Anomaly (Causal Enchantment #4)(20)
Another quick glance in the side view showed the other flashing lights disappear into a valley. We didn’t have time for that and we couldn’t still be sitting here when it reappeared over the crest. “I hope this is a good idea, Max.” I hit the lights and punched the gas pedal lightly until the truck rolled forward. The front wheels finally caught the edge and then we were quickly doing a nosedive off the road. The airbags inflated, filling the interior of the truck. An eye-watering pain punched me in the nose. I assumed the force had broken it but the pain lasted only a few seconds before the throb subsided.
I’d never get used to that.
“Max, are you okay?”
Glass smashed, followed by a loud creak of metal and branches snapping outside. Of course I am. And so are you. I pushed on the handle but the door had been jammed by the impact. Throwing my side into it, the entire thing fell off its hinges. I tumbled out, landing spread eagle in the snow. “Isn’t my kind supposed to be more graceful?” I grumbled. Clambering to my hands and knees, I found chunks of the cell phone that Caden had given me lying in the snow, smashed in my escape. “Dammit!” A nauseating ball sprouted inside. How would I get hold of him now?
My hands froze with the sound of the approaching car. If it stopped, what would I do? I couldn’t simply run. I needed the blood in this truck. I also couldn’t have the police reporting our location and causing problems if they followed our tracks to the mine.
I would have to hurt them, something I had no interest in doing.
When the car sped past without slowing, its colored lights flashing against the night sky, I let out a heavy sigh of relief.
You did good tonight, kid. We would’ve been in trouble without this.
“I killed a man and hurt a woman, Max. That doesn’t constitute ‘good’ in my books.” Maybe it was because I was still new and inexperienced. Or maybe I’d never be as quick-thinking as Sofie or the others.
Yeah, well, with a truck’s worth of blood, you’ve also saved lives tonight. Don’t forget that.
I smiled. “Thanks for making me feel useful, Max.”
Oh crap. The moment’s over. Max took off into the woods, in the direction of the mine.
“What?” I yelled after him.
Come on. We better hurry.
Chapter Four – Sofie
The boutique hotel was infested. Three steps onto the marble floor of the lavishly decorated lobby, I was already sidestepping bodies. People ran past in various states of dress, the fire alarm ringing through the air. Whoever thought tripping that would be a good idea—likely the desk clerk whose black shoes I could see poking out from his hiding spot behind the counter—was horribly wrong. There was nothing more enticing to a fledgling than humans on the run, their hearts racing with fright.
Christmas season meant the hotel would be filled to capacity, people coming to enjoy the New York City nightlife over the holidays. Unfortunately for these guests, choosing this hotel meant they would die tonight too.
A cursory scan found several fledglings occupying the sitting area with fresh kills, festive gold and silver decorations a perverse backdrop against the splashes of crimson. How many more could be roaming the floors above me was anyone’s guess.
Blue flames ignited on my fingertips.
“We get the humans out of here and kill the fledglings,” I declared.
“Why waste time on the—” Kait said.
“Go!” I snapped as I unleashed bolts of fire, charring the five fledglings within seconds, their short-lived screams piercing. I could have destroyed the hotel and been done with it, but that would have meant burning humans alive. I couldn’t bring myself to commit mass murder of innocent people. Not yet.
We would kill these fledglings one by one if we had to.
That was how we proceeded as I chased my tiny army up the stairwell. Floor by floor, room by room, our dark clothes quickly earned a layer of both fledgling and human blood, until every living human left—which wasn’t many on the first two floors—was exiting the front door and every fledgling was left in ashes.
*
“Well, that was easy,” Bishop said sarcastically. From the shadows across the street, we watched the firefighters battle the blaze. I had torched the building to eliminate evidence. They’d be at it for hours. The kind of witch fire I used burned hot enough to turn bone to dust in minutes and took longer to extinguish. They’d find no remains. It had drained my magical reserves.
It actually had been easy. Too easy. “I counted forty-two,” I said. They had fought well, better than expected for such young creatures. That was more than a little concerning.
“And no Jonah.” Mage’s eyes scanned the streets. “I can’t imagine where he would be, if not with his horde.”
“Unless that wasn’t his only horde,” Caden pointed out, wiping fledgling blood from his cheek. “What if there’s a larger one out there?”
A collective groan escaped just as the bright purple light of another tracking bracelet ignited on my wrist. “Here we go again,” I muttered.
*
“I can’t stand being underground,” Kait grumbled as we moved down into the subway system, unsure what would be waiting at the bottom. Thankfully, only a few late-night revelers lingered on the platform, all of them alive and well, if not a tad drunk. Wherever the bracelet was leading us, it was happening within the subway tunnels.