Water exploded directly above us.
That was too close. She swam hard, guiding us to the bottom. We touched both feet on the ground, half walking, half swimming. My lungs started to ache as more explosions peppered the lake.
Fairly quickly the depth leveled out, and as we neared the main shoreline, the bottom began to incline steeply. We were close. No matter what, we run once we clear the water. If we don’t see Rourke, we follow the road. The street ran one way around the lake. We would follow it until we saw him. He would be there.
I shot out of the lake at a dead run.
The shoreline merged into a small hill, and I covered the expanse of the grassy slope in a blur, bounding over a park bench in one leap, morphing back to my human form in an instant. I gulped in deep breaths as I sprinted toward the road, hitting the asphalt right as a car screeched around a corner. It was coming toward me fast, going the wrong way on the one-way street. Several arcs of light hit the sky from the east at the same time. This was going to be close. The car raced up to me and did a 180, tires spinning. The passenger door popped open and Rourke shouted, “Get in!”
Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted several petite figures running up the street behind the car. Tally’s white hair flowed out behind her. She was in the lead and yelled, “Go! They’ve put a containment bubble over the lake. We’ll get you out.” Several spells shot up from the witch’s fingers and the Orbs around us exploded into nothingness. “Take the car due south at full speed. Don’t stop. We’ll break a hole in the barrier right as you hit.”
I threw myself into what appeared to be a black Porsche and slammed the door.
Rourke wrenched the wheel to the right. “Here we go.”
I grabbed on to the handhold above my head as the car flew forward. I was sopping wet. Lake water leaked off of me all over the interior of what smelled like an extremely expensive car. “Where’d you get this?” I asked as Rourke took a curve at seventy.
“Tally had it waiting. Seems little Maggie had another vision.”
“Bless that possessed child.” I glanced in my side-view mirror. I could barely see the witches on the road behind us.
“Brace yourself. We’re going to hit this thing hard.” Rourke gunned the car forward. A shimmering mass loomed in front of us. The air wavered like a mirage on a hot day, but other than that there was no indication anything was there. A human wouldn’t be able to detect it.
We hit it at 120 miles per hour.
A huge sound, like a sledgehammer crashing down on a mountain of glass, echoed around us. I instinctively covered my face with both forearms, expecting the windshield to spray us, but it held. There was a blast of red light, which must have come from the witches, and electricity shot through me like a bolt of white-hot lightning.
As we broke through to the other side, the force of it pinned me back in my seat, taking my breath.
The car had absorbed the brunt of the impact, or we would’ve fried in our seats. “Thank goodness this car is spelled,” I called over the ebbing noise of crunching glass and metal as we sped away.
“We should be less detectable now that we’re out of their enclosure,” Rourke said. He took the next curve at a hundred and the car slid sideways. “Tally guaranteed on her life this car was spelled. Your signature will be cloaked as long as you stay inside.” He turned to glance at me briefly, his eyes blazing. “Angie dies if I ever see her again.”
As nice as that was to hear, I pointed ahead. “We’ve got company.” Roughly three blocks ahead, a wall of sorcerers blocked the road. There was no doubt they were sorcerers because they were all bald and were decked out in flowing robes. Plus they all held wicked-looking staffs pointed directly at us. “My signature may be cloaked, but this car is not invisible,” I said. “These guys can see us just fine.”
“These cowards were positioned here to keep the shield up, nothing more.” Rourke stamped on the accelerator and the Porsche sprang forward. The speedometer jumped to 140 as we closed in.
We were on them in seconds. They scattered, springing out of the way, swinging their staffs in unison. Blue light shot out of the tips, consuming the car as we sped past.
The force of the combined hit brought the tires temporarily off the ground.
“Is the car going to hold?” I yelled, grabbing on to the door.
“We’re about to find out.” Rourke gnashed his teeth.
Magic vibrated all around us, sounding like cymbal crashes in my eardrums. I wasn’t sure if the witches’ spell on the car would hold against this many sorcerers firing at the same time. I fumbled for the handle, pushing power out of me in a rush, channeling it into the frame of the car. Help me fortify this. It may not work, but we have to give it a try. My wolf was one step ahead of me, fueling energy through us so quickly I felt light-headed as a mountain of gold strands erupted in my mind. My power signature was the color of sunlight. Aim it outward.
It was a simple transfer of power.
The car took it greedily.
I think it’s working. The car, which had glowed blue with the sorcerers’ magic for a moment, now turned a hazy golden yellow. There was a sizzling sound as the spell disintegrated completely and the car returned to its normal color, thank goodness, because driving around in a glowing car would be a problem.
Rourke’s foot hadn’t moved off the accelerator. It was too early in the morning for anyone to be up, so the streets were fairly clear, which was a lucky break. I glanced out the back window, but the sorcerers were long gone and no one appeared to be following us.
I eased back in my seat, relaxing my death grip on the door handle. “What’s the plan?” I asked as Rourke made several quick turns.
“We head out of town. I don’t know how far the sorcerers’ magic network stretches, but I know they need physical bodies to amplify their power. Without it they’re weak. That’s why there were so many of them maintaining the barrier. Once we’re out of the city limits, if you stay in the car, it will be almost impossible for them to track us.” Rourke’s gaze was locked on the rearview mirror. “We’re heading south now.” He finally turned to me. “I say we continue until we hit the Ozarks.”
My hands tingled with leftover adrenaline and I wrung them absentmindedly. We’d already planned to rendezvous in the Ozarks with Naomi and Ray, if he survived, in a few weeks. Rourke’s cabin in the woods had been the only mutual out-of-the-way meeting spot we all knew about and could come up with in a hurry. Plus it was on our way to New Orleans. But the plan had not been to stay there. Both the vamps and the rogue wolf pack knew the location. “Do you think that’s a wise idea to go there and stay for a while? Is it safe?”