The Golden Lily (Bloodlines #2)(109)

"Don't move," said one of them. A blade shone in the gleam of the lowered flashlight. Not as bad as a gun, but not great either. "You're both coming with us, back inside."

"Slowly," added the other. "Don't try any tricks."

Unfortunately for them, I still had a few up my sleeve. Quickly I put the pen back in my purse and grabbed another souvenir from Ms. Terwilliger's homework: a thin, round wooden bracelet. Before either Warrior could do anything, I snapped the wooden circle into four pieces and tossed them on the ground, calling out another Latin incantation. Again, I felt the rush of power and its exultation. The men cried out - I'd cast a disorientation spell, one that messed with equilibrium and made vision blurry and surreal. It worked a lot like the blindness spell, affecting those around me.

I lunged forward and pushed one of our assailants down. He fell easily, too incapacitated by the spell to resist. The other guy was so distraught that he'd dropped the flashlight and was practically on the ground already as his attempts at balance failed. Nonetheless, I gave him a good kick to the chest to make sure he stayed down and grabbed his flashlight in the process. I didn't necessarily need it with Adrian's night vision, but these two would now be helpless in the dark when the spell wore off.

"Sage! What the hell did you do to me?"

Turning, I saw Adrian clinging to the fence, using it to hold himself up. In my eagerness to stop the Warriors, I'd forgotten the spell affected everyone near me.

"Oh," I said. "Sorry."

"Sorry? My legs don't work!"

"It's your inner ear, actually. Come on. Grab the fence and climb. One hand in front of the other."

I caught hold as well and urged him up. It wasn't the most difficult fence to climb - it wasn't electrified or barbed - and having it for support negated some of Adrian's disorientation. Nonetheless, it was still slow going as we made it toward the top. This spell lasted a little longer than the blindness one, but I was painfully aware that as soon as Adrian was free from it, the Warriors would be too.

Against all odds, we made it to the top of the fence. Getting over to the other side was much more difficult, and I had to do a fair amount of acrobatics to help Adrian make the transition while keeping myself steady. Finally, I wrangled him into the correct position to climb down.

"Good," I said. "Now just reverse what you did before, one hand down in front of the - " Something slipped, either his hand or foot, and Adrian plummeted to the ground. It wasn't that long of a drop, and his height helped a little - not that he was in any shape to actually use his legs and land on his feet. I winced.

"Or you can just take the short way down," I said.

I quickly scaled down after him and helped him stand. Aside from the spell's debilitation, he didn't seem to have suffered any damage. Slipping an arm around him and letting him lean his weight on me, I attempted to run toward the road he'd mentioned, which was now slightly visible. "Running" was difficult, however. It was hard work keeping Adrian up and I kept stumbling.

Still, we made our way slowly from the compound, which was about as much as we could hope for. Adrian's state made him clumsy and heavy, and his height was a real inconvenience.

Then, without warning, the spell wore off, and Adrian instantly recovered. His legs strengthened and his unwieldy gait straightened out. Suddenly, it was as though he were carrying me, and we practically tripped over each other trying to adjust.

"You okay?" I asked, letting go.

"I am now. What the hell was that?"

"It's not important. What is important is that those guys have recovered too. Maybe I knocked them down hard enough to slow them down." That seemed kind of unlikely. "But run anyway."

We ran, and even if he undoubtedly had the respiratory system of a chain smoker, his long legs made up for it. He could easily outdistance me but slowed so that we stayed together.

Whenever he started to get ahead, he'd grab my hand again. Shouts sounded behind us, and I turned off the flashlight to make us harder to spot.

"There," said Adrian. "See the cars?"

Slowly, out of the darkness, two SUVs materialized, along with a much more conspicuous yellow Mustang.

"Very covert," I muttered.

"Most of the guardians have gotten away," said Adrian. "But not everyone." Before I could respond, someone grabbed me from behind. In a maneuver that would have made Wolfe proud, I managed the backward kick that he'd tried so hard to teach us. It caught my attacker by surprise, and he released me, only for his companion to shove me to the ground.

Three figures ran toward us from the cars and hurled themselves at our attackers. Thanks to his signature duster, I knew Dimitri led the group.

"Get out of here," he called to Adrian and me. "You know where to meet. We'll cover you.

Drive fast - they'll probably be on the road soon."

Adrian helped me up, and once again we ran together. I'd hurt my ankle in the fall, so I moved slowly, but Adrian helped me along and let me lean on him. All the while, my heart was threatening to pound out of my chest, even when we reached the safety of the Mustang.

He guided me to the passenger side. "Can you get in okay?"

"I'm fine," I said, sliding in and unwilling to admit the pain was growing. I prayed I hadn't slowed us too much. I couldn't stand the thought of being the one responsible for Adrian's capture.