by Eva Chase
A dozen or so here right now. If I could disable all of them at once, temporarily… A spell like the enforcers had cast on us, to knock us out before they brought us here. I could construct something like that, couldn’t I?
I had to do it fast, before they figured out what I was doing and charged in to stop me. If I could even do it at all in this imaginary way.
I sucked in another breath and willed my thoughts quiet, my body still. Every shred of focus and energy had to go into this spell.
In my mind’s eye, I saw the bindings on my hands, wrists, and ankles fall away. I stood up, careful not to tug on the chains and dispel the illusion. Behind my closed eyelids, I pictured my arms swaying, my legs sweeping in the beginning of a form. For a second, it felt so real a tingling raced through my nerves. My spark leapt with a burst of supernatural flame.
Yes. I could do this. Giddy with the exhilaration, I concentrated on the fine twists and dips of my fingers, gathering more and more magic into the spell, sculpting it into the shape I needed. My spark flared hotter. The magic seared through my entire body, quivering with the need to release.
Just a little more. Just a little sharper.
The little glints of the enforcers in the building twitched. A few of them were coming my way. My pulse skipped a beat. My hold on my imagined limbs wavered.
I had to do it now, before I lost my chance. Squeezing my eyes even more tightly closed, I pictured my arms whirling around me to spin the magic into a whirlwind. The energy rippled through me, stealing my breath.
Then with a real jerk of my waist, I sent it crashing out through the walls toward our captors.
The impact echoed through me: bodies falling to the floor, mental lights dimming. I gasped and focused another pulse of magic at my chains. With a wrenching I felt right through my chest, I shattered them. The mitts covering my hands burst in a spray of foam.
I scrambled to the door with real limbs that worked now. My legs wobbled under me. The spell had worked, but my whole body was aching from the effort, both of the amount of power I’d expended and the strain of doing it so completely mentally. My spark flickered, low and guttering, in my chest.
My magic was almost completely depleted. And I had no idea how long the enforcers would stay unconscious.
I stumbled and fell to my knees. No, I had to keep moving. With a shove against the floor, I propelled myself the last step to the door. My hand fell against the wall by the lock panel.
Just a little more magic. Please, by the Spark, let me have enough to finish what I’d started. At least now I could put my whole body to the task.
I murmured under my breath and jerked my fingers. Pain splintered down my arms—and the lock rasped over. I grabbed the handle and yanked.
The door swung open. I heaved myself out into the hall, my legs still swaying under me, my mind centered around one clear thought.
My guys. I had to find my guys.
Chapter Four
Rose
The long hall was all gray, the only color a red light on the lock controls next to the many doors. A body was sprawled on the floor at the far end: an enforcer, from her clothes. Maybe one who’d been rushing over to see what I was up to when my spell had hit them.
I had to keep moving, had to get all of us out of here before she and the others came to.
I staggered on past the first couple doors to the one where I’d sensed Kyler. My shoes scraped the floor, loud in the silence of the building. My hand trailed along the wall, feeling every tiny dimple in its mostly smooth surface.
One more step. Then another. There. My head was starting to spin, but I set my hands over the lock panel and made a quick twisting gesture, wrenching another flicker of energy from my spark.
The red light blinked green. The lock disengaged. I grasped the handle and hauled the door open.
The effort made me stumble halfway over the threshold. “Rose!” Kyler said, leaping to his feet. He’d been sitting on a bench like the one in my cell, his arms and legs chained like mine had been. The chains clinked as he tried to rush to my side and drew up short at their limit.
“I can get rid of those,” I mumbled. “I can do it. Just let me…”
“Take it easy,” he said as I made my dizzy shuffling way to him. “If you push yourself too hard—”
“If I don’t push myself, we won’t get out of here in time.” I swiped my hands through the air, and links in his chains parted. The shackles were still attached to Kyler’s wrists and ankles, but he didn’t give me the chance to try to remove those too. He caught me in his arms, hugging me to him.
“Rose,” he murmured into my hair. I’d never heard my cheerful computer enthusiast sounding so choked up. I hugged him back for a second, feeling a little relief just at the contact, the feel of his tall lean body against mine. Even after our imprisonment, his usual faintly minty smell still clung to his skin. I breathed it in, and my spark glinted brighter.
“We’ve got to go—find the others, get out of here,” I said. “I knocked out everyone else in the building, but I’m not sure how long the spell will last.”
“Right. Right.” Ky grasped my hand, holding me steady as we hurried out into the hall. “Do you know where the other guys are?”
“Damon’s right here,” I said, motioning to the door next to Ky’s, from which an unmistakable prickly energy was emanating. “And Gabriel’s on the other side of the hall two more down. Seth and Jin are down one floor.”
Kyler’s eyes widened at the sight of the enforcer on the floor. “Let me check her,” he said, squeezing my hand and then letting go. “If she’s got something to open the doors, you won’t need to use up more of your energy.”
He loped down the hall to where the enforcer was sprawled, and I turned to Damon’s cell door. I couldn’t afford to wait. Gritting my teeth, I motioned with my hands over the lock panel again. A thorn of pain jabbed my chest, but the lock slid over. I pulled that door open just as Ky let out a cry of triumph.
In his cell, Damon was pacing restlessly as far as his chains would let him, much like I’d imagined him. He jerked to a stop at the sight of me. “Rose! You got the bastards. Good.”
“I’m getting you all out,” I said. I tried to keep my steps steady, but I swayed a little on my way to him. He cupped his hands around my face as I worked my magic on his chains.
“You really are our angel,” he said gruffly.
He kissed me, hard but quickly enough that I didn’t protest. My fingers curled into his cotton tee. No leather jacket on the real him—it’d been too warm for that, the morning when we’d been arrested—but a lingering waft of that scent carried from his shirt. Then he was slinging his arm around my waist, supporting a little of my weight as we went to rejoin Kyler.
The slimmer twin was just stepping out of the cell he’d opened. He waved a keycard at us. “I can handle the doors now, but the chains are another story. No key that I could find.”
“I can manage the chains,” I said.
Gabriel was already standing, waiting, when I made my way in. Damon stayed next to me, his hand on my elbow. A wobble passed through my bones as I cast the spell to break the chains. Gabriel touched my cheek and kissed my forehead, and I fought the urge to sag into his embrace and just not get up for at least a year.
“You did it, Sprout,” he said. “You’re fucking amazing, you know that?”
“I haven’t done it yet,” I muttered, but I soaked up the warmth of his words all the same. “We’ve still got two more to go.”
As much as I reveled in feeling them close to me, I hated that I had to lean on the guys—almost literally—the rest of the way along the hall and down the stairwell. Despite the brief kisses, my chest was aching around my spark again. My thoughts scattered and collected and scattered again.
I’d never worn myself out this badly before. I’d barely had the chance, since I’d only had my spark fully lit a short while ago.
“That door,” I told Kyler, pointing.
“And that one.” He unlocked them with a swipe of the key card, which gave off a crinkling of magic as well. They had a spell on them that worked with the lock, I guessed.
Gabriel opened the door to Jin’s cell, and Damon helped me in.
“We’re making our grand escape?” Jin said as I split open his chains. “I wish I could have seen how you took them on.”
“I just hit them with a spell to leave them unconscious for a while,” I said. “I don’t think it looked all that spectacular.”
“Hmm. Briar Rose putting everyone else to sleep now.” He stepped closer, and Damon shifted to the side to let my artist consort take his place. Jin hugged me and gave me a short but tender kiss.
In the last cell, Seth spread his wrists as far as they would go to give me a clear view of the chain between them. I broke it in an instant—and an instant after that, stumbled forward into him. He caught me against his tall brawny frame.
“Are you okay?” He glanced up at the others. “Is she hurt?”
“Just tired,” I mumbled.
“She’s been protecting us this whole time,” Gabriel said. “And then knocking out the whole building—she must be exhausted. Come on. Let’s get her out of here.”
Seth scooped me up, cradling me against his shoulder. I made a murmur of protest, but really I wasn’t in much condition to argue. I was starting to feel kind of numb, with an unpleasantly biting tingly sensation that was spreading from my ribs out to my limbs. Seth exchanged a glance with Ky, who nodded with a small smile to his burlier twin.
“All right,” Gabriel said, falling into his usual role as leader. “We need to find an exit, and we need some kind of transportation, because I don’t think we’re making it very far on foot.”
“No kidding,” Damon said in a snarky tone, but he craned his neck at the same time. “I think I see a bigger set of doors down at that end of the hall. Maybe that exit leads to a lobby?”
“If we’re in Seattle in the main Assembly building—or near it—there’s probably an underground parking lot,” Ky put in.
“I haven’t seen any elevators,” Gabriel said. “Let’s take a look around as quickly as we can.”
Seth carried me along with the others with powerful strides. I nestled my head against his broad neck, absorbing his warmth and the sun-drenched bronze smell of him, but I kept my eyes open. I still had a little power left, if we needed one last burst of magic.
The double doors Damon had spotted led into another shorter hall. The door at the end required Ky’s keycard. He peeked out and shut it again.
“It looks like a lobby. I can see traffic going by outside. We’re definitely in a city. Do you think we’re clear to just walk out, or could there be more of those Assembly people around, Rose?”
I frowned. “I’m not sure. I don’t think they had time to warn anyone that I was trying something… But there could be a guard or two nearby that I missed with my spell. We’ll be pretty noticeable going out there like this.”
“There’s a stairwell here,” Jin said, opening a side door. “Stairs going down. Your underground parking?”
“We’d better take a look,” Gabriel said.
We hustled down the stairs into a dimmer, cooler space with only a few vehicles parked under a concrete ceiling: a couple of sedans and a white delivery van. Gabriel made straight for the van.
“This will hold all of us—and be better for hiding us.” He stopped and looked to me. “Can you manage this last door, Rose?”
I nodded against Seth’s shoulder. When I shifted, he eased me down. I narrowed my eyes at the driver’s side door on the van and sent a swift burst of magic at it.
The lock clicked over. Gabriel scrambled in and bent beside the steering wheel. “I should be able to manage the wiring. The rest of you get in, wherever you can.”
I shouldn’t have been surprised he knew how to hotwire a car, even though I’d have expected that more from Damon with his recent criminal associations. Gabriel knew cars inside and out, thanks to his dad who’d been the garage manager on my estate since before Gabriel or I was born. Until my dad had fired him because of Gabriel’s friendship with me, that was. I didn’t want to think about everything that had happened after.
But I did have to think about Gabriel. My heart wrenched, but I forced myself to touch his arm. “You don’t have to stay with us, you know. We’re not consorted. If you’re not with me, they might leave you alone. They’ll be so busy coming after the rest of us—”
Gabriel jerked around, setting his hand over mine. His bright blue eyes held my gaze intently.
“I’m not going anywhere, Rose. Not now, not ever. You don’t have to offer. I knew what I was getting into already.”
I swallowed thickly, but I couldn’t help smiling. It wasn’t as if I’d wanted him to leave.
“I lifted a phone off one of the guards,” Kyler said, jogging around to the passenger side of the cab. “Already disabled anything that would let them track it. I can navigate. Is there anywhere you think we should go, Rose?”
I rubbed my forehead as if that would put my thoughts in better order. “We just need to get as far away from here as we can as quickly as we can, before anyone realizes and sounds the alarm. Someplace where we can get another car, I guess, since they’ll start looking for this one.”
“That’s the start of a plan,” Seth said. “Come on, let’s get you in and resting.”
Damon had already tugged open the van’s back doors. We clambered in, Seth giving me an extra boost. A few boxes were stacked against one wall along with a dolly and a couple of thick wool blankets, I guessed for extra padding.
Jin grabbed the blankets and spread them on the floor. I sat down on one with a sigh of gratitude. Up front, the engine hitched and rumbled. Kyler let out a little cheer.
“Ready to go?” Gabriel called back to us.
“Almost!” Seth yanked the doors shut. He, Damon, and Jin gathered around me on the blanket. “Good to go!” he shouted to Gabriel, and then ran his hand over my hair. “Lie down. Get some rest. We can take care of you for a little while, all right?”
“If you need magic for anything, don’t hesitate—wake me up,” I said, and he nodded.
“Go to sleep, angel,” Damon said, tugging me down next to him. I closed my eyes. The van rocked as it backed out of the parking space. My body was still aching, but with Damon holding me, Jin tracing gentle patterns on my back, and Seth stroking my knee, I didn’t care.
I was with my consorts again. I’d saved them, at least for the moment.
Now we just had to find out whether we’d actually escaped or if we had another battle ahead.
Chapter Five
Seth
We’d been on the road about twenty minutes when Kyler popped open the door between the seats up front and the van’s storage area. “Hey, Damon,” Gabriel called back from beside my brother. “Have you got any ideas about where we could find another van or a truck no one will be able to trace easily—and that won’t cost a ton?”
“And why exactly are you asking me?” Damon muttered, but he got up to consult with them anyway. It wasn’t exactly a secret that he’d been hanging out with some pretty questionable characters over the last several years. If any of us was going to know where to get something under the table, it’d be him.
“We’ll want to pick up some burner phones too,” Ky said. “I’ve got to tell my clients something, and Seth and I should probably send some kind of message to our parents, so no one worries when we don’t show up for work.”
Damon sighed. “I’m sure we can manage that too. Burner phones are pretty simple.”
I shifted to take his former place beside Rose. She stirred and scooted closer to me, nuzzling my chest in her sleep. On her other side, Jin smiled at her with so much affection his face almost glowed in the thin light seeping through the back windows. He kissed her shoulder lightly and got up to check the boxes stacked by the van’s wall. “I wonder if any of these have food i
n them. I’m starving. Aren’t the rest of you?”
“We can look for somewhere to grab a meal after we’ve ditched this van,” I said. “Rose said we should focus on getting as far away from the Assembly as possible until then.”
“Oh, I know. But it can’t hurt to check what we have.”
As he shuffled through the boxes’ contents, I lay my head down next to Rose’s. Her scattered black hair still held a little of her usual light lilac scent. I’d just closed my eyes in the hopes of getting a little rest myself, my hand on her waist, when she gave a wordless murmur and stretched her arms. When I looked at her, her eyelids had fluttered open.
“I don’t think you’ve gotten nearly enough sleep to recover from all that,” I said.
“What about you?” she said, her dark green eyes still dreamy. “How much have you recovered?”
“I’m just fine,” I told her. “But I didn’t spend the last twelve hours shielding five other people and myself.”
She wrinkled her nose at me. Then her expression turned serious. She touched the side of my face. “Did I manage to shield you? They didn’t hurt you?”
“Not really,” I said. “I felt you there—I felt your magic inside me. Theirs wasn’t strong enough to get past it.”
“Good.”
“But I could see how much that took out of you. So more rest. That’s an order.”
“You’re a renovator, not a doctor,” she protested. A sly smile crossed her face. “Besides, maybe it’s not sleep I really need to recover.”
I was tired too, but somehow that one look from her sent a bolt of desire right from my chest to my groin. I raised an eyebrow at her. “Is that an invitation?”
She shrugged, still grinning. “If you want to take it as one.”
