Page 24 of Delinquents Turned Fugitives
Evan started writing a healing spell. He was about halfway through when something smashed the back of the van, making us fishtail and Malcolm curse. A horrid scraping sound made my head jerk up and I looked to the back-right corner of the van. The metal groaned as claws punched through the metal.
Shit. The vamp was still after us.
“Hang on!” Malcolm gritted his teeth and swerved the van so that it sideswiped a car parked on the side of the road. The claws vanished with a distinct yowl lighting up the night. But at the same time, Evan’s interrupted spell flashed and heat lit up the van.
Evan dove on top of the magic, but even so, the incomplete spell scalded my arm. When he pushed back up, several iridescent scrapes crisscrossed over his neck and one curled up over the corner of his chin.
I crawled closer to him and Gray. “Are you—”
“We needto get to The Smiling Skull,” Gray groaned from where he lay face down across Andros’ still stone torso. He gave a hiss of pain, and I realized that in addition to his puncture wound, he also now had several magical abrasions on his back. Thank God the healing spell was only a level five spell or all our wounds would have been far worse.
“What’s ‘The Smiling Skull’?” I asked.
But Gray didn’t answer. The pain had made him pass out.
“Hey Google, navigate to The Smiling Skull,” Z said into his phone. Directions popped up on his phone a second later and Malcolm whipped left around a corner so he could follow the directions. We sped past buildings and I watched as several people added wooden boards over their shop windows … as though they were battening down for a hurricane.
A siren blared as an orange-and-green light appeared at the top of the hill. Pinnacle cops raced in the direction of the vampire we were speeding away from. I turned to watch the van in the rearview mirror. One guy popped through the skylight in the top of their SUV, looking for vamps with magically enhanced night vision goggles. His hand lay on the trigger of a large gun designed to shoot magical nets that essentially mirrored tasers … only the shot didn’t have to be nearly as precise.
Part of me hoped they caught the wild predator. But another part of me felt like this proved their incompetence all over again.
The world needed a better way to deal with vampires.
And that way … was tucked inside a pouch hidden in my shirt.
