Wicked Soul (Ancient Blood #1)(105)
“Fuck this,” I growled, squeezing my eyes shut to stem the tears. Now was not the time to cry. “I’m not leaving you. I’m getting you out, you hear? I don’t want fucking grandbabies to tell stories to! I want you. I want to live my life with you, not memories to cry over!”
I pulled away from my sleeping lover, and a new fire burned in my belly as I turned to take stock of the room we’d been trapped in. I needed to find a way out of here—and then I was going to save us both.
Fuck Zeth and his plans. He wasn’t taking Warin from me.
33
The good thing about Zeth’s secret base being a theme-appropriate funeral parlor was that the issue of transporting Warin during the day was at least partly solved. Caskets galore.
Only problem would be to locate them without being detected… and of course, get Warin into one. And get said casket into a hearse, which I was banking on being somewhere on the premises.
But one problem at a time.
They hadn’t locked the basement door behind them, which meant I didn’t have to blast it open. Once you’ve got people strung up like cattle for slaughter inside a cage, there’s not much point in worrying about locking doors, I supposed.
I snuck out of the room we’d been locked in, and saw that the basement stretched out with a wide hallway and several other rooms laying past closed doors. It seemed the only way forward was to go exploring…
I kept my magic close to the surface as I crept from room to room, searching for a casket. Only the last room—of course—had a casket in it, and judging from the tools and the metal table, it was intended for another inhabitant. I gagged at the smell of disinfectant and that unmistakable stench of death no cleaning agent could ever fully mask, then went to investigate the casket.
Thankfully, it was still empty when I lifted the lid to check. However, just the lid was heavy as fuck, and I mentally cursed my lack of ever stepping foot in a gym.
Biting my lip, I stared at my hands and wondered just how much I could use my magic for…
It took a bit of trial and error, but with the help of my magic, I managed to lift the full casket. It floated in the air next to me as I stared at it, trying to determine if it’d be stable enough to transport a sleeping vampire outside in the daylight. I gave it an experimental shove. It moved slightly to the side, but didn’t so much as wobble.
Well, looked like it’d be my best bet.
* * *
Getting Warin down from the silver chains and into the casket took a bit more effort, but I managed. I drew in a deep breath as I looked at his pale face.
“This is it, my love,” I whispered, before I pressed a gentle kiss to his lips and dragged the lid on, ensuring it clicked shut. And then I pushed my magic out of my body once more to raise the coffin.
It was surprisingly harder to lift it now that Warin was inside—almost as if my power struggled with the extra weight. Only then did it dawn on me that my powers might not come from an unlimited source—and I didn’t know how much more I to draw on before they ran out.
“Shit!” I grunted as I forced the casket up. But there wasn’t any other option—so my magic had to last. I didn’t care if it vanished for good as soon as we were safe, but it was going to last until then. No matter what.
The basement was quiet as I led the way out of the room we’d been trapped in, and I prayed whatever guards were awake wouldn’t be too worried about the two prisoners tied up in a cage escaping. If luck was on our side, they wouldn’t realize anything was wrong until we’d made it out.
No sooner had I thought the word “out” than the door to the stairs opened and a big, burly man stepped in. His eyes widened at the sight of me, one foot on the bottom step and coffin hovering behind me.
I didn’t stop to think—I just reached out for him with my magic and ripped.
The man let out a strangled yelp as he tumbled down the stairs, blood spraying from the gash in his side still oozing with green energy.
His own green power rose around him, but I slung a bolt of energy directly at his head before he could release it. His cranium cracked like a melon, blood and brain matter leaking out across the steps.
It took everything I had not to hurl at the gruesome sight.
Now’s not the time to be a shrinking violet, Liv!
“Pete, you all right, man?”
I froze at the gruff voice sounding form somewhere upstairs, followed by steps nearing the still half-open door.
As quickly and quietly as I could, I sprinted up the steps, leaving Warin’s coffin behind. I made it to the top just as another man came through the door. This time, I was prepared. I reached out with my power, let it wrap around his neck… and pulled. He only managed to make a gargling gasp before his head ripped off his shoulders and clonked down the stairs three steps at a time. I stepped to the side just in time to dodge his huge body slamming down the steps after his head, landing on top of Pete’s corpse.
I didn’t pause to contemplate what I’d done—there wasn’t time to mourn, wasn’t time to freak out. All that mattered was getting Warin out before it was too late.
I reached out with my magic to the coffin, and groaned at the strain it was to lift it this time. My powers were definitely depleting fast now. I gritted my teeth and sort of yanked, and the coffin came, one step at a time, bumping against the stairs. I dug deeper and forced it up a few extra inches so as to not call any more guards with the noise. By the time I was up the stairs, I was dripping with sweat and my hands were shaking.