I cradled Ava in my arms. Oberi shifted into a phoenix and took off flying above us. My Air magic swirled beneath my feet, and we began to ascend.
We were almost to the top when a massive explosion rocked the building. Drywall cracked overhead and hit our heads. Ava and I were nearly knocked out of the air, but I caught us with my magic before we could go spiraling downward. An alarm blared, and Ava clutched me tighter.
“Looks like Danny really knows how to make a distraction,” Ava said.
“What thefuckwas that?” I barked into the earpiece.
“I’m getting the vamps away from the target,” Danny replied. “Took twelve of them out at once. You’re welcome, by the way. I’m headed to Salvatore’s gala right now. Gonna work some of my manipulation magic on those fuckers.”
He was going to make them fight each other. Now that the alarms were blaring, we needed the extra distraction.
“Whatever keeps them out of our hair,” I replied.
Ava and I reached the target level, and Oberi shifted back into a Fire unicorn as we came out into the main hallway. I placed Ava on Oberi’s back again, and spun around, trying to get my bearings.
Gavyn’s voice came through my earpiece. “We’ve got a visual on you, Charlie. Marcus and Eddie are two halls ahead, and a path has already been cleared.”
I guided Ava and Oberi into the hall. In the distance, magic exploded off the walls, and I could hear Eddie and Marcus screaming in rage as they fought off the vampires. The alarm overhead continued to blare.
We were out of time. We’d definitely been discovered, and if we didn’t get to that keynow, Salvatore would beat us to it.
By the time we reached the hall where I heard the fighting, Eddie and Marcus had already gone on ahead. The bodies of decapitated security guards lay sprawled out before us. I pressed a hand to the wall to climb over one of them, and my fingers met the hard chest of a vampire. He was stuck in the wall— like Eddie had used his powers to phase him there and trap him, before siphoning his strength to rip his head off.
“We just took out the last of them,” Eddie said through the comms. “Your path is clear, Charlie.”
“Eddie and I will stay on this level to take out anyone else who dares come close to the target,” Marcus added.
“Marcus, you’ve got six vamps headed your way,” Gavyn warned.
“On it,” Marcus confirmed.
Ava and I reached the target room, and I felt around for the keypad. I entered the code we’d gotten from one of the men at the circus, and the keypad made an angry sound.
Either Salvatore had changed the code since we picked up the intel, or the alarm had put the area on lockdown. Didn’t matter. We were getting through that room one way or another, and we weren’t fucking around trying to get this keypad to work.
I placed my hands flat to the door, and magic surged all the way up my arms. I could feel a ward protecting the room. If I siphoned the magic, I was sure I could?—
Magic exploded from my palms before I could finish the thought. The magic I’d siphoned had backfired, and the ward blasted a hole straight through the door. The floor shook, and dust hovered in the air.
“We’ve lost your feed!” Gavyn barked. “The blast blew out the nearest security cameras.”
“It’s okay,” Ava replied through the comms. “The safe is just ahead. I can see it.”
“Eddie, on your left!” Marcus shouted down the hall. More yells and sounds of attack came over the sound of the alarm, but Ava and I ignored them as we entered the room.
The moment we stepped through the crater I’d blasted in the wall, something changed. Aclangcame from overhead, and I stopped in my tracks as I felt all my energy whoosh out of me, completely draining my magic. There was only one thing that could make me feel that way.
Inferichite.
Oberi whinnied and stumbled back a few steps, but she crashed into something. I couldn’t make sense of what was going on, because without my magic, I’d completely lost my bearings. I reached outward to feel my surroundings, and my hands clamped around cold bars.
Nausea slammed into my gut, and it became abundantly clear that a cage had fallen from the ceiling to trap us inside an inferichite cage. I could even feel the crystal sucking my power from beneath my feet.
“I’ve lost sight of Salvatore,” Danny barked through the comms. “Hurry up, because he’ll be on you any minute now.”
Elyx’s voice came through my earpiece. “I’ve got my sights on his men. I can slow them down.”
I heard the click of a trigger through the comm as Elyx shot off his first bullet. People spread throughout the casino wailedin terror as the sound of shattering windows rang out over the building.
