Page 82 of Imprisoned with the Vampire King

"Into the elevator," Dante ordered, hauling me back with him and slipping into my mind. "Angel."

I didn’t respond.

"Angel," he repeated, louder.

I lifted my burning eyes to his.

"The wall's going to break. I need you to close us in the elevator."

"Don't know if I can," I rasped.

"You can." His gaze was steady.

If I hadn't been in so much pain, his belief in me would've felt good.

I squeezed my eyes shut, but managed a tiny nod.

The guys broke their plates at Dante's command. I managed to get my power wrapped around each of them, hiding them from my fucked up prison, just as my wall exploded into millions of tiny, onyx threads.

An awful cry of pain escaped me.

A long, cold tendril of Reaper's magic shot toward us—but the elevator doors slid shut before it reached us.

I breathed in slowly as the wall's magic returned to me.

Reaper was strong, but he hadn't done any real damage to the elevator.

Getting back the magic I'd used to build the wall was good. Really, really good.

But it wasn't enough.

"It's going to take a few minutes," I whispered, looking around the elevator and taking in thick, intricate magic woven through the entirety of the space.

I had to decide what could go, and I had to do it fast.

"We can wait. Just get us home," one of the men said, giving me a grin that looked more like a grimace.

I managed another nod.

It was my fault they were there. I was the one who would get them out, no matter what.

It took me a few minutes to decide which threads to unravel. And another dozen to actually unravel them enough to have the power I'd need to get it moving.

Finally, I channeled my magic into sending it upward.

It moved slower than it should've.

So fucking much slower.

My heart pounded like a freight train as it rose, inch by inch.

My head throbbed.

My mouth dried.

My knees buckled, even though Dante was already holding all of my weight.

"You can do this," he said into my mind. Somehow, his lingering anger was the anchor I needed to keep going.