Emery stared at the front of the door before wrapping his fingers around my wrist. The harried energy around us slowly smoothed out. We both took a deep breath at the same time, analyzing the spells draping the entrance.

“Help where you can,” he said, before removing his hand and starting his weave, a complex spell spinning into existence between his hands.

I closed my eyes and lowered my head, feeling the intent of the spell he was creating, then that of the spell standing in our way. A key and a barrier.

Those two didn’t fit together.

I held out my hand, eyes still closed, letting it drift until I could feel Emery’s creation right beneath my fingertips. Peeling open a lid, I glanced at him. He looked confused, but he didn’t stop, and he didn’t tell me to move away. He trusted what an untrained mage with more power than sense planned to do. It was a miracle he was still alive.

Ignoring my inner naysayer, I closed my eye again, feeling the energy in the bubble around us pulse and play. I imagined the barrier in front of us, and immediately thought of a great oak, with its strong roots and sturdy branches. Such a tree could bust the barrier down, but it would take too long.

Tilting my head, I envisioned a jackhammer to go with the tree. After fusing the two, nature and steel, together in my mind, I connected them with the key Emery was building. Heat warmed the air between us. Fire burned my palm, followed by an icy sensation, mixing and meshing with the spell below. Changing it.

The new energy sang in my blood. Whispered to me of freshly plowed fields and lightning storms. Magic flowed through me, the tug on my ribs resulting in heat dripping down my middle. That meant I was onto something.

I sincerely hoped that something didn’t go boom.

“Enough.”

I yanked my hand away at Emery’s command and opened my eyes. He spread his hands, revealing a thick weave made up of many smaller weaves, all twisting and interconnecting at irregular intervals. But while it looked like a hot mess at first glance, upon closer inspection, it held a chaotic beauty, the patterns and shapes organized even if the layout was not.

“Incredible,” Emery said in not much more than a whisper. “I wish we could train together. You’d teach me as much as I would teach you.”

I ignored the twist in my gut at his comment about not training together. “I don’t even know what I’m doing most of the time. How could I teach it?”

“By doing, and letting me be a part of it.” He pushed his hands away.

The spell released and spread out in front of us before sending tendrils down into the ground—the roots I had imagined.

“Simply incredible,” Emery said, watching. “I have so many ideas.”

“And I have all the resources you’ll need to create them,” Darius said, standing directly behind us with his hands behind his back.

Emery’s brow furrowed and his gaze returned to the front door. Light flashed in the lines that now ran the length of the building. It flared in front of us.

I grabbed Emery’s arm. “How do we know it won’t explode?”

“It won’t.”

“Right.” I stared at the changing colors, the spell growing more furious as it ate through the ward. “And how do you know?”

“By the look of it.”

“Uh-huh.” He’d just acted as though he’d never seen anything like it, so I found his confidence a little tough to believe.

A large black line opened up in the spell, right over the doorway. Like an egg breaking, it ran down to the ground. The lines along the sides became wider. Red flashed.

I took a step back, ready to hide behind the vampires. They could heal. I could not.

One final soundless flash, and the spell protecting the building disappeared into nothing, sending me a laughing farewell as it did so.

“Uh-oh,” I said, realizing what that meant. “It’s going to tell on us.”

“Yeah. I just saw that.”

“What is this?” Darius asked.

“There was a spell hidden in the depths of the ward. One I didn’t know was there.” Emery rushed toward the door.

“A tattletale spell.” I followed quickly.

“It will alert the spell casters of a breach.” Emery yanked at the locked door. “We don’t have much time.” He turned, moving me to the side.

Darius flicked his fingers. The click of a lock sounded.

“Giving their species that power is just plain cruel,” I said.

The spacious interior of the records building spread out before us, an extremely organized collection of boxes and containers housed in rows upon rows of numbered and labeled shelves. Magic hugged the walls, and I realized it was to keep the atmosphere climate-controlled in order to preserve the various documents stored inside.

“This is helpful,” Darius said, strolling in. He looked behind him, and vampires filed in faster than thought.

Emery was off like a shot, looking at the white labels on the front of each row. Darius came to a stop beside me, his gaze constantly moving before turning back toward the door.

“You might join Miss Beauchene outside,” he said. “She’ll show you what to do.”

“You mean, kill anyone close enough to see what’s going on?” I asked.

“Fabulous. You already know what’s needed.” He nodded at the doorway and then took off, heading toward Emery. Even in a highly pressurized situation, he was as cultivated and smooth as silk.

I about-faced and hurried outside, not loving the detail I’d been given, but knowing it would help Emery. He needed closure, and hopefully this would do it for him.

Miss Beauchene, the ferocious killer with a face that would make angels sing, stood at the front door with a relaxed posture. She looked out at the dark and quiet grounds, the calm before the storm.

I stood on the other side of the door, feeling my surroundings. The moon sprinkled light onto the ground, creating shadows by the walls and under the bushes. I analyzed those, growing familiar with their shapes in case someone tried to use them for cover.

“You are new to this life?” Miss Beauchene asked. Her lovely voice, heavily accented, barely reached my ears.

“Yes.”

“You do not have to speak so loud. I have excellent hearing.”

I nodded—couldn’t get much quieter than that.

“You seem to be adjusting well.” Her head snapped to the left. Her whole body stilled and she shifted silently, facing that direction. “Your name is Penelope, is that correct?”

“Technically, but I go by Penny.”

“A poor choice. Penelope is fitting.” A tad opinionated, this vampire. “I am Marie. Now stay here.” And with that, she was off, zooming away.

A rustle and a grunt broke the silence. Something slid across the cement, ending in a heavy object slapping the ground. In rushed the dense, murky silence.

Marie strode around the corner, her eyes back to scanning.

I gulped and tried desperately to stuff all of this on the “ignore list.” That became increasingly more difficult when she said, “I left a line of blood on the footpath. Sloppy.”

Shifting my weight from one foot to the other, I glanced behind me through the door. A sheet of paper fluttered to the ground. Two more followed it before an open box was placed near the entrance. A vampire zipped by, carrying another box.

“You guys had your own agenda,” I murmured, remembering what Clyde had said.

“Of course.” She looked straight ahead, and her body went on point again.

That was when it hit me. Like the undertow before a tsunami, the magic sucked at me. Dark, thick, and evil, something was in the works, and it would not be pretty.

“Skin peeling…” Eyes closed, I leaned away from it, focusing on the prickles rolling across my skin. My stomach churned. “Pulling our insides out.” The darkness rose in the distance, a growing balloon intent on our bodily destruction.

“What do I do?” Marie asked, at my side.

My power stones, all six of them, begged me to take them out, to spread them out in front of me. I complied quickly, pausing twice when one groused about the location. Once those were arrayed on the ground, I stripped off my utility belt and sprinkled the contents on the ground around the stones, creating a circle around me. A slight breeze stirred my hair and dusted my face. A sweet fragrance filled my senses and calmed my nerves.

My phone buzzed, clattering against the ground where I’d dropped it. Marie was there in an instant, quieting it. My mother had been pulling double duty lately, always awake, always sending new readings. She had to be exhausted. That, or she had friends she never told me about, and they were taking shifts.

Probably the latter.

“What does it say, Marie? Quickly.”

“‘Use the vampire.’”

“Okay, well, you heard her. Get in here.” I stepped closer to the power stones, allowing room for Marie at my back.

Without question, Marie stepped into the circle, more courageous than I would’ve been in her situation. And less curious. Did she not wonder who was giving me orders via text?

Ignore list.

I centered myself in my self-made haven of natural magic, focusing on the feeling of what was looming out there in the darkness. Nature guided me in the weave, as it so often did, attaching to what I now knew was my will. Marie’s magic drifted into the mix, predatory and sharp, a lethal killer who hunted in the shadows. Finally, a complex mix of emotions that could best be compared with PMS rose through my middle, confused and sad and annoyed and ragey all at the same time.

Power pulsed around me. The sky crackled.

“They are getting closer,” Marie whispered. “Muttering. I can’t hear what they are saying.”

“I know. I can feel it.”

The huge wave was loosed, rolling toward us quickly.

My hands spread out like claws, my teeth gritted, and my eyes closed. I had one moment to issue a plea that this would work as intended and save everyone in the records room, before I shoved my arms forward, and with them, my spell.

A complex wave, glimmering white, stretched out in front of us. It drifted toward the oncoming spell, slow and steady. Thick and violent.

A cloud of deep green slammed into my wall. Pops and sparks flew out, cracking and banging. The green mass tried to burrow through my weave. Eat it away. Punch holes into it.

My magic held fast, retreating with the onslaught.

My power stones burst with power, feeding the spell I’d already sent into the world. I had no idea how or why.

The colors changed. The weaves continued to do war. My spell held fast, wearing the other down. Corroding it.

“I’ll get the casters,” Marie said.

I snatched her arm and got a nasty scratch from a claw for my efforts. “No! My spell is just getting going. This is the defensive part. Your magic will be kicking off in just a moment.”

“My magic?” Marie said, stilling.

Electricity rolled across my skin, and then Emery was behind us. “What’s happening? Do you need help?”

“No,” I whispered, keeping a tight grip on Marie’s hand. This was about to be the worst thing I’d ever created. I could feel it. I needed to hold a hand—or in this case, a vicious-looking set of claws—to keep my courage. “This is the vampires’ fault, by the way. Let’s all acknowledge that up front.”

“I see them,” Marie said. “Walking forward slowly. Six of them. Arrogance at work.”

A bright flare of light lit everyone up, and suddenly I could see them too. Six, as Marie had said, three in red robes, two in purple, and one in orange. They had more ingredients in their hands, but no one’s lips were moving. They wanted to see how their first spell did before moving on to another.

How dumb could this organization possibly be? Emery and I didn’t need to memorize words or separate our ingredients out beforehand, so time would always be on our side.

As the full weight of what I was, and how lucky I was, hit me, my spell morphed into a strange, grisly-looking thing, replete with magical spikes and gaping black holes.

“What the hell did you create?” Emery asked, stepping closer.

“Something a vampire would be proud of,” I muttered, feeling a little sick to my stomach.

“We shall see.” Marie laid a hand on my shoulder, thankfully without claws. I wasn’t sure being her buddy was a good thing.

The spell flew forward as fast as Darius could run, drifting over the ground silently. It crashed into the mages, piercing them in a hundred places each, the spikes digging into their flesh. Now attached, it began eating away at its new hosts, a magical parasite.

Screams rent the night sky. Emery acted quickly, pulling from the ingredients scattering the ground and dropping a magical noise cap onto the scene.

He turned to me, his eyes intense, before a little smile curved his lips. A moment later, he was sprinting back into the building.

“He is proud of you.” Marie’s grip tightened on my shoulder. One by one, the bodies fell into a heap. “And I would be honored to take responsibility for the effects of that spell. It was magnificent. I hope to be in battle with you someday.”

I grimaced. Definitely not a personal goal to be her friend.

She stiffened, and I felt the coming spell. I turned to throw my hands up, not sure what I would do, but I went airborne. I hit the side of the building and tumbled to the ground. The spell harmlessly zipped past.

“My apologies. I didn’t know if you’d react in time.” Marie was zooming away.

Climbing to my feet, I felt another spell coming. These weren’t being created; they were already made. From casings, I’d bet. Weaker, but harder to sense until they were on top of me.

“We’re under siege,” I yelled over my shoulder. “We gotta go.”

I called up another shield and ran forward. A blast of light hit my magic, fizzing and popping. I shot out, my red jet of electricity enhanced with a few tricks I’d learned recently. A scream rose. A man in orange crumpled to the ground. Another turned and ran toward the building on my right.

I patched together a rolling ball of heat and really, really wished I knew how to make fire. The fire Reagan had summoned in that church had been way cooler than my efforts, not to mention more effective. I needed that kind of firepower. Literally.

It rolled over him, and his robes burst into flames. With the door open, the ball continued inside, searing the frame as it boiled through.

Good enough.

Smoke puffed out of the building. Light glowed and flickered from within.

“Oooooh…” I grimaced. If all the screaming and blasts of light didn’t get us noticed, a burning building would surely do the trick. “We gotta go!”

I turned and started running. Marie was beside me in a moment.

“We gotta go,” I yelled again, bursting into the records room.

Paper and overturned boxes littered the entire right side of the building. Gaping holes announced missing boxes from shelves. In front of me, three vampires waited, six boxes strapped to each of their backs with thick netting. The others were getting loaded up. Darius clearly planned to take as much of the record room with him as possible, but he didn’t think he was above hard labor. It looked like he’d be carrying out boxes too.

“Clearly we’re even in this endeavor,” I said, indignant for reasons I couldn’t name. “Just in case you try to call in a favor for helping us get into the compound”—I waggled my finger at Darius—“this is that favor. You’re welcome for our role in getting you in here.”

Emery smiled in approval and gave me a small nod. He only had one file, I noticed.

“You are not so naive as you seem,” Darius said, adjusting the straps of the netting over his shoulders. “How unfortunate.”

“Oh no, I’m horribly naive. It’s annoying and I hate it. But I’m not stupid. Now let’s go. I may or may not have set a building on fire.”