Page 10 of Kiss of Magic

“Can we possibly escape first before we get into introductions?”

He checked the cellar. It was dim but the fact he could see anything at all meant light was getting in somehow. He walked to the far end, followed by Dani’s angry tirade.

“I’m not going anywhere with you, you fucking neanderthal. I left the coven for a reason, I’m never going back.”

“Look, princess, I don’t get involved with politics. I get hired to do a job and I do it. You can argue your case when you see them. Right now my priority is to get you out of here alive.”

“How did you even find me? I shielded myself from magic.”

“I didn’t use magic to find you. Just common sense.”

She frowned, annoyed that she was letting curiosity get the better of her.

“What the fuck does that mean?”

Blake had found a door and was trying the handle. Locked. Behind them, the gunfire stopped.

“I was told you had a bit of a temper. So I looked for patterns. Places where strange things kept happening. Did you know in this neighbourhood there’ve been repeated incidents of men being found unconscious in public places? And never with any memory of how they came to be there. They just happened to fall asleep in the middle of a shopping mall, or a theatre, or just last week, the car-park of this very bar.”

Fuck. She knew she should have been more careful. She kept her face immobile.

“That’s bullshit. I don’t believe you found me because random guys passed out.”

“Not just any guys. Rude, drunk, misogynistic guys. And I didn’t just ‘find’ you. I tracked you. I’m a hunter and a damned good one. Best you just settle in for the ride.”

He put his shoulder to the door and shoved. Behind them, there came the sound of someone lifting the trapdoor. Dani stiffened. The fae were in here with them.

She forced herself to concentrate. There was enough energy in this place for her to blow the whole cellar to kingdom come. The gunfire alone had filled the air with kinetic waves and she could feel it diffusing into her cells.

Her hands itched to reduce the whole thing to rubble and kill two birds with one stone. Get rid of both the fae and the hunter at the same time. Just one problem.

Her eyes flicked to Blake, still trying to force the heavy oak door. He was an asshole but he’d saved her life. She couldn’t bring herself to take him out.

Furious that her conscience was calling the shots, she raised a hand and blasted the door. The magic flung it open so hard that Blake almost lost his balance. He stumbled forward and she used a second blast to shove him safely through the doorway seconds before it was sprayed with gunfire. Without missing a beat she turned and sent a tornado barrelling through the cellar.

The force of it lifted the fae into the air and smashed them repeatedly against the ceiling and walls. She took a perverse pleasure flinging them around like puppets on a string. The power streamed from her fingertips until every last drop of energy had been spent. When she finally let them go, they fell to the ground in an untidy pile of broken limbs.

They weren’t dead. It was hard to kill a fae. But they could damn well be hurt. She smiled in satisfaction as they groaned in pain.

“Tell whoever’s paying you to keep the fuck away from me,” she snarled. “I’m no threat to them. I’m not the key anymore. Do you understand?I’m not the key.”

She stamped through the open door into the dank little alley beyond. A hand grabbed her and slammed her against the wall. Warm fingers pressed into the skin of her waist, holding her captive.

“Thanks for the assist with the door, Blue. Now let’s get going before any more low-lifes head this way.”

Already he could hear distant sirens.

“I told you. I’m not coming with you. Now let me go or what happened to those fae will happen to you.”

“I don’t think so, Blue. You’re not a cold-blooded killer.” A slow smile crossed his face. “At least, I hope not.”

She squirmed against him, trying to get free. It was like pushing against a slab of rock.

“Look, whatever Lenore’s paying you, I can double,” she lied. “All you have to do is say you can’t find me.”

He shook his head sorrowfully.

“The contract is sacrosanct. Once accepted, it can’t be reneged on. Hunter’s code. Anyway, I have another problem now.”

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