Stronger Together chapter 130 (Patreon)

Nadia was the first person to whirl around and look for the missing  man. As his wife she was naturally concerned. When she didn't see him  anywhere she started frantically yelling for him "Sergei! Sergei!" She  devolved into a string of russian I couldn't understand, bleeding back  into english periodically before getting so agitated she switched back.  She spun around to glare at Dalton with wild eyes "You! You invited us  to this place! You promised us safety and friendship! Where are your  promises now?"

A  throat clearing sound brought our attention to Brynn, who was glaring  at the russian woman bellowing at her employer. "That's quite an  assumption you're making. Who's to say that Sergei was harmed, maybe he  slipped away when we weren't looking. Maybe he's the one who arranged  for the wards to come down, maybe he was dead before you got here and  that monster is loose in the house wearing his face." Her glare  intensified "Hell, maybe you're the monster and you killed him when we  were distracted listening to Cameron. What better way to allay suspicion  than to play the grieving widow."

Dalton's  voice snapped out like the crack of a whipe. "Enough!" Brynn looked  over at her employer, shocked at his anger. He gave her a forced smile  "I appreciate you defending me but she's right. The monster aside,  someone tripped the wards here, that took planning and organization. My  security was breached and this thing wouldn't have had as much  opportunity to prey on us if that hadn't happened." He gave Nadia a  solemn nod "That said, if we turn on each other that opportunity  increases. We need to find Sergei."

That  seemed reasonable as a goal but I had a sneaking suspicion he was going  to suggest we split up and search for clues. God damn Barb just had to  Scooby Doo bait the universe. I cut that shit right off "Whatever we do  we need to make sure we don't do it in groups of less than three. If any  one of us could be the monster then each group should have at least two  people that aren't to gang up on the thing if it tries something." I  stepped back to stand next to my girls making it clear who my two were.

Dalton  nodded "Agreed, three or more, I'm guessing you figured out I want to  split up to try to find Sergei and hopefully some of the maids." Fuck I  forgot about the maids. There were a bunch of them loose in the house  probably locked in and terrified with no idea there was a fucking super  predator in here that might be stalking them as we speak. Dalton went on  "You kids mind if Brynn and I go with you? Five is still more than  three, and I'd feel better keeping an on you all seeing as how you're  the youngest here."

I  nodded because what do you say to something like that other than yes.  The groups were formed in the minutes after. Nadia obviously avoided out  group, but without Sergei her options were limited, she decided to go  with Han and Sera. Die Su, Valentina, and Ranier teamed up. It occurred  to me that most of the others were doing the minimum group size, big  scary supernatural badasses didn't need a team I suppose. Kaya, Hana,  and Vikram made up the final team. I was glad about that actually I  liked Hana, and son of a Hindu god was probably more than capable of  keeping her safe assuming he wasn't a serial killer with memory  problems.

We  all headed in different directions. Dalton gave a basic layout of the  house and let everyone pick their search routes for safety. Letting one  person make the call for us all seemed like a bad plan in case that  person was the monster trying to separate us and double back to pick off  the weak links. After he told us about every corner of the place though  he turned to Nadia solemnly. "I know you're angry at me, and you have  the right, but if you see Sergei, I need to know you'll call us so we  can all question him together."

He  held up a hand to forestall her angry retort "I'm not saying he's  guilty. But he vanished, and if you see him again when we aren't all  around it might not be the real him. If you bring him back to the group  I'll let him stay with us no questions asked. If he's the monster he  won't know and if he's not and we kill him we deprive ourselves of a  resource. I'm not asking you to bring your husband to die. No matter his  reasons he's welcome back. We can deal with whoever locked us in later  once we're all together and safe."

That  was incredibly smart actually. If this was search and destroy Nadia  would have never been on board but doing it this way ensured we had the  most people possible. My big worry wasn't finding Sergei, but that we  wouldn't find him. If the creature had been posing as him it might have  killed and replaced a maid by now, we could be heading to pick the damn  thing up as we speak. That was assuming it wasn't with us right now.  Hell it might have been Dalton and he was splitting us up and planning  to use the real Dalton's memories of the house to give us the slip and  go pick off the weak links.

I  shook that thought off. Not useful right now. Paranoia was healthy here  but suspicion wasn't. I should assume everyone who wasn't the girls was  out to murder me, keep my eye on them to make sure they were safe, and  act like everything was fine. Dalton decided our target for us since he  knew the place and he had picked the upstairs library. Knowing there was  a second one made me wonder what kind of crazy magic books he had in  his collection but I forced myself to focus on the stairs in front of  us. The godsteel brain upgrade made it kind of hard to focus because I  thought so fast. Had to keep a lid on that.

The  library turned out to be in the same general direction as out own room,  so we slipped up the stairs and down the empty hallway following  Dalton's lead. As we headed down the hall we heard a noise coming from  one of the rooms. All of us were instantly on our guards, I had my force  aspect running full blast and lightning spooled up enough that it  didn't affect my perception. The room next to us had someone in it.  Dalton looked a bit surprised when I stepped forward but finally nodded  at me to go first. I trusted the girls wot watch my back. My foot lashed  out and the door collapsed into splinters.

A  series of earsplitting screams met us on the other side. We stepped in  to find...maids. A bunch of them. Easily a dozen scantily clad gorgeous  women looking absolutely terrified. Dalton stepped in behind me with  Brynn at his side, Barb and Raven following quickly so they weren't left  in the hallway. As soon as Dalton stepped in one of the girls wailed  and threw herself into his arms. He caught the sobbing maid. "Claudia!  Thank god you're ok kid, what the hell happened? Some of you are missing  did someone try to hurt you guys?"

Claudia,  who turned out to be both our maid Claudette and not actually french  sobbed. "Uncle Dalton, Risa and Cameron are dead! Margaret and Sarah  went crazy when the lights went out and started trying to kill everyone.  Bella , Sonia, Alex, and Mathilda were able to overpower them but they  killed Risa and Cameron before anyone could react. What's going on? I've  known them for years why would they do this?" Dalton's eyes flashed  with anger, I was guessing like me he figured the maids were plants  hired by the mysterious third party who triggered the lock down.

He  pulled her close squeezing tight, looking relieved she was ok. "I don't  know kid, but you can be damn sure I'll find out. Look we're out  looking for someone but we can't bring all of you with us. A group this  big moving through the hallways is a walking target. It's impossible to  keep your eye on everyone at once." He turned to me "Cam, I'm going to  leave Brynn here with the girls and come with you all. You still good  having me along without my witchy backup? I suspect I won't be  protecting you as much as the other way around judging by what you did  to that door."

I  waved away the question "Of course man, you still know this place  better than anyone else." I shot him a wolfish grin "Besides  I'll feel  better looking out for you personally if you die whose gonna pay me my  money when I win that poker game?" He laughed, hugging his niece  goodbye. The girl gave us a sheepish smile and a grateful nod before we  left. As we stepped out into the hallway I made a spur of the moment  decision " Barb, I want you guarding Dalton. Raven you're up front and  I'll take the read. I'm the least likely to get jumped from behind."

Raven  looked a bit annoyed but nodded at the logic and we shifted around our  formation. I made sure to skew my body a bit so I would be harder to  sneak up on but for the most part my attention was in front of me. I  clenched my godsteel fist, hearing the leather of my glove creak as I  got ready to throw a punch, but no one appeared. We made our way to the  library like that, all on high alert and making sure we weren't  vulnerable. We didn't speak at all, worried our voices might drown out  some last minute warning of danger.

Finally  we got to the library. Dalton stepped ahead of us, putting up a hand.  "If you don't mind I'll use the key. These doors are expensive. The ones  on the rooms are just mahogany, but this one is honduran rosewood and  that stuff is a bitch to get even for me, at least pieces big enough for  double doors." He produced a brass key and slipped it into a well  polished lock, giving it a sharp turn and producing a soft click as he  turned the knob. He waited for me to give the nod before pushing open  the door and I was the first one through.

When  we got inside there was no terrible monster waiting for us, just a pair  of chairs with people in them in front of the fireplace. The chairs  were angled away from the door and towards the fire, which was roaring  cheerfully. I circled around the side to see the taller figure, and as  expected it was Sergei. Unfortunately he was already dead and clearly  had been for a while. His chest was torn open just like Carlos and his  heart was gone. I cursed, the Sergei that had been with us in the game  had been the monster I was sure of it.

Barb  broke my reverie, her voice sounding a bit nervous. "Um, guys? We have a  problem." I turned to find her staring at the person in the second  chair. Or rather, what was left of them. The chest had been cracked open  and the heart torn out like the others, but this had gone a step  further. The monster had shoved her head in the fire and burned her face  clean off. Her hair had been charred away too.

The  only thing we could use to identify her was the bloody remains of a  maids uniform on her body. I remembered Dalton saying all the maids were  accounted for in that room minus the dead ones. Someone had been  replaced and we didn't know who.  That...was not good.