“You should really stay down,” I said, then leaned back and kicked his hand holding the door. Jenks frantically two-footed the “close door” button, and I spun for momentum, kicking Pike square in the chest to send him flying backward down the hall. He skidded to a tile-burned halt, shaking the pain from his hands and grimacing at me. I couldn’t help it, and as the two vampires behind me went “ooooh” in sympathy, I gave Pike a bunny-eared kiss-kiss as the doors began to close.
“Witch!” he cried out as the doors slid shut, and I sighed in relief. Jenks was grinning at me from atop the elevator’s speaker, but Zack looked positively whipped, and I took him in my hands before he fell off my shoulder.
My eyes went up to the numbers counting to ground level, then the vampires getting to their feet. “Hey, thanks, guys,” I said as they congratulated each other with some complicated fist-bump thingy. “I really appreciate this. My spelling mouse here is getting tired.”
My spine stiffened as the numbers clicked over to two, then one, and the rush of line energy filled me.
“Yeah, well, all of us in the tower got new undead,” the one with the deep voice said. “Word is that you’re here distracting Constance so Kalamack can get his goods on the street where they belong.”
“We don’t like you,” the first added, grinning to show his small fangs. “But we like Constance less.”
“Well, thanks,” I said, then blanched as the elevator dinged and opened to utter chaos.
“Tink’s a Disney whore,” Jenks swore as he hovered by my shoulder, and Zack poked his head up through my fingers.
Uniformed officers were struggling to gain control of the first floor of the lobby, now full of people clamoring for attention. Office personnel on the second floor ringed the railing, pointing at what were probably onetime Pike and Trent look-alikes struggling to remain if not free, at least useful as a distraction. The noise was atrocious, and I watched as an old woman on the outskirts threw charms at the spell checker to keep it beeping. Armed personnel were turning people away at the door, and I winced when a blond in a suit and tie was shoved back onto the sidewalk where he flipped them off before running toward Fountain Square.
Sweet mother of Jesus, I think I started a revolution.
“Ma’am?” One of the vampires behind me gestured, and I stepped out into it, a pixy on my shoulder and my hands cupped around Zack. I grimaced when my hold on the ley line vanished the instant my foot hit the tile. Someone had invoked the lobby’s no-magic-zone charm, and I looked up at the huge chandelier hanging over the space. It was pulsating a faint purple. If it went red, we were all in trouble.
“We have to get out of here,” I whispered, seeing my car right outside where Pike had left it. Maybe if I kept to the edges I could get to the door.
“Ow! What the hell?” the larger vampire exclaimed as the doors began to close, and I turned to see that his buddy had hit him on the forehead with the butt of his weapon.
“No one will believe this if one of us isn’t really hurt,” the smaller guy said as the doors began to close. “You saw Constance’s head of security. You think he bought that?”
“Yeah? I think you need some blood on you, too!”
“Hey!”
The doors shut, cutting them off as they began to hit each other in earnest. My eyes flicked to the elevator’s display. The car was going all the way down.
Pike, I thought with a little shiver. He wouldn’t quit. Constance would kill him if he did.
But that look that Joni had given to him—hunched and hurting—meant something.
“Your car is still at the curb,” Jenks prompted, his gaze on the big plate windows.
Back to the wall and trying to stay unnoticed, I began edging to the door. I held Zack close, jerking when someone slid across the floor in front of me. They crashed into a bank of chairs only to be yanked up and propelled to a temporary holding area right in the I.S. lobby.
“Yeah,” I said, again thinking it was odd that Pike had left the keys in it. “Could you make sure no one tampered with it? If I reach the street, I’m going to leave fast.”
Jenks dusted in indecision as he looked at the mess, then nodded, darting out the door as three Weres roared in, fists raised and howling until they were brought down.
“Just you and me, and sixty feet to cross,” I said to Zack and, taking a deep breath, I began inching forward.
“Mo-o-o-organ!” Pike bellowed from the elevators, and my heart gave a thump. “That’s Morgan!” he shouted, and everything seemed to stop as Pike staggered out of the elevator. My two escorts were still in the lift, truly down this time with blood leaking from their ears. “That,” he panted, a shaky finger pointing at me, “is Morgan. Get her. And the mouse and pixy, too!”
I froze at the click of safeties going off. Guns would work where magic wouldn’t. Grim expressions ringed me, some in hate, some in fear, some in hope. But no one moved.
“I said get her!” Pike shouted, and then I looked up, my gaze rising at a soft cry of dismay when the great chandelier began pulsating with an off-and-on red light.
“Run!” Jenks shrilled, suddenly with me again. “They’re going to immobilize the floor!”
My eyes widened. “Make a hole!” I shouted, bolting for the door, awkward with Zack still in my hands. “Look out! Let me through!”
People scattered amid the shouts of fear and encouragement. I heard the pop of gunfire, and through the reflection off the big plate-glass windows, I saw a red and purple column of magic pulse down from the chandelier to hit the floor and rise up like an evil fog. People fled before it, but everyone it touched fell to the tile, pained expressions on their faces.
I threw myself into the revolving door as the evil red magic fastened about my foot like a steel trap. Agonizing sparkles rose up, cramping my chest and freezing my muscles. So close, I thought as I fell, taking it on the chin as I pushed my hands forward to try to free Zack.
I was too far away, and my hands opened to show Zack in a tight ball as the red haze stole over us. “Zack!” Jenks cried, and then he fell to the floor beside him, paralyzed.
But the revolving door was still moving, and with a little creak and whine, it shifted closed behind me . . . and the spell . . . broke.
I took a huge breath, my chest easing as I coughed and sat up in the tiny space. “Jenks?” Behind me, the red mist rolled up against the door. We’d made it. Just . . .
“I’m good,” Jenks croaked out, and the rough rasp of his wings eased into a smooth hum.
“Zack?” I asked as I looked down.
He peered up at me in pain and bobbed his head, whiskers twitching.