She tightened her grip immediately while fixing her eyes on the weak point in the wall. Her jaw set hard, determination replacing the nervousness from earlier.
In a blink, the world blurred around us in streaks of dark green and shadow. Wind tore through my clothes, but Olivia’s grip stayed locked around my hand the entire time. When we finally stopped beneath the rusted wall, she looked up at me, breathless, eyes bright with excitement instead of fear.
“That was my first time carrying someone at vampire speed!” The grin stretching across her face nearly distracted me completely.
I wanted to laugh with her. Celebrate with her. Kiss her stupidly proud expression, but it was the wrong time. Instead, I squeezed her hand once and smiled, whispering, “You did good.”
Calix appeared beside us a second later, glancing back toward Riot before giving her a small nod. Then she vanished without a word.
He pressed both palms against the wall, carefully feeling along the metal before tapping at the screen of his watch. A holographic layout of the hangar appeared between us.
Olivia leaned closer immediately. “What are the colored dots?”
Calix pointed toward the map. “Red is vampire. Brown is werewolf. Black is demon. Green is fae. Blue is mage.”
We studied the movement patterns.
Seven vampire signatures were clustered near the front entrance, and a handful wandered around inside the structure itself. One demon remained stationary near the far corner while a mage stayed near the opposite side. Manageable.
He looked at us sharply. “Once Riot starts the distraction, I’ll break through here.” His finger tapped the weak point on the wall. “Rack goes first.”
His eyes slid toward Olivia immediately after. “You go next, and you stay between us at all times, got it?”
Olivia nodded quickly, practically vibrating with adrenaline. “Got it. Glue vampire. I stick to you guys.”
She pulled out the modified weapon I’d built for her earlier. The compact gun rested awkwardly but confidently in her grip now, far steadier than when I first handed it to her. It fired compressed air traps infused with magic, nonlethal but effective enough to slow nearly anything coming her way.
My plan was to recharge the cores with my own magic once they ran dry.
Cool wind drifted through the trees while Olivia’s rose scent wrapped around me softly. It settled something restless inside me despite the tension coiling tighter beneath my skin.
Then an explosion came from the front. Screams ripped through the night.
Gunfire cracked violently in the distance. Metal crashed loudly enough to shake the ground beneath us. Somewhere, farther ahead, something enormous toppled over with a grinding screech—probably the crane—and adrenaline surged through my veins instantly.
I tightened my grip on the gun and focused hard on the weak point ahead of us.
“That’s our cue,” Calix whispered before he struck three precise spots along the rusted wall. The metal buckled inward before collapsing apart in chunks.
He motioned for me to go through, lining up Olivia behind me as he commanded, “Stay close,” and turned to watch our backs.
I slipped through the opening first and landed in a crouch, weapon raised while my eyes swept the immediate area for movement.
Once I knew it was safe, I glanced back just in time to see Olivia climbing in after me. Everything seemed to be going smoothly… until she lifted her eyes and screamed at me, “Watch out!”
28
CALIX
Olivia’s scream tore through the hangar, and I dove through the opening, gun already raised.
Rack was tangled up with a vampire on the floor, both of them slamming into crates hard enough to shake the cargo stacked beside them. The vampire’s fangs snapped wildly toward Rack’s throat, while Rack had both hands locked around his wrist, keeping the vampire's gun away from us.
Another explosion sounded from the front of the hangar, and the vampire’s head jerked toward the noise for half a second.
That was all I needed.
Bang.
