Page 47 of Magpies & Mayhem
The onesinglething I appreciated about being a vampire—being able to heal from injuries in seconds—laid to waste by some frustratingly well-placed hexes.
Banging noises coming from outside the vault made me sit up and seize my magic, ready to torch the next person who opened the door. This time I’d hit them so hard there wouldn’t even be bones left. The screams of the last intruders still rang in my ears. One more sound to add to the cacophony of my nightmares. I realized I was hissing and swallowed painfully to silence myself, straining my vampire-enhanced hearing to its limit, listening for any clues as to what was coming for me. It hadn’t been that long since Lucas left, which made me suspect it wasn’t my team. The taste of fear was bitter on my tongue.
“Yeah, you! I’m talking to you, asshole! Give me my vampire back!” The words were hard to make out from inside the vault—even to my hearing—but I could swear that sounded like Sidney. My heart seized as I worked to fight down the upwelling panic. What was she doing here? I’d kill anyone who touched a hair on her head.
I listened for every step, every word, every sound that could give me a hint. Two-hundred and thirty-six breaths later, a gentle tapping sounded on the outside of the vault door. I pushed myself to my feet, fighting through the pain that tried to force my throat closed and my body to the floor, ready to immolate whoever was on the other side.
“Young Jordan,” came my boss’s voice. “I am going to open this door, and I will make you a joyous deal. I’ll promise not to make mushrooms explode from your body, if you’ll promise not to make fire explode from mine.”
“Deal,” I answered, sagging against the wall in relief. Lucas had done it. He’d gotten out and gone for help. I lifted my gaze toward the ceiling, searching for sounds of Sidney as the lock mechanism clicked over. Blue light flooded the interior of the bank vault as the door creaked open, painful brightness adding to the pounding in my head as I squinted, trying to shut it out.
“Are you well?” he asked, shielding the crystalline torch with his fingers to spare my eyes.
“How do you stand it?” I asked hoarsely. With the blood-magic hexes choking me, making breathing, moving, and simply existing an agonizing experience, it wasn’t any wonder that I’d completely succumbed once the sun rose. How was Augustus standing here like it wasn’t bothering him at all?
“With age, you will learn to tolerate many uncomfortable things,” he replied. His expression was visibly relieved, and his mouth twisted into a wry smile.Great.
I coughed and spat blood on the floor, making him wince. “Come, we have medics waiting. Allie? Tobias?” he called over his shoulder. “Be careful as you remove the hatchlings. These do not appear as robust as the one the shifter cared for.”
I glanced at the dragons, finally able to get a look at them now that the space was illuminated. They were curled into a tight clump, their heads buried beneath each other’s limbs, but they were smaller and more gangly looking than Huck. Maybe they were females. Or maybe the Phantoms hadn’t been feeding them. The crew would take care of it. “Why is Sidney here?” I asked at the mention of her. Why was the smell of smoke growing stronger? The realization that I could hear the distant roar of flames had me staggering for the door.
“Ah, yes,” Augustus answered distractedly as Tobias pushed past him into the vault. “She should probably be removed from the premises. I don’t expect it will be sound for much longer.”
Tobias shouted as one of Huck’s siblings shot fire at his legs, but I had other things to worry about right now. I left them to deal with the dragons and stepped out of the vault, pausing to take in the vaguely person-shaped piles of pale colored fungus strewn across the basement. Two outside the vault and one slumped halfway up the stairs, completely engulfed in mushrooms. I made myself look away, not wanting more fuel for the nightmares that already plagued me.Daymares?
I mounted the steps, careful to avoid the fallen body littering the stairs, and then launched through the door above as I followed the sounds of Sidney’s shouting about wanting ‘her’ vampire back. The smoke was thicker up here. The fear-fueled flare of energy pushed me past the pain and fatigue, past the dread sitting like lead in my gut as I ran by offices, hallways, an old boiler room. I burst into an old work room and froze, my eyes wide at the sight of her—the object of my obsession. Soot on her face, her expression fierce with beautiful fury, Huck spitting fire while wrapped around her right thigh, Sidney was on arampagewith a piece of rebar longer than my arm.
Longing for her sucked the air from my lungs, and I wondered if my infatuation was as obvious to everyone else as it was to me. She swung at a wide-shouldered mountain troll like a rabid five-year-old who wanted to make sure she got every single piece of candy out of her birthday pinata. She was so focused on keeping him and a smaller goblin out of arm’s reach that she hadn’t even noticed that they were covered in burns and massive blisters, and she should have been too. Fire coated the far wall, the flames a deafening roar, and the smoke was thick and choking, but she was absolutely intent on her attackers. The room washot, far too hot for her to be in here without injury, and fear for her safety nearly overwhelmed me, but she didn’t even seem to notice.
I’d tried to stay away, not wanting to admit my desire for her. Not wanting to become attached and then be forced to endure the endless stretch of immortality without her—this one chaotic spot of hope and pleasure in my life. I was still bewildered by how quickly she’d become the center of my every waking thought. Like a moth to the blaze of a desert bonfire, I’d danced around the periphery of her. Not wanting to get too close and touch the flame, but ever lured by the brightness of her personality and beauty. She reminded me of a spark, which seemed fitting, because most people were afraid of the little fire fairies but I’d always found them charming. Sidney had that same explosive energy, the same untamed edges, the same ferocious zest for life. She was such a blinding light that it would be a form of blasphemy to snuff that out, to change her. To woo her into a life of vampirism and darkness just for the sake of my own happiness, making her an immortal so that I would never have to say goodbye. I’d only paused for a fraction of a second, but it was enough for me to see the flames licking her face and spewing from Huck’s mouth, and it spurred me into action.
She coughed once, and my heart lurched, wondering what this smoke was doing to her. I lunged for the goblin closest to me and snapped his neck.
Chapter 34
Sidney
Themountaintrollgaveas good as he got. Huck was clinging to my leg again, severely impeding my ability to kick the snot out of this giant meathead with no neck and his little goblin friend. They were blocking my way into the back of the bank. Since Huck was acting as my personal flamethrower again, I decided to leave him where he was. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a flicker of movement, so I whacked the troll on his raised forearm to give myself time to glance over my shoulder. He roared at me as Jordan dove out of the farthest doorway and snatched up the goblin, quickly dropping him once more in a broken heap before I could blink.
“Sidney, what are youdoing here?” Jordan asked as the goblin left his hands, his voice a strange rasp as he tried to make himself heard over the roaring flames.
I hit the troll again as hard as I could to make him stagger back. I needed more room. “I’m saving the princess!” I answered Jordan. “Toad had better not tell me she’s in another castle!” Tiny mushrooms blossomed across every inch of the troll’s exposed skin, unfurling into giant fist-sized caps as he crashed to the floor, and Augustus stepped into the room behind Jordan.
“That isdisgusting!” I shrieked over the roar of the spreading flames, just as Jordan dove for me and Huck. He scooped me up like a child, pulling my arms around his shoulders and gathering Huck in his other arm so he could get my legs around his waist. There were cuts through his jacket all across his shoulders. “What are you doing?” I asked. This was the closest I’d been to Jordan’s neck unimpeded, so I turned my face away and tucked my head to give him more space.
“Don’t shift!” was all Jordan responded with as he took off running with us in his arms.
Augustus followed Jordan as he practically flew through the building, running at the now-flaming cashier’s counter in the main lobby. “How is that more disgusting than beating someone to death with rebar?” Augustus asked me, sounding miffed.
Jordan ignored him, gritting out, “Don’t shift, don’t shift,” into my ear like a mantra as he leapt over the counter with me in his arms. His strength was otherworldly, but his voice shook, and his steps felt uneven.
The entire lobby was engulfed in flames, and I cringed away from the inferno, trying not to jostle Huck. Part of the ceiling fell in as he landed, and I felt my magic flare hot, right on the edge of shifting, but his hand came up and clamped the back of my neck—firm and possessive—stopping my shift in its tracks. But the warmth moved elsewhere, pooling in my lower belly as he rushed from the building, clutching me to his body. He didn’t stop until he reached the grocery warehouse, collapsing against the wall and finally dropping onto the sidewalk in front of the building with me on his lap. I tried to climb off him, but he wouldn’t let me up, tightening his arms around me and pressing his mouth to the top of my head. My brain short circuited.
Huck decided he’d had enough and squirmed out from Jordan’s arm to flop onto the sidewalk. Augustus blew past us toward the side of the building. “I’ll get the medic,” he called.
I tried to sit up, wanting to remove my weight from Jordan. I needed to assess his injuries since he was covered in bloody cuts, but he clutched me tighter, holding me against him. “Don’t leave,” he said, but his words were hoarse.
I wrenched myself up anyway, his worries triggering all of my righteous indignation. “Youleftme,” I bit out, suddenly horrified to find hot, angry tears were escaping down my cheeks. Horridfeelings! I took in how tired he looked and how deep some of his cuts were, and it made me even angrier. “You left me in the garden! And then you came down here and nearly got yourself killed!” I scrubbed furiously at my cheek with my shoulder, infuriated with both my brothersandJordan for being dummies. It was all I could do not to bare my teeth at him in rage.
