Keepers & Killers (The Alchemy Series) by Donna Augustine

fire to me all at once.
    Cormac grabbed it next, and I don 't know how he managed, but he held onto it long enough to get it into the bag he carried. He held the bag outstretched in one hand while he grabbed mine in the other and we raced toward the door.
    The second he pulled back the flap, I knew we were in trouble. Men and women in different phases of mutating were already outside and starting to run in our direction. I didn 't stop to count as we took off back toward where we opened the wormhole before, but my guess was about twenty chased us and another ten were in front of us.
    "What are we going to do?" I screamed as Cormac kept running toward the ten in front of us pulling me along with him.
    "Just stay close to me and don't let go."
    Having no other good idea or option myself, I ran beside him. He had a death grip on my hand that felt like it was a hair away from breaking my fingers , but I wasn't going to complain. I'd take a handful of broken fingers if he could get us the hell out of this mess. The men heading straight at us didn't look curious, they looked pissed. They also didn't look even an iota human anymore. Several feet taller, their elongated jaws held sharp teeth with lips curled up in growls. They knew where we had been and they wanted us dead. I didn't even want to look at the angry mob behind us. If those things got a hold of us, we'd be torn to pieces in minutes.
    I felt a shimmer of energy pulse for less than a second before the group in front of us was upon us and as we plowed through them, I realized it for what it was: Cormac had put up some sort of shield. They tried to grab at him but they couldn't seem to. They were just shoved out of the way as if he were in some sort of invisible balloon suit.
    I wasn 't so lucky as I felt hands grab at me. The parts closest to Cormac fared the best, but as I trailed behind him, my sleeve was ripped off as they tried to grab me. Cormac yanked me through their ranks at a speed that would've done a track star proud.
    We cleared the group ahead but they simply joined the mob behind us and there was nothing but a cliff wall in front of us as we ran.
    "You need to open a portal. I can't float us up quick enough."
    "Here?" I was in a complete state of panic.
    "Yes, now. Before they start shooting at us."
    "I don 't know…"
    "NOW."
    I didn't know where it would lead but I prayed it would be somewhere on Earth. I used my free hand to try to direct the energy I was building from the surrounding area, having no idea how the hell I was going to pull it off, when I realized the entire cliff wall was ebony. Duh. I concentrated as hard as I could and it sprung open. We ran through it less than a second later.
    We didn 't stop once we were in it, either. We needed to get it shut down before they could follow us through. Not even paying attention to where we landed, I tumbled onto carpet, getting a nice case of rug burn before I finally collapsed. I took a deep breath and was relieved that I could. So grateful that the place we ended up had breathable air, it took me a second to realize I wasn't resting my head on just any red and gold carpet. I looked at the ground and knew I recognized the pattern. I raised my head to see the entire gaming floor of The Lacard Casino gaping at us, open mouthed. I scanned the perimeter and saw that we hadn't done too much damage. A couple of overturned gaming tables but no one was on the floor except for me.
    "Thank you ladies and gentleman for partaking in the demo of our new and upcoming show - Magic." I turned to see Cormac already on his feet speaking to the crowd. "It will be premiering next month." He walked over and offered me a hand up, then turned back to the crowd. "Don't mind my assistant, she's a little wet behind the ears." The crowd let out a laugh as the tension broke.
    I bent down, grabbed the bag with the book and left him on the floor to finish up since he was doing so well.
    "My place," he said as he grabbed my arm and