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“Or so she believes. And yes, I have everything I need.” I gave the cat a thin smile. She began to wash.
“Then let’s go,” Malik said, pulling his sword. “I’ll go first and offer them a bit more glamour.”
I nodded, warned the monster to stay low. I’d give it a chance against Clive, but not tonight. Not when I’d need every bit of control I had.
Uncle Malik opened the door, checked the hallway.
“Left,” I whispered, and we hurried outside, both of them guarding me while I closed and locked the apartment.
Voices and magic rose up from the stairs. “I want her tonight!” someone called out, anger tightening the words. My heart began to race.
“Fire stairs at the end of the hall,” I whispered, and we ran down the hall and toward the open doorway. We made it inside. Carefully, I pulled up the doorstop and eased the door closed behind us, wincing at the click that echoed in the concrete stairway.
“All the way down,” I said, and we began the trek, Malik in front.
Another door opened below us, magic slipping through. “I’m checking!” someone said and footsteps moved on a landing below us.
Connor pushed me back against the wall, out of their line of sight. We were close enough that I could feel his heartbeat, the thrumming of his blood.
Uncle Malik edged out of sight, pushed out a wave of glamour that seemed to warp the air.
“Anything?” another vampire called out.
If they looked up, they’d see us, and I’d have put both Connor and Uncle Malik in danger. This was an ever-expanding spiral of danger, wrapping more and more people that I loved into it. Guilt gripped me, nearly had me calling out, offering to go with the vampires to allow the others time to escape. But Connor put his lips against my ear. “We are here by choice. And they have glamour.”
Of course they did, I thought, and hated that he’d had to remind me of it. Fear for Connor and Uncle Malik had made me susceptible. But knowing the weakness had me strengthening my defenses, and the guilt cleared away.
I met Connor’s gaze, nodded once. Saw approval flash in his eyes.
“Nothing!” the vampire called out, the word just the slightest bit slurred. “It’s empty. They must have taken the fire escape.”
“Fuck,” was the answer. “Let’s get back out there.”
We waited until the door slammed closed, the echo silenced. Then began to move downstairs again.basementwas stenciled in black across the last door. We opened it, listened for noise, found none. And moved inside.
The lights were low here, spotlights that shone down on the cages that served as storage for those willing to pay the price for it. Some were empty, others piled high with extra furniture, sports equipment, cardboard boxes.
“This way,” I said and took the lead, weaving through the pathway between them across the basement floor.
We’d made it halfway across when the door squeaked open behind us.
“I feel magic,” someone said, and footsteps began to sound on the other end of the room.
“Elisa.” Uncle Malik’s voice was soft, but a warning all the same.
“There,” I said and nodded toward the door on the far end of the basement. We ran toward it, more footsteps in our wake now, and reached the door. It was chained shut, the glass panel in the top painted over.
Malik pulled his dagger, brought the handle down once, twice, across the chain. It snapped; he pulled it through, tossed it into a nearby cardboard box to muffle the sound.
Uncle Malik pushed at the door, but it was all but sealed with grime and paint and years of disuse.
“Toward the back!” someone shouted behind us.
“Allow me,” Connor said, and we moved out of his way, pulled our swords to face our pursuers.
He reared back and kicked at the door, and it squeaked open an inch. Once more, one more inch.
The sounds of running grew closer.
