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At about seven fifteen, Kit made it to the ground floor, hoping her faerie enchantment worked and that Jay would soon be coming down here to kill Crispin. It was getting harder and harder to keep her adrenaline from pushing her visible. This was the most horrible, frightening game of blind man’s bluff she had ever played. All the blind men’s blindfolds were slipping. Stephanie and Eric walked around with their arms in front of them as if they really were blindfolded, except that because they could see, they moved far faster than you might expect.
“Warmer, warmer,” Crispin said, leading them when they got closer to her.
Kit ducked under Stephanie’s arm, just in the nick of time, and Stephanie grabbed empty air. Kit backed up to the other side of the couch.
“Colder, colder,” Crispin said, sounding exasperated. Did he not realize the nature of her invisibility? But it wouldn’t last forever. Even in the dark, they would eventually find her, if they were looking hard enough, especially now that they knew she was there. In truth, the fact that she was terrified was not great for maintaining the spell.
And then she saw Jay, come downstairs with a fatalistic look in his eye. He was carrying something in his hand. Yes. He was coming to kill Crispin.
It wasn’t until he passed right by her that she saw with horror that he wasn’t carrying the stake she’d left for him on the washcloth on top of the bathroom vanity, he was carrying a useless splinter of wood. Seriously? She’d placed it right in front of him! She was the one who couldn’t see in the dark, what was his excuse? He ignored Kit and the others, striding directly towards Crispin. This wasn’t good.
Kit reached into her pocket and pulled out one of the remaining stakes. If you want a job done right, you do it yourself. With a tiptoeing stride, she swiftly loped down the hall. At least Jay was distracting him.
Crispin wasn’t an idiot. When he saw the determined way that Jay was walking towards him, he stood up to face him, like he was a bully watching a tiny pipsqueak try to fight back. He looked like he was about to watch his favorite funny scene in a movie he’d watched a hundred times. He even spread his arms wide as if to say, “hit me, bro.”
Jay stabbed Crispin in the chest.
Crispin laughed. He pulled the splinter out, as unconcerned as if he were withdrawing a handkerchief from a coat pocket. He held it up in front of his eyes as if it were an amusing bauble. “A stake? I saw that you would try this, but I almost didn’t believe my own prophecy. You’re even more of a git than I thought.”
Kit had always hated killing, but the look of absolute despair on Jay’s face would have hardened anyone’s resolve. Two strides and a lunge and Kit slipped the stake in the hole Jay had made for her.
Crispin froze and listed, then fell to the ground, stone dead. He lay sightlessly on the ground with a weird expression, as if he’d been flash-frozen mid-laugh.
Jay stared at the body as if not sure what he was looking at. Kit plucked the stake out of Crispin’s torso.
“You used the wrong stake,” she said.
Jay looked at her, seemingly still in shock. She could have staked him right there.
Kit pulled herself invisible again and dashed for the door to the master bedroom. It wasn’t even locked, which was a blessed stroke of luck because as soon as she shut it behind her there were footsteps and the sound of someone panting as if they were having an emotional breakdown. Kit locked the bedroom door with the privacy lock, the flimsy little lever feeling woefully insufficient against any vampire who really wanted to get in there. She swore. She was supposed to have put gum on the lock so they couldn’t break in! She’d completely forgotten the chewing gum. Her bump keys were in the bottom of her bag too, so she was just lucky the door had been unlocked, or she’d have to try to ensorcell Jay a second time, which would be much harder with the young fledgling and Steel Fang not thirty feet away.
If she hadn’t known there was a panic room there, she might not have seen it. The door had been cleverly concealed. What looked like a bookcase pulled away from the wall on silent hinges. She slipped inside and pulled it shut behind her with a handle on the inside of the door. It had a bolt that slid home. A lovely, simple, easy to use bolt that slid into nice, sturdy grooves that looked like they could hold up to a battering ram.
Kit found a light switch and put her hand on it, then took off her night vision goggles. The light made her squint again until she got used to it. The panic room was really a panic suite. The door opened to a narrow hallway with a bathroom on one side and a bedroom on the other. Opposite the door was a small closet with bifold doors which would not shut because of the focus stone, as large as two spare tires stacked one on top of each other. She’d worried about finding the focus stone, but if she had moved two more feet in one direction, she would have tripped over it. Kit got out her hammer and chisel and placed the point of the chisel against the first rune.
The adrenaline she’d been forcing down finally hit her and the tools fell out of her hand, clanking against the stone. She began to shake. She was so damn tired.
Her phone beeped.
Medina got the new wi-fi password. It’s liverspot7. You should be able to control the cameras now.
When had that been sent? Was the wi-fi up again? Kit set down her tools to text back. She saw with surprise that it was already seven thirty.
Too late. Crispin’s dead. Also, don’t shoot the guy with the beard. I think he’s redeemable. The message didn’t send. She’d try again later.
Broke into a Levantine ward without killing anyone. Eluded four vampires in the dark while they searched for her. Killed a notorious psychopath. And now she was going to destroy the ward and use her sigil log to not get hurt. If this didn’t prove to Sorrow she was worthy of being his apprentice, she’d stake the snob. Because screw these guys. She was tired and wanted to go home.
Whatever part of her used magic was exhausted. She couldn’t remember ever holding her invisibility spell as long as she had. Forty-five minutes of sleep was the only sleep she’d had in the past two, emotional days. Just one more thing and then she could see if that bed in the panic room was just for show.
She wished she’d remembered to bring ear plugs. She hadn’t needed the bump keys at all, had desperately needed the night vision goggles, and probably needed the sigil log, but she’d forgotten earplugs. Taking a breath, she mentally constructed her proto-ward with the sigil-log as a focus stone. It had been much easier when she wasn’t so exhausted, but it held. With her second sight she saw her own ultraviolet shimmer around her. But it was draining her remaining stores of energy. She’d been too long without food, too long without sleep, too long without a drink of water even.
She began to destroy the runes on the stone. Crispin hadn’t made anything fancy. It was a simple four element ward, with the elements aligned with the ordinal directions. She could do this in her sleep. It just took some time. Chiseling stone was probably easier if you had vampiric strength.
As she destroyed the first rune, she felt the tension build, like an invisible torque in the energy around her. The second rune was even worse. By the third rune, she could feel the pressure on her proto ward. It felt like she had both legs inside one sleeve of a snowsuit while her head was in a pantleg and her arm in another pantleg and her other arm pinned behind her while someone sat on her. If Crispin were still alive, he’d be able to feel this. Her vision blurred as the bands of energy freed from their tethers, coalesced, like a powerful cascade being diverted into a water balloon. What had she done? This was far more energy than James’ ward. Yes, she hadn’t been invited, so she wasn’t part of the field. And yes, the epicenter of the ward was the safest place to be when it went, but she felt as though her mind were being dislocated.
Pushing so much of her energy and concentration into her proto ward that she had to go by feel alone, Kit quickly tapped her hammer against the chisel to destroy the last rune.
The world exploded, rippling out from the stone as if an asteroid had collided with a pool of pure magic.
Kit didn’t have to release her energy into the proto ward. The magical concussion wave crushed it, ripping the energy from her. She felt third-degree burn course along every one of her nerves, pouring into the rough block of wood under her fingertips. Her vision tunneled, and the log instantly smoked black. She heard nothing but the high-pitched whine of tinnitus.
Kit dropped the log. It was smoldering and charcoaled.
A beeping began to sound from the other end of the panic room. It sounded ominous, so Kit held one hand to her head and shakily stood to investigate. It was a carbon monoxide alarm, blinking red. Using a towel from the bathroom to protect her hands from the smoldering wood, Kit threw the log in the shower and turned the water on until it hissed and steamed and finally just drained water flecked with black.
A vent in the ceiling appeared to be sucking smoke out of the room, and another beige box labeling itself an air purifier blew cool air into the room. How was the Spider going to be able to fill the house with tear gas if the house had air purifiers? Maybe she wouldn’t need her escape hood.
The phone still wasn’t sending texts, but by logging into the wi-fi she was able to make a phone call. Kit pulled out her phone and called Fenwick. Jade was screaming in the background.
“Is this a bad time?” she asked. She looked at her watch. It was almost nine p.m., but it was an hour earlier in Seabingen.
“No, it’s fine,” he said. “You missed a huge thunderstorm. The block across the street lost power. I think we’re going to have rain on and off all weekend. Anyway, how did your thing go?”
“I did it,” she said with pride. “I got in and I destroyed the ward and I didn’t get hurt. We had some complications, but I did it. I’m done with the thing I came here for.”
“That’s great, Kit!” Fenwick said, and then told Jade no, she couldn’t have any more juice because she hadn’t finished the last cup he gave her. “So, you’ll be home tonight?”
“My flight’s tomorrow morning but it’s flexible so if we finish up early, I’ll try to reschedule it,” Kit said. “How’s Kaa? How are the kids?”
“Your ward against cats and owls seems to be holding. One of Kaa’s kids fell out of the nest but the neighbor’s tabby hasn’t been able to get it.”
“How about our kids?”
“Oh, them? They’re fine too,” Fenwick said, and continued away from the phone as if he were speaking down. “Yes, it’s mommy. She said she’ll be home tomorrow if she can.”
“Cool,” Kit said with a yawn. “I’m locked in a panic room right now and the door’s bolted from the inside, so I think I’m gonna take a nap until the vampires get done with their illegal eviction proceedings.”
“Number three giving you any trouble?”
“Easiest one yet, so far,” Kit said. “But it’s been a long day. I can’t wait to see you guys again. Give Jade and Gus kisses for me.”