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She could be in any of those offices. She could be?—
The clanging of a door to my left broke my train of thought.
“I don’t fucking know, man. What are we supposed to say to him?”
“Don’t look at me,” another voice answered. “This wasn’t a part of the plan. Should we take her to a hospital or something?”
“And tell the whole world we kidnapped her in the first place? We can’t do that. We’ll just deliver her.”
“Like that?”
The voices receded, growing softer as the men walked away.
I hurried in the direction of the voices, then hid around a corner and peeked. Two men turned out of my sight just as I looked, and the coast was clear.
These rooms weren’t like offices. They were more like living quarters, and all the doors were open but one. When I tried the door, it wasn’t locked.
Thank the gods.
When I opened the door, my heart constricted. Lorraine lay on the cot, her blond hair fanned out around her head. Her body was thin and frail, like she’d been starved for months. Her cheeks were sallow, her eyes sunken, and her skin was ghostly pale.
“Lorraine?” I asked, creeping closer.
She didn’t respond.
When I checked her pulse, I feared the worst, but I felt a flutter under my fingertips. She wasn’t dead yet.
I had to get her out of here and back to the vale if I wanted her to live. She didn’t have long.
I picked her up and carried her to the door. She weighed almost nothing. It was like picking up a dried leaf.
I opened the door with my foot and glanced down the hallway. The men were nowhere to be seen.
Carefully, I maneuvered Lorraine out the door and carried her across the warehouse floor. There was nowhere to hide. If they saw me now?—
“Hey!” a man shouted.
Shit.I started running.
“He’s taking her!” the man shouted, and footsteps sounded behind me.
I ran to the door I’d used to get in and squeezed through it into the sunlight. Lorraine’s head lolled to the side, and she let out a pained moan.
“Just hold on,” I urged her, hoping she could hear me. “We’re getting out of here. It might get hairy.”
I ran to the car. I couldn’t get her back to the vale fast enough.
The car was unlocked, but there was no key in the ignition. I looked for a key in the sun visor, then under the seat. Finding nothing, I jumped out and checked on top of the tires.
Nothing.
“Fuck!” I cried out.
Two men ran toward me. One had a gun.
“Shit,” I said, ducking into the car again as shots rained down on me. Bullets wouldn’t kill me, but they could fuck up the car, and then I couldn’t get out of here. They could kill Lorraine, too.
I slammed my hand down onto the steering wheel and pushed all the power I had into the damn car. I didn’t know if it would work—my magic didn’t have much to do with modern technology—but the car growled to life.
