There were two doors in the back, one to the left and one to the right. Other than their positioning, they looked exactly the same.
I ran to the one on the right until I felt thick, heady magic vibrating from the left. Confused, I jogged that way, palm out. Extremely intricate and wonderfully complex, the pulse of the magic felt pure, comforting. The power of the spell rivaled even the combined force of Callie and Dizzy. It was a blockade, meant to keep people away.
What was the mage hiding? Himself?
I touched the spell with my sword. A burst of light made me blink, followed by an intense electric shock that violently threw my blade away. My hands followed. I punched myself in the face before I could regain control. I was lucky it wasn’t the blade that had hit me…
Taking a step back and breathing heavily, I stared at the door in confusion, knowing my time was bleeding away. I glanced at the door on the right, not pulsing magic. Then back to this one.
There had to be a reason it was protected. I couldn’t let that reason remain hidden, especially not when it would probably sneak up behind me later.
A rumble from the other room shook the floor. People shouted. The mage trying to get past my spell at the other door disappeared, yelling instructions. Someone screamed.
That was probably the Callie/Dizzy team. About time!
I put away my sword and felt the fire burn through my body, sweet and right. Power and strength. My birthright.
I moved my palm sideways through the air, low, facing the ground. Flames sprang up and danced at the base of the spell. I lifted my hand, willing the fire to grow. It spread across the surface, and in a moment, the door was covered in living fire, eating away the magic. I kept it slow. I didn’t need anything blasting out at my face, and this kind of fire would definitely trigger that reaction if it was burning too hot.
Another rumble shook the room, followed by a different kind of roar. That had to be the T-Rex.
The spell over the door peeled away, though it was still fighting my magic. I’d never seen that reaction. The caster had a solid understanding of his craft, creating something that didn’t want to say die.
I didn’t take no for an answer.
I held my hand in front of me, clenched it into a fist, and ripped to the side. The fire roared and flew through the air, taking the spell with it. A throb of light announced the defensive trigger I had expected, but there wasn’t enough spell left to carry it out.
Grabbing the handle, I whipped the door open before draping the space in front of me with fire. Magic shot out, white-hot. It hit my wall and tried to eat through it. I ripped the blanket of fire away, tossing it to a different part of the room. I yanked out my gun and aimed it, only now seeing a girl about my age hunkered down in the broom closet. She was the source.
“I will not join you!” she screeched, her hands digging into a faded blue canvas bag.
“I’m the good guy.” I took a step back, recognizing her look of obstinacy teamed with terror as she tried to find something to throw at me. “You dodged a zombie-sized bullet, by the way.”
Confusion stole over her face as I turned away. She wasn’t the enemy.
“I thought this was a retreat!” she yelled. “They were going to teach me about magic.”
“They were going to teach you?” I laughed, my blood pumping as I squelched the fire and stalked toward the other door. “They aren’t even in your league, sweet cheeks. Stay alive and I’ll introduce you to someone who isn’t a moron. I gotta go now, though. I have to save a vampire from eternal death.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
I kept the gun in my hand and pulled out a Weather Beater, a spell that would allow me to make a grand entrance. Pausing at the right-hand door this time, I caught the girl peeping out of the closet, watching me.
“Do you know what’s through here?” I asked her.
“A big room. In the middle there’s a giant, like, pit thing. Like a long pit from one side to the other.”
“How many people?”
“There were only a couple when I was in there. Then I came in here with— What happened to the coven?”
“They came down with a case of the stupids.” I rolled my neck. “Here goes nothin’.”
I kicked the door as hard as I could. Wood cracked. The hinges broke. The doorjamb broke away.
Kicking doors was one of my favorite things. I was good at it.
Another kick and it came free, tumbling toward the room beyond.
I peeked in to get the lay of the land.
The room was massive, and just as the girl had described it, there was a gap in the middle, running left to right. Ten feet across, so I knew I wouldn’t be able to jump it. On my side, a handful of men shifted from side to side, startled into turning my way. They’d be throwing spells in a moment. I didn’t have much time.
On the other side, in the left-hand corner, a group of idiots gathered around another bubbling cauldron, probably about to turn themselves into something they couldn’t come back from. A circle had been drawn not far from them, with a human crumpled beside it, clearly dead. The right-hand corner held the object of the dick pic, Mr. Dick himself. Darius was still tied to a stake with a pile of store-bought fire logs piled around his feet.
Chuckles bubbled up inside me at the absurdity.
His gaze was pointed my way, but he was completely relaxed, probably pissed off and wanting me to free him so he could go crazy.
Anticipation heated the fire raging within me. I really wanted to see what damage a vampire like him could do. I suspected it would be awesome.
High up in the middle of the far wall was a circular stained-glass window showering blue light onto a podium. Being that it was night, and the stained glass was not blue, I surmised that the window was magical in an annoying, showy way. A thin figure stood at the podium, straight and tall, with a devil’s mask on.