“He can keep wanting,” Spencer said as he threw another mageglobe their way, letting loose an explosion of raw magic.
The demon shrieked, the words spilling from its lips incomprehensible to Spencer. While he might not have understood the spell being cast, the results of it caused the glass display cases in the room to explode. Glass flew through the air in a controlled spiral, the containment wards melting away as the vortex aimed for Spencer. He barely got a shield up before thousands of glass shards tried to carve their way through his body, ricocheting off his shield. Fatima disappeared, taking herself out of the line of fire, but he knew she hadn’t gone far, even if the demon thought otherwise.
The building shook again, forcing Spencer to brace against the movement and ride it out. The magic writhing up the walls grew brighter, and he could see the sigils now, see more clearly what was built into the foundation of the museum—the same spell that had been written across the back of the Ouroboros Mirror in archival photographs.
“Oh,shit,” Spencer bit out, staring wide-eyed at the walls, with their bleeding-through magic and the haunting that hadn’t stopped.
It wasn’t just the casting circle they needed to worry about; it was the whole damnmuseumthat held the foundation for the spellwork.
And the Ouroboros Mirror was the key.
That realization had him slamming his shield outward to fill the room and keep Rufus and the demon-possessed hunter at bay. Spencer spun on his feet and sprinted back toward the stairwell, tearing through the decomposing arms and hands that reached for him from the wall and floor, knowing they weren’t real. He slipped his sight sideways, the haunting disappearing, replaced by glowing motes of energy that lined everything around him.
John Adler’s reach had touched every floor of the museum, and Spencer didn’t know where Takoma was. Fatima met him on the third-floor landing, her form bleeding out around her as she bridged the divide between the living and the dead.
“Where—”
The explosion of force that went off directly in front of him was the equivalent of if he’d crashed at high-speed in a head-on collision. Spencer flew through the air and slammed into a life-sized, carved wooden idol, the impact bone-jarring. All the air left his lungs as his head snapped back, cracking against solid wood. Black spots ate away at the edge of his vision as a ringing filled both his ears.
He blinked, vision vacillating nauseously between his normal and sideways sight. In those handful of seconds as he struggled to get his bearings, nails that were more like claws dug into his chest above the edge of his flak vest. Fingers tangled in his hair, claws scratching over his scalp deep enough to draw blood as his head was yanked to the side.
Rufus’ face swam in front of him as the master vampire opened his mouth, fangs covered in someone else’s blood, red smeared over the lower half of his face. “I’m going to enjoy this.”
The half-formed mageglobe Spencer conjured didn’t get a chance to become whole.
Neither did Rufus get his fangs in Spencer’s throat before Takoma wasthere, ripping Rufus off him with lifesaving ease. Spencer lost some hair, definitely some skin, but he didn’t care as his vision snapped back to normal and his throat remained blessedly whole. Fatima shoved her head against his chin and licked at his throat.
No blood, she promised.
“Yeah,” he croaked, forcing himself to his feet, mageglobe forming up. He staggered a few steps away from the idol he’d crashed into, getting his bearings. Takoma stood between Rufus and Spencer, mouth and hands covered in blood. Spencer wondered how many people he’d killed and if any of them had been Caitlin.
“Don’tevertouch him,” Takoma snarled.
Rufus flexed his hands, eyes on Takoma and no one else. “I see I struck a nerve.”
“Takoma,” Spencer said. The sound of his voice echoed painfully through the bones of his face and skull, making his head throb. Neither master vampire paid him any attention, only having eyes for each other. Fatima pressed against his side, not leaving him, even though it looked like Takoma might. “The entire museum is powering the casting circle. Youcan’tbe here.”
“He’s right where he needs to be,” Rufus said, the triumphant, almost gleeful expression on his face one Spencer didn’t like at all.
“Oh, hey, is this where the party’s at?”
Wade’s voice cut through the tension, snagging Spencer’s attention right before a searing volley of dragon fire roared its way to where Rufus stood. Takoma flung himself out of the literal line of fire with supernatural speed. Arms encircled Spencer’s waist, and Takoma hauled him away from the ferocious heat to safety.
The dragon fire faded away, leaving behind a massive scorch mark along the floor and ruined sigils in the spellwork still crawling up the wall. Unfortunately, Spencer didn’t see a body or a pile of ash where Rufus should’ve been.
“He ran,” Takoma said.
“Fucker,” Spencer said, swallowing back bile.
Wade jogged over to them, clearly having been unaffected by the haunting and the barrier ward that kept everyone who could give them backupoutand everyone Caitlin was afterin. “The SOA is outside and trying to get through the shield wrapped around the building. Apparently, the Cascade Coven illegally laid down a barrier ward. Too bad you couldn’t convince Nadine to fly out early for your present to Fang Face here. I bet she’d be able to undo it.”
Spencer couldn’t quite choke back the exasperation in his tone. “Did anyone see you?”
Wade rolled his eyes. “I can be stealthy.”
“We need to get out of here.” Spencer turned in Takoma’s arms, leaning into him. “Youneed to get out of here.”
“If a barrier ward is in place, there is nowhere to go. Our only option is to face Adler,” Takoma said, sounding far too pragmatic for Spencer’s liking.
