She reached the French doors, and McCain entered the kitchen. He didn’t even glance my way. He roared at Bridgette as she opened the doors and threw herself out into the night.
Bridgette was taller than me, but that didn’t matter, as she must’ve put on a quick enough burst of speed that Max didn’t notice.
He followed her out into the night.
I waited several seconds, my heart beating so hard in my chest I could have popped it. Then, slowly, my entire body shaking so violently I swore my limbs would fall off, I managed to pull myself out of the pantry.
I had no idea how long Bridgette’s body-double would be able to hold McCain off for – how long it would take before he realized he wasn’t chasing after me. So I had to use this opportunity – every damn second.
I threw myself forward, pitched to the side, shoved a hand onto the wall, and pushed off as I hurtled through the corridor and up the stairs.
On the third-floor landing, I met Bridgette. She was standing facing one of the windows, her hands pressed against it, her eyes closed in unmistakable concentration.
As I passed, she opened one eye and looked at me. She clenched her teeth and spoke around them, obviously incapable of diverting any more power from her spell, “I’ve got him on the runaround,” she said, breath choppy but voice still audible. “But it won’t last forever. He’s powerful – seriously powerful. Who is he?”
“No time to explain,” I spat as I ran past her and reached the attic steps. I threw myself up them so quickly, they pounded underneath my footfall, threatening to break.
I reached the attic, practically rolled onto the floor, then threw myself at the desk.
The contract was there – just there. I pitched toward it, wrapped my arms around it, and plucked it up. It still weighed nothing more than a feather. A fact I was more than thankful of. I could feel that the wound in the back of my thigh had opened up again. It was now bleeding so quickly I swore I was leaving a trail of blood wherever I walked. I gave the pain slicing through my leg and up into my back no heed. Nor did I pay attention to the nausea washing through me.
I clenched my teeth, turned with the book pressed against my sternum, and I threw myself down the stairs. I managed to reach Bridgette. She was now hunched over, her shoulders bucking from the stress of keeping the spell going.
I quickly cast my glance down and saw that her front was covered in blood.
“I can’t… I can’t hold it,” she stuttered as her whole body began to buck.
I jolted forward, looped an arm around her middle, and supported her just as the spell cracked with a godawful snap like a bone breaking.
Bridgette fell against my arm, her blood-soaked middle almost slipping from my grip.
“Just hold on. Hold on,” I begged in a shaking voice as I pulled her back from the window. Ideally, I needed to set her down somewhere and check her injuries, but I didn’t have that opportunity. The book was still pressed against my chest, locked in place by Bridgette’s weight. I used all my strength and fought against my own injuries to keep pulling her back until we reached the stairs.
I wasn’t an idiot. I had seconds to get out of this house to my waiting car. Bridgette had no more power left to help me, and when McCain found out what I’d done….
“Come on,” I bellowed as I shoved into her using all the strength I had to keep her on her feet as I pulled her toward the stairs.
“Just leave me behind. Get out of here,” she commanded.
But I wouldn’t listen. There was no way I would lose anyone else to McCain. Not now, not ever.
I yanked her toward the stairs and reached them just as I swore I heard an echoing scream pitch through the house from downstairs. It was so loud, it sounded as if it belonged to some kind of wild animal. The second I heard it, fear shot through me with all the power of a cannon. “What the hell? What the hell is he?” Bridgette stuttered weakly by my ear.
“Trust me, there’s no time to explain,” I spat back as I focused all of my energy on getting us down one stair after the other. Between Bridgette and the awkward fact of keeping the book locked against her and in my grip, I was moving crushingly slowly, and every second it took me to walk down one of the stairs was a second my fear arced up louder until it screamed in my mind like an army.
This would be my only chance to escape. If I failed….
I reached the second-floor landing, body now so pumped full of fright I could practically taste the adrenaline on the tip of my tongue.
“Who the hell was that guy? He looked like Max, exactly like Max,” Bridgette said, voice shaking.
“Trust me – he’s not Max,” I managed in a dark, shaking voice.
We reached the first-floor landing just as I heard the unmistakable sound of the patio door into the kitchen being blasted off its hinges. Though my body wanted to freeze in fright, there was no way I was going to let it.
Clenching my teeth with the last of my energy, I shoved Bridgette toward the front door. I didn’t bother to scream, didn’t bother to beg, just concentrated with all my might
