Chapter 31 Vanessa
VANESSA
The sound of glass shattering reverberated through the night mere seconds before chaos broke out. Chris and I sprinted toward the manor while Esperanza shrieked in the air above us. It was a primordial battle cry I wasn’t even sure she knew she was making.
Chris and I burst through the door, and all my worries that someone had heard Esperanza’s cries vanished. The catering team and some of the staff members barreled past us, looking for a place to hide or a way out. Good. That was fine with me. It meant fewer people would get hurt.
Esperanza dived overhead, a smoke bomb in each of her claws, and we raced after her.
“I can’t go into the main area,” I said, gasping for breath. “I don’t have a gas mask.”
“Why don’t you head to the kitchen then?
” Chris said. Like me, he was out of breath.
It made me feel better about my own lack of athleticism.
I could ride my bike for hours with no problem, but running took a lot out of me.
“You can always pretend to be staff if anyone questions you, but that way you can help get the escapees and the injured to safety. You know, cover their tracks with a bomb if you need.”
Now, that was a good idea.
“Okay, I’ll do that. You’re sure the smoke won’t affect you?”
“It shouldn’t. I may not be able to shift, but I’ve still got a lot of the perks regular shifters have. My body will metabolize it way too fast for it to have any effect on me.”
“All right, then. Stay safe.”
“You, too. Do us proud.”
I intended to. When we reached the next junction, I peeled off down a servants’ corridor that opened into the pantry connected to the kitchen.
Honestly, helping innocent bystanders get out felt like the right thing to do rather than running and getting myself to safety.
Leo would probably disagree with me, and I would have to deal with the consequences of breaking my own word, but that could wait until everyone was safe and sound and another brother was dead.
Priorities and all that.
As I entered the pantry, I immediately had to duck a skillet that was aiming straight for my head. I rolled forward, crossing my arms over my head for protection.
“It’s just me!”
Thankfully, no second hit came, and I recognized a girl from the catering team. I couldn’t quite recall her name, but I knew she was a college kid who had absolutely no idea what was going on.
“Oh my god! I’m so sorry. I thought you were.
..” Her voice broke, and she let out a sob.
I scrambled to my feet and pulled her into a hug.
Perhaps it was an overly familiar thing to do with a complete stranger, but she clung to me and began to weep into my shoulder.
“I was serving champagne to the guests when a bunch of animals started jumping through the windows! And then some of the guests turned into animals, too, and our clients started flying!”
Flying? Oh, right. Chadwicke had used that trick. I still had a lot to learn about warlocks, but it seemed they could do anything if they could come up with a spell for it.
“Hey, it’s going to be okay. You’re away from the fight now.
Let me help you get out of here. We’ll go through the back entrance.
” Although I kept my tone steady, that small voice inside me screamed at me to run.
To hide. That I was just a silly girl playing a game with monsters, and there was no way I could win.
Except I’d already learned what came from giving in to cowardice. As long as I was able to help, I would.
For my mother’s sake.
For my sake.
For all our sakes.
“W-w-what if one of them finds us?”
“They won’t,” I said with a confidence I didn’t feel. “And if they do”—I pulled out one of the smoke bombs from my apron and brandished it in the air—“I’ll cover us. You’ll have to hold your breath for as long as you can while you run away, okay?”
“What is that? Why do you even have it?”
“Don’t worry about it. Come on, let’s get you out of here.”
I didn’t give her much of a choice. I grabbed her hand and pulled her along with me. I paused at the door to the kitchen, cracking it open an inch and peeking inside.
It looked like a bomb had gone off. Food littered the countertops and floor.
The fancy setup I’d helped with that morning was in shambles.
The back of house employees must have knocked it all over when they’d fled.
They’d gotten away right when everything had gone down, but those who had been in the main room, like the girl I was helping, had only had a chance to run for safety rather than fully escape.
“You see that door?” I said, opening the door wider so she could see past me. “You get through that, then run diagonally left until you reach a line of trees. The path there will take you to a bridge that leads to main road. Use your cell phone to light your way if you need, but get there fast.”
“What about you?”
It was sweet that she would ask in her panicked state.
“I’ll watch your back. I need to see if there’s anyone else who needs help, too.”
“Why?”
Okay, that was a little less sweet, but everyone handled crises differently, and the girl had just had monsters scare the shit out of her.
“Because it’s the right thing to do,” I said before hauling her out of the pantry and shoving her toward the door.
Just like I’d hoped, she bolted for it without a backward glance. Good. One person down, who knew how many to go?
I knew a thing or two about blind panic and hiding in unsafe places, so I headed to the walk-in fridge.
Sure enough, I found two people there—someone from the catering team and a staff member I’d seen on the grounds earlier.
They were huddled under a couple of tablecloths. Kind of smart, but not smart enough.
Much like the other girl, they screamed when I entered, but quickly calmed down when they saw I was human. They didn’t argue with me when I told them to follow me and gave them the same directions I had given my first rescue. A moment later, my count was up to three.
A terrifying shriek tore through the manor, making the hair at the back of my neck stand on end.
I took off toward the sound. Was it insanely stupid? Yes, but I couldn’t ignore someone who was clearly in distress. I threw open the door that led to the last prep room before the main event area, smoke bomb already in hand.
I hadn’t been expecting anything good, but even so, I wasn’t prepared for what I saw.
A woman dressed in body jewelry and a barely-there negligee clung to the door handle for dear life.
Something that looked like a half-bear, half-man had its jaws clamped around the woman’s calf and was trying to yank her back into the grand hall.
For the briefest of moments, my mind short-circuited, rapidly trying to absorb every detail it could. I could see out into the ballroom, where smoke hung thick in the air, adding an otherworldly quality to the scene.
Blinking, I shook my head and whipped my arm back, pressing the button on the smoke bomb and throwing it at the bear-man’s face.
It wouldn’t put him to sleep, but it would distract him.
That distraction was all I needed. I rushed him, then put all the force I could muster in to a kick.
Pain coursed through my leg, but the double whammy of the smoke bomb and the kick was enough for him to let go.
When smoke seeped into the small vestibule, I used that opportunity to grab the girl and get her to her feet.
“What…? I…?” She frowned as if she were drugged, and that solidified my impression that she was likely one of the magical folk we were saving.
I didn’t know if she was a shifter or not, so I pushed her in front of me and into the kitchen.
“Hold your breath and run! Out the back door!” I wasn’t exactly thrilled she was alone—coming out of such deep enthrallment would probably be incredibly traumatic and confusing—but maybe whoever had helped save her had gotten caught up.
Fortunately, she was coherent enough to understand my command. She ran out the door, hitting her hip against one of the counters. I was a step behind her, pausing to close the door behind me, but I was a smidge too slow. Suddenly, a hand gripped my ponytail and yanked me backward into the smoke.
Shit.
Unlike the shifter who was attacking me—I was sure he was enthralled—the smoke would affect me, and fast. I took the deepest breath I could and clamped my lips closed even as my back hit the floor with far too much force.
I had no time to react before the bear shifter was on top of me, his face rapidly losing all trace of human features.
Fuck, I was in so much trouble.
I fought to get out from under him, but he was getting heavier, and heavier, and heavier. Not to mention his claws were growing longer and sharper to match his muzzle, which was sporting more and more teeth with every passing second.
Damn, so this was how I went out. At least I wouldn’t be alive long enough for Leo to lecture me. Silver linings and all that.
For all my rather dry thoughts about the whole situation, energy surged and roiled within me. I supposed it simply wasn’t in my nature to give up, because suddenly, I desperately wanted to live.
My lungs burned from the lack of oxygen, but I kept holding my breath as I reached down into my apron and grabbed another smoke bomb. As the bear opened its jaws wide to either eat me or bellow right in my ear, I shoved it right into his spread maw.
The shifter reared back, and an even thicker cloud of smoke filled the space. Scrambling to my feet, I sprinted to the door, my straining lungs screaming in protest.
As soon as I was through the door, I sucked in air, and only then did I realize I hadn’t gone through the door to the kitchen.
In my fall and our tussling, I must have gotten turned around, because I was in the middle of the grand hallway that led to the ballroom.
The ballroom which, from the sound of it, was a full-on battlefield now.
Whoopsie.