Page 37 of Kiss of Magic

He pointed his Glocks and ran towards them. They didn’t move, confident they were protected against his bullets. Psycho-Eyes gave a thin smile.

“You can’t shoot us, hunter. Your weapons are useless.”

“Yeah, I know. Waste of ammo.”

He hurdled the shattered window-front and landed on the pavement outside. Without pausing a beat he bent his arm and rammed his elbow into the face of the nearest hooded figure. The warlock’s nose crunched flat.

With a howl he stumbled backwards and Blake followed it up with a kick to the skull. The mage went down.

“Kill him!” screamed Psycho-Eyes.

Blake was suddenly enveloped by black leech-like creatures. They flattened themselves against the invisible barrier shielding his body, squirming madly as they tried to reach him.

He grimaced as he saw each one had circular mouths filled with rows of tiny sharp teeth. Great. Piranha slugs. Thank fuck they couldn’t touch him.

He threw a punch at an unprotected throat and the slugs disappeared. A second warlock was laid out.

Not using weapons, that was the answer. Only fists and feet. The magic shield blocked everything else.

Unfortunately, the remaining two warlocks were beginning to realise that too.

“He has a barrier spell on him,” snarled Psycho. “Change target.”

They shifted their focus to the ground. Blake heard them mutter a couple of garbled words, words that hurt his ears and seemed to tear at the fabric of reality. And suddenly a pit opened at his feet.

He tried to alter direction, skitter backwards, but it was too late. He fell feet-first into the yawning void.

Seventeen

Dani watched the fight outside, paralysed with indecision.

The warlocks were monsters. They’d killed innocent people,children, in that gruesome way without a second thought.

On the other hand they wanted to protect her, whereas her own people were planning to kill her. If she wanted to ensure her own survival, she should side with them.

And yet she knew in her bones that dark magic was wrong. A world ruled by it would be vicious and cruel. And its practitioners wouldn’t be satisfied with just one realm. They would want Palissandra too. Maybe the mortal world. They would flood across every living sphere like a plague.

Fuck. That was the problem with morals. They really screwed you up.

She saw Blake lay out two assailants without breaking sweat. He was clearly comfortable with violence. Watching him handle himself was quite an eye-opener. Hard not to notice the physical strength, the consummate skill…

She started at the sound of tearing concrete. The ground cracked open and a gaping hole appeared in the middle of the road. She saw what was about to happen a split second before Blake did.

One horrified thought flashed through her head.If he falls more than twenty metres…She was already running before he started to slide into the chasm.

Flinging herself full-length onto the ground, she made a desperate grab as he disappeared from view. Her hands closed round his wrist.

“Got you!”

“Nice catch, Blue.”

“You weigh a fucking ton.”

“Rude.”

Blake looked below him. He couldn’t see the bottom. For all he knew, the darkness went all the way down to the other side of the planet.

He grabbed an overhang with his free hand and jammed a toe into a crack. Dani relaxed fractionally as he secured himself. The next second she was grabbed by the scruff of her neck and shaken like a dog.

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