Page 29 of Mardi Gras Murders & Midnight Masquerades
We moved as silently as possible across the concrete floor. We had to weave between floats. The exit was just twenty feet away when I spotted three figures wearing Society masks. They were moving with an inhuman fluidity that sent chills down my spine. Were they shifters? Vampires? Those were the supernaturals that had that type of predatory grace.
"They are not Society members," I hissed to Jeff. "I have no idea who or what they are. Stay behind me."
One of the figures turned toward us. Empty eye sockets found us somehow. "You can't hide," it said in a voice like grinding glass.
The attack came without warning. A bolt of corrupted magic slammed into the float beside us.Splintered wood sprayed everywhere. Jeff dove one way, and I went the other. Shit. I needed him closer. My witch fire was extinguished as my concentration broke. The Hellfire Hex vial clinked against my protective charm as I rolled into a crouch.
"Jeff!" I called out, scanning the darkness frantically.
"I'm okay!" His voice came from behind a towering float of a sea monster. "Meet me at the exit!"
Before I could tell him that he was insane, another magical attack sailed in my direction. I was a plus-sized, middle-aged woman who wasn’t very flexible. I wished these assholes would stop trying to turn me into a gymnast. I do not have the body type to roll smoothly away. Especially when my stomach was roiling the way it was. The magic felt like it was rotting the very air it passed through.
I ducked behind a workbench as my mind raced. My sisters were somewhere in the city, about to walk into this trap or one similar. I needed to warn them. First, I had to find Jeff, and we had to escape.
I gathered my power and focused on my manifestation. In my mind's eye, I shaped a protective barrier, then pushed my magic outward. A shimmering wall of energy materialized between the masked figures and Jeff's position before they could reach him. Two of them were methodically searching the rows of floats for us while the third remained near the macabre carousel. Their movements were coordinated but strangely mechanical. They moved like they were puppets on strings.
Lightning illuminated the warehouse interior and highlighted Jeff as he crept toward the exit. One of the masked figures spotted him and raised a hand crackling with sickly green energy. "Not today, Satan," I whispered before I manifested a mirror-like shield directly in front of Jeff. I was taking no chances with the love of my life. I’d been training him for thirty years. I wasn’t about to let anything happen tothe man. The corrupted spell struck the shield and rebounded, catching his attacker off guard as the magic slammed back into them.
The masked figure stumbled backward and fell into another float. Its mask cracked slightly from the impact. Black ichor leaked from the fracture as it released an inhuman shriek of fury.
"Jeff, run!" I shouted. I considered throwing the Hellfire Hex. That would be like calling in a water scooper for a simple house fire. Instead, I manifested a series of smoke bombs that exploded around the warehouse floor. They filled the space with thick, disorienting mist.
Tapping into my Fae side, I fumbled my way through, coaxing the wind to move the smoke out of my path as I sprinted toward the exit. It was inelegant and I looked like a Weeble wobbling between floats as the masked figures moved with unnatural speed through the smoke. Their hollow voices called to each other in a language I didn't understand. It was all sharp edges and impossible sounds.
"Kota, look out!" Jeff's warning came just as one of the figures lunged at me from behind.
I was casting a repulsion spell as I spun. The words left my mouth before I even saw the creature. Power surged through me as I focused my intent. The magic built in the blink of an eye, allowing me to release it before I got tackled. The spell hit my attacker dead-center. The figure flew backward into a stack of wooden frames that collapsed with a thunderous crash.
"Get to the door!" I shouted to Jeff, who was trying to circle back for me.
"Not without you!" he countered before he grabbed a nearby fire extinguisher. He sprayed it in an arc to create additional cover.
The foam momentarily confused our attackers,giving me the opening I needed. I raced to Jeff's side and cast a blinding flash of light behind us to buy precious seconds. Together, we slammed through the service door into the rain-soaked alley beyond. "Get to the truck!" Jeff gasped and pointed to where we'd parked.
We sprinted through the downpour with the masked figures emerging from the warehouse behind us. Their movements were unnaturally fast as they gained ground with each step. One of them tried to move ahead of us and pushed energy at our side.
"They're herding us," I realized as we rounded a corner to find two more masked figures blocking our path to the truck.
"This way," Jeff pulled me toward a stack of shipping containers. "There's a gap we can squeeze through."
We darted between the massive metal boxes and emerged onto a loading dock overlooking the Mississippi. Rain hammered the river's surface, turning it into a churning mass of white-capped waves. "Shit, it’s a dead end," I muttered as I scanned for escape routes.
The masked figures converged from both directions and were moving with eerie synchronicity. Their magic coalesced around them and started corrupting the very air. Jeff squeezed my hand. "Any ideas?"
I nodded grimly, reaching into my pocket for the focus stone I carried. I discovered a small piece of clear quartz that helped me create larger, more complex items. Creating things like weapons was easy. This would drain me significantly, but we had no choice.
"Cover your eyes," I instructed as I clutched the crystal tightly.
Power surged through me as I channeled everything I had into the stone. The quartz put out a blast of power that momentarily staggered our pursuers. In that moment of distraction, I focused my manifestation ability on the dockbeneath our feet. Magic transformed the wooden planks beneath our feet into a makeshift raft that separated from the pier entirely. Jeff grabbed my arm to steady me as our newly created vessel dropped several feet into the churning river.
"Hang on!" I shouted over the storm. Hastily, I added a rudimentary rudder that Jeff immediately grabbed to steer us away from the dock.
The masked figures' hollow voices raised in fury as they unleashed blasts of corrupted magic. Despite the fatigue, I had to cast a shield to block it from hitting us. Thankfully, it wasn’t long before we were out of range, and they were falling short of our rapidly retreating raft. The current caught us and swept us downstream and away from our pursuers.
The effort of the large-scale manifestation left me light-headed and weak. Being far enough away from danger, my body started to give out. I slumped against Jeff, who wrapped a protective arm around me while maintaining his grip on the rudder.
"That," he said with a shake of his head, "was not how I planned to spend our evening."
