They were draining her?!
Tori went for his phone—which was not in his pocket. Because of course he fucking hadn’t remembered it either in his zombie state.
Snarling, he went for the next best thing. He raced for the front windows, with all the reflected sunlight pouring in from the morning sun, and slammed his hand against it, channeling the power raw. While not strong on its own, reflected sunlight in this much abundance could be harvested and honed into something semi-decent to attack with, and Tori wasn’t above using all of it.
He threw his free hand out, aiming the spell. “Infero gev adi!”
Three of the men had their backs to him, not aware of him, and the fire spell hit them dead center. They jumped as the flames hit them, their shirts instantly ablaze. With yelps of panic and muted screams, they frantically dropped, rolling to put the fire out.
It gave Tori the opening to try again, aiming for the mage still drawing upon Cassie’s magic. “Infero gev adi!”
The mage was wrapped in the same distorted magic he’d seen with the other Jaeggi. He instantly rebutted the spell with a personal shield he threw up. “Clyp gev adi!”
Shit. No way would Tori’s attack get past that. He had better power to work with, for one. He wasn’t just drawing upon Cassie’s power, after all, but the dragon life power through her. Sasha’s power. Their mate bond would allow him to do that.
Tori could only pray that Sasha would feel the draw, recognize something was wrong, and come after Cassie. He didn’t know enough about how mate bonds worked to know if that would actually happen.
It would be up to him to drive the Jaeggi off.
He moved slightly, choosing a new spot on the window, and slammed his hand against the hot glass once more. “Infero gev adi!”
The spell hit the three mages still on the ground, and they yelled in panic and pain as the fire hit their front sides this time. They rolled again, putting out the flames.
They had an audience now, everyone in the lobby hiding behind desks and tables, watching them with wide eyes. Tori’s ears caught someone on the phone, probably demanding the police, not that the police could do much in this situation.
But Tori didn’t blame them for calling the cops. He focused once more on the mage intent on drawing power from Cassie and snarled, “Let her go, you bastard. You’ll not drain her dry!”
“You’re next,” the man snapped at him in accented Finnish.
“The hell I am! GET OFF HER!”
The Jaeggi mage had his mouth open on some retort, but he saw something over his shoulder and quickly scrambled, his movements panicked. He said something sharply (it sounded German) to his companions, and they all got up and started running.
Tori didn’t choose to question it, just darted for Cassie, abandoned on the floor and still locked in the paralysis spell. He caught sight from his peripheral vision of Baldewin and Warin sprinting past him, running full out after the Jaeggi. Oh thank god, they’d somehow realized something bad had gone down.
Sasha outstripped him completely, coming to a skidding halt on her knees next to Cassie’s still form. “Cassie! Cassie!”
Tori landed on his knees opposite her, taking in Cassie. Oh god, she was really in bad shape. She was already going into shock, her magical core basically stripped and burned out from what the Jaeggi mage had done. Tori had maybe five minutes before she went into a catatonic state, and he didn’t know enough or have the right elements to pull her safely out of that. He grabbed Sasha’s shoulder urgently. “Sasha. Sasha, we can save her, but we need to act fast. First, kiss me. I need dragon’s breath to break the paralysis. Then go to my room, grab my black bag. I need what’s in it.”
She nodded, tears burning in her eyes. She darted forward enough over her mate’s body to kiss him, hard and quick, then took his keycard before sprinting back for the stairs. No elevator could beat her time just then.
Kissing a woman was beyond weird, but Tori didn’t let it faze him. He used the dragon’s breath she gave him, funneling and refining it as he focused on the paralytic spell wrapped like gold chains around Cassie. “Klak aese!”
The spell splintered and spun away, the shards of it disappearing before it could even hit the carpet. With that gone, he could see the effect it had on her. Cassie’s skin was cold and clammy, sweat dotting her skin. She was panting for breath, and a fine tremor ran through her body, like an aftershock of being electrocuted. Which was no doubt what it felt like to have power ripped out of her body like that.
He put two fingers to the pulse on her throat, monitoring it, and it was far too rapid.