Page 126 of Delinquents Turned Fugitives
“Thanks, great talk,” I told the closed door.
Evan bit his lip as he tucked his wand back into his pocket. “Maybe we should have done this on our—”
“Don’t say it.” I cut him off but I ground my teeth together, because he was right. The twitching vampire at the end of the hall and the goosebumps on my arms proved it.
Sirens blared not a second later and I braced as Gray’s voice sounded in my ear. “Company, nemesis.”
“Copy,” I told him, gritting my teeth. I knocked on the door. “We need to move out,” I called through it. “Pinheads.”
The door flew open and Callum stepped out. The others trailed in a row behind him … the final vamp an Asian woman with rags for clothes. My eyes widened as I realized Callum must be using his store of serum on the vampires he picked. My eyes carefully scanned the new woman for any tinge of remaining madness, but her eyes were clear and alert.
“Second floor,” Callum ordered, leading the way.
We tromped past Jordan, who still lay twitching and moaning, and I had to turn my sympathy off as we trudged up the stairs.
A mechanicalclacksounded—a net dropped from the ceiling. I jumped back, down two steps but Claude’s vampires weren’t so lucky. Neither was Evan. The net rope fell on top of them, and as soon as it touched skin, it latched there, embedding itself in their skin—melding with their hair— and they couldn’t get it to release, no matter how hard they pulled.
The net started to tighten, to coil up and shrink, as if it had been spelled to close on its own once it had touched its quarry.
Fuck. My Evan was caught in a magical net with vampires.
Callum’s vamps tripped on the steps as the net dragged their heads—the part of them it was latched to—closer and closer together until I could hear their skulls knock against one another.
In their fury, they started to morph into their monstrous forms, claws slashing.
Panic surged up my throat, nearly choking me. “Princess!”
Evan shredded his clothes as he transformed into a giant grizzly bear and smacked at the vampire closest to him, sending the newest Asian member of their group tumbling into the others.
Shit. They were sure to attack. I’d seen what their scratches could do. Not to mention their bites.
Making a split-second judgement call, I unleashed some light that set the vampires hissing and crouching, but leaning away from Evan.
“Tell them to freeze!” I screamed up at Callum, who stood on the other side of the net. I transformed my light into a laser beam and started to burn through the netting near Evan’s right arm.
Callum didn’t say anything. I only heard him growl above me and I was about to spit fire, to rage at him to control his own damn people so I could free them … but then I heard the tell-taleshinkof a sword being unsheathed. My eyes glanced up to see a man in black standing on top of the stairs, sword raised just above Callum’s head as the vampire’s arm transformed into claws. Fire shot out of Callum’s clawed fingers, but the guard easily blocked it with Icefire magic from his own hand. It did nothing to stop the swing of that sword.
“Jolly!” I yelled.
My huge guy raised his hand, darting past me as the sword started its downward arc. Z followed him, though his magic had been drained already, he lifted his hand to see if he could help.
Andros reversed the guard.
And I breathed a sigh of relief.
Until there was another guard behind the first, this one swinging his sword and screaming like this was a goddamned war movie.
Andros immediately had to repeat the process.
Shit. He can’t do that endlessly.
“Run!” I screamed at Callum.
“Where? Into them? If you could see the throng up here, Princess—” Callum’s tone oozed disdain.
My heart rate doubled when I saw yet another guard and all of a sudden, everyone around me seemed to grow more wild, frantic, and louder.
“Smeckle,” I pointed up and Malcolm ran up ahead of me a few steps, lifting his hand and shooting flames, heating one of the swords until the guard dropped it with a curse.
