Even now, the circle of slayers around Elias and Roksana was closing in. They had the upper hand for now, but for how long? Every time they felled one of their opponents, another one stepped in to take their place.
Chewing on her bottom lip, Ginny surveyed the room. The odds were not in their favor, but maybe she could do something to even them up.
Create a diversion. That always worked in the movies, didn’t it?
We see as well in the pitch black as we do in the light.
As soon as Jonas’s words came drifting back to Ginny, she was sliding along the wall toward the bar, hoping her movements remained undetected. Thankfully, the bartender had joined the fray, so there was no one to stop her from going behind the bar and searching for the light switches. There. They were right behind the cash register, beside the fire alarm.
Ginny smacked off the lights and immediately, roars of dismay reached her from the barroom floor. Hoping her friends would use the confusion as a chance to leave, she turned to leave, but changed her mind and pulled the fire alarm for good measure. A liquid sputter preceded a deluge of water raining down from the ceiling—and then the blaring siren started, muffling the exclamations and bodies running into one another.
She wasted no more time sprinting down to the open hatch of the bar and hooking a quick right, praying she didn’t trip in the darkness on her way to the door—and she didn’t. Because someone picked her up and broke land records on their way out of the bar, up the staircase and onto the street. She was assuming that was the chosen route, anyway. Ginny saw nothing but whipping colors until they were beneath a flickering street lamp on the opposite side of the alley.
Trying to recover from the rush of wind in her ears, Ginny braced her hands on her knees and took a breathless head count. All of them were there and despite a scrape on Roksana’s cheek, unharmed. Thank the Lord.
“Nice assist, sweetheart,” Tucker chuckled, giving Ginny a high five. “You’ve got some trouble in your blood, don’t you?”
“Speaking of blood…” Elias said from the shadow just outside the circle of light cast by the streetlight. “We should get moving now.”
Roksana cursed in Russian. “We’re not taking her there. I promised him.”
“If he knew the separation was going to cause her pain, too, do you really think he’d want you to keep that promise?”
The slayer’s mouth formed a grim line.
“Exactly.” Elias paused, before coming back with a terse, “You going to fix that cut on your cheek or just stand there and bleed to death?”
“I don’t exactly have a first-aid kit handy.”
“Maybe your boyfriend in the bar has one.”
Without missing a beat, Roksana marched in the direction they’d come. “Maybe he does.”
Elias caught her by the elbow mid-step. “Don’t even try it.”
Ginny sidestepped in between them. “What did you mean?” she breathed, her pulse spiking. “What did you meant, cause her pain too? Is Jonas in pain?”
“Now there’s an understatement,” Elias rasped, letting go of Roksana’s arm.
He started to say more but slayers rushed into the alley fifty yards away, clearly searching for their foursome to continue to battle. “There they are,” someone shouted.
“Five more minutes, Mom?” Tucker whined, cracking his knuckles.
“Please,” Ginny pleaded. “I need answers.”
Elias sighed. “We’ll talk when we get there.” He gave his back to Roksana and she climbed on with an eye roll. Ginny did the same with Tucker. “Stick to the alleys. The last thing we need is to get caught accelerating.”
They skyrocketed into the night, traveling at such a high rate of speed that this time, Ginny definitely didn’t even need a blindfold. Her eyes couldn’t settle on one landmark before it vanished in their wake. One second they were powering down the street and the next, she was being set down in the elevator of Jonas’s building, surrounded protectively by Roksana, Elias and Tucker. All three of them watched the split of the metal doors warily, balancing on the balls of their feet.
Why?
Ginny’s breath started to come faster and faster, the hair on the nape of her neck standing on end. A ding let them know they’d arrived at the basement floor when an earsplitting bellow of denial rent the air.
Jonas?
Ginny’s entire being quite simply demanded to be taken in the direction of Jonas’s howl. He’s suffering, he’s suffering, he’s suffering. Her brain was not part of the operation. Her heart and possibly something baser and elemental jolted her toward the apartment door, her fingers wrapping around the door handle. She was only given the opportunity to yank once and find it locked before Roksana wrestled her back. Away from the place she needed to be.
A sob welled up inside her, breaking free as she struggled in her friend’s hold. Her throat swelled until she couldn’t draw breath, a magnetic current drawing her back to the door and she didn’t want to withstand it. She wanted to get in. Get in now. Go to him. Her vision transitioned into an angry red and her fingers turned to claws.