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“He’s right,” Jay said. “Come on, let’s go.”
“No way. Brett could be-”
“There’s nobody here,” Jay said. “We’ve been through half the building. They’re gone. There were only a few of them. Otherwise, they’d be swarming us right now.”
“Or the rest of them left when they saw us,” Cara said.
“Does it matter?” Jay asked. “They’re gone.”
“But they left in a hurry,” she said. “These rooms are like cells. Maybe they keep human prisoners down here, too.”
Nick glanced around. “That’s a good point. I’ll start looking, but you guys should find the exit.”
“Splitting up is never a good idea.” Cara tried the first door. It was unlocked, so she pushed the door open. “This one’s empty. They only lock the occupied ones, I’m guessing. That’ll make things easier for us.”
Nick started on the doors on the other side, and Jay sighed and joined in.
It didn’t take long to find it. There was only one other cell that was locked, and when Jay tried to unlock it, sigils glowed to life.
“Magic,” Jay said. “The vamps must have a witch for hire working with them.”
“Would a witch really be willing to do something like this?” Nick asked.
“It’s not unheard of, but it is unusual,” Cara said.
Jay made a disgusted noise. “Traitors to our kind.”
“Maybe they had no choice,” Nick said.
“I doubt it. Money talks. They chose greed over loyalty.”
Nick stepped closer, listening for sounds, but he couldn’t hear anything through the door. Whether that was part of the magic or not, he didn’t know.
“Can you open it?” he asked.
“I can’t,” Cara said. “I don’t have anything left. It’ll take some time before I can conjure anything bigger than a spark. Jay?”
He hesitated. “I can try, but it would be a slow process by myself. I don’t like our chances of getting out of here before they send in reinforcements.”
Nick took a deep breath and pressed his hand flat against the door. He waited for the void to appear, just like it did before, sudden and unexpected and out of his control.
Nothing happened.
Nick growled in frustration. It was here when he saw that room, when he saw everything that Cara went through. She almost died. Just the thought of it made him angry, and suddenly, he felt the cold flowing from his chest.
Instead of pushing it away, he let it flow through him. Dark lines appeared on the back of his hand and spread around his fingers. As soon as they made physical contact with the door, he gasped. Warm energy rushed into him through his hand. It felt incredible, euphoria that he couldn’t explain, and he instinctively pulled harder.
The glowing symbols faded to nothing, and then the door was just a door.
Nick stepped back and tried to keep his face neutral. He knew the others were watching him with wide eyes, and he didn’t want to show them how good it felt. His heart was pounding in his chest and his skin was flushed.
Jay watched him suspiciously, but Cara was already stepping past them to try the door.
“They didn’t bother with a physical lock and key,” she said, testing the handle. “They must have thought the spell would be enough. Ready?”
Jay took his eyes off Nick and nodded. “Ready.”
Nick grunted his agreement. He didn’t trust his voice to sound normal.
