Page 41 of Prey

I start to panic. My breaths are short and sweat starts to drip down my spine. Kadi comes up to me and grabs my arms, facing me towards him. “Breathe, Little Lioness. He’s here. I can smell him in that direction.” He points to the right wall.

I take a deep breath and reach out my powers. Another barrier spell. This one, a full blocking spell. With traps. Yep, these are going to be the ones to tip them off when they come down.

I close my eyes and concentrate again. The magic barrier is a mash of black, ugly sigils. They are layered in so deeply I don’t know how I’m going to get through them all without tripping something. Alaric is still outside guarding the door to let us know if someone is coming.

Fuck it. I’m just going to blast through them. The sense of urgency I feel to get him out of there is so intense it’s taking everything in me not to just rip through them. I need to set up a protective barrier around all of us first.

I wave my hands and set up a barrier more powerful than I ever have before.Holy shit. Normally I have to pay attention tohow much magic I’m using so I don’t drain myself. The barrier outside should have taken quite a bit of my well of power, but it barely used a drop.

“Shasta.”

Shiva’s voice interrupts my train of thought and I startle.

He sends me a spell that I recognize well, but with a twist.

“Use this. It will come down without alerting them.”

“But how?” I ask him. “I’ve used that spell before to take barriers down but it always trips the traps.”

Joaquin grins to the side of me and motions the guys that everything is fine. I see him mouth the word ‘Shiva’ and they step back.

“Just trust me. Your ancestors have modified it a bit. It basically just erases the spells as if they never were. I am a very powerful being, you know. You do have my blood coursing through your veins. You’ll get used to it eventually.”

I feel a small caress on my cheek and then he leaves again. This is going to get weird fast if he keeps popping in whenever he wants to.

I raise my arms again and do as he said. As I wave each of my hands over the sigils, they just…disappear. Or evaporate? I’m not sure which fits better. After a moment, I see a cell door and rush forward, the guys right on my heels.

Peering in, I see a form huddled in the corner, their breathing ragged.

“Dad,” I whisper.

He looks up from the corner. “Shasta? It can’t be. No, you have to get out of here. They will be back any time.” He starts sobbing immediately.

“Nope, no way. I’m not leaving you here,” I say, using my magic to blast the hinges of the door as Laken steps forward to move it out of the way. Ethan goes in ahead of me to help my father stand.

He is an emaciated mass of bruises. His cheek bones stark against the pallid skin covering his face. I feel tears falling and I reach toward him, clasping him to me tightly. He whimpers and I let go. “Sorry, I’m sorry. We are taking you to a healer. I can get you somewhat patched up but we are taking you to Supe Gen to my friend Jessa.”

“Shasta, you have to leave me here. It’s the only thing keeping them from going after you.”

“They already tried. Logan showed up at my place last night and tried to snatch me right in front of the guys. I’m getting you out of here, now let’s go,” I say, nodding to Ethan. He bends and grabs my dad under his knees in a bridal carry, being as gentle as he can. I bet he doesn't even weigh a hundred pounds.

Stifling a sob, I follow them out of the cell. I turn and look at the room one more time before I go. I want to burn this into my memory that way when we fight them, I can take every single atrocity out on them, one at a time. I gag a little. Anger rises in me and I feel the air crackle around me. Joaquin looks at me, eyes red. Laken too. I shiver a little. Vampires are fucking scary when they are pissed off. They are the strongest of all of us too. I may be powerful magic-wise, but when it comes to brute strength, the vampires have all of us beat, hands down.

I don’t ever want to be on the receiving end of those red-eyed gazes. They both nod and we follow Ethan and my father up the stairs. We make it almost to the front door before I hear Alaric in my head. I can only assume he is speaking to all of us at the same time because we all stop as a group.

Someone just pulled up in a black SUV with the windows blacked out.

Ethan rushes toward the back door and kicks the door open. We follow close behind. Hearing a shout, I turn to see a woman with white hair and a dark haired older man with gray at his temples. These must be Logan’s parents.

I hang back, Joaquin and Laken flanking me, Kadi right behind me. Ethan continues out the door with my dad. I can only assume he is going to get him to Desmond, the other vamp from the Club that came with us so that he can run my dad to Jessa.

I square off with Logan’s parents in the hallway. His dad sneers. I see where Logan got his genes from. He looks like a carbon copy of his father. “Logan told us you’d be coming around.”

“Yeah, we told him we would. No secret there. But you won’t be getting my dad back and you're sure as Hell not getting me either,” I say as I raise my hands. The biggest fireball I have ever made flies from my hands and I gasp in surprise.

They both fly backward. Logan’s mother isn’t moving but his dad slowly stands. He dusts his suit off and smiles a sick, twisted smile at me. “You'll find I’m not that easy to take out, Shasta. Now be a good girl and come with me before I kill your friends.”

I snort. “You’ll not be killing them or taking me today. Your little trick you tried to pull with the letter didn’t work asshole. My grams already got the spider out of me.” I blast him again.

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