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That is, if she could ever get out of the damn mansion. Flannigan was nothing if not resourceful, and despite the fact that Tabitha had easily broken into his home, it was proving harder to break back out.
Awesome.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the dumbwaiter came to a screeching halt. It jolted, and she hit her head against the side of the metal interior. Tabitha managed to choke back a screech, but just barely. She had to keep her cool. Would there be guards waiting for her when she opened the doors?
Definitely.
There definitely would.
She just had to make sure that she was more ready for them.
There was no interior handle on the dumbwaiter. Why would there be? It had been designed to move things from floor to floor, but it wasn’t designed to move people. Anyone who used the dumbwaiter would be on the outside of the contraption, so there was really no use for anyone to have a handle inside.
She took a deep breath, placed her hands against the door, and pushed it to the side. It slid easily, and that’s when Tabitha realized she wasn’t, in fact, alone. Sure enough, there were four guards standing there, waiting for her. One was directly in front of the dumbwaiter with three more behind him.
“Well,” the first man sneered. “I thought we had a bit of a stowaway.”
The others quickly joined in.
“Thought you could come cause a ruckus and get away with it?”
“You’re lucky you didn’t kill Flannigan.”
“Fuck you.”
Well, at least they weren’t at a loss for words.
Yet.
Tabitha didn’t wait. She didn’t have time to argue with them. The more time she wasted, the more time they’d have to figure out what it was that she was after. She took a deep breath and pushed her hand out fast toward the men.
A large wave of energy burst from her skin and filled the room, rushing over it like a tidal wave.
Instantly, three of the men fell to the floor, unable to move.
The fourth man didn’t fall. Instead, he shifted into his animal form, which was a small panther. He was sleek and in any other situation, she might even call the creature beautiful.
“No,” she said, but he snarled – snarled! – at her. She knew that shapeshifters couldn’t talk when they were in their animal forms, which was probably good. She suspected that anything he had to say to her would probably be pretty mean.
Hell, he might even make her cry.
She was feeling emotional and overwhelmed, but she had to stay cool.
Deep breaths.
She breathed in, and out, and in again. Then, as she breathed out for the second time, the panther leapt at her. She shoved her hand forward once more, mustering all of the magical energy that she could, and she shot a blue glowing ball out of her hand. It hit him in the chest and he fell to the ground, unconscious.
She knew he wasn’t dead, which was a slight relief to her. She may have been a bitch, but Tabitha knew perfectly well that this guy was doing his job. He was trying to protect the person eh worked for. She understood that.
Still, he cou
ldn’t be allowed to hurt her.
Satisfied that there were no other guards coming right now, she jumped down and hurried across the kitchen, careful not to step on anyone. She did her best not to touch any of their bodies. Tabitha felt proud of herself. She didn’t even kick any of them even though she really, really wanted to.
The kitchen had a back door that led into the darkness surrounding the mansion, and she scurried toward it, running as fast as she possibly could. She had to make it. She had to.
She heard yelling from inside the house as her feet hit the ground, but she didn’t look back. She knew the guards had found the people she’d knocked unconscious. She knew they were going to come searching for her.
