The heat remained, still radiating off the door.
Eva took a minute to imagine the room as some kind of refrigerator in an attempt to get her domain to cool it faster. Of course, it didn’t work. Her domain only followed her wants when she didn’t actually intend for them to happen.
Though it did build the second alternate women’s ward building, so that was nice of it.
It would be nicer if she could figure out how it worked.
For the time being, Eva just stepped away from the room. “It will be a few minutes,” she said. Nel’s fire probably wouldn’t matter anyway. There was nothing left in the room.
Nel nodded slowly before backing away to the windows. “How are we getting out of this place?”
“When I first came here, Arachne was able to carry me out when she returned with her beacon. I have a beacon at the real women’s ward, so there’s no problem in getting you out.”
The real problem was that a good portion her things were still in the motel in Idaho. Including one of her few books on blood magic.
If Zoe had returned during Eva’s trip, she might be able to teleport to the motel and collect the things. The vampires would probably not be too happy about half their number dying to the haugbui. They might try to collect her things. If they actually destroyed her things, Eva might have a new target to exact vengeance upon. She didn’t have enough blood magic books to lose the one.
Even if it was the one with that horrible sensory sharing spell.
Of course, Des might have brought the haugbui into town as some sort of revenge against the vampires if she was unaware of Eva’s actions. That would depend on there being some sort of communication between Sawyer and Des. If she did go on a crusade against the vampires, it would be nice for Eva. Des wouldn’t know about her hotel room or any of the items within. Unfortunately, returning while the haugbui was still around town could be suicide.
Nel would be able to scry out the place and see. Or not, if Des was still around, but at least they would know one way or the other.
Something to consider once they got back and found out for certain just what was going on. In the meantime, Nel had been saying something that Eva hadn’t been paying attention to in the slightest.
She was standing with her hands clasped in front of her stomach and her face waiting expectantly for an answer.
Eva had no idea what to tell her. “I’m sorry, what was that?”
“When are we leaving?”
“As soon as you finish burning the body. I’ll take you back. You’ll need to accept a beacon from me so that I can come back and grab Serena.”
That was another concern. The vampire was still unconscious. On a more positive note, Eva believed that she was not actually dead. The blood within Serena’s stomach had started to move about her body. When she had checked before incinerating Sawyer, there had been no visible signs of healing, but hopefully that would come after a short time.
Nel apparently didn’t hear a word past the first sentence. She stepped around Eva, wincing lightly at the heat still coming off the door. Even still, she walked right up to it with her eyes aglow. Holding her hand a short distance from the slit in the door, she begun to unleash a wave of fire.
Eva took a step back and watched as the room filled with the flames of the Elysium Order.
After Nel pulled her hand away from the door, white fire belched forth from the slit for another few moments before it died off. It was a nice sight to see. Nel had passed out during the torture session, but she looked satisfied with the outcome.
Her hands were down at her side, resting lightly by her hips. The smile on her face was small and content.
Eva decided to smile as well. There was no reason not to aside from that bad feeling about Sawyer. It was probably just a bit of paranoia.
After all, there was nothing left of Sawyer’s body but a finger. Even if he was still alive and wound up possessing his finger–or whatever–Eva really didn’t have anything to fear. What could a finger possibly do to her.
And if he did come back, his finger and the blood contained within could very well be another weapon against him. As much as she had hated it, being able to spy on him had come in quite handy.
“That’s that. Can we go now?”
Eva opened her mouth to respond, but a deeper voice interrupted.
“Not yet.”
Prax stood in the doorway, his entire bulk blocking the way.
Eva eyed him with crossed arms. He didn’t look like he was about to attack, but she only knew of him from Shalise. They had hardly spoken more than twice. Once right after he had been ejected from Shalise and again just before torturing Sawyer. His temperaments, goals, motivations, and everything else were complete unknowns to her.
“You wanted out of here? I assume that you mean to Earth.”
With a short grunt of affirmation, Prax gave a glacial nod of his head. “That is correct.”
“You do realize that Zagan is out there, right? Last time I checked, he was not all that enthused with you. Something about locking you up himself? Or killing you. I can’t remember.”
She had been a bit preoccupied with Genoa at the time.
“I was locked in a cell, chained to a wall for centuries. Being able to walk around is a mild improvement.” Veins bulged in his arms as his fists tightened. “I am still trapped in this… this Hell.”
“You’re free right now. You don’t have to stay here. I’m sure the doll has left your domain by now. Otherwise, you can go anywhere. If Zagan drags you back to your cell, that won’t be the case any longer.”
Prax narrowed his eyes and shook his head. “You do not understand. Nothing here is free.” He took a deep breath and let it out slowly through his nose. “I’ll take my chances with Zagan.”
“Alright,” Eva said with a shrug. “I don’t care if you’re here, locked up, or outside. Tell Nel how to summon you.”
“What?” The augur started at being addressed. “Me? But I–”
“There was a girl in the prison with Shalise,” Prax said. “She called herself your friend.”
“Juliana?”
“She promised to summon and contract with me.”
“I haven’t seen her in a few months,” Eva said with a frown. “With the injuries her mother sustained, she took off the last half of school and went to be with her family. If she was supposed to do something, I don’t know a thing about it.”
And I doubt that her family would be pleased to hear about such a promise.
“But if you tell Nel how to summon you, I’m sure we could find someone willing to do it if Juliana can’t be reached.”
There was a low grumble from the back of Prax’s throat, but after a moment, he nodded.
“I’ll check up on Serena in the meantime.”
Rather than wait for Prax to move out of the way, Eva just blinked straight past him to appear in the sand between the kiln building and the women’s ward. Behind her, Nel’s heart rate spiked as Prax moved closer to her. Eva waited just a moment to ensure that Prax wasn’t going to attack the augur. As soon as they started talking, Eva blinked the rest of the way to the women’s ward.
Arriving in her room, Eva found Serena to be in mostly the same position as she had left the vampire in.
Mostly.
She had left the vampire’s arms at her sides. Now, one arm was up and across her stomach. While it was possible that Prax had moved her arm while Sawyer was being incinerated, Eva couldn’t come up with a good reason why he would do such a thing. So, Serena must have moved it herself.
“Are you still alive?” Eva asked as she walked up to the side of the bed.
While remaining otherwise still, the vampire’s eyes snapped open. Muscles in her back tensed for just a moment before relaxing as if she were trying to sit up.
That was something of a relief. At least she wasn’t dead.