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.
Fuck.
“Just a little longer,” I whispered, more to myself than the gently flowing energy inside me. “Come on, just a bit more.”
I closed the door to the stairs and snuck into the main floor of the funeral home, coffin in tow, searching for a way out. It didn’t take me long to find the door leading to the garage, and I sent a grateful thought to my goddess at the sight of the hearse parked inside.
Getting Warin’s casket into the back was hard. It hurt to use my magic now—an odd, internal ache that ran the length of my veins, but I managed. Only when I jumped into the driver’s seat, there were no keys.
“Of course. Of-fucking-course,” I hissed as I wiped the sweat from my brow while frantically looking around for the keys. But why would escaping a psycho Ancient vampire and his skinwalker minions be fucking easy?
“Fuck!” I rested my head in my hands as I leaned on the steering wheel, trying desperately to come up with a solution.
It was simple, when it came down to it. There was only one solution. I had no idea if it would work, if this was how it was supposed to work, but it had to… because it was my only option when it came to saving Warin. I breathed in deeply as I stared at my shaking hands, and tried to visualize a key of green magic twisting in the ignition.
Pain lanced up my arms, and I cried out as magic burned through my veins—but the engine switched on.
I could hardly stand when I stumbled out of the hearse to hit the garage door button, but the image of Warin’s still face as I closed the casket over him pulled me through. He needed me. And so I had to be strong.
The driveway from the mortician’s to the road looked clear. I staggered back into the hearse and forced my trembling arms and legs to obey as I set the car into reverse and backed out.
“We’re going to make it, my love,” I whispered at the quiet coffin in the back. “It’ll be all rig—“
“Hey!”
My heart slammed into my throat at the sound of an angry voice. In the rearview mirror I saw a woman jump out on the driveway, a hand lifted as she stared at the hearse. Red energy crackled in her palm, and I knew I didn’t have the strength left to kill her before she unleashed her magic.
“Stop!” she snarled, lip curling back.