The Prof Croft Series: Books 0-4 (Prof Croft Box Sets Book 1) by Brad Magnarella (best business books of all time txt) 📕

I dumped the iron ammo from my revolver onto my lap and began pushing silver bullets into the cylinders. As I worked, I noticed that Alexandra’s photo had slipped from the file on the dashboard such that the young woman seemed to be looking at me. I considered what Dr. Z had said about killing a hybrid: Decapitation, baby.

God, I hoped it wouldn’t come to that.

34

We pulled up in front of a single grim housing tower. Before Vega could get out, I seized her arm.

“What are you doing?” she said.

“I want you to go back to Lady Bastet’s.”

“What? Why?”

“To see if she can perform another binding spell.”

“Croft, the creature’s killed four people that we know of, and—”

“And inside that creature is a young woman who didn’t ask to become what she is,” I said. “That’s why there’s a mother out there doing everything she can to protect her. That’s why Arnaud forbade us from hunting her. The mother was afraid we would kill her.”

Vega looked from me to the tower and sighed.

“I’ll keep her from the residents,” I said. “Wizard’s honor.”

“All right, but I’ll hold you to that.”

I got out and slammed the door closed before Vega could change her mind. As she took off west, I ran toward the tower. The front door was unlocked, the blacked-out lobby empty. I called light to my cane and found a door that opened onto a plummeting staircase. I swore as my chest began to tighten.

Why do these big showdowns always have to happen underground?

Shouts and violent clangs rose as I descended. At the bottom I made out Blade and Bullet, their headlamps slicing through the darkness. Nearby, a thick pipe braced a metal door that shook with blows and screams.

“Don’t shoot,” I said as Bullet swung his shotgun toward me. “It’s Everson.”

Bullet nodded quickly, eyes huge, and returned his aim to the door.

When I was almost to them, my light glowed over Dr. Z. He was propped against a wall behind them, the chest of his leather outfit ripped open. In his right hand, he gripped the handle of a broken ninja sword.

“What in the hell happened?” I shouted above the noise.

“What’s it look like?” Blade said, her mouth bloody, samurai sword gripped in both hands. “We got our asses handed to us.”

I knelt beside Dr. Z, who stared straight ahead, his breaths shocked and gasping. I moved his hand from his chest and winced at the damage. The creature had clawed him to the bone.

Hovering my cane’s orb over his chest, I spoke Words of healing. A soothing force moved through me, emerging as a cottony aura that enveloped Dr. Z. His eyelids fluttered closed, arms relaxing to his sides. Caroline had not only restored my power, it seemed, but my control. I hoped both would be enough to handle the creature until Lady Bastet arrived.

I stood from Dr. Z’s side and turned to the clanging door. “Is that her?”

“Yeah,” Bullet said, “and the door’s not gonna hold her much longer.”

“No?” It still looked solid to me, especially with the pipe bracing it.

“Check out the hinges,” Blade said.

The hinges were as thick as toilet-paper tubes, but old. With each blow, rust sifted from them. Beyond the door, nails screamed over metal, sending a sharp shudder through me.

“We had her cornered in there,” Blade said. “Bullet tossed a frag grenade into the drain she’d come up through, collapsing her escape. The creature was injured, too. Then a band of frigging blood slaves jumped us, giving the creature time to recover. She tore into Dr. Z good. We were lucky to get her off him and get ourselves the hell out of there. The only reason we haven’t ditched the job is because I don’t like the idea of that thing above ground.”

“Yeah, that makes a few of us,” I said, drawing my revolver. “Look, I’ve got someone on the way. Someone who may be able to transform the creature back to the human she was.”

“That thing’s human?” Bullet said, squinting from me to the shaking door.

“An eighteen-year-old girl,” I said. “If we can keep her in there for another twenty minutes or so, we might not have to fight her.”

“No argument here,” Blade said.

With the next collision against the door, something snapped in the lower set of hinges. The pipe bent at its middle and shifted. Crap. The door wasn’t going to contain her for twenty more minutes. More like two.

“Back up,” I said as the door shook with another blow.

Blade eased toward the rear wall, adjusting her grip on her sword. Bullet backed up beside her, shotgun aimed at the door from his stomach. Neither of them knew I was a magic user, but they weren’t exactly strangers to the supernatural. I would explain later.

Aiming my cane at the door, I murmured, “Vigore.”

A low-level force shook from the sword and met the door as the creature collided into it again. My casting prism buckled. The bracing pipe folded at its middle and clanged to the cement floor.

“Vigore,” I repeated, leaning into the increasing force flowing from my cane.

The creature’s next collision broke the lower hinge and cracked the upper one. I staggered but kept my footing. The door tilted in the cement frame, creating a narrow space along the top edge. Bloody talons jabbed through the space, the creature’s scream cutting deep into my ears.

“Someone get Dr. Z out of here,” I shouted.

Blade cocked her head of pink-spiked hair at Bullet. “You’re almost out of ammo.”

“Yeah, but you gonna be okay?” he asked.

“I’ve got a professor-cop-wizard in my corner,” she said with a smirk. “Who knew?”

Bullet holstered his shotgun on his back and scooped up Dr. Z like he weighed nothing.

The talons disappeared from above the door.

At the foot of the steps, Bullet leaned toward me and said, “Blade can get a little bold for her own good. Keep an eye on her.”

I nodded quickly and braced for the next impact. The creature hit the door like a