“Okay,” Lucien whispers in response. “I respect your choice.” The warlock lowers his head in submission. A move that makes me question Lucien Creed’s power. Or perhaps the better question is, how powerful is Terrin that Lucien backed down?
I move in front of the young boy. “If you get into something you can’t get out of, we’re one call away.”
“I know,” he says with a smile. He’s at the front door a heartbeat later. Without hesitation, he swings open the heavy door, disappearing inside.
“I don’t like this,” Lucien whispers.
“I’m inside,”his young voice sounds through my head.“No one has noticed me.”
“Terrin?”I ask.
“It’s me!”he answers with more enthusiasm than I expect.
“How are you in my head?”I think back to Harrison’s brief description of how he and I were able to communicate through our minds.
“I’ll explain that another day.”
“He’s talking to me,” I tell the group.
“How?” Harrison asks.
I shrug. “In my head. That’s all I know.” I resist the urge to roll my eyes at my maker. “He says he’s inside and no one has noticed him.”
“I’m following the energy,”he whispers. I relay the information to the group, who move closer to my side.“It’s upstairs. I’m going up.”
“What’s happening?” Simon asks. I open my eyes wide, using the universal sign for be patient.
“I think they’re in the attic,”he whispers through my mind.“The energy is growing stronger. I’m moving toward it.”
“He thinks the energy is coming from the attic. He’s heading there now.”
Lucien moves away from our group without a word. Stretching his arms out wide, he chants words that remind me of senior year Latin class. With a clap of his hands, he disappears, leaving nothing but a cloud of smoke behind. “What the hell?” Simon asks. “Did Lucien just disappear?”
“Terrin?”I whisper, ignoring my lycan friend. He doesn’t answer.“Terrin,”I call again, receiving thesame nonresponse. “He’s not responding,” I tell the group.
“No answer is our answer. We have no choice,” Gideon announces. He looks between his children. “I won’t leave the boy to die alone. I’m going in. I do not expect anyone to follow.”
Stella and Simon instantly shift into giant wolves. Gideon smiles before copying their movement and shifting into a larger-than-life wolf. “I’m coming with you,” I answer, moving behind the lycan. Harrison’s number one worry is himself. I don’t notice if he’s joined our group, and truthfully, I don’t care. Instead, I follow the lycan through the front door, heading toward ancient vampires that I cannot fight.
We’re standing in the oversized foyer a heartbeat later. Just like Terrin said, there’s no one inside. It’s as if the school has been abandoned. I point at the large staircase in front of us. “He went up there.”
Our small group makes it to the second-floor landing a few steps later. “He went toward the attic,” I whisper. The lycan are on my heels as we stop at a narrow hallway. I turn my attention toward one end of the long hallway, searching for a hint of familiarity and finding nothing. I do the same in the other direction and am met with the same thing…nothing. “I don’t feel him.”
“Terrin!”I call through my mind once more.“We’re trying to find you!”
“Left,”his tiny voiceanswers.
I don’t hesitate. I move vampire speed down the narrow hallway with the lycan directly behind. The hall is lined with narrow doors, leading to unimportant rooms.“Stop!”Terrin says.“They’re in there,”he says as we stop at the door near the end of the hall. Unlike the doors that line the narrow hall, this one is older, made of thick wood, and covered with a heavy silver cross.
The moment my hand touches the door, pain shoots through my arm, traveling to my body. My knees buckle as electricity burns down my legs. I fight the urge to scream with the pain that it brings. Backing away from the door, I study every angle of the contraption made to keep vampires out…or in.
Gideon’s nose shoves me to the side as he runs and slams into the door using all of his body weight. The door budges, but barely.
Even with Terrin’s protection bubble, with the amount of noise we’re making, our entrance is no longer a surprise. Stepping away, I make a decision that could possibly kill us all. “Callum O’Brien!” I scream loud enough to be heard by everyone, even humans. “We’re here.”
The silence surrounding us is overwhelming. All three wolves stare with wide eyes, waiting on something…anyone.
“We’re here for Cyrus,” I continue. “Give him to us.” Magically, the door unlatches, opening no wider than an inch.
