by K. F. Breene
I grabbed Emery’s arm. “How do we know it won’t explode?”
“It won’t.”
“Right.” I stared at the changing colors, the spell growing more furious as it ate through the ward. “And how do you know?”
“By the look of it.”
“Uh-huh.” He’d just acted as though he’d never seen anything like it, so I found his confidence a little tough to believe.
A large black line opened up in the spell, right over the doorway. Like an egg breaking, it ran down to the ground. The lines along the sides became wider. Red flashed.
I took a step back, ready to hide behind the vampires. They could heal. I could not.
One final soundless flash, and the spell protecting the building disappeared into nothing, sending me a laughing farewell as it did so.
“Uh-oh,” I said, realizing what that meant. “It’s going to tell on us.”
“Yeah. I just saw that.”
“What is this?” Darius asked.
“There was a spell hidden in the depths of the ward. One I didn’t know was there.” Emery rushed toward the door.
“A tattletale spell.” I followed quickly.
“It will alert the spell casters of a breach.” Emery yanked at the locked door. “We don’t have much time.” He turned, moving me to the side.
Darius flicked his fingers. The click of a lock sounded.
“Giving their species that power is just plain cruel,” I said.
The spacious interior of the records building spread out before us, an extremely organized collection of boxes and containers housed in rows upon rows of numbered and labeled shelves. Magic hugged the walls, and I realized it was to keep the atmosphere climate-controlled in order to preserve the various documents stored inside.
“This is helpful,” Darius said, strolling in. He looked behind him, and vampires filed in faster than thought.
Emery was off like a shot, looking at the white labels on the front of each row. Darius came to a stop beside me, his gaze constantly moving before turning back toward the door.
“You might join Miss Beauchene outside,” he said. “She’ll show you what to do.”
“You mean, kill anyone close enough to see what’s going on?” I asked.
“Fabulous. You already know what’s needed.” He nodded at the doorway and then took off, heading toward Emery. Even in a highly pressurized situation, he was as cultivated and smooth as silk.
I about-faced and hurried outside, not loving the detail I’d been given, but knowing it would help Emery. He needed closure, and hopefully this would do it for him.
Miss Beauchene, the ferocious killer with a face that would make angels sing, stood at the front door with a relaxed posture. She looked out at the dark and quiet grounds, the calm before the storm.
I stood on the other side of the door, feeling my surroundings. The moon sprinkled light onto the ground, creating shadows by the walls and under the bushes. I analyzed those, growing familiar with their shapes in case someone tried to use them for cover.
“You are new to this life?” Miss Beauchene asked. Her lovely voice, heavily accented, barely reached my ears.
“Yes.”
“You do not have to speak so loud. I have excellent hearing.”
I nodded—couldn’t get much quieter than that.
“You seem to be adjusting well.” Her head snapped to the left. Her whole body stilled and she shifted silently, facing that direction. “Your name is Penelope, is that correct?”
“Technically, but I go by Penny.”
“A poor choice. Penelope is fitting.” A tad opinionated, this vampire. “I am Marie. Now stay here.” And with that, she was off, zooming away.
A rustle and a grunt broke the silence. Something slid across the cement, ending in a heavy object slapping the ground. In rushed the dense, murky silence.
Marie strode around the corner, her eyes back to scanning.
I gulped and tried desperately to stuff all of this on the “ignore list.” That became increasingly more difficult when she said, “I left a line of blood on the footpath. Sloppy.”
Shifting my weight from one foot to the other, I glanced behind me through the door. A sheet of paper fluttered to the ground. Two more followed it before an open box was placed near the entrance. A vampire zipped by, carrying another box.
“You guys had your own agenda,” I murmured, remembering what Clyde had said.
“Of course.” She looked straight ahead, and her body went on point again.
That was when it hit me. Like the undertow before a tsunami, the magic sucked at me. Dark, thick, and evil, something was in the works, and it would not be pretty.
“Skin peeling…” Eyes closed, I leaned away from it, focusing on the prickles rolling across my skin. My stomach churned. “Pulling our insides out.” The darkness rose in the distance, a growing balloon intent on our bodily destruction.
“What do I do?” Marie asked, at my side.
My power stones, all six of them, begged me to take them out, to spread them out in front of me. I complied quickly, pausing twice when one groused about the location. Once those were arrayed on the ground, I stripped off my utility belt and sprinkled the contents on the ground around the stones, creating a circle around me. A slight breeze stirred my hair and dusted my face. A sweet fragrance filled my senses and calmed my nerves.
My phone buzzed, clattering against the ground where I’d dropped it. Marie was there in an instant, quieting it. My mother had been pulling double duty lately, always awake, always sending new readings. She had to be exhausted. That, or she had friends she never told me about, and they were taking shifts.
Probably the latter.
“What does it say, Marie? Quickly.”
“‘Use the vampire.’”
“Okay, well, you heard her. Get in here.” I stepped closer to the power stones, allowing room for Marie at my back.
Without question, Marie stepped into the circle, more courageous than I would’ve been in her situation. And less curious. Did she not wonder who was giving me orders via text?
Ignore list.
I centered myself in my self-made haven of natural magic, focusing on the feeling of what was looming out there in the darkness. Nature guided me in the weave, as it so often did, attaching to what I now knew was my will. Marie’s magic drifted into the mix, predatory and sharp, a lethal killer who hunted in the shadows. Finally, a complex mix of emotions that could best be compared with PMS rose through my middle, confused and sad and annoyed and ragey all at the same time.
Power pulsed around me. The sky crackled.
“They are getting closer,” Marie whispered. “Muttering. I can’t hear what they are saying.”
“I know. I can feel it.”
The huge wave was loosed, rolling toward us quickly.
My hands spread out like claws, my teeth gritted, and my eyes closed. I had one moment to issue a plea that this would work as intended and save everyone in the records room, before I shoved my arms forward, and with them, my spell.
A complex wave, glimmering white, stretched out in front of us. It drifted toward the oncoming spell, slow and steady. Thick and violent.
A cloud of deep green slammed into my wall. Pops and sparks flew out, cracking and banging. The green mass tried to burrow through my weave. Eat it away. Punch holes into it.
My magic held fast, retreating with the onslaught.
My power stones burst with power, feeding the spell I’d already sent into the world. I had no idea how or why.
The colors changed. The weaves continued to do war. My spell held fast, wearing the other down. Corroding it.
“I’ll get the casters,” Marie said.
I snatched her arm and got a nasty scratch from a claw for my efforts. “No! My spell is just getting going. This is the defensive part. Your magic will be kicking off in just a moment.”
“My magic?” Marie said, stilling.
Electricity roll
ed across my skin, and then Emery was behind us. “What’s happening? Do you need help?”
“No,” I whispered, keeping a tight grip on Marie’s hand. This was about to be the worst thing I’d ever created. I could feel it. I needed to hold a hand—or in this case, a vicious-looking set of claws—to keep my courage. “This is the vampires’ fault, by the way. Let’s all acknowledge that up front.”
“I see them,” Marie said. “Walking forward slowly. Six of them. Arrogance at work.”
A bright flare of light lit everyone up, and suddenly I could see them too. Six, as Marie had said, three in red robes, two in purple, and one in orange. They had more ingredients in their hands, but no one’s lips were moving. They wanted to see how their first spell did before moving on to another.
How dumb could this organization possibly be? Emery and I didn’t need to memorize words or separate our ingredients out beforehand, so time would always be on our side.
As the full weight of what I was, and how lucky I was, hit me, my spell morphed into a strange, grisly-looking thing, replete with magical spikes and gaping black holes.
“What the hell did you create?” Emery asked, stepping closer.
“Something a vampire would be proud of,” I muttered, feeling a little sick to my stomach.
“We shall see.” Marie laid a hand on my shoulder, thankfully without claws. I wasn’t sure being her buddy was a good thing.
The spell flew forward as fast as Darius could run, drifting over the ground silently. It crashed into the mages, piercing them in a hundred places each, the spikes digging into their flesh. Now attached, it began eating away at its new hosts, a magical parasite.
Screams rent the night sky. Emery acted quickly, pulling from the ingredients scattering the ground and dropping a magical noise cap onto the scene.
He turned to me, his eyes intense, before a little smile curved his lips. A moment later, he was sprinting back into the building.
“He is proud of you.” Marie’s grip tightened on my shoulder. One by one, the bodies fell into a heap. “And I would be honored to take responsibility for the effects of that spell. It was magnificent. I hope to be in battle with you someday.”
I grimaced. Definitely not a personal goal to be her friend.
She stiffened, and I felt the coming spell. I turned to throw my hands up, not sure what I would do, but I went airborne. I hit the side of the building and tumbled to the ground. The spell harmlessly zipped past.
“My apologies. I didn’t know if you’d react in time.” Marie was zooming away.
Climbing to my feet, I felt another spell coming. These weren’t being created; they were already made. From casings, I’d bet. Weaker, but harder to sense until they were on top of me.
“We’re under siege,” I yelled over my shoulder. “We gotta go.”
I called up another shield and ran forward. A blast of light hit my magic, fizzing and popping. I shot out, my red jet of electricity enhanced with a few tricks I’d learned recently. A scream rose. A man in orange crumpled to the ground. Another turned and ran toward the building on my right.
I patched together a rolling ball of heat and really, really wished I knew how to make fire. The fire Reagan had summoned in that church had been way cooler than my efforts, not to mention more effective. I needed that kind of firepower. Literally.
It rolled over him, and his robes burst into flames. With the door open, the ball continued inside, searing the frame as it boiled through.
Good enough.
Smoke puffed out of the building. Light glowed and flickered from within.
“Oooooh…” I grimaced. If all the screaming and blasts of light didn’t get us noticed, a burning building would surely do the trick. “We gotta go!”
I turned and started running. Marie was beside me in a moment.
“We gotta go,” I yelled again, bursting into the records room.
Paper and overturned boxes littered the entire right side of the building. Gaping holes announced missing boxes from shelves. In front of me, three vampires waited, six boxes strapped to each of their backs with thick netting. The others were getting loaded up. Darius clearly planned to take as much of the record room with him as possible, but he didn’t think he was above hard labor. It looked like he’d be carrying out boxes too.
“Clearly we’re even in this endeavor,” I said, indignant for reasons I couldn’t name. “Just in case you try to call in a favor for helping us get into the compound”—I waggled my finger at Darius—“this is that favor. You’re welcome for our role in getting you in here.”
Emery smiled in approval and gave me a small nod. He only had one file, I noticed.
“You are not so naive as you seem,” Darius said, adjusting the straps of the netting over his shoulders. “How unfortunate.”
“Oh no, I’m horribly naive. It’s annoying and I hate it. But I’m not stupid. Now let’s go. I may or may not have set a building on fire.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
We sprinted out of the records building. Smoke coughed out of the opened door a ways up. Flames flickered in the windows. No denying that. I’d definitely set fire to it.
A jet of magic came at us. Emery shot something back before I could even blink.
I collected up my power stones and whatever handfuls I could of the natural items. I stuffed them into my belt and strapped it on as the vampires converged around us.
“Stay near me,” Emery said, grabbing my arm and pulling me close. Our bubble flared to life almost immediately, our power instantly amping up.
We jogged out the way we’d come. Movement caught my eye from the right, a pulsing beacon of death flaring to life in front of us.
“They’re creating a nasty spell that way.” I pointed in front of us.
“Exit strategy. Go left,” Darius commanded.
Like a flock of birds, everyone turned, the vampires gliding along effortlessly, seemingly untroubled by the weight and bulk strapped to their backs. Emery dropped a hazy shield around us, similar to the spell I’d used against the mage attack on our first visit. He could say what he wanted, but his brain was clearly just fine at quickly picking up and remembering spells.
We picked up the speed until Emery and I were flat-out running. The boxes bounced on the backs of the vampires. Evil sparked behind us.
“Incoming,” I hollered, whirling another heat ball into existence, then bowling it behind us.
“You have a very creative imagination.” Emery created a weave above us, perfectly done regardless of how fast we were running. “And a very scary one.”
“You literally have no idea.” Movement caught my eye to the right and I sent a red zapper that way. Someone shrieked. Marie sprinted away and the sound cut off.
“Left,” Darius said.
Emery and I turned together, moving into a part of the compound we hadn’t seen earlier. We passed between shabby buildings with black windows and sickly trees with bare branches. Marie caught up to us before stalling and drifting behind. I felt a surge of aggression, spiky and hot, ready to be realized.
“Oh no.” I jumped to the side so the vampires could pass me and sprinted back toward her, my heart in my throat. She was terrifying, but she had helped me. I didn’t want to see her die.
“Penny,” Emery called out, chasing after me.
The spell loosed, hurtling in roughly our direction. Marie ran in front of us, right at it. It would slice her in pieces. Even superior healing would not help her.
White-hot fire rose through me. I clapped my hand on Emery’s wrist, closed my eyes, and opened up to my intention. Blast away that spell.
My center exploded out, my power acidic. I staggered, clutching at my chest. Emery wrapped his arm around my shoulders, supporting me as my spell sailed right above Marie’s head. It hit the spell five feet before it reached her. An explosion of heat and light blasted Marie off her feet. She flew backward at us, her hair burned away and her clothes smoking.
Her bo
dy hit mine, throwing me back. My head smacked against the ground and my vision swam.
“Get Penny,” Emery yelled, his voice hard. Hexes exploded through the air, firing out from Emery faster than I could think. Energy boiled and frayed around us.
Screams pierced the darkness. Agonized groans filled in the gaps. Movement came from the right. Emery gracefully turned his upper body to shift his aim, his file at his feet and his magic rising around him like he was some sort of God. He flung the spells every which way, aggressive and powerful, cutting out the enemy with cool efficiency.
A hairless, gristly-green monster yanked me up off the ground and threw me over its shoulder. Black filled its eyes, fangs dropped down from black gums surrounded by black lips, and jutting cheekbones with hollowed cheeks made me cringe.
“Am I hallucinating?” I tried to hold my hands away from touching its half-scorched, half-swampy back. My head pounded and simultaneously felt like it had been stuffed with feathers, but I could still make out the greenish-white skin dipping between the creature’s ribs, the bony butt, and stringy, bowed legs.
And we were running. So fast I couldn’t focus. Legs churning and air whipping my face. I squeezed my eyes shut, then opened them again, thinking of Emery. He had been left behind to deal with the mages. Alone.
“Let me down. I can help,” I said. “I’m fine.”
“He comes,” the horrifying monster said through a mouthful of fangs.
I arched, looking back. Sure enough, Emery was sprinting, his file safely in hand. We turned a corner and the sight of him cut out. I was about to roll off the bony, extremely uncomfortable shoulder of the swamp thing, when Emery came around after us.
“He and I leave together,” I said, pounding a fist on the back of the monster. “Did you hear that? I don’t leave this compound unless it is with him.”
Miracle of miracles, the swamp thing listened, slowing as we ran up to the ward leading out of this hellhole. Emery caught up with us, his eyes anxious, glimmering in the moonlight. As a unit, we ran out together, our magical key from previously entering enough to get us back out again.
Thoughts dizzied after that. We ran up a small hillside and to a small road where a line of cars and trucks awaited us. The others.
