I kicked off my flip-flops before meeting the visible man at the table.
“Put ’er there, bud.” I stuck out my hand for a shake.
His brow pinched, and he looked down at my hand in sudden uncertainty. I could do weird in my sleep.
“So what’ve ya got for me?” I tapped one of the guns lying in front of him. “Do these work?”
“Um…” He cleared his throat. “I wanted to explain why we bought out the contract—”
“Nah.” I waved it away as I stepped back, sending a gush of warning through the Ivy House bonds. My crew would know that meant to assemble by the door and wait for my magical signal.
I pulled my muumuu over my head, exposing my body to them, and pretended to get it stuck on my hair.
“She’d never make it as a stripper, am I right?” Nessa chuckled nervously, playing along.
I yanked the rest of it away, feeling the readiness of my crew.
“There now.” I gave the lead guy a thumbs-up.
His eyes were rounded in his suddenly pale face.
I gestured to the guys around me, who quickly tossed their muumuus away.
“Perfect specimens, right?” I said, my power pumping. “Now, let’s get down to the brass tacks, shall we?” I waggled my finger at him, and then shifted my gaze to the guy at the back. “You brought too many people.”
Nathanial, a master at anticipating my movements in battle, darted forward as I started to run. He shoved the table out of the way, and I slammed into the visible guy who’d frozen at my nudity, giving me a clear shot forward. I sent out a peal of magic to bring in my crew and alert the basajaunak and gargoyles around the shanty that there was tomfoolery afoot. If there were any mages outside, they’d grab them. If anyone escaped this room, they’d need to grab them, too.
But no one was going to escape.
I flung my hand forward, erecting a wall to keep that mage at the back from leaving. He might’ve had some clout, but I didn’t think for a second he was the one responsible for the invisibility potion.
No one that strong would be endangered in this way.
The invisible mages in my way all startled in one way or other, only one of them quickly pulling up his hands to shoot off a spell. I deflected it just before I shifted, my gargoyle bursting forth in a flurry of claws and teeth. I scraped another guy as the door behind me burst open. Dave’s roar drowned out all other sound, followed by screams from three of the mages, two of them invisible.
They threw their hands over their heads and cowered.
Their potion didn’t deaden sound. That was something. They might have the power, but they didn’t have Sebastian’s ingenuity. Hopefully there would be more instances of that in our battle.
Another shot of magic came at me from the left. I threw up a shield, my focus on the mage at the back, currently working on the spell I was using to imprison him. My spell wasn’t complex—that was the bad news. If he worked at it enough, he’d be able to get through it. I needed to get to him before that.
More roars sounded behind me as the other gargoyles shifted. A mage lifted out of his crouch in front of me, shaking, ready to defend himself.
Too late.
I slammed into him, scoring him with my claws. I dug down deep and then ripped outward, taking flesh and bone with me. His wail of agony ended quickly as his body hit the ground.
One of the other visible mages lifted his hands. Gerard was there in a moment, grabbing him up and biting into his neck. Blood spurted, quickly turning the situation grisly.
More mages started screaming as the gargoyles worked through them, taking the hits of magic if there were any but mostly finding terrified people cowering from monsters.
The head mage continued to pound against my wall of magic. The door behind it opened. They’d clearly kept some mages outside too. Another mage stood behind him, both of them trying to help my target escape. With three of them, that spell would be history in no time.
I put on a burst of speed, but I was slow on the ground in this form, and there were too many people and too much clutter for me to fly.
A large, hairy shape suddenly loomed behind the rescue team. Then two more. Their combined roars thundered through the space. The rescue team screamed and turned before screaming louder, throwing up their arms to protect themselves.
The basajaunak grabbed the mages, and my target gasped and stepped back, terrified. I was on him a moment later, ripping him away from the door. My punches were clumsy, though. I wasn’t really used to fighting this way in this form, and the gouges I accidentally dealt were proof of that.