Page 38 of Kiss of Magic

“You choose to throw your lot in with a mortal, witch?”

The warlock with the unnerving eyes threw her down. Dani scrambled to her feet, praying Blake was still hanging on.

“Look, I appreciate your offer. I really do. But my mother told me never to go off with strange people, and you are fucking strange.”

The sorcerer snarled. His limbs were twitching, a sure sign of too much exposure to dark magic. He grabbed her wrist and inspected the dampener.

“The hunter has neutered you. Rendered you as impotent as a eunuch. And still you reject us forhim?”

“It’s not personal. He smells better.”

The warlock gave a thin smile.

“You are a jester, I see. But you don’t have any barrier shieldingyou,do you? No, I thought not. And with your powers muted, you are helpless.” He looked at his remaining comrade. “Hold her.”

“Hey, no, wait a minute!”

Her protests were ignored. The hooded mage seized her arms and twisted them up behind her back, forcing her to stand on tiptoe. He giggled as she squirmed and she stopped movingimmediately, unwilling to give the perv the slightest bit of titillation.

“What are you going to do?”

“Administer a simple lust potion, I think. To make you more… how shall I put it?Amenable.”

“Lust potion? Fuck off.” She snorted. “You can’t just knock one up in the street. And trust me, you’d need a truck-load of the stuff before I’d see you as anything other than repulsive.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, witch. Dark magic is very powerful. And it just so happens I came prepared.” He brought out a small vial from the pocket of his robe. “I won’t need a truck-load. Three drops will do.”

Dani started to struggle in earnest. To be enslaved to this disgusting piece of shit… it was unthinkable. The mage holding her tightened his grip and without hesitation, Dani slammed the back of her head into his face.

He fell away, blood pouring from his mouth and nose. She turned and drove her foot savagely into his groin. He folded with a whimper and passed out.

The next second something smashed into her jaw. Psycho-Eyes had launched a punch – unskilled, yes, but from this distance as effective as a sledge-hammer. Dani fell to her knees, stunned. The warlock grabbed a fistful of blue hair and twisted savagely.

“I’m going to enjoy having you desire me, witch.” He popped the cork off the little bottle and held it to her lips. “When you beg me to claim you, perhaps I’ll oblige.”

Blake exploded from the hole in the ground like a volcanic eruption. He seized the warlock by the throat.

“I always love rising to the occasion,” he said cheerfully. The warlock tried to speak but his airway had been cut off. His peculiar pupils narrowed to pinpricks. Blake grinned.

“Now, my mother has a saying for times like these. She calls it ‘being hoist by your own petard’. I think it’s very apt right now, though to be honest I don’t know what a petard is.”

He winked at Dani. And without further ado, he threw the sorcerer into the void. They both listened as his shrill screams grew fainter and faded into silence.

Dani watched numbly as the hunter strode around and picked up the other unconscious figures, methodically lobbing them into the hole one by one. Her eyes fell on the glass vial dropped by the sorcerer.

It was unstoppered and some of the potion had dribbled out, but she could see it was still half full. Silently, making sure Blake’s attention was elsewhere, she replaced the cork and stuffed the vial into her jeans pocket.

In the distance, police sirens started to wail. Blake grunted. It had taken them long enough.

“Come on, Blue. Let’s go.”

“Where to? The safe-house?”

“No. We need to leave the city. Someone obviously knows where you are.”

Dani glanced back at the ruined restaurant. Most of the bodies were mercifully hidden from view.

“But… the people… the ones they killed…”

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