“We didn’tknowabout the two-man system,” Marcus barked. “If you cut the alarms, I bet they had a backup.”
“Well, you know now, so what are you going to do about it?” Kallie shouted.
The alarm stopped blaring. Marcus must’ve broken the bank’s wards. Even so, voices shouted from down the hall. We had seconds to make a decision.
“Any chance the explosion rocked the vault?” I asked.
“Let’s find out,” Ava said breathlessly.
I felt Marcus put his hand to the vault door, examining it with his magic. “Fuck! This vault is locked down tight. It’s on a separate system Kallie can’t access, and it’s got wards up the wazoo.”
“So break them,” I insisted.
Marcus sucked a breath. “I can’t. I can feel they’re attached to the fail-safe spell. If I break the wards, this whole place is going up in flames. It’s nothing like I’ve ever seen before. You’re basically asking me to defuse a bomb. Union authorities will be here before I can break it. It looks like there's a manual combination override on the vault mechanism in case an alarm is triggered. Without the override code, we’re not getting in.”
“Then we need to get Kallie down here, so she can break the combination and manually get us in,” I said firmly.
“Already on it.” The shattering sound of a window breaking came through the com, and noise crackled as Kallie rushed to get to us from her place on the roof.
“We’ve gotta buy her some time to crack it open,” Ava whimpered. “She’s going to need a second.”
I cracked my knuckles. “All right. Time for Plan B.”
Guards flocked into the hallway, but before they could cast any spells, I’d already siphoned their magic dry. I drew the speed and strength of a vampire, along with the telekinesis of a warlock.
“What the hell?!” one of them shouted.
I barely gave them a chance to respond before I used telekinesis to toss them to the side. Their heads hit the wall hard, and the three guards slumped to the ground unconscious.
“If we’re going to do this, we’re doing it the right way,” I said. I conjured two ski masks with my powers and handed one to Marcus, then put the other one on myself.
Oberi jumped at my feet.Ooh, a hat! I want one!
We really didn’t have time for this, but I conjured one for him and put it on, anyway. Might as well go with it now, seeing as how our plan was royally blown out of the water.
“Does this mean I get to play damsel in distress?” Ava gushed.
I placed my hands on the back of her chair and leaned down to whisper, “Who said we’re playing?”
I felt a thrill travel through Ava’s belly, and I got a little excited myself. I reached down to pull out my pistol and showed it to Ava. “You okay with this, love?”
I think the sight of me holding the pistol turned her on. No matter how independent she claimed to be, I was her protector, and I wouldn’t let anyone touch her.
“Green light,” Ava breathed in admiration. “Whatever my dom wants.”
Hell if that didn’t get me going in a situation where I needed a clear head. These fuckers didn’t know what hit them just yet. I grabbed the back of Ava’s chair and started back down the hall briskly.
“Those noxite doors that shut all over the glass aren’t going to be enough to keep the police out,” I said. “They’ll disable them to get in. We need more magic.”
“I’m going to put a shield on the place, so nobody can get in or out,” Kallie said.
A shiver crossed over my skin as the shield took hold over the bank, and my Earth magic felt the marble walls ripple when Kallie cast her impenetrable shield. Once it was up, we didn’t waste a second the moment we stepped into the lobby.
Pop, pop, pop!
People screamed and ducked for cover as Marcus and I aimed our guns at the ceiling and shot off spells. Gunshots rang throughout the room. People tried to run for the doors, then panicked as they realized that the noxite doors, as well as Kallie’s shield, kept them locked inside.
“This is a robbery!” I screamed. “Everyone get on the ground!”
