Chapter 5 #2
Gritting his teeth, Clint strode forward.
Out of all his vault rooms, this one was set up with an actual bank door in one of the stone walls.
The thieves had navigated through his maze of warding runes but had activated the alarm on the door itself.
That was what had tripped the red lights on the upper floors.
One thief was a smoking corpse, blood pooling out from their throat. They were lying off to the side.
“Careful, could be trapped,” a voice said.
“Oh, it is,” Clint declared loudly as he squared up in front of the vault door.
“See? Ego,” Luke whispered from the hallway.
Clint ignored him.
The four thieves inside the vault froze in place. One of them had Valgaruz’s prison in their hands. They clutched the box as if their life depended on it. The other three drew wands.
The fools deserved a chance to surrender. Clint drew in a deep breath and began, “Put those down and—”
One flicked their wand and sent a lightning ball at Clint.
He batted it away, but the thief’s cohorts were casting now, too.
Moving on instinct, Clint threw up a shield that blocked the other two spells.
He was stuck on defense as the first gathered the energy to throw acid at his feet. Clint danced backward.
The four thieves poured out from the vault and spread out across the room.
They were looking to flank him, and Clint only had a few more feet before he’d run into a wall.
But the thief with the box in his hands was the real problem.
If they got away and released Valgaruz …
I’ll be up shit creek in a sinking ship.
He clenched his jaw and cast a bolt of electricity at the thief on his left. The little shit dodged it, and he had to end the spell to recast a shield before the other two finished their attacks.
“Go!” the first shouted at the fourth.
“No!” Clint started to redirect his next spell at the running thief, but one of the others landed a kinetic blow against his shoulder and threw off his concentration.
The fourth thief screamed and tripped. A knife protruded from their knee. In a blur, Luke ran forward and caught the fourth in his slender arms. He hauled the thief up and bit into their throat.
“Damn it!” The first attempted to throw a fireball at Luke.
But Clint had taught students that spell and knew the weak point in the draw of magics.
This particular practitioner was incredibly sloppy in their casting.
Clint snapped his fingers, adding a burst of his will, and sent an invisible bead of magic into the center of the forming spell, countering it.
The would-be fireball fizzled into smoke on the tip of the mage’s wand.
Luke was still drinking from the thief he’d caught. The poor soul was losing their grip on Valgaruz’s prison, their eyes fluttering shut.
One thief had already died in Clint’s vault. Few of his wards were meant to cause that much damage. My spell didn’t kill the thief. Their friends did in trying to keep them quiet. Clint whirled his staff and batted away two more spells, but a shard of ice sliced his shoulder.
“Luke! Stop!” Clint shouted.
Luke dropped the thief he’d been draining. Faster than before, he darted away when the first thief unleashed a pop of flame. He tried to strike back in return, but the thief ducked.
“Fuck this,” the second declared. They rushed to the fourth’s side and began a transportation spell.
“No,” Clint growled. He readied another snap of his fingers.
But the third swished their wand, and Clint’s magic unraveled before he could finish the spell. The second and fourth thieves vanished in a puff of shadow.
With a roar, Clint swept his staff outward and used the built-up energy to cast a kinetic spell that forced the third thief up against a wall. He shoved more force into it. The thief sputtered as they lost their breath.
Luke screamed as the first thief cast a fire spell directly into his face. The pain and fear in Luke’s voice sliced through Clint’s control over his own spell, and it fizzled out, releasing the third thief.
The first drove Luke onto his knees. The flames of their spell brightened to a hot blue.
But the third thief was preparing another get-away spell.
I can’t let anyone die. Clint spun and sent mote after mote of energy at the first thief. His relentless stream caused the first thief to release their fire spell and stagger back. They attempted to dodge or block the motes, but Clint’s spell broke through their shield.
But the third was close to finishing their escape spell.
He sent motes at them. Though the small blows landed, they didn’t break the third thief’s concentration.
They held out their hand, and the first thief ran for them.
As soon as their hands touched, the two of them disappeared in a ripple of shadow.
Finding calm wasn’t easy, but Clint reached his senses out to his home’s outer wards. His protections would have limited the range that the thieves could have teleported. If he overpowered the enchantments on his fence, then the thieves wouldn’t be able to escape the grounds.
Only there was a gap in the wards. Subtle—it was like a slightly parted curtain. Just enough to let energy in and out but not enough to obviously disrupt the wards.
A little was enough, though. As Clint attempted to push the gap closed with his energy, he felt the ripple of teleportation spells slip through.
Luke staggered to his feet.
Clint tapped his staff against the floor and activated another kinetic spell. It wrapped around Luke, pinning his arms to his body, and Clint used it to drag Luke over to him. Glaring down at the slight vampire, he growled, “We have time for that interrogation.”