried this before securing Lucien's help, I would've been caught as soon as I had stepped out of the bedroom.

Lucien had a solution, though.

"You sent a demon to attack the security camera guy?" I asked, keeping my voice low. "Isn't that risky?"

"Not attack him," he said, "Just… keep him distracted."

"How?"

Lucien turned his head to the side and whispered a single word. "Succubus."

"You sent a succubus to deal with the guy in the control room?"

"It'll keep him entertained for a while, and when he's done, he'll fall asleep. He shouldn't bother us."

"How does that… actually, I don't want to know." I paused. "No, I do want to know. How does that work?"

Lucien shrugged. "It's worked for millennia. I could give you the details, but I don't think right now is the time."

"Right, right. Focus. Okay, so, what's next?"

"We need to get to the kitchen."

"Why the kitchen?"

"Because it's the closest way to the garage. We aren't getting out of here without a car, unless you've figured out how to cross great distances using the Ether."

I shook my head. "My skills have grown, but that one's still out of reach."

He nodded. "Alright, kitchen it is. There's probably going to be a guard or two between us… think you can phase us into the floor below? It should put us in the dining room."

"Is that risky? Won't your father sense my magic?"

"He shouldn't."

"What about the demons?"

Lucien's eyes flashed red. "They're doing what I want them to. For now, at least."

"Okay." I took Lucien's hand. "Hold on."

Shutting my eyes, I summoned my power, and concentrated on phasing us out of the material world. As soon as we were ethereal, I pulled us down, through the floors, and into the dining room below.

"Phew," Lucien said, "That's still a rush."

"I'm not sure if it'll get easier for you." I scanned the dining room. "Looks quiet in here…"

"The kitchen is that way," Lucien said, nodding toward a door not far from where we were.

I took a step toward the kitchen door and immediately felt light-headed, grabbing on to Lucien's shoulder to steady myself. "You good?" Lucien asked.

"Yeah," I said, "It's just been a long night of magic use."."

"Long night of other things too." He replied, with an oh-so-proud-of-himself grin.

I gawked at him. "What is it about high stakes situations that makes you say stuff like that?"

"Stuff like what?"

"The kind of stuff that gets me inappropriately excited," I hissed. "We should be concentrating, not thinking about sex."

Lucien shrugged. "Thinking about all the things I want to do to you helps calm me down."

My face reddened. "Right now is absolutely not…" I swallowed, then licked my lips, distracted, "Not at all the time to be thinking about that."

"You're right," he added, "I'll stop."

"That's the problem," I said, as we continued toward the kitchen door. "I don't want you to stop."

"Something to look forward to, then." Lucien carefully opened the door and peeked inside. "Wait," he whispered.

"What?" My heart shot into my throat.

Lucien shut the door. "There's a guy in there."

"Your father?"

"No, one of his men. He's making a sandwich."

"Great… maybe he'll leave when he's done?"

"If he goes anywhere, it'll be in here."

"Shit."

"Shit is right. Can you turn us invisible?"

I shook my head. "I don't think I have enough juice to keep us invisible for long."

I could see him now, or the back of him, at least. He had a tub of peanut butter on the counter, and—oh God—he was scraping the contents of a can of tuna onto a piece of bread. This man was about to eat a peanut butter and tuna sandwich.

"What the hell?" I whispered. "Those two don't go together!"

"Maybe they do."

"In what world?"

"In the same world where pineapple on pizza works."

"Please don't tell me you like hot fruit on your pizza."

"I like the salty and sweet combina—shit."

"What?!"

Lucien shut the door. "I think he heard us."

"I knew our badly timed flirting was going to bite us in the ass someday!"

Footsteps. He was definitely coming toward us, and we couldn't exactly move very far, not quickly, anyway. I thought we could maybe hide under the dining room table, but that wasn't exactly inconspicuous. If he caught us down there, we would have a hard time defending ourselves.

"I need to think," Lucien said.

"There's no time to think," I said, "We have to act!"

Without waiting to get his approval, I phased through the kitchen door, appearing on the other side of it and catching peanut butter and tuna man entirely off guard. He had taken a bite out of his sandwich and was chewing it when he saw me appear through the door like a ghost. Some of it fell out of his mouth when he opened it to yell at me. By that point, it was too late; I was on top of him, and then through him.

Lucien spilled into the kitchen after me, saw his opening, and took it, grabbing a nearby frying pan and slamming it into the back of our new friend's head. The guy's eyes rolled into the back of his skull, the rest of his mouthful fell out, and he slammed into the ground with a heavy thud.

I stared at Lucien, breathless from the excitement. "Nice," I said.

"We can't just leave him here, someone will find him," he looked around the kitchen before settling on a large cupboard near the far door, "Help me shove him in there."

Between us, we managed to move and unceremoniously stuff the unconscious, sandwich blasphemer into the cupboard. Once he was settled, and the doors firmly shut, Lucien moved past me toward the nearby door. I followed him through it, surprised to find a stairwell instead of a garage. I realized, once we exited into the garage proper, that it was underground—and oh, what a garage it was.

There had to have been ten cars in here, all of them on display as if they were in a showroom. Many of them were sleek, perfectly polished sports cars. I saw a large, curvy range rover, several sedans, and a limousine, each of these cars kept in perfect condition. Everything down here smelled brand new, and not at all what I expected a garage to smell like.

"Wow," I said, my voice echoing, "Your dad sure likes cars."

Any composure Lucien had held before this point was now gone. He looked nervous and jumpy, as if expecting an armed retinue to pop out of thin air. He fumbled with the electronic key he pulled from his pocket and the nearby range rover bleeped.

"Couldn't have stolen a sports car instead?"

"We need something bullet proof."

"Bullet proof?! Why bullet proof?"

"You've met my father." he replied, as he opened the driver's seat door and sat down. He had already opened the passenger side door by the time I made it around the hood of the car.

"Have these cars ever been used?" I asked, "This one smells brand new!"

"I don't know," Lucien said, as he started the car. "Buckle up, we're getting out of here in a hurry."

Lucien put the car into drive and peeled out of the parking space it was in. He turned the wheel one handed, aiming us toward the ramp that seemed to lead up, and presumably outside.

As we sped up the ramp to the driveway and toward the front gates of the mansion, I noticed a small guard post near the main gate. My stomach dropped; nausea welled up inside me.

"Is there a guard in there?" I asked.

Lucien simply nodded to confirm.

Of course, there'd be a guard posted at the main gate that led in and out of the mansion.

That's what they were for. Mason wasn't paranoid enough to install an array of technological defenses, but he was clearly happy to have a security team roaming his house in the dead of night.

"He's seen us," I said, "He has to have seen the lights."

"It's been dealt with," Lucien said, his eyes fixed on the road. "He hasn't seen anything."

As we approached the guard post, Lucien slowed, allowing me a glimpse inside as the large, imposing, wrought-iron gate to the Diaboli mansion creaked open on its own. There was a guard in there, alright, only he wasn't paying attention to the main gate, or any cameras.

That six-foot bruiser was curled into a ball at the far corner of the little guard post, bawling his eyes out and rocking back and forth. Around him, all the lights flickered, the computer monitors skipped and glitched, and a cacophony of electronic bleeps, alerts, and alarms were going off simultaneously.

"Yikes…" I said, kind of speechless.

"He'll recover," Lucien said. "I think."

As the gate opened fully, I noticed Lucien hesitate. He hadn't immediately started on our way out of the mansion and onto freedom, but I knew why. He didn't have to say anything, I knew what he was struggling with. Doing this meant saying goodbye to everything he'd ever known and marking himself as an enemy to his own father.

I placed my hand on his arm reassuringly.

"We're going to rescue my brother, and then we're going to go somewhere far away and live our own lives, the way we want to live them. Together."

He grabbed my hand, kissed it, and then gently kissed my lips too.

"I told you already. I'm with you," he said.

"Is there a reason why we're stopped here, then?"

"Not really. Fuck this place."

Lucien accelerated the range rover and peeled out past the gate.

The winding road leading out from the mansion was dark, and gloomy; a low mist hanging close to the ground. As we moved further away, I felt the need to look back; the mansion was still in darkness, no signs that anyone was aware that we had left. Though just moments before we took the last corner and lost sight of the Diaboli house, I could have sworn I saw one, single, light turned on.