I hated that he was up front again, but I went right behind him, determined to guard his back. No one else complained, so I figured they understood considering everyone’s viramores were on our team together. Dad and Tan—Daddo—stuck together right behind me, and Bas and Hiro stayed together, bringing up the rear.
Based on the direction we were going, we were headed underneath the neighboring building, which was the last one on the block.
We followed the path for five minutes before Roman raised his fist, telling us to stop. Roman dropped his hand and pointed at something on the ground. There was some kind of round, dark red disk the size of a dinner plate, half buried in the dirt, and I could only assume it carried a spell that would activate if someone stepped on it.
Great, now the gross, bloody-walled, creepy tunnel had traps.
“You take me to the nicest places,”I said to Rome through our link, making him snort out loud and get strange looks from the others.
He sent me a mock glare, and I shrugged, trying to look innocent.
Tan tapped my shoulder, silently asking me to let him pass, so I pressed against the wall—so, so, so gross—and he shot me a small smile before doing the same to Rome, making him move over.
Dad stood beside me, watching his viramore intently, and I shoulder-bumped him so he knew I was here if he needed me. Everyone was understandably tense, but I wanted to help ease that in any way I could. Dad sent me a small grin before we both watched my stepfather work.
Tan—no, Daddo—pulled on his silvery magic, and I watched him slowly wrap a shield around the disk. His shield sank into the ground, cutting out a perfect half-dome of dirt and encasing the disk entirely without moving it or touching it.
With a snap of his fingers, a puff of air inside his shield smacked the disk, setting off its spell. The disk exploded in an impressive blast of red, filling the shield with what looked like gallons of blood. My nose wrinkled, and I could only shake my head. If someone had set that off, they would’ve lost a few limbs, if not worse, and everyone in a twenty-foot radius would’ve been soaked with blood. That was… horrifying.
Thank goodness Tan was able to take care of it because we didn’t know who would be coming up behind us, if anyone, and I certainly didn’t want someone on our side to suffer.
Hopefully, there weren’t more of those things in the space ahead. We really needed to catch up to Brinik.
My hopes were dashed twenty feet later when Roman found another one, and Tan had to take care of it.
We went another fifty feet before Roman stopped us again. I expected him to point to the ground, but he held a finger up to his ear, telling us to listen.
Everyone did immediately, and I strained my ears, trying to hear whatever had caught his attention.
There was a grunting noise before some grinding, and I had no doubt Brinik had reached the end of the tunnel and was opening the door.
Voices floated through the air to us, but they were too far away to understand their words. He must’ve had some of his followers with him.
The voices grew farther away, and we started walking again. The tunnel turned to the right, and I had a feeling we were far enough under the next building that we were now headed toward their huge parking lot. Which meant we needed to hurry the hell up. There was a good chance Brinik had a car waiting for him there.
Come on, we need to get him. We can’t let him get away.
As if reading my mind—which maybe he had—Roman sped up.
We quickly made it to the door, which had—lucky for us—been left open. Roman popped his head around it, and I didn’t shout at him only because he still had a personal shield over his body.
And he kinda didn’t give me enough time to say anything, which was probably why he did it the second we reached the door. He knew I’d stop him if given the chance.
No one shot anything at him, thank the Mother of Scales, and I didn’t hear any shouting, so they must not have noticed him.
Rome ducked back inside and quickly said to us, “I see Brinik. He’s with fourteen other people, mostly blood witches, although I smell two dragons amongst the group. They must’ve been waiting for him in the tunnel. They’re headed for a set of vans on the other side of the parking lot, so we need to hurry.”
Basil said, “I’ll take out the vans to keep them from escaping. You guys go after Brinik and his guards.”
“Good,” Rome said. “There’s a set of parked cars off to the right, so head over there for additional cover while Bas takes out the vans. We’ll see how these assholes respond and go fromthere. Whatever we do, we can’t let Brinik escape. We can’t let any of them escape.”
There was no point in more planning since we couldn’t see exactly where everyone was standing from here, and they were far too close to escaping for my liking.
So we all nodded, and Roman said, “On my count.” He held up three fingers, dropped one, then another, then the last one, and we were off.
The second I cleared the door, I took in the scene.
Brinik and his guards were nearly to the vans, but they were the only people out there, so at least we didn’t have to worry about bystanders.
