I knew instinctively if I touched the vampire bad things would happen. We don’t go near the knocker. My wolf barked in agreement, still focusing on managing our magic. We were steadily moving it outward. How are we going to get past that brick wall? It will take too long to tear a hole through it, if that’s even possible. Once we stop, we aim the magic out like Stasis and pray it’s enough to keep the Trows off us until we can figure out how to break through. I’d been unconscious the last time I’d gone into Stasis, but when I’d woken up, I’d felt the power. I had to make it feel almost like that. We couldn’t force it too far outward and risk losing consciousness. That would be a very bad thing. I’m counting on the fact the Trows don’t have much magic. If they do, we’ll need a plan B or they’ll rip through our barrier with their greedy pointy teeth.
I ran straight up to the wall without stopping, jamming my claws into the bricks. Now! My wolf shot the concentrated power outward like a balloon. My golden power flexed tightly around us, right as the first one launched itself forward. Can you feel them? Are they bouncing off? I craned my head around. Ohmygods. We were already knee-deep in nasty Trows. But they couldn’t get to my body. The power block had worked and they were furious, jumping and spitting, that they couldn’t get to the prize.
It’s working and I don’t feel much magic coming from them. Now we just have to break the ward. I closed my eyes and ran my hands along the wall, trying to sense the magic. As I did, my bubble of protection flexed. Shit. I don’t think we can keep the Trows out and break the ward at the same time. It’s going to take too much of our resources to do both. Once we grasp the ward, we’ll need to shift the power from our shield into the spell. It’s going to leave us open to bites for a few moments, but it can’t be helped.
Double damn.
I continued to run my hands over the coarse brick. The ward tasted tart and old, like biting into an unripe crab apple. It had the same underlay as the cell chains. What kind of magic is this? I’d never come across it before. It doesn’t have a witchy signature like Tally’s or Marcy’s, or even Selene’s. My knowledge of spell casters was limited, so it wasn’t saying much. Do you taste that? The spell had manifested in the back of my throat in a physical way, settling on my tongue like a coat of pollen. Whatever it is it’s ancient, and I have no idea how to break it.
The Trows continued to snarl and leap around my feet.
This was becoming a funhouse. We need to split our power and start filtering half of it into the spell. With effort, I grabbed on to some of the power, and as I funneled it forward, as predicted, the barrier between us and the Trows shrank. We have to keep no less than a foot between us and them.
Suddenly their behavior changed and they quieted.
Do you hear that? What are they doing? The Trows had stopped jumping and were now emitting weird clicking noises. They’re pissed they can’t get to us and I think they’re discussing their options.
Thinking these little beasts had intelligence was almost too much for me. Yuck.
I had no choice but to ignore them and turn back to the task of breaking the ward. I searched for a weakness. Yuri said it would take everything I had, but I can’t even find what to focus on. The spell feels like a cloud. How do I break apart cloud? When I try to touch it, it moves. She flashed me a picture of us pouring air into a balloon. You mean fill it up? Yuri had stated emphatically I needed to close the gate when I was done. Then once we’re through, we suck our power back out? That must be it. I had to inflate it and then take it back out so the ward stayed intact and nothing else could get free and come after me. We can’t fill this sucker up slowly; it’s too big. It will drain us dry and leave us to the Trows. We have to go all in and jam it full in a few seconds. Hopefully it will work. If not, I got nothing and the Trows are going to eat us.
My wolf growled uneasily, but I took it as a yes.
We really had no other option.
Ready? The Trows had backed off for the moment and were having a full-on clicking discussion likely on how to get around my barrier and end me. I hoped like crazy that whatever I did to the wall would be so shocking that they wouldn’t have enough time to react for the few precious moments while we stood unguarded.
My wolf went into a fighting stance in my mind, ears back, low snarl.
This was it.
In the time it took to blink, I grabbed on to the power outside of my body and threw it all into the bricks. The wall took it greedily. I closed my eyes and focused on filling the rest of it up. I grit my teeth hard as the energy yanked us forward, crushing me into the barrier. I held my ground, shoving my power to the far recesses of the gate as fast as I could.
Almost there, I panted.
Without warning there was a massive tearing sound and both my arms slid through the bricks.
Keep pushing outward. Along with the ward cracking, there was a ridiculous shriek behind me and a beat later multiple sharp teeth tore in to my legs. Pain zinged up my spine. The Trows had figured out I was fair game. I kicked my legs out in a desperate attempt to fling them off me.
Just a little more and we’re there.