Fate: California Obscura

“We’re both getting out of here.”

“No. Leave me and save yourself,” he rasped. “I’m begging you.”

“You’re my mate.” I caressed his cheek, which was rough with razor stubble. “You’re the most important thing in the world to me, and there’s absolutely no way on earth I’m leaving you here. We live or die together. That’s just the way it is.”

The lines of agony on his face softened, and his eyes closed as the incantation did its job. He needed a healing spell, but that would take a lot of time and magic, and I was already pushing my luck. I picked him up carefully, thanking the universe for the extra strength my werewolf side provided, and carried him out of the room and down the hall.

I put him in the hamper as gently as I could and covered him with the sheets. This had to be the oldest trick in the book for sneaking someone out of a building, but it was exactly what I needed right now.

It took every ounce of restraint I had to wheel that cart slowly and calmly through the compound, while everything in me was urging me to run. My heart was trying to beat its way out of my chest, and I hoped my luck would hold for just a few more minutes.

Thankfully, I made it past all those bespelled humans and back to the parking lot without incident. Then I opened the back of the van, picked up the hamper, and slid it inside, pushing aside several arrangements and buckets of flowers in the process.

Fear shot through me when I heard someone say, “Why would a florist be loading laundry into the back of their van?”

Two guards in black uniforms had rounded the far corner of the building. They were maybe twenty yards away, and when they both began striding toward me with grim expressions, I tried to plant the idea in their minds to head in the opposite direction. Either they were shielded against magic or I was too panicked to concentrate, but it didn’t work.

I slammed the back door, then ran around the van and climbed behind the wheel as they yelled at me to stop. No fucking way was that going to happen. They ran toward me as one of them spoke into a walkie talkie. Meanwhile, I started the engine, threw it into reverse, and swung around in a wide arc. When one of them pulled a gun, I flung my arm and yanked it out of his hand. Then I threw the van into gear and slammed on the gas pedal.

The gate was about a hundred yards away, and it was shut. I wondered if this old van had enough juice to ram it, since I was rapidly burning up my energy and it would take a lot to knock it down.

As I sped closer, the guard who’d let me in stepped out of the kiosk with a giant fucking automatic rifle. I swept my arm and sent him rolling like a tumbleweed, and then I drew a sharp breath as a gunshot rang out behind me.

The bullet hit one of my tires, and the van listed to the left and slammed into a parked car. I was thrown around from the impact, and I cried out as my forehead struck the steering wheel.

I ignored the instant headache and the blood that began streaming down the side of my face as I threw the van in reverse. The tires spun when I stepped on the gas. It had gotten hung up on the other car and wasn’t going anywhere.

I tumbled out the door, and as I ran to the back of the van, I spotted a guard who was aiming a gun at me. When I shoved my hand forward, he fell backwards, and his shot whizzed past my right ear. I threw open the back door and pulled the hamper to the ground with a sweeping gesture. Then I gathered Elias in my arms and began to run.

It took a lot out of me when I yelled an incantation that ripped the iron gate off its hinges and sent it clattering to the ground. The moment I did that, the wards around the compound flared with blue light and began swinging shut across the opening in the fence. I strained to hold them apart, shaking from the effort. Another pair of guards were running toward me on my right, and I cried out from the strain as I knocked them over with a flick of my wrist.

The rift I was struggling to hold open looked like a little sliver of clear sky between two huge walls of blue static. I’d almost totally depleted my energy, and my body was shaking. Meanwhile, the gap was getting narrower and narrower, and I was growing weaker by the second.