"Leave it open. We'll take some pictures and try again."

The houses on the street were massive, each one boasting a stout fence, privacy hedge, and a driveway stretching across a long property. Thanks to the landscaping, I couldn't see into the Conroy's yard very well. Thick hedges and trees blocked the line of sight. We jogged to the neighbor's house, and encountered a similar problem.

"Maybe if you open the portal as far into the property as possible, we'll be able to see more from there," Elyssa said.

Unlike the other yards, I couldn't even see the Conroys' house from the road. "I guess it's our only choice."

Unwilling to risk even a step onto the driveway, I took a picture through the gate, using the zoom on the camera. We went back to the portal, and reopened it. A sawgrass bush blocked the view ahead. I poked my head through the portal and looked to the left where the driveway curved beneath a curtain of branches from a willow tree.

"These people are paranoid," I said, taking another picture so we could get closer to the branches, hoping they weren't booby-trapped to electrocute intruders.

Elyssa procured a long wooden rod and tied a small digital camera to the end while I opened the portal closer to the willow tree. She set the timer on the camera, and pushed it through the willow branches. She pulled it back, and we looked at the picture.

Something out of a nightmare grinned back at us, razor sharp teeth gleaming in the flash of the camera. It stood about four feet tall with a huge head full of bristling hair, and a mouth big enough to swallow Cutsauce whole.

"Holy shi—" I closed the portal. "What the hell is that thing?"

"Looks like a troll," Shelton said with a low whistle. "Haven't seen one of those in a long time."

"So they don't just exist on the internet," I said.

"Old man Conroy doesn't play around," he said. "Trolls don't just work for anyone."

I groaned. "We need to find another way in."

"Through those trees where the driveway curves?" Elyssa said.

I shrugged. "Might as well try."

I opened the portal well away from the willow tree and poked the camera into the dense stand of saplings. Something jerked hard on the pole. I tugged on it. The next yank nearly dragged me through the omniarch. I gave it one more hard tug, and fell over backward as the pole came loose. The camera was gone, only the well-chewed end of the pole left.

"I don't think this idea is working," Elyssa said.

I pounded the floor. Flung the pole against the back wall. "That old bastard won't stop me." I paced the floor for a minute, mind running through scenarios before I decided I needed to see the outside of the house again. Elyssa and I stepped through the portal onto the sidewalk in front of the house. We walked up and down the road, peering through fences, but the landscaping in the Conroy yard blocked vision from street level. I looked for a tree to climb. Though the yards boasted custom landscapes, everything from a desert theme with an adobe-styled Spanish house, to yards filled with fruit trees or hedges, none had a really tall tree in position to overlook the Conroy residence.

"Can I knock out a troll with a Lancer?" I asked Elyssa.

"Maybe with a hundred darts," she said. "They're built like tanks."

"Are they all so short?"

She shook her head. "I think that one is young. Then again, I haven't seen many trolls, either. The last one I saw was in the Cho'kai."

"How did you deal with it?"

Elyssa chuckled. "I ran."

If something made my ninja girlfriend run, I knew it had to be bad. I'd seen her climb the back of a tragon—half tyrannosaurus rex, half dragon—and knock it unconscious with Lancer darts.

I stopped in front of the tall black iron fence guarding the neighbor's yard. The tips ended in sharp-looking points. I could see this house from the road thanks to the wide green lawn with little in the way of bushes. The fence bordering it and the Conroys’ was just as tall, and thick cedar trees ran interference with sight from ground level. I took a couple of steps back, ran, and jumped, narrowly clearing the top.

Elyssa followed suit, adding a neat flip at the apex of her leap, hitting the ground in a roll, and stopping in a three-point stance like something out of a movie.

"Showoff," I said.

She stuck out her tongue.

We ran, following the fence until we reached the house, and cut across the lawn. I heard growling, and a Doberman appeared from the dark, racing toward us. I grinned at it, let loose a little of my inner demon, and growled. The Doberman whined, turning tail so fast its hind legs spun out on the grass.

"Meanie," Elyssa said.

We climbed up a gutter downspout, reaching a lower part of the roof, and made our way to the highest peak. From there, I saw more of the Conroys' yard. The driveway snaked beneath multiple willows with dense stands of other trees all along it. The landscaping was a mish-mash of vegetation, only making sense in the context of hiding guardian terrors.

I wondered what would happen should a hapless door-to-door salesman somehow slip inside the gate, hoping to sell a few vacuum cleaners. Would the trolls kill anyone, or simply knock them out and toss them on the street? With that kind of firepower at their disposal, why did the Conroys even need Black Robe Brotherhood thugs to stand guard?

Then again, they couldn't exactly take trolls out shopping with them. It stood to reason they needed humans—or reasonable facsimiles thereof—to guard them in the normal world. Since my night vision couldn't take in all the details I needed from this distance, we used a pair of Templar binoculars to scout the best place to open a portal.

Light shined from within a window on the third floor. I went prone on my belly and used my camera to take a picture. I sent a picture of our current location to Shelton. He opened the portal, and we stepped through back to the mansion cellar. I reopened the portal using the picture I'd just taken. Through the window I saw a long carpeted hallway devoid of decorations or furniture.

"Doesn't look like anyone uses that floor," Shelton said. "You sure they live there?"

"Why else would they have trolls in the front yard?" I asked. "This must be the place." I took a picture of the hallway, closed the portal, and reopened it inside the house. Taking a deep breath, I stepped through.

Nothing exploded or tried to bite my head off.

I blew out a sigh of relief.

We're in.

Chapter 33

Elyssa stepped through after me. We stood in silence, listening for signs of life on the floor. Sconces with a candlestick design offered dim light to see by. Most of the doors hung open to bare rooms. Even the bathroom lacked towels or toilet paper. Considering the size of their household, it wasn't too surprising they'd not furnished every room unless there were a lot more Conroys than I knew about. Only the last room on the left had furniture—a single wooden rocking chair, and a small round table with an unlit candle on it. Moonlight filtered through the round window. I shuddered.

Creepy.

For some reason, the scene reminded me of a horror movie I'd seen years ago. Thankfully there wasn't an old woman or a corpse in the chair, or I probably would have run screaming.

We crept down the hall to a set of hardwood stairs leading down. Our nightingale armor muffled our footsteps, though I winced at each step, wary of the creak of wood which might give us away. I hoped they hadn't warded the place yet, though with guards wandering the house, it seemed motion detection might be overkill unless they had a way of separating intruders from the people who belonged here.

As an added bonus, we didn't have blueprints, or any idea about the layout of the house. For all we knew, human sentries might wait around any given corner. The stairs led to yet another carpeted hallway lined with doors. This one showed a little more panache, boasting a table with candles, and a painting or two hanging in ornate frames.

Elyssa held up a closed fist, motioning me to stop. She turned and mouthed, "Ivy's bedroom is probably on this floor. More secure."

I nodded. It made sense. The master bedroom was probably here somewhere as well. It also meant Jeremiah or Eliza Conroy could be chilling in a room nearby, probably curled up with a good book and a glass of wine if not actively plotting world domination. I wondered if Daelissa called this place home, or if she slept hanging upside down in a cave, dreaming of enslaving the human race.

Since Elyssa had ninja training, I let her check and clear the rooms. Most were as empty as the floor above. Ahead, I saw a large staircase dividing the house into two wings. A long chain hung from the domed ceiling above, connected to a chandelier which shined dimly, though presumably not at full strength since it was well past bedtime. A door at the far end was closed. It might be the master bedroom. Would Ivy's room be on that side?

We cleared the rooms one-by-one until the central staircase loomed close by. I heard a man speaking in low tones from somewhere below but couldn't make out his words. He didn't sound like Jeremiah, so I figured he might be one of the Darkwater men. We hadn't checked to see if there were more than the one we'd found assigned here. Elyssa peeked over the balustrade. Motioned me over. I looked down and saw a well-appointed den. Flames flickered in a large fireplace on the far side. Ornate plush chairs with end tables next to them sat atop an Oriental area rug.

Continuing on, we crept low next to the railing. Once on the opposite side of the stairs, I caught sight of a man in a black robe talking to another identically-clothed man. The second's face matched the picture in the dossier. I didn't recognize the other one. It looked as though a kitchen lay through an entryway down a hallway behind them. It remained brightly lit. One of the men raised a mug to his lips, nodding at whatever the other man was saying, and they shared a hushed laugh.

Elyssa went prone, peering through the marble columns on the balustrade. We remained there, my gaze flicking behind and to the sides, paranoia making each second creep by. The feeling someone was sneaking up on us toyed with my senses. I was dying to ask Elyssa why we'd stopped, but fought the urge. She finally backed away from the railing on her stomach, stood, and moved to a corner with a table and painting. She snapped a picture. It turned out okay despite the low light. She texted it to Shelton with a message telling him to be ready to open a portal in case we needed a fast escape.