Magic Graves

by Ilona Andrews

  But the previous, deadly streams of fire that had scared me with their ferocity seemed to have vanished. The most dangerous thing I could do with my hands now was light someone's cigarette.

  "Oh, shit," my mother whispered.

  I couldn't agree more.

  "Protect Tammy," I yelled, then grabbed for my knives, cursing as I tried to dodge another hail of blades aimed at me. Some of them found their mark, but none in my chest, thank God. Still, that silver burned where it landed, making me fight the urge to yank it out now. I flung some of my weapons instead, adding more silver to the barrage Bones had just sent. Then I rolled behind one of the cars for cover, finally getting the chance to snatch out the silver embedded in my shoulders and legs.

  Tammy screamed as some of the vampires took to the air. I took two of the knives I'd pulled from my body and sent them winging at the vampire closest to where she was crouched. The blades found their mark, and he crashed into a car instead of Tammy and my mother, who was crouched over her.

  The rest of the vampires seemed more concerned with taking on Bones than dealing with Tammy or my mother. I rolled under a truck to get to Bones - and then screamed as my shirt went up in flames.

  Goddamnit! There must have been oil drops pooled underneath the truck I'd rolled under, and the useless sparks from my hands ignited it.

  "Kitten, you all right?" Bones called out.

  "Fine!" I yelled back, afraid he'd get killed rushing to check on me.

  Stupid, stupid, stupid , I lashed myself. Oil plus sparks equals fire, dumb ass!

  I'd just ripped my burning shirt off when a car slammed into me, pinning me to the vehicle behind me. I gasped at the unbelievable pain, paralyzing in its intensity. Tammy screamed. Over that, I heard Bones hoarsely call my name.

  Something thudded on the mangled car pinning me. The redheaded vampire. He smiled as he pulled out a silver blade, knowing as I did that I couldn't shove the car off in time to save myself.

  But there was something I could do. Oil plus sparks equals fire, I thought savagely, and rammed my fist through the car's fuel tank.

  A terrific boom went off, combined with the agonizing sensation of being thrown backward, burning, across the parking lot. For a stunned second, I didn't know if I was still alive. Then I realized I wouldn't hurt this much if I were dead.

  Move , I told myself, fighting back the lethargy that made me want to curl up wherever I'd landed. Keep blinking, your vision will come back.

  After a few more blinks, the parking lot was in a double outline, but I could see. Check for incoming. Do you have any knives left? Two, right, make them count.

  "I'm okay," I called out, my voice almost unrecognizable. I hated giving away my position, but I was more worried about Bones losing it if he was too distracted to feel our connection and thought I'd been blown to bits.

  "Christ almighty, Kitten," I heard him mutter, and smiled even though it felt like it cracked my face. I was afraid to look at my skin. Burnt bacon could pass for my twin right now. You'll heal, I reminded myself. Quit worrying about your looks and get back to worrying about your ass.

  I flexed my fingers, relieved that the horrible splitting sensation was gone. Now I could grasp my knives with purpose, and my vision was clearing by the moment. Through the dirty car window in front of me, I saw Bones fighting off four vampires. He whirled and struck in a dizzying display of violence, slicing and hacking whenever they came too close. Now, where were Tammy and my mother?

  I'd snuck around a few dead vampires - one of them crispy - I noticed with satisfaction - and was tiptoeing around a Benz when X sprang out of nowhere. He shoved me, slamming me into yet another car - God, I was so sick of feeling my bones crunch against metal! - but instead of springing forward, I let myself slump as if dazed. X was on me in the next second, knees pinning my torso to the concrete, glowing green gaze victorious as he raised his knife.

  My hand shot out, the silver knife clenched in it going straight into his chest. I smiled as I gave it a hard twist. That's it for you, X.

  But he didn't slump forward like he should have. Instead, the knife he'd raised slammed into my chest without an instant's hesitation.

  Pain erupted in me, so hot and fierce it rivaled what I'd felt when the car exploded on me. That pain grew until I wanted to scream, but I didn't have the energy. Everything seemed to fade out of view except his bright emerald gaze.

  "How?" I managed, barely able to croak out the word.

  X leaned forward. "Situs inversus," he whispered. His hand tightened on the blade, twisting -

  Blue filled my vision. I didn't understand why, and for a second, I wondered if it was even real. Then the blue tilted to the side, X's severed arm still holding the knife in my chest, but the rest of him elsewhere. Sheet metal, I thought dazedly. Bones must have ripped it off a car and wielded it like a huge saw.

  X was on his back, the stump from his right arm slowly extending out into a new limb as he fought Bones. I wanted to help, but I couldn't get up. The pain had me pinned, gasping and twitching as I tried to escape from it.

  "Don't move, Kitten!" Bones shouted. A brutal rip from his knife sliced open X's chest, oddly to the right of X's sternum. Bones twisted the blade so hard it broke off, and then he was next to me, his hand pinning my wrists above my head.

  "Kitten."

  As soon as I saw his face, I knew how bad it was. That should've occurred to me before, considering I had a silver knife with shriveling hand still attached to it in my chest, but somehow, the pain had blinded me to reality. Now, however, I realized these were my last moments on earth.

  I tried to smile. "Love you," I whispered.

  A single pink tear rolled down Bones's cheek, but his voice was steady. "Don't move," he repeated, and slowly began to tug on the knife.

  My chest felt like it was on fire. I tried not to look at the knife. Tried to focus on Bones's face, but my own gaze was blurred pink, too. I'll miss you so much.

  The blade shivered a fraction and a spasm of pain ripped through me. Bones compressed his lips, letting my wrists go to press on my chest with his free hand.

  "Don't move..."

  I couldn't stand it. That burning from my chest felt like it had spread all through me. A scream built in my throat, but I choked it back. Please, don't let him see me die screaming...

  The agony stopped just as abruptly as it started. Bones let out a harsh sound that was followed by a clatter of metal on the ground. I looked down, seeing a slash in my chest that began to close, the skin seaming back together as it healed.

  And then Bones spun around. A vampire stood behind him, holding a big knife and wearing the weirdest expression on his face. He dropped to his knees and pitched forward, a silver handle sticking out of his back. My mother was behind the vampire. Her hands were bloody.

  "Rough, quick, and thorough, or you won't get a second chance," she mumbled, almost to herself.

  Bones stared. "That's right, Justina." Then he began to laugh. "Well done."

  I was stunned. Bones swept me up, kissing me so hard I tasted blood when his fangs pierced my lips.

  "Don't you ever frighten me like that again."

  "He didn't die," I said, still stunned by the recent events. "I twisted a blade in his heart, but he didn't die."

  "Like he said, situs inversus." At my confused expression, Bones went on. "Means he was born with his organs backward, so his heart was on the right. That's what saved his life before, but he shouldn't have admitted it while I could hear him."

  I hadn't known such a condition existed. Note to self: Learn more about anatomical oddities.

  Bones scanned the parking lot, but the only vampires out here were the ones gathered around the side of the nightclub. Onlookers, I thought in amazement. Had they stood there the whole time and just watched?

  Fear leapt in me. "Where's Tammy?"

  "I ran her inside after the car blew up," my mother said. "She'd be safe in there, you said."

  And then she'
d come back outside to face a pack of hit men. Tears pricked my eyes even as Bones smiled at her.

  "You saved my life, Justina."

  She looked embarrassed, and then scowled. "I didn't know if you were finished getting that knife out of Catherine. I couldn't let him sneak up on you and stab you until my daughter was okay."

  Bones laughed. "Of course."

  I shook my head. She'd never change, but that was okay. I loved her anyway.

  Verses walked out of Bite with Tammy at his side. From her red-rimmed eyes, she'd been crying.

  "It's over," I told her.

  Tammy ran and hugged me. I wanted to say something profound and comforting, but all I could do was repeat, "It's over."

  At least Tammy wouldn't remember any of this. No, her memories would be replaced with one where she'd been sequestered by boring bodyguards provided by her father's former friends. Tammy would go into adulthood without the burden of knowing there were things in the night no average human could stand against. She'd be normal. It was the best birthday present I could give her.

  "You fought on the premises," Verses stated.

  Bones let out a snort. "You noticed that, did you, mate?"

  "Maybe if you wouldn't have stood there and done nothing while we were ambushed, your precious premises would still be in one piece!" my mother snapped at Versus. "Don't you have any loyalty? Bones said you were a friend!"

  Verses raised his brows at her withering tone, then cast a glance around at the parking lot. Vampire bodies littered the area, one of the cars was still on fire, and various others were smashed, ripped, or dented.

  "I am his friend," Verses replied. "Which is why I'll let all of you leave without paying for the damages."

  "He doesn't sound like we'll be welcomed back," I murmured to Bones. "So much for coming here during the rest of our vacation to explore all those private areas."

  Bones's lips brushed my forehead. "Don't fret, luv. I know another club in Brooklyn I think you'll really fancy..."

  The End

  ONCE BURNED

  Jeaniene Frost

  Get a special sneak peek into Jeaniene's upcoming novel, ONCE BURNED, the first book in the new Night Prince series. From the back of the book:

  She's a mortal with dark powers...

  After a tragic accident scarred her body and destroyed her dreams, Leila never imagined that the worst was still to come: terrifying powers that let her channel electricity and learn a person's darkest secrets through a single touch. Leila is doomed to a life of solitude...until creatures of the night kidnap her, forcing her to reach out with a telepathic distress call to the world's most infamous vampire...

  He's the Prince of Night...

  Vlad Tepesh inspired the greatest vampire legend of all-but whatever you do, don't call him Dracula. Vlad's ability to control fire makes him one of the most feared vampires in existence, but his enemies have found a new weapon against him - a beautiful mortal with powers to match his own. When Vlad and Leila meet, however, passion ignites between them, threatening to consume them both. It will take everything that they are to stop an enemy intent on bringing them down in flames.

  Note: This excerpt does not include the entire beginning of ONCE BURNED, so it does not start at chapter one. Since this has not been through final editing yet, portions of the excerpt may change slightly from the published version.

  ONCE BURNED excerpt

  I faced my captors in what looked to be a hotel room, my hands folded in my lap as if I was placing a dinner order and they were waiters. If you ever meet another vampire, don't panic. You'll only smell like prey, Marty had warned me. I knew what my captors were after seeing their eyes turn glowing green. That was why I didn't bother lying when they asked me how I doubled as an electric eel and had the ability to siphon information through touch. If I lied, they'd only use the power in their gaze to make me tell the truth - or do whatever else they wanted - and I didn't want to give them any more control over me than they already had.

  I also didn't try to run even though they hadn't tied me up. Most people didn't know vampires existed, let alone what they could do, but because of my ability to pick up information through touch, I'd known about vampires since before I met Marty. My abilities meant I knew all sorts of things I wished I didn't.

  Like the fact that my captors had every intention of killing me; that topped the list of things I wished I didn't know at the moment. I'd seen my death after being forced to touch the auburn-haired vampire again, and it was an image that made me want to clutch my neck while backing away screaming.

  I didn't. Guess I should be grateful that my unwanted abilities meant I'd experienced so many horrible deaths; I could look at my impending execution with a morbid sort of relief. Getting my throat ripped out would hurt - I'd relived that through other people enough times to know - but it wasn't the worst way to die. Besides, nothing was set in stone. I'd seen a glimpse of my possible future, but I'd managed to prevent Jackie's murder. Maybe I could find a way to prevent my own.

  "So let me get this straight," Auburn Hair said, drawing the words out. "You touched a downed power line when you were thirteen, nearly died, and then later, your body began giving off electric voltage and your right hand divined psychic impressions from whatever you touched?"

  More had happened, but it wasn't information I wanted to reveal and he wouldn't care about those details anyway.

  "You experienced the voltage part yourself," I said with a shrug. "As for the other, yeah, if I touch something, I get impressions off it." Whether I want to or not, I silently added.

  He smiled then, his gaze roving over the thin, jagged scar that was the visible remains of my brush with death. "What did you see when you touched me?"

  "Past or future?" I asked, grimacing at either memory.

  He exchanged an interested look with his buddies. "Both."

  How I would love to lie, but I didn't need psychometric abilities to know if they doubted me, I'd be dead in moments.

  "You like eating children." The words made bile rise in my throat that I swallowed before continuing. "And you're intending to drink me to death if I don't prove useful to you."

  His smile widened, showing the tips of his fangs as he didn't deny either charge. If I hadn't seen similar menacing, fanged grins through the eyes of people I'd been psychically linked to, I would have been pants-pissing terrified, but a jaded part of me simply acknowledged him for what he was: evil. And I was no stranger to evil, much as I wished otherwise.

  "If she's the real deal like we heard, it could give us the edge we've been looking for," his brunet companion muttered.

  "I think you're right," Auburn Hair drawled.

  I didn't want to die, but there were some things I wouldn't do even if it cost me my life. "Ask me to help you kidnap children, and you may as well start in on my neck now."

  Auburn Hair laughed. "I can do that on my own," he assured me, making my stomach lurch with revulsion. "What I want you for is more...complicated. If I bring you objects to touch, can you tell me about their owner? Such as what he's doing, where he is, and most importantly, where he will be?"

  I didn't want to do anything to help this disgusting, murderous group, but my choices were grim. If I refused, I'd get mesmerized into doing it anyway, or get tortured into doing it, or die choking on my own blood because I was of no use to them. Maybe this was my chance to better my circumstances and change the fate they intended for me.

  Why do you want to? a dark inner voice whispered. Aren't you sick of drowning in other people's sins? Isn't death your only way out?

  I glanced at my wrist, the faint scars that had nothing to do with my electrocution marking my skin. One time, I'd listened to that despairing inner voice, and I'd be lying if I didn't admit part of me was still tempted by it. But then I thought of Marty, how grieved my aunts would be, how I hadn't told my dad I loved him the last time we spoke, and finally, how I didn't want to give these bastards the satisfaction of killing me.
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br />   My head came up and I met the leader's gaze. "My abilities are tied to my emotions. Abuse me mentally or physically, and you'll have better luck calling a psychic hotline to find out what you want to know. That means no murdering anyone while I'm getting information for you, and no touching me at all."

  That last part I said because of the lustful look the brunet had been giving me. My skintight leotard and boxer shorts didn't leave much to the imagination, but it was what I trained in. I hadn't expected to be kidnapped today or I'd have worn something more conservative.

  "Don't think you can mesmerize me into forgetting whatever you do, either," I added, waving my right hand. "Psychic impressions, remember? I'll touch you or an object nearby and find out, and then your human crystal ball will be broken."

  All the above was bullshit. They could do anything they wanted and I'd still pull impressions from whatever my right hand touched, but I'd used my most convincing tone while praying that for once, I'd prove to be a good liar.

  Auburn Hair flashed his fangs at me in another of his scary smiles. "I think we can manage that, if you deliver what you say you can."

  I smiled back with nothing close to humor. "Oh, I can deliver, all right."

  Then I glanced at the light socket behind him. And that's not all I can do. The horrible accident that had forever altered my life had left me with one more ability, and if I was lucky, that ability would save me.

  *** *** ***

  Auburn-Haired's name was Jackal, according to what his friends called him. Their names sounded equally made up, so I mentally referred to them as Pervert, Psycho, and Twitchy since the latter couldn't seem to stay still. Twitchy and Pervert went out over an hour ago to get some things for me to touch. I'd spent that time sitting on the edge of the hotel's lumpy mattress, listening to Jackal talk on his cell phone in a language I didn't recognize. I was getting chilly in my leotard, but I didn't pull the covers over me. All my instincts were urging me to stay still and not attract any attention to myself, as if that mattered. The predators in this room were very aware of me even if they didn't glance in my direction.