Page 58 of Prey

Chapter thirty-one

Guns & Broken Plans

ETHAN

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. I shove Shasta behind me as soon as I see the first gun. I don’t know why I bothered thoughbecause I no more than get her behind me and she drops them both. I peer out into the hallway and pull her out behind me. It’s too quiet. The elevator doors shut and I send it back to the first floor so that everyone else can come up. I can hear a few people coming up the stairs too. That should be the other Club members and Hank. Jessa, Joaquin, Laken, Kadi, Emmett, and Josiah should be coming up on the elevator, followed by the other witches.

I pull Shasta to the side of the hallway and press a finger against my lips. My shifter hearing is picking up the scraping of many chairs. If they are in a meeting they should be still, so something is definitely up.

The door to the meeting room opens and five men step out. Four of them I don’t recognize. The fifth man, the one standing at the front of the group, is the leader of the Convocation.

Oh shit. This is so bad. Much worse than I ever thought. A regular Convocation member is bad enough but the Head? There’s no telling how far the corruption goes. I hear the elevator door open behind me and I hear Joaquin say, “What the fuck?”

Magnus laughs and casually strolls towards us with his hands behind his back. He doesn’t seem to be worried about us at all. The others join us and I can still hear Joaquin cursing. That’s one of his bosses. Joaquin has been with the Convocation for almost a thousand years now. He could have been Head if he had chosen to, but he always only wanted to be the Rep for the Vamp community.

We all fan out in the hallway. If nothing else, they aren’t getting past us without a fight and I press Shasta to my side tightly, Kadi coming up on her right.

“So, we were told there would be someone we recognized here. I would never have guessed it was you, Magnus,” Joaquin spits out. He and Laken have Jessa shoved behind them and their fangs are out, eyes black. Vamp mode activated.

“Oh, that’s precisely the point, boyo. Why would anyone expect the Head to be in the Society? I’m the one who sends people after them. But you see, I’ve been very careful to make sure that no one ever actually catches them. What do you think of my little melting trick?”

“It's disgusting and it smells bad. You stunk up my whole shop and Grams’ house with that foul mess twice now. Fortunately for you, I know a neat cleanup trick.” Shasta waves a hand after the words leave her lips and two of the guys with Magnus drop.

Well, well, well, some of them are immune to her magic? Or do they just have some kind of protection?

“If you think that little trick is going to work on me,girl, you are sadly mistaken,” he sneers at her.

She steps forward and smiles. “I wasn’t using my full power, you mummy looking bastard. Did you know that using dark magic eats you up from the inside? Your little glamour you have trying to hide your true self doesn’t work on me. I can see you foreverythingyou are. You are a weak pathetic old man, grasping at straws to try to live forever.”

What is she talking about? Magnus doesn’t look much older than his early forties maybe. Winnie finally makes it in and she steps up next to Shasta and links their hands. They push us backward. Jessa is next, moving up to Winnie and grabbing her hand. The other three witches come up to either side of Jessa and Shasta and link hands. As they do, I feel a whoosh of magic so strong it staggers me.

Kadi looks at me, eyes wide. What are they doing? None of this was in the plan, though we also didn’t know the Head would be here either. With him being a warlock, that makes it Coven business. I guess they’re just doing what they know best.

I step back and let Shasta and the rest of the Coven do their thing.

Magnus looks a little nervous now. He also looks very angry. The remaining member of his entourage steps in front of him. Shasta raises an arm, waves it and they fly against the wall. The doors to the meeting room fly open and more Society members stream out into the hallway.

We all spring into action. I try to keep Shasta in my line of sight the best I can while I’m fighting these mother fuckers but I lose sight of her. Gods damn it. I continue fighting until Kadi and I are standing back to back.

“What do we do?” He yells over the fighting.

“It’s Coven business now, so we work these fuckers over and let the witches deal with Magnus. They have been fighting dark magic their whole lives, they know what they’re doing.”

He nods and we split apart, taking on the low level dark magic users as our mate fights the granddaddy of the warlocks.

Chapter thirty-two

Mummies & Warlocks

SHASTA

Itry to keep my eyes on the guys as best as I can, but they are swarmed by the Society as they pour out of the meeting. Ineed to focus on Magnus though, so I tell myself to stay calm. They can handle themselves.

Grams is chanting under her breath and I can feel the spell she’s using as it rises within her. The rest of the Coven chants along with her and I add my power to it. It explodes out of us and hits Magnus, throwing him down the hallway. Good Goddess.

Grams looks at me shocked and I just shrug my shoulders. Jessa grins at me and the other three witches look like they can’t figure out what to make of my new power. It is pretty flashy though, to be fair. Also, I’m a demigod, so yeah, they haven’t seen that before.

Magnus gets to his feet. He is almost purple in his wrinkly face as he stands. I don’t think he’s probably ever been this angry in his life and if he isn’t careful he’s going to give himself a stroke.

---