Read Dead of Night (Ghosts & Magic #1) for Free Online Page B

 
    Evan was a former member of the Chicago S.W.A.T, which made him indispensable as firepower, despite the fact that his body was a mess. Kerry had been a ghost, before she'd first lost her left hand, and then lost her life. They were my two go-to zombies, when I didn't need to worry about them being seen. True, the wounds could be disguised, but the rotting flesh and visible muscle and bone couldn't, at least not without it being beyond suspicious.  
    I looked over the others. Mr. Timms would come for Danelle's sentimentality, but otherwise the animals were easy enough to replace. The rest of the people? I wanted to bring them, but I couldn't. Not without a place to bring them to.  
    That included Rayon.
    He was more gentle than his mass would indicate as he lifted Kerry's stiff form into his arms and headed for the stairs. I stopped him before he reached them.
    "What's up, boss?" he asked.
    "Rayon, I... uh... You need to stay here, when we're done packing."
    I never knew what to expect from them. I never knew if they would be happy, like Caroline had seemed to be, or if I was punching their ticket for a permanent ride back to Hell. Rayon just stared at me as though I'd lost the tether, and then he nodded.  
    "I'm too big. I get it."
    "I'm leaving all of you here."
    "Not Evan and Kerry. I bet you're bringing Mr. Timms, too."
    "Danelle would kill me if I didn't." There was a long, silent, uncomfortable pause. "What's it like, when you aren't here?"
    "I don't know."
    I had asked the question more times than I could count. That was the only answer I'd ever gotten. I hadn't expected anything else, but I kept trying anyway.
    "Do you want to go back?"
    "I'd like to be alive, but I can't have that. This is closer, so I like it well enough. Otherwise, I don't care."
    I stepped out of his way, having resolved none of the guilt I was feeling. He went up the stairs and into the kitchen. I heard him greet Danelle on his way out to the van.
    She was still at the kitchen table. The glasses were resting on top of her head. "I don't know, Conor."
    I pulled one of the chairs over and sat next to her. "You don't know what?"
    She leaned forward and turned the laptop so I could see the screen. "The job is to get into Mrs. Red's house. Her house, Conor!"  
    "I can get into a house. We've both done it before."
    "This isn't just a house. This is a House house. No, not just a House house. This is fucking Red's house. My father is a cheap-ass, only paying two million for this job. It's suicide."
    Each of the Houses went by a color, and usually the color fit their personality. It was easy enough to guess from that why Danelle was concerned.  
    "He thought the two ogres could do it."
    She tapped a few buttons on the laptop. A 3D image of the home popped up. It was your typical east coast mansion, with a huge lawn, big driveway, lots of fountains, columns, and rooms. I'd stolen a flash drive from a place like it once. For a thief, the size was an advantage. It made it that much easier to hide.
    "I'm not so sure he did." She tapped a few more buttons, and the view panned in. A bunch of red dots appeared. "Each of those dots is a guard."
    "Users?"
    She shrugged. "No way to know. Probably not. Take a close look though, Conor. Every line of sight from every room is covered." She zoomed through the walls, turning the point of view so I could see what she was talking about. "Mrs. Grey wanted those two dead. How do we know Black didn't too?"
    "He was going to pay two million for it? When Grey was only offering a hundred thousand?"
    "Now you're pretending that the Houses are logical."
    "Now you're deluding yourself that they aren't." I leaned forward and pushed her hand aside so I could take control. I moved the camera up and out so I could get a bird's eye view of the property. "Did they include kinetics?"
    "Shift plus K."
    I hit the keys and watched the red dots move back and forth in a loop. Just getting this kind of data would have cost Black a