Should I go upstairs or guard the door?
There were a number of ways out of the building, so staying down here was pointless. After jogging into the hall and locating the stairs, I flicked a glance between the elevator and stairs. Both were risky, but the stairs would wear me down.
After hitting the elevator button, I withdrew my only gun and nervously held it in my hand. Guns weren’t my weapon of choice. When the door opened, I jumped in and hit the third-floor button. It jerked when it rose, making my stomach dip. I backed up against the wall and aimed my firearm.
A ding preceded the doors opening.
I fired several times at a man flashing toward me. When I glimpsed a knife in his hand, I swiftly turned and kicked him as he entered the elevator. He struck the far wall, blood smearing on the wall from his bullet wound. In an instant, he pivoted around and moved on me in a flash.
I thought he punched me in the stomach, and it didn’t sink in that he had stabbed me until he sliced upward. Survival mode kicking in, I held the gun to his head and fired just as the doors closed. He collapsed to the floor, and I clutched my abdomen. Was a shot to the head enough to kill a Mage? If not, his brain might grow back and actually make him smarter.
I rolled him over, trying not to look at his head injury, and stole his light. Before popping his cork, I sifted through his energy to locate healing light. I had to make sure nothing was hanging out of my wound. When I felt the skin seal together, I looked down at the bloody rip in my sweatshirt and sighed with relief. Then I finished stealing his immortality. He died instantly from the gunshot wound.
This time when I pressed the elevator button, I stood off to the side and peered out. A hallway split in three directions, rooms to the left and right. The hallway ahead most likely led to the gallery. While I could hear the action up ahead, energy prickled my skin from the right. Maybe Li Han or one of his cohorts was hiding. With the gun in hand, I quietly went in search of the pulsing current.
I reached the last door and stared at a keypad on the right. Maybe they kept their valuables locked up in here, but the energy didn’t make sense. When I tried the handle, it didn’t move. Then I noticed a little knob in front of my face with two hinges. After a quick check behind me, I opened the panel and looked through a window into a dark room.
A woman huddled in the corner with her hands over her ears.
“What the hell?”
I reeled back when a young man appeared behind the glass.
“Let us out!” He slammed his hands on the door, a desperate look in his eyes. “Open the door!”
I placed one finger across my lips and closed the hatch. He kept shouting and beating his fists against the door. I flashed down the hall and turned right, slowing to a walk before I reached the end. Enormous paintings adorned the walls of the spacious room. Five modern sculptures by the front windows briefly caught my eye.
Steel clashed as Niko fought a woman also wielding a sword. They moved with lightning speed. Two bodies lay to my right, blood splashed across the floor. Clearly he had the situation under control, and I needed to locate the other men to make sure no one escaped.
I scanned the large room and saw no one else. None of the windows were open or broken.
“Stairs,” I whispered, circling back.
When I found the stairwell, something grabbed my attention. Drops of blood led to a door at the far end, opposite the one with the two people inside. This door didn’t have a keypad. I glanced over my shoulder before opening it.
“This wasn’t in the brochure,” I muttered, staring at a metal pole that dropped into a dark void. It must have been the emergency escape route, though it looked more like a portal to hell.
At least it’s not a slide, I thought, recalling a previous job where a slide had led me to an underground fighting ring.
I gripped the pole and locked my legs around it.
This was a stupid way to fucking die. Here lies Raven, who slid her way straight to hell down a fireman’s pole.
When the light above grew smaller, I panicked. Immortal or not, I still had irrational phobias about monsters in the dark or there never being a bottom. What if this was a trap and I was sliding to the Earth’s core? What if I wound up in a pit filled with spiders? As soon as my feet hit the bottom, I fell to the floor.
Cold wind whistled through a cracked doorway. I stepped outside and followed the footprints and blood. I scaled a chain-link fence, jogged down an alley, and then stopped at a dead end. Footprints flattened the crimson snow in every direction.
If Li Han’s men were protecting him, where had they gone?
Blue ran toward me at breakneck speed. When she skidded to a stop, she was out of breath and buzzing with energy. “Niko and I cleared the building. Three got out, and Christian went after them. I checked the men inside, and they don’t have the mark. That means the target escaped.”
“They fought here,” I said, pointing out the obvious. “They must have doubled back.”
She scratched her forehead and looked at the buildings that walled us in. Every door she tested was locked. “We have to find them and fast. Dammit, I have no choice. Once I shift, I won’t have weapons or clothes.”
“Do it.”
“Fine. But after this, I have to go back to Niko. If I keep shifting, I’ll pass out. This is the last time.” Blue set her favorite tomahawk against the wall and then shifted. Her falcon sailed upward over the buildings and out of sight.
