I followed her gaze to where Jax was flitting like mad over Nick, who indeed looked like Trent, dressed in his usual suit and tie. It was demon magic at its best, but it was only an illusion. “Not long. It won’t hold up to touch. I mean, you aren’t really dressed in a lab coat, and your arm is still broken. It’s all an illusion that goes no deeper than your aura. Cheaper that way. Let’s get out of here.”

My brief high was gone, and I felt sick. I’d made the curse, taken the curse, made my friends take the curse, and then invoked it. Bad tempered, I reached for the door.

“You’re not pregnant,” Jenks said, and my mouth fell open. I knew I’d forgotten something!

“Shove your belt pack under your shirt,” Ivy suggested, and as Jax slipped out the crack in the door to get the camera, I swung it around and did what she said. It was too big for seven months, but it was better than nothing. The picture, draped across my back, showed, and Nick had his card reader. I stank like burnt amber, too. Dead. We were so dead.

“Let’s go,” I said, and Nick opened the door.

Jax took the first camera. Jenks buzzed on ahead, his ultrasonic hail hurting my ears as we got to the corner. Jax was a blur, racing over our heads to leapfrog ahead.

The sight of two security people jogging down the hallway spiked my adrenaline. “Here we go, boys and girls,” I said, glancing at Ivy and trying to remember if Dr. Anders had eyes that dark or if Ivy’s curse wasn’t covering all of her.

“Sir! Ma’am!” the one said, coming to a breathless halt, his hand on his holstered weapon. “What are you doing down here?”

I tensed. If Nick was going to betray us, it would be now. Ivy kept her mouth shut, knowing she wouldn’t sound like Dr. Anders, and I jumped when Nick took my arm as if in support. “Someone got into the vault,” Nick said, lifting his card gadget. “With this. I think they’re headed for the upper floors.” The two men stared at him. “Well, go get them!” he added, and they turned to run the way they had come, shoes clacking as they radioed ahead.

Swallowing, I looked down at the fake bulge at my middle. “That was close,” I said, knees shaking as we started forward again.

“If we’re not out of here in two minutes, we’re caught,” Ivy muttered. “How fast can a woman seven months pregnant run?”